Hub4 WiFi Pod Nightmare

[MCLS_2022]

Evening all, unfortunately I have suffered the fate of my wifi pod not connecting to my new HUB4.

I have called and spoken to around 9 advisors this evening and keep being told to call a different number (strangely the same number I called on 🙂 )

sadly I am yet to speak to someone who knows how to re-pair my pod to my new hub.

very draining 4+hrs on the phone, even though I am basically giving them the information they would require to fix this easy fault as all they need is to link my MAC and SN to the new hub (as it’s obviously still associated with my old HUB3 in the virgin internal system)

anyone have any tips? Can’t speak to FMS directly and I'm literally pulling my hair out lol I just need to speak to someone that’s not reading the teleprompter who actually knows that’s all that needs to be done

i can’t tell you how many times today I have heard “please leave it 30mins and it will connect and lights will go off” haha sorry I think I’ve gone insane and this is my last hope at gaining my sanity back 🙂

what makes the situation worse is I work from home and the reason for the upgrade to hub 4 gig1 but I rely on the wifi pod to connect my work setup due to the location of the modem so a not so seamless upgrade.

as you can imagine I have incurred massive downtime (work related and unless I get this fixed asap I will have a very unhappy boss)

look forward to your advise or any tips to get this sorted

[MCLS_2022]

Update: 16/02/22 - after speak with another 5 members of the fault and activation team increasingly frustrating being told it’s a network issue in my area lol I kindly explained that would not effect the link between my hub4 and wifi pod as it’s a pairing issue, finally spoke to someone in the UK call Center that said they get this all the time and I just need to speak with the FMS team in the morning as they are the only ones with the capabilities to complete the pairing, well another 4 calls later and no one will put me through to the FMS team and I keep being told to unplug the wifi pod ——— this has been the most draining experience just to get a wifi extender working again I should have stayed on the hub3 m500 package as the hub4 is giving me much lower speeds and waisting days trying to get someone to relink the wifi pod

[Natalie_L]

Hi MCLS_2022

Thank you for updating the thread although I am sorry to hear about your experience. I appreciate this must be frustrating. 

I have taken a look from our side and can see you have spoken to the team today and they have made some remote adjustments. How have things been since then? Is the equipment now connected? 

Please let us know. 

Thanks 

[MCLS_2022]

I have not spoken to anyone today at virgin? Would you mind going into detail as to how you have this information?

3 days ago had to call and speak with over 15 advisors just to get my pod synced to the new modem.

I’ll be honest upgrading to gig1 hub4 has been one of the worst purchases I’ve don’t in a long time

problems made 100000x worse by the terrible CS reps seems like you have to speak to 14+ reps before you speak to someone that actually knows what they are doing 

[WestBrom11]

I had the exact same issue with my hub 4  when I got it, so can relate to you.

It was resolved after a week of many calls. an engineer was finally booked to come out but it started to work, oddly just the day before.

[Andrew-G]

@MCLS_2022  Let me play devil's advocate, if you will. 

Notwithstanding that you're entitled to free, working pods, you'd have better, more reliable wifi if you took matters into your own hands and spent money on your own mesh wifi setup.  Since the Hub 4 is only 802.11ac wifi, a competent mesh three unit mesh system using the same standard could be bought for bought for around £100 (I'm thinking either TP-Link Deco M4 or S4, prices for three unit systems bob around in the region £100-130, they're similar in capability, many other makes and models available if you prefer).  If you were feeling extravagant you could buy a notably more expensive Wifi 6 mesh or fancy tri-band systems, that's a different decision.

Now, you'll be thinking "A hundred ****ing quid!  I'm entitled to this for free!"  That's true, but you've already wasted four hours in stressful dealings with VM's incompetent customer service.  If I asked you to give up your time and do some work with a high stress level, what would you want as an hourly rate?  You see where this is going.  Eventually you will get VM's bunglers to re-pair your pods, possibly after a few more hours enjoying the prompt, efficient, well-informed and helpful customer support that Virgin Media are famous for.  Until next time something goes wrong.  Every so often VM roll out new firmware or new settings to "improve" the wifi, and invariably break something that was previously working.  As a mesh solution, the Hub 3/4 with pods is OK, and always worth trying for those who qualify for them free - the pods can work well, but there's reason to believe the hub's mesh router emulation doesn't work as well as a dedicated mesh system with a purpose designed router, and because of the unwise decision to have pairing within VM's control, the system is needlessly complicated, and getting simple problems resolved is difficult as you've found.  There's a time when it makes sense to cut your losses.

So consider whether persisting with the pods is the right answer for you.  Since I invested in a Deco M4 system over two years ago and put my hub in modem mode, my wifi has been faultless, coverage superb.  Guess how many times I had to contact TP-Link to get the system working and fix faults?  Yep, zero.  And every time some new SNAFU is reported here with VM hub firmware, I think smugly "doesn't affect me".  It's a choice: You can persevere with the pods and VM's idea of how wifi works, with no extra cost than wasted time and higher blood pressure, and the moderate risk of further problems because VM firmware never seems to achieve a state of permanence until the hub is obsolete.  Likely another half hour on the phone will see it sorted for now.  Or you can take the matter out their hands entirely - if you can get next day delivery, your wifi problems could be permanently fixed by tomorrow afternoon, and VM would never be able to interfere with settings or mess up wifi performance.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/Networking-and-WiFi/Hub-3-0-compatibility-with-Mesh-systems/m-p...

[-tony-]

no idea who you are getting through to but if its offshore they are better than a roundabout at taking you in circles

not saying UK agents might not have problems but you have a better chance - so try this - if you get offshore tell them you want to give 30 days notice - they will huff and puff but should connect you to UK retentions - once you have them start on the pods issue - tell them you DONT want transferring and you dont want a call back - they dont happen just the problem sorted

dial 150 or 0345 454 1111 and follow the prompts to - 'thinking of leaving us' - dont worry about that they do much more - open 8am -10pm 7 days a week - should take you to a UK call centre

theres a freephone number 0800 052 0422. You need option 4 to speak to retentions

[Andrew-G]

Certainly used to be the case that retentions were both helpful and very good at sorting out messes made elsewhere by VM, but bear in mind hundreds of them have just been told they're no longer valued employees, but merely commodity telephone agents who VM don't care enough about to employee directly and so are going to be TUPE'd across to call centre gangmasters SITEL.  As a result there's a good chance that morale and goodwill are already in very short supply, and that's only going to get worse because soon the agents will now no longer have ANY interest in anything other than what's in the SITEL SLA, and drives their own incentives, so fixing the incompetence of other outsourced areas of VM will cease to be something they'll do.

Not relevant to OP's case, but interesting to note that VM seem to be progressively outsourcing everything to third parties on the cheap, in every case with resultant poor quality (customer service, sales and retentions, email services, internal IT, CPE logistics, cable pulls and civil works).  They're already setting networks up for "refinancing" and an obvious next step there will be to employ third parties for all technical work "to save money".  Soon there won't be anybody directly employed by VM other than useless, overpaid directors.

[MCLS_2022]

Thanks you for the in-depth reply, I read this with tears in my eyes 🙂 any recommendations for a system for gaming via Ethernet and strong wifi round house (2 bedroom semi not massive just had a few black spots upstairs I think my it’s lined with lead sheeting :)) your post has made me realise I need to buy a new setup now to handle the new speeds!