Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

Hi there
I hope someone can help me. Been a very happy Virgin customer for years, and had no problems. Two weeks ago due to some construction in the street, we lost all our Virgin services. Many phonecalls to customer services later, we were told that Virgin would be unable to re-connect us due to issues with the company doing the construction. So we have now been told they will refund us our subscription back to the day the services got cancelled.
I now have a lot of content on my V+ that I can't access without the cable feed. Is there anyway to get this content and archive it before I have to give the box back to Virgin? Its so disappointing that you can't access the content without a live cable feed, because by its nature the V+ would have been very useful while Virgin were investigating the fault and we had no other TV to watch.
Has anyone come across this before and is there anything that can be done to access the programs on the box?
I appreciate your help.
gizz

Re: Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

There is no way around it. The V+ needs to be connected to the cable network to access the content

Re: Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

Thanks BenMcr

A couple of additional questions if I may...

Since my box has as yet not received a signal from the network to de-activate it, as the cable was cut in the street, would it work if I say..took it over to a friend's house that has cable?
Or is it likely to receive the signal de-activating it as soon as it is connected to the network again?

I was thinking that I could possibly take it to a friend's place and if it works normally I could then archive what I want to keep off it. But that would be no good if the signal to deactivate it comes down the cable as soon as I connect it up.

On another note - they have agreed to wait for a week or so before cancelling my account to give me enough time to port my phone number to BT so I can keep the same number. They are still going to refund me back to the day the fault occurred. So if this is the case, would they not even have sent a signal de-activating my box yet, as technically my account is still active?

Thanks for your help.
gizz

Re: Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

I find this very strange indeed,if a cable was cut by contractors working in the street Virgin would have repaired it as a matter of course,then charged the contractors who would would have paid via their insurance ....I just cannot believe that Virgin would have left the situation like you say,depending where in the street the cable was cut there could have been any amount of customers cut off ...they would just not abandon them like this,Virgin would have repaired said cable via their own engineers ....

Re: Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

Trustme Telecom69 I was of the same belief as you - however there are some more detailed intricacies with this case. I actually escalated this to the most senior person in the company - Neil Berkett, the CEO - by sending him an e-mail, and he replied to me personally which I was quite impressed with. His Executive office then dealt with the complaint as I was getting nowhere with Virgin Customer Services. The land the cables are on belong to the company doing the construction, and they had apparently contacted Virgin about moving the cables to facilitate the construction. Virgin told them it would cost £20,000 and they would have to pay it. But they weren't prepared to take this cost so they decided to just go ahead and do whatever work they needed to do. Virgin still want to get the cost of repair from this company but they don't want to pay so are at a stalemate. In the meantime there is nothing they can do as the land belongs to the company doing the construction and since they don't want to pay £20,000 for re-routing the cables, Virgin aren't able to fix it - so they say!!!!
I asked if Virgin would swallow the cost for the sake of their affected customers, and they said that they couldn't, and so that was that.
Very disapoointing to say the least. I had recently upgraded to 10M broadband and was soooo happy with my internet speed. And I absolutely love the V+ box as well as the Catch up services.
Now I am researching Sky's digital services and nothing compares to what I had with Virgin. Even the phone package was unique (Talk Anywhere) - which they don't offer on their National (non-cabled) service. In any case I can't keep the phone with Virgin, as that will limit my ability to shop around for good broadband so I have to move to BT to open up some choice there.
And for the time being I am using a PAYG Broadband dongle for my internet - until the phone gets connected.
What a palava!!!!

Re: Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

Many thanks for explaining the situation, it puts a different light on things of course now, makes you wonder about the wisdom of Virgin going over private land in the first place ? if its going to cost as much as Virgin say it must be on the "E" side of the street cabinet and be expensive cable,so they must have weighed up whether it was worth repairing or not ....all depends of course, on how many customers are affected at the end of the day, its a sad tale and I feel for you ...its just a pity they couldn't have come some sort of agreement between themselves to get a satisfactory end to this .....state of the world today, Im afraid, everything comes down to money,goodwill doesn't apply any more, sadder still is the fact that Mr Virgin himself wouldn't even notice if that amount went missing from his bank account .... I wish you well in your quest and hope you get some satisfaction :)

Re: Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

What have the other customers done in relation to the construction company's actions? How many have been affected?

Re: Anyway to Access V+ content without cable feed?
 

Hi Flyboy
Well most of the one's I have spoken to, like me (since I had recently upgraded my broadband) were tied into contract with Virgin and they are all being passed round the houses with customer services. Once I escalated it to the Executive Office, I got an answer in a few days, and Virgin assured me they would be getting in contact with the other affected residents to advise them of what they had told me. None of us were able to move services without penalty until we had given Virgin 28 days to assess the situation. Some of my neighbours are still waiting to hear the official line from Virgin although I have told them what I know. As to how many others are affected, I have no idea exactly, although I am assuming Virgin assessed this when making their decision....
What is even more surprising though is that there is potential for another 100 residences from the construction that is going on, which if Virgin had co-operated could have meant even more business of they re-routed the cables, but they are not looking at far ahead.