360 TV upgrade problems

[LouVal]

In September I received an email saying I was eligible to upgrade to the new 360 Virgin Media remote & tv package which would be better than my current one. I was happy with what I had but thought I would accept anyway since it was supposed to be an upgrade. After accepting the upgrade I was then informed that I would lose all of my recordings and series links and they 4OD also isn’t available with the new upgraded tv package. I decided this wasn’t worth it to me so I phoned up and cancelled the upgrade, the person I spoke to said that it was cancelled and they had arranged for a returns label to be sent for me to return the new remote (which I had received but not used yet). Then a few days later my tv said that it was now time to upgrade to the new service and the old remote control stopped working, it just showed a message on the screen asking me to pair the new remote. I phoned up again and was told there was nothing they could do, the upgrade was complete and I would need to pair the new remote. I was not happy about this but accepted it and did so. Since having the upgrade and new remote I have found the functions and user-friendliness far substandard to my old service. The record function is hard to use with fewer options, it records films in separate episodes which is confusing, the layout is more basic, fast forward/rewind isn’t as good (doesn’t jump back to the start of the show after ads like it used to), I also can’t figure out how to retrieve a deleted recording (I used to have 30 days to do this if I deleted something by mistake) and it seems neither do the Virgin media support support team. I have spoken to two separate people to try to find an answer to this problem, one of whom cut me off after keeping me on hold for some time while he asked his supervisor. With the old remote you click on My Shows to go to your recordings and recently deleted recordings where you can retrieve them, but the new remote has no such button. My old tv package used to let me view my recorded movies and tv shows separately if I wanted to and it listed them with a picture, the new one groups them all together in a basic list format. I am very unhappy that I have received an upgrade that I didn’t ask for and tried to cancel, that I have subsequently lost all of my old recordings, have a much more basic layout, can’t retrieve deleted recordings and am being offered no solutions by the Virgin media team. I have also had to make numerous phone calls to your 0345 number at my own expense. DO NOT ACCEPT THE 360 “UPGRADE” IF YOU ARE OFFERED IT. I am now reconsidering if I want to remain with Virgin Media as I don’t feel that the service I now receive is worth what I pay.

[japitts]

Sorry to say, but with the lack of paragraphs I've found your post quite hard to follow.

Having said that... I think there's a few points I've picked out:

1: A choice to convert from TiVo/V6 > 360 is irreversible, and once the process is set started you will struggle to stop it. I would only ever suggest choosing to convert on an informed basis, once you've researched the pros & cons.

2: Lack of the C4-branded app was one of the shortcomings of the 360 platform compared with V6, but has recently been launched.

3: In terms of the recording functionality, and you won't want to hear this, but 360 is not TiVo. It is completely different software, and while the end result of a "recording set top box" is the same, the two platforms (TiVo & 360) go about things in a completely different way.

4: VM's 0345 customer service number is charged the same as any other 03x number is - as a landline call from whichever provider you're calling from. If you have a VM phone, calling on 150 is free. Otherwise, 03 numbers are landline-rate calls and deductible from inclusive allowances exactly the same as any other landline call.

[NinjaMeerkat]

Just to add to the above post there is no undelete function within 360 hence why you cant find the option.

[Anonymous]

I've had the 360 upgrade for a few months now. 

I'm still missing good old Tivo with all its useful functionality.

Had Virgin since the Telewest days.

Seriously considering Sky for the first time.

[LouVal]

Hi japittis, thanks for your reply however nobody asked for the grammar police. I copy & pasted this post from a message that I sent to Virgin Media using their contact us form, which doesn’t  allow paragraphs. I didn’t think it that important to edit the post but will try to do better in future 🙄👍

Secondly, if the difference between V6 and 360 was completely different software and functionality then I think that it should be Virgin Media’s responsibility to make their customers aware of this. They sold it it me as an upgrade, not a completely different service which in my option is nowhere near as good.

[NinjaMeerkat · Accepted solution]

The problem for VM is that if they told everyone about the cons of moving to 360 then nearly no one would make the move and VM need to get everyone off the V6 platform. Some of VM's customers only use the basic functionality of the V6 so moving to the 360 isn't such a big deal, its the more advanced users that will miss out until the software becomes much more functional.