I have a similar experience with Virgin.
When it was Blueyonder I never had a problem, now I am dogged with problems ... thanks Virgin!!!
The problem is that I am trapped into the Virgin service, there is litterally no other option
I live in a "conservation area" which means we have to maintain a certain look to our house, such as not being able to loose the 70m or so of 6 to 8 foot high hedge (takes some trimming I tell you!!!) and definately no satalite dishes. As the better half loves her yank nonsense on the tele we have no choice, 5 channels of terestrial don't cut it and digital terestrial signal is almost non-existent in my area.
I am on the 20meg connetion and to be honest it's really useful if you have two people trying to watch streaming video on different PCs at the same time (even with the 140 channels of TV there is often nothing on I want to watch so watch stuff on line a lot).
The trick to Virgin is to ring up and complainat every little thing, sometimes I am on the phone to the lack of "customer service" line several times a week and regularly get £10 - £20 a month rebate on my bill ..... at least that makes it bearable!