What Happened Next - First Use

The following events took place between 8pm and 10pm on Tuesday 27th April 2010...


The Internet access is FAST - that's now a given, so I'm not going to dwell on that any further. We will continue to take snapshot measurements, and in about a week, I'll objectively qualify "fast" for you. Key points being that it "feels" faster, and the kids are happy.

The V+HD box is a bit different. We've become so used to how the Sky+ box works - the menus and buttons - and now we start again. It feels a bit clunky and laborious - feels like you have to go through more sub-menus in order to get to the key things you want. I'm sure this perception will change with prolonged use, and it'll soon become second nature.

First off, we set a couple of things to record - one-time election programmes. That was easy - the record button is a toggle - so you highlight the programme, press RECORD once and the programme goes red, press it again and it cancels the recording and goes back to white. Easy. Next, we did our Series Links. It's better and worse than Sky+. It's better because it will apparently let you pick odd and possibly non-sequential episodes of a particular show to schedule to record. I can't immediately think of why we'd want to do that, but never mind. It's worse because it doesn't seem as "smart". When you look at, say, Ashes to Ashes on Sky+ programme guide, it says "5 of 8" or something like that. On V+HD, it just describes it as being "ongoing", which is less-helpful. Also, you can programme Sky+ to record remotely from any web-browser anywhere on the planet - not sure you can do that with V+HD - need to check that.

We found a programme coming up next week that sounds a bit mad and worth watching purely out of morbid curiosity. It's called something like "Scream if you know the answer" and they put "celebrities" on a rollercoaster and make them answer trivia questions whilst screaming. I think that's about it. We tried to V+ that. Because we watch so little TV, we opted for the basic Virgin channel package. This "scream" thing is on a channel I've never heard of, and we've never viewed, called Watch. Watch isn't part of our Virgin package. So we Sky+ it. It is part of the basic Sky package. It's just typical that this should happen last night, and be our first experience of our shiny new VirginMedia package. If we didn't still have the Sky+, I guess the outcome would have been "TOUGH!". Or upgrade - ain't gonna happen! Have we done the right thing moving away from Sky? I come back to the basic point that 95% of what we watch is on BBC1/2 and ITV/Channel4. Another 4.5% is Sky1. The other 0.5% is random and unpredictable and probably doesn't matter - if we don't have something, we won't care.

We'd been Sky+ing a short true-life drama series called "Five Daughters". So parts 1 and 2 were on the Sky+ box. Last night, we decided to try watching Part 1 on BBC iPlayer. I navigated to it relatively quickly and easily, and we started watching it. We got as far as the opening sequence, and then something child/school-related happened and we put it on pause. We didn't end up getting back to it for some time - maybe half an hour. By that time, a message came up asking us if we wanted to quit. Said no - play it. A pause - then - error message. Log a call, quote code xxx. Maybe the connection timed out. Came right out of the iPlayer menu system and back to regular TV. Did the same all over again - same error. Time getting on, very tired - just want to watch it. Sky+ to the rescue again - we watched what we Sky+ed. What would we do in that situation if we didn't have Sky+? This is a taste of things to come? Is iPlayer a bit flaky?

In any domestic situation like this, you want stuff to "just work". No messing about. Nothing technical or having to put the "troubleshooting" hat on. If your domestic appliances don't deliver against that kind of SLA, then they are very rapidly outed, and better alternatives are found. In this regard, the V+HD box is off to a pretty poor start. We couldn't watch a random one-time programme we wanted to watch, and iPlayer errored out. We have yet to experience HD - there's something come up on BBC HD that we're going to watch over the weekend - we'll see how that goes.

I asked the engineer about the Ethernet and USB ports on the shiny new Samsung V+HD box. He confirmed what I'd already learnt from forum posts. USB is only useful to charge things. Ethernet is for "future use". Sheesh. My shiny new LV bluray player has Ethernet too (wired and wireless) - it plays YouTube videos in HD and connects to "plus" content online. That's for present use - come on Virigin - get with the programme!

So with "Five Daughters" watched, I think the Sky+ box is empty now. I wanted to decommission it this evening, but now I can't because of that "Scream" progamme. Again - we're not quite there yet, but the end is in sight.

Oh yeah - telephone works fine. We all just assume that, don't we? Dial-tone service and all that.

What Happened Next - Restoring Normality

The following events took place between 6pm and 8pm on Tuesday 27th April 2010...
I played around for a while longer trying to get the cable modem to do sensible things on my home network. Didn't get anywhere, except the feeling of having failed. I was hoping I'd be able to leave the wireless aspect of the network as it was - just connect the cable modem to my network and leave the Netgear DG834 up, but with the ADSL modem part switched off (which I'm not now sure you can do anyway!).

So I concede defeat on this, and get the DLink DIR-615 out of its box. The cable modem is a little black box with green lights on it. So is this. The Quick Installation Guide is crap - it doesn't describe how to connect the cables, but fortunately, it's obvious. There's an Ethernet socket with "Internet" written above it, and some others. I connect the cable from the modem to "Internet", and the laptop to one of the others. I go in to the admin UI and get busy. All relatively straight-forward, and it works fine. Without going in to detail, I did have to completely alter the way the wireless network is set up, which was annoying. It's just that the Netgear has possibilities that the DLink doesn't. On the plus side, the DLink is "N", but I'm not sure we have any "N" devices. The DLink requires yet another power socket, so we now have no CD player.

I don't want to labour the point much further - but just to summarise - a VirginMedia installation requires THREE power sockets (V+HD, cable modem, router). We also had our power sockets arranged in such a way that only one thing needed to be switched on 24x7, so we were using the least electricity possible - that's gone out the window now and will need a re-think.

With the DLink up, the kids are back in business. I start reconfiguring wireless devices. Not a big deal. The printer was connected to a server on the Netgear in the study. Netgear is now out. Jury remains out over exactly how to connect the printer. The kids use it for homework, but it'd be nice to be able to print from the laptop over wireless. That needs some thought. In the immediate-term, I took the print server down, I took the Netgear down. I moved the printer so it's mid-way between the kids two computers, and they now have a USB cable connection to share. Installed printer/scanner software on the kids computers. So on the plus side, they can now scan stuff. I'm not happy with the printer where it is - it's essentially on top of a wall unit, and you can't see the lights/buttons on the control panel. May get a longer USB cable and put the printer back where it was, or look at a dedicated print server and put it back on the network.

There is now a large number of annoyingly-flashing green lights under the TV. I start tidying up and thinking about arranging things. The DLink is now hidden - quite literally in the very back corner of the room. The cable modem - which flashes the most - is in full view under the TV. I'll need to re-route all its cables in order to move it. This is a job for later. It's not that I'm putting it off as such - it's just that the Blu-ray player arrives today, and I'll move the modem as part of re-cabling to install the player.

Eventually - in a week or so - things WILL be better. There will be less devices, less need for power sockets, less complexity and less things on 24x7. We're just not quite there yet.

So I got there. Everything is up. Everyone is happy. The Internet is faster. It took longer than I anticipated - which these things generally do. When I bought this service, I went with all the default options - I didn't opt in or out of anything. This means that I got the same install experience as anyone else would get. You have to pay extra to have your Internet fully set up and your wireless etc. I'm a little bit technical - I know a bit about TCP/IP and networking - at least I understood that my modem was pushing out Class A when everything else was talking Class B. I wonder at what experience people who know less about computers and networking than me have...

Later, I'll post on what happened between 8 and 10 - our first-use experience.

What Happened Next - The Installation Experience

The following events took place between 5pm and 6pm on Tuesday 27th April 2010...

Well - the hourly "24"-style postings went out the window when VirginMedia man cut our phone line without telling us. There was a moan of anguish from the children's study, and there's a Service Delivery Manager who probably thinks I buggered off half-way through a conversation on OCS over the VPN. There was always going to come a point where they had to move the phone line over, but telling us would have been nice.

So - the cabling went in fine, and we now have a little white box on the wall. It's not quite level, which is a bit annoying. When the furniture is finally all put back, hopefully no-one will see it. He didn't expect to have to do all the cabling, so the job took longer than he anticipated, and he was late and flustered. Phone line came back up OK, and he fitted the V+HD box. He left the protective film on the front. The "birds nest" behind the AV stack is even worse now - there's a coaxial cable coming out the bottom of the white box, and that goes to a splitter, which is sort of in mid-air behind the TV - the split cables go to the V+HD box, and the cable modem.

Oh yes - the cable modem. I had a perception that there would be some sort of whizzy VirginMedia cable modem/wireless router sexy black box with coloured lights on it. No. You get a Cisco 2100 cable modem, and a D-Link DIR615 Wireless-N Home Router. The cable modem has Ethernet and USB outputs. He connected our laptop up to the Ethernet port on the cable modem, brought up a webpage and tada! He went to a speedchecker page and it said we were getting 9.6mbit. Wow. That is over twice as fast as we're used to. For the first time in a very long time, we're actually getting what we pay for.

Getting the line/TV activated took a long time. I've read posts elsewhere about the engineer phoning Virginmedia as soon as they arrive on-site because they know they're going to queue for 30+ minutes. I think our guy had that 30-minute experience, but he didn't phone in on arrival - I guess he was thrown by the cabling thing.

I had to ask him to give me a quick guided tour of the V+HD box, and he did. I had to ask specific questions like "Where's BBC iPlayer?". So he answered my questions, and then left. Situation is that the TV is on, the phone line is up - the house has no Internet access. I don't think the TV picture looks that great, so I start delving quickly into the setup menus. He's left the V+HD pushing out a 720 picture. I change the setting to 1080p. Looks a lot better now. Would have been nice if things had been left set optimally.

VirginMedia man was in a rush - he had another job to do. He left empty cardboard boxes, old cables and ties, and packaging in the sitting room. He advised me that I'll be receiving a Customer Satisfaction Survey, and that his bonus was tied to it.

We did run out of power sockets - he made the decision to disconnect the Nintendo Wii. Didn't ask, didn't tell - I followed the cables back and then noticed the lack of red light. So we do have a problem - at least for now - with power sockets.

It's 5:45pm. The children have GCSE and A-Level coursework and studying that they need to do. They need Internet access for that. Homework needs to be printed out. The printer is connected to a print server in the study, which is off the back of the Netgear router - also in the study - where we are rich in power sockets.

I try for a quick win. The reasoning goes like this... the cable modem is pushing Internet access out of its Ethernet socket. When you connect a laptop to that socket, it gets assigned a Class A address and WORKS. So - what if I connect that Ethernet port to the wall socket behind the TV - it's then on our home network. Nope - doesn't work. There's no manual for the Cisco cable modem. No CD - just a plain white box. I connect the laptop back to the modem and go to the Cisco website. I'm wondering where the laptop is getting it's IP address from - perhaps the modem has a DHCP server. Nope - modem has nothing - it's just a modem. No admin UI - nothing to change or set. So plugging a modem with a Class A address onto a network populated with Class B addresses is never going to have a good outcome.

I need to make a decision - it's an easy decision, but it's annoying. I've got to get everything back up and running - so I'll have to skip the training course. :(

Virgin Media "24"

The following events took place between 4pm and 5pm on Tuesday 27th April 2010...
The cabling is all up - the SAMSUNG (yay!!) V+ box is installed and showing a diagnostic screen. There's also a Cisco cable modem, and there will be a router, and he's got to wire in a phone socket for the phone line. I get the feeling things are taking longer than he'd expect or like. I'm a little concerned about mains sockets - or the lack of them. We did just have the Sky+ box, and now we've still got the Sky+ box (for now), but we're getting three new things in that corner, and there's only one mains socket - hmm - we'll see.

In terms of injecting a bit of drama - there's now a Race Against Time! I'm supposed to be going on a training course this evening. I need to leave here, having eaten dinner, at 7pm. Virgin Media dude is not going to set up the wireless or networking aspect of things - he'll just get as far as being able to connect his laptop to the Internet over a cable connection. So it might be that I need to set up our wireless and home network stuff later.

Virgin Media "24"

The following events took place between 3pm and 4pm on Tuesday 27th April 2010...



VirginMedia dude arrived at 15:25.
He completed a site survey, and we played "hunt the gray box". We found it on the side of the garage. This is the old Cabletel box from Way Back When. The deal is that Virgin have fibre to their box at the bottom of the street, and then copper coaxial cable from the box to the door. Ironically, it's only relatively recently that we took down the Cabletel cabling - when we had the double-glazing done. Now it's being put back up again - but all shiny and new for 2010.
 
Dude has had two glasses of chilled water and reckons that in buying 10mbit broadband from VirginMedia, we should get 9mbit no problem. If he's right, then that will be 2-3 times faster than my 20mbit service from Sky over copper from the BT exchange. We'll see...

Virgin Media "24"

The following events took place between 2pm and 3pm on Tuesday 27th April 2010...



Some tumbleweed blew across the sitting room. No-one arrived - no-one did anything.

Virgin Media "24"

The following events took place between 1pm and 2pm on Tuesday 27th April 2010...
Nothing. No-one arrived - no-one did anything.

Monday 26th April 2010

The following events took place on Monday 26th April 2010...


Today, Liz called from VirginMedia. It was a Courtesy Call - she said so. She was - courtious. She confirmed that an engineer would be coming to see me at home between 1pm and 6pm tomorrow. She asked if I would be there - I said I wouldn't miss it for the world. Oh - the excitement is building...

Thursday 22nd April 2010

The following events took place on Thursday 22nd April 2010...
Today I had a letter from VirginMedia. It begins "Dear Sky Customer..." It's offering me a great deal involving a free V+HD box and free installation if I take out the XL TV Package. There is a handy pre-completed "Sky subscription-cancelling" letter. Been there, done that. Plus a book of 11 reasons to say goodbye to Sky. The book doesn't mention that the help desk is delivered out of India instead of Scotland. The book shows the Samsung V+HD box and no little caption to say you might get anything different.

Here in the 21st century, we have this wonderful invention called CRM SOFTWARE. It automagically ensures that you target the right people with your marketing, that you don't waste your marketing dollars, and you don't piss off people who are existing, pending or recently-deceased/departed customers. It also makes you appear "smart" (even if you're not). VirginMedia favour the Carpet-bombing School of Marketing. Gotta love intelligent organisations! ;)

Thursday 15th April 2010

The following events took place on Thursday 15th April 2010...
Today, I received the second of two near-identical letters from Sky. They pertain to the cancellation of my Sky Talk telephone service. I received the second one today (Thursday) and I think the first one was on Tuesday. I didn't think it was unduly noteworthy at  the time, but later events mean that it's now something I'll share with you...

The first one is dated 8th April and says that my Sky Talk service will end 7th April
The second one is dated 9th April and says that my Sky Talk service will end 8th April

...so Sky aren't perfect either. I'm now unsure exactly where I'm getting my voice telephone service from. It could be Sky, or BT, or VirginMedia. I suppose it doesn't really matter! It would be kind of nice to know, though...

Wednesday 14th April 2010

The following events took place on Wednesday 14th April 2010...

I did some research about the V+HD box. This is what I learnt...

• there is no pure digital way of pulling content off the box - you have to record to DVD using the SCART - annoying
• there are two types of box - the later being made by Samsung. Opinion seems divided about which is best, but which you get depends on what the engineer has in his van at the time. This may be a thing of the past now - I'll let you know.
• one feature of SKY+ that we love and works MOST of the time is "Series Link" - I was happy to see that V+ has the same thing.
• The V+ box has an Ethernet connection and USB connection - neither is used - how frustrating! What a waste. People just use the USB to charge their mobile phones, iPods, and XBox360 controllers!
• The Sky and V+ remotes look about the same. I hope that the volume control on the V+ will work with my Sony TV - the Sky+ one doesn't.
• If everything you record is at HD, you'll get about 20 hours on the box - when all our PC hard drives are in the terrabyte range, why are these drives so small?

I also did an audit of what was on the Sky+ box - you know what - it's all Old Skool terrestrial stuff! BBC2 mainly, BBC1, ITV1. Nothing at all that I'm actually paying for! Most of it is Series Linked - we tend to watch series.

I asked my son to take hourly snapshots of our Internet speed and journalising the results. We're establishing a performance baseline against which to benchmark our shiny new fibrechannel Internet access - we will have an objective view as to whether it's really faster or not.

PS - I posted my contract at... Kings Cross! By the time you read this, it will probably be at the Virgin Media office in sunny Dunstable.

Tuesday 13th April 2010

The following events took place on Tuesday 13th April 2010...

My Welcome Pack arrived! It's ever so exciting. There was a contract to sign in duplicate. There was a contract to sign in duplicate. A post-paid envelope in which to return it, and various bits of information that weren't entirely new to me after my thrilling Recorded Message Experience yesterday.

What's going to happen next? We don't know - that's the truth of it - we simply don't know!!

OK - so we do know. I signed the contracts in duplicate - and twice - put one of them in the afore-mentioned envelope, and now it's sitting by our still-BT-connected phone with my car keys awaiting posting tomorrow. But where will I post it from?? There - there IS still some mystery! :) You'll just have to wait and see...

Monday 12th April 2010

The following events took place on Monday 12th April 2010...


Today, I receive a letter from VirginMedia - it confirms my Direct Debit instructions. It's largely correct. Just one detail wrong - the name of the account from which the Direct Debit will be taken. I thought that maybe I typed it in wrong - when you're filling in this kind of thing, there is a natural tendency, I think, to put your own name, but the way our home finances work, it's not like that - the account is called something else. My wife checked what I typed in at the time, though, and she (who is rarely, if ever wrong) confirmed that I put the right account name in. So I call VirginMedia on 0845 454 1111 (visit Virginmedia.com/callcosts for call costs) and correct it. They ask if I've had the account holder's permission to set up the Direct Debit - yeah - of course I have! :)

Having just paid the call charge detailed at Virginmedia.com/callcosts, I'm in the mood for a little "free from a landline" action! So I go ahead and call 0800 0520 691 in order to, and here I quote, "Get Set"...

OK - WOW - I'm SET.

Wanna know what happened? Well - OK - I'll tell you. It was a 2.5 minute recorded message that told me more about the installation. I should be receiving a welcome pack (not yet!) and a text message (tick). It doesn't matter if I haven't had the welcome pack because - guess what - she's going to read out the key points to me over the phone - thank you!!

When the installation dude turns up in his 5-hour pre-arranged slot, I must make sure that I'm over 18 (tick). Before that, though, I've got to think very carefully about where everything's going to go - the cables, the cable modem, the set-top box etc. I may need to re-arrange the furnature. I can just imagine the trouble I'd be in if I did this while my wife is out. The recording mentioned nothing about an interior design service!

Listening carefully, it says that my computers should have both wireless AND ethernet. If I don't have ethernet on my computer, I need to buy a Network Interface Card. Some of my computers only have Wireless, so I'll need to go out and buy some of those Network Interface Cards, right? Hmm. I don't think so. I wonder how many people do that...

The engineer, who may need an extra hour if my installation is challenging, will discuss with me the least house-ruining way of routing the cables from the street, to a little box on the outside of my house, through to the modem and set-top box. Oh, the fun we'll have!

Finally, the highly-trained professional field services representative (OK - I made that bit up - she didn't say that - think of that as pre-emptive irony on my part) will give me a tutorial on how to use my easy-to-use shiny new gear, and leave me with a Getting Started Guide.

We still have, if you've been following the deep and many-layered plot, one mystery unsolved - I'll leave that for another day...

10th April 2010

The following events took place on Saturday 10th April 2010...
Today, I get a letter from Sky confirming the changes to my TV channel package. How sad. These are the changes, you may remember, that will save me £3 a month by ditching fishing and DIY channels I didn't know existed. Even though I subsequently cancelled my entire service, Sky went ahead and updated my package. I wonder if I will save £3 - another piece of suspense for you.

9th April 2010

The following events took place on Friday 9th April 2010...
I get a text message from VirginMedia reminding me of my install date and account number, and also telling me the PIN for the TV service I haven't quite got yet - but it's as well to know these things in advance. There is also this "To get set, call 0800 0520691 free from a landline". Now read that again - carefully. What does it actually mean? Isn't that cryptic?

Does this follow on from yesterday's exciting cliff-hanger ending? You know what - I'm going to tease you just a little while longer...

8th April 2010

The following events took place on Thursday 8th April 2010...
I got an e-mail from Virginmedia welcoming me to their eBilling & payment service. I log in to be welcomed by the friendly and welcoming message "Sorry, there is no bill information for this account, please contact us.". I will! I absolutely will - definitely - sometime real soon...but I also want to build some sense of suspense in my readership ;)

7th April 2010

The following events took place on Wednesday 7th April 2010...

I get a very nice e-mail from Sky confirming the details of our call, informing me of what I owe and need to pay, and giving me my MAC code. I know I don’t need my MAC code, but I was impressed that I got it anyway within 24 hours of cancelling my subscription. I’m still happy with Sky – I’d still recommend them to friends whose requirements their packages meet.


I get a call from an Indian lady from VirginMedia. She reminds me that during the application online, I’d requested an installation call on the 14th or 15th April. She asks me what time on 28th April I’d like the engineer to arrive. I immediately spot what’s wrong with this picture and ask her why I was offered 14th/15th if the earliest they can do is 28th – “ah – that’s just the website”. No apology. I ask if there is an earlier date available. She looks again. 27th April is now available. We settle on that. A confirming e-mail arrives a few hours later. Here’s a quote from the e-mail that gives an idea of the care that went in to its composition…

“It should only take about two hours to get all the equipment up and running. Please make sure that there's somebody over the age of 18 present when our installers visit.


When we install your Virgin Media services, it should only take about two hours to get all the equipment up and running. Please make sure that there's somebody over the age of 18 present when our installers visit.”

…just in case I didn’t hear the first time.

I notice a VirginMedia bill on a co-worker’s desk. He tells me about his bad experience cancelling one VirginMedia service and moving to another within the last week. He tells me that if you complain hard enough, you end up speaking to someone in Scotland, rather than India – I will remember this – good information to have.

This evening, we go to see “How to Train Your Dragon 3D”. There’s a 3D advert for Sky3D – coming in fall of 2010. It looks awesome. We won’t be getting a 3DTV until the next tech refresh – 3-5 years out – but the advert gives us pause for thought – have we done the right thing moving away from Sky? Only time will tell...

6th April 2010

The following events took place on Tuesday 6th April 2010...
I have to say that in writing this stuff today, I may get the dates of things mixed up a bit - but the sequence of events is true! :)

I do the maths. I work out how much I’m currently paying Sky and BT for my telephone, TV and broadband. Sky inform me on their website that I am currently paying for 20mbit broadband, but actually receiving 6.5mbit. This is about copper cabling, and the distance that my house is from our local telephone exchange. This is beyond Sky’s control. If my understanding of the physics is correct, then I could buy any speed of broadband, and as long as it’s over that same copper wiring, and my house remains the same distance from the exchange, I’m unlikely to get much better than 6.5mbits. The only factor that might change is around contention.


I call Sky for a long chat. I learn some interesting things. For a start, they are able to tell me how much my family are downloading. The figure is higher than I thought – over the last six months it’s 65-76gb per month. I guess I can account for about half of this – I haven’t done the math on that yet – it’s not really important. I share this with my family, who are shocked, and the kids start apologising! If this is what we use, then this is what we use – and therefore what we need. Internet access is a basic human right now, and I’m not angry, and I don’t see why anyone should change their behaviour or usage. When the kids are on their computers – maybe six hours a night weekdays and most of the weekends – they continually have video and/or audio streaming. Sites like Youtube and Sixyone. We have an Xbox360 which is used for hours each day with multi-player games and demo downloads. We make extensive use of BBC iPlayer and the like to stream TV/video and radio content. If HD versions of things are available, we’ll take them. The only conclusion to come from this is that I need “unlimited” download – or a 100gb limit per month!

In terms of trying to help me, Sky looked at my package. They can’t give me HD for free. Hardware and installation – yes – no problem. It’s still going to cost me £10 a month forever, though, and that’s the thing. We review my channels. I’m paying for DIY and Sports/Fishing (!!) channels that we absolutely never look at. By paring down our channels, we can bring my package bill down £3 per month – meaning that we get HD for £7/month – still £2 more than VirginMedia charge, but for a lot more channels with Sky – including Sky1HD.

Having established the current state, I go to the VirginMedia website and check out their “design your own package” thing. I design a package that gives me:


• 10mbit fibre broadband. If I get this, and I actually achieve this – then it will mean that even though I’m buying less than I’m currently paying for, it’ll be an improvement. www.broadbandspeedchecker.com indicates that someone living just a couple of hundred metres away from me is getting 7.7mbit on the 10mbit VirginMedia package. At the same point in time, the website says I’m getting 4.3mbit!!!


• M+ TV. A box that is like the Sky+ box, but will also give me BBC iPlayer and the ITV and C4 versions on the box. This is a big deal. I’ve had complaints from the user community that the ITV player is virtually unusable on account of our slow Internet connection. The 65 channels are possibly less, and definitely different from the ones we have with Sky, but an evaluation of user community usage patterns indicates that we won’t loose anything we watch or care about.


• HD – we’ll get some HD channels. Not as many as we’d get with Sky, but we’ll get the BBC, ITV, and some others that we care about. We won’t get Sky1, which is a shame. Even if we maxxed out on VirginMedia TV packages, we still wouldn’t get Sky1HD.


• Telephone M – free calls in the evenings and at weekends

I do the maths – the above is cheaper than we’re currently paying BT and Sky. It’s cheaper, we’ll get HD, and the broadband will be faster. Seems an easy decision.

I compare the channels with what Sky give. I’m bothered about Sky1HD – I want to find out more about this. Time to call VirginMedia. While I’m doing this, I’m still on the broadbandspeedchecker site, and I’m re-running the best from time to time. The speed goes down below 3mbit – averages 4.6mbit – can’t be having this!

I speak to VirginMedia’s “Greta” in India. She tries to sell me VirginMedia’s wares. Including the £35 installation charge that the website offers for free. I tell her that I don’t want to pay the installation fee. She says that these are the packages that they offer, and that they are not the website. I ask my question about Sky1HD. She replies by listing all the HD channels I’ll be getting from ViriginMedia. I ask the question again. She says she’ll have a look. She says she’ll have another look. She says she’ll speak to her supervisor. She says YES – Sky1HD will be COMING SOON. I ask WHEN and which package(s) it will be included in. No idea – no apology. We get back to the idea of me moving to VirginMedia from Sky. I ask some more questions, and every time I ask a question, she says “hold please” and goes and finds me answers. Her answers are not great – they are short, and only prompt more questions. I get the impression she doesn’t know much/anything and is using some sort of knowledge management tool. She mentions a special package for Sky customers migrating to VirginMedia. This is the first I’ve heard of this – there’s nothing on the website – so I ask for more details.

At this point, I have concluded that every time I ask her something, she’s looking it up somewhere. I put this to the test now. Once I’ve asked her about this Sky migration package she just mentioned, I go looking for it on Google. I find one from a few years back. It’s ancient history. Eventually, she comes back and says “it’s nothing – ignore it”.

I’m not enjoying this conversation, I’m not getting anywhere, and it’s just worrying and upsetting me – so I end it. I’m not going to buy anything from her – she’s not helping.

I go online and tick all the boxes in the very easy-to-use screen that allows me to choose my package. Provide the usual details, wait for the credit check – job done in ten minutes. Sweet.

Having taken the plunge, I call Sky to cancel my TV, broadband and Skytalk subscriptions. It’s quite a long phone call. Sky’s representative in Scotland is friendly and helpful. I make it clear that I’m in no way dissatisfied with the service from Sky themselves – at the end of the day, they’ve been defeated by copper – and arguably lack of facilities/value in their TV package in places that are important to me. We part on good terms.

I call BT to cancel my line subscription. BT try to sell me everything that I’ve just committed to from VirginMedia. The whole conversation would have gone better/differently if she’d bothered to ask me up-front if I’ve already committed to another supplier. As it was, the conversation went downhill as she tried to sell me TV, broadband and telephone services and to cast doubt on VirginMedia. She actually tried to tell me that I may get better broadband over copper than fibre! I cancelled my subscription – the call didn’t go well – we didn’t part on good terms

My VirginMedia Story

The reason for resurrecting this Blog is initially to share my VirginMedia story. Every so often, you should review what you’re buying, what you’re using, and what you’re paying for. We went to the Ideal Home show in London, and I picked up a VirginMedia brochure. I started looking at their broadband, TV and telephone services and charges…

Continued...

My original idea for this Blog - going back YEARS now - was that it was a sort of personal precursor to TWITTER. Whilst Twitter imposes a character restriction, my Blog was to impose a TIME restriction.

The reasoning behind this was that I thought I did't have TIME to Blog - by setting a two minute time limit on my posts, surely I could spare just two minutes a day to post something.


In practice, it didn't work. It was a potentially good idea, but it wasn't the idea that was the problem - it was me! The problem is that I'm incapable of writing short, concise posts. I go on and on and on. Two minutes expands to fit the time available - which is typically a lunch hour.


Even this "brief" introduction is too long! I am incapable of writing for two minutes. But now - because I have something that I want to say, and I want a diary form for it - Keith's Two Minutes is BACK!