Viglen

[russdev]

now you done it kev wella s'rm school' here my views of rm are mised always said with rm there biggist downfall was the constent need to replace ms standard parts with rm parts and the lack of flexability.

now luckly i spent many time and i now have rm 'working' for me the people do what i want and not what they want me to do.

RM has improved over few years as they have suddenly undersootd they need to be flexable..

Saying that I have email of various rm staff and i know how to play the game as to speak and think working with companies like rm and viglan is about playing the game.

Russ

[starscream]

I also think that the Viglen hardware is tosh! Wireless laptops not working wirelessly. Servers that start to fall apart a few months down the line. CD drives breaking in desktops all the time and half of the drives wont allow booting from CD anymore! Sold us inferior wireless access points.

We also had a laptop suite of 12 laptops and after 3 years they all started to lock up, every single one. Nothing had changed! I did an investigation and took some apart and turns out that the voltage was set wrong on every single laptop and it had fried the processor and made it unstable!

I swear down, if I ever see another Viglen machine!....

...and you know what Viglen's answer was to all our problems? To keep us holding on and waiting for as long as it took for me to give in and stop ringing and complaining. Not one problem was sorted. They tried to fix the problems onsite and return to base but in the end after all the backwards and forwards I simply gave in. There is only so long you can spent chasing stuff like this up, in the end I just replaced all the Viglen tosh.

I have no idea how Sir Alan Sugar is so rich when he provides services like this. There's hope for me yet!

[altecsole]

Originally Posted by starscream

Servers that start to fall apart a few months down the line. CD drives breaking in desktops all the time and half of the drives wont allow booting from CD anymore! Sold us inferior wireless access points.

How did the servers fall apart?

CD drives in classrooms are just asking for trouble. The abuse they get means they last no time at all.

What were the wireless access points inferior to?

Originally Posted by starscream

We also had a laptop suite of 12 laptops and after 3 years they all started to lock up, every single one. Nothing had changed! I did an investigation and took some apart and turns out that the voltage was set wrong on every single laptop and it had fried the processor and made it unstable!

Three yeears for a laptop that's being used in an educational environment is good. I wouldn't complain about that.

Originally Posted by starscream

I swear down, if I ever see another Viglen machine!....

What does 'I swear down' mean?

Originally Posted by starscream

...and you know what Viglen's answer was to all our problems? To keep us holding on and waiting for as long as it took for me to give in and stop ringing and complaining. Not one problem was sorted. They tried to fix the problems onsite and return to base but in the end after all the backwards and forwards I simply gave in. There is only so long you can spent chasing stuff like this up, in the end I just replaced all the Viglen tosh.

I worked in a school that had Viglen kit and the customer support (on the very few occasions we needed it) was always excellent.

Originally Posted by starscream

I have no idea how Sir Alan Sugar is so rich when he provides services like this. There's hope for me yet!

Perhaps he learned to be objective about all things. Nothing is ever always good, or bad. Maybe if you learn that too there will be hope for you yet.

[Dos_Box]

Good God!! Someone dragged this topic kicking and screaming from the depths of time!!
I must admit though, my views have mellowed slightly (mainly due to lack of exposure to Classlink in recent years). At the time Classlink came about it was like the wild west when it came to selling to schools. There was a lot of money around and very little in the way of advice to schools on how to spend it correctly. Lots of companies did cobble together products in a rush to cash in, and hardware was often expensive for a low spec machine. Forget getting PIIIs and Athons! I do hope that Viglen have imroved their product and hardware, but I really am in no position to comment as my experience of a product 8 years ago doesn't really count anymore.

[Nij.UK]

Ive worked with viglen classlink and i understand the fustration here, and there tech support is still a pain...

But that is in the past now so i dont need to worry about that. Ive always found there hardware to be very good, ive never had to call them regarding hardware issues in the last 4 - 5 years i have been working with it.

Also where i work now, viglen is a prefered supplier for PC and so we have to buy through them, if it caused as much problems as people have mentioned here then i dont think they would have manage to get prefered supplier status

[starscream]

How did the servers fall apart? Cheap components, mobo failures, cheap memory. Just cheap in general. The price tag wasn't.

CD drives in classrooms are just asking for trouble. The abuse they get means they last no time at all. The kids never seem to mess on with the CD drives here. Just the drives viglen use are again cheap and tatty and aren't up to the job. I use cd booting for imaging and it is a real pain.

What were the wireless access points inferior to? Better wireless access points. One's that work. From day one our wireless network didn't work like I explained in my initial post. Viglen failed to fix it after 6 on site attempts and in the end they just shrugged their shoulders! Absolute disgrace if you ask me. They recommended us the kit to do the job and turns out we needed better kit. As you know, primary school money doesnt grow on trees so we can't just go and replace them with better kit. I have used cisco units in other schools and I must say they work flawlessly. The faulty kit is d-link. Even had d-link engineers out to look at them and they just gave in too. How much can you push something? It was becoming a full time job changing up account managers and tech support at viglen. They sacked 3 account managers in the space of 12 months, how can you get problems solved when thye do that.

We also had our IWBs installed by Viglen who at the time didn't have enough staff to do the install so they subcontracted and the company who came in were cowboys and basically destroyed the place. Luckily it is getting knocked down next year! Viglen admitted the fault and did minimal to correct this. All of our whiteboards were condemned by health and safety a week after they were installed due to dangerous wiring.

Three yeears for a laptop that's being used in an educational environment is good. I wouldn't complain about that. I disagree, I think 3 years for laptops is a disgrace and 5 years is more appropriate. Yes I admit they will get knocked around but the reason these laptops are inoperable now is Viglen's incompetence when building them. I know how they made the mistake, because they buy chassis in and add the parts themselves, just their staff have not been told to change the mobo voltage to match the cpu therefore all cpu's are now damaged.

What does 'I swear down' mean? I didn't realise this was a local phrase, always thought it was common around the country. If you swear down it is a way of catching yourself before going into a rant or swearing. Usually it would be followed by a rant for example "I swear down that if I see you round here again I will...." Sorry for not being clear here.

I worked in a school that had Viglen kit and the customer support (on the very few occasions we needed it) was always excellent. The fact they didn't fix any of the problems above leads me to believe their support is terrible. I have had some good experiences with them but the bad outweigh the good many times over.

Perhaps he learned to be objective about all things. Nothing is ever always good, or bad. Maybe if you learn that too there will be hope for you yet. Is this forum not about 'Bad Experiences' sorry I will post about good experiences here.

I know people have good ad bad experiences and it is not normally the good that you hear about, it is almost always the bad, but I am new to the forum, saw the Viglen thread in Bad Experiences and thought I would post about mine, very sorry for being so negative. Perhaps I will be more upbeat when complaining in future!

...Also I did not realise this was such as old post as I got into reading it. Sorry for digging up the past!

Well I'm sorry to disagree with but I have been dealing with Viglen for 6 years and I have never jhad any problems with them whatsoever. I have found the quality of their hardware to be superb and their support to be first rate. They are always willing to listen to what you have say about their products and they will make changes where they are needed, which is more than I can say about some companies.

[starscream]

Well I am please some people have had good experiences. I am also please some people have had bad experiences as it is warming to know others have suffered similarly.

[CHR1S]

Originally Posted by starscream

Three yeears for a laptop that's being used in an educational environment is good. I wouldn't complain about that. I disagree, I think 3 years for laptops is a disgrace and 5 years is more appropriate. Yes I admit they will get knocked around but the reason these laptops are inoperable now is Viglen's incompetence when building them. I know how they made the mistake, because they buy chassis in and add the parts themselves, just their staff have not been told to change the mobo voltage to match the cpu therefore all cpu's are now damaged.

I can understand your anger at a company that has given you problems but I cant understand the reasons for it?
3 years of overvoltage damaged the CPU? Surely it would fry it immediatly or have no effect at all? I run/have ran many CPUs over voltage to make them more stable albeit at higher clock speed and all this does is produce more heat; did you mean the chassis didnt have sufficient cooling?
Sorry to pick but I just found your comment curiouse.

[altecsole]

Originally Posted by starscream

What were the wireless access points inferior to? Better wireless access points. One's that work. From day one our wireless network didn't work like I explained in my initial post. Viglen failed to fix it after 6 on site attempts and in the end they just shrugged their shoulders! Absolute disgrace if you ask me. They recommended us the kit to do the job and turns out we needed better kit. As you know, primary school money doesnt grow on trees so we can't just go and replace them with better kit. I have used cisco units in other schools and I must say they work flawlessly. The faulty kit is d-link. Even had d-link engineers out to look at them and they just gave in too. How much can you push something? It was becoming a full time job changing up account managers and tech support at viglen. They sacked 3 account managers in the space of 12 months, how can you get problems solved when thye do that.

Would that be the same problem that you detailed in http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?nam...ewtopic&t=7617 where you say the fault was actually with the wireless network card drivers?

Originally Posted by starscream

We also had our IWBs installed by Viglen who at the time didn't have enough staff to do the install so they subcontracted and the company who came in were cowboys and basically destroyed the place. Luckily it is getting knocked down next year! Viglen admitted the fault and did minimal to correct this. All of our whiteboards were condemned by health and safety a week after they were installed due to dangerous wiring.

A company the size of Viglen will always have to sub contract. I'm surprised they left you with no working whiteboards and dangerous wiring.

Originally Posted by starscream

I worked in a school that had Viglen kit and the customer support (on the very few occasions we needed it) was always excellent. The fact they didn't fix any of the problems above leads me to believe their support is terrible. I have had some good experiences with them but the bad outweigh the good many times over.

Perhaps he learned to be objective about all things. Nothing is ever always good, or bad. Maybe if you learn that too there will be hope for you yet. Is this forum not about 'Bad Experiences' sorry I will post about good experiences here.

I know people have good ad bad experiences and it is not normally the good that you hear about, it is almost always the bad, but I am new to the forum, saw the Viglen thread in Bad Experiences and thought I would post about mine, very sorry for being so negative. Perhaps I will be more upbeat when complaining in future!

It's all about balance. It's very easy for someone to come on the Internet and write a list of bad things about a company. That can be very damaging to the company. Yes, we all want to be warned of bad experiences, but please try to keep it balanced. From reading your initial post it would seem that Viglen have never supplied you with anything that you were satisfied with. Is that the case? I'd be surprised if it were. It's always easy to knock the big boys but think carefully before you do it with such gusto.

[john]

I didn't know Viglen was one of Sir Alans companies, knew Amstrad was (AlanMichaelSugar TRADing Ltd.)

[starscream]

Would that be the same problem that you detailed in http://www.edugeek.net/index.php?nam...ewtopic&t=7617 where you say the fault was actually with the wireless network card drivers? And your point is? We paid for a managed service that didn't work. I don't care what causes the problem, I just want it to work and Viglen failed us on that. They shouldn't be selling it as a solution if it doesn't work, they should use different hardware in that case, or when we logged the faults they should have repaired. You can tell me how great Viglen is all you want but again I am just listing my BAD EXPERIENCES, this is what this forum is for after all! I can't believe I am being slated for listing my experiences with Viglen, everyone has their own views but you can't tell me our network worked fine when it blatently didn't and Viglen never repaired it. That is the end of the story. Yes it may have worked fine for you, but not for me. I am not going to post my good experiences in a bad experiences forum. Can't you understand that? I am a mellow person, I don't flame on the internet (or at least try not to) I have simply listed my own experiences with the company and I am being told that I am wrong. If I am so wrong then come and tell me why Viglen didn't fix it? It has been reported many times and you have to give in and get on with it eventually, they is only so many hours, days and weeks you can devote to contacting their tech support.

A company the size of Viglen will always have to sub contract. I'm surprised they left you with no working whiteboards and dangerous wiring. I never said they left us with it, they fixed it.... eventually. It took them 6 months to fix the problems, 6 months without whiteboards. Yes I agree they may have to sub contract but the whole situation should never have happened. For example, you have only praises for Viglen, I telling of how they have let us down. Their sub contractors should have done a proper job. It is Viglen's fault if they don't and Xenon (viglen's hardware section) didn't do a very good job repairing the damage. At least it works now. I have many more complaints and praises but I am concentrating on the major issues.

It's all about balance. It's very easy for someone to come on the Internet and write a list of bad things about a company. That can be very damaging to the company. Yes, we all want to be warned of bad experiences, but please try to keep it balanced. From reading your initial post it would seem that Viglen have never supplied you with anything that you were satisfied with. Is that the case? I'd be surprised if it were. It's always easy to knock the big boys but think carefully before you do it with such gusto. Again I can't stress it anymore that this is a bad experiences forum and I am posting bad experiences, I see nothing wrong with that I am doing. What is the point in saying that the service they provided us with was terrible, but the support tech on the phone was pleasant? When you say to balance it, why should I balance it if the bad outweigh the good?

I have never been slated so much in a forum on the internet before. I posted my bad experiences in a bad experience forum. I can't say that Viglen served us well if they didn't. I can't make up good points just to make it look like they aren't that bad. For us they were that bad. Maybes I am a perfectionist but when I buy something, I want it to work. It is exactly the situation as buying a car that doesn't work, you would refuse to take it if it didn't move. Problem here is we had no choice as it was all installed. Only my lack of interest from senior management prevented us from taking legal action. No body could be bothered with the hassle.

Like I said previously, I am very happy that some of you have had good experiences with Viglen.

Again I am extremely disappointed and upset to find that people can't accept my experiences. It is as if I have been branded a liar just because I am making people aware of experiences I have had. I have nothing against you coming on here and listing good experiences that you have had to try and balance it out but what I don't agree with is you picking my posts apart and trying to counter balance them with my lack of balance. It just doesn't seem like a nice thing to do.

I am not a bad guy here, I am quite a nice fella, or so I am told. The last thing I joined this forum for was to have non-constructive arguments with people. It is almost as if I am saying "this is how our experience was/is" and as you are saying "no it's not".


Over and under setting voltages can have stable and unstable effects on systems but I am fairly sure the voltages in this case were set incorrectly due to incompetance as when I spoke to the tech support he said they should have been set at the voltage I said they should have been set at. He admitted they were at the wrong setting. This was a viglen engineer. I didn't need to explain this initially as I didn't think people would start to rip my post apart again.

In the end the engineer agreed with me that it seems the incorrect voltage is what caused the CPUs to become unstable now. The same effect that overclocking a CPU for a prolonged period has. CPUs are such a tricky issue to diagnose in my opinion, especially intermittent problems such as random lock ups. I had also tried replacing all over parts of the laptop (test laptop from the suite) and only when the cpu was replaced did the problem get fixed.

I can't remember now but I think the computer was set to a p4 voltage instead of a celeron voltage. The laptop was by default a p4 laptop and the voltage for the cpu had not been changed during the installation.

....I don't like to make long posts, honest I don't!

I would like to become a valued member of this website and honestly did not aim for this type of reaction. I just thought it would go down as a listed bad experience.

[starscream]

Originally Posted by john

I didn't know Viglen was one of Sir Alans companies, knew Amstrad was (AlanMichaelSugar TRADing Ltd.)

I think it is a company he acquired rather than set up. Xenon I think are another company in their own right but manage the hardware side of Viglen. I can't remember, I was told at the Classlink training years ago all about it, which itself was held at the Xenon HQ in Altrincham.

[altecsole]

Originally Posted by starscream

Again I am extremely disappointed and upset to find that people can't accept my experiences. It is as if I have been branded a liar just because I am making people aware of experiences I have had. I have nothing against you coming on here and listing good experiences that you have had to try and balance it out but what I don't agree with is you picking my posts apart and trying to counter balance them with my lack of balance. It just doesn't seem like a nice thing to do.

I'm not branding you a liar. The impression I got from your original post was that you were having a rant against Viglen. What's wrong with that you may ask? Nothing, if it's down the pub with your mates, but this is (hopefully) a respected forum for IT professionals working in education. As such, I felt, the tone of your post was inappropriate. That's just a personal opinion. No doubt others will let me know if I'm wrong?

I'm no Viglen disciple. Their hardware, on the whole, is okay. I don't buy it now, but I have in the past.

Originally Posted by starscream

I am not a bad guy here, I am quite a nice fella, or so I am told. The last thing I joined this forum for was to have non-constructive arguments with people. It is almost as if I am saying "this is how our experience was/is" and as you are saying "no it's not".

I'm sure you are a nice fella. You've replied with some valid and reasoned points so maybe the discussion is constructive after all?

Originally Posted by starscream

I would like to become a valued member of this website and honestly did not aim for this type of reaction. I just thought it would go down as a listed bad experience.

I'm sure you will be a valued member. I apologise if you think I've been out if line with my replies. Like I say; I'm sure others will let me know if they think so too.

[starscream]

Referring back to my original post, I posted my bad experiences in the bad experience forum, I can't see how that is a problem. Yes I did say how I felt about Viglen and their equipment but I also gave my evidence I did not just come out and say "DON'T BUY VIGLEN". If I can't tell the truth then what can I do?

As for my tone. I don't feel anyone has the right to say that a post has a 'tone' I did not flame, I did not swear, I did not use caps and other than the word 'tosh' I think I used fairly good netiquette. I can understand this reaction if I had been very slanderous or not explained my feelings but either way, if I have had bad experiences and they upset me I will say so. No point in saying something is good and not that bad when in my opinion it is not.

Viglen could have prevented this post by dealing with our problem. Perhaps it was just an incompetency on behalf of each individual party that dealt (or didn't) with the issues. Perhaps I didn't dedicate enough time to pushing them.

I trust people would draw their own conclusions from this.

I am finding my feet in this forum and I am a regular in many forums online and never once have I had this sort of reaction to a post, hence why I keep replying in length to this thread. I have posted in moods, under stress and have used words I shouldn't in the past but never been slated like this before.

I would also have hoped that given the level of poor support we have been given by Viglen that this is all deserved. I can't stress this enough.

Also, the last thing I would talk about down the pub is my dislike of Viglen.

Had I only dealt with one area of Viglen then I would not have been able to make the comments that I did but because I have used all they have to offer: Installation Engineers, Support Line, Support Engineer, IWB Installation, Sub Contractors, Account Managers, Customer Support... They all let me and our school down. My own senior management's lack of enthusiasm to follow the issues up were just as bad but Viglen should not need further action in order to right their wrongs.

...lets finish on a high note. Viglen training is brilliant! (in my opinion)

I will not be so relaxed when posting in future and will use better netiquette across all my forum and this was quite an upset.