Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

RG6 area of Reading

Last week we get an snail mail letter saying there would be maintenance in the area on the day of Wed 22 August, and would probably be some service disruption because of it, but all was scheduled to be operational again by 5pm.

So I think fine, no problem, it should all be done by time I get home from work.

Before I head home I check service status using the link in the footer from here.
Broadband okay, TV some fault, estimated fix 6pm. (both had been showing faulty earlier in the day)

I get home, TV working fine, Broadband, not so good, Modem showing SYN solid, but RDY is flashing, no connection whatsoever.

I ring 151 and get told there is no outage, must be my equipment, the earliest they can send an engineer out is in 2 weeks time !!!!!!!!! Customer service STINKS.

I've done the remove my router from setup and reboot everything, but no joy.
Modem eventually enters hunt sequence, then settles down into SYNC solid, READY flashing. Telephone support personnel were shall we say, as much use a wet lettuce.

Its one of those silver badged Ambit's had it since day one, no troubles whatsoever before. It goes down they day do they maintenance in the area ??? Coinkydink, I think not.

Any ideas who I can talk to, to get an engineer visit sooner. I'd prefer not to end up with a superhub.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

It must be a busy area for you to be waiting that long for a visit.

Am sure the ready light is meant to be flashing and the sync light steady.

Honestly the Superhubs aren't as bad as some people make out. You can also stick it in modem mode and still use your own router.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

I agree that VM's BB support stinks and is as much use as a wet lettuce. So bypass it by taking the "thinking of leaving us" option and complain bitterly about the utterly useless outsourced support. Hopefully the agent will transfer you to a second line UK agent who may be more helpful.

Good luck. :)

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Update.
I called 151 support again last night to confirm the engineer visit was still on for saturday. Whoever it was did whatever to test my modem and said "yes i need a visit and that it was booked" and then we said goodbye. Before I could even hang up connection sprang back into life !!!!!! Whistles do do do do.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Oh well, just hope it stays "alive".

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Yeah me too.
Oh, btw I only got offered the saturday visit when i called cancellations, did that after starting this thread. I'm not going to tell them its working now though.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

its simple really, the old Ambit modems i.e. little square boxes with green lights, are being disconnected in the Reading network (Thames Valley) to force people to upgrade to the Super Hub... So don't be suprised if it goes down again... forever
(Source... i work in the Thames Valley...Reading... Network)

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

I have the 256 modem on the 10 meg teir and I am in RG41, will that modem still work or will I need a Super Hub?

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Sorry but I don't believe that for a moment.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Update.

Service Technician telephoned bright and early (8am) this morning to ask if it was still okay to call round. We spoke and I explained that it was now working again, but he said he'd come anyway, check signal levels and such, and swap out the modem for a new one, but put back the original if i wasn't satisfied.

Top notch professional, clean presentable, well spoken, understood the situation. I let him try a superhub, it was the blade affair not the tower block. He even put it into modem mode for me and my netgear router is humming away nicely.

Obviously it is too early to tell if i'll be affected by the horror stories yet, but right now i'm chuffed with the level of service from him, pity the telephone support staff dont give the same levels.

Oh and I loved my old Ambit modem, it was powered on for almost 15 years. The last service visit was a decade or so ago when my neighbour was connected and i came home to find i was disconnected. A few telephone calls to friends found what was then an NTL tech doing an install and we pressed ganged him into looking into the fault. Turns out i'd been disconnected at the green box by whoever connected my neighbours !!

Anyway I have nothing but respect for those that do come into our homes and fix things. It's the cowboys and cant help, wont help, script reading desk jockeys I can't stand.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Complete bull excreta

(Source... I work in access network planning for virgin media)

---------- Post added at 09:58 ---------- Previous post was at 09:55 ----------

Wonder who that was then :rolleyes:

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

This has happened to me, twice, in the past, and once they moved me "off the top tap", despite a big label tied to the cable saying not to move it off the top tap (apparently I live furthest away from the cab so need the strongest signal or something). Was years ago now tho, not a complaint, just a comment.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

i'm only going by what i've heard the service techs saying in the yard... i am only a installer after all ;)

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Welcome to the world of poor VM engineers, we still have problems with the TiVo box breaking up.

I cannot be bothered anymore complaining. We have been told already what VM should do, but they won't listen - roll on Sky.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

Do you have a link to that :LOL:

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

I'd be inclined not to believe that. Why? Because Virgin Media will lose a lot of customers if they make the service unreliable like that. A lot of people won't phone to complain of a fault. They'll just cancel and move to Sky and one of the hundreds of other ISPs.

It would be cheaper, in the long run, to use new tiers (such as they are doing) to coerce those using Ambits onto superhubs.

Re: Virgin Maintenance killed my connection?
 

and hopefully also proactivly identify active users with old Ambits to let them know by post when the time comes they may get a performance boost if they order a new SuperHub online at no extra charge.

They did it before (but sort of not advertised it well) and I took advantage of that when my original Motorola SB4100 from the very early days of NTL Cable Internet (year 2000) was replaced with the-then current Ambit 255 in the post.