Cable repulling constantly delayed

[Sufferingcustom]

I bought this house partly because virgin promised me they serviced it, it says it on the website and the sales rep also promised me they did. (The website also said that about my previous flat and it turns out it was a lie)

My neighbor next door has virgin but when the engineer came to install it here he said the cable hadn't been pulled and when I asked him how long this would take he assured me no longer than two weeks and that he would book it for me.

So I don't hear back from virgin, call the next day and they say to me the engineer said nothing to them about the cable (yep, he lied to me) and then they ended up booking a date for the repull 3 weeks ahead on the 26th of March which made me feel uneasy as I got the feeling they were going to pull some excuse on the day or some other crap not to get it done and I needed it done before the first.

And guess what today is the day and the engineer doesn't show up all. I called and text  virgin customer service so many times and they kept lying to me because frankly they don't know what's going on themselves, telling me that everything was going to be fine and that it would be done today and that the engineer would give me an update.

Not only an update was not given and the work was not done, when I looked at the app they just rescheduled the repull three weeks from now without giving any explanation even though I repeatedly said we need the internet to work and that it could absolutely not delay beyond the first of April.

I don't think I have ever dealt with such terrible customer service by any internet provider. This is just so appalling.

Virgin needs to stop lying and be upfront from day one whether they can install internet in a property or not, not promise and not have any records on what homes they have wired. Also they need far higher competence when it comes to install the cable.

Ultimately i hate having to post in forums like this and waste people's times and mine, I really wanted to be virgins customer and they make it so hard to the point I am considering cancelling my subscription before it even started, except that now is so late I will be without internet for a while and I wont be able to work from home, they really screwed me over

[jem101]

Yes it does look after all as if you installation has gone down the same path as quite a few others as reported on this forum. Even the forum team members here can often make little progress, not through lack of wanting to but they too are simply unable to get meaningful answers from the subcontractors and sub-sub contractors who actually do the work. There simply appears to not be a mechanism for each group to report back, no central coordination, a job is just allocated to company A who might sub it out to Company B and so on - I suspect that VM as a whole is completely ignorant of exactly what the contractors are doing or when or the status off each job.

OK you absolutely now need to make alternative arrangements as advised by @-tony- a week ago, but also as advised absolutely DO NOT cancel the VM install - just assume that it is never actually going to happen, don't contact VM again, don't ask for any updates, don't expect any work to be done, you just get on with finding an ISP who can get you up and running fairly quickly (especially if you already have a BT/Openreach line in your house).

Then, if VM do get you connected before the other supplier goes live, and it all looks good and stable, then just cancel the other supplier, otherwise just let it be. If in say six months (the record by the way is a one year delay between ordering and the connection being completed), you get a VM engineer turning up to complete, you immediately cancel in the first 14 days for no cost, safe in the knowledge that the cables are already laid and working should you decide to give them another chance in a couple of years.

As an aside, this will all cost you nothing but you might want to have a slight chuckle to yourself in how VM have now spent a not inconsiderable sum in getting you connected up for which they will get precisely nothing back.

[Sufferingcustom]

Who are these contractor companies? Does anyone know their names? I saw the name of the company that came to my house and then just took off without doing anything last Friday but I forgot to write it down and they left too quickly for me to ask anything. 

It's easy to blame these companies but ultimately this mess was caused by Virgin because they chose then and allow them to operate this way without any accountability.

[goslow]

Two year old article

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/03/03/six-firms-to-share-3bn-virgin-media-civils-works/

but the names do seem to match with those that are mentioned regularly on here

[Sufferingcustom]

Finally after 2 long months I got the cable repulled and also the internet installed today by a lovely chap whose name I didn't get.

The engineer was nice enough to give me a hub4 even though I wasn't elegible for it with my plan and the device I have to say does give out a really powerful signal. Haven't gone into the settings but as a WiFi router is really good.

Initial speed tests are also really fast and good so far (shame upload speed isn't a tad faster but I can live with that)

I was also called by the executive team and offered 136 pound credit into my account, which means free internet for a few months. I gave him the entire story and my feedback and he seems to genuinely have taken it onboard, whether anything will be done about it by the people on top we will see.

My feedback was basically to do your own cable works, don't hire contractors and have better visibility and better network of communication so the customer doesnt need to keep fighting battles and explaining him or herself over and over again.

Overall I wish I hadn't had to go through this ordeal to get all of that but I can't knock it either. Provided speeds and reliability are constant to what I saw today, I will be a happy customer from here onwards, and hopefully I never need to go through this again.

[Kath_F]

Hi Sufferingcustom, 

Thanks for your update and we're super glad to hear that things are sorted for you now and you're all up and running. 

Any feedback given within a complaint, and within the Community does get passed on to the relevant teams so rest assured this will happen. 

Hopefully you won't have any need to contact us again but if you do have any issues - you know where we are 🙂

Thanks,