An Open Letter To Virgin Media

[unclemeat]

You don't happen to live in Bracknell/Reading do you as we had the same problem, even the service outage dates match.

At the end of October we upgraded to the 20MB connection as the TMS cap on the 4MB was too low but otherwise trouble free. Between October and the end of November we got between 4-8MB on the connection which is sort of OK, but from the beginning of December we were frequently disconnected during peak times. Come the week before Christmas when we had both taken off two weeks for some quality MMO gaming our connection dropped to at best 128k and 50% packet loss. Frequent calls to VM BB Tech Support to try to report the problem and the usual muppet like responses (on the last occasion the VM CS lady tried to ping my internal IP and wouldn't listen when I told her 192.... was an internal address!!).

Now the strange thing is that around 3-5am each morning we got around a 512k connection, but this died as soon as other users hit the system.

The engineer is due any moment now, so fingers crossed that something will actually get fixed. In the mean time all I can do is wait and hope, and get more info on ADSL suppliers.

[unclemeat]

The engineer came only 15 minutes late! The NTL 200 modem we had was the issue, he couldn't see any faults but changed it to check and now the interweb works. He thought the 20MB connection may have shorted something.

Still not convinced though so have just signed up for BT ADSL and bought a load balancer.

[Arthurgray50@blu]

I have read all the comments, in this thread, and as l have said all along concerning VM, they give two monkeys about there customers, all they are concerned about is the revenue from us the customers, that keeps the company going, the CS is pathetic, it took me once, FIVE times to get someone, who could help me, l have been transferred to Delhi, more times than l can remember, and they cannot help you, so what is the point of having the CS out there, and until the CS is kick up the +++, we will get treated the same way, even there engineers, can't tell you anything, as VM don't tell em, some bloody company.

Originally Posted by Arthurgray50@blu

I have read all the comments, in this thread, and as l have said all along concerning VM, they give two monkeys about there customers, all they are concerned about is the revenue from us the customers, that keeps the company going, the CS is pathetic, it took me once, FIVE times to get someone, who could help me, l have been transferred to Delhi, more times than l can remember, and they cannot help you, so what is the point of having the CS out there, and until the CS is kick up the +++, we will get treated the same way, even there engineers, can't tell you anything, as VM don't tell em, some bloody company.

[fitssssy]

Originally Posted by unclemeat

You don't happen to live in Bracknell/Reading do you as we had the same problem, even the service outage dates match.

At the end of October we upgraded to the 20MB connection as the TMS cap on the 4MB was too low but otherwise trouble free. Between October and the end of November we got between 4-8MB on the connection which is sort of OK, but from the beginning of December we were frequently disconnected during peak times. Come the week before Christmas when we had both taken off two weeks for some quality MMO gaming our connection dropped to at best 128k and 50% packet loss. Frequent calls to VM BB Tech Support to try to report the problem and the usual muppet like responses (on the last occasion the VM CS lady tried to ping my internal IP and wouldn't listen when I told her 192.... was an internal address!!).

Now the strange thing is that around 3-5am each morning we got around a 512k connection, but this died as soon as other users hit the system.

The engineer is due any moment now, so fingers crossed that something will actually get fixed. In the mean time all I can do is wait and hope, and get more info on ADSL suppliers.

Hi no i am in Liverpool i do hope your all sorted now.

Update for anyone still awake.


Received a call from a V.nice man in Mr Birkett,s office the very next morning.A general plan of action was agreed and on Thursday a a senior engineer came to see if he could get to the root of the problem.
Now this guy is possibly the nicest bloke i have ever come across in all the days i,ve been with Telewest/Virgin i never for a moment imagined that they actually had someone working for them that actually knew what they were doing the big bonus being he really cared about his job and it showed a rare thing these days.

Lots of jargon was spoken (yes it all went over my head).Whole house rewired back to the street,new modem installed,still no joy but i,m a reasonable guy and can see they are trying.Today (Saturday) i,m awaiting the arrival of the chaps from Virgin who are going to replace the cable right back to the main box,no promises have been made by V.nice man (who to his credit has kept in touch everyday) or Senior Engineer but i,m hopeful my nightmare is close to being over and i will be able to teleport a few episodes of Hollyoaks tonight right after i,ve checked my email. Am i kidding myself and being naive ? I will let you know later.

[fitssssy]

Originally Posted by fitssssy

Hi no i am in Liverpool i do hope your all sorted now.

Update for anyone still awake.


Received a call from a V.nice man in Mr Birkett,s office the very next morning.A general plan of action was agreed and on Thursday a a senior engineer came to see if he could get to the root of the problem.
Now this guy is possibly the nicest bloke i have ever come across in all the days i,ve been with Telewest/Virgin i never for a moment imagined that they actually had someone working for them that actually knew what they were doing the big bonus being he really cared about his job and it showed a rare thing these days.

Lots of jargon was spoken (yes it all went over my head).Whole house rewired back to the street,new modem installed,still no joy but i,m a reasonable guy and can see they are trying.Today (Saturday) i,m awaiting the arrival of the chaps from Virgin who are going to replace the cable right back to the main box,no promises have been made by V.nice man (who to his credit has kept in touch everyday) or Senior Engineer but i,m hopeful my nightmare is close to being over and i will be able to teleport a few episodes of Hollyoaks tonight right after i,ve checked my email. Am i kidding myself and being naive ? I will let you know later.

Geez how studip am i 10.51 this morning i,m in work mobile rings "Hello it,s Dean form Virgin media i am at your property now but i don,t understand what the job is"

Me:"It,s a repull to the box at the top of the next street "

Dean; "I won,t be able to do that i,m on my own it,s a two man job"

Me: F*** C))) ECT

Dean : "I don,t think there,s any need to speak to me like that"

Me: No your right get your boss to phone me i,ll speak to him like that instead"


You just could not make it up.I give up off to contact Watchdog.

[Toto]

Originally Posted by fitssssy

Geez how studip am i 10.51 this morning i,m in work mobile rings "Hello it,s Dean form Virgin media i am at your property now but i don,t understand what the job is"

Me:"It,s a repull to the box at the top of the next street "

Dean; "I won,t be able to do that i,m on my own it,s a two man job"

Me: F*** C))) ECT

Dean : "I don,t think there,s any need to speak to me like that"

Me: No your right get your boss to phone me i,ll speak to him like that instead"


You just could not make it up.I give up off to contact Watchdog.

Dean : "I don,t think there,s any need to speak to me like that"

He's absolutely right, you have no right to talk to him like that.

[fitssssy]

Originally Posted by Toto

Dean : "I don,t think there,s any need to speak to me like that"

He's absolutely right, you have no right to talk to him like that.

Yes i do his attitude was appalling he was simply V.rude and unhelpful if i had been at home and not on the phone i would have asked him to leave the house.Lord knows i have tried the polite approach with Virgin it does not work.

[lsproc]

Originally Posted by fitssssy

Yes i do his attitude was appalling he was simply V.rude and unhelpful if i had been at home and not on the phone i would have asked him to leave the house.Lord knows i have tried the polite approach with Virgin it does not work.

Its being disorderly and rude. I believe using language like that can actually get you into trouble with the police for antisocial behavior.

[fitssssy]

Originally Posted by lsproc

Its being disorderly and rude. I believe using language like that can actually get you into trouble with the police for antisocial behavior.

So lock me up ! I hear the internet and tv service in Walton nick works they must be with Sky !

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by fitssssy

Yes i do his attitude was appalling he was simply V.rude and unhelpful if i had been at home and not on the phone i would have asked him to leave the house.Lord knows i have tried the polite approach with Virgin it does not work.

Me: F*** C))) ECT

So you are abusive to him and you think your in the right and he is in the wrong. You sir or madam are an idiot

[fitssssy]

Originally Posted by Sirius

So you are abusive to him and you think your in the right and he is in the wrong. You sir or madam are an idiot

Lol thanks no i,m very very frustrated by the lack of service.For the record as i did apologise.You do take yourselves very serious here don,t you .

[r00t]

Yes we do, those of us who work for VM and offer our help here don't like to see or hear of our colleagues being abused in anyway.

[lostandconfused]

politeness costs nothing.

The person you so nicely talked to, isnt the person that put the details on the system, he simply picked up a job and went to try and help.

He could have turned up, not been able to help so gone and done one of the other jobs on his list, making you call back get a re-appointment etc.

Your right that he should have known what the problem is, and there should have been enough people to do the job properly. But the fact is it wasnt, speaking to him like that isnt going to make him get in touch with his supervisor and get something sorted, he is more likely just to mark it as failed and leave it, its no skin of his nose.

[fitssssy]

Originally Posted by r00t

Yes we do, those of us who work for VM and offer our help here don't like to see or hear of our colleagues being abused in anyway.

Thats fair enough sorry if i,ve offended anyone my post was intended to be tounge in cheek i,ve not posted here to pee anyone off just to try to get some help.

I am trying very hard to be reasonable about this but it has been 11 weeks now and it really is getting me down.

I emailed Neil Birkett again at 11.10 this morning he emailed back saying someone would be in touch.Sure enough 12.31pm another V. nice man phones and promises me two people are coming today and the re-pull will be done.

It,s now 5.10pm and still no sign and don,t think they will come now today.The missus has had to stay in all day waiting for them.I,m so looking forward to finishing work at 6PM and having an evening of her moaning about not being able to go shopping ect.

---------- Post added at 17:15 ---------- Previous post was at 17:11 ----------

Originally Posted by lostandconfused

politeness costs nothing.

The person you so nicely talked to, isnt the person that put the details on the system, he simply picked up a job and went to try and help.

He could have turned up, not been able to help so gone and done one of the other jobs on his list, making you call back get a re-appointment etc.

Your right that he should have known what the problem is, and there should have been enough people to do the job properly. But the fact is it wasnt, speaking to him like that isnt going to make him get in touch with his supervisor and get something sorted, he is more likely just to mark it as failed and leave it, its no skin of his nose.

Alright i get the message! Blimey listen i,m one of the most passive cowardly guys on the planet but i,m starting to get paranoid over this.It just seems that everyone is lieing to me and after 11 weeks it,s getting me down.Maybe i would be better just leaving Virgin after all.