Because geek is cool and clever

Becoming a Virgin (again) February 9, 2009

Virgin Media offers speeds 'up to' 50Mb. Hmmm...

If you read me regularly you’ll know that I’ve been procrastinating like a nervous bungy jumper about signing up to a Virgin Media cable account for about a million years.

My biggest problem is the fact that this is actually the old NTL which whom I had numerous incredible and frustrating issues with when I first had a cable modem installed back in the day. I’ve been online and read reports that Virgin Media are no better than NTL (in fact it’s even suggested that it’s entirely the same staff etc.). I think if I ever faced the kind of incompetence that I encountered at the hands of NTL I would probably go postal.

But I really want a faster connection than my ADSL line can provide me with. Apparently I’m just the wrong distance away from the exchange so the measly 1Mb that currently squeezes its way down my copper wire is as good as it’s gonna get.

This sort of speed is fine for work (indeed, it’s a work-provided line) and I can hook into my company’s VPN and use RDP no problemo, BUT a) it’s not good enough for personal stuff. For example, I’d like to watch BBC iPlayer in higher resolution but since the BBC decided not to buffer their stream, it’s a total no-no.

So I’ve bitten the bullet and opted for Virgin Media’s ‘up to’ 20Mb line. A friend of mine has it and says he gets around 8Mb which I’m hoping I can beat but even that will be a considerable improvement. It’s gonna cost me £30 a month which is reasonable and I’ve always got the option to whack it up to the full 50Mb service if I think I’ll get near to that much. That particular speed sets you back £50 a month which seems excessive but I remember paying that to NTL for a 1Mb line when they first bought them out! Imagine that.

Booking the service and installation online was an absolute doddle so credit for an easy experience there. Where I feel somewhat frustrated already (and I’ve only been a customer for a couple of hours) is that the booking process allows you to request a particular installation date and time. Great! Please come out on Saturday morning. That would be most handy.

Shortly after finishing the purchase I received an email. Lo and behold they were apologising but couldn’t make the date I had requested so suggested another some days later.

I’m happy enough to wait but what gets me is that they could easily have worked that out when offering me times which they clearly only did to make me feel happy. Once the order was set, then they can tell me they can’t do that time. Typical.

A bit of honesty wouldn’t go a miss, Virgin Media! Hook you online booking diary up to a real-time diary of your engineers’ availability. Grrrr….

Anyway, I shall make sure I’m on-hand next Tuesday when they run the cable up to the house. I want to be absolutely sure they don’t do what the Sky engineer decided to do and find the shortest route possible from source to destination even if it meant hanging a cable over my drainpipe, running it straight down the side of the house and drilling a dirty great hole halfway up the all.

I’ll let you know how well the service works come next Tuesday. Can’t wait – <MARVIN-VOICE>Though something’s bound to go wrong. It always does.</MARVIN-VOICE>