Please Help ... New to VirginMedia

[Redfan]

Hi ppl,

I have been a NTL customer for about 4 years for phone & bb and been very happy! More so when Virgin Media launched and I could get the VIP package for about £10 less than Sky & NTL was costing.

However today has been a bloody nightmare. Firstly, I contacted VM regarding my V+ & standard box install (due today, Friday) as I have just come out of hospital and had a follow up appointment with the GP so would not be available for an hour when the engineer was due.

All was fine with this. Anyway, come 13:30 I get a call telling me that because they had no more V+ boxes, I would now have to wait until Monday. Anyway, after about 4 phone calls I got VM to send an engineer to fit the Standard Box and an additional Standard box (until Monday when this 1 is swapped for a V+ box).

So 16:30 comes, the engineer has visited I now have 2 V Standard boxes. However it is now nearly midnight, and I still have only basic freeview channels and the message (smartcard invalid showing on both boxes, and on the other subscription channels it shows your Sub has not been upgraded yet) .

I should be getting the VIP package ... I have rang VM about 6 times tonight to be told that yes I am on the VIP package but the order is still pending and should be active within 24 hours

Does anybody know if this is true?

I am very worried about this SmartCard invalid message, is this normal when service is first switched on?

Currently I am very annoyed with this, and am starting to regret my order.

Cheers for your help and for reading this (sorry it;s a bit long winded )

Red

[Downloads]

In my own experience they should be able to get the channels up within an hour, but then again i haven't seen that smartcard error before.

Maybe someone else can help with that?

It's a good pack though mate, so all i would suggest is sleep on it and maybe your immediate annoyance with be subdued a bit after a good sleep. Hope it sorts itself out though mate and don't forget, be forceful with Virgin, you are always in the right and don't get off the phone till you get some proper answers and guarantees!

[Redfan]

Cheers mate,

I will hang about a little bit and see if anyone else has anymore advice ... other than that if this issue persists in the morning I will be ringing Virgin and I will make sure an engineer visits/issue resolved.

Otherwise, I will likely just cancel.

I guess I would not be as angry if the following was not the case:

1. I ordered this 3 weeks ago, to be told that they were not coming at 13.30 on the install day was bad enough... but to then have this issue with the boxes installed is frankly ridiculous.

2. I had Sky switched off over a week ago.

Truthfully, I like the idea of on demand and the other features so it would be a shame if it did not work out, however I am sick of companies taking the mickey when it comes to customer service ... after all I do not consider £85 p/m a small service. And expect to be treated somewhat better than I am currently.

Cheers again

[Downloads]

Agreed mate, the threat of cancelling ususally clears one's mind!

Good luck!

[Redfan]

Indeed ... Same problem today, have now spent over 2 hours trying to get an answer

Finally got through to somebody that was able to help. Seemingly because they had only installed 2 STB instead of 1 STB & 1 PVR box the system continually shows the work as pending (hence the sub & on demand channels are unavailable).

It's a real shame that it took over 4 hours of calls to get to this point, but the lovely lady has arranged for an engineer to call Monday to fit the PVR box and has issued a £20 credit on my a/c

Hopefully come Monday evening I shall have a lovely V+ & STB working with my full subscription and be able to enjoy the delights of On Demand ...

Right I'm off to enjoy a few

Cheers, and I will report back on Monday and let y'all know it's now working .... hopefully