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Jack878's avatar
Jack878
Just joined
3 hours ago

Install issues

Hello,

I had a virgin engineer visit my property today for install. My house sits on the end/corner of the street so my front drive garden swings around (if that makes sense) to the next house. 

Next to the front of my drive on the right hand side(opposite to my house) is a neighbours front garden that contains two man-holes. One is virgins which when the tech opened it contained.. nothing. Opened the BT duct and it contained what was needed.

weirdly, the entry point for the BT line is at the back of the property not at the front. It contains the tunnel for BT line and next to it a yellow pipe that is intended for the virgin media manhole but that’s the one that has nothing.

the engineer claimed he was here for a telegraph install and doesn’t have the equipment to do the job I need. The cable when he phoned someone to provide the map would require going from my property all the way down to the end of the road, across the road, and all the way back down just to reach the install.

now my front drive and garden meets the neighbours grass / where the manholes are. My garden always goes from there all the way to the side of the home and to the back.

why couldn’t they just simply run the cable from where I want it installed down onto my path(front of property) and then into the ground of my drive or grass to reach the duct in a shorter, easer path?

I was told by the engineer that he couldn’t do anything and left and told me I didn’t need to do anything and needs an underground team (is this true?)

I’ve  just moved to this property and I need the internet by 2nd January for my job as I wfh and the office is all the way in London (I like in north west).

I am also glad I trusted my intuition with these things and rang Virgin a moment ago and now have a new visit on the 26th. I expressed would they be able to? And said it needs to be underground team but I’m thinking this was something he didn’t understand? 

since the install failed today, do I start getting compensation also? 

any thoughts? 

5 Replies

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    3 hours ago

    Any underground work is done by a third party company and they don't keep to fixed times. If you have a visit on 26th it will very likely be another VM person who may or may not have the same opinion as the first. 

    If you were given a definite date for start of the service then you will be due for compensation. But you might have to fight for it. 

    Compensation https://www.virginmedia.com/help/automatic-compensation

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    2 hours ago

    Unfortunately, no one will be able to make too much sense of your written description. Posting some pic's and/or a plan may help with your explanation but before deciding whether to bother to do that ...

    The above has to be considered alongside VM's track record on here for cable installations. Read some of the many (hundreds of) similar past topics about delayed cable installations and you will get a general sense of VM's (dis)organisation in this regard.

    A visit from VM on 26th Boxing Day bank holiday seems to be more than a bit ... unlikely! We have seen many past examples on here where the VM agents see nothing more than a rolling date on their screens and those dates seem not to consider public holidays. Post back if anyone does show up though, just for the record, for anyone else reading in the future in similar circumstances.

    If VM sent a tech to install from a telephone pole, do you actually have telephone poles in your area? If you do, this may not be impossible. VM has been doing some installations via shared Openreach infrastructure access so an installation via Openreach poles or ducts may not be impossible depending on what type of service you are getting.

    If today was your 'activation' date (when you expected the equipment to be installed and start using your services) then your compensation starts from today.

    https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/automatic-compensation

    You might want to start thinking of a backup plan in case you end up in a VM installation doom loop such as using a mobile hot spot, extra phone data etc. etc.

    Keep detailed notes of everything that happens, along with evidence such as texts, screenshots, emails etc. to ensure you are paid the correct compo.

  • Jack878's avatar
    Jack878
    Just joined
    2 hours ago

    So the engineer said today that since November they’ve changed it to one-visit installs.

    The blue line represents the path the engineer was told on the phone how to go from duct to duct to reach the red circle where it BT and Virgin manholes exist. 

    my property is the top left one with the blue circle noting where the bt line and pipes come to the property.

    theres no power lines/telepgraph. 

    the green line: this is me thinking why cant they just take this route to the manholes? It’s my property and grass. 

    well if it’s true they won’t turn up at this time then what do I do?  

    • goslow's avatar
      goslow
      Alessandro Volta
      8 minutes ago

      VM will aim to avoid any digging as much as possible in order to keep costs down for an individual installation. 

      You may possibly get a more sensible answer/explanation when the next installers turn up and investigate the underground infrastructure more thoroughly.

      The pre-installation and delivery team number is 0800 052 1734. Take whatever they say though with a very large pinch of salt.

      They seem to have no direct contact with third party installers and the dates they see on their screens seem to be generated by the sub-contractors. Often they are simply a rolling date, one day at a time. We have seen countless time on here people complaining that the VM agent 'guarantees' the installation will take place on the next given date but nothing actually happens. You can only feel 100% confident of the installers starting work when they actually show up at your home.

  • Roger_Gooner's avatar
    Roger_Gooner
    Alessandro Volta
    27 minutes ago

    VM occasionally uses Openreach's ducts and poles to run its fibre, but can't break out of a duct it doesn't own to run fibre as you suggest. In any case this solves no problem as fibre does not cause attenuation as coaxial cable might over this distance.