Who do I have to kill to get my broadband fixed?

[fiju]

I've been having ongoing issues with my virgin fibre broadband. I have a 100mb connection and it constantly drops out, sometimes for days at a time. I only connect to it via WiFi, this happens across all connected devices.

It takes an hour on hold to finally speak to someone in India over the phone, then the brain-dead robot sends me round in circles and tells me the issue has been resolved and it won't happen again - every fking time I call.

I have a huge list of issues with their customer service. I've just spent 2 hours on the phone trying to resolve it, and wouldn't take no for answer. Eventually I asked for a manager to call me back. He calls me back and spent at least 30 mins going around in circles about how WiFi works. They're going to send an engineer round on Saturday. it's Monday today ffs. I asked about compensation for having no service for days and I get told that there is nothing that they can do. Seriously. Wtf. I swear these Indian call centres have the worst customer service.

I sent a complaint via email in November, which I am yet to hear back about.

To top it off, they've hiked the price of my package by something like £15 without saying anything.

I'm fking seething right now. What do I have to do to get them to pay attention?

[OMITN]

I would email the CEO (Lutz Schuler) and COO (Jeff Dodds). Google should give you a good idea of their email addresses. Don't be abusive, but do be clear and firm.

There will be a third line customer services team designed to pick up complaints directly emailed to the CEO and other execs. Your complaint should then be prioritised. If it isn't, keep emailing them until they get sick of you.

Do this with any utility/telco - they all operate in the same way. The CEO team in the telco I worked in were all UK based and would assign a specific agent who would stay on the issue until it was resolved.

[john2443]

When I had the same problem with Pipex, I dumped them and went to PlusNet who have been very good. The call centre is in Sheffield, not Bangalore, I've only spoken to them once, they fixed it immediately and I've never had to contact them again - from about 8 years ago.

If they won't fix it, just call and ask for the MAC ID and move to someone else.

[IJWS15]

Does the hub lose connection with Virgin or do you lose connection with the hub (WiFi)?, there is a difference.

VM generally don't have a clue.

[Chozza]

Have you tried connecting via ethernet ? Does the same still happen ?

[SiH]

You aren't in Sussex are you? The Virgin customers around here all lost their broadband over Christmas due to some issues with the cable. The local MP got involved to try and get it sorted out but I can't imagine the misery of trying to get through Christmas without internet!

[fiju]

Thanks omitn I'll do that.

I'm still in contract so I don't think I can move to another provider, can I?

The hub is losing connection with virgin I believe as the lights don't show that it's connected.

I haven't connected it with ethernet as what's the point? Everything is connected via WiFi.

I'm in South London.

[Jaska]

john2443 said:

When I dumped them and went to PlusNet who have been very good

+1 - plusnet easily the best company I've ever had to call the call centre of

[98elise]

I knew it would be Virgin!!!!

I went through exactly the same pain when they forced me to use the Superhub3. The off shore call centre is a joke. At one point I was calling 3 or 4 times a day with the same problem, and they would just cover the same basics each time, then suggest the problem was my end, or me paying for more bandwidth.

Some of the bks they came out with convinced me they have no clue how WiFi works. Stuff like needing 10meg per device connected even if they were idle. Telling me to disconnect devices if I wanted to stream or hardwire everything (what about phones, tablets, smart devices???). Another option suggested was getting somebody to show me how to set my devices up (I've worked in IT for 25 years!!!).

When I finally got an engineer out he basically said the router was crap.

An interim fix was to use their router as a modem only, and use another router for WiFi. That solved the WiFi problems immediately.

I then switched to Sky which resolved the incompetent call centre staff problem, and halved my bill.

[Jinx]

The Superhub3 overheats really easily and cuts off the internet connection - make sure it is out in the open with clear air flow. Also put it in modem mode and connect a decent router (I use a R7800 Netgear Nighthawk - though newer, better ones are now available).

[Chozza]

fiju said:

I haven't connected it with ethernet as what's the point? Everything is connected via WiFi.

It eliminates 90% of local user configuration issues ( which means the CS person you are talking to might actually look at the issue

If you connect via ethernet and it works .. then they aren't looking a a problem in the street

[fiju]

I've got a spare hub 3 and have swapped it. No change.
The TV box is connected via ethernet, even that says it can't connect.
I think that completely rules out the hub/wifi problem.

[MCSV8]

Change to Zen - they are the best.

[fiju]

The good news is that my contract ends in a couple of months. Can I sign up to another provider now to take advantage of any new year's deals, but delay the start of service?

I've had a quick Google of fibre providers, max speed I can get seems to be 60mb or thereabouts. What gives? How will this affect gaming etc? I like not having to wait more than 10 mins to download 2gb.

[oakdale]

fiju said:

Thanks omitn I'll do that.

I'm still in contract so I don't think I can move to another provider, can I?

The hub is losing connection with virgin I believe as the lights don't show that it's connected.

I haven't connected it with ethernet as what's the point? Everything is connected via WiFi.

I'm in South London.

You said in your first post that they've hiked your price by £15, how could they do that if you're still in a contract?

[HRL]

Jinx said:

The Superhub3 overheats really easily and cuts off the internet connection - make sure it is out in the open with clear air flow. Also put it in modem mode and connect a decent router (I use a R7800 Netgear Nighthawk - though newer, better ones are now available).

Exactly what I had to do, however it wasn’t due to heating it was due to having more than ten devices connected to the Hub via WiFi.

Put it in modem mode and now haven’t had a single drop with more than 30 devices connected.

Super Hub is certainly not super. Should be renamed to stty Hub.

[TimmyMallett]

Its good if you sack off the superhub, its dogst. We bought a mesh system ans put in modem mode and havent looked back.

You can swap to any other isp, as long as you don't need such high download speeds, but unless you have someone else doing fttp they won't get near virgin speeds.

Connecting via ethernet will tell you if its the wireless aspect or the inbound connection.

[fiju]

oakdale said:

You said in your first post that they've hiked your price by £15, how could they do that if you're still in a contract?

Last month it was £45, this month it's closer to £60! Ive looked at the bill and there are no extra charges. When I asked the Indian call centre, they gave some sort of bullst response. How can they be incompetent and unhelpful? You could train a monkey to do a better job.

I'll repeat for those who are unable to read - the hub is not the problem. The TV box is connected with ethernet. It's saying there is no connection. I have tried 2 hubs now and there's no change. The hub is NOT the problem.

[xeny]

fiju said:

T

I haven't connected it with ethernet as what's the point? Everything is connected via WiFi.

Because if it is the wifi, it's reasonably quick/easy to put a different wifi setup in place hooked up to the superb, and that would be quicker/cheaper than killing someone.

[HRL]

fiju said:

Last month it was £45, this month it's closer to £60! Ive looked at the bill and there are no extra charges. When I asked the Indian call centre, they gave some sort of bullst response. How can they be incompetent and unhelpful? You could train a monkey to do a better job.

I'll repeat for those who are unable to read - the hub is not the problem. The TV box is connected with ethernet. It's saying there is no connection. I have tried 2 hubs now and there's no change. The hub is NOT the problem.

Not necessarily so. If the Hub goes into meltdown it can effect all connections, WiFi or not. Of course that’s only from my personal experience, but I have heard of others having the same problem.