£49 Virgin V+ box upgrade

barnabee

I have been toying with the idea of having a V+ box installed to watch the new HD channels, especially now that ESPN HD was released today.

Despite the quote on the Virgin website being £99 installation fee, I just phoned and managed to get mine installed for a one off fee of just £49. Plus, as an XL large customer there is no additional monthly charges on the bill.

mjmal51

Yes, I did the same about 6 weeks ago by speaking to retentions. Sales Dept said the £49 was only for new customers but a polite word with retentions sorted that. I do find the recording facility very useful.

daveys1374

does anyone know if you can upgrade to a new V+HD box from an old V+HD box - i find the old ones so slow in channel changing and have heard the new ones are much quicker

tfspark

daveys1374 wrote: »

does anyone know if you can upgrade to a new V+HD box from an old V+HD box - i find the old ones so slow in channel changing and have heard the new ones are much quicker

As I understand it you won't get a box swap unless there is a fault with your old one.

VM are supposed to be releasing a new V+ box which I believe is a Samsung. Is that what you are after or do you just want a new box?

The new Sammys are almost none existent and you get what the engineers has on his van.

I have heard the (very) slow channel changing can be caused by your smart card. A new card will fix that. Also how much recorded stuff have you got as a lot will slow the system down.

Get an engineer round if you're not happy, doesn't cost anything.

Regards:rolleyes:

philnicandamy

Get an engineer round if you're not happy, doesn't cost anything

Hmm problem now though is IF the engineer cannot find fault with the setup the customer will be charged for the visit...so it can cost



Had a couple of probs with our V+ meaning the boxes had to be changed twice.....the last engineer visit he had the fabled "sammy" box onboard but he had to make a quick call to the office to authorise this one (he took our old box out stating they were useless anyhow!) he did say though that eventually in the next few weeks they were rolling the new boxes out but meanwhile were trials in progress

we've had the samsung box a few weeks now & are very very happy...must better & far faster & responsive

the ONE thing that virgin has done right for us in the years we've been with cable...most other times they're hopeless :rolleyes:

kriss_boy

I kept phoning up to complain about my current regular v box being slow and with a poor signal.

In the end virgin agreed to upgrade me to the V plus box free of charge.

Dave999_2

Can you buy these V+ boxes that I see being advertised on ebay and still get them to work to view just the free view channels even if you're not subscribed to Virgin?

continualdiamond

Dave999 wrote: »

Can you buy these V+ boxes that I see being advertised on ebay and still get them to work to view just the free view channels even if you're not subscribed to Virgin?

I wouldn't of thought so, its cable, therefore you connect a cable to the back of it to get your tv channels, the cable surely wouldn't be 'live' to transmit the tv channels to the box.

I see them quite a bit on ebay, advertised with the card as well. I wouldn't of thought that would do anything as each box has its own card specific to that customer, the card is dead as the customer has cancelled their account, therefore useless.

continualdiamond

I wouldn't of thought you'd get a new V+ HD box if nothing is wrong with your current one. I know what you mean about it being slow though, we have an old one, well its not that old, but old enough and flicking between channels drives me mad, i can press it to change channels, it wont, so i press it a couple of times, then it changes channels really quick depending how many times i pressed it.

Second the stuff about being charged if nothing is found wrong with your services. I got reminded about this 3 times on the phone when i had to ring from my mobile about loss of the house phone, i was even asked if i used another hand set to make sure my current hand set wasn't the problem (i had, i wasn't that stupid).

VM website does say that the £49 charge for the V+ HD is for new and existing customers who upgrade and keep their original standard box (i think thats right anyway). I know i read about it as i wanted my 2nd box which is standard as HD due to getting a better TV, but id have to pay the £150 as it would be my 2nd V+ box.

donnac2558

Dave999 wrote: »

Can you buy these V+ boxes that I see being advertised on ebay and still get them to work to view just the free view channels even if you're not subscribed to Virgin?

It is illegal to sell these as they remain the property of Virgin. I report them on ebay alot. hehehehehhe:D No you cannot record on them as the sellers states all the time. All these amazing things they do will not work unless you have the correct service with Virgin. Don't waste your money.