OP
OP
London Female
Über Member
No, its in the bin, they are sending a new one.
Call centres make my blood boil
- Thread starter London Female
- Start date
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No, its in the bin, they are sending a new one.
Fab Foodie
hanging-on in quiet desperation ...
- Location
- Kirton, Devon.
Hooray!
I had the same issue years ago in the early days with BT, eventually they also sent a new one .... saved a lot of problems ....
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
No, they are piloting providing information that was only previously available by asking for it in writing.
A different perspective on the Indian call centre......
I work for a tiny company that provides specialist software to the energy companies and wholesale energy users. One of our 'big six' customers has outsourced their internal IT Support to India, so we regularly get calls from Bangalore.
The issue isn't their technical ability or even linguistic difficulties, although the lag on the line can be horrific. The core issue is that IT support is viewed as a commodity, with little consideration for any requirements that sit outside a standardised, generic and resaleable model.
So, because our software is anything but homogeneous, we really struggle to find common ground on which to solve problems. They're just not equipped to ask the right questions or empowered to make any meaningful decisions. The irony in this is that although they're the customers, or at least the customer's agent, it's usually us that ends up getting frustrated and shouty.
I work for a tiny company that provides specialist software to the energy companies and wholesale energy users. One of our 'big six' customers has outsourced their internal IT Support to India, so we regularly get calls from Bangalore.
The issue isn't their technical ability or even linguistic difficulties, although the lag on the line can be horrific. The core issue is that IT support is viewed as a commodity, with little consideration for any requirements that sit outside a standardised, generic and resaleable model.
So, because our software is anything but homogeneous, we really struggle to find common ground on which to solve problems. They're just not equipped to ask the right questions or empowered to make any meaningful decisions. The irony in this is that although they're the customers, or at least the customer's agent, it's usually us that ends up getting frustrated and shouty.
Why call?
If you have any serious technical problems with virgin, for many years now (as was the case pre-merger with telewest) the problems have been dealt with by usenet and more recently their forum. It's often assumed that anyone that resorts to a phone rather than these two methods is substantially less likely to know what they are talking about. That may send you into a red mist, but it's also true of some other ISPs. If it is raised as a ticket in this way it's also less likely to get lost. If it was raised in this way in the past you were more likely to get an apology/money back. The other advantage is that it is less likely to rely on the shoulders of one member of staff. The one downside/inability of the http://community.virginmedia.com is and I cannot stress this enough, they cannot deal with account and billing information.
The reason why virgin staff may be slightly sceptical about modem failure is because apart from it being rare, virgin is very distanced and disinterested about sending out newer equipment. They get bombarded with a lot of calls/posts by people trying to get a new modem. Sometimes (as in my parent's case) this was because the old modem really was too old to support the newer services, the majority of the time it is just someone wants what they perceive to be newer or flashier equipment. This was very common when the superhub launched. Now there is the superhub2 it is common again. The original superhub was very unstable and had a lot of technical issues, so people want the more reliable superhub2. I'd like one myself, but I'm not going to get one.
Spinney
Bimbleur extraordinaire
- Location
- Back up north
But if your modem isn't working, how can you do this?
Easier to call than to find a friend or someone else with a working internet connection. Not everyone has smart phones...
I'm very surprised someone like you would say this.
You'd probably laugh but the advice was much the same 10 years ago. In those days it was substantially harder still to find a friend with an internet connection! You might say well how did people get around the problem then? In the early days of broadband quite a few people kept a per minute (that still existed) ISP on their phone line and logged into that for 'emergencies' and then posted online for a ticket.
I disagree, if it is a serious problem it is in my opinion counter intuitively easier to do what I said. Moreover many of the more serious problems don't include total power outages as in this case here. If it is a minor problem, it's best just sitting it out. Many people leave the problems a long time - been there myself so not lecturing others.
The reason why the staff go on and on and on and on about rebooting the modem is what would typically happen is that there would be some short outage, then someone would ring up some hours/a day later saying my internet doesn't work. Then they would reboot the modem and it would work again. In most cases the actual outages are relatively short - 15 mins, 1hr, 2hrs but someone's internet might not work for longer. Had it myself where I had been away one weekend and my Dad said rather urgently as I came through the door 'oh I've been trying to contact you, we've had internet down all weekend', I walked through the door unplugged the modem for 10 seconds, watched the lights routine slowly come on over 45 seconds and it would immediately work.
These days a lot of the problems are wireless and the original superhub is notoriously unstable. Some areas have had severe problems associated with the upgrade programme. Complete modem failure is rare but certainly possible. I just hope the modem actually turns up...
OP
OP
London Female
Über Member
.
To be honest I didn't know there was a forum to help solve the issue. In 10 years of having the virgin dlink modem I have never had any problems so never needed to contact them. Besides although I do have a smart phone, I find it slow and tedious to use.
When I called back the call handler was very helpful unlike my first call. Anyway they gave me some free upgrades and good me to contact them periodically to ask for these. If the modem doesn't arrive I will just go out and buy one, I think my son is missing the broadband most.
To be honest I didn't know there was a forum to help solve the issue. In 10 years of having the virgin dlink modem I have never had any problems so never needed to contact them. Besides although I do have a smart phone, I find it slow and tedious to use.
When I called back the call handler was very helpful unlike my first call. Anyway they gave me some free upgrades and good me to contact them periodically to ask for these. If the modem doesn't arrive I will just go out and buy one, I think my son is missing the broadband most.
asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
We've been suffering internet problems recently much as marinyork describes. They are short outages so it is hard to tell if rebooting does the trick or if it'd just come back anyway. I usually reboot.
One problem is that the modem is plugged not into the main phone socket but a spur socket off it. According to the ISP it should be plugged into the main socket which would leave it awkwardly placed in the hall. How much difference it makes I have no idea.
One problem is that the modem is plugged not into the main phone socket but a spur socket off it. According to the ISP it should be plugged into the main socket which would leave it awkwardly placed in the hall. How much difference it makes I have no idea.
biggs682
Itching to get back on my bike's
- Location
- Northamptonshire
try working in one
asterix
Comrade Member
- Location
- Limoges or York
Some of us have if you look up-thread!
Well these days there is http://community.virginmedia.com there is also the unofficial http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board as well. Those two places can offer a lot of advise and outside the hours you can ring 150. These forums cannot sort out account problems though. Upto you, if you have a major problem in future you're welcome to ring up, but as you've found out there is a lot of variability in staff.
There is also https://my.virginmedia.com/faults/service-status and http://192.168.0.1 is likely the
private IP.
Sounds like you may have been on one of the legacy packages and legacy modems. This makes sense. Sadly virgin aren't (and never have been) very pro-active about this sort of thing.
If it is literally a modem, you cannot go into a shop and buy a new one and plug it in. You rent equipment off virgin media, you don't actually own it (which confuses people with the one off charges and installation charges they add on).
If it is actually a router plugged into a modem, then yes you can buy another one in a shop and plug it into a modem. I use my superhub in bridge mode myself.
If they send you a superhub I would very strongly recommend looking up information on-line if you have any (well known) issues - I hope you don't.
MontyVeda
a short-tempered ill-controlled small-minded troll
- Location
- Lancaster... the little city.
don't they want you to send it back so they can check it? They may charge you a stupid amount for the replacement.
OP
OP
London Female
Über Member
.
Well as I am not tied to any contract I can just go to someone else, there are lots of offers on.
Well as I am not tied to any contract I can just go to someone else, there are lots of offers on.
OP
OP
London Female
Über Member
.
No, not requested it back, no fee for the new modem and I have not been tied back into any new contact. I had an email to confirm it all .
No, not requested it back, no fee for the new modem and I have not been tied back into any new contact. I had an email to confirm it all .
