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wmokrynski's avatar
wmokrynski
Settling in
29 days ago

N8 - North London - Full broadband outage 11 days and counting

Just received yet another VM text kicking the can down the road another 3 days, to July 4th. But thrilled to hear that "an engineer is on their way"! (for the 10th time). I have zero confidence that it will be fixed at this time. I have zero confidence in Virgin Media, at this point. Their handling of this is beyond dreadful; it's non-existent. Yes I have reached out and lodged a complaint, but the "resolution" that I received in response is an automated copy-and-paste travesty that simply repeats the nonsense in the text messages. 

In the 30ish years that I have had Internet to my home, this is the very first time experiencing an outage that has lasted more than a day, anywhere. I am in London, and there are internet lines strung everywhere. Why has no technician been rerouting the line to our property after the first 24 hours? Utterly pathetic.

A shame, as the service was reliable until 12:30 on Jun 20th, when it went dead. I suspect that I am now experiencing the true face of Virgin Media... which is utterly awful.

Is there anyone else in the Crouch End area experiencing the same outage?

 

13 Replies

  • Hello,

    I searched online to see if anybody else in the N8 area was enduring the same miserable experience as us. We have been forced to endure this seemingly never ending problem for around two to three weeks now.

    Virgin continuously updates the 'estimated fix time'. I have tried to find any kind of explanation online and to communicate with the company, but it is a torturously difficult process. The best I've managed is to talk through Twitter to the official Virgin page, but they simply will not explain the issue and what is happening.

    They further argue compensation is only due if there has been a 'total loss of service' for 48 hours. So, if your internet always break down but works every now and again? Tough luck. We're apparently owed nothing. It is laughable that they attempt to avoid giving out any compensation for the situation we are presently going through.

    Simply put, the internet goes down all the time. We are constantly forced to tether to our phones, which has forced us to upgrade our data plans (and this is absolutely something Virgin should pay compensation for). The company's communication is between nonexistent and evasive. It is severely hurting our ability to work and basically function.

    In addition, we have noticed the internet hasn't been particularly decent since roughly October/November last year. There has noticeably been a much higher occurrence of outages and intermittent service over the last eight months, with it hitting its worst spell over the last two/three weeks. I would be interested to know if anybody else had noticed this as well.

  • Hello wmokrynski.

    Thanks for your first post and welcome to our community.
    Sorry to hear about the ongoing loss of service in your area.

    We can see the fault here under the reference number F011869674 which relates to SNR "signal to Noise Ratio" Basically, we have found out part of the network that services your area has interference on it. This can result in intermittent issues. It may come and go from time to time, or in unfortunate circumstances, result in a total loss of service.

    Our engineers will be doing all they can to find and locate the actual part of the network and look to get this resolved as soon as possible. You should also be entitled to a loss of service credit, which is explained here https://virg.in/autocomp

    If you need any updates, just pop back on here and quote fault reference F011869674. We can then do our best to get you an update.

    Gareth_L

     

    • wmokrynski's avatar
      wmokrynski
      Settling in

      Hello Gareth,

      A Virgin Media customer service rep called me on Thursday last week and during our long chat promised me that this outage would be fixed by Friday at 13:00. Friday 13:00 came and went, then yet another automated text message arrived, telling us that “an is on their way” putting the estimated fix time 5 days later to July 16. We have now had 24 of these text messages, telling us fibs about estimated repair times. We have now had zero broadband for nearly 4 weeks, and we continue to pay for the top tier service. This has gone beyond unacceptable. I will be taking this to the news media this week.

      • Robert_P's avatar
        Robert_P
        Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team

        Apologies you were advised this, all fix times are estimated and we can never guarantee a time for a fix to issues such as these. Our Auto Compensation Policy for complete loss of service over 48 hours can be found here https://virg.in/autocomp as agreed with our regulators.

  • Hi Gareth,

    Once again, today (Friday July 4) the estimated fix time has been moved to July 8. This has been the worst day for service, having experienced two weeks of dreadful internet, and I am almost totally reliant upon my phone tethering to work.

    You mention we should be entitled to a loss of service credit and provide a link. I see the linked page has a section which reads, 'You can report the issue to us by registering it online or alternatively, calling us.'

    Okay, but what is the number to call? It's genuinely bewildering trying to find any number. And furthermore, where do we register this issue online? 

    It would be massively helpful if Virgin provided the number to call and the area to register the issue in the link you provided. 

    • David_Bn's avatar
      David_Bn
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team

      Thanks for the update BroadbandExp and we're sorry to hear of the ongoing issue on the services.

      If you were to simply check in on the status of our services on your self-care account, or call our service status line, this would then registered your reporting of a loss of service.

      Do please keep tabs on our Service Status Checker or our Service Status Line 0800 561 0061 for an update on the outage and once this has been resolved, we can look into what automatic compensation may be due, with the scheme put in place by our regulators.

      Thanks,

      David_Bn

      • BroadbandExp's avatar
        BroadbandExp
        Just browsing

        So, here we are, on July 20th, a month on from when the internet went badly wrong and the signal continues to be all over the place. I cannot actually believe this experience. Truly, the most shocking service I've ever received from any broadband company ever. And communication with the company is, to my mind, almost deliberately evasive. It is barely possible to speak with anyone who honestly explains the situation.

        Virgin Media sent us a message declaring the issue was now resolved as of Friday July 18. But we have just spent almost all Sunday afternoon and evening with an internet dipping out constantly. Same old story.

        It is impossible to function like this and cancellation is a serious consideration. The fact Virgin only offers compensation after two days of no service is disgraceful - we have had constant 'total losses of service' for what feels like every other hour for the last month.

        What is happening around N8? Will anyone explain it and honestly tell us when we can finally rely on having a functioning internet again?

  • Hello,

    Yes - we are N8 8TE and having the exact same issues with broadband/TV and the appalling communication from Virgin Media services. I lodged a complaint too and got the “sorry you are having some issues with intermittent service, we are doing all that we can…” reply. With the “if we don’t hear from you in 28 days, we will take it that you are satisfied with the resolution”. Hmm, no, not satisfied at all currently!
    It’s been down since 18th June so 21 days and counting. Not holding out much hope for it to be fixed on 11th July which is their current estimate. I tried calling Virgin today and after selecting a combination of options I got through to a human. But he had no information and just read the same auto response as we’ve had in the emails. They are definitely playing it as ‘intermittent’ to avoid paying out the full compensation. It’s appalling. Think it’s time to say goodbye to Virgin.

    • Alex_RM's avatar
      Alex_RM
      Icon for Forum Team rankForum Team

      Hi amyflan,

      Thanks for posting and welcome to our community 😊

      Sorry to hear you're having some connection issues, just to confirm, is this issue showing online here

      Can you confirm how things are since you last posted? Let us know if you still need help with this. 

      Alex_Rm

       

      • amyflan's avatar
        amyflan
        Settling in

        Hello,

        Yes, it is the ‘known’ issue that has been causing a complete loss of service in the N8 area since 18th June. We have just received another text to say that it won’t be fixed today after all and the newest ‘expected date’ is Wednesday 16th July at 1pm. This is the TENTH time the date has been moved.

        We have no broadband/wifi, very limited tv with many channels distorted. No access to Netflix or Amazon etc. No programming information is available at all, it says ‘to be announced’ on every channel - no access to being able to schedule a recording. All recorded programs wiped. All recordings that had already been scheduled wiped.
        I phoned to try and get some assistance but nothing…. No email updates, no explanation. No apology. No compensation for the lack of service or additional costs incurred.

        The worst service and no one is helping at all. The few responses that I have had when I put in a complaint were poorly written and clearly copied/pasted standardised responses which appear to intentionally downplay the actual scale of the issue. All very frustrating.
        I’m looking in to how to raise the complaint at a higher level. I don’t hold out much hope for the broadband issue to actually be resolved and will be researching which provider to move to as the situation is unacceptable and is having a huge impact on my ability to work from home and leisure time - while I am still paying for a service that doesn’t exist.