Damn Virgin got me excited :)

Hello,

Driving down the street this morning I noticed Virgin Media where digging up the road. I thought great! they might be coming into my area but all it seems they have done is dig a whole and put a man hole cover over it

Morrisons utilities where digging up the other end of the street and inserting some Grey tubes which I think is in preparation for BT fibre.

When I signed up for CableMyStreet I did get an e-mail a few weeks after "We�re getting in touch with the great news that your area is part of our expansion plans!" but I thought that was them perhaps starting the roll out.

I assume there where just passing through the street for something else

Regards,
Sam

Sorry for my long reply, but Virgin Media is on my black list now and has been for a few months now due to lying to me on many occasions over several months, I would like to say how I really feel about them as a company, but every word would come up as being censored, anyhow here is what happened for us.

I would first like to say that don't believe anything Virgin Media say either in emails, over the phone or from any of their engineers, they are just liars plain and simple, some people could say the same for BT, but with BT we have at least been able to resolve our issues whereas with VM we hadn't.

We was promised VM Fibre every month that I called from October 2014, each time I explained that we live in a conservation area where I was reassured via email and also over the phone that our road and side roads was part of that last multi million pound funding that was to install their fibre into east London.

Each time I phoned I explained that we was told they will be installing fibre down our road along with it being a conservation area and was told that's fine we can work with our council around that issue, I also told them we would need to have their cabinets installed first, and was told that they would send out an engineer to survey our area and that the engineer would also pop round to explain what's to happen etc.

A month goes past and no engineer so I phone them again and I am fobbed off with sorry the engineer couldn't find any of their cables in our area or down our road, so I told them yet again I was aware of that and that I already said that last month, so I was yet again told that they would send out an engineer to survey our area to locate where they could place their cabinets to work around our are being a conservation area and that the engineer would pop round to explain stuff.

Now yet again another month and no sign of the engineer, so I phoned again and yes you guessed it, no cables in our area etc, this happened each moth that I phoned them.

Several months later no sign of any VM Fibre where I had enough and demanded to speak to somebody high up so my last phone call was elevated several times until I was passed onto somebody that could possibly give me some answers why I was fobbed off each month for several months each time being reassured that we are not being forgotten or left out and that our pose code is one of many down for that project and it will get done and that we are still work in progress.

After 20 odd mins of them explaining I was told that our area is not being upgraded with their fibre project and that our area was the only area in our borough that will not be upgraded and that was that, no reason why but sorry.

Its a shame really due to my parents wanted to have our TV, Phone and broadband packages all in one so that we could get rid of our 4 SKY HD Boxes and was intending to have a few Tivo boxes to replace those.

We are due to have our fibre go live (so I have been told by BTOR via email) that our FTTP is still down to be ready to order end of July, so if all goes well 8 days to go.

Basically it would of been nice to have a choice of who to go with but this has left us with BT which is fine.

TBH I preferred BT over VM due to how its installed where with VM they would need to dig up our footway up our road, drill a hole in our garden wall, dig a trench up to our home, drill another hole in the wall of our home, however with BT only one hole is drilled in our wall and no digging up our footway etc.

There are probably many people that have similar feelings about VM as well as people that have issue with BT.

My choices are all based off how we have been treated and how or if it was resolved, it could of easily gone the other way.

Once again sorry for my long post about VM and how I feel about them of a company.

Paul

Until infrastructure is actually delivered and live anything is just plans and plans can and do change. The intention may be to do something but if things go wrong then they may pull the plug.

I hope that BT deliver but it is quite possible at this stage in July that things may well change and be put back further.

The same happens in many industries - if the thing isn't built yet then things can be delayed - installed fixed line telecoms is a minefield and can be affected by many issues - a lot of which are out of the direct control of the provider.

In reply to a post by ian72:

Until infrastructure is actually delivered and live anything is just plans and plans can and do change. The intention may be to do something but if things go wrong then they may pull the plug.

Well I was finally told when I asked if VM had plans in the near future to install in our area, and I was told defiantly not in the next 5 to 10 years.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I hope that BT deliver but it is quite possible at this stage in July that things may well change and be put back further.

Well we have had all the hardware and funny enough all of the actual fibre cables since Oct - Dec 2011, only that we had a broken fibre cable which was the only reason why we never got it back then.

This broken fibre originally consisting of 40 (possibly 48) odd strands has now been replaced with either a 70 (possibly 72) or 90 (possibly 96) odd strands one and that was done a few weeks ago, the last fibre engineer from BTOR said this last bit of work was the last bit and all we have to do is wait for the database to be updated to live before we can order it.

I emailed Openreach a few times now about status updates and I have been told that its still down as being scheduled for end of July, even though all the work has already been done, so I guess that the end of July is when loads of fibre install might go live then.

In reply to a post by ian72:

The same happens in many industries - if the thing isn't built yet then things can be delayed - installed fixed line telecoms is a minefield and can be affected by many issues - a lot of which are out of the direct control of the provider.

Oh I understand that, but VM kept fobbing me off month after month even though I blatantly told them that there is no installed cabinets down our road where they then said that's fine and that their cabling is in our area and that they would send an engineer round to see where the cabinets can be placed and then one month later I am then told sorry they are not in my area and then the same thing over and over again over several months, and each time this info was entered onto their system, that's what really annoyed me, it also seems that they have no clue where their sodding cables are placed, sorry if I sound rude, but it really annoyed me.

Paul

I suspect the people at VM were just going on the basic info they had available to them - it probably wasn't detailed enough to give the right answer. This is obviously not good but they were most likely not purposefully lying just not well enough informed to give the right answer.

Just in case it isn't clear I am agreeing that it isn't good enough but probably not purposely deceitful.

In reply to a post by ian72:

I suspect the people at VM were just going on the basic info they had available to them - it probably wasn't detailed enough to give the right answer. This is obviously not good but they were most likely not purposefully lying just not well enough informed to give the right answer.

Just in case it isn't clear I am agreeing that it isn't good enough but probably not purposely deceitful.

I agree to that to a certain degree, however the original initial phone call I got from them after filling out their form, I was told by the department that deals with the actual project and they told me that our actual postcode and even where the several cabinets would go to support our road along with the several side roads, I was even given an estimated date.

But yeah, things happen resulting in not getting fibre, but to be told several months later that our area was never down for it where the initial call by them said we was says somebody was lying or was misinformed.

I just wished they would man up and say "Sorry we was wrong and this was the reason why we are unable to install our fibre product in your area", TBH I already had a feeling that it wouldn't get installed, but to be reassured that it would several times added fuel to the fire LOL.

TBH if VM changed their mind and did finally install their fibre product I would still go with BT.

Paul

Drumchapel ?

Yep Drumchapel

whereabouts where they?

I have a FTTC line back up north in my dad's house, got the same email about virgin doing the overbuild in Drumchapel.

Pete

In reply to a post by sheppy:

whereabouts where they?

I have a FTTC line back up north in my dad's house, got the same email about virgin doing the overbuild in Drumchapel.

Pete

Sunnyside Drive

SUNNYSIDE DRIVE, GLASGOW, G15 6QR on Exchange DRUMCHAPEL is served by Cabinet 4
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 62.5 20 20 -- 17-Aug-15
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 75.6 51.5 20 15.6 -- 17-Aug-15

Looks like BT have built a new cabinet, thought Blairdardie was Exchange only.

Cabinet 4 has been active for ages

The August date is referring to more capacity becoming available i.e. out of line card ports so new one added or if cab full another new one being stood and commissioned

FTTC is currently not available on this cabinet due to following reasons:- Capacity planned: Your area is fibre enabled. Extra capacity is planned to allow order placement..

In reply to a post by sheppy:

SUNNYSIDE DRIVE, GLASGOW, G15 6QR on Exchange DRUMCHAPEL is served by Cabinet 4
Featured Products

Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)

Downstream Range(Mbps)

Availability Date

High Low High Low
FTTC Range A (Clean) 80 62.5 20 20 -- 17-Aug-15
FTTC Range B (Impacted) 75.6 51.5 20 15.6 -- 17-Aug-15

Looks like BT have built a new cabinet, thought Blairdardie was Exchange only.

No cabinet was always there the last 8 hears I've been here. FTTC has been in over a year.

Sam

i was promiced**

we were promiced**


we was promiced ? What is this crazy language you use ? ...

Hello,

As I said all they did was dig a hole in the road (not sure if anything in it) and put a man hole cover on it. I don't think it's anything about bringing virgin to my area and may have had to pass through putting a leased line in perhaps, not sure.

Thanks
Sam

Where?

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Where?

Hello,

Sorry not quite sure how you want that question answerd. It was dug about 3 feet on the road from the curb about 3 quarters of the way down the bottom of the street.

Thanks
Sam

You are confused by the way the forum operates. (Most of us are until we get it pointed out).

If you look in the post header, it says who it is a reply to. I can't find any use of the word "promiced" on the whole site in the last six months, so was asking that poster where it was for him to complain about.

(Also if you select the Threaded option near the top right or at the bottom, you can see the chain and sub-chains. But it's a slow way to read threads).

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 24-Jul-15 00:10:41)

Ah I see what you mean. Thanks for pointing that out.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Where?

djfunkup is trying to correct Paul's grammar and in doing so can't spell promised

That is I think the definition of irony.

In reply to a post by ian72:

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Where?

djfunkup is trying to correct Paul's grammar and in doing so can't spell promised

That is I think the definition of irony.

I just ignore posts like that, I never said my grammar was good, hell my grammar in fact is very poor, but that doesn't affect my software or hardware development, so who cares.

TBH, I think it was more due to me having a pop at their ISP, If I have issues with a company I will have a pop at them, just like if BT treats me bad I would have a pop at them, like I have in the past.

But there you go.

Paul

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

Sorry for my long reply, but Virgin Media is on my black list now and has been for a few months now due to lying to me on many occasions over several months, I would like to say how I really feel about them as a company, but every word would come up as being censored, anyhow here is what happened for us.

I would first like to say that don't believe anything Virgin Media say either in emails, over the phone or from any of their engineers, they are just liars plain and simple, some people could say the same for BT, but with BT we have at least been able to resolve our issues whereas with VM we hadn't.

We was promised VM Fibre every month that I called from October 2014, each time I explained that we live in a conservation area where I was reassured via email and also over the phone that our road and side roads was part of that last multi million pound funding that was to install their fibre into east London.

Each time I phoned I explained that we was told they will be installing fibre down our road along with it being a conservation area and was told that's fine we can work with our council around that issue, I also told them we would need to have their cabinets installed first, and was told that they would send out an engineer to survey our area and that the engineer would also pop round to explain what's to happen etc.

A month goes past and no engineer so I phone them again and I am fobbed off with sorry the engineer couldn't find any of their cables in our area or down our road, so I told them yet again I was aware of that and that I already said that last month, so I was yet again told that they would send out an engineer to survey our area to locate where they could place their cabinets to work around our are being a conservation area and that the engineer would pop round to explain stuff.

Now yet again another month and no sign of the engineer, so I phoned again and yes you guessed it, no cables in our area etc, this happened each moth that I phoned them.

Several months later no sign of any VM Fibre where I had enough and demanded to speak to somebody high up so my last phone call was elevated several times until I was passed onto somebody that could possibly give me some answers why I was fobbed off each month for several months each time being reassured that we are not being forgotten or left out and that our pose code is one of many down for that project and it will get done and that we are still work in progress.

After 20 odd mins of them explaining I was told that our area is not being upgraded with their fibre project and that our area was the only area in our borough that will not be upgraded and that was that, no reason why but sorry.

Its a shame really due to my parents wanted to have our TV, Phone and broadband packages all in one so that we could get rid of our 4 SKY HD Boxes and was intending to have a few Tivo boxes to replace those.

We are due to have our fibre go live (so I have been told by BTOR via email) that our FTTP is still down to be ready to order end of July, so if all goes well 8 days to go.

Basically it would of been nice to have a choice of who to go with but this has left us with BT which is fine.

TBH I preferred BT over VM due to how its installed where with VM they would need to dig up our footway up our road, drill a hole in our garden wall, dig a trench up to our home, drill another hole in the wall of our home, however with BT only one hole is drilled in our wall and no digging up our footway etc.

There are probably many people that have similar feelings about VM as well as people that have issue with BT.

My choices are all based off how we have been treated and how or if it was resolved, it could of easily gone the other way.

Once again sorry for my long post about VM and how I feel about them of a company.

Paul

Why didn't you make your own thread for your own issues with VM? Why trash someone else's thread with your problems?

Do you interrupt people who are talking IRL and start talking about about your own issues?

Ummm.

First, although rather long and detailed, the post was spot on topic.

Second, yours is the second pointless flame of Paul in this thread.

Third, there was no need for you to quote the whole of his long post. There was no need even to quote any of it. We can all use this forum and its linking features quite well thank you. The full quote is just an irritant and inconvenience, requiring a lot of scrolling when reading in flat mode to get past.

All for nothing but a flame that is invalid anyway .

LOL i did spell it incorectly silly me

Promised not promiced anyway .. i was not actually trying to correct Paul's grammar .. although his grammar was indeed incorrect.i would say it's a bad habit he has rather than lacking or having the ability to use correct grammar.

it's only certain people from parts of England that insert the word ' was' after the word 'we '

there is no situation or context anywhere in the English language that these two words go together

In reply to a post by djfunkdup:

there is no situation or context anywhere in the English language that these two words go together

Wrong.

We was a typographical error and this was corrected to wee in a later edition.

What lol ? you will need to explian this one to me please .

So you are saying that the word 'was' can follow the word 'wee'

wee was at the shops ?

Shouldn't that be:

'we' was a typographical error ?

TBH, I think it was more due to me having a pop at their ISP, If I have issues with a company I will have a pop at them, just like if BT treats me bad I would have a pop at them, like I have in the past.

But there you go.

Paul

TBH Paul it was nothing to do with you having a pop at them.as i said in another post it is just a bad habbit you have rather than lacking the ability to use correct grammar..

you said the words 'we was' in nearly every post you posted on here that contains more than ten words lol.

there are actually another couple of users on this forum that do the exact same thing.and its always the same people that say 'we was' rather than 'i was' or 'we were'

Yes, I have a Singaporean-Chinese colleague called Wee and also have a few acquaintances in Scotland with the nickname Wee.

In reply to a post by MHC:

Yes, I have a Singaporean-Chinese colleague called Wee and also have a few acquaintances in Scotland with the nickname Wee.

lolol p-off



i am actually in Scotland here so maybe that's why all this 'we was' carry on grates on my brain so much.


gawd eveything up here is 'wee' lol









Disclaimer : Well almost everything

In reply to a post by djfunkdup:

i was not _{^{(Non-capitalised "I").}}

his grammar was indeed incorrect.i would _{^{(Missing space after a full stop, followed by another non-capitalised "I").}}

it's only certain people from parts of England that insert the word ' was' after the word 'we ' _{^{(Non-capitalisation at the start of a sentence. Single quotation marks where double is more appropriate, and incorrect use of them anyway. No full stop at the end of the sentence).}}

there is no situation or context anywhere in the English language that these two words go together _{^{(Another incorrectly started and ended sentence).}}

Quite an amusing post really.

Good stuff i'm glad you found it amusing i suppose you need something to brighten your life up a little bit

Frankly I find that sort of sloppiness far more offensive than someone speaking and writing in the perfectly normal dialect of the region in which he grew up.

What's a "habbit" anyway? A little hobbit, or an XXL sized monk's cloak?

Edit - the post containing that was just as bad.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 24-Jul-15 21:01:11)

sorry i don't know what ' od sloppiness ' means

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Frankly I find that sort od sloppiness far more offensive than someone speaking and writing in the perfectly normal dialect of the region in which he grew up.

What's a "habbit" anyway? A little hobbit, or an XXL sized monk's cloak?

Edit - the post containing that was just as bad.

Where is this region that you mention ? geographically i mean

It could have been "of", or "odd", typoed. Logic says it must have been "of", as there wasn't an odd example of sloppiness, more a stream of it .

I shall reply to a grammatically correct question if you produce one . Google is of course your friend if you try it. I found a similar construction on the British Library website, /learning directory.

Better still, perhaps we should stop this before we both get ban warnings.

Suffice to say, 'twixt he and thee thine is the greater offence.

Edited by RobertoS (Fri 24-Jul-15 21:15:00)

Ok that means you don't know the geographical location .. i knew that anyway lol ..

i did google ' we was ' and there is nothing about that term having a geographical location where it is used in local dialect.it does however make it pretty clear what the thoughts are behind the use of the words being used together

Anyway yes i will agree with you and just leave it at that .it's a shame as well because we was just chatting lol

Have a great night ..

Ok gone a little off topic here I am just trying to understand why they dig the road and put a man hole cover over it. What would be the purpose. Not really interested in anyone's grammar or their spelling etc, if I can read it and understand it then it's alright with me.

Sounds to me as though they sank a chamber for soon-to-come VM cable. It doesn't all come as one task like removing and replacing a road surface. What the work at the other end of the road is I don't know, as we haven't been told why the OP thinks it may be to do with BT.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

Sounds to me as though they sank a chamber for soon-to-come VM cable. It doesn't all come as one task like removing and replacing a road surface. What the work at the other end of the road is I don't know, as we haven't been told why the OP thinks it may be to do with BT.

I am thinking its BT at the other end of the road because it's Morrisons Utilities and I know they do civil work for OpenReach and they where laying some gray tubing/housing which I think the fibre cable is put through. Additionally that end of the road has while markings (lines and dots) down to those white BT man hole covers and then markings with arrows pointing away from the man hole cover saying BT.

Thanks
Sam

This has happened in my town, about 11-14 years ago, although I didn't realise it until afterwards. There is a whole estate (a massive one, as big as a small town, not just a few roads) which still have apparently unused NTL footway-chambers in them. No form of cable was available here previously, and no form of cable is planned to be available currently. The whole estate (and indeed about 90% of the whole town and outlying properties in the civil parish) now has FTTC.

I'm not sure if any conclusions can be drawn from this, except that sometimes cable providers will pay for footway chambers (and possibly ducts?) to be installed, but with the knowledge that the whole plan might never come to fruition.

Disclaimer: Being around the 2001/2003 time, it may have come at the time NTL/Telewest was being bought by Virgin? Or around a turbulent time for cable, anyway. I might try to see what's underneath one of those NTL covers one day.

Before anyone asks: Cable of any sort doesn't come within at least a 9-mile radius of anywhere here.

Edited by deleted (Sat 25-Jul-15 00:59:15)

In reply to a post by ansam:

Ok gone a little off topic here I am just trying to understand why they dig the road and put a man hole cover over it. What would be the purpose. Not really interested in anyone's grammar or their spelling etc, if I can read it and understand it then it's alright with me.

Sorry for all this off topic stuff, TBH I think its what RobertoS says, maybe its to offload their network to another fibre chunk, I have read that some people in some areas that are compact are having congestion on their line and maybe its to off load some traffic down that cable, or could be getting ready for your area, only time will tell.

Paul

If they've put a manhole cover on it then it'll say what it's for on the manhole cover, surely? Or am I missing something?

If it's Openreach it'll have "BT" somewhere on it, if it's Virgin it'll have "CATV" or possibly "Virgin Media".

Hello,

For sure it's Virgin Media as the contractors had their wee sign saying they where doing work on behalf of Virgin Media.

Thanks
Sam

There's always the remote possibility that it's not for CATV/broadband at all. VM supply business grade connectivity as well so perhaps a local office has ordered a leased line and they've got deep pockets for the install cost

Edited by ferretuk (Sat 25-Jul-15 10:01:35)

Hello,

Yes could indeed be possible but I dout it. I know they are coming to the area as I did get an e-mail when I signed up with CableMyStreet.

"Thanks for registering G15 6RA with Cable My Street.
We�re getting in touch with the great news that your area is part of our expansion plans! We�re still working through plans and timings but to make sure your area is one of the first to get connected, tell your friends and neighbours to register their interest too. It�s all about people power you see. We want to expand into areas with the most demand for our services first."

Thanks
Sam

Virgin also supply leased lines/ Ethernet services for business, and in their network area (i.e. where they have ductwork) they can be at the cheaper end of the market for these.

It's possible that the manhole cover is over a joint between their main ducting and a duct running to the installation site (a business, cell tower etc) as the fibre will need to be pulled through.

I've seen this done on a number of occasions.