A Media Survey for Virgin
I always fill in surveys honestly, so when Virgin asked me how my broadband, TV and phones were going I told them in that way. I gave their service a score of 3 out of ten and said I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone else. They did allow me to give reasons and this is what I said.
1. I am still waiting for my previous BT number to be transferred. If I have to change it, then it’ll be an expense of several hundred pounds to change web sites and stationery.
2. The Virgin Media box has a poor interface, which I find irritating compared to my previous Sky+ box and Freeview recorder. Despite my stroke, I have a fearsome memory and if say I want a channel, I just type in the three-digit number. But with your box you must click OK as well. As I only watch and listen to about six channels anyway, that extra button is a real irritant. I have not used the record function yet, as it seems way to complicated. Remember, I made my money as a software designer, so I know about interfaces and your box interface rates about 1 out of ten.
I would give you 1 out of ten, but the support staff have been trying hard to get my number transferred and I think they are getting as frustrated with the non-transfer as I am.
I do hate surveys which just take scores as these can’t give meaningful results, when customers have had problems. They seem to work on the we know best principle and if you don’t like it tough!
They also had another box for comments at the end of the survey. I said this.
Because I’ve had a stroke and can’t read small print or use the telephone too well, I’d like to be able to e-mail problems in. What is the e-mail please? I also need that number transferred. BT say you haven’t asked them to do it and you say that BT sy the number isn’t active and other things. Something is seriously wrong. Or is it me, I once tried to transfer a number from Vodafone to O2 and it ended up with Orange. Only when Orange phoned me, did I realise why my late wife’s new mobile phone didn’t work!
James – Blogging as the Anonymous Widower
It will be interesting to see if I get anything more than the standard response.
Dissappointed with the Virgins
I say virgins, as all of the services are not really up to scratch. Or at least what I expect.
- The broadband has now failed five times and I have to switch off the modem and reboot every time. As it improved when I undid all the connections and reconnected them, I think it’s all down to a bad joint. But it’s annoying.
- They still haven’t transferred my previous landline number to the new connection.
- But the biggest problem is the design of the box that provides television. I give it about four out of ten, whereas I’d give my previous Sky-Plus nine. The reason it would only get that, is that it lacks the back button, which the virgin has.
- I’m also paying for ESPN and it’s not being delivered.
They will be getting an ear-wigging today.
02030265001
I used to get about three calls a day from this number on my old landline in Suffolk. It say’s I’ve won a cruise in the Caribbean or Florida or some other place I’m not keen on visiting. As it was an American voice, I usually just cut them off, if I didn’t spot the number before I picked up the phone.
I’m transferring the Suffolk number to my London house, so that I don’t have to change how people phone me. But in the meantime, I’ve got it diverted to my mobile and you guessed it, I got one on that today, after being diverted.
What is going to be fun, is when Virgin complete the transfer of the number, will they be able to stop these nuisance calls?
By the way don’t ever do anything with this number except cut it off immediately. Remember if they do it three times it’s harrassment! It would be rather good if someone actually tried to use the Harrassment Act against these idiots. But there are much better things to do, like slag off these people down the pub to warn everybody not to fall a victim. It might get you a free drink!
One interesting result of this scam might be, that it actually puts people off taking a cruise with one of the reputable American cruise companies. I hope one of them or their trade organisation has put the Feds on the case!
New Power for an Old Friend
One thing that got temporarily lost in the move was the charger for my Nokia 6310i. It will probably be found, but I thought that it would be prudent to have a spare, as I do have a spare phone and a spare battery.
I found a new one for just £5 at a stall in Chapel Market.
A New Charger for My 6310i
So now I have a fully-charged phone again.
Moving Phones
Obviously, as I’m moving, I will have to change my phone. Here I’m on BT, but in London, I’ll be using cable for broadband and TV, so it would seem logical to use that for phones as well.
I hadn’t realised that I will be able to move my number, but I can. So I won’t have to tell a lot of my contacts, what my new number is! It will be a great time saver.
Waking Up When The Clocks Change
trueCall and Daisy
I couldn’t resist taking my call records from trueCall and putting them in Daisy.
After a minute or so, I was able to draw a simple Daisy chart.
A Daisy Chart of trueCall Data
Obviously, this doesn’t show that much, as only a few records were used to draw the chart.
On the other hand, charts such as this could be used to show perhaps that a particular nuisance call tends to happen between 21:00 and 23:00 on a Wednesday night. Years ago, a chart such as this, drawn of all phone box fraud in Wales, led to the arrest and conviction of one of the Principality’s biggest drug dealers.
A Possible Solution to Nuisance Calls
A couple of days ago, I was plagued by a boiler room scam, that decided to ring me every minute. I reported it in this post.
It is now three days later and they are still trying occasionally, but I might have found the solution to criminals like these.
It is called trueCall and effectively screens every call that it doesn’t recognise. All those Unavailable and International calls that are just a waste of your time are challenged and the caller is asked to identify themselves with their name before they are put through. Obviously, the time wasters don’t do this, so the system hangs up on them and asks them to leave a message. I suspect they never will!
The system did cost £99.99 including VAT, but it was just a plug-in to install, as this picture shows.
trueCall Installation
But it was ever so easy to install and it comes with all sorts of features to be valued.
- It simply learns who your friends and enemies are, if you follow a few set of simple rules.
- It has a fully-functioning built-in answering machine.
- You can look at all your incoming and outcoming calls on the Internet.
I shall certainly keep it in place to innoculate me from scammers and time-wasters.
A Letter and a Question in The Times
A letter in The Times today asked what is the etiquette about using a mobile phone on a horse and whether it is legal or not.
To me it’s rather stupid unless of course, you have effectively parked your horse quietly at the side of the road. Riding needs both hands a lot of the time to have proper control of the horse, so one outcome of using a phone on a horse, is that you might drop the phone. I’ve never phoned from a horse, but I did try using a camera in Kenya and it wasn’t too successful.
So using a phone, might well cause you to have to dismount, which in any case is not a good idea on a public road. Your phone may also not survive the drop in one piece!
On the question of emergencies whilst on a horse, one thing that is greatly to be desired for a man, is a widdle-proof horse. I can remember a kennel-huntsman, who spent hours with a Fairy Liquid bottle getting the Master’s horse used to water passing by his ears. The Master later said he would never buy another horse off a woman.
Annoying Americans
About ten minutes ago, I was sitting on the toilet reading and the phone rang. I didn’t run for it, as because my trousers were round my ankles, the quick movement might have meant I’d have had an accident. That would have been all I needed!
So when I got back to my desk I checked the phone and BT 1571 told me that there were two messages waiting for me. They were both identical and said.
Key 9 to speak to a representative.
As the voice had a very annoying American accent, it was some automated system trying to sell me something that I don’t need now and probably never will. So I hit 3 twice to delete them both.
I get very annoyed with these messages, which in the UK are against the rules of the Telephone Preference Service.
But then Americans don’t have to follow rules of decency, good taste and law laid down by other governments.
The Anonymous Widower 