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shinycharizard's avatar
shinycharizard
On our wavelength
2 years ago

Property determined unserviceable - How to appeal/ review this

Hi.

I ordered VM Gigabit in November 23, they delayed and rescheduled a couple of time until today (04/03/24).  Noone turned up so I called and after an hour they finally said my property was deemed 'unserviceable'.

To add further insult to injury they are offering compensation which is less than the Ofcom regulated amount and they do not know why I wasn't informed it was cancelled. The CS team will look into fixing this (72 hour wait).

BT fibre don't have our house in the build plans (likely because everyone already has VM gig).

Key question is: How can I appeal/ get the property reviewed properly?

  • The neighbour has VM - same package as me
  • The neighbours house is identical but mirrored (in fact, it was one big plot then they built 3x houses on it).
  • Everyone on the road is on VM.
  • It's a normal road. Not private or anything.
  • The neighbour is 1.2m away.
  • We have open driveways, nothing obstructing, no trees, water bodies or anything.
  • The road is less than 10m away from the property.
  • I would rather forgo the compensation, and just have the internet!

Thanks!

Aaron

3 Replies

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  • jbrennand's avatar
    jbrennand
    Very Insightful Person
    2 years ago

    A VM person will respond in a day or two and can take a look for you.

    But there are many reasons why you may be "unserviceable".  No ducts going to your property? Blocked ducts? In which case the cost to reinstate them may outweigh any potential income.  Perhaps there is no "spare capacity" on the network - street cab may be maxed out for example.

    See what they say on here

    • dhairbus's avatar
      dhairbus
      Dialled in
      2 years ago

      No ducts going to your property? Blocked ducts?

      I would challenge VM if they say "blocked ducts etc. I had VM installed long time ago and my property had conduit/duct in place - but they didn't bother and just put along the side of lawn about 15cm deep in the soil !!  ðŸ˜‰ ðŸ™„ Some cowboys around.

  • nodrogd's avatar
    nodrogd
    Very Insightful Person
    2 years ago

    The most likely reason would be capacity. You have already stated that further houses that wouldn’t been on VMs original build plan for the road have been built. If you are on legacy HFC network which is 95% of VMs network, this has a finite connection capacity. VM used to solve this by oversubscribing the area, which resulted in reduced speeds & customer complaints to OFCOM. VM also ended up on the BBC Watchdog programme over this practice. Hence, if there is an over capacity now any new customer would have to join a waiting list, where you would get a service if another customer on the cabinet vacated. By what you are saying, that is unlikely to happen.

    The only hope in this case is when VM starts overbuilding with full fibre XGS-PON, which is due to be completed in 2028.