i have no idea if the tale about the hydraulic lifter is true or not - not your telling of it but the fact one might be needed - it sounds as though it might be the case as its come from people on the ground rather than the clowns who have told you the rest of it

the job will have been put out to sub contractors - thats who you have seen on site - once they have the job there is bo backwards communication to VM - so every time you ring CS they see its an open job and make up something on the spot to pacify you - they are good a picking up crumbs from what you tell them and using that as a basis for the lies they tell you

council permissions is just one they spout with no knowledge

promises of call backs are no more than lies to get rid of you - it will be done tomorrow is another lie - they have no idea but their screen says that so they repeat it

what can you do - to move it forward - NOTHING - its in the hands of the sub contractors and they will get round to it as and when

but keep records for the compensation you are due - about £6 a day from the 1st install date you were given - dont cancel the install even if you go elsewhere - that will just cancel the install so you would be back to square 1 if yo came back in the future - just let them sort it - cancel in the 1st 14 days foc and claim your compensation 

hmmm - i answered this in detail or i thought i did - maybe its deleted maybe i did not press the reply button

what can you do - NOTHING - CS dont have a clue and will tell you what they want - read lies - its with a sub contractor who will get round to it as and when or not at all - further ringing will get you CS who will just add to the lies

all you can do is wait

Thank you.  That is very much what I am coming to realise.

It seems that there is no point even wasting my time phoning them.  

I am definitely keeping notes of what is happening.  I had heard how bad CS is, but this is just worse than I could ever imagine.  But I have no other option for Fibre in my area and so I just need to be patient and let them give me some compensation.

You would have thought that they would save money by having more effective CS rather than paying compensation for unnecessary delays.

Good morning Steven

Unfortunately I have heard nothing more since I posted and on viewing the portal today I see that there are 2 appointments scheduled for today that have been rolled forward from last week.

I have replied to your PM.

Good news

A Virgin Engineer arrived to do YET another site survey

Bad New

He didn't have a hydraulic lifter with him.

No work done - He is going to email his manager - again!  

Something tells me that preinstallations organised a site survey to make me feel something is happening.

How difficult is it to get somebody to come out with a hydraulic lifter and actually prepull the cable ready for installation?

I have to say the I’m not 100% that a ‘hydraulic lifter’ is actually a thing, well at least not in this context.

Tell me when the engineer (and I’ll use the term loosely) turned up today, did you first mention said hydraulic lifter or did they? Could it be that they didn’t fancy doing the job and latched onto something you said as an excuse?

Well we are now nearly 2 months since my original install date of 21st December and can honestly say there has been no progress.

The last engineer who turned up nearly 3 weeks ago was going to speak to his area manager and give me call.  That never happened!!  I guess they are all still trying to find a hydraulic lifter so that they can complete my install.

Really, can an organisation exist like this and be paying compensation for excessive delays?  

I keep thinking that I should call the preinstall team again - but to be honest I cannot be bothered as I know that I will be told any of a number of stories which dont relate to the real situation at all and I will be just wasting my time as nothing will be done!

I wonder how long they can drag this???

It might not be a bad idea to start looking for alternative suppliers, just in case VM decides this installation is too much trouble.

But good luck anyway and keep those records going for the compensation. 

Yesterday was my 2 month anniversary of waiting for installation.  Of course, engineers or area managers have not visited or contacted and I am still waiting to hear from the complaints team.

Perhaps I am now thinking conspiracy theories.  I now cannot access my contract or orders and appointments on the online portal.  Is this a global problem or has something been done to my account so I cannot view it anymore?

It says

"something's gone wrong

We're sorry this isn't the page you wanted.

It's something at our end, and we?re working as fast as we can to fix it.

If you try again later everything will be sorted. Sorry for the inconvenience. "

It amazes me that Virgin Media even provide a community for its potential customers and existing customers to vent their frustration and tell the world about the terrible customer service.  Many organisations would try to find the solution quickly rather than allow the problems to escalate!!

If I had an alternative choice for full fibre broadband I would be going to that supplier, but as Virgin is the only company that has cabled my road I have no choice!

I had a phone call Tuesday evening promising me an installation appointment on 3rd March.  I have just had an email delaying the appointment to 20th March - No reason except for the usual baloney.  Bearing in mind they havent done the prepull yet because they need a hydraulic lift, my guess is that they have not got their act together to get this done first!  Unbelievable!!