5 Months without Installation and without any communication

[t0ji]

I ordered my service in November 2020 and I am still without any services. 

My initial installation date of 13th December 2020 was cancelled the night before, the subsequent installation date of 6th February 2020 was cancelled ON THE DAY. Both due to the same reasons that pre-installation work has not occurred. You would have thought someone would have noticed a week or so prior?

I have spent hours on the phone with Virgin Media, being transferred between teams (often to the wrong department) without any updates. Pre Installation Team say it's an issue with Construction, Construction Team chuck me back saying it's Minor Works and tell me I need to inform a Pre Installation Team Manager to contact a Field Area Manager to reschedule.

On numerous occasions the Pre Installation Team have refused to let me speak to a manager and instead said they have emailed the Field Area Manager who will be in touch. Nearly two months of repeated phonecalls to Virgin Media and not once has a Field Area Manager gotten in touch with me. 

Recently I got fed up of false promises from the Pre Installation Team and instead tried to speak to a Customer Service representative to liaise with the different departments to get work rescheduled again. The first time, after being on hold numerous times (no problem if the agent is working on my case, I understand it's needed) I was disconnected and not called back. I rang again later and specifically provided my mobile number in case of disconnection. The agent wanted to pass me onto Pre Installation again, which I refused as I should not have to project manage Virgin Media's Pre Installation and Construction departments. After being on hold, I believe I was purposefully disconnected as I did not get a call back.

I have written this all as a formal complaint C-2503212330 in which it informed me I will be contacted within 48 hours....that was last week.

I tried to locate the complaint via the website so I could copy and paste it here but it does not allow me to look at open complaints. Instead I spoke to someone on chat who said they read my complaint but could not share details of it. I took the opportunity to try to get that agent to help me with my problem, again I was told to call three different departments, Pre Installation, Construction  & Sales to coordinate between Virgin Media. Why should the customer have to play chinese whispers between Virgin Media departments?

This is an absolutely appalling way to treat a customer. Please can someone get in touch with me to take ownership of this issue because as of 6th February I have no idea what is going on and there has been ZERO communication. I am sick and tired of spending hours on the phone only to be told the same false promises of a call back by a FAM or being disconnected by Customer Services.

I am also aware that Virgin will need to pay credits for each day my broadband has not been installed since December 13th - so if Virgin are trying to push me to the edge to make me give up and cancel my order, I absolutely will not.

[t0ji]

Yes I am hoping VM play fair on this one, although the cynic in me has me thinking VM may be delaying this to get me to cancel and walk away. It is a lot of money that VM owe since my initial installation date of 13th Dec 2020.

This is not something I will walk away from and will definitely raise this with the relevant bodies if VM do not follow their legal obligations.

[Gareth_L]

Hello t0ji 

Can I send you a private message to obtain account details

That way I can then take a look at what stage the complaint is 

Who is dealing with this and ask whom it is to update you 

If you can check the purple envelope top right of your screen that would be great 
Regards     
Gareth_L
 

[Gareth_L]

Hello t0ji

Thanks for those details 

I have had a look at this and can see the whole issue from start to finish 

Sadly this is already being dealt with by our Installation Complaints Team 

Thy have all the relevant information , contact details for contractors and have asked for an update a few days ago 

I would not want to step on there toes and get involved as it will only complicate matters even more 

What I have done is asked for an update from the agent and manager who are dealing with this 

I'm not passing the buck at all and would like nothing more than see this resolved 

However some things on the Forums are a bit above what we can do 

Can you let me know if you don't have an update, and I can chase this again for you 

Gareth_L

[t0ji]

Hi Gareth,

Still no update or contact by VM. Maybe it'll be worth stepping on some toes to get this moving?

[Alan782]

@t0ji, Just been reading your thread.
I thought I was having problems with multiple engineer visits, scheduled re-pulls which never happen and being passed from pillar to post with no-one taking ownership of any issue.

But my issues seem nothing compared to yours.... over 12 months with no installation?

If you have the choice of using another internet service provider I'd strongly suggest that you go with them, for the sake of your mental health etc.. it might be worth it.

[t0ji]

Update on service delivery:

I was given a third installation date of 17th December 2021. The day prior to this the construction company came to the cul-de-sac but did not carry out any construction. On the evening of the 16th I receive a text saying my installation is delayed until 14th Jan 2022 due to construction work required.

Note that no construction work has happened so far.

On the day of my fourth installation date of 14th Jan 2022, the construction company attend an hour before the VM engineer is going to arrive. They confirm they cannot find the pit they needed to dig so they pushed the connection through the existing pits. Note: no construction done and this could have been completed over a year prior.

The VM engineer attended and installed the services.

I receive a call from the complaints department the following week asking how to resolve my initial complaint for the delayed installation, I ask them for the full value of automatic compensation I am owed from 14th Dec 2020 - 14 Jan 2022 (396 days of automatic compensation). They say they will raise this with the automatic compensation department and get back to me.

I receive a call later in the week stating that they believe they are only liable for 28 days worth of compensation as they do not believe they are liable for any supplier delays. They state that construction was completed on 17th Dec 2021 (not true, there was no construction) and therefore they are only liable from this date forward.

I escalated this to a manager who got in touch later that day and said they cannot provide anymore compensation so this will go into deadlock and I can take this up with CISAS.

I received a deadlock letter and have raised a complaint with CISAS for the full amount and am waiting to hear back from them.

The first advisor from the complaints department had told me that my contract has started from 14th Jan 2022 for 18 months at the rate I applied for (£77.99). This is what I expected.

However this morning I have received a letter stating my bill will increase by £8.50 each month from March (or I can cancel my contract before this date). That is an increase of more than 10%, an additional punishment for a delayed service that is Virgin Media's fault.

Is this some kind of sick tactic to make me cancel my contract and not pursue with CISAS? This is despicable service from Virgin Media. Not only are you denying fault and compensating only 28 out of 396 days of your delay, you are now immediately increasing my monthly charges as soon as I finally start my contract.

Can someone from the complaints department contact me regarding this increase.

[-tony-]

some sort of tactic - that would be true is VM systems were joined up or efficient - they are anything but that - you have seen one part of it so far - your installation fiasco when it goes wrong is typical - yours is about as bad as it gets but there are many more examples

but go to billing or price increases - they work like a well oiled clock

the £8.50 is this years price increase for the package you have - a 10% increase by your calculations but they calculate it against your non discounted price so they would argue the % increase is much less - however you look at it its £8.50

can you do anything about it - yes - maybe - ring retentions - theres problems with the phone lines at the moment so thats not as easy as it sounds and you are likely to get a message offering to hold the increase for 6 months - 1 for yes 2 for no or something like that - if you choose yes thats the end of it - if you choose no you should be put through - from there its up to you negotiate and you might get more or less - give 30 days notice and they may offer more or accept the 30 days

that can result in a call from outbound making you an offer they hope you will not refuse - if the call comes its a one off - accept or not - leave or not - you should be on a new user deal even though you have waited 12 months so any offer may not match what you have now

all your choice but the 6 month discount would look good to me if they offer it

retentions and only speak to a UK agent - hang up if you get offshore and try again

dial 150 or 0345 454 1111 and follow the prompts to - 'thinking of leaving us' - dont worry about that they do much more - open 8am -10pm 7 days a week - should take you to a UK call centre

theres a freephone number 0800 052 0422. You need option 4 to speak to retentions

[t0ji]

Thank you Tony,
This information is very useful and I will use it to assess my options.