Virgin Digital Help is Branson’s latest UK venture, and if you ever find yourself frustrated with wonky Wi-Fi or sloppy iPod syncing, you might want to take a gander. It’s just like the Geek Squad, and aims to help you solve all your gadget gripes, even for free!
Virgin Digital Help, which launches today, is Virgin’s first new launch in three years and one you might well want to bookmark in your browser. It’s a support service for anyone whose gizmos have gone wrong, be it a router, a computer, or just a misbehaving iPod.
At a basic level, you can download its free PC program, which offers 100 articles on common problems (Along the lines of “Why is my Wi-Fi not working?” and “Why is my Wi-Fi still not working?”) and lets you ping help gurus an instant message, or call its free hotline. For £2.99 a month, you can subscribe to the premium version of the software, which comes with 70,000 help guides, and AVG anti virus software.
Should your Wi-Fi still not be working, you can get a Virgin Digital Help agent in to fix your problems at £90 per hour, although the company’s CEO, Joe Steel, told us that it estimates more than 90 percent of problems can be fixed remotely.
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It’s a helpful idea, and one sure to help out the technically bewildered. Steel pointed out that when a gadget goes wrong, it can cause “a real emotional strain”, and while that might sound a bit over the top, we’ve all been privy to a broken bit of tech at Christmas, and sat scowling into our turkey and stuffing.
What’s more, when you’re trusting your kit with all your photos or music, there’s more at stake than a simple return under warranty. The only questions is whether Virgin Digital Help can get its message out there when the Geek Squad is already on hand with a colourful T-shirt and a magic wand to fix your clunky Vista laptop.
For now, the Virgin Digital Help team can’t advise on TV and AV or Mac related issues, but they’ll happily sort PCs, laptops, digital cameras, peripherals, MP3 players, games consoles and wireless networking issues, and no, you don’t need to be a Virgin Media subscriber to give them a bell.
Out Now | £varies | Virgin Digital Help
