Just dumped VM for Sky.....

[Nucleus]

Not sure if this is the best place for this but it is a relevant story.......

I have been a top-tier VM/NTL/CW customer for many years. Until last week, my @cwcom.net email still forwarded to my @ntlworld.com address and as that had remained unchanged for at least a decade, I had my entire life registered through it, then I moved home.

Despite promises to the contrary, including my list of email aliases being correctly read back to me twice, it appears that VM cannot transfer any email addresses to my new account. This gripes me twice, once because it is probably very easy to do so but they just won't and secondly because they clearly stated that when I moved my account would be transferred with email accounts intact, despite (probably) aready knowing that this was not true.

I now have a shiney new V+ box, a regular box, a 50Mb modem together with wireless router and dongle all waiting to be collected, just three days after it was all installed because of this, compounded by the numerous calls where I was told the transfer was in progress before they finally admitted that my @ntlworld addresses were dead already :(

There seems to be no point in whining to VM as they do not care, so I just thougt a little adverse publicity here would make me feel better...

Interestingly, after I phoned to get it all cancelled, the phone went off within 5 minutes (luckily I had already phoned sky to arrange a package from them) but the broadband is still on now, an hour later, as is the TV package.

[Jonnymeg]

Well having used ADSL broadband then all i can say is good luck. I hope a decent speed and reliable connection is not important to you. And they certainly don't offer 50meg.

Although i see your point i cant help but think you are only spiting yourself. All of Skys offerings are now far inferior to VM (except they have more HD channels) so i can't help but think you have made a huge mistake. You should have slept on it.
Going to Sky isn't going to get ur email back.

If i were you i would now sign up for your own domain or independent email provider. Even hotmail/gmail will do.
Whatever you do please do not use a Sky.com email address as you will loose that if you ever switch again in the future.

[dd11]

...correct me if i've misunderstood your post but are you saying you moved because you couldn't get your email address back?

[v0id]

Well having used ADSL broadband then all i can say is good luck. I hope a decent speed and reliable connection is not important to you. And they certainly don't offer 50meg.


If they're in an area that offers it, BT Infinity can give them upto 40 meg down and upto 10 meg up ;)

[Nucleus]

ROFL..

No, I moved home and the only reason I took the VM package with me was because I was led to believe that my email addres would persist, they lied.

I know the broadbnd pack from sky will be slower, but having moved from hampshire I have never actually seen the full speed anyway, so I'll not miss it. I'm getting the unlimited deal from Sky with the first 6 months free and I'm only half a mile from the exchange, so I'll see how it goes.

Either way, I'll get more channels at HD and the whole package is nearly £30 a month cheaper at the moment and will still be £20 a month cheaper after the 6 month honeymoon period.

I admit I have dropped them out of spite but this issue really ****ed me off and I needed to act within the 7 days to not get charged for anything - an engineer visit might not cost them very much but it has cost them something and my £100 a month for ever won't be heading their way either.

I'm looking forward to getting a feedback form in the post, upon which I will issue a :2up:

[Jonnymeg]

If they're in an area that offers it, BT Infinity can give them upto 40 meg down and upto 10 meg up ;)

As i said, Sky do not offer 50 meg.

---------- Post added at 20:47 ---------- Previous post was at 20:43 ----------

ROFL..
£100 a month


Ouch, i could never justify that

[Nucleus]

If they're in an area that offers it, BT Infinity can give them upto 40 meg down and upto 10 meg up ;)


I'm in Formby, Merseyside. Would be nice to get that upstream speed, I will ask if I can when they come to install me.

[The-Darkside]

All of Skys offerings are now far inferior to VM (except they have more HD channels) so i can't help but think you have made a huge mistake. You should have slept on it.

The massive majority (and all if you are on NGTV) of Virgins linear TV channels are Sky's offerings passed through a device to lower their bit rates to fit them onto Virgins network. In what way are Virgins TV offerings better? Lower cost?

[Jonnymeg]

The massive majority (and all if you are on NGTV) of Virgins linear TV channels are Sky's offerings passed through a device to lower their bit rates to fit them onto Virgins network. In what way are Virgins TV offerings better? Lower cost?

Thousands of hours Vod for a kick off.

[v0id]

I'm in Formby, Merseyside. Would be nice to get that upstream speed, I will ask if I can when they come to install me.

check when/if your area is going to be getting it anytime soon http://www.bt.com/infinity

[The-Darkside]

Thousands of hours Vod for a kick off.

Not interested in Vod. Not convinced.

[v0id]

Not interested in Vod. Not convinced.

yeah, who needs vod when you have the internet ;)

[Jonnymeg]

The massive majority (and all if you are on NGTV) of Virgins linear TV channels are Sky's offerings passed through a device to lower their bit rates to fit them onto Virgins network. In what way are Virgins TV offerings better? Lower cost?

Not interested in Bit Rates, pic looks good to me..

---------- Post added at 22:19 ---------- Previous post was at 22:18 ----------

yeah, who needs vod when you have the internet ;)


Those that don't have the internet or choose to watch TV on a TV.

[jb66]

It's more convienient on the v box

[Digital Fanatic]

I'm in Formby, Merseyside. Would be nice to get that upstream speed, I will ask if I can when they come to install me.

aaaah, so you've moved from a Ex-NTL area to a exTelewest area... that explains the email issue... they should have told you that when you were moving. It just can't be done, they are still technically two different platforms

[The-Darkside]

Not interested in Bit Rates, pic looks good to me..

You should work for the BBC, defending their low bitrate HD.

[m419]

Not sure if this is the best place for this but it is a relevant story.......

I have been a top-tier VM/NTL/CW customer for many years. Until last week, my @cwcom.net email still forwarded to my @ntlworld.com address and as that had remained unchanged for at least a decade, I had my entire life registered through it, then I moved home.

Despite promises to the contrary, including my list of email aliases being correctly read back to me twice, it appears that VM cannot transfer any email addresses to my new account. This gripes me twice, once because it is probably very easy to do so but they just won't and secondly because they clearly stated that when I moved my account would be transferred with email accounts intact, despite (probably) aready knowing that this was not true.

I now have a shiney new V+ box, a regular box, a 50Mb modem together with wireless router and dongle all waiting to be collected, just three days after it was all installed because of this, compounded by the numerous calls where I was told the transfer was in progress before they finally admitted that my @ntlworld addresses were dead already :(

There seems to be no point in whining to VM as they do not care, so I just thougt a little adverse publicity here would make me feel better...

Interestingly, after I phoned to get it all cancelled, the phone went off within 5 minutes (luckily I had already phoned sky to arrange a package from them) but the broadband is still on now, an hour later, as is the TV package.

For a start Cable and Wireless have requested that Virgin Media stops using that domain as it still belongs to Cable and Wireless. Bolt Blue also used it for some strange reason, that also got taken back.

Cable and Wireless has been under a recent transformation and focuses mostly on international businesses, it has no room for domains used by Virgin Media and former Mercury residential customers.

[KevAmiga]

A relative of mine lives 5 doors up, has free ADSL up to 18mb... gets 18mb. Faster than my 20mb VM cable as i live in a student rife area. ADSL isnt all that bad y'know. Hit or miss, maybe. But not everyone gets issues.

[tweetiepooh]

I'd be peeved if I lost my current email boxes. I'd understand that I'd need new boxes going on but I'd hope the old ones could be kept for while at least.

I already have GMail and I use that to pull POP mail from the ntlworld account. Then I connect via IMAP to read my merged mails. When I get moved shortly all I'd need to do is change the POP pull on GMail and change the redirect on my own domain. I may just change the redirect anyway so all mails just hit my independent GMail account.

This has all been learnt from other ISP changes.

[thegrail]

Echoing tweetiepooh comments - and this is probably just "teaching people to suck eggs" - but...

I'd recommend anyone with an email address linked to their ISP (such as ntlworld, or BT, or O2) to transfer themselves on to a "free" email system from another independent supplier (such as hotmail or gmail) now rather than later.

You can switch your current contacts at your new email address at leisure - it took me about 4 weeks.

Then you can change ISPs (whether you are upset with the service, or have found a better deal) whenever you want to without the "lock-in".

[m419]

Those with the following domains also better watch out:

@tiscali.net/.co.uk or .com (Now part of TalkTalk)
@lineone.co.uk (Was Tiscali but Tiscali is now TalkTalk)
@aol.co.uk (Part of TalkTalk in the UK)
@bulldogbroadband.com (Now part of TalkTalk)
@genie.co.uk (Now O2.co.uk although since 2002 mail has been automatically forwarded)
@onetel.co.uk (Now part of TalkTalk)
@talk21.com (Part of BTYahoo/BT Internet)
@btclick.com (Part of BTYahoo/BT Internet)

They are all internet providers or email services which have been taken over by someone else issuing there own domains and if they sell off the old domains,you will see them being discontinued.

[calmpitbull]

I can understand why changing a long standing email address would tick you off.

However get over it man. There were obviously reasons why modern VM couldn't keep issuing out old skool domain name email addys. As if VM are going to want to keep all of their legacy names on their customers email addresses, its bad pr. Could you not see that coming???

Imagine if your sky email address was @bsb.com , surely you would think this was strange.

It you use the addy for personal reasons, just sign up for gmail or similar, email everyone your new address and hey presto!

If you are using it for business purposes then why? It is not a business service.

Even by changing supplier you get a new email addy, so whats the point. It sounds to me like you just had a monumental mardy on. So now you are going to:

-Pay more
-Still have new email addy
-Have the hassle of changing

Can't believe how petty that is, but the customer is king they say :)

[Jonnymeg]

It sounds to me like you just had a monumental mardy on. So now you are going to:


Ha ha, as i read that i thought that guys from Notts. A quick glance over to your info panel and i was right.

Bloody mardy arse.

[calmpitbull]

lol no other word can describe it

[m419]

I would be grateful, a change of number,email address is good at times

---------- Post added at 21:05 ---------- Previous post was at 20:57 ----------

I would be grateful, a change of number,email address is good at times

Although, when Mercury 131 and 132 became part of the big Cable and Wireless rebrand in 1997 and then sold onto NTL together with the Cable franchises, Cable and Wireless agreed to provide internet and email to customers until 2001 and then were invited to sign up for NTL out-of-area services which would give you a NTL World email address and if you had a webspace with Cable and Wireless you would need a new webspace. Either way if you took up NTL's offer or not, Cable and Wireless would have booted you off it's internet service whether you like it or not.

But what then gets confusing, NTL was providing the phone service, but to continue getting dial up internet,you had to sign up again! And then NTL sold it to Npower who then sold it on to Tiscali and who was aquired by TalkTalk.

So customers using Mercury Residential 131 and 132 would have been under the following firms:

Mercury/Cable and Wireless
NTL
Npower
Tiscali
TalkTalk

All in a space of 20 years looool

And what gets me is, Cable and Wireless are the people who still run the 131 and 132 service but the customer base for residential users is TalkTalk, and is very outdated!!! What is the point of that when you don't need diallers and special codes for the normal NTL/TalkTalk service!

[Nucleus]

Well it has taken a few days to get the phone hooked up and installed but so far I am actually impressed.

I will point out right away that I have been in contact with both customer service departments, for real, in person and about real situations and both within the last fortnight.

Sky customer service wins hands down, it isnt perfect but it is in the UK, polite and they seem to want to help. Part of the whole problem with VM was the crappy customer service in mumbai telling me that my legacy accounts would transfer with me.

The EPG on the Sky + box is better IMO and there is loads more HD content (I have the HD pack) . I seem to have only lost out on TV features that I never used anyway.

The broadband is delivered via a ****** 11g sagem dsl modem but you can disable the wireless and use your own N wireless is you like, which I have done without any fuss. It isnt 50mb. Hold on a minute though, I have been a top tier NTL/VM customer for yonks and have NEVER seen the adverstised speed from them, my lowly 20mb internet rarely got above 12 in reality. My Sky broadband is yet to be "activated fully" whatever that means but the modem is configured for 4096k down and delivers exactly that, it might not be much but it is exactly what it says on the box. Within a couple of days I will be - I'm told - getting turned on to my full 20mbit speed, I'll report back what I get, if they achieve it thay have for me at least, beaten VM on all counts.

That just leaves the cost, now I freely admit that I dont have the exact figures - I have just moved home and am living in chaos still - but my bill to sky is significantly lower than I was paying NTL, even with multiroom, hd and the top tier phone. I think it is about £78 for six months then £84 after that (guesstimates I admit) where vm were getting well over £100 and the only tangible difference was the broadband that had a never-seen higher top speed.

Yes, I did this out of anger, but am beginning to wonder why I did not switch sooner.

[arcamalpha2004]

Thousands of hours Vod for a kick off.


Thousands of hours of Vod may suit yourself, but imo Sky slaps VM for television.
When will VM be bringing out a 1TB Box?
Sorry to say it, but VM's strength can be the Cable internet service, they will always imo be in the shadow of Sky when it comes to Television.

---------- Post added at 08:58 ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 ----------

yeah, who needs vod when you have the internet ;)


Indeed Aldi yesterday were selling a 32 inch Full HD set for just over £250, I am sure it has a pc input on it.