View Full Version : Temporarily away from home, Virgin Media wont let me use my account.
Hi, just for the record, I think this is completely stupid, because there is absolutely no technical reason why it cannot be done, and I wouldnt be stealing services because im paying for them.
Basically, I have my permanant address with a Virgin Media Account.. have had it now for nearly 4 years.. im a high paying customer, with their 50mbit broadband service, 2 V+ boxes, and a standard box.. so 3 in total.
Now, heres the problem.. im not moving house, and I will be continuing to pay the bill each month at my permanent addres.
But temporarily I will be living away from home for a few months.. but not long enough to warrant a new 12 month contract.. and personally I dont see why I should be made to take out a brand new contact when im already paying for their services... its not like its a different person. Thing is as well, their cheapest package is around £31 a month by the time you add in the phone line... dont they think somebody whos paying almost £150 a month for their services is paying enough for the right to use it as it is? without making it £180 a month and having the hastle of 2 accounts aand contracts.
So why cant I just get another V Box added to my account, and use it at a different address?.. its not stealing their services because im paying for them, and im paying for the extra box... and its not like it doesnt work, because you can pretty much plug a modem or box in anywhere on the network and it will pick up your services... fair enough if the arguement was.. I wouldnt be having the box long enough for them to pay for the cost of the box, but my intention was to actually move it back to my permanent address after temporarily living away. House where I will be temporarily living is even already wired up for Virgin Media.. and theres a box there already.. so it wouldnt even cost them anything to install... everything is already in place, just needs the box linking to my account as an extra box.
Seems really stupid to me.
Virgin supply services per address. If you want services at another address than that is a seperate contract.
Who is to say that someone couldn't phone up and ask for an 'extra' box for a different address when they don't live there
It's the same reason Sky make Multiroom customers connect all their STBs to the same phoneline - to make sure that all the boxes are being used in the same place
---------- Post added at 17:42 ---------- Previous post was at 17:35 ----------
Also if the box didn't work or there was a network fault Virgin would assume the box was at your home address as they don't offer multi-property accounts
lol, if it wasnt for the requirement of internet, id just order another box at home getit installed then move it... much easier and keeps it on the same bill then.
wouldnt solve the internet problem though. Im sure Virgin Media probably dont allow this, but the services are being paid for.
but in terms of somebody phoning up and requesting another box at a different address when they dont live there, you would have to prove your the account holder before they will make any changes to the services, and its being paid for every month, and i imagine not many account holders would pay for services at an address they dont live at
AndyCambs
15-09-2009, 21:34
Not sure how you would be able to move a box installed at one address to another?
but in terms of somebody phoning up and requesting another box at a different address when they dont live there, you would have to prove your the account holder before they will make any changes to the services, and its being paid for every month, and i imagine not many account holders would pay for services at an address they dont live atThat's not the problem
The issue would be if you as an account holder got a box installed in you brothers/fathers/son's/best mates house.
That means Virgin would get less than £10 for the services at the address when they could rightfully expect those people that live there to pay for it like everyone else
Because unlike sky, you have to think of virgin media's set top boxes as being part of a giant computer network.. which they are, every segment of the network is linked together at a central point.. and each box is just like a computer plugged into a network.
Although the boxes might be on different subnets, authentication of services is doing through the card being linked to the box.. so although the card can only be used in the box it is paired to.. as soon as you switch the box on.. doesnt matter where you are the card will be matched with your account on the system and the channels you are permitted to watch will be unlocked for you to view, by authenticating with a central datacentre somewhere.
Same thing happens with the broadband modems, the MAC address of the modem is matched to your account on the system.. and the modem downloads the appropriate config file from a central location, this is why in the past and probably people still do illegally.. they clone a mac address from a different subnet, and get broadband speeds they arent entitled to... by using the MAC address of somebody on a different subnet who does actually have them speeds on their account.
---------- Post added at 21:55 ---------- Previous post was at 21:42 ----------
That's not the problem
The issue would be if you as an account holder got a box installed in you brothers/fathers/son's/best mates house.
That means Virgin would get less than £10 for the services at the address when they could rightfully expect those people that live there to pay for it like everyone else
Theres that to it I suppose, but in this case it would be me, the account holder using it, nobody else.
If theres definitely no problem with the account holder using a box at a different address, seeming as I am paying for the services anyway and nobody else would be using it, suppose what I could do is sign up for the broadband only service, then just pay the extra on my current account for the extra box and move it with me.
Least when I terminate the 12 month contract It wont cost as much,
Because Broadband L without phone is only £20 a month.
compared to £31 a month, and im getting all my current channels, instead of a heavily reduced package of only 60 channels.
and because the extra box would be on my own account, there wont be any cancellation charges on it.
providing its ok, that seems the most financially viable solution, will probably use the box at home when im back anyway.. got 1 in the other 2 rooms at the moment lol so might as well add the 3rd.
Theres that to it I suppose, but in this case it would be me, the account holder using it, nobody else.
Again they have no guarantee of that.
I'm not calling you a liar but Virgin (and other companies) have to operate at the lowest common denominator
providing its ok, that seems the most financially viable solution, will probably use the box at home when im back anyway.. got 1 in the other 2 rooms at the moment lol so might as well add the 3rd.There are zero guarantees that moving a box from one address to the other will work - even if it does and it goes wrong at any point you won't be able to get it fixed because it will be in a different address to the one Virgin think it is.
hi, it definitely works, because I know somebody who moved house who plugged their box in and it worked straight away, no engineer required.
Telephone would require the engineer, but Modem, and STB worked.
Never said it definately wouldn't work, I said there are no guarantees it would work - or continue to work for any period of time.
Where you moving from & to, if its across regions it wont work...
Dont forget the network is still split into 3 different head ends, cross region transfers shouldnt work.
On the pc you should end up at the provisioning screen
aclivity
16-09-2009, 13:50
hi, it definitely works, because I know somebody who moved house who plugged their box in and it worked straight away, no engineer required.
Telephone would require the engineer, but Modem, and STB worked.
You do realise that Ben (and some others on here) actually work for the company, and are aware how the system works? Your previous post seems to suggest that you feel that you have a better understanding of the system than anyone else does (and that is certainly not true).
As has been posted, it works in certain circumstances, mainly that of being in the same serving area as the account. So moving from, say, Preston to Manchester will NOT work, whereas moving from Preston to Wigan WILL.
It certainly IS a breach of contract, as the contract is to provide services TO A PREMISE, not TO A CUSTOMER.
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