No More virgin.net

[threegee]

I hesitated to use the rape word to create a pun here, but once again this shows the folly of using an ISP provided domain as your primary email address.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/household-bills/11377380/Virgin-broadband-customers-told-were-moving-you-to-TalkTalk-and-youll-lose-your-email.html

 

So... Branson has finally worked out that there isn't big money in providing Internet infrastructure, and he's cutting his customers lose? The excuse given for trashing their email doesn't stand up to examination though.

 

A Virgin Media spokesman said the company had explored "all avenues” in an attempt to continue supporting the virgin.net domain, but none was financially viable.

 

What utter tosh!  When Cable and Wireless decided to get out of retail Internet they had the decency to leave an old server running and maintained for more than a decade to do the right thing by their customers. Only when there was next to no traffic did they pull the plug.  The cost of this would be a drop in the ocean to an organisation like Virgin.  What they are actually saying is we think you are fools and there will be no impact at all on the credibility of the Virgin brand name.  Well I think a tiny boycott on Virgin products could easily force a rapid change of mind.

 

In any event if you are still with Virgin you shouldn't even consider allowing them to profit further by being paid by Talk Talk for your custom.  There are plenty of better providers out there!

 

And finally:

Richard Branson Quotes

 

For a successful entrepreneur it can mean extreme wealth. But with extreme wealth comes extreme responsibility...

 

I never get the accountants in before I start up a business. It's done on gut feeling, especially if I can see that they are taking the mickey out of the consumer.

 

..you know, if I fly on somebody else's airline and find the experience is not a pleasant one, which it wasn't in - 21 years ago, then I'd think, well, you know, maybe I can create the kind of airline that I'd like to fly on.
 

I believe in benevolent dictatorship provided I am the dictator.

 

Reads well, but do you really mean any of it - apart from the last one of course?

[mercuryg]

The reason businesses such as Virgin are so successful is because they cut out all those 'drops in the ocean' 3g. Being generous does not reap profit.

Im with plusnet, phone line and unlimited broadband £20 a month and never had a problem

[threegee]

The reason businesses such as Virgin are so successful is because they cut out all those 'drops in the ocean' 3g. Being generous does not reap profit...

 

Yes, but upsetting 100,000 people to save a couple of hundred pounds a month in ongoing running costs for basic email/redirects, is a very short sighted view of profitability. He didn't even need to do that, he could have stipulated that TalkTalk alias the email for a few years, and that would cost nothing

 

If you asked Branson what his brand is worth he'd answer billions, yet he's quite prepared to sully it on the assumption that customers are total idiots!  At least with Mick O'Leary (Ryanair) he had the basic decency to tell the truth about how he viewed his customers, without the comes extreme responsibility BS.

[mercuryg]

I really don't see it that way 3G. They're being given plenty time to change (even 90 days, or was it 60? is plenty). Nobody is being 'forced' to do anything, and the whole thing will be forgotten in a short time.

[Malcolm Robinson]

I glanced at the title and though GGG has lost his virginity!

[mercuryg]

I glanced at the title and though GGG has lost his virginity!

 

That would be news-worthy.

[threegee]

I really don't see it that way 3G. They're being given plenty time to change (even 90 days, or was it 60? is plenty). Nobody is being 'forced' to do anything, and the whole thing will be forgotten in a short time.

 

If only it were that simple! People class an email addy as theirs; they don't factor in that it can be trashed at someone else's whim.  Most people don't even keep a record of who they give it to, so any change results in massive inconvenience, and lost contact with service providers and friends.  There's legislation that phone numbers must be readily portable, but it hasn't occurred to regulators (yet) that it should be extended to ISP provided email.  Failing this there should be a very clear health warning, with the alternatives clearly spelled out right at point of sale. A simple redirection protocol is already an integral part of email, so there can be absolutely no BS'ing in this respect.

 

My point is that what Virgin is doing is wholly unnecessary, as the cost to do the right thing by customers or ex-customers is minimal.  Virgin is short-sighted, and it will backfire on the brand name - that's for sure!

[Christopher Doyle]

We had similar troubles years ago with AOL.

 

I had used my AOL address for years, and for everything, till a better deal came onto the internet providing market.

 

Thinking nothing of it (as AOL provided free email accounts too) we cancelled properly, and moved over, just to find our email was locked out.

 

If i was not to exaggerate, I'd be willing to bet it took 2 years before i was finally allowed access to that email as a free user, so i could switch it over to my new address with all the bits and pieces i was a member of.

 

I always use one of the free sites like google now. I couldn't even begin to guess what my current provider provided email address is!

[mercuryg]

Mimimal or not, 3g, the cost is there, and Virgin didn't want it. There'll be no fallout, it will all be forgotten in no time. Short memories and all that.

[Christopher Doyle]

The way mobile networking is taking steps, I doubt there will be a need for "to the home" wired connections in the near future.

 

Some people can get a faster connection on their 4G mobile device than they can wired already!

[Andy Millne]

The way mobile networking is taking steps, I doubt there will be a need for "to the home" wired connections in the near future.

 

Some people can get a faster connection on their 4G mobile device than they can wired already!

 

When you're moving large amounts of data there is a need, trust me There will be for quite some time and if anything increasingly so as more devices become internet connected and "over IP" media becomes more common. I can't imagine the trouble/cost I would have had yesterday transferring a 1TB database on a 4g connection.