18 Months later no connection 27 cancelled appointments now " we can't bring Virgin Media to your area"

[AMAMM]

I ordered Virgin Media in January 2022 since then they have cancelled the installation appointment 27 times, stating additional work needs to be carried out. 

I have lost count how many times I have contact VM and got no where trying to find out what is happened.

During this period I have been out of contract with BT ready to connect with VM, which has meant I have been paying more than I should be for the service I receive.

I have spoken to the countless engineers that have turned up from Avonline, who confirmed months ago they have cleared the breakages/blockages and I should be connected soon.

I have received 21 texts making sure I will be in between 1-6pm when the technician comes to connect the line, I have had to rearrange my schedule in order to do this, but  a couple of days before, the appointment is cancelled. 

I received an email from VM on the 15 May 2023 stating "We're sorry to say that things haven't exactly gone to plan and we can't bring Virgin Media to your area." Whilst sending me yet another email for an installation on the 19 June 2023!

VM have kept me waiting for 18 months and then send me this email, no mention of the automatic compensation after waiting patiently for 473 days.

I have posted this message because I am at loss as to what to do, I am very frustrated at how VM have handled this, no one at VM has been able to help just telling me to wait for the next appointment.

How do I get VM to pay the automatic compensation which OFCOM state should be paid at a rate of  "£5.83 for each calendar day of delay, including the missed start date".

Every time I ask VM about this they say compensation will be paid once they install the service. But now I have received an email stating this is not going to happen what should I do?

Any advice gratefully received.

[AMAMM]

Hello Molly

Just to update you I have now had 28 cancelled appointments. I received another text cancelling my appointment for next week and re scheduling requesting I should be in between 1-6 pm again. For me to do this I have to rearrange my schedule for the 28th time.

Is Virgin ever going to put things right for me.

Audrey

[-tony-]

lets manage your expectations

staff here can do little to NOTHING - they can reach out - apoplgise and start you on another roundabout - they can [possibly] send your promblem to the area field manager - AFM - who again will do little to nothing - they have put your install in place and its with outside contractors who do not communicate with VM so any promises you get are no better than a wet finger in the air - staff [again] can/will give you phone numbers that you likely already know of departments to conact who will know the sum od sod all but assuming you get offshore [likely] then they will make up whatever they think you want to hear regardless of the lie as they have no accountabillity - once they put the phone down their slate is wiped clean and they can move onto the next problem they most likely will not be able to help with

i have not been in your position exactly but the leccy board cut my cable and i had 3 months of lies and no help until someone got off their backside - thought ouside the box and managed to punll acable when all others had failed - i was involved with people on here - the CEO's office - nice bloke but unable to do anything as he believed the lies the company told - i had visits from the AFM and more white vans than you could shake a stick at all of whom came - looked promised the earth and disappeared like summer snow

thats as it is - now maybe Molly has a route thats never been done before but i doubt it - so just keep adding another fiver + to the compensation and be ready to fight for that

[VMUser1812]

Well what can we say that already hasn’t already been said?

I mean it is tempting to say ‘Ding, Ding, Ding; we have a winner!' The previous reported delay being some 13 months and you have easily surpassed that to the extent that the Guinness Book of Records' people would like a word. I know someone who has some left over bunting from the Coronation street party, which we can put up in celebration!

But really, sorry, joking aside, you actually just want a VM connection, yes, and have been jerked about for a year and half - no?

There is little I can possibly contribute other than what Tony already has. However, what has always been the case is that for the vast majority of customers, a VM install goes just fine, or mostly just fine - however in the event of any sort of problem or issue then the entire edifice immediately collapses; evidently there is some unknown difficulty with providing you a service and the contractors would rather do some other, more lucrative job than yours. OK, well probably fair enough, but where it all falls apart is the complete and utter abrogation on VM’s part of taking any responsibility for their contractor’s actions - not, I hasten to add, this is any reflection on the forum team members here, they simply don’t know, and they have no ability to find out nor ‘escalate’ any issues - it simply isn’t the way that VM have deliberately structured their systems to work (or not work in your case)! Naturally, none of the forum team can possibly openly admit this, that leading to a somewhat awkward interview with HR, so instead you get the fairly meaningless platitudes; you know it’s rubbish, they actually do know it’s pointless rubbish, but it is what it is, unfortunately!

OK, bottom line - I suspect that chances of you getting connected up in the foreseeable future are roughly equivalent to the odds on Lord Lucan being spotted riding Shergar down Inverness High Street closely followed by Nessie!*

So what do you do about it? Well about the same as the forum team on here can possibly do, the same as 'the team' can do, probably the same as VM’s CEO can do - absolutely nothing at all! Sorry about that, but sometimes the truth hurts, no?

What you have to do, is work on the assumption that VM simply don’t value you highly enough to be bothered to get you connected up - but don’t take it personally, VM don’t actually value any of their customers as anything other than a money source, yes if it costs them less to fix an issue than they will lose by not doing it, then you are golden, otherwise....

Usual advice, set yourself a mental deadline - if VM haven’t installed a connection by xyz, then you will give it up and sign up with another supplier. Probably won’t be as fast, but at least it will exist and work, unlike what you have now from VM!

Now, should you call VM and just cancel? Well there are two ways to see it, on then one hand if you do cancel, then you are technically entitled to compensation of around £5.25 per day up to 1st April this year and some £5.90 after that date, and this is calculated from the first, given in writing installation date. Possibly enough now for a nice Carribean cruise! Alternatively, you do nothing, sign up with another provider, let the VM compensation keep clocking up and when and if they do ever connect you up, you immediately cancel under the 14 day cooling off period regulations, you are still entitled to the (even more) compensation plus knowing that the cables are there if you want to give them another go, although there will now be a box screwed to the front of your house plus a hole drilled in the wall - but just think about the compensation!

Not that VM will actually pay out the compensation in either scenario without a fight, you’ll get all sorts of spurious excuses, 'waiting for Council permissions, what for nearly two years?’, ’the CEO’s dog ate the work order’, the truly arresting excuse once stated on here of being told by customer services (a misnomer, if ever I heard one but still) ’no compensation will be paid because VM can’t afford it’; ‘I’m sorry but there was a ‘y’ in the day when you claimed and these are excluded’, etc, etc!

You’ll need, no doubt to escalate this to the Ombudsman Service and request they order VM to pay the required compensation, plus an additional, oh £200 for the added stress, lies, poor customer service, etc. The Ombudsman Service decisions are enforceable in Law, one day we’ll hear stories of bailiffs with Police support turning up at VM’s headquarters and removing goods to the value of.. plus arresting and handcuffing any staff or security that try to stop them - well, we live in hope, no?

OK all of the above, too long, didn’t read : you will be connected up as and when VM’s contractors get around to it, there is absolutely nothing that you nor any VM employee can do to change this reality. Forum team members on here have exactly the same influence over this as my cat does, although said cat isn’t required to make meaningless, some might say, insulting posts, promising xyz, when they must actually know that nothing can possibly come of it. Similarly if you call ’the team’, you’ll get, I’m sure, well meaning responses, but all they can go on is what is presented on the screen in front of them - if the underlaying system is broken, and what they are being presented with is a massive degree of wishful thinking, bearing little if any resemblance to reality, then what hope is there?

Good luck, you’re going to need it!

* of course having said that, what’s the odds on a competent set of people now turning up tomorrow and getting you connected up in record time?

[AMAMM]

I raised a case with the Ombudsman and received a response from the ADR team:-

"£100.00 compensation, as a gesture of goodwill for the distress and inconvenience caused As you are still awaiting installation, Automatic Compensation cannot be paid as of yet. Installation must be completed before the Company can attempt to pay the compensation if due."

I have also received an email from Virgin stating:

"Hi Audrey,

We're sorry to say that things haven't exactly gone to plan and we can't bring Virgin Media to your area.We understand how frustrating this is, and can only apologise. Rest assured if anything does change we'll be in touch.Kind regards,The Virgin Media team."

Could someone explain what I should do, £100 is an insult after waiting 18months and 28 cancelled appointments. They have send me a message to say they cannot bring me the service but continue to make appointments?

How to I get them to me the automatic compensation if they have said they cannot provide the service?

The Ombudsman has not been much help, looks like Virgin can simply not pay the automatic compensation, they told the Ombudsman there is no problem they know of?

Any help or guidance greatly received.

Audrey

[jpeg1]

That message from VM means that they can't connect you and have cancelled the installation

You can take this back to the Ombudsman and say that now VM have cancelled you want the full compensation from the first installation date until 30 days after the date of their cancellation message, plus additional compensation for distress and inconvenience.

[AMAMM]

Update on the Ombudsman decision is that automatic compensation should be paid by Virgin Media.

Does anyone know how this happens, can the Ombudsman make VM pay the automatic compensation?

Thank you

[jpeg1]

That's great news. The Ombudsman should have informed Virginmedia of their decision, in which case they have no choice but to pay. 

Personally I would now write to VM with your calculated amount, and give them a week to pay. 

[AMAMM]

Hi All

Virgin Media are now challenging the Ombudsman's decision stating Auto Compensation is not due because the delays have been caused due to obtaining permits from the council. 

Does anyone know how I challenge this or obtain details of the permits they applied for etc?

Thank you in advance.

Audrey

"The Company challenges this decision on the basis that the Company cannot be held liable for third party delays.  The scheme does not compensate for permit delays. As per Section 40d, provided below, states that a Company would not be obliged to pay Automatic Compensation if the  action required would or would be likely to be in breach of any law or regulation; as permits are provided by Councils, not abiding would be illegal

No Automatic Compensation would be due."

[jpeg1]

VM have a responsibility to apply for permission in good time before the day/s it is needed. 

It is unreasonable to apply each time just before work is scheduled, when the application delay is well known from previous applications at the same site.

Just to add:  It's important that you press this point with the Ombudsman, otherwise VM may use this false argument as a precedent in other cases. 

[goslow]

You need to speak to the highways authority for your area. Sometimes this is your local council, sometimes the county council. They will be able to give you the dates/times permits were applied for and the duration of the permit.

VM has plenty of past form on here for trying to use the 'council permit' excuse. If you had a 18 month delay, the council alone cannot possibly be responsible for 18 months of delays.

A delay waiting for a permit only reduces the compensation paid (not eliminates it) and the reduction is only confined to the delay caused by the wait for the permit. For example if you have a 10 day delay, two of which is caused by a wait for a permit and 8 days caused by VM's bungling then the reduction in compensation is only 2 days not the full 10 days.

As stated by jpeg1, if VM is not applying for the permits in a timely fashion, then trying to blame the council, that is unacceptable too and you need to highlight that to the ombudsman.

So you need to do some research with your highways authority and put together a timeline of when permits were issued etc. and then match with VM's installation failures. Chances are you may find the permits were available but VM's contractors failed to organise their resources within the timescale of the permit.

In my own street recently, I watched a VM sub-contractor try to pull a cable from one end of the street to the other (about 75m). They kept encountering blockages and could not pull the cable through. The contractors are often on time-limited visits (in this case 30 to 40 minutes it seemed) and after that time the contractor gave up and left. Some days later another team re-appeared and continued with the job. After about 4 visits across a couple of weeks they managed to get the cable installed, causing a 2 week delay for the customer. If they had done one longer visit until the job was completed there would have been no delay in that case.

It is possible your delays could be down to something similar but you will only know once you have the info from the council to compare for yourself.

Hope you manage to get the compensation you are due.