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aeon456 · 15-04-2008, 23:58

NB (It's a PACE box I think and I have seen other threads which indicate same problem but not to same extent. I was told to reboot for 10 seconds as well not 20 as I've seen mentioned.)

On most occasions when I try to access Movies on Demand I get a message saying I can't access the service currently and to call 151 etc

This has been going on for months now with sporadic access to the film list but the error message can easily turn up at any time, and even when it did work ie when we were able to watch a film, it kept stopping dead with an error message, the same one I think and we'd have to go back and start again so we'd be stopping and starting all the way through the film which some films not being able to start again at all.

I gave up with the Front Row films full stop, reasoning that as I was on the Freeview package they'd done something to make it crap as I wasn't paying for it.

Anyway I decided that as I want to go onto Broadband and as I'm already with AOL and need to be with BT to sign up for their Broadband, I'd threaten Virgin that I was going to cancel the phone service as I wasnt getting any joy with the films. They told me that it was to do with not rebooting the box often enough, which is blatant rubbish! When the films weren't working all we were doing was constant reboots.

The girl at Virgin sent a reset code and asked me to reboot the box which I did, knowing full well it would probably work and it did in so far as I could actually access the Movies on Demand list. I said that still didn't prove that any film I started watching wouldn't keep halting. She said I should call customer service when the problem occurred so that they could test my connection. I had said I knew it must be the box itself as I've had it a long time; since they were Telewest before, but they seemed loathe to replace or come out and look at it.

Later this evening I thought I know, I'll endeavour to watch a film and what happens? - the error message, not even allowing me to access the film menu.

I tried accessing via another route ie a TV on demand? button instead of the Movies one and some strange Virgin-specific advertising video I've never even seen before came up with access to Movies via the yellow button and after using this I actually got to the film menu. I could scroll down the film menus for a certain amount of time, then the error message window (service not available at this time) turns up, then after fiddling with different access methods, I could carry on, then the error message again. The whole thing is so f-ing exasperating!

So I tried phoning the customer services via 150 and was endlessly listening to music with no indication of where I was in the queue so tried 151 and it was the same story. Then I tried a 'to pay your bill' option and they soon answered and said I needed to phone 151 lol. He did send a reset code for me and I did another reboot but it was same story after.

I give up!

I am going to spend tomorrow getting them to deal with the problem but I wondered if anyone has experienced this level of erraticness with their box and if it is the box itself - to my mind it must be as things are so intermittant.

15-04-2008, 23:58	#1
aeon456 Inactive Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: West Midlands Services: Virgin Media TV Posts: 3	Faulty Box? NB (It's a PACE box I think and I have seen other threads which indicate same problem but not to same extent. I was told to reboot for 10 seconds as well not 20 as I've seen mentioned.) On most occasions when I try to access Movies on Demand I get a message saying I can't access the service currently and to call 151 etc This has been going on for months now with sporadic access to the film list but the error message can easily turn up at any time, and even when it did work ie when we were able to watch a film, it kept stopping dead with an error message, the same one I think and we'd have to go back and start again so we'd be stopping and starting all the way through the film which some films not being able to start again at all. I gave up with the Front Row films full stop, reasoning that as I was on the Freeview package they'd done something to make it crap as I wasn't paying for it. Anyway I decided that as I want to go onto Broadband and as I'm already with AOL and need to be with BT to sign up for their Broadband, I'd threaten Virgin that I was going to cancel the phone service as I wasnt getting any joy with the films. They told me that it was to do with not rebooting the box often enough, which is blatant rubbish! When the films weren't working all we were doing was constant reboots. The girl at Virgin sent a reset code and asked me to reboot the box which I did, knowing full well it would probably work and it did in so far as I could actually access the Movies on Demand list. I said that still didn't prove that any film I started watching wouldn't keep halting. She said I should call customer service when the problem occurred so that they could test my connection. I had said I knew it must be the box itself as I've had it a long time; since they were Telewest before, but they seemed loathe to replace or come out and look at it. Later this evening I thought I know, I'll endeavour to watch a film and what happens? - the error message, not even allowing me to access the film menu. I tried accessing via another route ie a TV on demand? button instead of the Movies one and some strange Virgin-specific advertising video I've never even seen before came up with access to Movies via the yellow button and after using this I actually got to the film menu. I could scroll down the film menus for a certain amount of time, then the error message window (service not available at this time) turns up, then after fiddling with different access methods, I could carry on, then the error message again. The whole thing is so f-ing exasperating! So I tried phoning the customer services via 150 and was endlessly listening to music with no indication of where I was in the queue so tried 151 and it was the same story. Then I tried a 'to pay your bill' option and they soon answered and said I needed to phone 151 lol. He did send a reset code for me and I did another reboot but it was same story after. I give up! I am going to spend tomorrow getting them to deal with the problem but I wondered if anyone has experienced this level of erraticness with their box and if it is the box itself - to my mind it must be as things are so intermittant.