Virgin Digital Help launches for UK technophobes

Virgin Digital Help has launched, promising to fix Britain's technology problems with a mixture of downloadable tools, call centres, online help and even home visits.

Although Sir Richard Branson's head is stuck firmly in Formula One clouds, it hasn't stopped the first new company launching under the Virgin brand in the UK for three years.

Virgin Digital Help is hoping to target a growing problem with the British public and its love/hate relationship with technology.

Vital part

"It's obvious that digital stuff has become a vital part of our lives," says Joe Steel, founder of Virgin Digital Help. "We've come to rely on it, so it's naturally devastating when it stops working."

"Most of us don't know where to turn when our technology breaks down. It's as though the digital industry hasn't kept pace with the interconnected nature of today's digital world.

"Often, the frustrations involved in getting something fixed are as much of an issue as the problem itself. We would rather spend hours slogging away trying to fix something on our own than get on the phone with technical support."

Virgin has inevitably chucked out a load of research results that show the need for its services, suggesting that nearly half of people have trouble with their computer (not a shock) and that slow PC speed is the biggest gripe.

Of course, we'd like to think you could solve a good percentage of the problems by simply looking at the range of guides on TechRadar of course – including speeding up your PC.

Emotional connection

"Our research shows that people now have real emotional connections with their gadgets," Steel continues. "When they work they're great, they make our lives better. But when they don't work or when they don't connect to each other properly, we just feel lost.

"It's really frustrating, stressful, or even scary - valuable stuff could get lost. This means that people are wasting a lot of time trying to get their digital kit to work, and certainly aren't reaping the full benefit of it."

"For far too long, understanding how to make digital technology work has been the preserve of a small, tech-savvy proportion of the British population. Outside of these power users, people either miss out or spend hours in fruitless frustration. We have launched Virgin Digital Help to get Britain's digital stuff to work. Now you don't have to get mad, you can just get help."

The service's starting point is a website at http://www.virgindigitalhelp.co.uk/ though if your computer has failed then you probably need the 0800 107 1175 number instead.