Please will someone from Virgin Media Technical Support call me!
My Super Hub 3 has been broken since Friday.
It was initially not working at all - no WiFi nor direct ethernet. After the last time I got though to support it is now supplying WiFi. However the ethernet ports are lighting up as you would expect - but the hub refuses to negotiate a logical connection with the physically connected devices.
I've tried to contact support (literally) 100+ times, often getting the line dropped at the 50+ minute mark. I only have a mobile to call from and the signal is poor so I cannot move once I connect (relevant later).
This has burned through £50 of phone credit to date as Virgin Media insist on using an 0845 number which is charged at 55p/min while I am on hold. (Thanks 3Mobile for stitching me up on the unlimited minutes contract I pay each month for, Virgin charge up to 7p/min for the call and the rest goes to you! Guess which mobile provider will be losing my patronage in the near future). Bear in mind that as soon as I speak to someone at VM, I give them my mobile number - explain the dropped calls issues and ask them to call me back.
Here's a quick history of things tried and failed so far:
- Turning it off and on again. (Several times, 10 second wait, 20 second wait, 30 second wait before back on)
- Factory reset - 10 seconds on the reset button. (Twice)
- Factory reset - 30 seconds on the reset button. (Twice)
- Magic commands sent from the VM support centre.
To mitigate the problem, I have also:
- Signed up with another broadband provide as backup (Install 5th Feb).
- Bought a replacement Super Hub 3 from eBay (may arrive tomorrow, will probably need Virgin Media to do something at their end to enable the box for use in my account, I can imagine the joy as I try to get though to VM tech support again...).
- Visited all the nearby mobile phone places that may have a 4G dongle or 4G wifi hotspot - they're either not open (what with Covid and all) or don't carry them any more.
For those that care to read on - here's the outline of poor customer service experience I have had so far:
Friday Overall - Made 50+ calls, around 40 of them resulted in an engaged tone. 10 of them were disconnected, either during queueing or when in conversation.
Friday - The first time I spoke to someone we got as far as doing a 30 second reset on the box. He asked me to confirm the colour of the lights (steady orange/yellow at the bottom, no others steady or flashing), we were then cut off. He didn't call back. Either way - not fixed.
Note: At this point I was losing the will to live.
Saturday overall - Another 30+ calls, again mostly the engaged tone, 5 or so calls actually got through, however I never got to speak to anyone. Highlight: did get a phone ringing at 46 minutes, then back to hold music, then call dropped at 54 minutes.
Sunday overall - another 25 calls - most engaged, still got to confirm my password a few times though.
Sunday - I got through to a well spoken Indian chap, the call was dropped (my wife's phone ran out of credit), he called back on my mobile (Oh happy days!) he managed to send a command that initiated the WiFi, he then asked me to go and check the direct connection (can't move the phone remember) - he could name the PC connected to the port but not see any traffic. I went downstairs (better mobile signal upstairs, router downstairs), check the PC - confirmed that it was not connected and still trying to negotiate a connection, and by the time I got back, the call had dropped. The engineer had immediately called back (while I was still checking the computer, I'm not sure how he expected me to go downstairs check the PC and return in the time he gave me...) and left a message saying he could only call back once so I'd have to call back and join the queue again - he had the decency to sound apologetic in the message.
Sunday continued - Called the sales line (that way I don't get charged 55p/min!), spoke to someone in the UK - was disconnected, she called back, was disconnected, no call back.
Sunday continued - Called the sales line again, spoke to someone in the UK - she said she was going to try and get a hold of the engineer I had last spoken to - was disconnected, no call back.
So here I am 4 days in - clearly the Hub is duff and I need a new one - but can I get anyone to speak to that can just send a new one... Sadly no.
Please Virgin Media - please call me! I'm going bankrupt while I try to fix a problem that should take 5 minutes to diagnose.