Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Chit-Chat => Topic started by: catengineman on November 18, 2008, 06:10:24 pm
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>>:-(
I am supposed to have virgin media BB and home phone option 3
I got an E-mail to say that "congratulations we have boosted your service to make your surfing better"
That was on the 7th of this month! at 09:42
I have not yes I said NOT had any Broadband connection since then >>:-( >>:-( >>:-(
I contacted virgin via my mobile internet and the person there said "but your connected through the internet to this service" ?
I have rang, e-mailed and used their web based contact routes every day and every day they gave given a different reason for the loss of the connection.
BT's fault
My settings fault
My routers fault
BT not checking the right fault
My phone filters fault
My firewall/virus interfering with connection fault
>>:-(
Then I get through to a chap who asks when the fault was reported I tell him the 7th he says there is NO reported fault listed >>:-( >>:-( It will take between 4 to 15 working days to clear the problem ? I am told, >>:-(
My brother is a BT chap (quite high up) and he said that because virgin don't own the system they have to pay BT to check it and that is where the problem come in.
Virgin say that their NEW equipment is state of the art and I will benefit from its use? >>:-( as if...
Any one else out there with virgin? or if you are thinking of going to them
DONT their customer service and help desks are dog-do
R
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Do we take it then that you are not impressed with Virgin?
Rich
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Sorry to here about your service , I have been with them for over 3 years and no Complaints.. Even more so Now we have Sky 1 back on Virgin... :-))
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hi there i am with virgin. One question to you were does BT come in to it. Virgin use fiber optics and not the bt phone system as far as know thats why the are fast.
john
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I can't comment on their fancy cable / fibre optic stuff, as we haven't got it near us. However, as far as their 'standard' copper wire 8MB ADSL Max service goes, I left when the daily evening speed drop (6.00pm) took me down to a 36k connection. My dial-up modem was faster.
When you got through to their so-called support, they were indeed dog-do. Told me it was my equipment, that it was my browser cache that was causing it etc, etc. Usual dork somewhere on the other side of the world reading from a list, probably. One person actually told me that I had complained too much about the problem. Yikes! Eventually, one supervisor phoned back, apologised, admitted that it was a problem at their end, and said that I'd be better on a fixed speed service - at the same price.
So I left and moved to ADSL24. Speeds are up to their previous highs of 4-5MB, and only drop after 10pm, but usually no lower than 2-3MB. When you phone them, you get a real person in the UK who can actually do something for you.
I had the last laugh in Virgin when they cocked up my final DD payment, that they shouldn't have taken. I found an 0800 number for them and after being bounced around a few operators, got things sorted - it took over an hour on the phone but at least I didn't pay for the privilege!
Andy
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Do we take it then that you are not impressed with Virgin?
Rich
Their Customer Service is the pits. You cannot reach them easily unless you phone 0845........
In the last 6 months the particular server that "supplies" me has had two MAJOR failures, one lasting nearly 3 days, the other just over a day.
I must admit I am beginning to think about leaving. I am lucky to get 5Mbps on my 8Mbps line. My next door neighbour gets SIX Mbps - that does not make sense.
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5Mbps eee luxury
Doug (on an upto 8Mbps service never seen more than 4.9 currently 1.7) >>:-(
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NTL, now Virgin used to have their call centre literally 5 minutes walk away from my house, every time I phoned customer service they asked for my postcode and then asked me which town i was in %%. Their customer service is useless but the broadband service is very good (when it's working obviously) I have had 2 faults in 8 years, both were wrongly diagnosed though to be fair they were fixed within a week. Overall I'm 95% happy with their connection.
Their cable TV service is reasonable, it's years behind Sky's but I'll never let Murdoch get his hooks into me <*<
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Spent yet another day without my virgin BB and even 4 hours without the phone?
BT supply the line
I live in a bit of a out of town area though the new estate just to the back of me has F/optic I do not so I have to have a cable carrier to send the BB down and as virgin dont do cable BT has to supply that and that is working great (apart from the few hours today)
I spoke to dork number eight and he said that due to the new ADSL2 system there was now a back log of work and repairs but I will have to wait my turn for the engineer to get to my fault which is changing %%
so still on my mobile connection and now that is the new stick its even faster than my old BB speeds any way.
so I may get the spanner a stick and blow the BB out alltogether, then as the mobile will skype I may even dump the BT phone.
R no BB and sick of virgin's
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Nothing wrong with mine, cable, down load 100mbps ;) ;) {-) always good service.
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We have virgin net and its poo..............
Stupid thing just stops working then starts again n over n over >>:-(
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When i first decided on BB evry man and his dog was willing to connect me but as soon as they did a check to se if it was possible they all backed off ,the only company that was able was and still is B T . 100 yards away from me at he back is a high speed internet line capable of 7.5+ meg ,gig or what ever it is ,i know that cos a friend near me was on it . But my line is about 50 years old and even though the exchange is only 2 miles away it takes the scenic route ,about 20 miles ,down the river ,canal round the back of the industrial est and wherever else . i am sure i get a faster speed when the tide is in .
From 56k on dial up to at first 75k BB and at one time i was down to 2k but B T sorted it and now i avarage 100k , still far short of the 3,000k + they promised .
Oh and i still cant get another provider to connect me.
daz
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I used to be with NTL and have since followed on to Virgin. It's been on the whole very good apart from the usual customer services in Delhi. I have though threatened to leave a couple of times, and after phoning up and telling them this they have asked me what would it take to make me stay? So now i have free local and national calls 24hrs 7 days a week, also free itemised billing and other stuff that i can't think of right now. It's worth a go.
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ok just done a speed test thing
17822 kb/s Download
730 kb/s upload.
Is this good / bad or what ??
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I am supposed to get the free phone call thingy you know talk for an 59 mins hang up talk for another 59 mins so on so forth well so far the phone bill has been different every month even though it is supposedly on a fixed price (unless we use non geographical numbers yarda yarda) Oh and in that the 0840 0844 0845 08?? (that gets a 25 pence connection charge and then costs per min) etc etc guess what their numbers start with.
Been on the phone to say I am leaving :} reply was OK then they hung up!!! <*< >>:-(
R,
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I have been with NTL/Virgin for years and find their service very very good.
Maybe it as something to do with the fact I know they local service engineer {-) {-) {-)
Colin H.
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I am supposed to get the free phone call thingy you know talk for an 59 mins hang up talk for another 59 mins so on so forth well so far the phone bill has been different every month even though it is supposedly on a fixed price (unless we use non geographical numbers yarda yarda) Oh and in that the 0840 0844 0845 08?? (that gets a 25 pence connection charge and then costs per min) etc etc guess what their numbers start with.
Been on the phone to say I am leaving :} reply was OK then they hung up!!! <*< >>:-(
R,
Thought if you have a Virgin line you can use 150 for free.
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To report a fault on a virgin (wired) package you have to ring the 0844 454 1111 or 2222 then go for option 1 or 4 or wait or just get redirected while you listen to drivel.
now get this virgin will answer 01256 752000 straight away and its a human ! they ask what the fault is where the phone system is then what it is used for thats where they say sorry domestic phones and BB are different and say ring 0845 yada yada
Oh well I got S888 service and virgin are loosing my custom including the mobile and the home phone and I will voice my feelings to any one who cares to listen (virgin dont)
rant sort of over I now await a MAC so I can instruct yet another isp to supply me with BB.
R,
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Have you tried the 'say no to 0870' website for alternative numbers? That's where I got the freephone number from.
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... Hi Guys...
We have been with NTL now Virgin for several years... They are the only Broadband supplier in our district...The service was OK at first...
Since Virgin took over the business it has gone right down hill...
We now have the cheapest Broadband/Phone Package that thery can give us & still we get bills of over £100. per month...When we ask how this is they tell us that its due to unpaid bills that are outstanding... We pay by Direct Debit from the Bank so our Bill is lways Paid on Time...We keep telling them that its not our bill but they demand payment before they will sort it out...Usually we end up disconnected again for not paying someone elses bill...
We get the same SH*t from Virgin Month after Month after Month...
We have been charged for On-Demand Services whilst we were on holiday & there was Nobody in the house for 2 weeks...
Half the time you are speaking to someone who cant understand my Scottish Accent & I cant understand their Indian Accent...
AS for their bills...You couldn,t follow a Virgin Bill with the Best Hunt in Britain led by a Philidelphia Lawyer...The Bills are a CON...
AS soon as I can find another supplier in our area I am going to tell Virgin to Ram Their Services up Their 4r*e, But they will probably get it wrong again & stick it up someone elses 4r8e...
...Best Regards...Norry...
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If you "cannot help yourself" then I can and will help you...coarse comment deleted. This is a family site. Moderator.
But Virgin is a small player in Australian Telecommunication. They are one of many that are trying to tackle the giant Telstra which until recently was the government owned monopoly. Telstra own the lines and lease them to other networks. We do not have fibre optic yet so we have very slow broadband compaired to other countries. The speed is fast enough for what the average person requires like myself.
Regards David
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Hope I am not going to get Catengineman's package. Phone went yesterday afternoon, when I answered it a lady launched into a high speed speech in an Indian accent so strong I thought I was back on the Bombay run ;) By the time my brain started to get into tune with her torrent I missed who she was actually reperesenting but realised it was something to do with phones/broadband, also I will be receiving some gizmo through the post and my phone bills will magically be cut by vast amounts and my broadband speed increase. Each high speed short sentence was ended with an interrogative 'right ?' in a school mistress 'hope you are getting this as there will be questions later' tone ! When I managed to butt in and asked if there will be printed instructions coming with this 'thing' as I have not a cat in hell's chance of remembering what she had been saying there was a short pregnant pause then the line went dead !
I will be going online with a little trepidation for a while in case I have been touched by Virgin. :embarrassed: Who knows it may have been somebody else cold calling, has anyone else received a similar call recently, was it Virgin ?
Mike
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***Moderated*** virgin RANG ME this morning %%
A nice |ENGLISH| girly spoke to me and asked some questions to make sure I was me and she was talking to me?
I get my months internet charge refunded, I get the phone calls to the 0845 numbers refunded, I get told that I am a valued customer and they *virgin media national* do not want to loose me. and the fault has now been traced to (cable and wireless) and that is now where the fault is! but BT and C&W are both in on the job repairing the outage.
I have been asked to wait a further 24 hours ? Oh and reboot the router every 2 hours?
Told the nice lady I will be leaving virgin no matter what and I request the MAC so that I can pass that to a new ISP that I find.
Asked as to why my bill has never been the same since the start and she said it was for TV services?
MY package does NOT HAVE TV co's I dont have fiber optic phone line, "yes thats true and it will be removed" its not on the package so how can it be removed?
Again told her that is why I am leaving because virgin just dont know what they are doing (should have stuck to selling records) "pardon" was the reply. Hey Ho life goes on without BB but the spanner is not best pleased as she will not have her internet shopping when I take this laptop to work ;)
R (almost breaking into a smile ------- almost but not quite)
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After reading the title of your posting, ***Moderated*** %) %)
Barry M
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After reading the title of your posting, *** %) %)
Barry M
Barry's so right, and we either all missed it or (like me) we were too polite to mention it. Alright, I missed it too! :}
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Until people realise that you don't get 'owt for nowt' you will be given a mediocre service.
If you want the best of everything, you have to set up each thing individually, and pay for it.
Broadband, tv & telephones.
If you want a 'lemmings' package, where everything is included for a fixed price, some area of it will usually suffer, and suffer badly. Most probably in an area that the supplier doesn't or hasn't specialised in before. Plus due to everyone scrambling for the latest all in one packages, the suppliers can't cope with demand, so terrible service usually ensues, and this is a merry go round, as each supplier tries to attract more customers, they change the packages as often as they change their socks, so over a very short period, customers are on different packages with the same supplier. The system soon breaks down into chaos.
I doubt many of you would have heard to words 'contention rate'. In the early days of broadband (only a few years ago), when you purchased your broadband package you were given the choice of contention rate, either 30 to 1, or 50 to 1. The 30 to 1 was more expensive because it meant you could in theory share your line with up to 29 other users, with the 50 to 1, with up to 49 other users. So the lower figure would give you better line speeds.
This has now seemingly gone out of the door, and they are piling more and more users on the same lines, hence that when the kids come home from school, you will find your rate drops to almost nothing, you are all sharing the allotted bandwidth on that line. Eventually the line starts to drop out because of overloading the bandwidth quota, so it then costs your suppliers more money to pay for extra bandwidth from say BT to get the lines up and running again. Once that is done, they start to put more people onto the line, so eventually it starts to happen again. It was a regular occurrence with my line going down every four to five months, then it would be fine until it started doing it over again.
Eventually, until the system goes fully fibre cable, the old BT wiring will collapse under the pressure of the continually growing number of computers accessing the internet.
The latest range of routers that they give away with these deals are great, usually four wired sockets and full household wifi coverage, until you realise what it is doing.
Are you buying the kids a new wifi laptop this Christmas, or getting the new game players that connects to the internet. If so, say goodbye to your bandwidth. Each new item that you put into your system will split your meagre allotted household bandwidth even further, so it then it isn't just the contention rate you have to cope with, the kids will pinch what little bit you have got left as well. The easy way around it is to buy an el cheapo router off ebay for about a fiver, these usually only have a max of two wired slots, one if you are lucky. You can then keep all your meagre bandwidth to yourself.
The kids can go back to playing Monopoly and Cluedo, unless of course, they just might mug you for your internet connection.
John
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After reading the title of your posting,*** %) %)
Barry M
Barry's so right, and we either all missed it or (like me) we were too polite to mention it. Alright, I missed it too! :}
I didn't, thats why I got moderated :embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed:
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With Virgin Mediocre I did get that teatime crawl, and it would last all night (or until constant reconnectiing of the internet session - NOT rebooting the router) picked up a decent connection for a while. With ADSL24 I get full speed up to 10pm, when offpeak time starts. There's then a dip - sometimes - down to about 2MB. At least you can check the status of the Central pipes, and see if you're on one that's near capacity. If so, a reconnect will often shift you onto a better one. And Entanet, for whom ADSL24 are a reseller, are doing quite well keeping up with the demand by bringing on new segments on the exisiting central pipes and new pipes when needed.
Occasionally the pipe 'balancing' - handled by BT - goes doolally, and the Olympics screwed things up totally (was everyone streaming it at work?) for two weeks. But it soon came back to normal after that.
Yes, you do get what you pay for and the bargain bundles aren't always what they seem, as my daughter and her partner just found out from Sky! She has an excellent line to the exchange, high synch speed, high IP profile, but crap throughput much of the time and frequent outages, and that's down to the ISP or the provider that they themselves use.
Andy
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If you are on a fibre optic line or a coax, you will be affected directly by the usage of the others on the same fibre. With a copper wire pair to the exchange, nobody else can affect it at that point, but the length of the line does limit the top speed. You will still be affected by whatever traffic is on the net as all of the broadband lines are grouped into nodes via the companion to those filters that you have hanging out of your phone sockets, which then behave just like the fibre/coax connection.
I think all of the big low cost suppliers cause their customers similar grief because they all cut the same corners. The big difference is in how well their customer service idiot sheet was written, and how good the guess of the planner was at just how much plant they would have to buy and have installed to cope with demand, both for service and what level of use was going to be involved.
If you have a noisy, spluttery, fizzing and/or buzzing line for phone calls, expect poor broadband. The two follow the same path, and will be equally affected.
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I have the OLD copper wire connection :embarrassed: and WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
I return home from shopping to find the ADSL light shining bright :} tinternet here I come... well almost, have had to re do all the settings to accept the new speed ? whatever. but hey ho I got internet again.
Saddest part is now the nice new laptop is on the way back to the factory >>:-( >>:-( >>:-( I did see an advert for some homing pigeons %)
Well spanner is off my back about the internet and virgin and I get to go back to work without a nice new lappy <:(
r,
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Funny isn't it? I put the "Virgin's Customer Service is Doggie-doo" proposition to Huw ACTionWeb - who is a serious network manager IT person - and he reckoned they are just fine........ Depends on who you ask, I suppose.
All I can say with any certainty is that Orange's Broadband Help page is anything but helpful. I resent having to pay 50p/minute just to wait three minutes for a recorded message which said (and I paraphrase here) "we know there's a server that's crashed but we're not sure which one or where it is and we can't even estimate how long it's going to take to fix but we're getting your dosh on DD anyway so - to be frank - we really couldn't give a rat's....." [Connection terminated here].
Virgin? Run by a notorious self-publicist whose only real contribution to the betterment of mankind was having sufficient faith in Tubular Bells to fund a record deal for Mike Oldfield (musician and R/C model aircraft flier).
Orange? Probably run by Hedge Fund Managers.
***Moderated***
FLJ
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*** off down the slippery slope at full speed***
***Moderated***
R,
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***Same slope*** :o :embarrassed:
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After reading the title of your posting,*** %) %)
Barry M
Barry's so right, and we either all missed it or (like me) we were too polite to mention it. Alright, I missed it too! :}
I didn't, thats why I got moderated :embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed: :embarrassed:
Lots of people didn't didn't miss it bigfella. But not everybody commented. And you realised yourself you were perhaps crossing the line :o ;)
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***Note on moderation of this thread***
Dear Members
Mods are merely trying to head things off at the pass ;)
But as usually happened, the snowball is off down the slippery slope.
I know some of the comments made by members were funny, but they were Virgin on being Moderated (boom, boom).
To avoid any complaint about not moderating this thread evenly, I have tidied things up now. Thus treating all off colour comments on this thread equally.
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Ho well lost my ######## again today so its back to the mobile dongle for my fun
How close to moderation am I ?
Ok I will end here and hope that the mr fixits will sort out the problem this time. and that is time for a new ISP me thinks.
R,
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I am at the outer limits of my exchange and normally 1.5mb with Plusnet 8mb service was a good speed. But having continual dropouts.
Went over to these on unlimited ADSL2, cheaper than Plusnet, and now running at a constant 6 mb to 7 mb with no limits, and no sign of dropout.
https://www.bethere.co.uk/
John
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Told the nice lady I will be leaving virgin no matter what and I request the MAC so that I can pass that to a new ISP that I find.
Again told her that is why I am leaving because virgin just dont know what they are doing
So I rang Virgin today and asked for my MAC number and was told "that your phone number is registered in the name of Mark ****". No says I, it is mine, my son was C&W (using a 132 dialler box) and then they wanted my security word. That WAS THE ISSUE! They had changed it and I had not got a clue what it was. So I was unable to use webmail. Nor had they replied to my email of 5 days previous raising this issue with them.
My worry is that my potential new provider gave me they wrong phone number for Virgin's support line!
I wonder if it is "out of the frying pan & ......"?
As for my son, well, left the U.K. 2 years ago and now works for TeleComNZ in sunny Wellington.
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The way to get their attention is to cancel the direct debit or credit card payment. But make sure that you tell them beforehand what you are going to do, and the reason why. Just give them a couple of days notice, and keep a copy of the email or letter.
If they can keep you hanging on and stalled for a few days each time, they will get you into a new payment month, and so grab more of your money. Take away the financial source, and they will then very quickly want to get in touch with you.
With a new supplier, initially they usually want to set up the account with a credit or debit card, get the account onto direct debit as soon as you can. Direct debit is usually a lot easier to stop and start payments.
I had my mac number within a couple of hours of the threat of payment stoppage, and was with my new supplier very soon afterwards with hardly any down time.
If they still won't play ball, just cancel the payment scheme anyway, that can be sorted out later. Go to your new supplier and just tell them you haven't got a mac code and you are in dispute with the old ISP, but get the ball rolling getting your new line set up.
Don't think you are in a minority with this one, ISP's think they control the world, and almost everyone I know who has tried to change suppliers meets the same sort of stalling tactics. I should know, my son in law works for a support line that takes all your calls (if they advertise UK call centres), and monkees reading from script sheets usually sums it up nicely. In the case of my son in law, it is in fact a compliment, I didn't think he was capable of reading.
It seems the old saying 'The customer is always right' has gone by the wayside in the world we live in now. But if a few more of us stuck to our guns, maybe they would get the message and treat us with the respect we deserve. They are being paid to supply US with a service, if they can't supply the service we want, they don't get paid.
John