An underhanded sell?

I appreciated being informed by a phone agent at Virgin Media that my
longstanding account qualified for me to receive free TV (usually
reserved for those just newly taking a phone service). I refused, the
free TV actually involved a £25 installation fee...and I like my free
freeview.

What I didn't appreciate was being lied to that my aerials would all
have to be replaced when the digital switchover occured and cable was
a safeguard against this. I was told that £25 would be much cheaper
to pay now than upgrade aerials later.

My aerials are large, in the loft, good reception on Freeview
currently. I am most assured they will be fine. And for the
record...they cost less than £25 each...so it's still a cheaper option
to stay with Freeview.

Very tacky Virgin Media agent. Shame on you.

"Evan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
I appreciated being informed by a phone agent at Virgin Media that my
longstanding account qualified for me to receive free TV (usually
reserved for those just newly taking a phone service). I refused, the
free TV actually involved a £25 installation fee...and I like my free
freeview.

What I didn't appreciate was being lied to that my aerials would all
have to be replaced when the digital switchover occured and cable was
a safeguard against this. I was told that £25 would be much cheaper
to pay now than upgrade aerials later.

My aerials are large, in the loft, good reception on Freeview
currently. I am most assured they will be fine. And for the
record...they cost less than £25 each...so it's still a cheaper option
to stay with Freeview.

Very tacky Virgin Media agent. Shame on you.

-----

At least you didn't take up the offer.

I've known a few people who, on taking up the Virgin Media
tv/phone/broadband package, have had their existing TV cable cut and their
existing BT cable cut at the point it enters the house.

"Evan" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
I appreciated being informed by a phone agent at Virgin Media that my
longstanding account qualified for me to receive free TV (usually
reserved for those just newly taking a phone service). I refused, the
free TV actually involved a £25 installation fee...and I like my free
freeview.

What I didn't appreciate was being lied to that my aerials would all
have to be replaced when the digital switchover occured and cable was
a safeguard against this. I was told that £25 would be much cheaper
to pay now than upgrade aerials later.

My aerials are large, in the loft, good reception on Freeview
currently. I am most assured they will be fine. And for the
record...they cost less than £25 each...so it's still a cheaper option
to stay with Freeview.

Very tacky Virgin Media agent. Shame on you.


If you can pick up Freeview with the aerial you currently have at the
moment, then nothing is going to change.
It is a blatant lie on Virgin's part, and there's no excuse for it.
No doubt it's not just you they are telling thee same lie to, and a high
percentage of those they will be telling it to, are probably quite
happily watching Freeview with the aerial they have had on their roof
for some time.

> I've known a few people who, on taking up the Virgin Media
> tv/phone/broadband package, have had their existing TV cable cut and their
> existing BT cable cut at the point it enters the house.

That would be baaaaad. My defunct BT box got some rain in it and
died. Truth be told if it didn't cost £125 to get another one, I'd
sign up with BT, go with a phone reseller and do AOL broadband to get
a free laptop.

On 20/09/2007 16:35, Gonz wrote:

> If you can pick up Freeview with the aerial you currently have at the
> moment, then nothing is going to change.

That is true for most parts of the country, but NOT all.

From the Tacolneston, Beacon Hill, Craigkelly and Bilsdale transmitters
one or more muxes which are currently in-band for grouped aerials will
move to out-of-band (only slightly in some cases) so for people there
who haven't already changed aerials, there is a possiblity they will
need to.

http://www.dtg.org.uk/publications/b...t_communal.pdf
table 3 bottom of page 10.

"Andy Burns" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 20/09/2007 16:35, Gonz wrote:
>
>> If you can pick up Freeview with the aerial you currently have at the
>> moment, then nothing is going to change.
>
> That is true for most parts of the country, but NOT all.
>
> From the Tacolneston, Beacon Hill, Craigkelly and Bilsdale
> transmitters one or more muxes which are currently in-band for grouped
> aerials will move to out-of-band (only slightly in some cases) so for
> people there who haven't already changed aerials, there is a
> possiblity they will need to.
>
> http://www.dtg.org.uk/publications/b...t_communal.pdf
> table 3 bottom of page 10.

That might be the case, but there's no excuse for Virgin to be telling
these lies just to get customers.
They shud act responsibly and have these facts to hand.
I am fed up of reading about people being cheated and lied to by Virgin
of late.

This is a sales speech.
Not something that cropped up in conversation.
The same speech will be made to the next person, and the next person
after that.

On 20/09/2007 18:41, Gonz wrote:

> That might be the case, but there's no excuse for Virgin to be telling
> these lies just to get customers.

I wasn't commenting on the dodgy virgin sales aspect, just that *some*
people may actually need new aerials, even if they currently receive all
muxes.

"Andy Burns" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On 20/09/2007 16:35, Gonz wrote:
>
>> If you can pick up Freeview with the aerial you currently have at the
>> moment, then nothing is going to change.
>
> That is true for most parts of the country, but NOT all.
>
> From the Tacolneston, Beacon Hill, Craigkelly and Bilsdale transmitters
> one or more muxes which are currently in-band for grouped aerials will
> move to out-of-band (only slightly in some cases) so for people there who
> haven't already changed aerials, there is a possiblity they will need to.

There is a good chance the power will be increased when the analogue stuff
is switched off so any loss of signal caused by it being a bit out of band
will probably be recovered in the extra power.

On 20/09/2007 19:50, dennis@home wrote:

> There is a good chance the power will be increased when the analogue
> stuff is switched off so any loss of signal caused by it being a bit out
> of band will probably be recovered in the extra power.

Oh the power will, be increased.

Tacolneston and Beacon Hill will both have two muxes 3 and 6 channels
under spec.

Craigkelly and Bilsdale will have one mux 1 or 2 channels above spec
respectively.

That's probably "getawaywithable", my old group C/D on Waltham used to
pull in all the muxes on a good day, even though only one mux was
in-spec, the muxes that were 3, 6 and 15 channels under spec never
caused a problem, the muxes that were 22 and 25 channels under spec (and
64QAM) weren't too keen on any form of damp weather or mopeds :-)

Andy Burns wrote:
> On 20/09/2007 18:41, Gonz wrote:
>
>> That might be the case, but there's no excuse for Virgin to be
>> telling these lies just to get customers.
>
> I wasn't commenting on the dodgy virgin sales aspect, just that *some*
> people may actually need new aerials, even if they currently receive
> all muxes.

And therefore VM are covering themselves by saying that you would have to
have yours replaced. It's called erring on the side of caution. I suppose
they should have said "might need replacing" but then it's a easy slip-up.

At least they have never run a major advertising campaign saying that,
post-DTO, they will be the *only* way to receive digital TV; like Sky did a
while ago ;-)

--
Carl Waring
DigiGuide:
Full: http://getdigiguide.com/?p=1&r=1495
Free: http://getdigiguide.com/?p=4&r=1495
Web-based: http://getdigiguide.com/?p=3&r=1495