Virgin V+ box half price

LeXy_Lovess

yeh we had four boxes in various rooms in our household, we had a fonecall offering our main box to be changed to a V+ box for only £25, and a discount on the monthly cost of the rest of our boxes. Unfortunatly we had problems with the box and have had to have a few call outs, when we complained about this they have knocked off the £25 installation cost!! :T And to think we was contemplating moving to Sky!!

Mr_Frugal

I have just rang and wasn't told that I couldn't have it (despite being on a very competitive package with them).
However I got the strong feeling that they were trying to put customers off and got a 'put off' line of "you are aware that we would have to install a new modem in your house as the V+ box doesnt work with the cable broadband" ?
When I tried to dig in to that statement I got little clarification and have left it temporarily.
Is that a load of rubbish or do they have to make alterations to my broadband and if so how does it affect my broadband ?

Regards,

Mr_F

Helix

Mr_Frugal wrote: »

I have just rang and wasn't told that I couldn't have it (despite being on a very competitive package with them).
However I got the strong feeling that they were trying to put customers off and got a 'put off' line of "you are aware that we would have to install a new modem in your house as the V+ box doesnt work with the cable broadband" ?
When I tried to dig in to that statement I got little clarification and have left it temporarily.
Is that a load of rubbish or do they have to make alterations to my broadband and if so how does it affect my broadband ?

Regards,

Mr_F

If you have broadband through your current cable box (which provides TV as well) then you have to have a separate modem installed as the V+ doesn't provide internet access. If you already have your broadband through a separate modem, then they don't need to make any changes.

It is better having a separate cable modem as they are capable of faster speeds. So when Virgin increase speeds in the future you will be ready to go. (Pace boxes can only support 1mb and Samsung's 5mb). There shouldn't be a difference to your service you just need to switch the cables over but if you connect using USB at the moment you will need to connect using ethernet because there isn't a USB port on the new cable modems.

Mr_Frugal

Thanks Helix......
I currently have a set top cable box for my broadband and a seperate TV box in the lounge for the telly. Does this mean that I dont need any alterations ?
Sorry for the daft questions but I thought that everyone that has broadband would have same set up as me ! Are we saying that some people connect to the broadband through their TV box and that they need a separate modem in addition ????

Helix

Mr_Frugal wrote: »

Thanks Helix......
I currently have a set top cable box for my broadband and a seperate TV box in the lounge for the telly. Does this mean that I dont need any alterations ?
Sorry for the daft questions but I thought that everyone that has broadband would have same set up as me ! Are we saying that some people connect to the broadband through their TV box and that they need a separate modem in addition ????

Some people had there connections that way if they used to be on Cable and Wireless before it became NTL and shortly after as well. The standard now is to have a separate cable modem and TV STB.

Is your box that you get your internet from a lot smaller than the one you get your TV from. If so you have a cable modem and will be fine with just having the TV box changed. I'm not sure what happens if you have 2 TV boxes (yet have Broadband on one and TV on the other).

Mr_Frugal

Thanks Helix......
Yes I have just 1 TV STB and a smaller cable modem. Thanks for reply, will ring 'em back and order !

ADDED: Thanks again Helix for your help and thanks to the OP for flagging this offer as I had been after a V+ box and was unaware of the offer !
For those that are not sure if they are eligible I am on a pretty good package (we have XL TV, phones unlimited 01 & 02 numbers 24/7 including weekends and a 4MB BB connection for £43/month) and I have just managed to get a V+ box at the Xmas promotional price of £75 with no questions asked about my package. Good hunting !

bluenose1

I am getting it installed tomorrow but have concerns about my internet. When they originally installed the internet they said we would have to use a wireless connection to the PC as it was impossible to get the wires to go through the house.
We had lots of problems with our internet connection, but eventually they installed the old blue Netgear MA101 (the silver one wouldn't work)

They now say we will be having an external modem. What exactly does that mean? Just worried that it will all go wrong like last time.

Incidentally my sister had someone from Sky knock today and offer her sKY+ with sports and movies, as well as phone and internet for £52 per month, they told her it would cost £10 to have BT Line installed. We both rang separately tonight and the first person offered a slightly better deal than we currently have, we both said we might as well move to Sky then. Got put through to their sales team who offered me all the above for £56 a month.

I am currently paying about £80 per month so substantial reduction.

If you ring tell them you have had a Sky salesman knock. I think the basic deal would have been £28 for tv, internet and phone - without Sky Sports and Movies.

buyitall

For info: I had V+ installed on this offer on 3/12 and have just had our first bill. Although all our existing discounts were still in place, they had added a £10 per month charge for the V+ service (£9.63 for Dec plus £10 advance charge for Jan). I rang up to complain and they admitted the error and are going to re-credit the account. Worth checking the bill, esp the first one.

JohnG

Hi,

We had the new V+ Box installed today unfortnately I was out so wasn't able to check and ask questions whilst they were here.

First thing we have noticed since is an annoying deep humming noise coming from the new box - closer inspection shows that the electronics inside are quite noisy and cause vibration which is transmitted thru the TV Cabinet it's seated in causing the hum to be more audible. I've put the box on to some rubber pads which has softened the sound a bit but it's still not ideal.

I also discovered that the box is not connected to enable HD viewing so I rang the 150 number to enquire. Apparently I should have requested the parts to enable me to view HD at the the time of ordering! I pointed out that I specifically asked whether I would be able to view HD programmes before goin ahead with the order as this was one of the key reasons I wanted the V+ Box - Nothing was said about needing extra parts to be able to do so!

The bloke at Virgin gave his apologies and said I had two options - order a HDMI cable from them which would take 2 to 3 weeks to arrive or go out and buy a cable myself if I wanted it sooner! I decided on the second option though I wish i'd chosen the first now.

I also tried to find out if something could be done about the noisy box - I ended up having to speak to someone in Bombay for faults and he could only suggest reducing the volume on the box (Not much help basically). We will see how it goes but at the moment I'm slightly disappointed.:undecided

debjk

JohnG wrote: »

First thing we have noticed since is an annoying deep humming noise coming from the new box - closer inspection shows that the electronics inside are quite noisy and cause vibration which is transmitted thru the TV Cabinet it's seated in causing the hum to be more audible. I've put the box on to some rubber pads which has softened the sound a bit but it's still not ideal.

I also discovered that the box is not connected to enable HD viewing so I rang the 150 number to enquire. Apparently I should have requested the parts to enable me to view HD at the the time of ordering! I pointed out that I specifically asked whether I would be able to view HD programmes before goin ahead with the order as this was one of the key reasons I wanted the V+ Box - Nothing was said about needing extra parts to be able to do so!

The bloke at Virgin gave his apologies and said I had two options - order a HDMI cable from them which would take 2 to 3 weeks to arrive or go out and buy a cable myself if I wanted it sooner! I decided on the second option though I wish i'd chosen the first now.

My box hums too I dont think its a fault possibly just the way it is

with the HD cable when they came to fit ours the engineer said that the depot had been out of stock of hd cables and he was really sorry but to phone 151 and they would get one sent to me. I did this and too was told 2-3 weeks wait 5 days later it came :T not set it up yet tho cuz my tv remote is kaput and you need it to set hd up but should get it working as soon as remote comes back fro the shop.