How Fast Is Your Internet Connection..?

[Late]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who clearly detests Smartphone culture. People who can't go more than 5 minutes without checking their phone have mental issues, but then again, that's practically everyone but me, it seems.........

One of my greatest hatreds in life is being out with someone, and they seem way more interested in what someone is texting them over their phone than what I'm saying to them in person. The amount of times I've arranged to go for a drink with someone on a day off, only for them to spend more time checking their phone than actually paying attention to what I'm saying, makes me frustrated to the point where I want to punch children.

If you're gonna invite someone out for a drink or something, at least have the decency to pay attention to them for a few hours....

Wholeheartedly agree with that entire post, apart from the very first sentence. Seems to be over 90% of people in pubs are sat with a mobile in their hand, and it seriously pisses me off. Ditto the kids when we're watching a family film at home, to be honest.

I still think smartphones are a fantastic invention and that landlines are obsolete, though.

[Dragontao]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who clearly detests Smartphone culture. People who can't go more than 5 minutes without checking their phone have mental issues, but then again, that's practically everyone but me, it seems.........

Obviously me too, from my first post.

The amount of times I've arranged to go for a drink with someone on a day off, only for them to spend more time checking their phone than actually paying attention to what I'm saying ...

Was that around the point the conversation went something like "yeah, but we've won the European Cup ... "

 

Sorry, couldn't resist. Probably going to find it happening to me a lot more now too lol.

[Dragontao]

Harv, this Virgin Superhub. I take it that it's a wireless router too. I assume the wireless functionality can be disabled.

Had a letter from them today telling me to register for my Superhub online in readiness for the upgrade.

[harv]

Yup, found that when I had a look at the root. My wireless router can't handle the speed though unfortunately so I'll have to make do. Am quite happy with the speed of it though, am currently downloading series 15 of Silent Witness, all ten episodes separately and they're flying in from 4.7Mbps to 5.8Mbps in total. Very happy with that because Virgin tend to limit torrent traffic, although I have encrypted everything so they don't know the reason for my high bandwidth usage lol.

[bealec]

Well Sky are doing their very best to lose my custom. See the below complaint email I have just sent to them. Apologies that it's all in one block they seem to not like paragraphs on their complaint form.

I can't really decide which category my complaint falls into as there have been so many screw ups. Firstly let's start with some nice things. I have been a Sky customer since June last year and at my previous addressy broadband worked fine no complaints for a whole year. No reason to contact you. It was perfect. Then I moved.... Since I have moved I have had nothing but trouble. You activated my broadband on the 12th of July. Within 6 hours it had broken. I called your helpline an 0844 number from my mobile which costs me 35p a minute. At no point was I offered a call back whilst you spent half an hour trying to figure out what was wrong. 30 x 35p = £10.50 only for you to blame BT and arrange a call out for Monday the 14th so I went 2 days without my broadband. On the day the engineer didn't show up. So I rang you again this time a helpful lady did notice I was ringing from a mobile and offered to call me back (she mentioned that her colleagues should have offered this) She was nice and can clearly do her job properly shame she seems to be in the minority at your company. Anyway I digress it turns out it wasn't BT's fault it was yours and you had fixed it on Monday morning and just forgot to tell me. Actually I lie you did text me to say it was fixed....on the 19th. 3 days after you fixed it. So it was working fine until this past Tuesday when suddenly it started dropping out in the evening. So I called you on Wednesday. Again no offer to call me back. I was told the problem was my DSL cable and my micro filter and a new cable was ordered for me. I tried a different micro filter but still it was broken. So I called again and yes you guessed no call back offered. This person ran a line test and noticed a fault at your exchange and said it will be fixed in "1 to 2 hours" and I'd get a text. 2 hours later my broadband is working but no text but hey at least it's fixed.....how wrong was I?.... Very would be the answer. Thursday evening same problem so I called again no call back offer etc etc. this agent tells me his colleague who said "1-2 hours" meant 72 hours. So essentially this was a wasted call. Now I am getting texts telling me to call another 0844 number so you can fix it. No its your fault YOU CALL ME! I refuse to spend more money so you can fix your screw up. Three things now need to happen. 1. You need to fix my broadband. If you have any questions you call me. You text me so you must have my mobile number. 2. You will reimburse me for the calls I have made to you. I should not be charged to report screw ups with your equipment. 3. You should waive the charge for my broadband for this month seeing as in the 2 weeks since you activated it it has worked properly for just over 1 week. I do not feel these requests are unfair. I look forward to your reply. Yours sincerely Chris Beale

[Late]

Nicely done Chris. When I had a similar succession of problems with ntl a few years back they gave me two months free to compensate for my mobile call charges - I was happy with that result. Let us know how it pans out.

[Dragontao]

Week before last I sent a very similar complaint to Virgin, but it wasn't about my broadband it was my telephone.

I went on their Facebook page and started kicking off.

I described their call centre staff in India "lobotomised zombies".

I wouldn't mind if it wasn't for the fact that every time I call them I tell them pretty much what the problem is and then they disagree. They send an engineer out a few days later, having lost service for a few days and having to take time off work, and the engineer says he can't fix it because there is a problem in the area, which I have already told them when I reported the fault, but their systems say there isn't until they have received 8 calls (apparently the industry standard threshold to escalate it to an area outage now (Virgin's used to be 3 according to the call I received today).

Customer service is generally terrible in all of these companies. So changing supplier doesn't really help much.

[harv]

If you need to call an 0870/0845/0844 number for any reason then try checking out www.saynoto0870.com  it gives you geographical alternatives (01 or 02 numbers) for most companies so that you can ring them without costing anything using a mobile.

Generally if you're on Virgin Media you can use 150 or 151 from a Virgin Media phone line to get free calls to Virgin Media Customer Services and Virgin Media Technical Services respectively for free and the above alternative for the geographical free alternative if having to use a BT or mobile line.
 

[Late]

Pfft @ landlines...

[Dragontao]

Generally if you're on Virgin Media you can use 150 or 151 from a Virgin Media phone line to get free calls to Virgin Media Customer Services and Virgin Media Technical Services respectively for free and the above alternative for the geographical free alternative if having to use a BT or mobile line.

Unless of course it's your phone line that isn't working Harv!

Very difficult to ring 150 from your landline when your landline is what you are wanting to call about.

Many people don't have landlines now, choosing to opt only for a mobile. Virgin should at least offer a free calls to their technical support/customer services lines from Virgin mobiles, which they don't.

As for their technical support line. What a waste of space they are.

This is pretty much the last conversation I had when I had to speak to them.

Me: There is a broadband fault in the area.
Them: There is no fault in the area. Have you rebooted your PC.
Me: Yes.
Them: You need to reboot your cable modem.
Me: Done that.
Them: You need to unplug it.
Me: No I don't. Turning off the switch on the plug socket is sufficient.
Them: You need to unplug it.
Me: Are you stupid (getting seriously annoyed by this point). Do you know anything about electricity or computers? Are you working by gaslight (you can guess the geographical region I was calling). I don't need to unplug it at all. The power is isolated. There is no fault with the equipment in the house, the problem is also affecting my next door neighbour and two other people in the street who also have Virgin Media broadband.
Them: There is no fault in the area. You have a faulty network card.
Me: Excuse me? You mean the network cards in 4 PC's  and two laptops have all suddenly stopped working. Are you serious?
Them: (a few moments of silence). There is no fault in your area.
Me: Can I speak to your manager.
Them: (completely ignoring me) There is no fault in your area.
Me: Can I speak to your manager, or anyone with two brain cells to rub together.
Them: There is no fault in the area. I have booked an engineer to visit you (5 days later - at least they seem to have improved that service a bit lately).
Me: bleep bleep.

It's just infuriating.

Tellign people they had a faulty network card seemed to be their thing for a while. A friend of mine called me to ask me fit a new one for them after Virgin Media tech support had told them they had a faulty NIC in response to a fault call (though I didn't know why she thought she had faulty card until I got there). When I tested it and found nothing wrong, I called them on her behalf, at which point they acknowledged a fault in the area. Bunch of lying b'stards.

My tip if you get a fault is to ring straight through to the cancellations department. Guaranteed to speak to somebody in this country.

[harv]

That's why I mentioned saynoto0870 which will give those of you with a mobile contract a free call

[AVFCRoss]

Would love to be able to get rid of our landline...99% of the calls to it are from people trying to sell us things, or carrying out surveys.

Only problem is, I get a pretty horrible mobile phone coverage in my area (I'm on O2), and thus, I have to keep the landline operative as an alternative, just incase I'm ever needed urgently when I'm at home and people might not be able to get through to my mobile during times when it drops out due to the awful lack of signal at certain times.

As you can see, even now (http://tinyurl.com/cz9xths), the coverage in the top left is reading "No Service", thus the landline is pretty much just an insurance policy, but how I'd love to get rid of it and stop the 4/5 calls a day about various forms of insurance and housing surveys...Talk about catch 22.

[Late]

Can you not get a better signal with another provider?
I wouldn't use a carrier that had a very weak signal where I live...

[bealec]

Sky responded to my email. Here's their response.

Dear Mr Beale
 
Thank you for your email.
I can see from your account that our engineers have tried to contact you for more information. However, there was no response from your end. However, I have re-escalated this issue to the relevant department and would request you to call on the number provided to you.
Once your issue is resolved completely, please send your mobile bill notifying the calls to Sky in PDF format to check what best can be done.
Your patience is highly appreciated in this matter.

I hope this information has helped with your enquiry. If you require any further assistance, you can reply to my email.
 
Kind regards
Krishanu
Sky Help Centre
http://www.sky.com
 

So I responded with the below.

You have my phone number of you need more information regarding YOUR fault with YOUR equipment then YOU call ME! I refuse to call you.

I can send you a copy of my phone bill no problem but I see you don't mention any sort of discount on this months broadband subscription seeing as it is NOT WORKING!!!

I am not happy with this response.

We'll see what they say.

[ancelotti]

Well in Chris. Used to be with Sky Broadband before moving to VM and their customer service was ridiculous.

To be fair, VM's isn't great either but then I haven't had many problems since I complained about my speed so much and threatened to leave they gave me 3 months half price!

Nice shot of Marina btw, Ross.