Forum Discussion

shef1142's avatar
shef1142
Joining in
2 days ago

Rude customer service

I got in touch with VM to setup a new broadband. I checked online on Openreach website, that the postcode still doesn't have any Full Fibre cable and is still on the old Copper cable. Hence all broadband providers told me that I can't get one. Virgin Media owns and operates its own cable broadband network. So I thought only VM can help me out. But the people in sales team, tele sales team and even the business account setup team are so rude when I have asked them to give me a simple reason on why they can't help me out!

I have checked the coverage, and can see that only two flats pop up in the list out of hundreds of flats, where VM can setup the broadband! My current house also is not on Full Fibre Cable connection, but here VM has managed to setup their cable and provide the broadband service. It is ridiculous that the team is not trained enough to help me out and are blatantly rude. They won't even try to give me a valid technical reason, just keep on saying that sorry, our system rejects your postcode. What a waste of time. If VM says that they have their own network, they should be able to help me out I believe. 

  • goslow's avatar
    goslow
    Alessandro Volta
    2 days ago

    There could be lots of reasons why VM will not install in certain flats. Some of them might be administrative, some technical.

    We see regular topics on here where VM will not install at heights above first floor level when the cable runs externally. If the VM cable needs to run internally we have seen past issues where either VM is not interested (due to cost) or the freeholder/managing company does not grant permission.

    There have also been past topics where some flat owners have managed to get a connection because they live on the ground/first floor, and could get a cable run externally, but others above first floor could not get a connection. Hence you end up with a building where some flats are omitted but others are serviceable.

    There have also been past cases where the old cable TV companies originally installed cables across roofs to provide a service but VM now refuses roof access for safety reasons. This has also meant some existing customers could not get repairs to cables. The list of possibilities goes on and on.

    There is no particular reason why the sales people should know the reason that a particular address is not serviceable. All they know is it does not appear on their list.

    If you think that you can establish that a VM connection might be possible (and not prevented by things like the examples above) then VM does sometimes send spotters to check out locations but that seems to be a fairly hit and miss process as to whether anything happens or not and the customer in waiting has really had to push hard to engage VM to make it happen.

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    2 days ago

    And in addition to all those reasons, every VM local street cabinet has a finite number of connections. If it's an old system it's quite likely that every connection has been taken up and there is no capacity for any more. 

    • RetiredATCO's avatar
      RetiredATCO
      Dialled in
      2 days ago

       "If VM says that they have their own network, they should be able to help me out I believe."


      Unfortunately what you believe and the reality are different, retrofitting any type of cable or fibre into flats above ground level requires a lot of work and permissions.

      With the copper line cease not far over the horizon something will need to be done but you can't force VM to step in.

    • shef1142's avatar
      shef1142
      Joining in
      15 hours ago

      Your explanation does help. I talked to someone when I connected to General Enquiries, and the person did say that there might be possibility of installing a Cabinet box and then setup the broadband connection. But for this, they are not ready to send an engineer/spotter to look at if this is even achievable or not!

  • jpeg1's avatar
    jpeg1
    Alessandro Volta
    15 hours ago

    Virginmedia are currently putting most of their effort and money into building into new areas and upgrading their network with more modern full fibre technology.  They are only putting in new connections using their old coax technology where it can be done at minimum cost.