Virgin Media Update, Sky, BT

Frankly this just gets more and more ridiculous. Though I should do this in stages.
Not sure how interested anyone is in customer service, but I need to rant so I can finish my lunch and work...

Virgin Media

I was impressed by how someone was scanning blogs to pick up complaints like mine, and took action to get my query moving. The actual front end appeared to be the problem, with the head office staff all to willing to help, but engineers taking their time meant it still took far too long really.

Is it not possible to get a national map of where the cable is and add it to Google Maps? (They sent me a small map of where it was near me?) That would solve half this trouble easily.

No cable for me though. *sigh* Which leads me to:


Sky

Previously disappointing with internet support, but on moving tv across they were quick, polite, extremely helpful and sorted everything perfectly. 3 days later I have Sky again. Well done.


BT

Bastards.
Because someone 'allegedly' changed the phone line to another provider and it got disconnected... I now have to pay £125 to get it reconnected. A figure which can handily be discounted if I take BT's services.
Bastards.
Bastards.
Bastards.

Right... back to work.

Virgin Media Part One (possibly of many)

"Lunchtime is Rant-time!"

Me. Just Now

Long ago, in the dark days before iPlayer, when the internet was the preserve of geeks and just a few normal people, when non-cable broadband connections of over 512k were extortionate and limited to London and a few other selected dignitaries; there was a company called NTL.

Despite its great product, it apppeared that their customer service was managed by a brain damaged chimp with no arms and legs. They made BT look good.

Then they became Virgin Media, and suddenly (you hoped) that things would get better. Richard Branson would VA the company, take on SKY and win better media service for us, the cheering loving public.

Sadly not quite.

Having just moved I need internet, phone and tv services. Looking at SKY and VM, it appears that VM have the best deal. Then I notice the little * that says "When you take a phone line for £11 a month". Luckily it was still cheaper.

So I called them up, and got a few bits of info from a helpful guy named Dan.

Then...

I called again to ask about installation and found:

1) Though my street is cabled, its not on their database so I need to get an engineer out to look at it.

2) Get given a phone number for the engineers that doesnt wrk

3) Call back, person seems unable to comprehend what I want

4) Call again, get given an alternative number which works

5) Leave a message asking for them to look at it, having been told only that "should be done within days". Clearly VM don't realise that most people are lost without the internet, I dont wish to spend weeks waiting!

6) Waited

That was Thursday, still no reply. Asked someone yesterday to look into it, and nothing...

I shall keep you posted. You'd think Virgin Media would like to help new customers... they have about a week before I go back to Sky.

Important Product Lesson No 1: Sky Plus

I love Sky+. It's an essential part of my tv viewing, like an RGB lead or remote control.
But every so often it absolutely makes me want to throw it out of the window.

When events overrun, why is there NO system to extend the recording time?

Todays formula one race was the most amazing and exciting one I have seen in over 15 years of watching the sport... except I missed the last 8 crucial laps because it was delayed by a restart.

WHY?! For god sake Sky sort it out.

Video recorders could do it, Videoplus codes gave an extended recording time. So why not Sky Plus that already knows when the start and end of a programme is?

Its a remarkable flaw in a fantastic product, but it ALWAYS does this. I don't trust it to record sporting events anymore, I would NEVER recommend it to someone to record sport.

I cannot believe they havent fixed this, its not a new product. They have had years to do something about it. I frankly am not happy. I am furious.

So Sky, what do you plan to do for someone who has not only used and recommended Sky for 14 years; but who also signed up hundreds of people when I worked in a store?

Negotiation by Ad

Wow. I cannot believe that noone on the blogs I read has mentioned the all out war of words that is going on between Sky and Virgin Media.

The story is that they are negotiating to keep Sky channels on Virgin services, and Sky (alledgedly) would only accept extortionate prices and have no withdrawn their channels. Sky however, say that they have offered numerous alternatives and Virgin have refused.

The amazing bit is that this war is being carried out everywhere in print ads in newspapers. This is AFTER sky put ads on Virgin's feed of their channels asking people to call Virgin and tell them how much they want the channels!I have never seen so much advertising between two companies in such a short space of time.

They are talking straight at the public, with Virgin appearing to come off slightly more positive.

I will try and photo some of the ads tonight, but just get a paper from today or (probably) tomorrow and read a battle going on before our very eyes.

and finally...

I have the bloody internet at home!

Nearly two months of Sky's shocking technical support, and now I have a working connection. Now it's a great value package, shame the support isnt as good as the rest of the package.

More regular updates are coming- starting...