Well, I guess the wait was worth it. I finally got my hub 5 and it looks like it’s come straight from a customers house, to me. Absolutely grim. It even has pen marks in the reset hole.
How on earth is it acceptable to send out routers like this?
It's rented kit, so don't expect brand new hardware, however, it should at least be cleaned before shipping.
Yep, I understand your frustration. It's disgusting. I'm also disgusted by old used goods. You literally dont know what fluid or chemicals are hiding on your modem, could have come straight out of a den. Could be carrying herpes, could be drenched with rat urine.
And the fact that it's "rented equipment" just means VM can continue making endless money on each unit. Typically, router that is much better than a VM hub costs £60~. So instead of simply giving customers a basic Gateway device and allowing them to use an off-the-shelf router (like they used to do prior to 2011), they lock customers down and force them to perpetually rent their old 10th hand equipment. Great for the CEO's supercar fund, bad for the customer who is FORCED to use old equipment..... And in some cases dangerously old equipment, I've been sent a modem with metal items rattling around instide it!
From an environmental perspectiveand financial perspective VM is doing the right thing by recycling hubs. Thousands of used electrical goods are sold each day on Ebay etc, it's quite common to recycle and refurbish electrical goods
I'm with you on the environmental front. Sadly this is not how environmentalism works in a capitalist system. When we give up a brand new modem, that plastic/copper/silicon/lithium you and me helped save is not left untapped. It's exploited for other means, such as for building nukes and warheads to ship offshore.
Same with petrol. When we are going to ban petrol/diesel cars in a few years, that fuel is not left untapped. It's reserved for billionaires so they can use it in their rocketships so they can kick of star wars when they've flattened the earth.
Also, using eBay is a choice. I doubt people with OCD will force themselves to buy old goods on ebay. But when they sign up to VM, they cannot choose to recieve a brand new modem.
Furthermore, VM branding their own routers is environmentally unfriendly in my experience. When they gave off-the shelf modems back in 2009, they gave me a D-Link DIR-615 which I have made use of in one way or another for almost 2 decades. An decomissioned VM router has absolutely no use, as a router. It's a router that cant route anymore.
Due to the warehouse issue that delayed hub shipments I think they are sending mainly second hand units to people as they are the ones available. My hub 3 was obviously not brand new but was fine, no scratches or stains
