VirginMedia - your experiences

Stuart* · Wed 19 Mar, 2008 18.15

Gavin Scott wrote:C&W would not have installed a coax outlet in a new-build if they hadn't connected it. The wall plate termination is the last part of connection, not the first.

OK, accepted that perhaps providing internal cabling for connection to C&W may not have been done at the time of construction; I was trying to possibly explain the coax outlet in Sput's new residence.

The property I originally rented in Plymouth was fairly new and was built with a coax outlet in each of the 7 flats connected to the communal Sky dish. I was therefore under the impression that buildiers tried to install whatever they could at the time of construction as it was easier.

Gavin Scott · Wed 19 Mar, 2008 18.19

Builders may well run coax to each flat or set up distribution of a dish or antennae, but the only way you'd end up with a "branded" cable outlet is if they had been to connect a service for someone already.

Your logic was reasonable - I just happen to know how cable operators work.

Gavin Scott wrote:No real complaints about VIrgin other than the letter I recently got saying, "You have been mistakenly paying less for your phone service than you should have for some time, so please note the new price on your next bill."

I've made about three calls from that line since demanding they change the number after allocating me one from a well publicised volunteer service in Edinburgh which had moved location. The number was listed on various websites I discovered.

No, I don't think I'll be paying them more for it. I expect to be paying less once I explain the situation to their complaints department.

Virgin have agreed that the service charge increase is not fair in my circumstances, and are crediting me with £15.20 plus £9.00 (not clear on where those figures were drawn from) for each of the next 5 months as a compsensatory measure.

Took 5 minutes by phone to resolve this.

Nice girl. I thanked her profusely for her understanding and swift response.

I really can't fault them!

Sput · Wed 19 Mar, 2008 18.21

Well, I figured since they claim it's not serviced that maybe it's in a state of disrepair or it's been redirected to elsewhere in the building. Considering it's in the city centre I doubt they've abandoned that part of the network, although strangely their site claims that particular postcode is on their analogue network (which is still fab for BB).

More investigation, methinks. Whatever the situation, it's a pretty old hookup.

Stuart* · Wed 19 Mar, 2008 18.46

Sput wrote:More investigation, methinks. Whatever the situation, it's a pretty old hookup.

As a general question: when VM (and their predecessors) upgraded people from analogue to their digital service, did they just change the 'Green Boxes' at the end of the road and peoples' STBs, or did they have to literally upgrade the quality/standard of the cable itself?

Gavin Scott · Wed 19 Mar, 2008 18.56

StuartPlymouth wrote:
Sput wrote:More investigation, methinks. Whatever the situation, it's a pretty old hookup.
As a general question: when VM (and their predecessors) upgraded people from analogue to their digital service, did they just change the 'Green Boxes' at the end of the road and peoples' STBs, or did they have to literally upgrade the quality/standard of the cable itself?

Its still a simple 75ohm coaxial that comes in to the house - having, as it does, a massive bandwidth capability. Simple, reliable copper. Hence the use of power lines to serve data across country and throughout homes.

I don't even think "fibre optic" customers get the fibre into their house. Its just fibre to the street and copper from there I should think.

nwtv2003 · Wed 19 Mar, 2008 23.07

StuartPlymouth wrote:
Sput wrote:More investigation, methinks. Whatever the situation, it's a pretty old hookup.
As a general question: when VM (and their predecessors) upgraded people from analogue to their digital service, did they just change the 'Green Boxes' at the end of the road and peoples' STBs, or did they have to literally upgrade the quality/standard of the cable itself?

Well NYNEX dug up our street in the mid 1990's and they laid the Cable, and it was pretty much left untouched after that. We had Analogue Cable and when we changed to Digital they installed an outlet on the wall behind our TV and swapped the box, the Cable was the same. Although in our household we run 2 VM STB's and one BB Modem and the brown box outside the house still says NYNEX, we've had that for over ten years now.

Beep · Thu 20 Mar, 2008 18.37

nwtv2003 wrote:the brown box outside the house still says NYNEX, we've had that for over ten years now.

My grey box says "BIRMINGHAM CABLE COMMUNICATIONS, That's 9 years old.

Pete · Thu 20 Mar, 2008 18.40

Godfather wrote:
nwtv2003 wrote:the brown box outside the house still says NYNEX, we've had that for over ten years now.
My grey box says "BIRMINGHAM CABLE COMMUNICATIONS, That's 9 years old.

so its inferior then?

Sput · Thu 20 Mar, 2008 18.40

That IS old.

It sounds dangerous.

You should cut it, and your phone line too for good measure.

Ebeneezer Scrooge · Thu 20 Mar, 2008 18.43

10 in a year is far more than enough for somebody who has probably never met these people in his life!
I dread to think what he'll be like loosing a family member.

Beep · Tue 25 Mar, 2008 00.40

Netizen wrote:
Sput wrote:Well stu, you're off-network so I doubt my experiences are the same as yours, since I'm on SUPER FAST FIBRE OPTIC, ugh. I realise now that, on the vans, where it says "FASTER FASTER FASTER", it refers to what you're constantly shouting at your computer because it's downloading so slowly.
Same experience here, except that the network was utterly fantastic when 10Mb was the maximum. As soon as 20Mb came along (which they cheekily upped from £35 to £37pm) it all went to shit. Now I rarely see a download speed of over 500KB/s. As soon as this fabled upgrade to 10Mb on the L package arrives I'm downgrading.

A copy of the email is here http://newsletter.virginmedia.com/publi ... ustid=7065