WhiskeyOscar
04-03-2008, 15:02
I've been looking at this forum for hours now and I've read almost all the posts before registering and deciding to post myself, since I've recently been 'had' by Virgin.
I've had a problem with my modem for months, an old Scientific Atlanta DPX-100 model that I've had since I got BB in from Telewest more years ago than I can remember (back when 512 was the next BIG thing). The thing is OLD.
What happens, is I get randomly disconnected by the modem saying, "Cable lost FEC lock", apparently that's normal according to Virgin. Some days I don't have an issue, and others I can't hold a connection for more than a minute.
Here's a few of the error codes I've been getting;
SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing
Cable Lost FEC lock
BPI FLASH: The Mfg CA certificate not found!
TLV11#3 node not found
TLV11#2 node not found
SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync
While these are all fun little distractions from having a working net service, they're not as infinitely amusing at Virgins ongoing response to this, of which I'll summarise in what detail I can rightly remember to amuse all of you.
When I first started having the problems they were few and far between and then I thought it'd be okay just to fill in the webform to ask for help, they told me in a response email (which I have sadly deleted now) to buy a new modem myself. I laughed hard.
The problems went away for a few days and then came back worse than ever before. I called Virgin and they run a line test and said everything was okay and that it was likely a temporary problem that would solve itself as the technicians looked at the streetside cabinets. I left it alone again, deciding to wait and see.
A couple of months went by since then in which the problem has deteriorated to a simply random event that means my online time now ranges between a few seconds to a few hours and on the very rare occasion, enough to actually do something productive. Three days ago I decided I'd had enough of this and thought to call them and complain.
Two calls later and they'd hung up on me, deliberately, twice. After calling a third time, some hours later, I finally got someone to talk to me, and he suggested the all time classic of 'have you tried turning it off and on again' and I hung up on him after much cursing.
Fourth call now and we start to get somewhere, I talk to 'Alan' who's apparently got 'a lot of technical expertise' but not nearly enough to speak proper english. I knew it was going badly from the moment he said that right at the start of the call but he goes on to suggest that I reset the downstream frequency of my modem to 331000000 Hz and see if that helped, which was brilliant, considering it was already at 331000000 Hz. Needless to say, he refused to help any further than that. So much for expertise.
Another call resulted in a similar situation, where the techie announced that it's company policy that if a customer gets at least 1 minutes net connection at a time, the problem is classed as solved and no further help will be given. I threatened to cancel my account, and the techie on the phone simply said 'good for you sir' and transferred me to billing. Where I promptly lodged a complaint and qued my account up for cancellation at the end of the month. Having explained the events, including the 1 minute connection part to the billing person, they said that was correct, confirming that they will not help so long as I get a net connection for at least 1 minute at a time.
Now, I work from home and I spend almost all my time infront of the PC using the internet, so I was a little regretful of my decision to cancel the account and decided to give them a second chance, this morning, to see the error of their ways and assist me in restoring a usable net connection. In truth, it was more like handing Judas the nails and hammer myself.
I call the 0906 number, and instantly get screwed by a guy who puts the phone down on me after saying 'we'll call you back'. I called again, and got someone else who was more willing to deal with me. I got the usual 'turn it on and off again' malarkey and jumped through their hoops despite the fact that it's useless. Then came the usual 'it's your router' line. Shame I've had this router a while and it works fine for me, even at other peoples houses (I take it with me to network PCs, 360s and the like for networked gaming). So the techie has me disconnect my router from the line and then tries to tell me it's my PCs network card that's bust. Which it blatantly isn't cause I can connect to everything else just fine.
Anyway, this guy says he'll do me a favour, and says just leave it as it is for 30 minutes, and if the connection fails twice within that 30 minutes, he'll send a technician to fit a new modem and check the wiring to see if that helps. Seeing the fault here? If the connection dies, it'll only be once, it can't fail twice if it isn't manually reset by me getting up and turning the modem off for a couple of minutes. So with this obviously doomed plan in action he hangs up and I wait for a call back.
I waited a whole hour before calling them, the guy looks up the notes on the computer, says he sees that I lodged a complaint and that it's been marked as problem solved. I explain the whole issue to him again and he runs another line test and says that everything is fine and to stop worrying. I tell him that I want a technician out at my house within the week to look things over because things obviously are not alright. He tells me that the technician will cost me, so I (instantly regretted) ask how much. This is the result; Cost of the technicians time, cost of the modem, administrative charges, cost of any work the technician has to do. I'm sorry - I didn't realise I was dealing with the extortion branch, I thought I was talking to tech support. I very calmly, and in extremely similar words, told the techie that he could cram it up his **** sideways.
Half an hour later (at 1:30-ish PM GMT today!) VM Billing and Accounts calls me up and says that they've recieved notice that I'm apparently not happy with the services Virgin offers. Good job we didn't have to bring in the CSIs to deal with that eh? The guy asks for an explanation so I give him one, and he then asks if I was serious about cancelling the account. I tell him that I have no intention of paying for something that I'm not getting and he says 'your request for cancellation has been brought forward then, you will be disconnected ASAP, thankyou'.
So, now instead of being cut off at the end of the month, I could be cut off from the net at any time (despite having paid them for the month). This just seemed like an appropriate place to share the story. I'll keep checking back until they cut me off, but no guarantees on when that'll be.
I've had a problem with my modem for months, an old Scientific Atlanta DPX-100 model that I've had since I got BB in from Telewest more years ago than I can remember (back when 512 was the next BIG thing). The thing is OLD.
What happens, is I get randomly disconnected by the modem saying, "Cable lost FEC lock", apparently that's normal according to Virgin. Some days I don't have an issue, and others I can't hold a connection for more than a minute.
Here's a few of the error codes I've been getting;
SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Failed to acquire FEC framing
Cable Lost FEC lock
BPI FLASH: The Mfg CA certificate not found!
TLV11#3 node not found
TLV11#2 node not found
SYNC Timing Synchronization failure - Loss of Sync
While these are all fun little distractions from having a working net service, they're not as infinitely amusing at Virgins ongoing response to this, of which I'll summarise in what detail I can rightly remember to amuse all of you.
When I first started having the problems they were few and far between and then I thought it'd be okay just to fill in the webform to ask for help, they told me in a response email (which I have sadly deleted now) to buy a new modem myself. I laughed hard.
The problems went away for a few days and then came back worse than ever before. I called Virgin and they run a line test and said everything was okay and that it was likely a temporary problem that would solve itself as the technicians looked at the streetside cabinets. I left it alone again, deciding to wait and see.
A couple of months went by since then in which the problem has deteriorated to a simply random event that means my online time now ranges between a few seconds to a few hours and on the very rare occasion, enough to actually do something productive. Three days ago I decided I'd had enough of this and thought to call them and complain.
Two calls later and they'd hung up on me, deliberately, twice. After calling a third time, some hours later, I finally got someone to talk to me, and he suggested the all time classic of 'have you tried turning it off and on again' and I hung up on him after much cursing.
Fourth call now and we start to get somewhere, I talk to 'Alan' who's apparently got 'a lot of technical expertise' but not nearly enough to speak proper english. I knew it was going badly from the moment he said that right at the start of the call but he goes on to suggest that I reset the downstream frequency of my modem to 331000000 Hz and see if that helped, which was brilliant, considering it was already at 331000000 Hz. Needless to say, he refused to help any further than that. So much for expertise.
Another call resulted in a similar situation, where the techie announced that it's company policy that if a customer gets at least 1 minutes net connection at a time, the problem is classed as solved and no further help will be given. I threatened to cancel my account, and the techie on the phone simply said 'good for you sir' and transferred me to billing. Where I promptly lodged a complaint and qued my account up for cancellation at the end of the month. Having explained the events, including the 1 minute connection part to the billing person, they said that was correct, confirming that they will not help so long as I get a net connection for at least 1 minute at a time.
Now, I work from home and I spend almost all my time infront of the PC using the internet, so I was a little regretful of my decision to cancel the account and decided to give them a second chance, this morning, to see the error of their ways and assist me in restoring a usable net connection. In truth, it was more like handing Judas the nails and hammer myself.
I call the 0906 number, and instantly get screwed by a guy who puts the phone down on me after saying 'we'll call you back'. I called again, and got someone else who was more willing to deal with me. I got the usual 'turn it on and off again' malarkey and jumped through their hoops despite the fact that it's useless. Then came the usual 'it's your router' line. Shame I've had this router a while and it works fine for me, even at other peoples houses (I take it with me to network PCs, 360s and the like for networked gaming). So the techie has me disconnect my router from the line and then tries to tell me it's my PCs network card that's bust. Which it blatantly isn't cause I can connect to everything else just fine.
Anyway, this guy says he'll do me a favour, and says just leave it as it is for 30 minutes, and if the connection fails twice within that 30 minutes, he'll send a technician to fit a new modem and check the wiring to see if that helps. Seeing the fault here? If the connection dies, it'll only be once, it can't fail twice if it isn't manually reset by me getting up and turning the modem off for a couple of minutes. So with this obviously doomed plan in action he hangs up and I wait for a call back.
I waited a whole hour before calling them, the guy looks up the notes on the computer, says he sees that I lodged a complaint and that it's been marked as problem solved. I explain the whole issue to him again and he runs another line test and says that everything is fine and to stop worrying. I tell him that I want a technician out at my house within the week to look things over because things obviously are not alright. He tells me that the technician will cost me, so I (instantly regretted) ask how much. This is the result; Cost of the technicians time, cost of the modem, administrative charges, cost of any work the technician has to do. I'm sorry - I didn't realise I was dealing with the extortion branch, I thought I was talking to tech support. I very calmly, and in extremely similar words, told the techie that he could cram it up his **** sideways.
Half an hour later (at 1:30-ish PM GMT today!) VM Billing and Accounts calls me up and says that they've recieved notice that I'm apparently not happy with the services Virgin offers. Good job we didn't have to bring in the CSIs to deal with that eh? The guy asks for an explanation so I give him one, and he then asks if I was serious about cancelling the account. I tell him that I have no intention of paying for something that I'm not getting and he says 'your request for cancellation has been brought forward then, you will be disconnected ASAP, thankyou'.
So, now instead of being cut off at the end of the month, I could be cut off from the net at any time (despite having paid them for the month). This just seemed like an appropriate place to share the story. I'll keep checking back until they cut me off, but no guarantees on when that'll be.