Richard Lobb wrote:
> On Sun, 16 Aug 2009 19:23:33 +0100, "Anthony R. Gold"
> <not-for-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 12 Aug 2009 19:49:32 +0100, Richard Lobb <(E-Mail Removed)>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I can only say that Virgin Media "helpline" beats that for total
>>> incompetance. They have blamed My various Hardware and software for
>>> over four years - ever since they took over Ntlworld - for failures to
>>> connect to various parts of the Internet. In each case it had been
>>> their inability to operate outside their scripts on screen. In each
>>> case I have eventually accessed the Internet - It has never been the
>>> quality of my software or hardware.
>>>
>>> The snag is their connection is first class. Their support is total
>>> rubbish.
>> With their first class connection, what was preventing your connection to
>> various parts of the Internet?
>>
>> Tony
>
> Simply - their helpline could not cope with anything but totally
> standard Microsoft software using standard responses from a script -
> but instead of admitting it - they blamed my Computer's manufacturer
> for poor software and/or hardware or unknown firewalls
>
> When I finally found that out - I simply tried to vary the options -
> and connected immediately.
>
> Four years ago when using NTL ISP I had needed a username and password
> to assess usergroups - Now when using Virgin Media I didn't need to
> log on - but was never told so.
>
> As I was on NTL and the connection failed when they physically changed
> over - I naturally contacted the "helpline" who should have known the
> difference as they had taken over NTL. But they blamed it on poor
> software - firewalls - antivirus - etc etc - not on a tick box they
> had been told about - as I had gone over the settings with them about
> 25 times over many weeks. One set of their instructions actually
> deleted my hard drive! I just learned to live without usergroups.
>
> About three years ago I bought a new HP laptop using Windows XP Home
> and asked them to "Help" me connect to the internet. They spent
> roughly 36 hours over 3 weeks trying to do so - Complete failure -
> Blaming the quality of HP's Software etc for the failure to connect.
> Eventually I contacted a premium phone helpline and the Englishman at
> the other end took exactly 16 minutes to connect the machine including
> two full bootups - cost £16 - well worth it. Somewhat proving the poor
> standard of the Virginmedia "helpline"
>
> Two years ago I bought a new HP Media Centre and used the "Helpline"
> again as I had no wish to use wireless. Complete failure to guide me
> to connect to the internet. So I used it for two years as a simple
> stand alone as my HP t340 was connected to the Internet.
>
> A few weeks ago as I had previously decided the Helpline should
> actually be called the "Indian Hinderance Line" and my Internet
> connected HP t340 was becoming flaky I decided to do the connections
> to the Internet myself without their "help" - The media centre
> connected to the Internet via IE fautlessly after being effectively
> idle for two years. As far as I can recall the only difference was I
> switched on the cable modem first NOT as instructed LAST - Each
> virginmedia person was reading from the same wrong script!
>
> This was when I decided try to connect to the VirginMedia usergroups
> WITHOUT "help" - I tried it with NTL settings but changing address to
> VirginMedia.com - error message returned "Virginmedia rejects username
> and password" - so changed to "log on without username and password"
> BINGO! Usergroups back online - downloaded around 250,000 posts I'd
> missed!!! :-)
>
> This is why - as I now had three computers and several printers
> ethernet ready - I decided on a router to network them. I checked the
> "Helpline" only to ascertain what router was recommended to connect
> via wire (I do not want to use wireless) - you would not believe the
> hassel it was to get them to understand I wanted a router to use
> ethernet - Eventually through two layers of "Supervisors" I found out
> - They wanted to sell me one with "their" software!!! I refused!!!
> Did exactly as Joe here suggested and connected two computers
> flawlessly - the third (HP t340) using Netgear Software connected but
> is running slow.
>
> So you see why I won't use Virginmedia "Helpline" when there is a
> fount of far better knowledge on here!! :-)
>
> Richard from London UK -- (E-Mail Removed)
> Bambi,Beauty,Brian(Brutus 77-97 Bessie 87-01 Ben 95-06 @ RB)
> Greyhounds are for life not just for racing!!
> Whittingham Homefinding Scheme
> Visit our Kennels
> http://homepage.ntlworld.com/greyhounds
> www.whittinghamretiredgreyhounds.co.uk
I have to contact a range of ISP helplines from time to time when
customers have problems, and there's a fairly good correlation between
what the customer is paying monthly and the quality of support
available. The real difference is most apparent when you get to
second-line support (if it exists at all). Demon's is very good, as is
BT, but some of the cheaper ones are utterly hopeless.
My favourite anecdote was trying to get information out of the support
line for a popular accounting package a couple of years ago. (Not Sage
- their support is good.) I forget the exact details but I wanted
information about some multi-user extension which, it was claimed,
worked over the Internet. I couldn't get anyone to understand the
question, which related to port-forwarding. About 30 minutes AFTER
hearing the first human voice I was connected to a "supervisor" in the
"networking" team. I asked him what port the application used and he
didn't understand the question. "There's no port; it's just
internetting." He had never contemplated trying to set this up where
the sites had NAT or any kind of firewall, and didn't know what port 80
was. Incidentally, the next (and final) time I tried to get this
information I soon realised that the person I was talking to in this
Indian call-centre was a cut above the others. It turned out she had a
recent PhD in Computer Science. Sadly, her efforts to find out the
answer to my question drew a blank too, as she didn't have access to a
live copy and couldn't track down anyone who knew. Sage is much more
expensive, of course, but YGWYPF.
</rant>
Phil, London
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