If it was not good that Virgin Media’s e-mail telling me how they were going to increase my bandwidth for free came after several days of no e-mail, it was even worse that a day or two later we had no connection at all.

I called the freephone  service status line and heard there was a general problem in the RH10 area so didn’t have to resort to the 25p-a-minute ((+10p connection)) help line.  Regular visitors here may have seen me whinge about having to pay for support on internet connections, which are nearly always down to the ISP, when its free to report a fault on the TV or telephone service, but there is a little bit of good news in that area now.

When the recorded messages on the freephone number list the other numbers to call, and the charges involved, they now state that if the problem turns out to be with Virgin’s equipment the charges for that call will be refunded!  Now that is fair enough.  If someone has fiddled with their computer’s configuration or pulled a cable out or has a faulty router which they bought themselves there should be some disincentive for them to tie up Virgin’s help lines dealing with self-inflicted wounds (or compensation to Virgin for having their staff tied up in such calls) but there should not be a cost to anyone trying to report a fault to the company responsible.

I was on the verge of thinking about calling about our service the other day, but just at that moment a Virgin van pulled up at the distribution box opposite, and everything miraculously started working almost immediately.