We have now had no broadband service for forty-eight hours ... and the new deadline for it to be restored is 9.00pm.
Virgin has missed so many deadlines over the past two days that I doubt that they will have fixed the problem by 9.00pm ... but I'd be very happy if I am proved wrong.
9.30pm Update: Virgin has set yet another deadline for the restoration of our Internet service ... 11.00pm.
11.20pm Update: We now have a new deadline ... 4.00am tomorrow morning!
Virgin has missed so many deadlines over the past two days that I doubt that they will have fixed the problem by 9.00pm ... but I'd be very happy if I am proved wrong.
9.30pm Update: Virgin has set yet another deadline for the restoration of our Internet service ... 11.00pm.
11.20pm Update: We now have a new deadline ... 4.00am tomorrow morning!
We moved from Virgin years ago. Absolutely useless then and it seems nothing has changed. Ask for a rebate when it’s all back up and running, probably after Easter, or Christmas ;-)
ReplyDeleteSimon Jones,
DeleteI've been investigating alternative ISPs, but without a BT landline, finding one that we can connect to is problematic.
I know that quite a few people in our area have been affected by this loss of service, and I think that lots of us will be asking for some sort of financial compensation ... once our service is restored.
All the best,
Bob
This must be so annoying/frustrating. At least you are past 48 hours so automatic compensation should kick in: let us know if this fails as well. Even if it works though it's not enough money!
ReplyDeleteLately I've been reading peoples' comments on broadband service suppliers' reliability. It's a bit depressing - and confusing - as every one of them has someone saying "terrible, don't touch them with a barge-pole" and someone else saying "brilliant, no trouble for years". We've had pretty good reliability from Virgin (am I tempting fate here?) whilst you clearly fall into the "I'd switch if I could" group.
Mike Hall,
DeleteWhat I am finding most annoying is my inability to use my PC to do things that require Internet access. I'm looking for some way to connect my PC to my mobile phone using Bluetooth, and if I can do that, I can at least do things like upload the latest issue of THE NUGGET to the Wargame Developments website.
We did try to switch ISP a couple of years ago, but the lack of a BT landline stopped the change in its tracks. Our landline is provided by Virgin, and they want any alternative ISP to pay for the use of the landline, and that cost will then be passed on to us.
All the best,
Bob
When we switched our landline from BT to Virgin years ago (we'd already had the cable TV that eventually became Virgin media for some time) Virgin's engineers told us that they were required to leave us the BT line so we still have an overhead wire from the house to the nearest telegraph pole. Presumably this means that we could switch to BT without problems. It's a pity that you were not left in this position.
DeleteGood luck with Bluetooth. I assume you are trying Tethering the phone to the PC? Have you considered a USB Tether instead? You've got me wondering whether I should make a precautionary investment in one or two USB Wi-Fi adapters to use on our PCs in case I find myself in your situation.
Mike Hall,
DeleteWhen Videotron installed the cable network in our area, the BT landlines were removed by BT. Videotron was then bought by Cable & Wireless, who were bought by NTL, who were bought by Virgin ... and BT insist that if I want a BT landline, I will have to pay for it. As we don't have overhead wires in our area, this would involve digging up the pavement and the hardstanding we park our cars on. The level of expense would not be justified.
It would appear that my PC is Bluetooth-enabled, but I cannot yet get it to connect to my mobile telephone. I may well look at the cost of a USB Tether as a potential back-up as past experience indicates that we can expect to lose access to the Internet again very soon. (We have had periods where it has come and gone on an almost daily basis for several hours at a time, followed by several months where there are no problems.)
All the best,
Bob
I've been with BT since the dial-up days.
ReplyDeleteI now have their best wireless hub and a 50 odd meg connection.
It fails very infrequently and has always been restored very quickly, within hours mostly.
Jim Duncan,
DeleteFor historical reasons, we don't have a BT landline, and without one, we cannot seem to be able to switch ISP, That said, I'm trying to find a way to do so.
All the best,
Bob
We're lucky in Bristol that we have very infrequent outages, if at all. Mostly it tends to be some channels not available for a while etc. The only major problem we had was when our set top box died, losing all of our saved recordings:(. Mind you compared to my Dad's BT service in rural Norfolk, we have NO problems at all!
ReplyDeleteSteve J.,
DeleteI sometimes wonder why the quality of cable Internet access and mobile phone coverage varies so much from one area to another. I know that you need good line-of-sight for the latter (and enough masts to provide adequate coverage), but if you can be connected to the local cable system, why does that service seem to so bad in some places and not in others.
All the best,
Bob
Hi Bob,
ReplyDeleteMakes you wonder how we managed with Hand Written Letters and Telegrams...and how completely dependent we are now with the Internet. Hope the problem can be fixed soon. Cheers. KEV.
Kev Robertson (Kev),
DeleteI agree with you. I just don't know how we managed.
The connection to the Internet does now seem to be working. The question in our minds is for how long.
All the best,
Bob
I can't feel sorry for you until you have been without it for 7 months and have had one provider's CEO office in direct contact with another provider's CEO office to make things work and a Member of Parliament has intervened :-)
ReplyDeleteA daily visit for 7 months to an internet cafe to keep up with life stops being funny very early on!
Norm,
DeleteSeven months! What on earth caused that sort of problem? Seven hours is bad enough; seven days is unacceptable ... but seven months sounds like an absolute disaster!
I hope that you have a reasonable service now.
All the best,
Bob
Bob, cancelled my short answer above to give the sorry tale, it involved 3 parties, my provider, Open Reach (who cannot be contacted by the public) and the Local Highways Authority, each of course blaming the other.
DeleteWe end up understanding that 1.7 km of cable has to be repaired / replaced to get me a phone line. That requires several sets of roadworks and that requires Local Authority Permissions .... don't even go there!
Prior to my moving in, there had been no spare capacity in the area and in fact the line that should have been mine had been given to someone else. Open Reach contracted people to lay extra capacity, but apparently they rammed the extra cable into a conduit that was already full and between that and then having to remove it, they damaged other cables.
After 7 months of wrangling, I eventually got online, I said to the engineer in my innocence that at least my pain will have helped other locals get some extra capacity with new cables ......... he told me that only mine had been fixed, I mean can you believe all of that and nobody took the opportunity to sort the other lines out!!!!
At the moment, I am asking for Fibre, but my provider says the area is not set up yet for fibre, yet both by neighbours have it!!!! that is now another loop that I am currently travelling in something of a wash, rinse, repeat cycle.
Nrom,
DeleteI wish that I could say that this was unbelievable, but unfortunately it sounds all too believable, especially the bit about not fixing the other, damaged cables whilst the work to repair yours was underway.
It seems that as soon as anything goes wrong these days, organisations try blaming each other for the problem rather than actually doing anything to resolve it. I suspect that they do this to avoid having to take any responsibility, which might involve them paying for work to be done or compensation to the inconvenienced customer.
Earlier today I had my usual round-robin email from our local Neighbourhood Watch coordinator. It appears that a large area was affected by the loss of Internet and telephone service, and that we might be offered some small amount of compensation 'for our inconvenience'. As most of the houses around here have monitored burglar alarms, we were extremely lucky not to have been struck by a plague of burglaries during the outage as it transpires that no monitoring was possible when the Internet and phones systems went down.
Good luck getting a fibre link. Our local area has fibre optic cables in place for years ... but some ISPs still deny that they have been installed!
All the best,
Bob
This is like a real-time data feed from a Connections UK "Crisis Game" ... I am expecting a formal declaration of war at any moment!
ReplyDeleteI hope all is resolved soon!
I feel your pain having had three computer crashes in two years
I await my Broadband fiasco with "glee"
Geordie an Exile FoG,
DeleteWhen you consider the fact that the 'hotline' call between 'President Putin' and myself during CONNECTIONS 2018 kept breaking because of the poor mobile phone service in central London (even though we were on opposite sides of a door!), your comment is not that far from the truth!
All the best,
Bob
;)
ReplyDeleteGeordie an Exiled FoG,
Delete👍
All the best,
Bob