I've been a happy Virginmedia customer for a long time. Due to distance from the exchange, for a long time it was the only option for a connection >1 meg and happliy I rarely had issues (1 fault in about 10 years that was fixed in a hour).

So, when we came back from Amsterdam, I signed up with them again for their lovely new 100 meg service.

The "Super Hub" resets itself to factory default every 2 days, the internet connection drops regularly, sometimes I have to call to get them to reset the connection as rebooting the router eleventy billion times doesn't always bring it back, wi-fi signal is very poor, sometime the wifi will randomly stop letting devices reconnect until you reboot it etc. etc.

Looking on the internet (when it's up) confirms that the Superhub is absolute garbage and all the faults mentioned are well known issues which can only be fixed by replacing the Superhub. Yet every time I phone they say "well, there's a local fault that probably isn't the problem but may be affecting you, call back in 3 days and if you're still having problems we'll replace it". Repeat ad-infinitum.

Highlights from this weekends series of calls:

Indian Call Centre Drone: "OK, I need you to power off the router so I can send it a signal"

Me: "You're going to send it a signal when it's powered off?"

ICCD: "Yes, Can you unplug the router from the mains?"

Me: "OK, I've unplugged it"

ICCD: "OK, so you've unplugged it?"

Me: "Yes"

ICCD: "Is it also switched off?"

Me: "Yes, I've disconnected it completely from the power and it's now, somewhat co-incidentally, completely off"

~~~~~~~

Me: "The router reboots itself every 2 days and resets itself to factory default settings"

ICCD: "You don't need to do that"

Me: "I don't, it does it itself!"

ICCD: "Why are you rebooting it every 2 days?"

Me: "I'M NOT!!!!!!"

~~~~~~~

ICCD, after I've explained all the problems above: "OK, you need to set the wifi to channel 11, this will solve your issues"

and:

ICCD: "turn off the firewall, this will improve stability"

and:

ICCD: "let me take remote control of your laptop so I can set up a guest network for your iPhones"

Me: "Why?"

ICCD: "Because I need to"

An engineer is coming out tonight to see it. I may hold him hostage until they can supply equipment that works.

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I've just ordered one of these from Virgin to "take advantage of the new superfast broadband now available in my area"

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bastard monkey hands

zedleg said...

I've just ordered one of these from Virgin to "take advantage of the new superfast broadband now available in my area"

You should do what I'm going to: stick the Superhub in "modem mode" and use a real router. Then charge Virginmedia for it.

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NotoriousREV said...

zedleg said...

I've just ordered one of these from Virgin to "take advantage of the new superfast broadband now available in my area"

You should do what I'm going to: stick the Superhub in "modem mode" and use a real router. Then charge Virginmedia for it.

This.

By all accounts, the modem part has the WAN throughput to handle the 100mb, but the actual router/wifi part is a honking pile of badly coded proprietary crap.

Make sure your seperate router can handle 100+mb of WAN though - most enteprisey ones will, as well as a few high end consumer ones.

Ubiquity networks do a very nice router which I suspect would do the job. We have one in stock that I'm keeping for a mate who has similar problems to you...

Much as I try to never sympathise with anyone, it must be beyond hateful trying to fix people's computers etc over the phone. It's hard enough to get someone to operate the internet satisfactorily when you're stood right next to them.

Also I have a feeling that most of the people who need and therefore use the helplines are women.

Can you imagine the awfulness of it all.

"OK now double-click on Control Panel"

"I don't know what that is."

"Click on the Start button."

"I don't know what that is. Stop it! You're a chauvinist! I hate you! It's not my fault!"

etc

I have the other problem "Stop following the script!! I've already diagnosed the problem!!!! Just listen to me!!!!!" etc.

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NotoriousREV said...

Indian Call Centre Drone: "OK, I need you to power off the router so I can send it a signal"

Me: "You're going to send it a signal when it's powered off?"

ICCD: "Yes, Can you unplug the router from the mains?"

I had this last time I called (which was to report a fault which affected me, my girlfriend who lives 2 miles away and presumably anyone else using Virgin in the area). They even tried to get me to disconnect the router from the coax cable, which I couldn't because it was put on with a spanner 3 years before when the connection was installed

Within an hour or so the fault had been logged as being in their equipment, of course (ascertained by ringing 150 on my Virgin phone every 10 minutes). I made a formal complaint about the process because they kept me on the phone for about 45 minutes when the fault was their end.

ETA: more helpfully, my girlfriend's superhub which did all the stuff you mention somehow fixed itself and is now fine all the time, and mine has been fine since I got it 2 months or so ago. So try to get them just to replace it.

Updated November 19, 2012 at 12:37 PM

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[OO=[|]=OO]

Beany said...

NotoriousREV said...

zedleg said...

I've just ordered one of these from Virgin to "take advantage of the new superfast broadband now available in my area"

You should do what I'm going to: stick the Superhub in "modem mode" and use a real router. Then charge Virginmedia for it.

This.

By all accounts, the modem part has the WAN throughput to handle the 100mb, but the actual router/wifi part is a honking pile of badly coded proprietary crap.

Make sure your seperate router can handle 100+mb of WAN though - most enteprisey ones will, as well as a few high end consumer ones.

Ubiquity networks do a very nice router which I suspect would do the job. We have one in stock that I'm keeping for a mate who has similar problems to you...

I guess that's what I'll do. I hate spending money on boring electronic stuff though, especially when the free stuff I've had from them for my current broadband works fine.

--

bastard monkey hands

Hopefully the engineer tonight will replace it and all will be fine with the world otherwise I may get an Asus RT-N16 with the Tomato USB firmware. Can be had for ~£60.

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A virgin installer stole my evo mug. And marked the last cup of tea I ever offer a tradesman.

(I expect the above the be expertly reworded by someone...)

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Cheers

Rich

virgin installer called me 20 minutes after getting into bed after a heavy heavy night out.

in a very dazed state he offers to "visit early" or come at lunch time.

i had no idea what time it was, where i was or what i was agreeing to.

turns out he wanted to install internet in my house at 7:30-80am!

the twunt does the necessary wiring, manages to activate the connection and repeatedly tryied to get it to load a homepage.

it got 80% of the homepage loaded and he scarpered. i wasnt sure what that was about until i tried to use the net and the connection was utterly CRAP

took me a couple seriously hungover hours to get it sorted out

We have a new router, let's see how we get on.

--

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What'd ya get?

Beany said...

What'd ya get?

A replacement Superhub.

--

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NotoriousREV said...

I've been a happy Virginmedia customer for a long time. Due to distance from the exchange, for a long time it was the only option for a connection >1 meg and happliy I rarely had issues (1 fault in about 10 years that was fixed in a hour).

So, when we came back from Amsterdam, I signed up with them again for their lovely new 100 meg service.

The "Super Hub" resets itself to factory default every 2 days, the internet connection drops regularly, sometimes I have to call to get them to reset the connection as rebooting the router eleventy billion times doesn't always bring it back, wi-fi signal is very poor, sometime the wifi will randomly stop letting devices reconnect until you reboot it etc. etc.

Looking on the internet (when it's up) confirms that the Superhub is absolute garbage and all the faults mentioned are well known issues which can only be fixed by replacing the Superhub. Yet every time I phone they say "well, there's a local fault that probably isn't the problem but may be affecting you, call back in 3 days and if you're still having problems we'll replace it". Repeat ad-infinitum.

Highlights from this weekends series of calls:

Indian Call Centre Drone: "OK, I need you to power off the router so I can send it a signal"

Me: "You're going to send it a signal when it's powered off?"

ICCD: "Yes, Can you unplug the router from the mains?"

Me: "OK, I've unplugged it"

ICCD: "OK, so you've unplugged it?"

Me: "Yes"

ICCD: "Is it also switched off?"

Me: "Yes, I've disconnected it completely from the power and it's now, somewhat co-incidentally, completely off"

~~~~~~~

Me: "The router reboots itself every 2 days and resets itself to factory default settings"

ICCD: "You don't need to do that"

Me: "I don't, it does it itself!"

ICCD: "Why are you rebooting it every 2 days?"

Me: "I'M NOT!!!!!!"

~~~~~~~

ICCD, after I've explained all the problems above: "OK, you need to set the wifi to channel 11, this will solve your issues"

and:

ICCD: "turn off the firewall, this will improve stability"

and:

ICCD: "let me take remote control of your laptop so I can set up a guest network for your iPhones"

Me: "Why?"

ICCD: "Because I need to"

An engineer is coming out tonight to see it. I may hold him hostage until they can supply equipment that works.

TLDR.

Can you summarise it for me in 15 words or less?

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You Sir, are rude, arrogant and selfish. And so is your son.

No. HTH.

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Okay. I am now ignoring this thread.

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You Sir, are rude, arrogant and selfish. And so is your son.

I think Marv might be going through puberty at long last

Well, the new Superhub was installed by a technician on Monday and all week we suffered the annoyance of the connection resetting itself several times a day.

Last night the connection crapped out completely and won't reconnect. They've tried resetting everything remotely but it won't come back up so a Senior Technician is coming out on Monday.

Virgin are just so hateful to deal with: calling them gets you through to India where they just don't care, there's a support forum where your questions get ignored or you can go on Twitter where they ask if you've called the support line.

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Virgin media are cvnts to deal with. I class them just below 3 for customer service.