Impatience and Virgin
It has now been six days since my missive to Virgin Media, and I have yet to have a response. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and give them until the end of play tomorrow, and then I am going to call them and tell them to come get their stuff. I did try and get in contact with their twitter team, who seem to be trying to deal with the tidal wave on constant complaints with a calm and helpful manner. It seems they trawl twitter for any mention of them, and then respond accordingly. Rather than wait for them to spot me, I sent the following message to them:
To which they responded:
So now I learn that rather than the two days to resolve things that I was promised on the phone, it could now be as long as 28 days, which would conveniently take me out of my standard 28 period to cancel. And so I sent back:
To which they responded…. Well, they didn't in point of fact.
I don't really think that I'm stretching it too much to say that you are hardly reaching your service level promise of a response within 48 hours if you send a generic automated response within seconds of receiving a complaint form. If that were the case then where I work I would just stick my out of office response on saying 'Hi, I've not read your mail, but I'll get round to it eventually' and I'd never get in trouble for not doing my work. Of course I wouldn't do this, because I'm not a bastard, which is more than I can say for some media companies.
They have until the time I get home tomorrow to respond. Oh, and thanks to everyone who left helpful suggestions on the previous post, rest assured they have been studied and will be held in reserve in case of emergency.
Other than that, the good news is the writers block is gone, thanks in no small part to the Virgin letter. Since then I've put two posts up at Demon Pigeon, one of which went down so badly with my fellow members of staff that I have a nasty feeling I may get a visit in the night and the swift removal of my testes. To be fair though, it's a terrible review of an awful album, but one which I inexplicably love anyway. Oh, and I've lined up an interview with one of the most influential bands of the last 30 years too, so that's nice.
Service please
As I mentioned before, I am really suffering with writers block at the moment. I have managed to write one thing though, a bit of a missive to Virgin Media for the terminally awful piece of shit they call 'service.' I thought I might post it here, just on the off-chance that I can later try and persude them that you dear readers are numbered in the tens of thousands, and that I am what they call in marketing terms 'an arbiter of taste.' This also means I don't have to try and go through it all again, as typing anything seems to fill me with a certain amount of unspecified dread, roughly akin to when you have a hangover and have that guilty feeling that you just can't shake all day. But anyway, what follows is my letter to Virgin. It's not one of the comedy letters you see so often and that can be rather wonderful, mainly because they are easily dismissable, and I want a resolution.
"I am writing to complain about being mis-sold a package on Virgin by one of your sales staff. I initially was looking at a range of options for my new home, amongst which was Virgin. Having entered a few details onto your website I got a follow up call from one of your agents, and discussed the matter further. I had looked at getting the bundle which included Broadband L (which included the wireless router), TV M+, and phone M, as well as the V+ box with associated costs. I ran through the details with him over the phone, and he said that if I could call him back he would be able to get a better deal for me. I looked into it further and decided to call him back.
At this stage he offered me various discounts, including dropping the one off charge for the V+ box. We discussed this in specifics as I explained to him that I was not all that bothered about the HD aspect, as I don't have a HD TV, but I really wanted the V+ aspect. He informed me that the HD box was the V+ box, and so I agreed.
We moved into the house and managed to get everything set up, although was a bit annoyed to find that my router had been downgraded to a non-wireless kind, this was never mentioned. But when I came to try the V+ box I was very upset to find that it actually was just an HD box, without the V+. I immediately phoned your customer services centre and spoke to someone called *******, who was extremely rude, told me there was nothing he could do and that he also couldn't get me a manager to speak to, but that he would get one to call me back within an hour.
That call never came, so I phoned back, and this time spoke to someone whose name I didn't catch, but they told me that there was no problem, and that you could send me out the V+ box, but not until my account had finished setting up on the system, and that I should phone back the next day.
I called back the next day, and was told that it still wasn't set up, but that I would get a call the next day to confirm sending out my V+box.
Two days later I still had not received a call back, so again I called your centre, only to be told I could not get the V+ box that was promised to me, as I had not paid for it. Eventually I was told that I could purchase one for £100, or by upgrading to the XL TV package.
In summary, I am very disappointed by this service. The box that I do have is completely useless to me (it also has a nice habit of crashing just as I am in the middle of watching something, if only I had V+!) and the V+ box was one of the main reasons I took your service, and was explicitly promised to me as being within the package I was signing up for. I would like you to look back over my account and listen to the various calls to me and from me on ******** , and once you have confirmed this, I would like to be sent both the V+ box, and a wireless router.
If this is not resolved, I will be cancelling my contract immediately and going to one of your competitors.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Paul"
Interestingly, I was promised over the phone that if I sent a letter of complaint I would get a definite response within 48 hours. It turns out that what I would get is an immediate automated response which say's, and I quote:
"Hi Paul,
Thanks for the email you sent to us on *********. We're on the case and a member of our team will get back to you as quickly as possible, usually within 5 days. Don't forget - if there's anything else you'd like to know, just log on to our website. It's at www.virginmedia.com"
How utterly helpful. What's the betting that I don't get a response within 5 days?*
So there you go. The world's most blatant attempt to circumvent writers block. Hopefully it will have worked, and I can write something somebody may actually want to read.
*I actually wrote this two days ago now, so by reckoning, Virgin will get back in contact with in exactly 'when hell freezes over' days time.
Blood Update 2
Not gonna be much in the way of blogging today, as I am busy writing the first few issues of Blood On The Motorway. I think once it is up and running I want to post new entries at least twice a week, so I am aiming to get a good 12 or so in the bank before the site goes live, so I can focus on the other two sites I have rather idiotically decided to launch at the same time.
If you are looking for something to read, you should really go and look at the NME's list of the top 50 albums of the last decade, especially if you are looking for something to fill your belly with incandescent rage and bile. It worked for me.
Abnormal Service Resumed
So that was interesting. The whole 7 days experiment was, I think it's safe to say, pretty successful, although I will admit defeat on the timescale. I forgot how little I am on the computer over the weekend, and the fact that I had an OU assignment due in at the same time. But overall it's been lovely to get the feedback that I have, and nice to see the rise in visitors too, but most of all it's been good to do some writing that has stretched me a little bit. Some of the topics were quite hard to wrap my head around, so thanks to everyone who left a suggestion, and I hope that you all liked it.
One thing this week has shown me is the potential of this blog, so over the next few weeks I'm going to try some other interesting things. I already have something in the pipeline for a collaboration with a fellow twitterer, which should be up and running in the next week. In the meantime, as ever, any thoughts on stuff you'd like me to write about are always welcome. The first issue of Blood On The Motorway is done, second issue is being written, so it wont be long before that starts.
Other than that, the big news for me is that I'm about to say goodbye to Microsoft completely at home. Unfortunately work is another matter, but tonight (or over the weekend) I will be installing Ubuntu on my PC at home, and saying goodbye to the steaming pile of excrement that is Vista.
It's been a long and slow decline in my relationship with Microsoft. Like most people like me, who aren't particularly techie, Windows and its products were always just easier. As the default setting on every PC I've ever used (I used a Mac once. Didn't like it) I learnt the Internet through Explorer, used Media Player to play music, even had a hotmail account, and 'made do' with the tools at hand.
It wasn't until I met Jonic that I realised that there was more out there. I mean I had always known that there were alternatives, but I figured they would be so impossible to use that there wasn't any point. This is the mythology that Microsoft have perpetuated throughout their history. But then Jonic showed me Firefox. It was a joy. Even in its infancy it was smoother and easier to use, and came with an added sense of freedom.
Next up was Gmail, and again a whole new world of usability. I still love Gmail, and am now a bit of a slave to the Google machine. I don't know what I would do without iGoogle. (Clue: I may get more work done.) But now I've decided to take the next step away from the hideous chud of an operating system that is Vista. I'm sure I don't need to list its faults here, you will all have heard or seen for yourself.
For someone moving very slowly into the world of tech geekery, the move to a Linux based OS is quite a large step, but I'm determined to do it, and do it on my own. Wish me luck.
Face in book.
I must admit that while I do have a facebook account, it's not something that occupies a huge amount of my time. There are too many irritating things about it. I for one am constantly bombarded with requests to do this or that, or bite another zombie, or take a movie taste challenge. To be honest I have neither the time nor the inclination. A lot of the people who send these are good friends of mine, and I always feel really bad when I ignore the request of my girlfriend, or a close friend, but I have decided on principle not to do them.
But yesterday, having signed on, I found a new crack-like way to pass the time, and that was the 'recommended friend' feature. And there was a whole evening gone. Now I have another rule when it comes to social networking sites, which is to only accept the friendship of people who I have actually met, or at least spoken to enough to genuinely call them a friend. But nevertheless, so many old acquaintances made my head dizzy. Now to sit back and see if any of them remember me.
This weekend I am spending a rather pleasant weekend with my ladies, but it is being somewhat undercut by the constant wave of nausea that hits me when I remember that I will, in the next few days, be finding out if I have a tremendously exciting new job. So to distract myself from this question, I present you with a picture of my little Rosie. Isn't she cute?
Weekend bliss
I was supposed to be having a rehearsal with a new band today, but it keeps getting cancelled, but at least it leaves me with a weekend of doing nothing in particular. I'm about to buy some headphones and that is truly the most taxing task that I will have to undertake today. Bliss.
Still no internet at home, I'm now reaching a zen-like acceptance about this, I think any more bile directed towards Talk Talk would give me an ulcer.
Tool and Mastodon was absolutely amazing, two bands who are steadfastly at the top of their game. As openers, Mastodon had to stick firmly to the new album, but that's no bad thing really. They closed on an amazing 13 minute 'Hearts Alive' off Leviathan. Good as they were, however, Tool just blew them away, from opening with Stinkfist, through to the immense full spectacle of Wings parts 1 and 2 (weighing in around 25 minutes) replete with the sort of laser show that Pink Floyd would be proud of. I've seen some damn good gigs this year, but that really rounded the year off in spectacular style.
A tremendous waste of a week.
Well, I took a week off work so that I could really knuckle down, sort out my CV, get an online portfolio sorted, get some blogging done, all sorts of internet based life sorting really. But on the first day Talk Talk decided to put a fault on my line and take money out of my account that they had promised they would not. Hence, for the whole week I have been without phone, internet or money. If it weren't for a constant stream of friends willing to come round and watch DVDs with me and the repeats of the OC showing on E4 every day, I don't think I would have made it through.
I've been introducing a friend to the wonderful world of comic book movies with viewings of the X films, Batman Begins, the Punisher, Daredevil, Elektra and a few others, and it got me to thinking that no news has been heard in a while about sequels to Daredevil and Elektra. Now, I know neither film set the world alight, either in terms of critical acclaim or box office, but I thoroughly enjoyed both, and thought Affleck was 'tha bomb' and Jennifer Garner was outstanding. Neither the (also fantastic) Hulk or Punisher films did a huge amount of business and yet they're both getting sequels. Manybe someone should poke Marvel a little bit.
Now I know we're not supposed to get all personal and gooey on our blogs but one thing has driven me up the wall this week. Once again I met an entirely lovely girl.  Once again it has all gone belly up even before the first date for utterly unfathomable reasons. Now I know what you're thinking, I must have done something wrong. But honestly, I don't see what that could be, since I went to bed thinking I had a date the next day, then woke up the next day without one, and have been blanked ever since. All I really want in this case is, well, to know where it all broke down. Is it some elaborate mind game? Is someone out there warning women away from me for some unspecified reason? Because this is happening far too often for my liking.
Anyway, I shall be back once I have negotiated some kind of service resumption with Talk Talk. All they will tell me at the moment is that they are working on the problem. Yeah right. But I shall be back as soon as I can.
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