Cable Installation Delayed, Delayed and Delayed

[NathanB98]

Can anyone offer any help/instruction or anything to this situation. 

I was original supposed to have an engineer come out and install the cables on the 1st of November and then a technician to come out the next day and set everything up in house. What a nightmare it has been since then. The engineer came out that day and must have took one look at the house and said, 'nah they need neighbours' permission to dig in their garden and put a cable down to the house.'. As a matter of fact, the garden in question is actually mine (Live on the corner of a cul-de-sac) and if the engineer would have come and knocked on our door instead of just walking up and doing nothing, I could have explained this and showed them my title plan. Cue 3 days later a decent engineer came up, I showed him the plan and explained the garden situation and he was happy it was ours. He then said they should be out on the weekend, install the cables and installation should follow quickly. Oh, how he was wrong. 

The 5th Arrives, and I check online that we have now a cable installation of that day and to install the rest on the 26th of November. As I have been given a lengthy delay, I phone up and the lady says the work will go ahead today and we can potentially move you installation forward. Happy days. As no one needed to be in for the cables, as instructed, we decided to go out for the day as it was said our appoint could be between 8am and 6pm. Once got back around 8ish, I checked our CCTV to see that no engineer had been at all. 

Monday comes and I go to phone about the missed appointment, and I see that the installation is now scheduled for that day. I give them the benefit of doubt and wait until Tuesday. Same happens Tuesday, new appoint for that day. I ring up and explained what has happened but all I get is that 'we can see the work is booked in for today, I give you assurances it will be complete.'. Here I am now Friday the 11th with the same story. Every. Single. Day. This can't go on anymore. If Virgin Media did their due diligence beforehand, I would have had broadband on the 3rd! Now I am still waiting.

As I work remotely 4 days a week, I have not been able to work in my home/live in it. I have had to book leave, work in the office and work from parents whilst we wait for Wi-Fi. We had received a MiFi but it was insufficient for my needs. I got the keys for my house mid-October but had actually ordered the broadband weeks for before. So, I am effectively paying for a house I am not in. Using annual leave to wait for these 'appointments' where nobody comes. I complained to a operator, all they could do was knock £25 off my bill. One even said it was in the Terms that there would be delays whilst he didn't understand my story. 

It is complete idiocy on Virgins behalf, I would rather them give me a concrete date rather than setting it for the next day after each no show. Every operatory says the work will be complete today, I assume they are just saying that because they can see the appointment on screen.

Has anyone else had this, and could offer any suggestion to try and get through to them? Is it worth sticking with it or should I look else where?

[Travis_M]

Hi @NathanB98

Thanks for posting on our community forum and a big warm welcome with this being your first post.
 

Sorry to hear about the issues with your installation, I am going to drop you a private message to confirm some more details. Please keep an eye on your inbox for a message from myself.

Regards

[Tamps]

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@NathanB98 wrote:

<snip>

It is complete idiocy on Virgins behalf, I would rather them give me a concrete date rather than setting it for the next day after each no show. Every operatory says the work will be complete today, I assume they are just saying that because they can see the appointment on screen.

Has anyone else had this, and could offer any suggestion to try and get through to them? Is it worth sticking with it or should I look else where?

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Hi Nathan!

I'm in the same boat as you. I've been waiting since the end of August. My ongoing pre-install mystery is documented here: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Install-date-cancelled-and-rescheduled-3-...

Don't bother with customer services, they have a tendancy to do what they've already done to you, which is assure you things are going ahead as planned. This is incredibly short sighted as they don't have any more information that you can glean from your own appointments page.

The dates you're looking at are seemingly automated and have no connection to the status of any external work that is pending the in-house install.

You could try ringing the pre-install team (0800 052 1734) to try and get more information about any external work that might be holding things up. 

I think it's prudent to expect a delay if you are going to stick with this install process. You will be entitled to compensation as well, however you'll need to keep your own records of what happened when as this isn't well documented otherwise, and you'll most likely need to escalate it to an independent adjudicator and VM's complaints process doesn't seem fit for purpose. More info about that process here: https://www.virginmedia.com/legal/consumer-complaint-resolution-code-practice

If you need a broadband line sooner, you might be best off looking elsewhere.

[NathanB98]

Hi Tamps, sorry to see you're in the same situation!

Thanks for the reply and advice. Unfortunately, I only started recording the appointments since last Friday. I will however note them down daily now!

I think my options now are to get a decent deal elsewhere, but I think I will wait until the 26th as that is supposed to be my installation date.

[jem101]

The only dates that are important from a compensation view are the actual installation dates or go-live dates. These are the only times when you are required to be home, the pre-install work (running the cables from the street to the front of your house) can be done at any point before the install date. As, technically, you aren't required to be home for that (although many customers might prefer to be to check that it is done properly), VM aren't really obliged to give a firm date as to when this will be done - indeed as it is all outsourced, they don't actually know when it will be! The automated systems simply roll the date forward by a day until it actually happens.

Now, as you were expecting the original installation on 2nd November, under the OFCOM code of conduct which VM signed up to, you are now entitled to compensation of £5.25 for each day beyond that until your connection is made live and operational. Were you formally told by VM (not whoever happened to turn up with a shovel) that this installation now wouldn't happen on that date and given less than 24 hours notice of this? If so then that counts as a 'missed appointment' and carries a further compensation payout of £26 or so.

You might be interested to know that the current record for a delayed install as reported on here is a tad over 13 months, yes OK that has to be an outlier and there is a reasonable chance that you will get connected up on 26th, but you might want to at least start looking around at alternative providers, just in case.