VM decent digital receiver

[adam30]

hi all

i have recently cancelled our virgin cable and now just subscribe to Broadband, i would like to subscribe to cable tv for 1 month and VM allow you to have 30 day contracts, if i buy a VM box off fleabay and call VM and ask them to send the signal and card..will that work okay?

If yes can u pls recommend a good VM box?

many thanks

adam

[maddogsuk]

If you buy a Virgin Box of ebay its likely to be dodgy. You never own the Virgin boxes they remain the property of Virgin.

Edit, unless things have changed.

[adam30]

Thats my understanding as VM collected my old box, not interested in a dodgy box either.

[adam30]

any other advice pls?

[maddogsuk]

There isn't much you can do. If you want a Virgin Box it really needs to be supplied by Virgin.

[mbuckhurst]

If you buy a Virgin Box of ebay its likely to be dodgy. You never own the Virgin boxes they remain the property of Virgin.

Edit, unless things have changed.

When I originally went for Virgin I had the option to buy the box or rent it for a couple or quid or so, I'm sure if you pushed them you'd be able to buy one. That said I'm sure most on Ebay are dodgy, I certainly know of people prepared to attach dodgy ones to the cable system.

mike

[werewolf]

The chances are the box you had the option to "buy" was more a case that the one off fee was instead of the monthly charge (back when ntl first did cable modems you had to buy them from an approved supplier, then it changed to you had the choice of paying for the modem upfront or extra monthly, then eventually it changed to you just got the modem).

IIRC with the V+ box that's still something similar, you can either pay the larger upfront fee, and not pay extra for the + service, or get it cheap/free and pay the monthly charge, however the call centre staff aren't grat at explaining it.

Re the Op.
VM will only activate/authenticate equipment (except for phones), on their network that they have supplied directly to you.
Anything you buy off ebay will either be a rather ugly, useless (too light) doorstop, or be very dodgy (and most likely become a doorstop soon enough as they are changing the encryption, and that will stop most of the dodgy boxes:)).

If you've got a phoneline with them they will most likely send out/install a V box either cheap, or FOC with no additional monthly fee (IIRC most of their phone packs come with the option of free V box and lowest level service), as once a V box is installed customers tend to upgrade the package for at least a few months :)