Not tehnically hardware but I needed somewhere to say
VIRGIN MEDIA ARE DICKS

The connection is great, once you have it. Customer support is fine until you have a problem (when they repeatedly tell you to turn it off at the wall and then turn it on again assuming a) you never thought of that yourself and b) it'll work this time if it didn't the last 3 times they got you to do it.

Somehow they have managed to turn something pretty straightforward into a total clusterfuck.

I wanted to change the existing bill from my name into cardboardcutouts and get a new cable/billing agreement at my new address. Simples no? Firstly they needed to run a credit check on Cardboard then transfer it, in order to keep continuous service. So today, 3 weeks later when I ring them to check the status they ask me if I filled out the forms - these would be the ones I had never received and they had never mentioned then. So they are now being sent to Cardboard who needs to fill them out, then forward them to me (the Virgin guy asked if I Oxford and Sheffield were near by so i could just pop round).
By this stage I had visions of a team of trained chimps in diapers running the behind-the-scenes admin.

I rang again this afternoon to find out where my installation guy was. Having taken one of the 3 1/2 days I have off between now and new year I was getting worried. It turns out that they had put my application on hold whilst they considered the other account in my name (and only so because they said they were unable to move to a new customer account without physically disconnecting/reconnecting) and needed 30 days to run the necessary checks before they could swap the name on the curent account. The fact that the email they sent me on the 23rd Nov said it would take a couple of days to run the checks and they'd get back to me in a few days if there were (which they didn't) is ridiculous. What beggars belief is that I had to ring them (again!) on the day the installation was due to find this out. A telecoms company unable to use email or phone huh? Anyway I'm now stuck waiting to see if and when they resolve this issue and, following that, when they would be able to come round and install.
Wankers

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Dammit! My computer was set to U.S. English.
I tried to save a word document but accidentally blew it up instead.

That's how he makes his money, no staff costs

Hope it gets sorted mate, i got 50mbps cable here and its all fine, but every so often it will just fuck up and we have to restart, but it always happens mid game when the epic-ness and awesomeness is brought to a halt.....

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

Aren't all isps assholes? At least, when you have problems and need em

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M.A.S.K. , is the mighty power that can save the day

i just love that i dont have to do with shit of virgin media...since i ever started using the net, i have heard complaints about them. its almost like im getting tired of listening to it all the time i dont get why ppl just dont leave them, or are they the only isp around?

Sounds like it's a handful to get internet in the UK.

Here it's more like:
Telephone: Ringring
Yousee: Yousee cable and internet, how may I help you?
Me: I want internet and cable TV!
Yousee: I see (OOC: See what I did there?) Where do you live?
Me: I live... (I give them my address)
Yousee: Great. And when can we expect you to be home?
Me: I'm home tomorrow after 16.00
Yousee: Great. We'll send a technician by!
----Next day at 17.30----
Doorbell: Ringring
Technician: I am here to set up your internet!
----17.45----
Bunch of kids: Welcome to the internets!

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<@Howard_s> usa just has a made up economy - they can't really go broke

JuncoPartner: I could barely hold it up for long.

in the UK im pretty sure they are the only cable internet provider, which blows.

lol spike, useful comment as always

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-"You've really worked out your banter, haven't you?"
-"No, not really. This is a different thing, it's spontaneous and it's called wit."

I've never had a problem with the connection. It is the customer service (which, due to a fault free 7 years (I know, originally I was with telewest) I've rarely had to used) that appears to be run with all the skills and ability of Helen Keller on comedown after a 12 hour coke binge. 17 days to 18 days to "consider" something they said would take 2 and they lacked either the balls* or the gumption to email or telephone to just ask. Simple queries, once you get someone who isn't just reading the script and persuade them that no, it is not your computer at fault but their line they could deal with (and that's all I ever had trouble wise - the laughable situation being that the repair man would come out, identify the (intermittent) fault but be unable to fix it, be unable to replace the unit as it was still technically working and so have to "accidentally" break it himself in order to be allowed to replace it and solve the problem - or when this didn't happen, get called out once a week for a month until it did. Again - they knew what they were doing It was the administration was having great difficulty telling its arse from its elbow, despite enlisting a professional cartographer, a physiologist and the entirety of friday night regulars of PeterLand bar.


*(no offence Protect)

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Dammit! My computer was set to U.S. English.
I tried to save a word document but accidentally blew it up instead.

I've still yet to play L4D2 that Cardboard so kindly furnished me with a copy of.

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Dammit! My computer was set to U.S. English.
I tried to save a word document but accidentally blew it up instead.

Poor Tpyo, I feel for you dude

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Classy is when a woman has everything to flaunt, but chooses not to show it!

It really seems that internet on your island is quite exclusive... o_O

Never had such problems in good old Jermany!

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SaintK: I'm completely lost

Don't know about exclusive, but it's certainly illogical captain. Instead of deploying broadband across the whole country which would get everyone online, spending money, boosting the economy, and would have been a genuine investment for the future - all for an estimated cost of £9bn, we got a very temporary reduction in value added tax from 17.5% to 15% which is estimated to cost closer to £11bn but really made stuff all difference as everyone is already taxed to oblivion before they actually get to spend their money anyway.

But i digress ... the internet in our country isn't going very far unless Virgin get a move on because BT are in a bad place right now. They took their eye off the ball and made a loss of £1.95bn through their global services arm, at a time when they needed to be making huge profits to invest in upgrading the network and ultimately put a fibre optic connection to the back of my PC.

They've cut around 15,000 job positions last year and another 15,000 this year, but can't afford to make their own staff redundant as their redundancy benefits are too good, so they are pulling work back from all their outsourced and offshore operations. This slows this issue for them right now, but means their running costs will be significantly more for years to come, further reducing their capacity for investment.

Virgin are already rolling out connections of up to 50mb and BT have started to rollout fibre to the cabinet in the same areas just to try and compete on some level. If Virgin really raised their game then we could see some genuine competition in the market, not just a BT monopoly ... or rebranded BT wholesale connections ... or local loop unbundling which just puts someone elses kit (which they probably bought from BT) into the BT exchange but still uses the same BT everything else.

I guess I'm coming across as a BT hater, which is actually not the case. I've been a BT customer for years, and continue to be so. There's just no real alternative out there unless Virgin step up. BT got the monopoly because they were the only ones who could realistically roll out the network in the first place, and fair play to them they earned it. But then progress stalled as they had no incentive to do anything new, just kept squeezing the existing network. As long as you live within sight of the exchange you are ok, but everyone else is pretty much screwed ... all this talk of 20mb and I'm lucky if I can get 1.5mb.

Now Virgin have finally got their act together, they can make a genuine push to divide the market, but they won't hold off BT unless they can genuinely differentiate on customer service. That's the only thing which will build a loyal customer base who won't easily be swayed when BT eventually get their finances in order and ramp up their technology investment to take back the monopoly.

[edit] don't know where all this came from, clearly too much time alone in my hotel. think this is more than all my other posts added together

* gets down off soapbox *

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Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.