My tale of woe
1. On the 17th of December, I got a text from Virginmedia offering me 1 Gbps internet for £3 extra. It contained a link. On the 18th I followed the link and completed the process including agreeing to the Ts and Cs and that I would start a new 18 month contract.
2. I then got an email to my Blueyonder address, subject line "Virgin Media Documents" containing 2 x PDF documents, a Contract Summary Sheet, and a Contract Information Sheet (a longer version).
3. Both said my monthly charge would increase from £49 to £52, and that after 18 months it would increase to £63 (i.e. a jump of £11)
4. The same day Dec 18th I got an email subject line "Your Virgin Media Order", confirming the previous, and setting out this:
Estimated activation date:
Saturday 21 December 24
Main services total £52.00*
Price from your January 2025 bill £52.00*
Price from your July 2026 bill £63.00*
New 18 month contract
5. Nothing showed up under "My orders" on My Virginmedia.
5. Nothing happened on Sat 21 Dec, BUT on Sun 22 Dec I got an email from 'Challenger Rapid Testlab - Volt SIMS (+ order number)' saying
Hi there,
Thanks for contacting Virgin Media about making some changes to your
account.
We'd like to talk to you to as it appears that some information that we
need to process your order was missing. This will help us take the next
steps towards getting signed up, so just call our team on 0800 064 3830.
We're looking forward to hearing from you!
Kind regards,
The Virgin Media team
I called them and a guy said it was all a mistake and I should not have been offered that deal, instead I could have another for £4 extra, and I could also have my landline (which I don't use) made anytime instead of evenings and weekends. A new hub would come. I asked if it would connect automatically and he said "yes".
6. I accepted this. Maybe I am an idiot, and I should have said "I have a contract, please fulfil that".
7. I got a second set of emails, giving a new activation date of yesterday Sat 28 Dec.
8. This time I got a notification on My Virginmedia that Yodel would deliver a new Hub on Sat 28 Dec and on the day I got a delivery slot.
9. The hub came yesterday nearly 2 hours after the slot ended, Never mind, I could have fun setting it up. No promised little spanner! No set-up guide.
10. The hub came on, but flashing lights never stopped. Works all right on the LAN, and wifi OK but no internet.
11. I reconnected the previous Hub 3 and got an internet connectionn as normal. I gather this means the hub MAC for my account was still the old one.
12. I called Virgin Media this afternoon and spent over an hour with a nice lady who checked and said the new Hub 5 was not activated to my account, and she would now do this.
13. At least six power cycles and a couple of resets later, still no joy.
14. She wondered if the co-axial cable was properly connected. It is (I've had my cable internet for 24 years and I've lost count of the number of cable modems and routers I've had).
15. She booked an engineer vist for Tues 31 Dec between 1300 and 1800.
16 I asked if she could swap back the previous Hub 3 so I could use the Internet in the meantime. She made me read out the MAC address. She made me wait while she did the needful, but it just would not connect.
17. The Hub 3 that worked fine this morning is now bricked! Stuck on 'Updates are in progress'.
18. I am using my VM/O2 mobile phone as a hot spot to get connected.
Any thoughts? I suspect the hub they sent me may be a customer return and possibly faulty.
