Did You Know...?

[grabbi]

According to Gary Manlin at Virgin Media's Newsgroups;

Virgin Media's V+ Team CANNOT Remotely Format your Hard Drive!

Well I never knew that... especially after the faults dept. at VM wanted to format it from their end on Tuesday.

At 23:58, my Box rebooted, and we thought it was a little too early for an update, so we checked it out.

Low and behold, a format. Reminders: Gone. Recordings: Gone. Planned Recordings: Gone.

Wow.. Must have been the V+ Fairy!

Apologies for the sarcastic tone, but at the moment, this is the only way I can vent frustration at Virgin Media right now.

60 Hours of content. About 30 hours of which as unwatched.

Called up Tuesday to advise them that some of my Planned Recordings werent recording.
Was told a format would cure it.
Told them I dont want to have it formatted, because of the content on there.
"Can you not back it all up?" (Onto DVD) CS said.
I explained the problem posted here: Here... Here...
She told me its because your not supposed to record things, because its against the law. (Thus defeating the object of the V+, dont you think?)
I advised her to forget about it, and I will format myself when Im ready.

Between now and then, I believe she has sent an email to the relevant dept. and they carried out the Remote Format (something Gary Manlin said "sounds like a HDD corruption; Coincidence? I think not...) against my wishes.

Why am I complaining? Apart from the 30 hours of stuff I wanted to watch? An hour program on part of my Girlfriends family was on TV a few months ago, and now, sentiment has been wiped like Windows 95 of most PCs these days!

A phone call to VM says they will call back in 24 Hours.

You wont catch me holding my breath...

Ill be calling back if they dont, tomorrow. Aint no way this is being dropped.

You pay £85 on Tuesday, and that happens Thursday! Great!

[Toto]

Hang on....VM's defence by the girl / woman you spoke to was that recording stuff was against the law???

[grabbi]

Yes... and I know what your thinking...

Honestly, you have to laugh...

Im going to start recording my conversations with VM, because some of the things they will fob you off with is unbelievable! They expect us all to be dumb little citizens who pay for their service... and we know nothing?

Unfortunatly I went out yesterday, so I couldnt call them, but tomorrow, I might even cancel the majority of my services, and whatever I keep, Ill downgrade.

Like I say, £85 I paid them, and thats the thanks I get?

If I didnt laugh Id be a criminal...

[Stuart C]

Actually, AFAIK, recording is allowed as long as you delete the recording within 28 days.

As for the remote formatting, well, I don't know if they can do that (although it is technically feasible, I don't know if their software allows it), but I do know they can remove the v+ service, which will prevent you accessing the recordings already there.

[dontpannic]

Originally Posted by grabbi

Yes... and I know what your thinking...

Honestly, you have to laugh...

Im going to start recording my conversations with VM, because some of the things they will fob you off with is unbelievable! They expect us all to be dumb little citizens who pay for their service... and we know nothing?

Unfortunatly I went out yesterday, so I couldnt call them, but tomorrow, I might even cancel the majority of my services, and whatever I keep, Ill downgrade.

Like I say, £85 I paid them, and thats the thanks I get?

If I didnt laugh Id be a criminal...

No. Wrong. Archiving to DVD is not illegal. Just think - archiving films to DVD is possible with the V+, then that film can be given to someone, sold, etc etc, all of which then makes it illegal... Don't jump to conclusions. Oh, and the days before V+, if your VCR had missed a recording would you be on the phone to the manufacturer shouting at them?

You have vented over the top about this, and of course I can tell you've done this to the poor girl on the phone as well. Think about your actions.

Basically, as with anything in life, **** happens. My V+ lost some of its recordings, and I didn't phone up V+ shouting at people, its not on. Everyone makes mistakes mate!!

[Chris]

I own my VCR. If it stops functioning as specified I either complain to the vendor (if it's in guarantee) or buy a new one.

V+ boxes are rented. If they stop functioning, it is perfectly reasonable to complain to the company you are continually paying for the service.

I agree it's not on to vent at the poor sod who answers the phone, but it is certainly not unreasonable to complain.

[dontpannic]

Originally Posted by Chris T

I own my VCR. If it stops functioning as specified I either complain to the vendor (if it's in guarantee) or buy a new one.

V+ boxes are rented. If they stop functioning, it is perfectly reasonable to complain to the company you are continually paying for the service.

I agree it's not on to vent at the poor sod who answers the phone, but it is certainly not unreasonable to complain.

Chris, don't get me wrong, when it goes wrong, by all means let the company know - but shouting at people because in the process of being fixed the hard disk is wiped. If you know that it has to be formatted to fix the problem you make it your priority to back up the data on the disk! Even with the OP saying the Archive to DVD/VCR option doesn't work properly, connect the scart to the TV socket and archive during the day when the unit isn't in use. You can't be watching TV at all times!?

Nick

[ajnicho]

Originally Posted by dontpannic

Chris, don't get me wrong, when it goes wrong, by all means let the company know - but shouting at people because in the process of being fixed the hard disk is wiped. If you know that it has to be formatted to fix the problem you make it your priority to back up the data on the disk! Even with the OP saying the Archive to DVD/VCR option doesn't work properly, connect the scart to the TV socket and archive during the day when the unit isn't in use. You can't be watching TV at all times!?

Nick

Yesterday I was on the phone to them because in the last week alone, I've had 3 recordings pop up with an error message saying "There is a problem with this recording, please reboot bla bla"

The guy on the other end told me to format my box. "I've not long formatted my box and you expect me to do it again" I said, "I've got 25 hours of recorded material I haven't watched neither"

"You need to format your box, someone will call you in 5 days to explain how to do it" I told her I've done it before so know how to do it, only for her to repeat the same script.

Now, I don't have any means to back up my programmes, what do you suggest I do Nick? Put up with the problem and just hope that my recordings work or format my box and lose all my programmes? Shouldn't I expect my service to work after paying £10/month for it?

[darthlinux]

and if u record a phone call you have to tell the rep first

[dontpannic]

Originally Posted by ajnicho

Yesterday I was on the phone to them because in the last week alone, I've had 3 recordings pop up with an error message saying "There is a problem with this recording, please reboot bla bla"

The guy on the other end told me to format my box. "I've not long formatted my box and you expect me to do it again" I said, "I've got 25 hours of recorded material I haven't watched neither"

"You need to format your box, someone will call you in 5 days to explain how to do it" I told her I've done it before so know how to do it, only for her to repeat the same script.

Now, I don't have any means to back up my programmes, what do you suggest I do Nick? Put up with the problem and just hope that my recordings work or format my box and lose all my programmes? Shouldn't I expect my service to work after paying £10/month for it?

I can only say you must have a dodgy box - mine has been absolutely fine, no problems at all. I would invest the £40 for a DVD recorder so that you can archive the programmes though, as a precaution for the future...?

[NTLVictim]

Originally Posted by dontpannic

You have vented over the top about this, and of course I can tell you've done this to the poor girl on the phone as well. Think about your actions.
Basically, as with anything in life, **** happens. My V+ lost some of its recordings, and I didn't phone up V+ shouting at people, its not on. Everyone makes mistakes mate!!

Crystal Ball, DP?

Where did the OP say he shouted at her?
You left out "IMHO" in front of the phrase " You have vented over the top about this" as well, I for one say he hasn't. Over the top how? Because he phoned up and complained? Is there something about this the casual reader doesn't know?

[DaBoz]

Originally Posted by dontpannic

I can only say you must have a dodgy box - mine has been absolutely fine, no problems at all. I would invest the £40 for a DVD recorder so that you can archive the programmes though, as a precaution for the future...?

Add me to the list of people with a "dodgy box". Had to format mine last month because I had about 30 programs that wouldn't play or be erased.

I had hoped the audio drop out problems would go away, but they haven't. Reformatting doesn't fix that problem, as has been suggested elsewhere.

Boz

[dontpannic]

Originally Posted by DaBoz

Add me to the list of people with a "dodgy box". Had to format mine last month because I had about 30 programs that wouldn't play or be erased.

I had hoped the audio drop out problems would go away, but they haven't. Reformatting doesn't fix that problem, as has been suggested elsewhere.

Boz

Audio problems? recordings that can't be played or erased? Do enlighten me, if, as everyone seems to think on here, this is a major problem with ALL V+ boxes surely I would know about these issues, hmm?

[amateurfool]

Originally Posted by dontpannic

Audio problems? recordings that can't be played or erased? Do enlighten me, if, as everyone seems to think on here, this is a major problem with ALL V+ boxes surely I would know about these issues, hmm?

There's no need for the sarcasm.

There are common problems with some V+ boxes, a fair amount of which, i believe, to be network related rather than the box itself, some of the other issues (failed recordings etc) could be either a faulty hard drive or tuner unfortunately the only way to rule out the V+ box as a culprit is to swap it for another one and see if the problem goes away.

[dontpannic]

Originally Posted by NTLVictim

Crystal Ball, DP?

Where did the OP say he shouted at her?
You left out "IMHO" in front of the phrase " You have vented over the top about this" as well, I for one say he hasn't. Over the top how? Because he phoned up and complained? Is there something about this the casual reader doesn't know?

Even though I think you were taking the mickey, I did actually mean to state it was my opinion somewhere!

His tone makes me think that he has gone OTT...

---------- Post added at 17:06 ---------- Previous post was at 17:04 ----------

Originally Posted by amateurfool

There's no need for the sarcasm.

There are common problems with some V+ boxes, a fair amount of which, i believe, to be network related rather than the box itself, some of the other issues (failed recordings etc) could be either a faulty hard drive or tuner unfortunately the only way to rule out the V+ box as a culprit is to swap it for another one and see if the problem goes away.

Sorry for the sarcasm. But not all V+'s and parts of the network have the problems...