Things to look out for when dealing with Virgin Media and Over Subscription.

[Welshchris]

As most of us are aware by now when a problem occurs with Virgin media they are rather quick at pointing a finger at the user rather than admit theres a problem with themselves which i think is unfair because it an cause people a lot of unneccasary stress. I had one lady tell me about she didnt have an internet connection and rang Virgin media which told her that it was a problem with her Ethernet card and needed a new one, she took the pc to a shop which did a health check and fitted a new ethernet card and cost her almost £50. When she got home it was still the same, she rang them to find out that she had been disconnected for non payment even though they had taken payment, so in my opinion Virgin Media should be responsible for refunding that because it was their fault.

They also have another habbit of blaming such things as AntiVirus and Firewall, and yes these can be a problem for some users which dont know how to manually configure but when u have no signal to the modem from outside as ive seen a few times and Virgin Claim its firewall then it kind of takes the biscuit.

Other things ive come across are "Ambit 250\255\256 Modems are non compatible with Gigabit Ethernet Ports" This is total rubbish.

If u have access to another pc/laptop then its always best to try that on ur connection to see if u have the same problem. When i was having a problem with over subscription Virgin Claimed my Avast Antivirus was slowing it down, i borrowed a friends Brand new Toshiba Laptop which she had only just that hour picked up from PC World and i had an Identical problem with that so it was obvious it wasnt my PC.

If the problem lies with Virgin Media then i think they should own upto this and if they cause people to spend money unneccesarilly knowing that the problem is with them in the first place then they should be responsible to refund this.

[moaningmags]

I agree that sometimes tech support get it wrong. Yes there are some less clued up people working in tech support. But, there are also loads of us who pride ourselves on doing a good job, helping the customer and identifying the problem whether it lies on the customer side or the network side. Below is a small portion of easily identifiable customer types we deal with on a regular basis. Would you like it if we lumped you in as one of them?

I'd like to point out the amount of thick and stupid people who own computers, download loads of rubbish including viruses (virii?) spyware, 20 toolbars and lovely little weather icons that sit in the systray and think I can fix it with a wave of my magic wand.

I'd like to point out the blatant liars - yes, my pc is connected direct to the modem and I did reboot the modem (standby is NOT a reboot) - one proper reboot of the modem and I can see the mac address change cos the person lied and then they think I'm psychic and have caught them cos they think I can physically see what they are doing.

I'd like to point out the "IT tech" who doesn't remember how to get to the dos prompt - cos it's been awhile, but, he's done all that when I want to do some tests and thinks I need more training.
I'd like to point out the wonderful customers who follow my instructions when asked to do so, these are usually the old grannies who are rather afraid of their computers. They're a bit slower, but I don't have to remind them 3 times how to spell ipconfig.
I'd like to point out the customer that comes on the line and immediately starts ranting about VM and their service isn't working. Like it's my fault you didn't pay your £200 bill and VM cut you off. Did you think it was free??
And one of my favourites, my internet isn't working. Ok, can you tell me what lights you have on the modem please? ermm, what's a modem?? It's the little box our engineer fitted for you when he installed your broadband, it has some lights on it. Nope, haven't got one of those. But sir, you must have if you have our broadband. Nope, definitely not.
Then I have to guide the person through their house until they find it, then I get told ooooh I never knew that was there. Well, duh!!

There isn't a single tech support person who visits this forum who hasn't had at least one of each call type above.
India may run off a script and a list of questions, but the UK centres don't. We listen to what the customer tells us and take it from there.

So please don't tar us all with the same brush.

Mags

[Welshchris]

I agree that sometimes tech support get it wrong. Yes there are some less clued up people working in tech support. But, there are also loads of us who pride ourselves on doing a good job, helping the customer and identifying the problem whether it lies on the customer side or the network side. Below is a small portion of easily identifiable customer types we deal with on a regular basis. Would you like it if we lumped you in as one of them?

I'd like to point out the amount of thick and stupid people who own computers, download loads of rubbish including viruses (virii?) spyware, 20 toolbars and lovely little weather icons that sit in the systray and think I can fix it with a wave of my magic wand.

I'd like to point out the blatant liars - yes, my pc is connected direct to the modem and I did reboot the modem (standby is NOT a reboot) - one proper reboot of the modem and I can see the mac address change cos the person lied and then they think I'm psychic and have caught them cos they think I can physically see what they are doing.

I'd like to point out the "IT tech" who doesn't remember how to get to the dos prompt - cos it's been awhile, but, he's done all that when I want to do some tests and thinks I need more training.
I'd like to point out the wonderful customers who follow my instructions when asked to do so, these are usually the old grannies who are rather afraid of their computers. They're a bit slower, but I don't have to remind them 3 times how to spell ipconfig.
I'd like to point out the customer that comes on the line and immediately starts ranting about VM and their service isn't working. Like it's my fault you didn't pay your £200 bill and VM cut you off. Did you think it was free??
And one of my favourites, my internet isn't working. Ok, can you tell me what lights you have on the modem please? ermm, what's a modem?? It's the little box our engineer fitted for you when he installed your broadband, it has some lights on it. Nope, haven't got one of those. But sir, you must have if you have our broadband. Nope, definitely not.
Then I have to guide the person through their house until they find it, then I get told ooooh I never knew that was there. Well, duh!!

There isn't a single tech support person who visits this forum who hasn't had at least one of each call type above.
India may run off a script and a list of questions, but the UK centres don't. We listen to what the customer tells us and take it from there.

So please don't tar us all with the same brush.

Mags

Im not tarring u all with the same brush, im only warning people what they have to be careful about, i didnt say that EVERYONE was like it, think u have taken this a bit to personally or phaps ive hit a nerve.

[ceedee]

India may run off a script and a list of questions, but the UK centres don't. We listen to what the customer tells us and take it from there.

But the offshore script-reading support costs peanuts and UK support costs a lot?

It's a shame that VM missed the opportunity to make it free to call India but a premium call to get 'bespoke' treatment from a UK call centre. And if there was a VM webpage accurately describing the typical tests that would help TS to identify problems (as Annie's FAQ (http://a.myby.co.uk/broadband-faq.html) attempts), the length of calls could be reduced too.
Guess which number would get the most calls?
;)

I'm still amazed that more people don't use the Tech Support newsgroup...

[whydoIneedatech]

Im not tarring u all with the same brush, im only warning people what they have to be careful about, i didnt say that EVERYONE was like it, think u have taken this a bit to personally or phaps ive hit a nerve.

I do not think you struck a nerve, you, just reminded him of the type of frustrating customers we have to deal with each day. They do not realise that we have tools on our PCs that can see the modem in at least 75% of calls and that we can see the learned MAC address in their modem, which we put into the likes of http://www.coffer.com/mac_find/ and that tool tells us what you have our modem connected to be it a router or a NIC.

I have a SB5100 and I have a Gigabit Nic card fitted so those Ambits are no different and should work perfectly as mine does.

Some new computers seem to quite often get sold with the TCP/IP settings disabled therefore not letting the computer broadcast a MAC address onto the network to start the DORA process and get an IP address, that is not a VM fault but usually it can be sorted out with a telephone call.

And people with firewalls running alongside PC guard especially AVG do not help things either.

[clembart]

Dont matter what you say VM got to be the poorest isp ever so slow its unbelievable slower than dialup and no there was nothing wrong with my system or anything else. I migrated to BT just in time before contract started now things are much better good download speed good pings for playing UT3. If your with VM I pitty you

[moaningmags]

Not struck a nerve at all, just showing you the other side.
I love my job and the variety of the calls above is what helps to keep me enjoying my job. If I had 10p for every "fault with VM" that turned out to be a misconfigured firewall, I'd be loaded.
Your post above is really quite vague and any novice user reading it who has a problem will call tech support quoting those issues as gospel, leading to frustration for both agent and customer.

Mags

[what?]

you may have been one of the people who got terrible speeds but most people still get decent speeds, and a lot get the speeds advertised (or really close to)
the only time people tend to eb really slow is with network outages (which do all too often take too long to be resolved) im on the 20meg and have never seen speeds of less than 18meg. dont test it constantly, and dont rattle my connection, but im happy with my speed and say they were far from the slowest. obviously you had a bad experience though.

and on the other matter of customers, we do get a fair share of "computer experts" and people who have tried "2 computers" and they have "bypassed their routers. Their are bad agents within virgin tech support, we find that out when were dealing with teh unhappy customer calling back in as it wasnt dealt with properly first time, but a lot of the time customers could do a lot more to help us. sometimes we do have to do checks that may not seem that useful because our second line team expect those results if we need to speak to them.

[Akia]

Ha I remember those so called "computer experts" from my time in the Freeserve tech support departement. They were the worst possible call you could get, they werent intrested in what you had to say, and would refuse to do any of the simplelst of tests, nomally it would generally turn out to be the simplest of things that were the problem but because they know how stuff worked they'd jump into the deep end like reinstalling TCP/IP in Win98

That job distroyed my love of IT and made me get out of the industry and I'm a firm beliver that before someone gets to use a pc they should have to pass a basic test first. I've had to explain how to double click a mouse fast enouth before.

[what?]

haha. iv not had to explain how fast to click the mouse yet, thats a cracker.
i remember spending a good few minutes one day trying to direct a guy to the start menu though.
tbh, i dont mind the people who aren't sure how to use a comp but will try and do everything you ask, though a basic test wouldn't be a bad idea, it's the people who dont know how to use it, but expect you to send a tech out immediatly, and the "experts" that annoy me. the best one i had with an expert was having to direct him to device manager on windows xp. my mums never used a comp in her life and i could have got her there faster.

[ceedee]

My favourite tale started when a client phoned to apologise for sending me a floppy disk in a normal envelope rather than the recommended cardboard mailer.
She gasped when I explained that the postman had folded it in half to force the 8" wide envelope through the 7" wide letterbox.

"But it's okay now that I've given it an iron -- who'd have thought a bit of steam would get the creases out?"
There's something to be said for low-density storage as the disk was still completely readable too!

:D

[moaningmags]

Lol, I think we should start a thread on our most memorable calls, good and bad.

The amount of people who look on their keyboard for the start button is
unbelievable.

[xspeedyx]

Lol, I think we should start a thread on our most memorable calls, good and bad.

The amount of people who look on their keyboard for the start button is
unbelievable.

Thats where it is aint it lol

[clembart]

By the way I was on 8meg ADSL not cable

[what?]

ah, well i ahve no experience in using or dealing with adsl vm so i have no place to comment on that. though id imagine it's probably like most adsl connections and is just pot luck what kind of speed you able to get.

[whydoIneedatech]

Two of my favourite calls are:

Woman calls in trying to set up an XBOX says I have been onto Microsoft and they say to call you.

OK whats the problem.

She says I need to access the Belkin router to get the password so my son can set up his XBOX.

I said sorry we do not support 3rd party routers.

She said no thats OK but how do you access the cofig page of the router.

I said open Internet Explorer on your computer and go to the Belkin config page and look in security.

She said thats her problem, she cannot do that as the Computer is in the shop being repaired!!!!!!

================================================== ======

Number 2 was a guy rang up saying his installation disk would not run, could I send a new one.

I said well you should be able to get online without it, lets do a few checks sir. Ok can you click on start then go to Control panel.

He says where is control panel? I cannot see it?

I said what O/S is your PC? XP or Vista?

He replied Windows 98.

I said well the disk will not work in your PC and we do not support 98, I also asked if it had an Ethernet port, he said no! Advised to get a more modern PC.

I am still waiting for someone with an Amiga to ring in!!!

[moaningmags]

She says I need to access the Belkin router to get the password so my son can set up his XBOX.

LOL I get at least one of those calls a day. HTF am I supposed to know the security password to connect onto your router???? I didn't create it!! Oh wait, this is another customer who thinks I'm psychic.
I love this job.

[xspeedyx]

Best one I had was

I have a problem with my broadband installation

ok whats the problem

the installation is asking for lastname and postcode

I repilied do you not know your last name and postcode

she repilied o it means my lastname and postcode.


Second one

I would like bb installed

ok sure I reply what version of windows do you have

DOUBLE GLAZING is the reply

[moaningmags]

Rofl

[whydoIneedatech]

Rofl


The XBOX one reread it you missed the best bit, she had no PC to check the config, I had to be more than Psychic she wanted me to be Harry Potter!!!

[moaningmags]

I once had a guy call who asked to speak to a man. I said Sir, Can I ask why as there's nothing I haven't heard. So he tells me about a popup stating his ip addy his isp and telling him they were coming to get him for downloading illegal material. He was really worried, I explained that if he were downloading normal porn he had nothing to worry about and if he had been downloading anything he shouldn't he wouldn't get a popup telling him they were coming to get him, they'd just batter his front door down at 4am.
After explaining spyware to him and advising him what programs to install to clean his machine, he thanked me repeatedly then apologised for asking to speak to a man.

I also had to explain to an old man why I couldn't help him burn Grease the movie and why Nero couldn't see his My Shared Folder even tho he paid for Kazaa.


Yup I saw it, wait a minute!! you mean we're not on Harry Potters level??

[what?]

im surprised some of them know how to turn the computer on.

i remember one day having a cus coming through giving me dogs abuse

- "i just got my broadband installed yeterday and i cant get online"
- "what lights are on you modem"
- "NONE OF THEM!!"
- "is it plugged in?"

then the line suddenly went dead... i wonder why?

then one of the great "experts" called through with his modem with the standby light on
he didnt seem to think that had anything to do with him not being able to get online.

[leezer3]

The view from the other side is all well and good, but when you have non-standard equipment (Linux!) & simply want to report a fault things can get incredibly frustrating.

"We do not support Microsoft Windows Linux" :mad:

-Leezer-

[moaningmags]

I agree Leezer, I know nothing at all about Linux except it's not made by Microsucks and we don't support it. I think I've had one customer with Linux and I told him what I needed in order to raise his problem and he was great, gave me the info I needed and I was able to raise it. But aye we have some guys that have never heard of Linux.

[AmAtoL]

My Missus gets this a lot := "No I can't pay my f**cking bill, I'm on BEEENEFIITTTSSS"

[whydoIneedatech]

The view from the other side is all well and good, but when you have non-standard equipment (Linux!) & simply want to report a fault things can get incredibly frustrating.

"We do not support Microsoft Windows Linux" :mad:

-Leezer-

As moaningmags said if you can access all the bits we need you to check then being on Linux is fine, probably depends on the Tech.

[icestar2]

Lol some great stories there. come on tell us more haha giving me a good laugh here :)

On another note when we got our area upgraded from 10MB to 20MB and phoned VM for the free modem upgrade that was listed on there website due to me having the old samsung set-top box which was only capable of running 10MB accourding to the VM website. I was told no you cant have that done but we can send you a modem for £25.

Didnt seem to understand that the website claims its a free upgrade if you have an old box.

[what?]

icestar2, if your on a stb, whether you need the upgrade or not for speed, you can get a free upgrade to a modem (well you def can on telewest side and ntl should be the same as it's all one company and they want rid of stb's) try phonin in again to get a diff agent coz it def should be a free upgrade.

[whydoIneedatech]

icestar2, if your on a stb, whether you need the upgrade or not for speed, you can get a free upgrade to a modem (well you def can on telewest side and ntl should be the same as it's all one company and they want rid of stb's) try phonin in again to get a diff agent coz it def should be a free upgrade.

He is EX-NTL so it is probably our Friends from the East giving him a bum steer;)

[what?]

i remember a guy tell me about this call he had, i can only assume it to be true and im sure it is

he gets the call and its a really old guy who asks him to go slow as he had recently had a stroke.
no problems there.
helfway through the call he asks the guys to unplug his modem.
again, no problem.
guys goes to do this.
few seconds later the agents hears a loud bang.
start shouting on the guy down the telephone, no answer
all the could hear were some grumbling noises in the back ground
he gets a manager and they all have a go shouting down the phone but the guy doesnt answer.
few minutes later they decide, we better phone him an ambulance since he has said it not long since he had a stroke.
they hang up the phone, dial 999.
dew days later they phoned the guy back.

- "hi, mr x, we were just phoning to see how you were as the other day when you called in, you said you had recently had a stroke and when you went to unplug the modem there was a loud bang, and then you never returned to the phone. We then called an ambulance for you"
- "oh so thats why i had the police and ambulance at my door"

turns out the old guys had knelt down to unplug his modem and knocked over his monitor. so he was struggling away trying to pick that back up and get it back onto his desk (making the grumpling noises because of the weight of the thing) he cant hear the agent, n they sent him out an ambulance.

[xpod]

IT`s not so bad when some poor customer mabey dont have a clue whats what with their expensive IM`ing machines but when a person is actually paid to provide TS then thats another story...

I`ve had some right whoppers on that phone in the past and quite often ended up with more problems after calling than what i started with,especially when it was cockups with their billing and accounts.

As far as the BB goes ...well,what can i say.It`s been a hoot!
I think the last time i called TS during the deplorable speed period(relevant to 20Mb speeds anyway) i had already removed the router/firewall/gateway box i used at the time and wired the modem directly up to a nice fresh Windows machine,just to keep things simple.
After the usual Start_run-hop_skip & jump lark i was eventually told it must be the wireless router she could see i was using:confused:

I always did get those calls refunded...and then some so i cant complain too much.Plus i had some laughs on that phone:D

[whydoIneedatech]

All you techs click these links for a couple of amusing Job advertisements.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/crabbers/412463343/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianjacobs/466573832/


I have changed them they work now.

[moaningmags]

After the usual Start_run-hop_skip & jump lark i was eventually told it must be the wireless router she could see i was using:confused:



Oh that must have been Madame Zelda :S

Hope she got sacked, and yay to me I just sussed out how to quote a message, sad but true. :erm:

---------- Post added at 23:51 ---------- Previous post was at 23:50 ----------

That link doesn't work :S

[whydoIneedatech]

Oh that must have been Madame Zelda :S

Hope she got sacked, and yay to me I just sussed out how to quote a message, sad but true. :erm:

---------- Post added at 23:51 ---------- Previous post was at 23:50 ----------

That link doesn't work :S

You have just made Xpod's day with that quote:rofl:

click my links above.

[moaningmags]

Lol yup they work now and on a serious note do think we'll ever be rid of them? Dunno about you but I'm fed up cleaning up their mess :(

[whydoIneedatech]

Lol yup they work now and on a serious note do think we'll ever be rid of them? Dunno about you but I'm fed up cleaning up their mess :(

We will see when the free number comes back on 1st of June, but not to sure about that maybe give them Customer Services instead:Yikes::eeek::rofl:Lol

[moaningmags]

We will see when the free number comes back on 1st of June,

Yes can't wait for the neverending queues, the moans about having been waiting 40 minutes to get thru.

If I didn't like my job so much, I'd be dreading it.

[leezer3]

Sadly, for the majority of agents that seems not to be the case :(
Do something, and the response is slightly different to whats on the script (I can't translate from *Nix to Windows precise reference terms on the fly ;) ), or even mention Linux and they'll instantly blame it for all your woes.

-Leezer-

[Rone]

Tiscali made me laugh its not just Virgin, went to check out a friends computer that had almost no adsl connection, after telling the chap [who was not UK based] there was no firewall or av running, his eventual conclusion was "its a Microsoft fault" and i would have to contact them regarding their software, he even offered the phone number. :)

[Welshchris]

its the language barrier that gets peoples back up because of the problems understanding one another. Some examples for me are...

Spending 20 mins on the phone to activate my windows xp after reinstallation to be told i have to reformat my hard disk by an indian lady, in the end of flipped and asked to speak to her manager who did eventually activate it for me.

Reporting an open cabenet to Virgin Media in the street led to an engineer calling at my house to check an open cabenet in my living room????? that made me laff....

Reporting a intermittent fault with my telephone which when it happened sounded like a fax machine handshaking on my line and i couldnt make incoming or outgoing calls and i was told by Virgin in india when it happens to ring them up and i said HOW THE HELL DO I DO THAT!??

But the worse one i read about was a bloke ringing a bank call center, i wont mention which bank it was but their call center was in India and he said "I reciently lost my wife and i need to sort out the claim for life insurance and notify the bank of her death etc" at the end of the call the Indian bloke said "Thank u for calling ............, I hope u find ur wife again soon.

You can imagine that didnt go down well.

[xpod]

Sadly, for the majority of agents that seems not to be the case
Do something, and the response is slightly different to whats on the script (I can't translate from *Nix to Windows precise reference terms on the fly ), or even mention Linux and they'll instantly blame it for all your woes.

-Leezer-

I had one chap who was quite interested in this thing called Linux......so much so that he was apparently off downloading ISO`s once we`d finished an hour later:shocked:
I still had to kill my setup at the time and wire that modem directly up to the Windows machine though.In fact it`s the only reason we still have a Windows partition......somewhere:dozey:

I even once had a nice Indian chap tell me how bad it was to kick my computer....all i did was tell him to wait while i booted into Windows for him:erm:

its the language barrier that gets peoples back up because of the problems understanding one another

They just dinnae ken wit um talking aboot half the time on that phone:D

[icestar2]

Well after being told in this thread to try again about getting my free modem upgrade etc etc. I rang VM today and spoke to a very pleasent scottish lady who knew exactly what I was talking about stright away and got everything sorted for me. Now have an engineer booked for saturday to install new modem and sort out my channel problems hopefully. So hat's off to VM CC this time round. Very helpfull and polite. Well done VM (wont here that to often lol) :)

[TraxData]

Not struck a nerve at all, just showing you the other side.
I love my job and the variety of the calls above is what helps to keep me enjoying my job. If I had 10p for every "fault with VM" that turned out to be a misconfigured firewall, I'd be loaded.
Your post above is really quite vague and any novice user reading it who has a problem will call tech support quoting those issues as gospel, leading to frustration for both agent and customer.

Mags

Problem is if i had 10p for every tech that has lied to a customer or blamed a customer for something that is VM's fault, id be a multi-millionare by now.

Yes you get honest hard working guys like you, but even with the Uk staff, half of them have no idea what they are doing.