Appalling service for a new customer

[dazaboy1977]

This is the last roll of the dice for us…

We were due to have our services installed on Tue 4th Oct 2022 between 1pm and 6pm. Keir Utilities arrived at our property at 8am to undertake a cable pull; some 5hrs prior to install. They left, leaving the garden a mess, ducting protruding and cables exposed. The VM installation technician arrived at 13:15pm and politely advised “I’m really sorry, but I am unable to install your services today due to a blockage in the ducting – this happens all the time and I can only apologise for this sir”.

We then spend the next 6hrs speaking with various individuals, in various departments, in various call centres around the globe. We were either blind transferred to the next department, or the customer service representatives were unable to provide any answers and or solutions to our issues. We found ourselves bouncing around the call centre options criteria, only to eventually speak with a representative who in turn dumps you back into the ‘hamster wheel’. No one was prepared to take ownership and, in all instances, happy to push the problem onto someone else.

We then had yet another contractor (C-Plan Telecommunications) arrive at the property on the 6th Oct, unannounced and unscheduled. After a cigarette/vape break, general chat amongst 4 or 5 operatives and a quick attempt, at what appeared to be another cable pull, we were advised that “there was a blockage”. Really? What a surprise…

On reaching out to your team again, we were then left astonished when we were told that our revised appointment was now the 28th Oct 22, that works were required outside our property and that permits were required from the local council prior to installation. Yet again, no one could confirm what was required, how VM were going to overcome and timelines to conclude. Now our initial questions are to VM, having requested the services some 5wks prior to install, why are we just finding out this information? Why does VM think it is acceptable to leave a new customer without any services for this period i.e., +3wks without TV, Telephone & Broadband?

Given modern society’s reliance on connectivity and nearly everything in life requiring online access, we hope you will appreciate the frustrations, anger, and inconvenience this has caused.

It was also tabled to us that VM would provide a temporary fix to this debacle by providing a mobile dongle (on the face of this a positive fix to redress). However, we were then advised that an additional credit check would be required, bank details to be provided and acceptance of an additional monthly contract + £39.99 activation fee. Within this offer it included 15Gb of data and should we need additional data, customer services would be happy to action this at an additional cost. Now, correct me if I’m wrong but these ‘temporary measures’ were suggested as a means to redress VM’s failure to fulfil their existing obligation. Question – was this tabled as a solution in the best interests of the new customer or was this merely an avenue to exploit additional sales targets imposed by VM on their employee’s?

We then made continue efforts throughout the week to find out answers to our queries. What we can advise is that throughout the last 6 days the level of customer service has been consistent…consistently inconsistent. We eventually, having seen no end or resolution to the aforementioned, we requested that a manager call us back (7th Oct 2022). It now transpires, following a discussion with your online chat team today (9th), that no call back was logged/requested. We have asked (again) for this to be actioned and wait to see if this ever materialises.

In addition to this, we raised a complaint on our customer account portal on the 5th Oct. Upon submission were advised that this would be acknowledged within 48hrs. Some 4 days later the complaint is not logged on my account nor do any of the VM call centre teams seem to have visibility of this. Fortunately, we took a screen grab of the acknowledgement, should this be questioned and or rebuffed by VM at a later date.

What cannot happen, under any circumstance, is that your technicians reappear at our property to advise on a known and documented issue. We need a resolution – not the same minimalist information regurgitated.

So, in summary and closing, having spent +15hrs with yourselves to understand our position, we now need someone who is trained and competent to take our issues onboard and action their decisions accordingly (preferably UK based). It appears that there are significant issues of deficiencies within your training - given the appalling levels of customer services we have received thus far. This, coupled with being lied to on several occasions, have left us feeling very disillusioned and weary of allowing you to conclude your installation.

Can someone from VM please contact us?

[jem101 · Accepted solution]

If you have a brief perusal of some of the threads on here regarding the often ‘Laurel and Hardy’ approach to installations, you will find your story is by no means unique. Firstly nobody from VM will contact you - other than a member of the forum team here, who will respond in due course, request some details from you and promise to investigate. Other than that, manager callback - often promised by the call centre workers but never, ever actually happens, does get you off the phone though and they chalk up another successfully closed call - so not all bad!

Bottom line is that, as you have found, a lot of the pre-install work is done by contractors and sub contractors, VM themselves have absolutely no control over nor insight into what they are doing (or indeed not doing) so if you do call them, they literally don’t know what is happening and will probably just tell you what you want to hear! There is next to no communication between internal departments, let alone to external parties, so you see how easy it is that at the first hurdle, all four wheels immediately fall off of the VM wagon.

Now the record delay for an installation, as reported on here, is 13 MONTHS between the first, guaranteed, set in stone, absolutely will happen guv, and the poor customer having any connectivity - that is a bit excessive so you will probably be sorted out a lot sooner, but do bear that in mind!

In the meantime, you are, under OFCOM rules and which VM signed up to, entitled to compensation of some £5.25 per day from Tuesday 4th (including that day) up until they finally connect you up. So in the meantime, you might want to consider an alternative method, some kind of 4G/5G router, ideally on a rolling monthly contract. The VM ‘offer’ of a dongle does seem to depend on who you talk to, there have been reports on here of a user being sent one free of charge with free unlimited data, others claim they were told that such a thing doesn’t exist, while you yourself seem to have been told, that it does exist but we need you to pay for our inability to organise stuff! You will probably have a bit of a fight to get VM to cough up the compensation, and (if we believe other posters, put up with excuses such as ‘the first thirty days of any delay don’t count’ or ‘we’re trying to get local authority permission to dig up the pavement - so that doesn’t count’ or ‘the CEO’s dog ate the application forms so we don’t have to pay out’ - I did make one of these up, can you guess which), you may be fed a load of lies first  - no worries just post back here and we can advise as to how to proceed.

Bottom line, at best what you will get is a response from a forum team member here which will probably include a line similar to ‘we are very sorry and this is not the sort of experience we aim for’ (cynical? me, absolutely not) and they absolutely will try their best, the forum team being the one ray of light in the otherwise Stygian gloom that passes for a customer services department, but all they can do is make a call, send an email, give someone a prod etc. They can no more ‘expedite’ your connection than my cat can - not their fault it’s simply the way that VM have decided to operate.

[goslow]

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@dazaboy1977 wrote:

This is the last roll of the dice for us…

<snip>

Can someone from VM please contact us?

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In addition to the good advice from jem101, familiarise yourself with the OFCOM minimum requirements for compensation here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

which are an easier read than VM's version.

The OFCOM doc's refer to the initial date your equipment is expected to be activated as the start time for compensation. In your case, you expected activation on 4/10/22 so your compensation would start then at £5.25 per day.

I commented below on my understanding of the OFCOM doc above and why, in my view, VM's claims about 'provisional' activation dates and delayed/reduced compensation are a non-starter.

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Pre-Install-team-keep-hanging-up-on-me/m-...

The provision of a mobile dongle is mentioned in the OFCOM doc as an alternative to VM providing you with the compensation in long-running delays. It is lieu of compensation so it should be free. Those who have reported receiving one have said it was hard to get hold of and didn't work very well in use. In this topic it is reported that they would only be issued after 8 weeks at message #5

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Installation-at-new-house-and-customer-se...

You would probably be better off sorting out your own mobile connectivity/hotspot on a rolling monthly basis to keep you going while waiting for VM.

One of VM's regular excuses is a delay in 'waiting for permits from the council'. There appears to be some provision for that in the OFCOM doc at 40.d) which presumably gives VM a limited 'out', in so far as they could claim they could not dig up a pavement without authority from the council. But, if you have (say) a 10 day delay for installation, 2 days of which were due to waiting for a council permit and 8 days because of VM's incompetence, then it is only the 2 days waiting for the council which might be considered a legitimate reduction IMO.

There have been past examples on here of waiting customers being told of a delay waiting for a council permit and the customer has phoned the council, only to find no permit has actually been applied for. If needs be, you may need to keep tabs on that aspect with your local council to see if any permit has been applied for your work. This website below does show some planned roadworks but it is not very reliable in so far as not all street works end up on there

https://one.network/

As you can see, sorting out the delay, and claiming the necessary compensation, can be infuriatingly complicated so you need to keep really good records and notes of dates, times etc. and all of VM's bungling and misinformation along the way. Inevitably you will have to make a formal complaint to VM (a requirement) before referring to CISAS if you want independent review of any compensation claim.

With that said, VM's organisation of this work is so flawed and random that you may find another team unexpectedly turns up soon and does fix the issue and gets you connected. Unfortunately, you won't know which outcome you're getting until it is actually happening outside your home.

Hopefully your wait is at the shorter end of the scale.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey dazaboy1977, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear about the install issues.

I understand this is very frustrating, however I have taken a look at our end and I can see you have been speaking to the team about this since you're post.

Have they managed to get this resolved for you? Thanks 

[dazaboy1977]

No. Calls to the various departments on the 10th, 11th and 12th have resulted in further blind transfers, further lies and false promises for manager call-backs. Coupled with a failure to attend to scheduled appointments on the 10th and 11th, the issues are far from resolved!

[Andrew-G]

Don't forget to let Ofcom know how happy you are with VM's performance.  They won't intervene so don't put too much effort in, and your routes for redress are as per goslow's excellent advice, but if enough people complain then the dawdlers at Ofcom might eventually get off their sorry rear-parts, and hold VM to account.

[Matthew_ML]

Hey dazaboy1977, thank you for reaching out and letting me know this.

I am going to send you a PM so we can look into together, please look out for the purple envelope. Thanks 

[dazaboy1977]

response issued.