Total Loss of Service, Warning to New Customers

Just felt the need to share my experience thus far with Virgin Media after being left without internet and tv through no fault of our own. Hopefully this gives new potential customers an idea of what they can expect, even as an 8 year customer of Virgin Media.

We had a water leak outside our property, requiring Severn Trent to attend and dig a hole to access the pipe that was leaking. In the process, they caused damage to a fibre optic cable. Their policy understandably is to stop working and call out the relevant engineers to check, and an engineer attended and confirmed to Severn Trent that the fibre optic cable was not one of theirs, and not serving my property.

Upon receipt of that confirmation in writing, Severn Trent continued with the works, fixing the leak. In the process, further damage was caused to the cable which resulted in a total loss of service to our property on 6th October. The following day, I arranged an engineer to attend who verified that there was a total loss of service. His understanding was that as Virgin Media pay compensation after 48 hours of total loss of service without it being fixed, they would be out relatively quickly to arrange the repair. This understanding could not have been further from the truth. Do not be tricked into thinking that Virgin Media care about the length of time the repair takes or the amount of compensation they will need to pay you.

After hearing nothing from Virgin, I called Wednesday 8th October to find out when the repair could be scheduled for. I was advised at that stage that there were no teams available to carry out the repair until 17th November. I didn't think it necessary to explain that leaving a customer without internet and tv for a 6 week period was unacceptable but apparently that was necessary. The customer service advisor managed to bring the date forward to 22 October, far better but still not ideal. I asked if they could bring it any further forward, and called nearly daily to establish if there was any update on this.

I rang Saturday 11th October in the morning, to see if there was any update, and was told that there was still no update on their system. Within 30 minutes of that phonecall, an engineer knocked at the door to say they were there to repair the cable! I showed them the patch of tarmac under which the damaged cable was now situated, and they advised that they did not have the facilities available to dig the necessary hole to access the damaged cable and replace it. Incredibly frustrating given that Severn Trent had filled the hole back in on the Friday, after no communication was forthcoming from Virgin Media about when they would be able to attend to carry out the repair!

After continued chasing, I received a text message to say that the works had been rescheduled for Thursday 16th October. The day came and went with no visit from Virgin, and upon calling to find out what was happening, was told the appointment had been cancelled at 8.50am (without so much as a word or an update to me). Another text that evening said that they had rescheduled to Friday 17th October. I worked from home that day, and rang first thing to confirm the appointment and was told an engineer would be out by 1pm. At 12.45pm, after no-one had attended, I rang again, to be told the same story, that there was no engineer available and they would need to reschedule.

Over the weekend, two further text messages were received to confirm that the works had been rescheduled to Monday 20th October. An engineer, once again, attended my property, only to tell me that the necessary team to actually replace the fibre optic cable was not booked, and therefore there was nothing they could do. The entire course of this repair job has been on the basis that it is a completely damaged fibre optic cable, I cannot for the life of me understand why the correct teams were not booked.

Yesterday morning, I received a text message before I'd even had opportunity to have my morning coffee and give Virgin yet another call, to say that the works had been rescheduled back to the 17th November again, the original date that was quoted to me. I rang, incensed, at the continued poor service and lack of communication. I advised that as a customer of 8 years with Virgin, and a customer of O2s of nearly 2 decades, they were about to lose a customer for life. Apparently, the result of that conversation was a further text message to say that the works have been rescheduled now for the 24th November. Instead of bringing the works forward, they've pushed them back to 7 weeks after we first had the total loss of service.

To date, I have had one actual phone call from Virgin, which was last night and was a gentleman in their "Pre-Installation" team I believe. He listened to the situation and apologised, as a number of customer service assistants and managers have, and said someone would be in touch within the next 24 hours or so, by email or by phone. I am still waiting for some communication, and upon calling this evening was told there was still no update on the 24th November date.

I asked, right at the outset, what Virgin would be able to do to help me get online. The proposal was to "go and buy a dongle and we'll reimburse you for it" - suggesting there was nothing they could do to help. As an O2 customer, I asked if they could arrange for me to have a bolt-on added to my phone contract to give me unlimited data, so that I could hotspot. I was told I'd need to speak to O2, who understandably said it was nothing to do with them and if I wanted more data I'd have to pay for it (which I've now had to do, to be able to get online, work from home etc). I have said, multiple times, that Severn Trent caused the damage, you have a third party who has acknowledged that they're at fault (albeit Virgin Media confirmed that it was not one of their cables before they continued with the leak repair). There is the option to claim back the extra cost of putting on an additional team to come to my property to carry out the repair. Nothing has been done in this respect.

Every single call I have made, I have asked to speak to someone more senior. I am told that I have spoken to the most senior complaint manager or customer support manager available. They have advised me that nobody within Virgin Media has a means of picking up the phone and speaking with their Field Manager, who is the person apparently in charge of organising this repair. To be frank and honest, I wouldn't trust this Field Manager to tie his own shoelaces, given how poor the communication and organisation has been. Twice, an engineer has been sent to my property, and twice, they have been unable, as a result of poor communication as to what works need to be done, to fix the damaged fibre optic cable.

I raised a complaint about how poorly this was handled. That complaint, according to the Virgin Media Complaint Tracker, says that it was Acknowledged and Reviewed on 9th October. I do not know who they acknowledged it to because I have not had a single call back from anyone in their Complaints department.

I have left it as a simple, give me an answer as to when it will be repaired, and if that repair is not by the end of this week or early next week latest, I have a call booked with Sky on Friday this week to firm up new contract terms with them. I've been given an indicative 2 week window for Sky to attend and install their own fibre optic connection. I'll update this page if I do receive any sort of call back, but god forbid any existing or new customers have any issues needing a fibre optic repair job, because you may not get a date for the repair until 2026 at this rate.