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Knelf · 17-09-2007, 19:42

OK I've read the stuff here and can honestly say it fits. I've been having trouble with drop outs for months. ie you can sit there pinging their dns servers (about 4 hops) and that will suddenly stop for 2 - 8 timeouts (windows ping) as will internet radio as will the website you are loading as will anything else on another computer on the house network. At the same time you can ping the house server no problems. This is entirely intermittent and random. Some days are ok, some are hell! I wish I still had dial up, it was slow but at least it was reliably slow.

Anyhow a few months back I tried to explain this to a virgin support welsh thicky who asked me if we had wireless. I know wireless has its issues but got the impression I wouldn't be able to convince her that it wasn't the problem so lied and said no we have wires (which we do, only the laptops are on wireless) she didn't understand this and asked how we connected more than one computer if we didn't have wireless. O_o Anyhow the conversation degraded from there. She didn't understand what a server with a wired network was and in the end lied and told me she couldn't send an engineer cause there was a problem in my area. She gave me a number to call which is a recording of the website info and said nothing of the sort.

So several months have gone by and I've cracked and just called again. Couldn't get though (line drops on dial) on an o2 mobile so had to use our ("disconnected" several months ago) land line as the net was too ropey for skype to work. Got an indian guy. I wasn't gonna fall into the traps this time so went straight in telling him the problem was months old and about the ping problem etc and lied about having a wireless part on the network. To his credit he seemed to follow all this. He ran some kinda ping of my ip and said he had 60% packet loss. Then he told me to disconnect the line and said it worked fine then so said it was the computer. I said I had the same thing when I had tried it with my laptop ealier directly connected to the modem and had the same problem so it was a low probability it was the computer. He said he "didn't deal in probabilities he dealt in facts" (getting a trifle arsey) then started harping on about how long the call was taking and costing. I said I didn't mind and asked if we could run the test again with the laptop (rather than the openBSD server) connected. We did and he said he got 100% again and I too found no problems. Then the connection started dropping again so I told him to run the test again but he wouldn't and said it was clearly the computer. I asked him what exactly he thought would call this and he said I should get it looked at and certified ok. Or format the disk and reinstall. I asked what he thought the probablity of 2 computers running different operating systems both being broken even though they worked fine on other networks were and he just started going on about how long the call was taking and saying he could no longer help. He also kept harping about not being able to do anything that wasn't on "the procedure"*...

To his credit he told me the cable modem (a teryon terajet 210) was very old and I could ask to get it replaced. This will happen on thursday apparently so will see what happens then and I'll report back.

Seriously love the whole virgin deal since its cheap but the support is daylight robbery and total kak!

Knelf

Does anyone know "the procedure" ? My guess is the following:

1. Ask if customer has wireless - if so, blame that and hang up
2. Ask if customer has broadband medic - tell em to get it and hang up
3. Ask if customer has rebooted the machine - tell em to do it and try and hang up
4. ping the IP and ask customer if the light is on - if all ok hang up wether problem solved or not
5. dream up the existance of some kinda virus that stops the customer being able to ping your dns servers, blame that and hang up.

Seriously does any ex employee know what it really is?

17-09-2007, 19:42	#9
Knelf cf.member Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 12	Re: Quality of support OK I've read the stuff here and can honestly say it fits. I've been having trouble with drop outs for months. ie you can sit there pinging their dns servers (about 4 hops) and that will suddenly stop for 2 - 8 timeouts (windows ping) as will internet radio as will the website you are loading as will anything else on another computer on the house network. At the same time you can ping the house server no problems. This is entirely intermittent and random. Some days are ok, some are hell! I wish I still had dial up, it was slow but at least it was reliably slow. Anyhow a few months back I tried to explain this to a virgin support welsh thicky who asked me if we had wireless. I know wireless has its issues but got the impression I wouldn't be able to convince her that it wasn't the problem so lied and said no we have wires (which we do, only the laptops are on wireless) she didn't understand this and asked how we connected more than one computer if we didn't have wireless. O_o Anyhow the conversation degraded from there. She didn't understand what a server with a wired network was and in the end lied and told me she couldn't send an engineer cause there was a problem in my area. She gave me a number to call which is a recording of the website info and said nothing of the sort. So several months have gone by and I've cracked and just called again. Couldn't get though (line drops on dial) on an o2 mobile so had to use our ("disconnected" several months ago) land line as the net was too ropey for skype to work. Got an indian guy. I wasn't gonna fall into the traps this time so went straight in telling him the problem was months old and about the ping problem etc and lied about having a wireless part on the network. To his credit he seemed to follow all this. He ran some kinda ping of my ip and said he had 60% packet loss. Then he told me to disconnect the line and said it worked fine then so said it was the computer. I said I had the same thing when I had tried it with my laptop ealier directly connected to the modem and had the same problem so it was a low probability it was the computer. He said he "didn't deal in probabilities he dealt in facts" (getting a trifle arsey) then started harping on about how long the call was taking and costing. I said I didn't mind and asked if we could run the test again with the laptop (rather than the openBSD server) connected. We did and he said he got 100% again and I too found no problems. Then the connection started dropping again so I told him to run the test again but he wouldn't and said it was clearly the computer. I asked him what exactly he thought would call this and he said I should get it looked at and certified ok. Or format the disk and reinstall. I asked what he thought the probablity of 2 computers running different operating systems both being broken even though they worked fine on other networks were and he just started going on about how long the call was taking and saying he could no longer help. He also kept harping about not being able to do anything that wasn't on "the procedure"*... To his credit he told me the cable modem (a teryon terajet 210) was very old and I could ask to get it replaced. This will happen on thursday apparently so will see what happens then and I'll report back. Seriously love the whole virgin deal since its cheap but the support is daylight robbery and total kak! Knelf Does anyone know "the procedure" ? My guess is the following: 1. Ask if customer has wireless - if so, blame that and hang up 2. Ask if customer has broadband medic - tell em to get it and hang up 3. Ask if customer has rebooted the machine - tell em to do it and try and hang up 4. ping the IP and ask customer if the light is on - if all ok hang up wether problem solved or not 5. dream up the existance of some kinda virus that stops the customer being able to ping your dns servers, blame that and hang up. Seriously does any ex employee know what it really is?