Landline not working

[maxlugg]

Hi,

My landline hasn't been working for at least 2 days. I get a dialling tone but any number I ring is engaged. When someone calls me, my phone rings but when I pick it up I get the engaged tone again.

The support page of the website doesn't work (it just goes round in a loop). I've tried calling support on my mobile but after being on hold for 5 minutes I was disconnected.

[maxlugg]

Thank you but please don't bother. This cycle has been going on for nearly 9 weeks, the engineers can do nothing so there is no point in booking one. 

[Tom_W1]

Hi @maxlugg thanks for your reply.

I haven't sent the PM yet, but in order to resolve your fault this would be needed as there is an loss of service outage currently.

If you are refusing an further help via PM though, I'm afraid I can't look into this further for you.

If you do reconsider please let me know and I'll of course get this booked in.

Many thanks

[maxlugg]

Hi Tom,

I am not refusing further help, I am just pointing out that booking a technician to come to my house is pointless. There have been 4 previous bookings. The last time the engineer just phoned me to say there was no point in coming.

The fault is a central one and needs to be dealt with at the source. 

[Tom_W1]

Hi @maxlugg thanks for your reply - I do completely understand that.

It is a very strange one (and frustrating I'm sure for you). What I'm going to do, is chase our Area Field Managers for an update and hopefully resolution on this matter for you.

As soon as we have any further updates on this matter, we'll be in touch further.

Many thanks

[maxlugg]

Sunday 11/09/2022:

I'm pleased to report that at 9.00 pm yesterday I found that my phone is working again! The first time since 11th July, 8 weeks and 5 days ago. It hadn't worked in the morning so the fix came sometime yesterday afternoon (10 Sept). 

If someone could report here about what the problem has been that would be great. In any case, I hope it has been recorded somewhere so it can be fixed much more quickly the next time!

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@maxlugg wrote:

Sunday 11/09/2022:

I'm pleased to report that at 9.00 pm yesterday I found that my phone is working again! The first time since 11th July, 8 weeks and 5 days ago. It hadn't worked in the morning so the fix came sometime yesterday afternoon (10 Sept). 

If someone could report here about what the problem has been that would be great. In any case, I hope it has been recorded somewhere so it can be fixed much more quickly the next time!

---

Glad to read your line is working again. You will be due significant compensation (£445.20 by my back-of-envelope calc's) for such a long outage. If you have not done so already, have a look over the OFCOM requirements for compensation

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

in particular para 23 which defines TLS and which can sometimes differ from VM interpretations which are described on here.

From skim-reading your topic, I would suggest that your issue was potentially different to the SNR issue and that conflation probably delayed VM from fixing your problem. The fact that your issue is also being linked to the SNR fault will, no doubt, be the route VM uses to try to limit what compensation you should be due if the SNR issue was intermittently fixed over the period. You are right to request an explanation from VM as to what they claim the lengthy fault was caused by.

Hope you manage to get a decent chunk of change for all the hassle and delay.

[Ilyas_Y]

Hey @maxlugg, thanks for reaching out to us.

I have had a look on the system and I can see it was an area issue which was affecting the landline.
I can confirm this was an area outage.
The matter has been resolved now from what we can see.
As always - reach out to us if you need anything.

Kind regards.

[maxlugg]

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@goslow wrote:

Glad to read your line is working again. You will be due significant compensation (£445.20 by my back-of-envelope calc's) for such a long outage. If you have not done so already, have a look over the OFCOM requirements for compensation

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Thanks for your interest goslow. Yes, I have fully familiarised myself with the OFCOM code thanks. I have been generous and not included the final day so my claim is for £436.80. So far I have received £42 in credits. Today marks 30 days since the problem was fixed so the balance of £394.80 is now due (OFCOM code of practice 30 (b): "Any compensation shall be made in a timely manner and no later than the date ... (b) 30 calendar days after the Total Loss of Service is resolved.")  I shall be writing to Virgin Media today.

I do not know why Virgin Media keep mentioning "Area Faults" and "SNR" (what does that stand for BTW?). There is nothing I can see in the code that can be interpreted as a reason for not paying compensation.

[Steven_L]

Thanks for coming back to us @maxlugg.

I would be happy to take a further look into this for you and raise a complaint to get the issues resolved but would need to confirm a few details via private message, please look out for my message and we can get started.
Regards,
Steven_L
 

[maxlugg]

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@goslow wrote:

Glad to read your line is working again. You will be due significant compensation (£445.20 by my back-of-envelope calc's) for such a long outage. If you have not done so already, have a look over the OFCOM requirements for compensation

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

in particular para 23 which defines TLS and which can sometimes differ from VM interpretations which are described on here.

From skim-reading your topic, I would suggest that your issue was potentially different to the SNR issue and that conflation probably delayed VM from fixing your problem. The fact that your issue is also being linked to the SNR fault will, no doubt, be the route VM uses to try to limit what compensation you should be due if the SNR issue was intermittently fixed over the period. You are right to request an explanation from VM as to what they claim the lengthy fault was caused by.

Hope you manage to get a decent chunk of change for all the hassle and delay.

---

Your back-of-the-envelope calculation was spot on. There are a lot of steps to go through before the dispute resolution service can be invoked but in the end, it worked and I received £455.20 on Friday. It's been a long struggle! VM's complaints procedure is totally ineffective.