V+ box woes

[nedsram]

This may serve as a warning to anybody with two STBs, who may be considering upgrading one of them to V+.

Our downstairs one is the main TV service, and this is the one we upgraded. Our other STB is upstairs, and also has TV, but is mainly used for our broadband service. The initial V+ installation failed because of a faulty smart card, and required a return visit by the engineer. So I went upstairs to watch TV there, only to find that the TV service on this box had been terminated, "by mistake" I was told by customer services. I got it back, only for it to vanish a second time the next day. I got it back a second time, and it seems to be OK now. However, the day after the V+ service was installed, the broadband went. It took three premium rate calls to the Indian call centre to get this fixed, including going through the same script three times. Finally, by reconfiguring the TCP/IP settings, a service was restored - although it took a call back from a man in Swansea to fix it, and it took him nearly an hour to get it working again. A week later it failed again. This time the provisioning screen said that no computer was registered with the cable modem, and asked me to log in. My password was rejected. The Indian on the "new services" phone wasn't allowed to divulge such details over the phone, so another premium rate call was required. Fortunately this time the man who answered was in Swansea, and almost immediately told me that the password had been reset to its default. For some reason he didn't see any issue in telling me the password. Problem fixed - for now.

I haven't had as bad an experience as this since I switched suppliers from British Gas. Sheer incompetence, coupled with woeful (and expensive) customer service. No wonder VirginMedia are at the bottom of the customer satisfaction ratings. If I didn't rely on broadband, and have hundreds of email contacts and accounts including my email address, I would jump ship now.

PS. When I attempted to send this, I found that the broadband connection had failed yet again...

[chickendippers]

Just ask for the cost of the call to be refunded, I had to call twice to get my 20Mb upgrade working, the lady was only too happy to refund it, and the second time I was refunded without even asking!