Forum Discussion

luceyn's avatar
luceyn
Tuning in
5 months ago

Fitting new virgin hub after lightning strike

Add a significant lightning strike this afternoon that knocked off all the power and also burnt out the routers in the road. Luckily, I had another virgin hub Three provided to me when I renewed which I have never used. I’m now trying to fit, and it appears as though I have no broadband signal or Internet it may be that my access is denied. Do you know how I should sort this out or indeed? Is there a problem with broadband in our area? 

  • How did Three supply you with a VM Hub?

    Regardless, you cannot use it as it's not associated with your account.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta

    Try the automated service status number 0800 561 0061 to check for any faults in your area.

    Some years ago, the home of a friend of mine was affected by lightning during a storm. Lots of his electronic equipment (inc his hub and PC) appeared to still be working (with power/lights still on) but further investigations showed that all of the points of connection such as USB sockets, network sockets etc. on his devices had failed. Even if you get the broadband back online, you may find other devices have been zapped as well (even though they look OK and appear to still be on).

  • Hey luceyn, thank you for reaching out and I am so sorry to hear this.

    If you have a spare hub this will not work as it will not be registered your house. 

    Did the connection eventually come back online?

     

    • luceyn's avatar
      luceyn
      Tuning in

      New Virgin Media hub4 now fitted by VM technician after a week of outage. All working OK now and very helpful guy. However getting someone to attend has been a nightmare. Several attempts via phone to contact VM helpline abortive, as they say they cannot book an appointment as system down. They say they will ring back when sorted at a particular time and twice it didn't happen. Then they organised a technician appointment and I received a confirmation text. Stayed in all day nobody attended and was told via phone when I queried it that it had been cancelled without my knowledge. No text received updating this. Again tried to fix up an appointment and they said system was down so could not be done, will ring back. However immediately after I set up the appointment on line having suffered enough and it was immediately confirmed. Hence the whole process and outage has taken a week. At least six houses in our road got their routers replaced before mine - I was at the end of the queue due to abortive VM call centre chaos!

      • Steven_L's avatar
        Steven_L
        Forum Team

        Thanks for coming back to us luceyn. We can get a complaint raised for you and this investigated further. If you'd like to do that, please respond to my private message and we can get started.

        Kind Regards,

        Steven_L

    • luceyn's avatar
      luceyn
      Tuning in

      Thanks for your reply - your point about it being automatically paid was very pertinent, as I still have had no confirmation that I will receive a credit. Do you know if this is just taken off my next payment as chasing it appears to have had no result? Thanks

      • Gareth_L's avatar
        Gareth_L
        Forum Team

        Hello luceyn.

        So we don't get our wires crossed it would be best to continue the conversation over the private message you're having with my colleague.

        Gareth_L