back to article Virgin Tweets a sorry for TiVo series link snafu

Virgin Media left serial linkers hanging this weekend after a glitch centred on its highly promoted TiVo-based DVR borked the box's ability to auto-record entire series of programmes. The bug struck on Saturday, but by yesterday evening a workaround had been devised by users posting on Virgin's forum. Not that forcing the box …

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  1. dotdavid
    Thumb Down

    Woohoo indeed.

    Hmm, sounds like a typically-Virgin response to genuine concerns. They're all about their trendy informal branding nowadays.

    The TiVo thing looked interesting until I realised it was inexplicably tied to Virgin Media. Could I buy the TiVo box seperately and hook it up to Freeview or Sky if I no longer wanted my Virgin subscription? Er... no. OK, so having bought the box surely I wouldn't need to pay more of a subscription charge to Virgin? Er... no again.

    As I'm already stuck with them for 12 months after getting a HD box upgrade without realising that tied me into another 12 month contract with them (I double-checked afterwards, and there was no mention of a new contract from the pages I signed up from) I can't see myself ever signing up for this sort of thing from them.

    1. Mr_Happy
      Happy

      You Don't Buy The Box

      You only rent the box from VM so when your contract expires, it goes back to them

      Also all failures are repaired free unlike borken Sky boxes

  2. Tom 260

    better than some

    At least they sorted it out in the end, series link over freeview on FIVE seems to be daftly messed up, you set one series to record and it not only records the right episodes, it also records every single repeat, so I get 4 copies of the new episode (including showings on FIVER) plus 1 of the previous week's episode each week.... This has been going on for over a year, yet all the other channels I record from work fine.

    1. ChrisC Silver badge

      "At least they sorted it out in the end..."

      Quite so. How long has it been since series linking on Sky boxes started to get a bit flakey, usually not going noticed until you try to watch the latest episode of whatever and realise it wasn't recorded...

  3. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Virgin Media Sucks

    Virgin Media Sucks. 'nuff said.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    Mirgin Vedia

    Doesn't surprise me in the slightest and I'll bet anyone who phoned up to complain was told to turn their box off, leave for 30 seconds, then turn back on, then either hungup on a "transfer to a colleague" or given some excuse like "that channel is not compatible with tivo" then hungup.

    The old underspecced Pace boxes used to freeze regularly, and the supposed interactive features/on demand never worked.

    The advert with the TiVo looked interesting until Virgin Media was mentioned.

    At the end, the user is asked "what do you think?" with a URL and an up and down thumbs.

    I logged on to attempt to select the down thumb because it is on the Virgin Media network. Unfortunately it just plays a flash video of that annoying actor. I turned the sound off so don't know what hes on about.

    VM are the most shambolic, poorly run and worst customer service company I ever dealt with.

    Explains why I am now in the customer clutches of the evil BSkyB empire.

    1. ChrisC Silver badge

      If you think things will be any better for you with Sky...

      ...think again. Having been with Sky for 5 years now, I'd dump them in an instant if there was an alternative source for all the channels we watch regularly. It's not so much that we watch a lot of different channels, more that the selection we do watch only seems to be available via Sky, and only then if you buy practically every channel bundle on offer.

      1. Glyn 2
        Happy

        Maybe

        Dunno how much you watch but buying the series on DVD gives access to all the shows and at a fraction of the cost (both in cash and to your soul )

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @ If you think things will be any better for you with Sky... → #

        I just took up the TV package, the phone is BT (who are another shambolic bunch to be fair) and ISP PlusNet (who have been truly fantastic).

        TV outages are likely to be something physical with the dish, rather than trying to figure out if something is up with the underground cable network or if someone cut through the cable at the end of the street, and Skys main customer service centre is based in Livingston.

        Their boxes, even from the SkyDigital era, were always way ahead of Virgin Media, who still have a lot of customers using downgraded OnDigital Pace set top boxes.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Not just Media

      Everything you said applies to pretty much anything Virgin branded, my worst experience was with Virgin Holidays.

      Virgin branded products are banned in our house and the mention of the beardy twat could result in a slap.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    High Handed

    "Either way, punters seem more put out by what many of them perceive as a high-handed approach from Virgin than by the bug itself."

    A high handed attitude when responding to a widespread issue? Virgin Media? Surely not!

    Oh, well. Business as usual then.

  6. IsJustabloke
    Coat

    I refuse to enoble a simple forum post!

    gonna go against the flow here BUT

    I had Virgin cable (and NTL before that) I also used the Virgin BB service (and NTL before that) and I never really had any problems with them. I had the Virgin HD box and it all worked as advertised, I found their service to be fine. If I needed engineers they turned up on the day and at the tiem specified... really can't fault them. Sorry.

    I only got shot of them when I decided I had better things to do with £60 a month when I was barely at home to watch TV and Orange offered me BB for nothing as aprt of my mobey package (can't fault them either TBH)

    Anywho...

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