Hopeless service on chat - No Wi-Fi in kitchen. Do I qualify for free WIFI pod was my question

[colin99]

I finally got the virgin connect app working after months of trying and went round my house checking my Wi-Fi speed. I knew that the kitchen was a blind spot so wasn't surprised that, on testing 3 times, the results were 0,1 and 5MBs. Now that I had some real figures I started a chat bot to try and get a WIFI pod. I have the full transcript and will cut and paste from it.so you can see how unhelpful the experience was. You'll see that the agent, Fardeen, says at the end, that he will send an email and SMS so that, if the problem persists, I can get back in touch easily. No email or SMS was received and my account doesn't show an engineer is scheduled.

Maybe someone can explain to me how unplugging every cable from both my TV360 boxes, and switching them off and on again, will sort my slow WiFi  in my kitchen.

Colin Campbell 

Extract from chat session

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Virtual Assistant: Is there anything you would like to add before I transfer you to an Agent?
15:16, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: Speed in kitchen is 5mbs at best. Do I qualify for a free WIFI pod?
Sammi: Ok, no problem. Getting you through now 😊
15:27, Mar 29
Fardeen: Hi Colin. Good Morning. Apologize for the wait time you have experienced, we value your time. I can see you have mentioned that you need help in resolving an issue. Let’s take a look together at your query now and get this resolved as quickly as possible for you. May I know the exact issue you are facing?
15:27, Mar 29
colin campbell+ Account Holder: only 5mbs at best in kitchen. Last 2 results on connect app were 1 and 0
15:29, Mar 29
Fardeen: Oh, that's a real inconvenience Colin. No wonder this could be disappointing to you.
I would like to thank you for explaining the entire situation to me. I have understood this is been
going on for a while now and that's not nice. I'm going to do everything in my capacity to resolve
this right away. Please stay connected while I check this and get this sorted right away.😊
15:34, Mar 29
Fardeen: Thanks for patiently waiting for me Colin , I really appreciate it. I have just made changes
to the tvbox and resolved the issue successfully. -Could you please turn off the TV box. - Take your time disconnect all the cables To and FROM the TV box. - Reconnect them back securely and turn the TV box back on after a minute. Wait for the connection to stabilize Colin and let me know the status. Please let me know the status after that.
15:35, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: both boxes?
15:37, Mar 29
Fardeen: Yep both the boxes colin.
15:43, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: both boxes done. Both back on and look ok
15:44, Mar 29
Fardeen: I could see on the account that there were few network interferences occuring at the Tv box and I have successfully resolved the issue from my end and I can confirm you that this will not cause you any issues going forward. As you have reached me today I will now start to monitor our connection from my end to ensure that there are no issues with this and if you face any issues then I will send out an engineer to get this sorted right away. Sounds good, Colin?😊
15:46, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: speed test in kitchen is only 4mbs download. Did it just now.
15:48, Mar 29
Fardeen: Just wait for an hour or so and if the same issue persists then I will send an engineer with the new hub so that you wont be facing any issues with that.
15:49, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: How will I get in touch if still slow? Is there a reference or do I just stay on the line with you?
15:53, Mar 29
Fardeen: You will not have to do anything at all colin as you have reached me I will monitor the connection and send the engineer right away with a new hub for absolutely free of cost for you.
15:55, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: How can you see what WiFi speed I am getting in my kitchen? I was a network manager before I retired. As you don't have anything connected to your network in my kitchen it's not possible for you to monitor it is it?
15:56, Mar 29
Fardeen: I will be monitoring the connection personally from my side and I will know if the connection has been better or not and if the issue has not been resolved then for confirmation I will also be sending an e-mail to you to just check upon if the issue has been sorted just so you will not have to contact us back and then as I said As for the confirmation I will be sending an engineer out right away at the property.
15:59, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: I'm sorry but what you are saying doesn't make any sense to me. My problem is that the WIFI speed in the kitchen is at best 5mbs. None of the monitoring you can do can see what speed my WIFI is in the kitchen. As I said, there's nothing in my kitchen that is connected to your network.
16:00, Mar 29
Fardeen: Colin i will be sending an email and sms to you to confirm if the issue is occurring even after the initialization process and then you can let me know via it so I will be sending the engineer.
16:01, Mar 29
colin campbell + Account Holder: Ok - I'll wait for the email and sms.
16:02, Mar 29
Fardeen: You're Most Welcome Colin, I am glad I was able to help you with this. Please be rest assured that this has been solved. I could see that there were few issues which now I have successfully resolved. I will now personally follow up on this for you and ensure that this never occurs again so that you will not have to contact us for the same thing as I will also send out an email to confirm that. I can promise you that you will face any issues going forward. Be rest assured that I will personally take care of this. If the issue has not been resolved then an engineer will be out. Thank you for your time with me. I have done my best to assist you with your concern today. Hope I have provided a 5 star customer service Your feedback matters for me to Improve my performance and help my customers further I would be happy to know this, once I close this chat now Thank you for reaching Virgin Media support, have a great day ahead take care😀
Info: Conversation closed by the agent 16:07, Mar 29

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[colin99]

See my other post from Wednesday. On Wednesday on chat I was told to unplug everything from both my tv360 boxes even although I had explained my problem was next to no WiFi signal downstairs. The agent said he sorted the problem. Even Harry Potter couldn't do that by switching off tv boxes. Since then, I've phoned  the number on the website to order a wifi pod but never got to a human before the recorded message got to the goodbye message. I've been back on chat and got to the "transferring to an agent" but gave up after waiting for over 20 minutes. I really like my vm package. I think the broadband is excellent and I have an excellent selection of TV channels. All I want is wifi downstairs. If the house wasn't so old with thick walls I'd run ethernet down there. I'm retired. I have a heart condition. Before this puts my blood pressure through the roof can someone please give me a route to a wifi pod apart from the useless chat and the advertised phone line that sends you round in circles before saying goodbye.

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @colin99,

Welcome back to our Community Forums! Thank you for your post and I'm sorry to hear that you're having some speed issues in regards to your WiFi Connection! I can understand how frustrating this can be.

I've taken a look at our systems to see if there's anything else we can do, and I can see that there's currently an active SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio) Outage in your local area. This outage is impacting TV, broadband, and Landline services. 

The fault reference number is F010581134 and the current estimated fix time is showing as today 03/04/23 at 14:15. Please reboot your equipment after this time to see if your issue improves and let us know if you need any further help or assistance going forward.

Thank you.

[colin99]

Thanks Paulina but as I keep saying, my broadband is ok, it's the wifi that's not getting downstairs. Upstairs I'm getting 371MBs over wifi, downstairs I'm getting at best 5MBs. It follows that if the wifi is that good upstairs then the reason it's so bad downstairs is due to the construction and layout of the house. To solve my problem I need some sort of wifi booster, aka a wifi pod. Can you arrange to send a wifi pod please?

Many thanks

Colin

[colin99]

Hi Paulina_Z

I got a message from virgin media yesterday to say that the fault in my area had been repaired. I checked my speed just now and it's only 8MBs downstairs. Can you arrange for a wifi pod to be sent please?

Many thanks

Colin

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @colin99,

Thank you for sending me a Private Message. Please keep in mind that we only accept Private Messages if we offer that option to you first. Unsolicited Private Messages will not be answered.

I'm glad to hear that the local issue that was previously impacting you has been resolved. Sorry to hear that you're having some WiFi range issues when it comes to reaching some parts of your home.

In this case, we would advise you take a look at our Connect App to go through our suggested checks to see if you can place a WiFi Pod order through there. 

If you're unable to place an order for a WiFi Pod through the app, please give our dedicated team a call on 0800 064 3850 where you can place an order to have a WiFi Pod sent to you.

Please keep us updated on how you get on. If you have any other issues, please let us know. We're here to help.

Thank you.

[colin99]

Thanks Pauline

Sorry, I didn't know the protocol for sending private messages. I apologise for my mistake.

As for the connect app, I've tried it lots of times, on 3 different devices,  and it fails before I've completed the tests so I won't bother with that again.

As for phoning, I've been round that circle a few times as well. Tried it again just now with the same result. Keypresses I sent to that number were 23211121, my mobile number, then 1. That results in me getting a message saying everything is ok and a that a link will be sent to my mobile. The automated message then ends. I never get the chance to talk to a human being and the link never arrived..

Virgin Media has successfully created 3 methods , app phone and forum, that result in no help whatsoever.

Albert Einstein once said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

At 72 years old I've decided to keep my sanity and to stop expecting a different result from the app, the phone line, and this forum.

Colin

[Carley_S]

Hi @colin99 

Thanks for confirming this. I can see that you have since been in touch with the team and have resolved this for you already. 

There are a few requirements for the Pods to work with our Hubs.

• The Hub must be in 'Router Mode' and not have been changed to 'Modem Mode'
• Channel Optimisation must be left on
• The SSIDs must be the same and broadcast enabled
• The SSID must be password protected
• The Passphrases of the SSIDs must match

As long as all of the above points are all met then the Pods will automatically connect to your Hub's WiFi and begin broadcasting. The wireless details from the Pods will be the same as the Hub's details, so no additional steps are required to connect up the devices in the home.

Please let us know if you are having any further issues or have any questions at all. We'll be here to help on the community forums if needed :).