It keeps getting cut off. I have called Virgin Media four times in the last week. It’s getting ridiculous.

It’s also getting expensive. Calls to Virgin customer service costs 40 pence a minute on my mobile. And each call takes on average ten minutes.

They’ve changed the call waiting system since I last called. Now, “to ease the pain of waiting” you can select the type of music to listen to (at 40 pence a minute). You make your selection. It then ignores it completely and plays the same song

…Pain not eased.

It turns out the wires are being cut maliciously. I’m told I’m not the only one affected. It’s nothing personal.

Apparently’ someone’s “in dispute” with Virgin Media. Something I find easy to believe. I’m not a happy customer.

The last time the technician called, I got him to show me the junction box. It’s not exactly safe or secure.

I’ve been promised there’ll be a new case fitted soon. Meanwhile, you don’t need CIA training to tap my phone. I guess I should be please someone drew attention to the fact.

Another reason to dump the landline September 2010.

My Dad called telling me he’d left a message on my answering service. He asked why I had stopped using my answering machine. This was news to me.

So, I phoned up to listen to my messages. Some had been there for more than a week.

This Virgin Media service is only supposed to be switched on when you ask for it. Mine appears to have switched itself on when I upgraded my package. As a result I missed a few messages.

I apologized to anyone I had missed. Luckily, no one was annoyed. No one was surprised either. I am not the only one who has had problems with Virgin.

So, I phone up and a nice Indian lady says they will cancel the service no problem at no charge. I didn’t bother to complain.

They are winning this war of attrition.

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same old...

At the moment the only reason I am still a Virgin customer is that it is too much trouble to change my email address from the ntlworld.com address I use.

The Virgin Media anti-business plan:

• Advertise on the web site that 10Mb broadband is available from £14 a month.
• In the small print state this is the price for new customers only.
• Fail to mention anywhere that old customers may get charged nearly double the price.
• Do not at any point in the sales process notify customer of actual price being charged.
• Send a letter notifying the customer of the actually being charged £25 a month.
• In the letter point out that there is a statutory 7 day period in which customer can cancel the order.
• Send the letter out so that it arrives 15 days after the original order was made.

I will phone yet again to revert to my old broadband package. I should be able to do this under the Virgin Media 28 day money back guarantee.

I have no confidence that this will be a simple error free exercise.

Previous in this series
Update

same old...

I have recently changed my multi-media package. Although I am reasonably happy with the service Virgin Media provide, making changes has previously been error prone.

This time has been no different.

I wanted to upgrade my broadband. I requested a wireless G-router and a USB aerial for my home network. I changed the TV package at the same time.

I did this via the Virgin Media website on 6th October.

On the 10th October I receive an email telling me they have now “actioned” my request. On the 12th October a package was delivered containing the requested G-router but no aerial.

So, I phone up and a nice Indian lady accepted it was as it was their mistake. I would be sent the aerial and my account credited with its cost.

The aerial arrived on the 15th. Result

On 21st October a letter detailing the services I now have arrived. It incorrectly billed me £30 for a wireless N-router.

So, I phone up and a nice Indian gentleman told me, as far as he could tell, I had been sent an N-router. But he promised to make a note on my account that I had received a G-router and credit my account with the £30.

Virgin Media’s left hand appears to have no idea what its right hand is doing. They probably have multiple IT systems with very flaky connections between them.

Not surprising really. The current Virgin Media was created by a number of takeovers and mergers. Such a process often results in imperfect IT. It is expensive to integrate the different IT systems.

One reason why such a process often fails to deliver on promised value.

Update

I have been on-line at home now since 1998. Wow 11 years, time flies when you’re on-line. Last month my 2Mb cable broadband was upgraded to 10Mb. I am now considering setting up a wireless network as part of the upgrade to my multi-media services.

Below is a speed test I carried out from the Think Broadband site.

the need for speed

I have been looking at prices all morning. My bill says I pay £20 per month for medium bandwidth broadband. According to the Virgin Website I am paying £18 for medium broadband. If I want to upgrade to large I would have to pay £25 per month. But I am already getting the large bandwidth.

Some confusion here, so I will phone Monday. I will ask for wireless network equipment then.

I am installing wireless broadband as part of my mobile office project. This should allow me to work effectively anywhere with an internet connection for extended periods. I want this completed for the World Cup in South Africa next summer.

Obviously I will need a laptop, maybe a notebook. There is no way I can prepare articles on a mobile phone. I have tried.

I want a wireless network to develop and test against.

It has taken eleven years, but the net is finally setting me free.

friend or foe?

It’s time to renew my multi-media package. Presently, I pay £11.50 a month for over 100 hundred channels. Along with the usual free to air channels, I get Sky, Living, Hallmark, SciFi and Bravo. There is usually something to watch.

Before I subscribed to multi-channel TV, I listened to music, read and went down the pub every night. Multi-channel TV was a healthier option. It has been good value for me in many ways.

But now I feel I am watching TV too much.

I catch the news at 8pm, followed by The Daily Show. It then stays on for the rest of the evening. I’m usually doing other things until 11pm. So maybe I have it on for company.

The TV has my undivided attention after 11pm, until I fall asleep in front of it sometime after midnight.

If I scale down my package there are some shows I will miss. New series of Bones, CSI and Medium coming soon.

On the other hand, when Virgin and Sky had their little spat, I soon got used to the loss of the the Sky channels. And I have seen all the old episodes of my favourite shows several times over.

Then, I have a backlog of unwatched DVDs.  Having the TV on in the background whilst doing something else is one thing. But I want to watch the stuff I have specifically paid for without distraction. So they end up sitting on top of the TV unwatched.

And maybe loosing some channels will force me to look for more TV online. Web TV is a growing trend and I want to stay current with its development for work.

So what to do?

How much TV is too much TV?