Virgin Media Community

[sjobbi]

Hi

I am a new customer. My installation for Broadband/TV/Telephone was arranged about three weeks ago due to take place tomorrow (19/2/21). Virgin Media's pre-installation team did a site visit yesterday and informed me that there is a blockage in the underground trunking and they will not be able to lay the cable.

I contacted Virgin straightaway and was told that they have sent an email to their construction team asking for the matter to be dealt with urgently but they had no way of contacting the team, except by email, and they team will have upto 48 hours to respond to the email. I was given the construction team's email address and asked to chase the matter. I wrote to the construction team on 17/2/21 and had an automated reply asking me to contact the customer service team if Ihave any problems with my installation as they are unable to deal with it.

I rang virgin this morning at 9am and have been on the phone with them since ( it's now 13:50). I have spoken to several people to no avail. The first person I spoke to told me that the earliest date the construction team are estimated to deal with the matter is February 25. That being the case, he told me to contact my current service provider and ask for the cancellation of my contract to be extended by at least one month. It was virgin that initially contacted my ISP, as I was porting my telephone number, to disconnect the service. My current provider told me that the cancellation process has already begun and they will not be able to stop it. The only option available to me was to enter into a new contract with a minimum term of 12 months

I called Virgin Media to inform them of this. After several attempts and being transferred from one department to another, I was eventually put to a customer service assistant who was rude, condescending and most unhelpful. I told her that I didn't appreceiate the way she was dealing with me and asked to speak to her manager or someone else but she refused. In the end I was put on hold and the call re-routed to the switchboard to begin the whole process again. Each time I had to explain the whole process and get give the same pat answers, without the person dealing with me taking the time to read the notes on their system to understand the problem. This happened about 3-4 times.

I went to my virgin to lodge a formal complaint in writing but that option is not available becasue they are upgrading the service. Despite all the calls that I have made and speaking to several people, they have not given me an email address that I can use to make a complaint.

Is there an email address that I can use to make a complaint Virgin Media? I have had enough of your incompetence.

Due to your fault, I will be cut off from  with no contact with the outside world from tomorrow. I am a vulnerable person living on my own in lockdown. Help me virgin!

[HowardML]

This is a community Forum. As such first replies tend to come from other VM users who try to use their knowledge to help out. It is not a means of communicating directly with any part of the VM organisation. The VM staff who do work here will take up to a week to reach posts and advise. 

But I know from experience that they will not be able to intervene or help much in this type of case. If construction work is needed VM will not be able to do it immediately. They have a limited workforce so work is scheduled, and the workforce is depleted at the moment because of the virus emergency and the need to take extra precautions to protect VM teams.

It looks to me that the discovery of a duct blockage was something that could not have been anticipated. If work is required on the public highway to unblock the duct it is possible that local council approval will be required and that takes time.

I wonder what ever possessed you to cancel your present service provider without first establishing that VM services could be installed and were working to your satisfaction? Not the best exercise of foresight at any time and certainly even more risky at the moment.  We always advise to overlap services when moving from one service provider using the BT network to the VM network. 

[Gareth_L]

Hello sjobbi

Thanks for your post and sorry we are not able to help speed things up over the Forum pages

As this is a construction issue it is being dealt with by the right team 

And I would hate to mess anything up and delay matters further

Have you been in touch with the Construction Team since your last post

Gareth_L