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Please can someone help??
Hi
I have just finished a call to Virgin Media and I really need some advice before I put my head in the oven!
In May we decided to change to Virgin for our phone and broadband. Previously, they were provided by Sky as is our TV services. We have all channels including sports, movies etc and we also pay £10 per month for multi room.
The only reason we wanted to change our broadband user is because in our area sky broadband is pitifully slow and we knew we could get a much faster speed through Virgin.
So we had an installer visit to install phone and Broadband. He was only here for about 20 mins instead of the 2 hours I was told it wouold take. Still so far so good, no problems at all.
Until yesterday when I checked my bill for sky and the amount taken was double what it should have been.
I called them to ask why and they said that both our sky boxes are not plugged into the phone line. Therefore we had to pay full price for multi room as it was classed as a seperate service.
I waited until my son came home from work as he used to be a sky engineer. He called Sky and spoke with one of their techicians.
He was on the phone for almost 2 hours whilst they tried to sort it between them.
The upshot was that both of our boxes as showing as connected here but the signal is not 'bouncing' back to them. Therefore it was something to do with the Virgin installation as everything was fine until then.
Today I phoned Virgin and explained the situation to them (3 times as I was passed from pillar to post)
They are adamant it is nothing to do with them and it is a sky problem as there is obviously nothing wrong with the phone line as I was talking to her on it.
I asked for a technician to come and take a look to see if the installer had done everything he needed to but she said there was nothing wrong so she couldn't send anyone.
I again asked for someone to come and check the installaton and she said that iof she did it would cost me £99.
She then said she would email her manager and ask her opinion. I hadn't really much choice as we were going round in circles and by this time I was losing the will to live.
She said it could take 5 days to get a decision. I then asked when someone would call me to update me on what was happening. She then told me that if i wanted to know what the decision was I would have to call them as she was not aouthorised to tell me I would I would get a call back.
Has anyone has this problem? Can anyone please help?
As it stands I have been charged £55 for multi-room instead of £10 and I desperately need to get it sorted before my next bill.
I have just finished a call to Virgin Media and I really need some advice before I put my head in the oven!
In May we decided to change to Virgin for our phone and broadband. Previously, they were provided by Sky as is our TV services. We have all channels including sports, movies etc and we also pay £10 per month for multi room.
The only reason we wanted to change our broadband user is because in our area sky broadband is pitifully slow and we knew we could get a much faster speed through Virgin.
So we had an installer visit to install phone and Broadband. He was only here for about 20 mins instead of the 2 hours I was told it wouold take. Still so far so good, no problems at all.
Until yesterday when I checked my bill for sky and the amount taken was double what it should have been.
I called them to ask why and they said that both our sky boxes are not plugged into the phone line. Therefore we had to pay full price for multi room as it was classed as a seperate service.
I waited until my son came home from work as he used to be a sky engineer. He called Sky and spoke with one of their techicians.
He was on the phone for almost 2 hours whilst they tried to sort it between them.
The upshot was that both of our boxes as showing as connected here but the signal is not 'bouncing' back to them. Therefore it was something to do with the Virgin installation as everything was fine until then.
Today I phoned Virgin and explained the situation to them (3 times as I was passed from pillar to post)
They are adamant it is nothing to do with them and it is a sky problem as there is obviously nothing wrong with the phone line as I was talking to her on it.
I asked for a technician to come and take a look to see if the installer had done everything he needed to but she said there was nothing wrong so she couldn't send anyone.
I again asked for someone to come and check the installaton and she said that iof she did it would cost me £99.
She then said she would email her manager and ask her opinion. I hadn't really much choice as we were going round in circles and by this time I was losing the will to live.
She said it could take 5 days to get a decision. I then asked when someone would call me to update me on what was happening. She then told me that if i wanted to know what the decision was I would have to call them as she was not aouthorised to tell me I would I would get a call back.
Has anyone has this problem? Can anyone please help?
As it stands I have been charged £55 for multi-room instead of £10 and I desperately need to get it sorted before my next bill.
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Comments
Out of curiosity is your dial tone 'broken', i.e. not a constant tone? For some reason some Virgin lines that have some sort of call barring activated have this odd dialtone.
If this is the case even though your Sky box says it is connected it may not be detecting the necessary dialtone to complete a callback, it will think the line is engaged.
I used to have a Virgin phone and it worked fine with a Sky Box but I had the standard, continuous dialtone.
Thanks for replying. No the dial tone is fine.
Any ideas?
That's the only major reason for problems I am aware of, sorry.
Edit: Just remembered that having voicemails waiting to be listened to can possibly cause issues as that can also produce a broken dialtone on Virgin.
Have you tried using the 'Sky Customer Service' feature in interactive to see if the box can connect to that?
winston, so do you think it Sky that is at fault and not Virgin
I have no idea who is at fault if i'm honest, all I can say is I had a Virgin line and it worked fine with my Sky box. It seems a coincidence the problem has arisen since getting the Virgin line though, I assume the new Virgin extension for the multiroom box is ok and that a telephone works when plugged in?
The only issue I am aware of is those I have mentioned, when the dialling tone oscillates and is not a steady tone which can fool the box into thinking the line is in use.
Sorry.
Has your phone number changed? The Sky boxes could be calling home but the Sky system is seeing the "wrong" number for your account so doesn't think they are your boxes?
Alternatively could the line be set up with CLI withheld, ie it is not sending your phone number to Sky (or anyone else for that matter). That again would confuse Sky's systems. If your number is permanently withheld then yopu need to re-configure the boxes to add the 1470 prefix to "unhide" it.
Thanks for the replies.
Our phone number is the same as it was and my son has tried it using the 1471 prefix and that didn't work either.
Am completely at a loss now but thank you so much for your suggestions
Another thing. I assume you have plugged an ordinary phone into the sockets used by the Sky boxes to check they do actually work? If they are extensions wired off the master socket then it is not beyond the realms of possibility that the Virgin guy removed the extension wiring, or disturbed it accidentally, if he had to take the master socket apart that is.
As I said my son used to be a sky installer so he tried everything he knew, which is quite a lot because he said this happened all the time.
So who should i be hassling here. Virgein or Sky.
I thought it would be Virgin as everything was ok until they came.
Also what type of Virgin connection is it? Is it connected via the existing phone line or did Virgin run in their own connection and install their own socket. Sounds unlikely that they would have done a new line in 20 minutes though.
But it does sound like the sockets the Sky boxes are connected to are possibly not now connected to the Virgin phone line. Hence why you should check them with an ordinary phone. You could also try calling the number the boxes call to see if that rings and answers. You never know it could be some weird block on that number.
I just wanted to post a quick update and thanks to everyone who replied.
I was so frustrated yesterday with both Virgin and Sky blaming each other that I sent a copy of my original post to the CEO at Virgin.
Within an hour I had an email from the CEO's office saying they were looking into my complaint.
At lunchtime I had a phone call from the head of customer complaints saying that an engineer would be with us at 5pm.
He actually arrived at around 3.30pm and checked every part of the Virgin installation and everything was as it should be.
Later last night I received another call from the head of customer complaints to make sure I was satisfied with what the engineer had done.
I have to say now that the customer service I received from everyone yesterday was second to none.
I can now phone sky and tell them categorically that it is a sky problem.
I am also going to say that as far as I am concerned I am fulfilling the terms and conditions of the contract. At my end they sky box is registering connected on both boxes and always has been and if they are not receiving the call back it is not my problem but theirs
I also want my £55 back.
If I get nowhere I shall tell the how I resolved the problem with Virgin and will happily do the same again.
I just wanted to post this update in case anyone had problems with Virgin, don't hesitate to contact the CEO. It worked for me.
It is entirely possible to get dial tone on a line that is otherwise disconnected and cannot make or receive calls. There is a possibility that Virgin installed a new line and socket and left the old Sky line in place complete with the extension wiring. So it is absolutely vital that you test the actual sockets and confirm that they are able to make and receive calls properly.
If you cannot make or receive calls on those sockets then it is YOUR problem not Sky's and Sky will just keep charging you the full sub and you can probably kiss the £55 goodbye. It is only Sky's problem if the sockets are fully functioning and you can confirm to them that both can make and receive calls.
I would be surprised if the Virgin engineer checked your extensions as they are classed as the customers responsibility. Basically they are only responsible for everything up to the master socket so that is probably all he checked.