Cable cut - cancelled appointment, new one is 2 weeks away

[jon9957]

I called Virgin customer services on 14/02 to explain the cable to the house (which was buried less than 1 inch down) has been cut. They confirmed as loss of service would have someone out to resolve 16/02 (tomorrow). In meantime to try and get service back we rejoined cable with coax connectors and managed to get back online.

Virgin txted this morning to say "glad all resolved, engineer visit cancelled". I called them and person I spoke to said a team had visited our house this morning and confirmed all resolved. Now considering we had builders on site at front of house all morning, and they did not see anything, and my CCTV covering front garden has not recorded them, do they get issued invisibility cloaks, or is this just a lie ?

If they had visited they would see the cable above ground with a temp coax connector so how they can say it is resolved is beyond me.

Person on phone said I have to raise complaint on website, he has no option to raise a complaint. Website says I can raise a complaint on the phone !

Appointment which was scheduled for tomorrow (16/02) no longer available and next date is 01/03 ! I have builders on site waiting for cable to be repaired before they lay new drive.

When getting it installed initially I explained very carefully that work was going to take place on drive, and could they lay cable along edge of drive so I knew where it was. They of course ignored this and buried it less than 1 inch down across middle of lawn which was going to be dug up. Builders were trying to be careful and was fine until last part of work when they did not in anyway think it would be where it was and they accidently cut it.

I cannot understand how when I call yesterday I get an appointment in 2 days, yet today it is over 2 weeks away.

I realise this is down to builders cutting cable, but cancelling appointment and then saying 2 weeks plus for next one is really poor service.

Anyone any ideas on anything I can do ?
Option at moment seems to be buy a length of coax and lay down myself.

[nodrogd]

You need to be persistent with this, as in the last few years rather than completely repulling damaged cables, VM have been gel-pack jointing them if there is enough slack in the cable.

Burying the cable to a deeper position will more than likely require a repull, which is a two man outsourced contractor job, whereas jointing is usually by one directly employed VM tech.

The lead time for a repull is around 2 weeks.

[jon9957]

Hi - thanks for reply.

I'm just trying to understand how the cable runs. We have a green Virgin cabinet at entrance to our cul de sac, then on edge of our garden / drive we have a small concrete manhole cover with "CATV" on it, then a small plastic cover next to it - the cable comes up from underground to this. Though the plastic cover is literally just sat on the grass, with cable coming out of side of it. The break in the cable is between the CATV manhole / plastic cover and where it enters house. Does this need a full re-pull from green cabinet, or does it get connected at CATV manhole, so just the run from there to the house that needs replacing ?

I'd appreciate it if anyone can advise on this, as if latter literally if they come around with some cable and reconnect leaving some slack my builders will take care of burying it.

Thanks, Jon.

[nodrogd]

If the break is between the street “tee” (the plastic cover) & the house, & there are a few spare inches of cable in the duct they will install a gel-pak joint. This will only use the existing in-situ cables. If any cabling needs replacing up to the Dropbox then a repull is required, which as already stated is a separate contractor job with a longer lead time.

[jon9957]

There's not much slack, especially to bury it deeper - it would be on the surface. I assume then they will do a re-pull.

Really curious now as to what the CATV manhole is for, I assumed it was some kind of junction from the green cabinet. Might have a look once the rain stops and gets a bit drier.

Thanks for replying.

[nodrogd]

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@jon9957 wrote:

There's not much slack, especially to bury it deeper - it would be on the surface. I assume then they will do a re-pull.

Really curious now as to what the CATV manhole is for, I assumed it was some kind of junction from the green cabinet. Might have a look once the rain stops and gets a bit drier.

Thanks for replying.

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The manhole is an larger access point in the ducting to assist in pulling cables. If it is just for the service duct to the individual street tees it will be fairly shallow. At road crossings or between cabinets there will be another duct underneath the service duct that carries the feed cabling & these are considerably deeper.

[Hayley_S]

Hello @jon9957,

Welcome back, thanks for posting.

I am sorry for the issues with this.

Can you please tell me if you still need help regarding the cut cable? Or have you got an appointment showing for this now?

Many thanks,

[jon9957]

Hi Hayley,

It is showing I have an appointment booked for 1st March for "TV". I don't have TV, just broadband and phone. I am hoping they understand that they will need to re-pull the cable, and not just going to turn up and have no clue. The response to my complaint said they would replace the router, when I explicitly said there is nothing wrong with router, and that the cable has been cut so needs re-pull.

I will be very disappointed if they turn up on 1st March (2 weeks wait !) and cannot do what is needed to fully resolve issue.

-Jon.

[Zach_R]

Hi @jon9957,

Thank you for an update on this. If there's an appointment listed then I'm confident that the team will be aware of the issue and more than able to get the matter addressed and resolved during their visit.

If you have any further queries or concerns, however, please let us know and we'll do everything that we can to help.

Thanks,