Forum Discussion

Athenamena's avatar
Athenamena
Tuning in
5 months ago

Not a customer.

Hi all,

I'm new here as I'm not a Virgin user.

I returned home from work today to find a big brown box drilled onto my front wall, and my garden dug up. I nearly died. Once I made sure I wasn't at the wrong house and got up to it, it was a Virgin Media box.

I'm absolutely furious, I've never had any dealings with Virgin in any form.

I already have full fibre with BT and am super happy with that.

I ripped the box off the wall and cut and buried the cable. I'm now going to have to buy brick cement to fill in the holes.

What are Virgin playing at? Are they likely to put another one up?

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    5 months ago

    This happens with some regularity as reported in topics on here. Either the contractor gets the wrong street/house or the next door neighbour is installing VM and the contractor chooses an easy route for the cable/box and installs it on the property of someone else.

    Still, you seem to have already taken some direct action to the issue by cutting the cable and removing the box. Usually these sorts of topic drag on for ages while VM fails to do anything to remedy the problem.

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Virgin-incorrectly-installed-box-on-my-property/m-p/5524737

    You may wish to speak to your neighbour to see if they were expecting a VM installation and, if so, let them know that there may be some delay before they can get online with VM.

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    5 months ago

    This happens with some regularity as reported in topics on here. Either the contractor gets the wrong street/house or the next door neighbour is installing VM and the contractor chooses an easy route for the cable/box and installs it on the property of someone else.

    Still, you seem to have already taken some direct action to the issue by cutting the cable and removing the box. Usually these sorts of topic drag on for ages while VM fails to do anything to remedy the problem.

    https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Virgin-incorrectly-installed-box-on-my-property/m-p/5524737

    You may wish to speak to your neighbour to see if they were expecting a VM installation and, if so, let them know that there may be some delay before they can get online with VM.

    • Athenamena's avatar
      Athenamena
      Tuning in
      5 months ago

      Thank you goslow,

      It may well be a neighbour but is that on me to investigate?

      BT had trouble trying to find a way to connect my fibre but they did find a way in my garden and that was fine with me as I was their customer. 

      In your opinion, is it likely that the Virgin guy has spotted my BT fibre box and chosen that route for a neighbours fibre?

      I'm horrified at this.

      He hadn't drilled into my actual living room, thank god. What would have next happened if I hadn't taken the box off?

      Would he have taken a cable across my house wall? Would he have drilled into my house? Will he come back and do the same again?

      I'm so afraid going to work on Monday not knowing what may be going on at my house.

      I'm thinking I need to see a solicitor. I honestly can't believe this has happened in 2024.

      • goslow's avatar
        goslow
        Alessandro Volta
        5 months ago

        You are under no obligation to do anything (more) but if you ask your neighbour about the VM box you will at least know if it was intended for them or not.

        VM often carries out the installation work in two parts. Firstly a cabling sub-contractor runs in a cable from the street cabinet and fixes a box on the wall outside. In a second visit a VM tech turns up and runs a cable from the external wall box to the required location inside.

        The bit where it often goes wrong is that VM does not expect the homeowner to be in for the external work and the sub-contractor can often turn up unannounced. This can lead to cables and boxes being installed in unsatisfactory locations (either on the intended property or a totally different property altogether!)

        As mentioned by Cardiffman282, the next step is that a VM tech will turn up to fit the equipment, expecting to find the cable and wall box ready and waiting.

  • Cardiffman282's avatar
    Cardiffman282
    Trouble shooter
    5 months ago

    A refreshingly direct and straightforward approach to the problem. Expect a knock on the door from a confused internal installation engineer tomorrow morning. 

    • Athenamena's avatar
      Athenamena
      Tuning in
      5 months ago

      I'd love to come face to face with the guy who did this to my house.

      • Steven_L's avatar
        Steven_L
        Forum Team
        5 months ago

        You're very welcome, we're sorry that this has happened to you and hope that this can be resolved as soon as possible.

        Kind Regards,

        Steven_L

  • Athenamena's avatar
    Athenamena
    Tuning in
    5 months ago

    Thank you all so much for your replies and advice.

    The brown box, roll of blue wire and screws are in my bin. And my own wifi speed seems unaffected by the intruder.

    • Steven_L's avatar
      Steven_L
      Forum Team
      5 months ago

      Hey Athenamena,

      Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the time to post here on the forums. I’m truly sorry to hear of the issues that you’ve had with an omnibox being installed on your property, we can get this looked into further by our complaints team and they can send a team out to repair any damage that may have been caused. Firstly, I would need to confirm a few details via private message, please look out for my message and we can get started.
      Kind Regards,
      Steven_L

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    5 months ago

    This happens too often. Well done you for dealing with it promptly. 

  • Jonny-M's avatar
    Jonny-M
    Fibre optic
    5 months ago

    So they've installed equipment onto your house twice, once after receiving a complaint from you but not acknowledging it?

    I would definitely be talking to a solicitor at this point, with a view to recovering costs and whether there are other laws that have been broken here.