Viglen

[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?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&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]

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]

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.

 

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?

 

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.

[_Bat_]

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 don't know... looking at some of the threads in this section of the forum and in the FFS section, I'd say an awful lot of people use that tone when posting about subjects like this. I've seen much worse and much more dangerous for the person who posted it as well.

 

I'll admit though, it's all too easy for everyone to forget that the rants on here are public and caution needs to be taken before posting any comments on anything like this.

[starscream]

I was thinking the same thing when I was reading the FFS forum. I can understand how making slanderous remarks about companies is bad but I feel that truth and free speech is also important these days as we are told what to do so much by so many. Sometimes you have to tell it how it is.

 

I bought my laptop from rockdirect.com because they have support forums rockforum.co.uk and you can discuss anything there, you can discuss all your problems and even staff from the company reply to every support thread. You can also see problems people have with their laptops and it can help you decide if you want to buy it or not. I like this open approach and like where the company come from, no problem has not been fixed by them.

 

I guess I am more used to that sort of free speech truthful environment. I never mean to sound like I have a nasty tone but I do like to tell it how it is and I prefer people to be the same with me so everyone knows where they stand. I also subscribe to car forums where people are working on their car's and regularly post threads when feeling low and they seem like they're ranting but never seen this sort of a reply other than when people admit to racing on main roads. Nothing I said hurt anyone or a big company like Viglen and I don't think anything I can say or do would damage them in any way.

 

Man I like to go off on one don't I?

[complete_phreak]

not to be confused with stone!

[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.

 

Ok anyone who's watched The Apprentice this evening will have had this confirmed to them, they are one of his firms and the big cahuna at Viglen was part of the interview panel for Sir Alans apprentices.

[witch]

Just to put in my two pennorth

I don't think starscream was over the top at all -he detailed what had happened calmly and fairly.

After all the Sophos flak, I thought the result was that if you say something bad about a company, it is not libel if you can justify what you say, and he did.

Obviously he wasn't happy but other than that there was no 'tone' to his statements

And, as he said SEVERAL TIMES, this is a BAD EXPERIENCE forum!

[laserblazer]

Viglen was set up by a guy called Vig Boyd in the 80s. I used to work for Western Digital and sold them drives and controllers. Vig was a great guy and put a lot of effort into making Viglen computers worthy competition for IBM and Compaq. That's why a lot of Universities got tied in. Sadly, when Vig sold out to Amstrad the product quality went right down. Five years ago, I would only by Viglen, now I wouldn't touch them. Shame really.

 

Vig now runs this company. http://www.vignet.net/ Does that logo look familiar.

[john]

Vig now runs this company. http://www.vignet.net/ Does that logo look familiar.

LOL yes very similar logo, why ain't Sir Alan asked for moneyz though hehe. Its very different industry that though to IT, from PCs to UPVC Windows

[PEO]

I heard that some chairman of some rubbish football team down south owns viglen

 

UP the Boro

[Elky]

Up the Boro? Haha. Hows Gary O'Neill getting on for you?

 

Play up Pompey

[Guest aliv25]

Im surrounded by Viglens, need some Dells or Sony

[torledo]

Viglen was set up by a guy called Vig Boyd in the 80s. I used to work for Western Digital and sold them drives and controllers. Vig was a great guy and put a lot of effort into making Viglen computers worthy competition for IBM and Compaq. That's why a lot of Universities got tied in. Sadly, when Vig sold out to Amstrad the product quality went right down. Five years ago, I would only by Viglen, now I wouldn't touch them. Shame really.

 

Vig now runs this company. http://www.vignet.net/ Does that logo look familiar.

 

Viglen used to make great desktop PC's...

 

About 7 or 8 years ago when i was at uni we had a site full of 700 mhz Pentium 3's and they were lightning and quie attractive to look at.

 

I think those very PC's could still do a great job today, that was pre-amstrad presumably.

 

Today Viglen seem to have a successful storage division and poviding services and IT consultancy to public sector and education seems to be an area where they could excel at rather than as an innovative PC builder

[wanderer8706]

Apologies for resurrecting th etopic once more, after such a dormant period but, having come across this thread by accident I felt compelled to read it through and found the comments extremely enlightening.

 

As an ex-Viglen employee of approximately 8 years from 2000 to 2008, and, as a senior member of staff, covering the geographgical areas concerned, am very familiar with the experiences described.

 

I am not a disgruntled employee (I have really enjoyed my time at the Company), and I am not here to defend Viglen but I hope you might like to hear it from the persepctive of the Supplier.

 

First of all, I am not denying any of the expereinces described previously, if you say they happened, then I am not presuming you are wrong.

 

I would like to say however that, just as in your own working environments, you could pick out individuals who are excellent at what they do, and you would support them when asked to do so. Viglen is no different, it is a Company full of people who do their utmost to ensure the customer is happy, and would like nothing better than to hear how happy their customers are with the products and the services supplied but, just as in all commerical environments, they can only work within the boundaries that they are permitted.

I find that (and this is purely a personal opinion) that many people who operate within the Education system do not give fair consideration to the commercial aspect of their demands on suppliers. In my experience and, not unnexpectedly so, schools demand the best, for the least cost.

When bidding to win tenders etc, the biggest factor that determines winning or losing, is the price. If the price is too high, the supplier fails and, ultimately, goes out of business.

I suppose, what I am trying to say is that you, as the customer, are victims of your own policy's. If the only way to win is to reduce the price, this can only be acheived by reducing the cost which, in turn, results in the supplier seeking lower priced products, and reducing resource (support personnel??) whilst attempting to maintain as high a standard as possible.

I can assure you that no-one within the Company is deliberately going out of their way to source inferior products, it is an ever changing world and, from time to time, mistakes can occur, despite all efforts to test the products beforehand.

If I may refer to one specific subject mentioned earlier i.e. DLink wireless:

At the time these products were provided, it was at a very ealry stage in wireless technology. The first products provided by Viglen were Cisco and Intel but as everyone knows, Cisco are expensive, and Intel withdrew from the wireless market. In order to try and provide a more cost-effective solution (in response to customer demands to reduce costs) Viglen moved to DLink but, as your experiences have shown, this was found to be an 'inferior' product, and it was not long before they moved to 3Com.

You may argue that Viglen should have done more but, if I recall, considerble effort was spent investigating the problem and, by the time the diagnosis was complete, the 'damage' was done.

I guess I should stop now, didn't mean to go on so much, I guess that what I ma saying is 'Yes' Viglen have made mistakes, but that is by no means peculiar to the individual Company, it happens to everyone.

It always seems easier to criticise than to praise but, in my experience, the good that is done does, on balance, actually far outweigh the bad.

Thanks for listening.........

[Dos_Box]

Thanks for that Wanderer. It's always nice to get a view from the 'other side'. My beef (over 3 years ago now!) was that Viglen knowingly sold a spec of system inadequt fo rthe tasks demanded of it. Windows 95 (in 2000!) with a 233 Celeron and 32MB RAM trying to run Office 2000 was criminal! I have no doubt now that Viglen proberbly make good products, it's just that so many of us were badly bitten about 9 or 10 years ago and we have long memories.

[PeterW]

I was told yesterday that Stone have now completed thier acquisition of Vigen I'm not sure how this will effect Viglen opperations but I'm sure Stone will keep the brand alive and there is already quite a large product cross over so I would imagine it will be a pretty painless process.

[Polish]

Hi,

 

I work for an IT trade publication called Microscope and have been aware of the negotiations between Stone and Viglen.

 

But I discovered yesterday that those discussions have now ended and a deal will not go ahead. Thought the story might be of interest to the community.

 

Official: Stone and Viglen deal dead in the water

 

Regards,

 

Polish

[AngryTechnician]

It seems Viglen are still hard at work on the phones. Had a sales call from them just now and the guy just would not take no for an answer. I literally had to tell him "we're not interested" three times before he finally gave up.

[Polish]

Hi all,

 

I am the chief reporter at Microscope - a specialist trade weekly for computer resellers and retailers - and I've just written a story about Sir Alan Sugar resigning as chairman at Viglen.

 

Sir Alan Sugar resigns as chairman at Viglen

 

Hope will be of interest

 

Regards,

 

Polish

[Dos_Box]

Chances of them being at BETT 2010 a bit slim perhaps?

[Polish]

..but Sir Al will not be manning the stands

 

Regards,

 

Polish