As if Virgin weren't buggering up the good ol' NTL service enough already...

Isn't this the same Carlyle Group who have some rather high profile people on their board?

George H. W. Bush, former U.S. President, Senior Advisor to the Carlyle Asia Advisory Board from April 1998 to October 2003.

George W. Bush, current U.S. President. Was appointed in 1990 to the Board of Directors of one of Carlyle's first acquisitions, an airline food business called Caterair, which Carlyle eventually sold at a loss. Bush left the board in 1992 to run for Governor of Texas.

John Major, former British Prime Minister, Chairman, Carlyle Europe from 2002 until 2005

The Saudi Arabian relatives of Osama bin Laden were also investors in Carlyle until October 2001 when the family sold its $2.02 million investment back to the firm in light of the public controversy surrounding bin Laden’s family after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001.

I'm not really sure I want these guys reading my email!!!!

I nominate Greg as flamer of the week

Virgin media is a complete joke, can't really mess up the service anymore.

Will the Carlyle Group be giving me some kind of refund/alternative for the money I'm paying for the sky channels I'm not receiving?

It used to be possible to get support when the internet service was down by dialling free (150). This has changed (or is about to) to a 0870 type number for support. This tells me all I need to know about an organisation i.e. when sales calls are free and support calls are chargeable.

Time to go back to BT? (Never thought I'd type that.....)

... it's now a 25p/minute line for tech support, although you do get that back if it's a problem with the service

This supposed refund is discretionary and you have to ask for it, it's not automatic. This requires customers to be aware of it. How will they know if problem was a VM fault to ask for refund?

"... it's now a 25p/minute line for tech support, although you do get that back if it's a problem with the service"

yes, it may be, if the agent agree's that it is infact a fault, then you might get the charge back next month.

and in the mean time all those lovely 25p/min charges from all the users ringing up about the compleated 20Mbit upgrades that have infact not been compleated, are all collectivly getting compounded interest in VM's corporate bank account before the paper refund minus the connection charge finally shows up on your next bill if your lucky.

"This supposed refund is discretionary and you have to ask for it, it's not automatic. This requires customers to be aware of it. How will they know if problem was a VM fault to ask for refund?"

not so. the 25p per minute plus connection charge is refunded if it is a fault with the service, whether you ask for it or not.

"yes, it may be, if the agent agree's that it is infact a fault"

we err on the side of caution, because there are grey areas and because we aren't perfect.

"then you might get the charge back next month."

the call charges don't come out of your bank immediately, and call credits are done at the time of the call, so there should be no detrimental effect from the charge, if it is a service fault.

and boy oh boy did we wander off the subject of the original article lol

NTL Ireland customers, thankfully, will be missing all this fun and frolics as it was sold off before Virgin took over.

Ireland's instead been turned over to UPC (Europe's largest cable provider) owned by Liberty Global.

They purchased NTL Ireland and Chorus giving them almost 100% of our cable market !!!

It looks like UK customers might be 'enjoying' another complete rebrand (yay!)

"not so. the 25p per minute plus connection charge is refunded if it is a fault with the service, whether you ask for it or not."

I notice you never gave your name when you said that and why doesn't that suprise me.

I don't believe you when you say you get an automatic refund. I have witnessed NTL's system first hand and there is no way you have implemented an automatic refund in the case of a Virgin Media error with regards to a broadband fault.

I think that the Tech Support have to refund this charge MANUALLY if they believe it to be Virgin Media's fault. And given NTL/Virgin's track record I imagine this will be done rather haphazardly and shoddily.

If it really is done automatically then Virgin have wasted their money and the customers patience as Virgin has serious billing problems (overcharging, duplicate charges, etc) that should be addressed before you claim Virgin are automatically giving people refunds for BB tech support charges without them asking.

Wait, was that a pig flying past my window???