I got another letter from VM the other day advertising their wares. 
Usual £40 for all services stuff.  There was an interesting line in it 
that said if I joined up they would send an engineer around to install 
everything (Didn't specify if Chartered or Incorporated) or as an added 
incentive they would just send the stuff for me to install myself!  I 
can see the advantages of being able to run cables through the house 
neatly and where I want them, but would I really be allowed to install 
the master phone socket myself and run the wires for that out to their 
little brown box?

Probably some small print somewhere that I couldn't see.  I was not that 
interested anyway, just that sentence jumped out at me.

Rob. wrote:
> I got another letter from VM the other day advertising their wares. 
> Usual £40 for all services stuff.  There was an interesting line in it 
> that said if I joined up they would send an engineer around to install > everything (Didn't specify if Chartered or Incorporated) or as an added 
> incentive they would just send the stuff for me to install myself!  I 
> can see the advantages of being able to run cables through the house 
> neatly and where I want them, but would I really be allowed to install > the master phone socket myself and run the wires for that out to their > little brown box?
> 
> Probably some small print somewhere that I couldn't see.  I was not that 
> interested anyway, just that sentence jumped out at me.

The ploy is that it saves them money if they send the stuff to you to 
install. They've cut back on engineers so if they can get Joe Customer 
to do this type of thing, so much the better. I think that this assumes 
that you've got the phone and cable connections in place ready. It's 
normal practice WRT cable modems if you have a fault - mine came by post.I actually like this idea: no VM monkey trying to rush things, you get 
the cables run where you want (assuming that that's part of the deal) 
and so forth. However, I reckon that this is a case of we send you the 
kit, you connect it to your TV, VCR etc. and they just sort the cable 
bit out.

Having a pop at VM is justified to a degree, but when things are running well the service is pretty good IMO. I had some issues a while back with their service after a cable modem problem. Not only did they refund £75 
to my account, they've put a £9/month monthly discount on it. OK, I'd 
rather have things sorted properly, but at least they tried.

I'd certainly consider VM again if I was moving house to a VM cable area (and no, I definitely don't work for VM!).


Clem