Alleged "planned outage"

[zeebo]

Been having intermittent problems with both broadband and TV in the last 24 hours.

Broadband wasn’t connecting and TV channels wouldn’t load – it would get stuck on 16% when scanning for channels.

Service Status reported problems in our area for TV, broadband and phone however this has now disappeared and there are “No known issues” at all. However, whilst our broadband appears to have returned, the TV has not. But what is strange is that we have a 2nd box upstairs which is working fine.

I connected with Live Chat who eventually formed me this was a “Planned Outage” and would be fixed by September 23rd – 1 week from now. Quite a considerable outage which was not notified to us…

A complaint was then raised at their suggestion and I was provided with a reference number.

I highlighted that we are still able to use the 2nd box in our house fine and was told that engineers are now in attendance and we may get “partial service”. I again pointed out that the service status shows no issues for the area.

I live in a dense urban area with hundreds, if not thousands of Virgin Media customers. Any sort of “outage” would attract significant social media reactions, nevermind one of over a week that wasn’t notified to residents. So far nothing has appeared and none of my immediate neighbours have reported any issues.

The whole thing just doesn’t add up. I have asked for the reference number associated with the planned outage, and was provided one and told this was also  “mentioned on my account” I asked why my account would contain a unique reference to a planned outage, the chat assistant then gets a bit shirty and states:

“we have an application where we can check about potential outages that is affecting you to use our services. For our records we have the reference number. However please be rest assured. We value you as a customer and you asked me reference number. I shared it with you."

At this point I terminated the chat, saved the transcript and the complaint / outage reference but I am no further forward and I guess I now just have to wait a week or more for this unrecorded / unreported “planned outage” to be complete with no way of checking status.

Appreciate any insight into the above from people who may know better than I…

[newapollo]

Hi zeebo,

Try swapping the two boxes around. This may kickstart the box which is stuck on 16% when scanning for channels into action.

[japitts]

Make sure the two boxes have a finger-tight co-ax connection, that's often the cause of this problem. Either that or an area fault - you've mentioned checking the service status, but are you using the webpage or the automated phoneline?

If you've only used the webpage thus far, try using the automated phoneline which is often a lot better for localised, postcode-level faults that loss-of-service tends to be.

Otherwise, as already advised - try swapping the boxes around. See if the fault follows the box, or even gets kicked into life.

[Hayley_S]

Hello @zeebo,

Welcome to the community page, thank you for posting on here.

I was unable to find an account using your forums details, is the account in your name?

Did you receive an email/letter stating that there was going to be a planned outage?

Please let me know.