Lightning- everything blown up - virgin washes their hands

[Gillyathome]

Can anybody help me with a contact number / email address for the zero harm division ?

the chief exec's office is blaming "god" for lightning blowing up my TV and Computer...

does "god" only pick on 12 virgin customers at the same time ?

I've never had such a poor experience from any customer care team. been bounced

from head office to cisas, pointless waste of time.... they can't help.

[Gillyathome]

interesting, adding to my armour....

https://vimeo.com/156290530

Gilly

[michaeldavis]

"my isolator on the wall failed miserably - so it's virgin's responsibility to put this right..."

By your own admission, your isolator failed so you were aware of a potential electrical issue by using an isolator, you may have a case against the supplier of the isolator. But as you are a self professed "electronics wiz" you should have heard of and made use of a simple serge protection device.

Serge protection devices are incorporated in multi gang power strips if you are prepared to spends a few extra pounds to safe guard expensive electronic equipment, but you should know this being a self professed "electronics wiz".

There are three lessons to be learned here:
1)Surge protection works with high energy electrical discharges i.e. Lightning
2)Isolators have no protection capability and is used to physically disconnect any circuit when repairs etc are being done
3)When you screw up and get it wrong take it on the chin and do not try to blame others

[dante01]

The issue with blaming the isolator is that the isolator isn't intended or designed to prevent a discharge associated with lightning strikes. It makes no odds as to whether or not the isolator didn't prevent the damage because it was never intended to do this.  If taking this to a claims court then Virgin's defence would simply state as much and neither would the isolator's manufacturer endorse using it for such purposes. I'd simply go with a case that questions why Virgin don't employ anything that would help protect households if  lightning strikes Virgin Media's hardware external to the building and buildings in that area. You're going to need someone with experience or expertise in this area in order to formulate a case and provide evidence that Virgin are indeed culpable.

[stevesjclark · Accepted solution]

Michael Davis   Could I suggest you read the full thread before commenting. The problem originated from the virgin street furniture thru the co-ax not thru the mains. The"Serge (spelt 'surge') protection devices are incorporated in multi gang power strips if you are prepared to spends a few extra pounds to safe guard expensive electronic equipment, " you refer too are designed to deal with everyday spikes in supply voltage not 1,000's of volts from a lightening strike. The isolator referred to is supplied in the equipment virgin fit in the wall box, not something the customer has retro fitted and is there to protect their equipment in the street as much as to protect the customers equipment from them. Hope this clarifies things so your lessons are correct in future.

[Gillyathome]

Michael davis

sorry you didn't realise how I got zapped. I have everything in place to stop the normal surge's..

2 x 13amp plug in the was protectors.. and one of these....

[Gillyathome]

I didn't think I was going mad !

An engineer visited tonight... really nice guy 2.5 hours he was here.

he tested my coax going to the modem, and wasn't happy with the results, came back from his van with an HDU ( a signal booster / filter not sure)

fitted - tried a speedtest same speed as before.. so he replaced the modem..... checked the speed again...….same thing..

the engineer now thinks it's a cable short somewhere in the street.

melted cables, i'm sure I've seen them around somewhere lately

he's going to arrange for the cables to be replaced, lets see what happens  next.

the lesson I learnt tonight, the support teams remote tools aren't %100 bullet proof, I do have a problem that they can't see or detect remotely.

Thanks again to the excellent  engineer tonight, he's a credit to virgin.,,, I would give his name, but he'd only blush.. 🙂

Gilly

[Gillyathome]

oh I nearly forgot, talking of melted cables....this belongs to a chap that lives 2 doors along from the afflicted house..

it was connected to his NAS box, that exploded and caught fire.. zero harm....lol

I've never seen a melted cable that's as stiff as a dead snake.. but take a look 🙂

[dante01]

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@Gillyathome wrote:

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it was connected to his NAS box, that exploded and caught fire.. zero harm....lol

Why on earth would someone want or need to connect virgin media's cable feed to their NAS? The NAS may have been connected to the router via an ethernet connection, but it wasn't connected directly to the cable feed.

[Gillyathome]

it's because he doesn't own a computer.... his modem also fried.

[dante01]

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@Gillyathome wrote:

it's because he doesn't own a computer.... his modem also fried.

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Yes, but you do not connect a NAS directly to the cable feed. It was connected to his router and not the cable feed.