Error 1009 - SmartCard is invalid

DjDanny · 16-07-2007, 19:51

I had an engineer round today as my On Demand service wasn't working, plus the RGB output wasn't working any more. He ended up changing the old PACE box for a shiny new Samsung one with "Virgin VBox" on the front.

When he left, he said that I wouldn't have all channels for an hour or so because, when he got back to the "mothership" he needed to do an upload or something from the old box.

It's now 12 hours later and I'm still getting error 1009 "SmartCard is invalid" every time I change channels, and I only have access to the free-to-air channels.

I phoned customer services and, unfortunately, got India (I got a Welsh bloke a couple of days ago when I phoned, and he actually seemed to know what he was doing - does anybody know between what hours you get routed to India? or is it pot luck?). Anyway, all this guy in India could do is send round another engineer! (the third one in a very short space of time). However, I'm not convinced this will help, as the original engineer implied that something just needed to be done back at the "mothership"!

Does anybody know what Virgin need to do to fix this problem? Because the guy in India doesn't, but if somebody here does know, I can phone them back and tell them what to do! It's extremely inconvenient having to be in for engineers all the time, so if I can avoid it I will be very pleased!

Cheers.

Tijer · 16-07-2007, 20:05

what you need to do is call up virgin and explain that you had a new stb installed. Then say to them that you need the smartcard and box pairing up. They say this requires an engineer it does not. You then will have to give them the serial number of the box and the smartcard you want pairing up. Then within 5 mins you should have all of your channels back... DO NOT TAKE the "We need to send an engineer" bs, they do not they tried that with me before, after somehow someone managing to remove my stb from my account. It CAN be done over the phone. If you get through to India you will have some troubles getting them to understand this can be done, but i can 100% guarantee that it DOES NOT REQUIRE AN ENGINEER CALLOUT.

DjDanny · 16-07-2007, 20:16

Cheers. I suspected as much (well, the engineer said as much, but he obviously forgot to do it.). I think customer services is closed now, but I'll try it tomorrow. Maybe I'll even get somebody in the UK.

Fingers crossed!

DjDanny · 17-07-2007, 08:53

Right, I phoned CS this morning and got through to a Welsh lady. It seems you get the Indian call centre in the evenings, so I wont be calling in the evenings again!
She said she could see that the box and card had been paired up already, but there was a long delay on the signal getting sent out, so she forced it through there and then. Now why couldn't the Indian guy do that? When I said as much to her, I could almost hear her break out in a wry smile, but she very diplomatically didn't say anything.
I'm not at home to verify if it's fixed, but I suspect it will be.

Why do they insist on this Indian call centre? Yes, I'm sure it's very cheap, but it's also as good as useless and just creates them more work as they're sending out engineers when they don't need to!

bonzoe · 17-07-2007, 18:36

This problem with Indian call centres isn't confined to VM. Some companies are pulling back from India due to poor customer satisfaction, but most seem to look at the "cost savings" which the number crunching accountants demand. (That raises the question, are all accountant short sighted?)

However, there are some good people in call centres in India, much the same as in this country, the added obstacle seems to be the comprehension of english.