Bob gets Virgin Media broadband & TV but is less than impressed with the installation

[Steve B]

*scratches head* i didn't need to use my cd

[d3fiant]

I moved houses several times while with NTL and they were all in all very good, installations were clean, always fully functional. More recently I moved out of a cable area and just before christmas I got sky in for TV and broadband and to be honest the experience was appalling. TV install was slightly delayed due to a BT phone line problem, Sky wouldnt install my Sky+ until they could complete a test which included the line, only a day delay so not bad. Broadband however was a bloody nightmare, the delivered their rebadged Netgear router DOA, it took them 2 months of repeated calls all over the place while Sky blamed BT, BT blamed sky etc, both said it was a line problem but I went out and got a cheap ADSL router and it worked, however since they said line problem they capped the line to 128k. They finally sent me a replacement router when I contacted them to cancel, not good. ALthough since that day I have up to 16MB for a tenner, I only get 3MB (local issue) but its unlimited which is the big thing for me, I dl 10-20GB a week

[Xtanto]

I was with pipex for internet and BT for phone.

Cost ~ £25 per month for 2M internet and £11 + call charges for phone.

Pipex then had a new offer of £29.95 per month for 8M internet (412kbit up) + line rental and unlimited land line phone calls.

It was quite a hassle to get on to this as it was actually pipexhomecall who had the offer and had just be taken over by pipex.

They told me I would have to change my internet as pipexhomecall actually used tiscally broadband.

I said you have to be joking your add says 'powered by pipex' and after many a long call I now have the deal but still have my pipex internet account.

Is this the offer you also wanted? - cos with a fight you probably could have got it anyway.

[MD]

Originally Posted by chis

You MUST install the connection using the software CD, if you are doing it for the first time, or have moved house.

Im afraid you don't.

Thats exactly what Tech Support told me when I called as I didn't have my pin, I have been on NTL for 7 years, in three different houses, not once have I installed the software.

Matt

[DragonStar]

lol, im glad i had my installation done by Blueyonder engineers, not NTL , the did a nice job of the drilling, cabling was neat, AND they vacuumed up the mess, maybe NTL installations are different, but you certainly dont need a CD to install anything unless ur using USB, just plug an ethernet cable in and watch it go through obtaining an IP and your done, and ive done it that way on an XP PC, a SuSE Linux machine, and a D-Link gaming router, never needed to use a CD... EVER, lol.. its ETHERNET... what could you POSSIBLY need to install anything for? Unless your missing TCP/IP on your machine... in which case the CD isnt going to do anything and your have gone seriously wrong somewhere

[Tom Scott]

Originally Posted by Matt D

Im afraid you don't.

Thats exactly what Tech Support told me when I called as I didn't have my pin, I have been on NTL for 7 years, in three different houses, not once have I installed the software.

Matt

Back then Matt they didn't have CDs. You were in the Midlands still I take it? They'd just taken over from Diamond cable.
Back then you had to ring to register your MAC, if you already have a "nltworld" account nowadays then you can't change your modem (if it gets replaced) etc on that account with the CD, you have to ring to register the MAC address.

[MD]

Well I still haven't had to use the CD, not even when I moved in in December.

Mind you the more I read this blog the less I can actually find wrong with what VM have done....

I have everything you can get from them nearly, they have been quick most of the time and the service has been consistently good.

Matt

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by Tom Scott

Bob source is: http://informitv.com/articles/2006/0...irginmarriage/

Tom,

Good link - and a very interesting story!

Thanks!

Cheers

Bob

[Mutley]

I've been pretty fortunate with NTL, and it helps that I have a clue - I really feel sorry for customers who aren't tech savvy.

When I had cable broadband installed, the engineer who came (on time) asked where I needed the end point to be. This was to be in a bedroom at the back of the house - the external cable box was ground floor, front of house. He ran a cable up the wall, neatly tucked into a crevice and into the loft through soffit boarding, all neatly plugged. He went into the loft without complaint at all, to the hardest bit to get to, and run the cable to the back of the house, bringing it neatly into the bedroom right in the corner of the room, again neatly plugged. He also explained what needed to happen next, and that once he had plugged the cable into the modem and tested the signal, that was job-done. I was very pleased with what he did.

When more recently I had to have my cable modem upgraded to support 10Mb (I had an aged Terajet that only supported 4Mb), an engineer arrived again on time, and I simply handed him the old one and he gave me the new one. Mind you, the customer service experience I had on the phone was crap, and it took some time to get to talk to someone who had a clue what I was asking for, and then to explain to them that, no, I wasn't going to pay 50 quid for the modem, that they were going to replace what I had for free...

I think I've generally been fortunate as I know of many poor experiences that others have had.

[Mutley]

I think its also worth pointing out that many (most?) broadband service providers will tell you that they only support one PC being connected to their network, via the cable modem. That is the policy. Of course, what they mean is they provide you with one external IP address, so you must use a router that supports Network Address Translation (NAT) if you want to use more than one PC (or other device)...but that config is technically not supported if you wish to do that.

[McMav]

Never once used NTL broadband cd. Never needed it.

Had 3 ntl installs all very clean and tidy. Though for the BB install I had already ran a cable inder the floor and up the walls so it was hidden. The engineer just taped his cable onto it and pulled it through. (Better cable).

As for support I've never had a problem. Think one time I had to wait till next day to get one out when my set top box was dying. All in they have been fine for me. Have had VirginMedia/NTL/cabletel since they first started in the area so probably since 1997ish

[s_kinton]

Originally Posted by chis

You MUST install the connection using the software CD, if you are doing it for the first time, or have moved house.

Thats wrong in my experience also. No matter if i move or not. You only need to use the CD if you connect tyhe modem to your PC via USB.

If you connect via ethernet the CD is not needed. Just plug it in and go

[DragonStar]

Originally Posted by Tom Scott

Back then Matt they didn't have CDs. You were in the Midlands still I take it? They'd just taken over from Diamond cable.
Back then you had to ring to register your MAC, if you already have a "nltworld" account nowadays then you can't change your modem (if it gets replaced) etc on that account with the CD, you have to ring to register the MAC address.

Again, this must be an NTL thing, because when i originally had the BB installed i had to register the mac, but these days its not restricted to any MAC's

[Bob Crabtree]

Folks, although it clearly is highly relevant whether or not one needs to use the supplied CD, what's even more relevant - in my view - is that new Virgin Media cable-broadband subscribers are being told to use it, whether it's needed or not!

However, it did seem to me (and, really, I should have logged the steps involved, but didn't) that there did come a point where the set up CD interacted with Virgin in some way that made my new account active.

And, perhaps, that's why we are seeing differences of opinion - some people are talking about all-new accounts and others are talking about accounts that were active already or, perhaps, went live BEFORE the present requirements for new accounts were in place.

But, whatever the case, what needs to be remembered is that - as my original posting points out - the CD that was supplied to me and that I was told to use was the wrong one to do the job required.

This CD was intended, it would seem, for use with a conventional modem, not a cable modem.

Echoing the fact that there are a few cock-ups and unintended sillies, note, too, that - as I said in an earlier posting to this thread - the welcome-aboard email I received from Virgin Media talked about a "no-nonsense Dial-up internet service".

What also needs to be borne in mind is that the whole point about his particular blog is to highlight the issues that new subscribers to Virgin Media are likely to encounter - and to put those into the context of the hype about high-quality customer-service that Richard Branson and the two big-knobs from ntl:Telewest (as was) gave out at the renaming event (that I attended and wrote about) and thereafter.

Oh, and to add further emphasis to the things that didn't go right - I just remembered something else about my attempt to get broadband working.

The last guy I spoke to - whom I've already said arranged for me to have a PIN for broadband - also had to take all my details for setting up the new account, including name and address, bank account (and sort code) because Virgin Media's back-end system, or someone who was part of it, had overlooked the fact that a new account had needed to be set up.

And, apparently, the broadband is going to be billed quite separately to the phone, rather undermining the integrated nature of the triple-play Virgin Media package to which I signed up (and of quad-play and dual-play, too).

I also see the fact that this account had not been set up as a sign of left and right hands not knowing what the other is doing, rather than as a sign of inherently good customer service.

The company ensured that its fitters brought along broadband hardware and knew this had to be installed but the back-end system didn't ensure that an account to go with this hardware and connection was set up.

So, in a number of ways, the Virgin promise of high-quality customer care turned out to be rather less impressive than the hype would have had me believe - and so I have let people know chapter and verse.

As for my having it easy because others have suffered far worse at the hands of Sky or indeed ntl or anyone else, truth is that's not relevant.

I signed up for Virgin Media and my comments relate to that company and to the feel-good factor it's been promising customers they would enjoy post the company's name change.

Okay, by the end of the day EVERYTHING that should have been working was working - and if that hadn't been the case, then my blog would have been FAR less even tempered. But the fact that I did have everything working yesterday was more much down to my chasing Virgin Media, than the company having such a good service that everything worked as a matter of course.

It just so happens that I had no issues at all when Sky installed my satellite dish and TV box many years ago but most of the issues that I relate about Virgin Media are to do with broadband, not TV, so I don't see that past experience is directly relevant even if it would appear to cast Virgin Media in a slightly darker shadow.

[Bob Crabtree]

Originally Posted by Mutley

I think its also worth pointing out that many (most?) broadband service providers will tell you that they only support one PC being connected to their network, via the cable modem. That is the policy. Of course, what they mean is they provide you with one external IP address, so you must use a router that supports Network Address Translation (NAT) if you want to use more than one PC (or other device)...but that config is technically not supported if you wish to do that.

Interesting technical explanation but rather less convincing argument about why multiple devices aren't supported.

What you're spelling out would appear to be an example of the "Everyone else is crap, so it's okay for us to be crap, too" theory of business and it's one I object to strongly.

Look at the stats about PC ownership and you'll see that a HUGE number of households have two or more PCs.

So, if what you say about other ISPs is correct, then if Virgin Media really wants to make itself different and better than all its competitors, it immediately has one easy way of doing that - by supporting multiple PCs and then shouting loudly about the fact that it does so willingly.

Right now, though, in that regard, this lack of active support for multiple PCs is, in my view, letting down the company and its customers.

[DragonStar]

to be fair, its new, its going to take time to get all the kinks out, NTL have a notoriously bad name in terms of ... well... just about everything, and so its going to be a while before things are sorted out