No suitable thread for this RANT, so here will do. And this probably applies in most Cable areas, where you have mass conurbations of local Council houses, flats, and high rises.
Yonks ago, when it was ntl, telwest, and Cable+Wireless, these CCs did deals with the local Council to cable their housing stock, and provide Analogue Cable TV at a discount to the tenants.
At a time when private residents paid ?6-50 pcm for analogue cable tv (Plus their telephone line rental), council tenants paid only ?5 pcm (typically)- with no insistence on a landline being had as well. This was billed by the Council, in with the rent. There was never any direct billing from the CC, unless the tenant upgraded to phone and Internet. In which case they received a discount off their CC bill, equal to what the Council was charging them.
Recently, local councils have been installing Sky Dish, Euro Dish, and Digital Terrestrial Aerial kit on their multi-occupancy tenanted properties. Then writing to their tenants, telling them that their analogue cable tv is stopping, and instead of ?5 a month for this, they will now be charging 34p per week for providing these new alternatives, for which the tenant will need their own STB, decoder, etc.
Nowhere in the letters I've seen does it mention VM as a viable (and existing) future alternative to Sat / Terrestrial !!! Even though it's already cabled to the tenants flats!!
Seems like a case of negotiations between local Councils and VM on some sort of mass discount for the new Digital TV / Broadband fatally went nowhere in the fairly recent past?
Chapter 2
My mate, who lives in such a Council flat, read his letter from the Council, and was struggling to decide between Sky and FreeView. I suggested VM- Landline + Free Digi-Tv on DD = ?11 pcm. Told him about VM's Introduce a Friend scheme, where we both collect a ?30 credit on our bills. He went for it, so I spent half an hour on the phone last night setting it all up for him.
Chapter 3
He's all signed up for a new landline and M+ Digi-TV (they don't do the free M pack any more, FFS!) An Install date is set, as is the new DD arrangement.
But no he doesn't get the ?30 Introductory credit, and nor do I. He's never received a bill from VM in his life, is having a brand new Account Number and payment method, and yet- VM declare that he is an existing customer, so neither of us qualify for the Introduce a Friend scheme!!
The mind boggles as to how many thousands of potential NEW customers Virmin are about to lose country-wide, as a result of their intransigence with
a) the Councils, and
b) existing customers trying to bring them new biz
The real joke is, they seem to be totally unaware that the Councils are about to stop paying them for Analogue, before VM actually kill the signal at their end.
What a ~~~~ing state of affairs... They can't be arsed to invest in extending their cabling network. Now they can't be bothered to attract new customers inside their existing infrastructure! Well, they grabbed a NEW customer out of my hard work- then did the dirty on both of us. Be warned, peeps...
Yonks ago, when it was ntl, telwest, and Cable+Wireless, these CCs did deals with the local Council to cable their housing stock, and provide Analogue Cable TV at a discount to the tenants.
At a time when private residents paid ?6-50 pcm for analogue cable tv (Plus their telephone line rental), council tenants paid only ?5 pcm (typically)- with no insistence on a landline being had as well. This was billed by the Council, in with the rent. There was never any direct billing from the CC, unless the tenant upgraded to phone and Internet. In which case they received a discount off their CC bill, equal to what the Council was charging them.
Recently, local councils have been installing Sky Dish, Euro Dish, and Digital Terrestrial Aerial kit on their multi-occupancy tenanted properties. Then writing to their tenants, telling them that their analogue cable tv is stopping, and instead of ?5 a month for this, they will now be charging 34p per week for providing these new alternatives, for which the tenant will need their own STB, decoder, etc.
Nowhere in the letters I've seen does it mention VM as a viable (and existing) future alternative to Sat / Terrestrial !!! Even though it's already cabled to the tenants flats!!
Seems like a case of negotiations between local Councils and VM on some sort of mass discount for the new Digital TV / Broadband fatally went nowhere in the fairly recent past?
Chapter 2
My mate, who lives in such a Council flat, read his letter from the Council, and was struggling to decide between Sky and FreeView. I suggested VM- Landline + Free Digi-Tv on DD = ?11 pcm. Told him about VM's Introduce a Friend scheme, where we both collect a ?30 credit on our bills. He went for it, so I spent half an hour on the phone last night setting it all up for him.
Chapter 3
He's all signed up for a new landline and M+ Digi-TV (they don't do the free M pack any more, FFS!) An Install date is set, as is the new DD arrangement.
But no he doesn't get the ?30 Introductory credit, and nor do I. He's never received a bill from VM in his life, is having a brand new Account Number and payment method, and yet- VM declare that he is an existing customer, so neither of us qualify for the Introduce a Friend scheme!!
The mind boggles as to how many thousands of potential NEW customers Virmin are about to lose country-wide, as a result of their intransigence with
a) the Councils, and
b) existing customers trying to bring them new biz
The real joke is, they seem to be totally unaware that the Councils are about to stop paying them for Analogue, before VM actually kill the signal at their end.
What a ~~~~ing state of affairs... They can't be arsed to invest in extending their cabling network. Now they can't be bothered to attract new customers inside their existing infrastructure! Well, they grabbed a NEW customer out of my hard work- then did the dirty on both of us. Be warned, peeps...
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