changing old NTL box to a virgin Hd box

drjazz

Hi,
Some very good friends of mine have an old ntl box. They have been paying a virgin tv subscription for yonks, but have been told that in order to get an upto date virgin hd box they will be charged an "activation" fee of £20. How can this be legal ?
They have been paying virgin their subscription for years, but the equipment that virgin are providing in return for this subscription ( the old ntl box ) is not capable of receiving the full services they have been paying for. So if anything they (virgin) owe my friends some compensation as well as a new hd box, asap.

Any thoughts and experiences on the issue of changing from an old ntl box to a modern virgin hd box.

regards

Jonathan

Kurtis_Blue

Really? illegal? Seriously? they are offering a new service and a charging £20 to send someone out with a new shiny box and set it up, sounds pretty OK.

But if you (or your friends) dont want to pay you could tell them Sky are offering you a free HD box and install and tell them you will stay if they waive the £20.

jb66

Its £20 postage, perfectly legal, you're friends signed a contract to provide a level of service and they are getting it

drjazz

They have revised their package several times, always including at least a basic tv package, i.e. they pay some money, and expect to receive the included services.
On Virgin's website it says

" Get the full experience of high definition television with no fuss with our V HD Box, which comes as standard with all Virgin TV packages.."

They are paying monthly for their package, thus they should get the service, and not have to pay extra for the equipment necessary to receive it, which as stated in the above from virgin, should be included.

spike7451

drjazz wrote: »

They have revised their package several times, always including at least a basic tv package, i.e. they pay some money, and expect to receive the included services.
On Virgin's website it says

" Get the full experience of high definition television with no fuss with our V HD Box, which comes as standard with all Virgin TV packages.."

They are paying monthly for their package, thus they should get the service, and not have to pay extra for the equipment necessary to receive it, which as stated in the above from virgin, should be included.

It states that the V HD box comes as standard,not 'it's free as standard'. It was your 'friends' choice to stay with the set up they had,not VM's.It's not VM's job to call up every non HD customer & upgrade them.
You are paying for extra work that's needed to install the new box & set it up,same as if you changed from standard Sky to Sky+HD...Millions of other Sky & VM customers have been paying their subs for years,myself included,yet we still get charged for upgrades ect.Service calls from VM are free unlike Sky who charge £69.
Your subscription is for payment for the TV channels & software.not the boxes themselves,or would you rather VM increase their monthly package price to accomodate.

Pincher

Sign on with Sky for a year. Hopefully by the time you go back to VM, Tivo will be standard equipment by then.