Forum Discussion

rock_lobster's avatar
rock_lobster
Joining in
9 months ago

moving home - VM offering self install yet not cabled, now trying to install before I own the house!


So, exchanged on a house purchase this week, moving date of 3rd June.

Spent over an hour on "hold" on chat yesterday trying to move my account. Painful to say the least! When I finally got to chat with someone, after many attempts to get me onto a new contract (I don't want to - up for renewal in Sept, and I'll consider then what to do) they processed my move request.

I was told "Your property is eligible for self-install" yet I haven't seen any sign of VM having ever been provisioned to the property (it is in the street) - I told them this, and in the end they agreed I'd need an engineer to install.

For bringing cable to the property they ignored my "I don't own the house until the 3rd" and tried to book in an engineer to install to the house before this insisting I need to be there.

Finally I thought I got through to them, and they said

"The earliest date of installation is on 4/06/2024. Would you like it to be in the morning or in the afternoon?"

Excellent, that's the day after we move in. Perfect... However, this morning I've had a flurry of emails (presumably setting up a new contract which they claim a dedicated team will sort out later (concerning... but I'll keep fingers crossed) and now I've a text saying I need to arrange external work to the property before the install. Seems that everything I agreed was ignored, I can't arrange this work before the 4th as it's not my property. I made this very clear.

At this point I'm on the verge of just cancelling, paying whatever it costs and never touching them again. I'm working at the moment, and can't just sit on hour long calls or chats only to find it's all ignored again 😞

Can anyone in the forum team confirm a few things?

a) the chat person said this house is eligible for self install - can that be confirmed that VM have been in the property before - I've seen no sign of this, but can't now check until the 3rd when we move in. Presumably VM can see if services have been used in the house before?

b) sort out the appointments - I've apparently got an install booked on the 4th June that I thought was for bringing the cable to the house. Seems that's not the case. I don't want engineer arriving on the 4th only to not be able to do anything. I made it very clear in the chat, but it seems to have been ignored 😞 Can this happen 4th am and then the booked install in the pm? I can't see the appointment in the "my account" area at all so I'm not convinced that was even booked.


  • Hi rock_lobster 👋

    Welcome to our Community Forums and thanks for your post. 

    I am sorry for the poor experience.

    Will pop you a PM now so we can take a closer look into this for you. 

    Thanks

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta

    Be very careful that you don't end up with a new 18 month contract, as others have found after moving. 

    • rock_lobster's avatar
      rock_lobster
      Joining in


      yes. Have transcript confirming they agreed no new contract (they tried hard…)

      I will keep an eye on it. New address has plenty of options for fast broadband so will reassess when I get to end of contract. Will be nice to at least have some viable alternatives if this turns out to be painful! 

      • rock_lobster's avatar
        rock_lobster
        Joining in

        just to keep this thread updated, despite saying in various places that VM can't install anything until I own the house, I've just had a text saying that the external work has been completed. 

        Good news for the internal install on the 4th, but I hope they've not touched the property (I'm guessing they have dug across the garden and screwed a box to the wall). Our seller won't be happy given they explicitly said no to that before completion...
        *sigh*