Do VirginMedia Know What They Are Doing?

[gordon861]

OK, so after the out of the blue email the other week regarding the Hub5 which everyone swore blind didn't exist.  It arrived, it's plugged in and not made a massive difference.

And then Virgin/O2 announce/launch Volt (sort of), again no one seems to know what it is.  But after talking to O2 who seem a bit better informed, I get my O2 data on my phone doubled (no idea what the hell I'm going to do with 100GB though, normally use 2GB), and it turns out the Virgin part of the deal is to shift your broadband speed up to the next tier so M200 become M350.

So after a few calls asking how I get this upgrade they issue a ticket and will get back to me, and today they did.

Email comes in saying that my package now includes Volt M350 and the speed should be going up, not sure how long that's going to take to actually happen though as SpeedTest still says it's M200.

But the real fun comes around lunch today with a text "... your new Virgin kit will arrive on Thu 11 Nov ...", what the hell is going on?  Re-looking at the attachment to the email, it looks like they are sending me a new VirginMedia Hub3!

They just sent me a Hub5 less than two weeks ago, I still have the old Hub3 here that I told them I planned to hang onto until I was satisfied that the new Hub5 was fit for purpose.

I thought the whole point of sending the Hub5 to current Hub3 customers was to try and bring the older customer base more up to date.  If so how is this achieved if they are still sending out new Hub3's?

So I ask again, based on the last couple of weeks, does anyone think Virgin have a clue what they are doing?

[Unknown67]

Arse from elbow springs to mind Gordon. I would have thought it would be more beneficial to 1 GIg customers that could use the extra 200 meg, but hey ho. We will probably get charged at least £35 for the privilege..

[jbrennand]

One possibility is that because (AIUI) the Hub5 cant use their wifi Pods at the moment, and it will take a firmware update and testing before that happens. And VM are, historically, notoriously slow at doing that sort of thing.

So issuing a Hub5 to the 1GB customers who are all entitled to free Pods that no longer work - is a Marketing person's worst nightmare.

[Unknown67]

Is it the pods that need a f/w update? I tried one because it was free. Binned it after a week because it needed rebooting every other day. Password errors and loosing connection.

[Chris_W1]

Hi gordon861, thanks for the message, the new hub 5 is on on trial basis and some customers will be invited to the trial, I understand that you have the hub 3 and we are still sending these out. Once the stock levels become in a normal range we will start sending these out to customers. Please keep an eye on your email to see when you would be eligible. Chris

[gordon861]

Hi Chris, I think you may have misread the post.

I have a Hub5 (I broke the story on here two weeks ago) and as of the end of play today I will also have two Hub3s as well.

[risc19]

The title is do they know what they are doing, then they respond to a question no one asked. 

I think you have your answer. 

[Akua_A]

Hi @gordon861,

Sorry for the confusion caused. Just to clarify, have you checked your my VM account in the "My appointment and orders tab" to see if the new hub is on the way? Have you also received confirmation of this via text or email from yodel? Also, since your last post, how are your new broadband speeds? 

Thanks,

[gordon861]

Well - 
"Your QuickStart self-installation pack is due for delivery on 2021-11-11 between 8am and 6pm"
I did have Hermes missed caller card on Thursday (11th) but nothing from Yodel, but I may have fixed that by telling them to deliver on 15th by logging onto their website.

And I have a note at the top of the page

I have been on the 200Mps package for years, I'm supposed to be VOLT boosted to the 350Mps one now, and I was told on the phone that this would take place on 11 Nov and that I didn't have to do anything.

When I look further down the page it shows that I have TV and Landline, no broadband.  But it does have a button to Add broadband to my package>.

But when I look at My Bills, it lists me as having Volt M350 Fibre Broadband, but my connection is still only 200Mps.

My current speeds are:

So as you can see, according to VirginMedia I have broadband, don't have broadband, and also have a new broadband quickstart package on the way.  And just to add to the fun my Schrodinger's Cat Broadband has been speedboosted from M350 up to M200, whilst already being M200 for years already.  Add to this the debarckle of the Hub5 that I was offered and accepted that no one with any connection to Virgin Media seemed to know even existed, which is in the other thread that was recently locked.

Is it any wonder that I am concerned that VirginMedia might not know what they are doing?

[asim18]

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@jbrennand wrote:

One possibility is that because (AIUI) the Hub5 cant use their wifi Pods at the moment, and it will take a firmware update and testing before that happens. And VM are, historically, notoriously slow at doing that sort of thing.

So issuing a Hub5 to the 1GB customers who are all entitled to free Pods that no longer work - is a Marketing person's worst nightmare.

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I think you're right. These "pod" things are a very bizarre networking product in my opinion.

Almost all wifi/ethernet/networking equipment is plug and play and compatible with every other networking device out there.... Plug in a WAP it works straight out of the box.

But these new "plum" things are designed to pair with just one modem only so they can "improve" your wifi. It's a very bizarre product in my opinion. It makes no sense why anyone would want to use these pods to improve their wifi. I'm not a fan of such items, they will collect the data to "improve" wifi, so it seems to me as if they will start to commercialise WiFi radio Tx power.