Forum Discussion

Klaudia05's avatar
Klaudia05
Joining in
15 hours ago

Problem with installing- wayleave etc

As the title suggests I’m having some issues getting broadband installed. Engineer visit on the 10th was a failure as we don’t have a coaxial socket, and we needed permission from the landlord and freeholder to drill through the wall to the exterior. Only moved into the property on the 8th so didn’t even check if the socket is there, and the virgin media eligibility said that we’re eligible.

 Anyways, asked the landlord for permission and he said it’s okay but since there’s an alteration I would need the permission of the freeholder. They notified me that their “permission” costs £240+VAT. This seems a little excessive since it’s just a hole in the wall as someone below us already has virgin, and virgin media have been very mixed about it, I asked an adviser on the phone on the 16th September about wayleaves and how they work and she herself said it would cover a fee that the freeholder wants and that a site survey will be booked with specific instructions to call me before arrival so I can have a chat with the surveyor.

 17th rolls around and no one called me in the 8am-1pm slot so I called Virgin to which they told me that someone already came and left some notes on the account that it is possible to get cabling to the second floor flat which is where we’re at, that’s great and all but doesn’t answer some of the other questions I had which I wanted to ask in person. The adviser then said they’ll book another visit for the 18th and once again, no one calls and when I’m back on the phone to Virgin after receiving a missed call, they say that it is in fact not possible to get up and running at the flat. Some more back and forth and we are told that Wayleaves won’t cover any sort of permission fee the freeholder wants. If that’s the case why are some advisers saying it’s possible and fees will be covered and some advisers say it’s not possible to install and also won’t be covered anyways. 

Ultimately we’re told to just wait until the 24th as apparently there’s works outside the flat planned which could allow this to go smoother and that tomorrow on the 19th September, once again,  survey is booked with those instructions.

Need some advice on what the best course of action is, should I cut my losses and just go for something worse like Talktalk at 67mbs, compared to the 1Gig we would’ve had with Virgin? Or should I try and negotiate the fee or see if Virgin in fact are the ones to cover it? 

3 Replies

  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person
    13 minutes ago

    Virgin never have paid any customer incurred fees to get services installed, & it's unlikely they ever will. I ought to point out that self install kits are only ever issued to addresses where there was previously a paying customer, so it's likely either the landlord or the freeholder has removed the required sockets in the meantime. I wonder what could possibly be the reason for that ??? ;) 

  • Matthew_ML's avatar
    Matthew_ML
    Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
    3 hours ago

    Hey Kluadia05, thank you for reaching out and a warm welcome to the community we are so sorry to hear about your install issues.

    We can see you've spoken to the team since this post, did they manage to help at all?

    • Klaudia05's avatar
      Klaudia05
      Joining in
      33 minutes ago

      We gave them another call, and we tried to see what the resolution will be and they have just told us to wait until the 24th as before that there’s meant to be some council approved works outside and to see what the next engineer will say, and that there will, once again, be a surveyor attending today on the 19th of September and that there’s a note to call my partners number so that he can have a chat with them like where the cable would have to go etc, but once again it’s 2pm and to our knowledge no one came as no one called him.

      We’re not sure what to do as obviously we’ve been told contradicting things, and obviously the £240+VAT fee from the freeholder is another big thing. One adviser says that we have to do a Wayleave with the freeholder so that we won’t have to pay the fee, and the next adviser says we will have to pay as virgin media never covers something like that. If we can’t even have a chat with anyone in person we don’t know what we can do.