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mvr_london's avatar
mvr_london
Tuning in
2 months ago

Service down for the past month with no fix date

My VM service has been down completely (fault shown in the service status checker) for a month now.

From about 2 weeks ago I've been receiving text messages telling me that the service would be fixed in 2-3 days -

Virgin Media Outage Update - Description: Service update. Broadband, Voice and TV fault F011715806. The latest update we have is: We have identified the problem and an engineer is on their way. The estimated repair time is now: 09/03/2025 12:00:00. The Virgin Media Team.- ID: F011715806. Best wishes, the Virgin Media Team.

Then on the 9th I got a message saying the same thing but with a fix date of the 13th

On the 13th I got a message saying the same thing but with a fix date of the 17th

On the 17th I got a message saying the same thing but with a fix date of the 19th

On the 18th a different message - 

Virgin Media Outage Update - Description: Service update. Broadband, Voice and TV fault F011715806. The latest update we have is: Our engineer is on site and they're working to fix the problem. The estimated repair time is now: 18/03/2025 18:00:00. The Virgin Media Team.- ID: F011715806. Best wishes, the Virgin Media Team.

Then at the end of the day - again

Virgin Media Outage Update - Description: Service update. Broadband, Voice and TV fault F011715806. The latest update we have is: We have identified the problem and an engineer is on their way. The estimated repair time is now: 19/03/2025 12:00:00. The Virgin Media Team.- ID: F011715806. Best wishes, the Virgin Media Team.

Then this morning - moved to the 25th !!

Virgin Media Outage Update - Description: Service update. Broadband, Voice and TV fault F011715806. The latest update we have is: We have identified the problem and an engineer is on their way. The estimated repair time is now: 25/03/2025 12:00:00. The Virgin Media Team.- ID: F011715806. Best wishes, the Virgin Media Team.

As you can imagine, I'm fed up

Calling tech support does nothing except refer me to these dates - "Sorry, nothing we can do"

Anyone have any suggestions about what I can do, if anything, to talk to someone who can actually do something about this?

We've all been running on our phone's hotspots here at home, but the signal here isn't that great.

I've never had an outage with VM for so long before, so I've now ordered DSL service as a back up, but it'll be a couple of weeks before it can be installed.

7 Replies

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  • mvr_london's avatar
    mvr_london
    Tuning in
    2 months ago

    And a little while after posting the above I get this

    Virgin Media Outage Update - Description: Service update. Broadband, Voice and TV fault F011715806. The latest update we have is: Our engineer is on site and they're working to fix the problem. The estimated repair time is now: 19/03/2025 18:00:00. The Virgin Media Team.- ID: F011715806. Best wishes, the Virgin Media Team.

    Hopes raised.

    Only to be dashed a couple of hours later with this - 

    Virgin Media Outage Update - Description: Service update. Broadband, Voice and TV fault F011715806. The latest update we have is: We have identified the problem and an engineer is on their way. The estimated repair time is now: 25/03/2025 12:00:00. The Virgin Media Team.- ID: F011715806. Best wishes, the Virgin Media Team.

    Madness

    • -tony-'s avatar
      -tony-
      Alessandro Volta
      2 months ago

      welcome to the world of VM faults info or no info - all you can do is ride it out - no one on here will have any info - they are more likely to ask you for updates as thats how broken the system is - ou can ring and you are likely to be told it will be fixed tomorrow as thats what their screen will say and when it is not the screen updates to tomorrow on the chime of midnight and so one until they get round to sorting it

      the only good new is you are entitled to about a tenner a day from when it wend down less 2 days as they allowed that to fix it - dont accept any offers of £20 as a gesture of good will as they try to wriggle out of the full amount and demand payment in cash [cheque] not credit

      you are about £300 to the good but they still bill you so thats to come off

       

    • Kath_P's avatar
      Kath_P
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team
      2 months ago

      Hi mvr_london,

      We're sorry to hear about the issues you have been having with your broadband connection. 😔

      Checking our systems, I can see that there is a fault open that is affecting you. The details of that are here: 

      • ➡ Fault reference number: F011715806
      • ➡ Estimated fix time: 25/03/2025 12:00

      The outage is an SNR outage - SNR (signal to noise ratio). This is just a technical term for interference of the Broadband signal caused by noise which ingresses on to our network. It's a difficult problem to locate and diagnose. This is because noise can ingress anywhere on our network. As a general rule it's normally caused by customer equipment e.g. loose connections or 3rd party equipment attached to our network. However it can also be attributable to local architecture, e.g street cabinets, cabling or at the origin of the signal which we call the Headend (servers/routing system). The only way to establish where the noise is originating is for the Network Techs to run a series of trace routes. Once found then the cause dictates the amount of work required and the time frame for resolution. 

      Once the fault is resolved, your account will be assessed automatically for automatic compensation. You can view more information on this, as well as the eligibility criteria here 👉 Automatic Compensation. 

      There isn't anything we can do to expedite things I'm afraid, but rest assured, the team are working as hard as they can to get things resolved for you.

      If there is anything else we can do, let us know. 😊

      Thanks,

      • mvr_london's avatar
        mvr_london
        Tuning in
        31 days ago

        Well, the 25th at noon came, and like clockwork, I got a text message saying an engineer is on the way and it will be fixed on the 27th.  Most likely not.

        I cannot imagine a company with the resources of VM cannot find and fix a fault in what is now more than a month. And cannot give a reliable estimate of when a fault will be fixed after a month of an engineer either being "on site" or "on the way"

        I don't care about the compensation - it's ridiculous not having service for so long.

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

    What is being reported on the “free & automated” Service Status number - 0800 561 0061 - which usually gives the most up to date info. and tells you of more local issues and fix estimates, down to street cab/ postcode level?

    • mvr_london's avatar
      mvr_london
      Tuning in
      2 months ago

      It hangs up on me!

      It correctly states the last part of my post code which it gathers from the mobile I'm calling from.

      Then it says I "have the wrong number, please check and call again"