I have the titular 10MB Super-Fast Fibre Optic Broadband. Despite my hunting for it, I could not find a reference to the always on tag. I'm sure they used to use it but I couldn't track he actual quote down. I guess they dropped it.
NoozeHound turned on his PC this morning, well it was this afternoon to be precise. I was seized by the urge to indulge in some electronic martial arts and feline torturing, Tekken 5 and SingStar by their other names.
Once logged in, somewhat shamefully, I 'popped' onto FaceBook - just to bank any profit and check on mafia. No really. I don't contact anyone. Just bank, do jobs, whack some lesser mafias, juggle collections and add some crew if I can. That's it. Mafia Wars has effectively killed the friendship contact aspect of FaceBook entirely. I suspect everypne will have to hit 501 members fairly quickly to avoid being the obvious small food fish of the member-limit big fish.
My destination was irrelevant. DNS errors all round. Usual round of resetting the modem. Repeated, endless Synching attempts. The line is down.
Dig out the bill, phone the 0845 support line. Listen to the options. This is the billing line. Check the bill again. Call the service line.
'There is a problem with cyberguard,we hope to have it resolved soon.'
No mention of there being an outage.
I call the 0845 customer service line. Eventually I speak to Paul. I suspect Paul was in Mombai and Paul's name wasn't Paul.
We do account validation and I tell him the problem. I pre-empt him by telling him I have done all of the reboots. He asks if he can put me on hold and consult with a colleague.
Cheesy hold music, not sympathetic to a mildly irritated customer - you used to own a record company you say Mr Branson? And a Radio Station? Hmmm.
"Hello this Ahmed. Can I have your account number please...?"
If you recall I had already given my account number to 'Paul'. I indulge him. Noting how unrewarding this customer service experience is becoming. I inform Ahmed of this. He does, what I can only translate as a telephonic shrug of the shoulders. It's fairly apparent that he doesn't care.
It is at this point Mrs NoozeHound starts to remind me that she told me not to go to Virgin. 'They're always on WatchDog for crap service.'
I repeat my patter to Ahmed. He listens to me and puts me on hold 'to check'. He returns to inform me the line is down. In the words of Conan-Doyle; 'No Shit Sherlock!'
I launch into a good-natured tirade, petitioning Ahmed for an explanation as to why, if the line was down, it was not reported on the 'free' service line.
Worsening the situation he tells me it's been down since this morning, but it takes a long time to update the service line. I go to lengths to point put how unacceptable it is that Virgin Media are unable to put a message on a service line and how any network service has a duty to inform it's user-base of an outage at the earliest opportunity. I heard him smile, the smile of disinterested tolerance. followed by another telephone shrug. 'It will be resolved by 8:30 at the latest.' He tells me, I suspect in a bid to shut me up.
I resist, telling him Virgin are crap. That I had used BT copper for years and not experienced an outage - it's true. My phone never went dead and my ISP dropped once in five years. I have had Virgin for three months and this is my third outage.
A recent WatchDog item claimed I should sing my complaint, Virgin were being taken to task for billing dead people and not switching the person on the bill in the event of one partner dying.
Perhaps I should add this to my Amazon Wishlist...
I picked up The Sandman: Preludes and Nocturnes (The Sandman) to re-read this morning; reminding me of one of the unfinished collections I am hopelessly lost in the middle of due to lack of funds.
I will do that graphic novel discussion, I will...
Welcome to the disappointment.
