Cables and box outside the building

[AlexanderMTTH]

Hello. 

I am happy with Virgin Media - let's start with something that's rareley said. 

Outside my building, there are two brown boxes, with cables and all... and they are branded w/ Virgin Media logos. I believe my internet and phone cable comes from one of them. 

They are most untidy, most weird and I can't tidy them myself as I don't know what goes where. I would very much like someone from Virgin Media to sort them out and make them tidy in a way that doesn't look like WWII just ended. 

What would you think my best approach is? How should I approach this? 

I've put some pictures out here. Have a look. 

[lordmelch]

Whoa, and I thought mine was bad..

I am chasing too...

[unisoft]

theirs are at least covered from the elements though 🙂

[Corey_C]

Thanks for your post and for reaching out to the Community Forums, AlexanderMTTH, 

Glad you are happy wit the service. We can send an engineer out for this however since this is not fauts related then a £99 charge for the visit may be incurred. If you would like to proceed with this, I can send you a private message to confirm your account details.

Cheers,

Corey C

[Eeeps]

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@unisoft wrote:

theirs are at least covered from the elements though 🙂

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I'd say the Omni box enclosures are more cosmetic than functional - IP33 if that!
No grommets or other significant ingress protection.

[cosmicgw]

You all have my sympathy. I encourage you to keep trying despite their response which seems to be “Keep passing the buck until you give up in frustration”.

I recommend you review the ’VM New Build Handbook’. This specifies ’minimum requirements for’ ... ’wiring required in each property’. The attached picture shows that external VM cable must be installed with 100% protection above and below ground.     ’VM Best Practice installation page 4’

Clearly your installations are suffering problems because they were never completed to the VM ’minimum requirements’. Your current pictures verify the absence of suitable protection against your local environment which would have been obvious to the original installer..
  
My next recommendation is for you to notify them by recorded delivery letter to the head office. Identify your account and incomplete installation details, state the problem with pictures and ask it to be fixed with payment of £5 per day as promised in their automatic compensation scheme.  Keep copies of your letter and GPO receipt. If you have previously reported the problem, collect any evidence that verifies the earliest date you made them aware, with a signed confirmation statement from anyone who witnessed you reporting the problem.  

Hopefully, they will fix your installation and then credit you with compensation from the date of notification, or better still, from the date of the original incomplete installation.  

Alternatively you may receive lots of nice words and requests that you spend your time in their endless loop of different departments who pass the back and promise but don't act. Why waste more time, you have given them all the details they need and they know how best to fix their problem.

Remember, if you don't get a repair or compensation, don’t give up, you have a valid case to take to arbitration or the small claims court [money claim on line] while the daily compensation adds up.

My own case of 12 months incomplete installation is currently in the queue for a court hearing.
’VM street cable unprotected dec20’  

[goslow]

The OP stated he was happy with the VM service and was just seeking a tidy up of the existing cabling.

That is usually quite commonplace on the forum when the wires and wall boxes are in a mess. In the original photos it looks as if the LHS box lid is not properly attached and the RHS box lid is not screwed down. I can also see what looks like several sets of phone wires in the centre of the picture which are floating in the air and the joints not contained within any enclosure. Prevention being better than cure, I'd have thought it a quick and easy win for a VM tech to visit and do a quick tidy up.

Might help if the OP @AlexanderMTTH can identify his own box/cables from the collection and any specific problems with those, such as connections hanging outside the box.

[AlexanderMTTH]

Good morning Corey 

Thanks for the offer. It's a bit disheartening to see there is a charge for this. I'm not sure I follow the logic of that charge. 

This is not something that I woke up one morning and did by myself, you know? It was installed like this and it was left like this. 

To request a bit of tidiness from the _engineers_  is not irrational or over the top, is it? I don't have the expectation to tidy up my laundry, but the cables they install and maintain. Which later I am asked to pay £99 to do so. Do you get my point? 

And based on the New Build manual @cosmicgw posted, it seems reasonable to ask for this to be done outside my house as well as inside. I'm sorry @goslow, I don't know which one is mine as they are a big ball of cables there... Is it just me that finds this charge unreasonable? @lordmelch, @unisoft, @Eeeps 

Whilst cosmetic or not, it's: 
1) a hazard and dangerous 
2) sloppy and made by _trained on the job, << engineers >>_ 
3) detrimental and potential risk for service loss
4) disrespectful to my house: maybe next time, they take a wee on it as well. 
5) could've been sorted properly with an extra 10 minutes when installing the line
6) maintained and part of the Virgin Media infrastructure for service delivery, not AlexanderMTTH's 

[Kath_F]

Hi AlexanderMTTH, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one and I can understand it's frustrating to hear about the charge. 

The £99 call out fee is there for when engineers are needing to come out to do work that is for cosmetic or non fault work. Based on the photo's you have provided, there is no health and safety risk and the cables are contained within the casing so as it stands, there isn't anything we can do about the charge. 

If you believe there is a health and safety risk, please provide clearer photos showing the risk so we can escalate this up to the Area Manager again to get things checked for you. 

Apologies. 

[cosmicgw]

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@Kath_F wrote:

Hi AlexanderMTTH, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one and I can understand it's frustrating to hear about the charge. 

The £99 call out fee is there for when engineers are needing to come out to do work that is for cosmetic or non fault work. Based on the photo's you have provided, there is no health and safety risk and the cables are contained within the casing so as it stands, there isn't anything we can do about the charge. 

If you believe there is a health and safety risk, please provide clearer photos showing the risk so we can escalate this up to the Area Manager again to get things checked for you. 

Apologies. 

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Hi, health and safety is a distraction.  The issue is breach of contract.  VM contracted with you to provide a properly installed service at least matching their published 'minimum' standards.  Their deal with the Ofcom is to automatically pay you £8.0/day until the installation is completed. So go for it.