Our broadband issues continue to hurtle from crisis to crisis like a 21st Century soap opera.
Yesterday was supposed to be our switchover day – the day that we left BT and moved to VirginMedia.
VirginMedia sent us their welcome pack ages ago; over the last couple of weeks we’ve had loads of documentation through the post and a number of update emails proclaiming that ‘You’re in!’
We have also recieved the VirginMedia WiFi router.
So yesterday evening I got home and, pretty much as expected, the BT WiFi hub said it had no broadband service.
I unboxed the VirginMedia WiFi router, configured it, switched it on and then configured both laptops and both mobile phones to talk to it.
Success!
Except, unfortunately, there was no broadband connection hanging off the back of the VirginMedia router.
I called VirginMedia – on the landline – and they reassured me that our switchover was in the queue. They were just waiting for the engineer to finalise the paperwork and we’d be online with VirginMedia broadband later.
Great!
This morning I checked, before leaving the house, and was disconcerted to find there was still no broadband hanging off the back of the WiFi router.
I called VirginMedia customer services again, and went through what we had ordered in great detail and asked them why the switchover hadn’t been carried out.
VirginMedia said some deeply upsetting things that began with ‘the order I had described did not match they order they had’.
- They had us down for a new phone line installation with broadband
- They were waiting for an engineer to complete a local survey to verify they could put a line in
Barely maintaining my grip on reality, I patiently explained that what had just been described to me had not been – never had been – our requirement.
The customer service person said she would get the incorrect order cancelled today, and would get the correct order raised – again today.
I asked how long it would take for the correct order to be carried out.
‘About two weeks’.
Sorry?
What?
Because VirginMedia messed up the original order details I was going to have to hang around another two weeks without broadband?
Yes.
I had a mini-meltdown and, as a result of putting things in a strong manner, was passed around to five different people.
They all said the same thing – that it would take two weeks to complete the order if they got the new order raised today.
Stunning.
So I said to the last person I spoke to, that VirginMedia hadn’t filled me with any degree of confidence and, on that basis, I didn’t want to proceed with them.
He was very sympathetic and said he understood.
The trouble is, that’s all that everyone at VirginMedia has done – offered sympathy and understanding. No-one has actually put themselves in a position to speed things up or, even better, make the problems go away.
It’s not our cock-up – it’s theirs!
Anyway, we agreed that VirginMedia didn’t have a future with us and that was that.
I went for a walk to try and calm my nerves and then made a few phone calls to other people.
As a result, we will be joining PlusNet as soon as we can get things organised.
In the meantime I have to get a MAC code to enable PlusNet to pick up our services.
I just don’t know whether I need to contact BT or VirginMedia to get it!
FOR FUCK’S SAKE!
It’s like the entire online-provider world is conspiring against us.
Stupid fucking Virgin and stupid fucking BT.
Do they know that the Brennig and Sophie show on the interwebs is the best thing it has going for it? Don’t they?!
What with our various hilarious tweets and comments and blog posts, not to mention the brilliant This Reality Podcast and e-mails we whizz back and forth to various lucky folk.
How VERY dare these people hinder our broadband usage. Do they not know it is a human right?! Not only ours but everyone else who gets to read/listen to us.
(Most of this is overblown tosh, I don’t really believe it, but we are ace!)
I used PlusNet for many years in Milton Keynes – they gave brilliant service especially customer service on the rare times I needed to call them. The only reason I changed to BT was because I moved to an area that only BT could cover (it was in the cowboy frontier days of ADSL still being a bit of black art rather than the bare-faced farce it is nowadays). Their customer service was brilliant.
Of course, this was five or more years ago. No doubt by now they have gone the route that all other ‘communications providers’ have gone and will be appalling in every respect.
The comms providers – both landline and mobile – all seem to be utterly terrible at communicating, both in the UK and the US, which, in the words of Alanis Morrisette, is…ironic. To all of them the customer really is, in so many ways, just a number (and yes, I meant that wordplay, I’m that clever).
I need to get Internet and a land line at my new flat. I also need a cellphone. I need to deal with all that in German. I’m so fucking terrified of providers I can’t bring myself to do it. Plus, according to preliminary inquiries, the only operator that is available at my address is one I don’t want to have to deal with, given their performance in France.
Fortunately NZ providers seem to be emerging from “the dark years.” Gone, I hope, are the times when an ISP you have never previously spoken to in your life (and don’t wish to now, either) call you a liar for saying as much. But should we pine for days when we would be treated like pond scum, we can always opt to change electricity supplier. During a hot summer with a freezer full of meat and ice-cream is best.
Oh now that would really grind my gears something chronic. Why should oyu have to wait a fortnight because they fucked up? And WHY do they act as though they’re doing you a favour for even thinking about your issue and getting you connected? They aren’t, you’re paying them. If anyone set up a service with polite, interested customer service staff who really tried to solve your problem and who admitted it then compensated you when the cock up was theirs, they would clean up in the UK.
Blydi hell Bren, you seem to have constant grief with your broadband.
If it’s any consolation, we’re with Talk Talk, and they’re a bunch of backward chimps as well.
AAH! Bren, just reading your post has got me wound up. I have been shafted by both BT and Virgin. How the hell do they get away with such shit service for such a prolonged period? That’ll be the lack of competition then….
So tell me, how are PlusNet shaping up?
P.S. I am sad at the moment. I killed another iPhone which means I can’t pick up your podcasts (again!). Derrrrrr.
Settings – wireless & networks – tethering and portable hotspots – select ‘ portable wifi hotspot’ you can now search on your wireless devices for this new wifi hotspot using your very clever nexus one. You need a good 3g signal and it will be slow. But its better than nothing.