Unexpected visit of cable installer who damaged my patio and installed box in the wrong place.

So have they actually just cut a wide slot into your paving, dropped the cable in and covered it up with cement?

Hi hmiamid,

A warm welcome and thanks for posting on our community forums. We do apologise that this has happened and that our installer's have caused damage. We would like to investigate this further for you and get this sent off to the relevant team.

I will pop you over a private message to take some detail, click on the envelope at the top of the page to accept the chat.

Kind regards Jodi. 

That's amazing, it would have been less work to lift the slabs.

@goslow, yes with black cement on top of that! The cable is still visible.

@Jonny-M, the slabs cannot be lifted, they are cemented down to the ground. I think that's what they first thought and tried to pry them open which broke them. The chips are still around. I hope I can put them back with some white cement. Otherwise I will ask the developer if they have spares to give us. The repair bill will be on Virgin Media.

The work was done very poorly.
The "engineers" didn't come today in the end. Why would that surprise me?

During the engineer visit for the internal installation on the 14th of July, I asked him what he could do for the repairs.
He said he cannot do anything and will take pictures to send his boss.

I also called VM on the same time and they raised a complaint for the installation team to resolve any repairs. They would come back to me in a week.

A week passed and I got no calls. No surprise there either.

I called them again. They said no call was registered in their system and I basically waited a week for nothing.

Today, they told me they confirm an appointment for a technician to come on the 31st of August between 1pm and 6pm. I haven't received any email of confirmation again. He said I'll receive appointment email within 24 hours.

They also set up a new complaint number. But there is nowhere I can verify myself the progress of the complaint. It's all on their side.

I feel like I am being completely shunned from any information they should give me to resolve this issue. They simply do not care and pass on notes from one operator to another and it all quickly becomes a bureaucratic mess.

I still have 6 days for my cooling off period. If they don't give response within 24 hours, I will cancel the contract. I cannot deal with them anymore.

@goslow thank you for your reply. I can relate now to all the other people. I'm reading so many stories of VM online now. My connection started on the 14th of August (not July) so I still have a few days.

No email for confirming the appointment on the 31st of August between 1pm and 6pm. The caller "promised" me they will confirm an email but nothing happened. So I don't know if someone will come or not.

The VM area field manager of my area called me yesterday (25/08) to hear what happened. I told him about the damage and that the slabs need to be replaced. I told him the developer might still have spare slabs.

After the call, a field manager of a company outside VM (who makes the connections) called and asked to get quotes for the slabs (with and without including replacement labour cost) from the developer. I will get back in touch with the developer and them after this bank holiday weekend.

Update on the issue and timeline:

- 30/08 : I asked the developer for how to repair the damages and sent them the pictures.

- 06/09 : They've replied with this message
I’ve checked with the builder who built the path and it is on a very solid base and has drainage underneath. So albeit small it may be expensive. I’m checking with a home cosmetic company to see if it can corrected. Therefore I will need to get back to you once I have contact with them. Regards.

- 20/09 : I receive the quote which is for £250 + VAT = £300.

- 09/10 : I was quite busy but I eventually sent the network installing company (NIC) the quote given by the developer.

- 18/10 : A subcontractor hired by the NIC comes to our door and tells my wife about replacing the slabs himself. He checked the colour of the slabs and said he'll come back in a few days with slabs to see if the colours match.

- 20/10 : The subcontractor comes back with a slab but it was not the same colour. I told him to check with my developer if they have spare slabs. Because since it's a new build, they might still have spares left from the construction. I gave him the developer's contact number. About the quote, he told me it was too expensive and he wanted to do it himself. I told him the developer's message said the repair is only cosmetic and it would not be replacing any slabs because of drainage underneath. He will talk with the developer to see why they couldn't be replaced.

- 31/11 : Virgin Media asks how it's going. I told them about the situation. They said if the slabs cannot be replaced, the cosmetic is the only solution. So we need to honour that given it was the contractor that caused the original damage. They will get in touch with the NIC to clarify that.

Now that I am writing all of this, I think I might have misread the developer's message. They didn't say the slabs cannot be removed. Only that it would be very difficult and expensive. So they are replaceable. And that's what the subcontractor tries to do. I thought cosmetic meant "covering up" the cracks.

I wonder if I should accept the subcontractor or go with the home cosmetic company because they might know everything about this house. 

I will contact the developer again to clarify this. And also ask them if they got a call from the subcontractor.

This Wednesday 08/11, the subcontractor called me for repair and said it's just too expensive to pay for a £300 job when they can just replace the slabs themselves. I told her the man who came before has the phone number of the developer to call for spare slabs. She said it's fine they found the right slabs this time. I asked the developer if they got a call from them, but they didn't.

They finally came that evening and replaced the slabs after 2.5 months. However, it now looks like this after some rain :

Also he slab near the door does not lay flat on the ground, and it wobbles.

I will continue contacting them for a proper replacement and I try to ask the developer the spare slabs and await for response.