Virgin Media

johnmc

I have a standard VM set top box and have a problem with the new software.

The Electronic Program Guide only covers 12 hours in advance which is a total pain when I go on holiday.

Anyone know if there is any way of programming it more than half a day in front? I don't want to fork out an extra £10/mth for V+.

I seem to remember a handset some years back that enabled you to set it for a day / channel, place it in the room and the inbuilt timer would use IR to turn the video on. Is there a similar product which will work with VM?

mclaren_2

its a software bug with the box and wont be fixed untill the end of june, july when they finish the new EPG software comes out.

IMO - if you have sky movies or sports - think about going to sky as you get free sky+ with 2 premiem channels (and you dont need a dish if you are not allowed one as there are other alternitives like dishbox that can go on window / balconay etc....)

Jzpop

Or phone Virgin, speak to their customer retention dept (not customer services), tell them you want a V+ box but do not want to pay extra for it, for the reasons you have stated above.

There is a huge thread on this site about people getting really good deals from Virgin at the moment, basically because they do not want to lose customers while doing battle with Sky.

The V+ box has 3 tuners (record 3 different channels at once), a series record function, much longer EPG (1 or 2 weeks, I forget which), plus a whole lot more. Smashing piece of kit.

johnmc

Thanks. I've just done battle with them re, over billing so I might leave it a week or so.

impecunious

Thanks for the info on Virgin Media. My set top box is rubbish and I'm lucky to get 12 continuous hours of the EPG working - I kid you not! I'm just about to renew my contract with Virgin Media and will enquire about Virgin + and what they are doing in the way of retentions. Will keep you posted...

johnmc

They're doing absolutely nothing!

The Observer newspaper reported over the weekend that a private equity consortium, which is led by U.S based Providence Equity Partners, is considering making a $15 Billion approach for Virgin Media. The newspaper said that interest from the consortium, for the cable operator was revisited after Virgin Media announced its 2007 first quarter results which indicated the company had a fall in customers and that it may yet lose more customers.

I rang VM on Friday to complain about their EPG, left on hold for 30 minutes and then promptly transferred to their technical dept who said there was a temporary fault in my area. I pointed out that I was looking at https://www.nthellworld.co.uk and their own techies said that the software was faulty, got some sort of mumble and put back on hold again. Gave up after 15 minutes.

Got through on Saturday and said I didn't appreciate being lied to. :-( obviously the wrong thing to do as;

On Sunday I lost all but the basic channels.

Currently can only get the 5 terrestrial channels and every time I change I get a message saying my card has expired so I rang this morning and had a heated discussion with retentions about getting a free V+ box, pointing out that Sky are giving away the + box with a digital package. Wouldn't give an inch!

Passed me through to Tech Support before I could argue and they said "unplug it, wait 20 seconds, plug it in. Remove your card, wait 20 seconds and put it back". Seems to be the limit of their ability!

I 'spose there's such a thing as shooting yourself in the foot!