Moved house, no VM for the next month

[NadiaG20]

Hi all. I spoke with VM around the 9/11/22 to advise I was moving on 16/12/22, gave the address (1.5 miles from where I was), and was told my install would happen on the 17/12/22. Around 3pm on 16/12/22, VM sent me a message to say that they had discovered groundworks need to be completed before installation, so my installation date would now be 16/01/23. I called VM straight away, and after having my call dropped on 3 occasions, spoke to someone who brought the date forward - to the 10/01/22. It’s not that I’m not grateful (I am!), but I WFH as a nurse manager, and have no internet, it’s the school holidays so can’t up sticks and take myself in to the office either. I’m a bit frantic. When my friend moved with Sky and had no internet for a few weeks, they sent him a temporary internet device, which was great. Do VM have anything similar? 
Any thoughts or advice would be appreciated. 
Thanks 

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

VM do sometimes offer mobile dongles in these situations, unfortunately the evidence of this forum is they promise them rather more often than they are actually delivered.  Moreover, with VM's famed organisational skills, it could take weeks before you get one.  To make matters worse, the chances of the promised cable install date being met are not brilliant - search the forum for "delayed installation" and read up on some of the stories.  Also pay attention to the way VM handle the compensation you'll be due, that could be a battle in itself, with VM falsely blaming the council when the fault is entirely their own for doing nothing in the period you gave them notice of the move.  But that's for another month.

For the time being, and putting myself in your shoes, I'd take control of the situation myself, as the quickest and most reliable solution.  Relying on VM is a recipe for disappointment.  Your work depends upon the connection, having to spend a few quid to sort this out quickly should be an acceptable fix.  As it's almost Christmas, all delivery services are at full stretch made worse by Royal Mail striking and the vast backlog, so the usual quick fix of Amazon may not be dependable (I'm seeing delivery dates for Amazon moving out towards the New Year).  So the much neglected high street may be your best hope.  If you have a reliable EE signal, then get yourself down to an Argos store that has (for example) one of these.  That has the convenience of being the data SIM and the device in one purchase at a good price.  Worst case for getting hold of one (since the idiots of Sainsbury's bought and messed up Argos) you might have to order for next day delivery to store - usual advice, check online before travelling.  If you don't have a good EE signal, consider one of these, more expensive and you'd need to buy a data only SIM for a network that has coverage, on the other hand it'll work with any mobile network.  

[NadiaG20]

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, and for your help. I went straight out and bought the mobile internet device, and I’m able to wfh. I’m not holding my breath re compensation (having looked through the forums), so I shall be grateful for what I have - for now! Thanks again. 

[jem101]

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@NadiaG20 wrote:

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply, and for your help. I went straight out and bought the mobile internet device, and I’m able to wfh. I’m not holding my breath re compensation (having looked through the forums), so I shall be grateful for what I have - for now! Thanks again. 

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Glad to hear that you have managed to sort yourself out with a temporary solution - annoyingly, it is often less stressful to simply take matters such as this into your own hands, rather than hope that VM provide something, which they sometimes do, but it all seems to be hopelessly inconsistent!

Now as regard compensation, firstly you gave VM over a month's notice of your moving, the fact that they couldn't be bothered to check if the connection was possible until the very last minute, is their problem not yours. Secondly the 'promised' install date was 17th which is when the compensation timer will kick in, in addition they failed to give you more than 24hrs. notice of the cancellation, so that's £25 (or so) they owe you for a start!

It's not 100% clear if you already are a VM customer from your old house or not. If you are then I would argue that this is not so much a delayed installation (for which the daily compensation is around £5.25) but, on the grounds that you should expect continuity of service, this can be regarded as a full 'loss of service' and the daily compensation rate for that is the higher £8.30 or so - not sure if that is per service, ie if you now have no broadband, TV and phone then it's £8.30 per day for each - quickly mounts up!

As per your own research, getting the proper compensation can be relatively pain free or a drawn out struggle where you jump through the VM complaints procedure hoops, be told that the dates are 'only provisional' and don't count (rubbish) or 'it's all down to the local council' (almost always, also rubbish), 'look we'll offer you £20 off your next bill - take it or leave it etc. etc.

Of course, if and when push comes to shove, please do post back on here and we can advise on how to navigate the morass of VM's complaints procedure, and escalate your claim to the industry adjudication service, which costs you nothing, costs VM a couple of hundred pounds just for their fees irrespective of the outcome, plus they will be able to instruct VM to compensate you further for the bad handling of your case and deliberate misleading statements!

Naturally though, it won't come to that, I'm just setting the (possible) scene. I have no doubt that the forum team members (VM employees) will intervene before it gets that far and make sure that the mandated 'automatic compensation scheme' kicks in properly and that you receive what you are owed without any aggravation - the alternative can get quite costly for VM.

John

[Andrew-G]

jem101:  the industry adjudication service, which costs you nothing, costs VM a couple of hundred pounds just for their fees irrespective of the outcome,

I was doing some internet digging, and whilst CISAS are cagey about fees in recent years, I found the 2015 CISAS fee arrangements in their full and official glory, and these were £130 for an accepted case which the company immediately settled, and £355 for a full adjudication.  CPI rose by about 15% between 2015 and start of 2022, if we guess that increase to apply here, then it means now any complaint that is accepted by CISAS but immediately settled would now be about £150, and for a case that goes to CISAS and goes to a full adjudication costs about £410. Hopefully CISAS will be looking to put their fees up next year by RPI + 3.9% like certain thieves in the communications sector.  There is also an annual subscription payable to CISAS, which I'd guess to be currently around half a million a year for a company the size of VM, but that's essentially a flat rate. 

A couple of years ago certain ISPs (including you know who) tried to persuade Ofcom that CISAS and Ombudsman Services were deliberately taking on cases without merit or that were out of their scope.  Mott MacDonald were asked to investigate in depth, and concluded that the adjudicators executed their responsibilities with a high degree of accuracy.  Nobody officially said so, but that rather showed up the company complainants as being whingers trying to evade their obligations.  What is it about large "communications" companies?  They all seem poorly run, incapable of communicating effectively, and always looking to dodge the obligations that routinely arise from their own ineptitude.  Moreover, they all systemically ignore the obvious way of reducing the expense of adjudication by not messing things up in the first place as frequently, and where bad stuff does happens, handling complaints should be quick, professional and fair.  As far as I can see the words "Virgin Media" "complaint" "quick" "professional" and "fair" only ever appear in the same sentence if accompanied by the word "not".  

[Travis_M]

Hi @NadiaG20

Thanks for posting on our community forum and sorry to hear about the delay with your move.

I'm glad to see our community have responded and the community have provided a temporary suggestion. Our team will aim to have you installed on the date provided, be sure to keep us updated on this 🙂