First of all, thank you for your considerable efforts in collecting and passing on this feedback. It is very clear.
We do understand that we need to improve our HD offer, both on VOD and HD channels, and are working to achieve this. I also take your point that the grouping can be improved, and again we are working towards this. As soon as we are able to make an announcement on specifics, I will make sure that we contact you personally on this e-mail, and seek your feedback.
In the meantime, as a valued premium customer, I hope you have noticed that this year we have invested heavily in upgrading our broadband access speeds, shortly to 50Mb, and made significant additions to our SD VOD offer, such as BBC iPlayer, which are proving very popular. I hope you also enjoyed the England football qualifiers on Setanta within XL. In short, we are continually looking for ways to improve the offer, and I can only apologise if we have fallen short on HD to date. We will review all 1300 comments carefully over the weekend.
Best regards
Andrew Barron
Much better response from Virgin this time (thanks, Mr Barron, for taking the petition seriously) - what do you guys think?
21 comments:
It's refreshing to see someone NOT attempting to side-step the issue and admit that they could do better.
I agree - Mr Barron's response is refreshingly honest and open. I'd given the petition up as a lost cause and this was my last punt with it - hopefully it now opens a new door at Virgin when I'd pretty much given up hope.
I constantly switch between to viewpoints. I hate the lack of HD, it forces me to illegal methods to get my fix. However I do like iplayer and other VOD offerngs, and Setanta is nice addition. I'm not prepared to pay for Sky so I'll stick with Virgin for now. My contract is almost up so I'll see what I can upgrades I can blag.
It does seem that they are now fully aware of what is needed.
I found Mr Barron very helpful in the past and recently.
It can be frustrating but when you get feedback like this it does give a glimmer of hope for the future.
surely the problem tho is that sky have tied up all the linear HD content in exclusive contracts . how is that virgin's problem ?
There 50mbps investment is a long way short. What's the point of having this speed if there traffic management slows you down after a gigs.
It is a better response this time around. At least they now seem to acknowledge that the current HD offering isn't up to scratch. Hopefully we'll start to see some improvements in the not too distant future.
I can't understand
(a) Why you sent the petition (again)
(b) Why you are suddenly of the opinion that Virgin are about to do anything other than what they have already announced.
Just when do you expect Barron's E-Mail that more cable HD services are launching?
To answer your questions:
1) I set the petition up to let VM know that they have high-paying customers who feel they're getting a raw deal with HD. I sent it again because the number who had signed it had increased by a significant amount from when I first sent it. Also, the original response was a standard letter issued from the Chief Exec's office; this time I had a contact at Virgin who I was reliably informed would be more communicative on the matter.
2) Virgin's recognition that the HD services currently provided are inadequate is a move from what we've been told before by Virgin. How this inadequacy is dealt with remains to be seen. I have no idea if or when there will be new HD services on cable, but this letter from Mr Barron I feel is the most positive we've had on the matter.
a great response form virgin , but just as important it shows that your website really does have a vital role to play in taking our concerns to virgin , hence please please please keep up the great work that you do
Thanks for your kind words about the blog. Appreciate the feedback.
keep it going nialli...
i remember you were feeling frustrated a while back and i suggested that we all should keep our consumer feet firmly down on vm to advise them that more HD is required now and is a untapped market for them.
privately,Nialli, you know I have been in touch with mr Barron about this and other issues which I shall not elaborate here but in all cases he has answered positively or passed on my queries to other departments who actually respond, where previously no answer was forthcoming.
Rightly or wrongly i feel positive for the very near future and whether this is just great PR is for individuals to form their own opinion.
It's just PR (not6 even "great")
"great response from Virgin"??? Was someone PAID to post that? How is it "great"?
I cancelled my Virgin today.
1. What on earth am i gonna do with 50Mps?
2. I gaurantee that this time in 12 months there will still be no addition to Virgin HD. HE gave a response poeple wanted to hear and they bought it big time!! Just because he's honest dont mean jack
3. Im sick to death of a remote that is about 15 seconds behind me!!
4. My TV Drive sounds like a Freight train!
I really do hope that they improve there serivces, but i can get all the HD i need from SKY, so why the hell would i stick around with them.
P.S Great Blog though. keep up the goos work. I'ts important that you carry on.
looks like it might be working - discovery HD appears on the virgin media website TV guide, alas not on my V+ box
looks like it might be working - discovery HD appears on the virgin media website TV guide, alas not on my V+ box
Great work mate - I fewel as if something might be happening at last....
Its worth pointing out that we are now 6 months on from this response from VM and they appear to have done absolutely nothing.
There was the announcement by the CEO of 4 HD channels to launch within 3 months, but given that the 3 months runs out tomorrow that is beginning to look like it was nothing more than lies.
Maybe worth following it up on the 6 month anniversary Nialli?
It is a real shame that Virgin repeatedly come out with the same broken promises - "coming soon", "within 3 months", "many more channels within the next year" (that was 20 months ago).
They had the capability of providing a much superior offering to Sky, but have steadfastly refused to give their customers what they are crying out for.
They keep on about their 50mbps broadband, but it would be interesting to find out just how many of their customers have taken up this option. I wonder just how many more people would have stayed with them, or even signed up with them, if they had offered 20 HD channels instead of 50mbps broadband. I suspect a lot more.
At the end of the day, I am just glad that I switched to Sky last year as I now have over 30 HD channels to choose from (with more to come next month - April 2009) and all at a similar price I was paying for my Virgin VIP package.
Did you know Virgin Media have a Twitter feed which seems to be pretty well operated, most queries seem to get responses very quickly.
its http://twitter.com/virginmedia
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