Virgin Systems Switch-Over Problems?

Virgin (NTL) broadband service has never been what I would call "good" or "reliable", but this week it stopped working again and they said there was no way they could get me reconnected until 5th of May due to systems switch-over.

Having already spent a few hours with the support people (India) telling me it was an account problem and the customer services people (Scotland) telling me it was a technical problem, I was incensed when I learned that they had embarked on a systems cutover without informing customers or working out how to keep them connected while the work was being done. So they said I would be without Internet for 2 weeks and, oh, they were magnanimous enough to offer not to charge me for that period. Pathetic and incompetent.

Has anyone else had this? Are they telling the truth?

PS I then bought a "3" mobile 3g USB dongle modem - it works a treat and gets ~3.6Mbps connection. No contract/phone required either - if you are in a bind, you can get back online in a few hours thanks to these people. They even have good info on an 0800 freee number.