Compensation for Delayed Install

[Anonymous]

Hi folks, thanks for reading. I've had an 84 day delay to my install and assumed compensation would apply. I'm now being told that due to the delay being caused by a construction issue I'm not entitled. They basically needed to do external work and get council/neighbour permission. I got the neighbour to sign a way leave very early on.

I'm being offered goodwill gesture of 2 free months plus £10. I've raised a complaint, anything else I need to do or say for now?

Cheers

ETA: This was a home move. I gave them 4 weeks notice of the move and got the original install date immediately. It was only 2 days before install that they advised of works needed and delays.

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

Whether or not the cause was outside VM's control, that's something that doesn't stop them being liable for automatic compensation.  These are the Ofcom rules regarding automatic compensation.  Read section 40 and 41, or which the relevant part for you is "the Communications Provider does not avoid payment of automatic compensation if the issue was caused by an event outside of the customer’s or its own control".  Sounds harsh, but that's because it is up to the ISP to do proper surveys and commit to realistic dates. 

If VM still won't accept that they're liable (they have form for attempting to evade their obligations to pay compensation on delayed installations) then wait for your complaint to be fobbed off.  It will be fobbed off, partly because complaint handling by VM is very poor, and partly because the company clearly don't understand the regulations that apply as per the link above.  When you get the fob-off letter or email, you reject that resolution and ask for a deadlock letter.  With the deadlock letter you ask CISAS to review VM's failure to abide by the scheme rules and to pay the relevant £440 odd quid, plus an additional £50 for the poor complaint handling.

[用心棒]

FYI Automatic compensation: What you need to know - Ofcom

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[Anonymous]

Thanks mate. They transferred me to a manager who also wouldn't budge on it (via Whatsapp). I rejected their offer and they've stated they'll provide a deadlock letter. I've gotten a complaint number anyway so will give it a couple of days. Thanks for your reply.

[Andrew-G]

@Anonymous They transferred me to a manager who also wouldn't budge on it

Quite remarkable that Ofcom go to the trouble of publishing the detailed scheme rules for compensation in plain English, and VM staff who should know them are either completely ignorant of the content, or choose to believe that those regulations are somehow voluntary and can be ignored.  Hopefully the deadlock letter will be issued and with you promptly (the relevant Ofcom regulations state that deadlock letter must be issued immediately that such a position is reached, see section 11 at the bottom of page 51), equally don't be too surprised if that's another set of Ofcom rules that VM don't seem to have read.

[Anonymous]

They've now closed my complaint with this resolution:

Thanks so much for the chat on 01/08/2022. We’re very happy to be able to resolve things for you.

Here's a quick recap

Your complaint was:
Cable > Billing/Charges > Other 

And here’s what we agreed:
Billing > Extra guidance on billing

We’ve now closed your complaint. Thanks again for bearing with us.

I'll go ahead with CISAS now then 🤣

[Andrew-G]

Given the wilful refusal to abide by the Ofcom rules, you might also want to do a quick summary complaint to Ofcom about (a) point blank refusal to abide by the automatic compensation scheme rules and (b) poor and unprofessional complaint handling.  Don't put too much effort in because Ofcom consider complaints as a whole, rather than delving in the detail, but if enough complaints are made then Ofcom might justify their existence by actually enforcing their own rules for a change.

[Ilyas_Y]

Hey there @Anonymous, thanks for reaching out to us.

I'm sorry to hear the case resolution isn't what you desired.
I will look in to this and see how we can get this resolved between ourselves.
I will send a private message - watch out for the purple envelope 🙂

Kind regards.

[Ilyas_Y]

Thanks for chatting with us today.

I'm glad I was able to assist in what I was limited.
As mentioned - the next step will involve an escalation and our team will get this done via a team manager.

In the meantime, if there's anything else you need help with - we're always here.

Kind regards.

[Anonymous]

Hi, you 'misinformed' me as to the reason for the cancellation of my original complaint and now the comeback from the new complaint is more of the same nonsense about provisional install dates. I can only reiterate that I gave you 4 weeks notice of my move. The new address was listed as ready to go with Virgin despite the street not being wired up. You gave me an actual install date and then told me of delays 2 days before it. They are now issuing me with a deadlock letter, which I suppose will gain me more financially, but is unbelievable given how much detail I'm giving them.