Loss of TV service - Compensation due?

[Bikerdave]

Hi all

I recently along with my neighbour suffered a complete loss of TV package, not BB or Phone. The story is amusing as we both had engineers booked the same day but didnt know that at the time. My neighbours eng rolled up early afternoon and I spoke to him as I thought he was coming to me but no! My engineer rolled up later in afternoon, took one look at my screen and said, Ah, that's exactly the same as your neighbour. We all went to the neighbours to confer and yes same issue and started same time. Now at this point their engineer had changed every bit of kit and cable he could with same result. I then informed the VM guys that Southern electric had been digging up the pavement just round the corner and as I'm nosey I had a look when walking past and was greeted with the sight of the VM cables just hanging in 4 ft of air!! They had filled in and disappeared by this day but I knew their start date and this tied to the poor initial tv before the total failure 4 days prior. The vm engineer was going for a complete repull on both our houses but contacted the 'network' team who looked into it. Sure enough they confirmed a damaged cable would cause TV issues but not BB or phone which was exactly the case for both of us. They said they would come out next day and fix it, didnt see what they did but yes it was fixed. When discussing with VM customer service when reporting the initial fault I raised no service compensation and they said its 'automatically' applied but it isnt is it!?

Latest bill is full amount, checked compo scheme and nothing about TV. So I had poor/ no TV for 8 days including weekend where as I pay extra for TNT I was unable to watch the Autumn internationals, first world problems I know!

Could the VM team confirm exactly what compensation is due please. Considering they would have been scratching their heads for goodness knows how long without the knowledge pass from me regarding their cable damage it has to be right to be reimbursed for at least my proportional TV costs?

[Cardiffman282]

Only loss of broadband and telephony are covered by the automatic compensation scheme. That's doesn't mean VM is prevented from making a discretionary award of a bill credit for the inconvenience, loss of amenity, etc. If you make no progress on this front via the staff on here raise a formal written complaint. The relevant links are below. 

[Kath_P · Accepted solution]

Hi Bikerdave, 

Thanks for taking the time to contact us via the Community. It's lovely having you on board with us in the Forums. ⭐

We're sorry to hear you were left without TV services for 8 days. Unfortunately, automatic compensation does only apply to the broadband and phone service. There is no automatic compensation for the loss of the TV service.

Whilst there is no compensation available, we wouldn't expect you to pay for services when they don't work. I have sent you a direct message to get some details from you in a private space. If you are using a PC/Laptop then you can just click on the little ✉ at the top right-hand side of the page to access your inbox. If you are on a mobile/tablet device then instead click on the little circle icon in the top right then select 'Messages'. 😊

Thanks,