Cancelling Virgin subscription

[joglynne]

Armitage Shanks to the forum.

If you gave the general area in which you live others could let you know if your problem is specific to you or an area problem. That information could prove helpful in your dealings with Virgin.

[Armitage Shanks]

Originally Posted by chickendippers

The engineers in my area are excellent (we've only have them out 3 times, once to install, second time to upgrade to digital, and once when the box was fried by lightning). It would seem there is a lot of regional variation on the network and service, don't know it until you've tried them.

I don't believe that this is an issue where localised quality of service by engineering teams is an issue. It is my guess that this is an issue for the technical staff back in the labs. Until they determine the cause of the problem and provide a solution, the field engineers who only deal with the cables, box swap-outs and basic box settings, who depend on the labs staff for their instructions and who implement the solutions that they draw up, have no chance of stumbling across a solution. Show me an example of an engineer visiting a customer and fixing the problem and I'll stand corrected but don't you think that if such a thing were happening it would be documented on this forum?

---------- Post added at 14:57 ---------- Previous post was at 14:52 ----------

Originally Posted by Hornet

From past experience of taking companies to court you will have to allow them a chance to fix it first. Ring them and tell them what the fault is then let them come out and sort it. At this stage it would also be worth sending a recorded letter about it being there one chance to fix it before you terminate the contract as for the money you are paying it is unacceptable...etc...

If its still like it after fixing send them a letter canceling and saying if they don't collect box and and terminate you will comence CCP in 30 days.

Thanks for the advice. I'm hoping it won't need to get anywhere near to taking them to court because if it does I'll have had to deal with a lot of unnecessary aggro and that is the last thing I need with a missus who is 8 months pregnant!

As far as I see it, there are 3 possible satisfactory resolutions to this problem in my case:

1) VM fix the problem
2) VM tell me when they will fix the problem. I decide that I am willing to wait until the specified date. VM provide a fix by the specified date.
3) VM tell me that they don't have a fix for the problem and that a fix isn't imminent. VM graciously allow me to cancel my contract and take my business elsewhere without penalty.

Here's hoping...

---------- Post added at 14:58 ---------- Previous post was at 14:57 ----------

Originally Posted by joglynne

Armitage Shanks to the forum.

If you gave the general area in which you live others could let you know if your problem is specific to you or an area problem. That information could prove helpful in your dealings with Virgin.

Thanks for the welcome.

I am in Emerson's Green which is a district of North-East Bristol.

[Armitage Shanks]

Quick update for anyone who may be interested.

I phoned VM today (couldn't do it on Monday as the heavily pregnant missus and her folks made a few too many demands on my time) and after initially suggesting visits from engineers, box swaps, cable tests (in fact, just the kind of the pointless time-wasting that I had anticipated) I was eventually connected to someone who knew what he was talking about. He confirmed that the sound stuttering issue would only be solved by a code drop, that the fix was due in the next code drop and that the code drop was due 'by August'.

What he couldn't clarify is whether that means by the time August arrives or by the time August ends - he was simply reading from an email and agreed that the wording was ambiguous.

I explained that having experienced the problem for several months now I was willing to give them until the end of August but that I would like a note placed on my account that if the problem wasn't resolved by this date I would expect them to allow me to break my contract without any penalties.

He agreed that he should put a note on my account and suggested that this was a reasonable position for me to assume and that if the problem hasn't been resolved by the 31st of August VM would be hard pressed to make a strong argument for not allowing me to break my contract without penalty.

Originally Posted by on in an hour!

how do you know their fixes have no track record if you havent had an engineer out to 'waste your time' yet???

Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks

If they have a fix for the problem then they would have rolled it out and there would be examples on this site and others of individuals for whom the problem has been solved.

I've already said that I'll phone them tomorrow and I'll listen to what they have to say.

I've stated my belief which is that they do not have a fix for the problem. I am basing that belief on the fact that I have never seen any evidence to the contrary and that if VM had a fix, it would be in their interests to roll out the fix immediately in order to make customers such as myself and many others content. Is it your belief that a fix exists?

Have you ever stopped to consider perhaps there is a problem with your box, and not with the service as a whole? You asked "Show me an example of an engineer visiting a customer and fixing the problem and I'll stand corrected but don't you think that if such a thing were happening it would be documented on this forum?"

As this poster says

Originally Posted by ntl.wotcha

V+ big thumbs up from me too. OK, initially we had a flakey box and no on-demand, but VM fixed that pretty quick and no trouble since. PVR makes a hell of a difference to how we watch TV. We rarely watch live TV. Just flip through favourites guide and press record on anything we might want to watch that day. Then when we want to watch some TV we just select something previously recorded from the V+ menu. No more ads to sit though either. Win-Win.

[Armitage Shanks]

Originally Posted by foreverwar

Have you ever stopped to consider perhaps there is a problem with your box, and not with the service as a whole? You asked "Show me an example of an engineer visiting a customer and fixing the problem and I'll stand corrected but don't you think that if such a thing were happening it would be documented on this forum?"

As this poster says

Dear-oh-dear, with the greatest respect, are you fishing or are you just plain not reading what is before your eyes?

Since you have chosen to quote me, allow me to do the same, using my most recent and up-to-date post as my reference.

Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks

I was eventually connected to someone who knew what he was talking about. He confirmed that the sound stuttering issue would only be solved by a code drop, that the fix was due in the next code drop and that the code drop was due 'by August'.

Quite clearly, sending out an engineer would be wasting both my time and theirs.

All of that aside, would you care to point me to the bit of ntl.wotcha's post where he says that his sound stuttering problem was fixed by an engineer because I can't see it.

Apologies for being quite so blunt but if you are going to try to debunk what I am saying, at least have the good grace to check that what you are saying actually holds up under even a little scrutiny first, please.

[mborg]

The sound stuttering issue is very annoying at the moment - from my conversations with CS and other posts online here, I can't believe that it was fixed on one person's box by an engineer visiting... The very fact that it is intermittent may have something to do with this.

The V+ box has its issues, but I congratulate ArmitageS on the approach he has taken - very calm and collected and hopefully the August code drop will fix this irritating issue. Oh, and good luck for the new baby

[welwynrose]

odd - I've never had this problem

[mborg]

Originally Posted by welwynrose

odd - I've never had this problem

Good! I'm pleased for you - it is, as I mentioned, very irritating. A quick search on cableforum shows that it does, unfortunatley, affect quite a few people. Hopefully it'll be fixed in the next update...

[Armitage Shanks]

Originally Posted by welwynrose

odd - I've never had this problem

It doesn't affect every channel so that would likely explain it. Sadly for me, the channels that my wife seems to watch the most seem to be those which are affected. Try recording an episode of Close To Home or Criminal Minds on Living and you'll likely be able to witness the problem first hand.

[joglynne]

I record Criminal Minds on my V+ every week and have never had a problem with either the sound or picture quality. Hope the update sorts it out for you.

[Armitage Shanks]

Originally Posted by joglynne

I record Criminal Minds on my V+ every week and have never had a problem with either the sound or picture quality. Hope the update sorts it out for you.

Hmmm, curious. I just asked the missus and she said that some, but not all, episodes of Criminal Minds suffer the problem but that Close To Home suffers the problem much more frequently. If you get the time, it might be an interesting experiment to record a couple of episodes and have a quick scan through when you get the chance to see if you get the problem there. I'd be interested to know the result.

[chickendippers]

Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks

<snip>He confirmed that the sound stuttering issue would only be solved by a code drop, that the fix was due in the next code drop and that the code drop was due 'by August'.

What he couldn't clarify is whether that means by the time August arrives or by the time August ends - he was simply reading from an email and agreed that the wording was ambiguous.

Code drops are done on a region-by-region and then set-top-box by set-top-box basis, so it's very difficult to predict exactly when it will happen.

Originally Posted by Armitage Shanks

Dear-oh-dear, with the greatest respect, are you fishing or are you just plain not reading what is before your eyes?

Since you have chosen to quote me, allow me to do the same, using my most recent and up-to-date post as my reference.



Quite clearly, sending out an engineer would be wasting both my time and theirs.

All of that aside, would you care to point me to the bit of ntl.wotcha's post where he says that his sound stuttering problem was fixed by an engineer because I can't see it.

Apologies for being quite so blunt but if you are going to try to debunk what I am saying, at least have the good grace to check that what you are saying actually holds up under even a little scrutiny first, please.

Dear oh dear yourself, chummy - I was not trying to debunk or fish, I was trying to be helpful - but you seem to take any advice that does not agree with your preconceived notions of what is, and is not, correct, as hostile disagreement; it is not - just a different viewpoint.

Good luck with getting your problem solved.

[piggy]

the sound stuttering is a known problem and the op is right that a box swop/engineer visit will not sort the problem its software/codec related

Originally Posted by piggy

the sound stuttering is a known problem and the op is right that a box swop/engineer visit will not sort the problem its software/codec related

Not trying to be argumentative, but why won't a box swap fix it? My V+ box, and others I know of, don't suffer from stutter - do they have a different codec/software release, and if so, why wouldn't a replacement box have a different version? (it could also have the same version ).