Complicated moving home issue - getting desperate.

[Chris1138]

I'm moving to a new address, which is the downstairs flat of a house. Downstairs is (for the purposes of this story) 16a, upstairs is 16b. It's great. Newly refurbished, all new appliances, laminate floor, the works.

I already have Virgin in my current address, so I went to the 'move home' page and every address on the new property's street was selectable and eligible for up to M1000 (including 16b), but 16a was not listed.

We know for a fact that the upstairs tenant has Virgin, and I can see a cable going from the box outside going up to his first floor flat.

My partner and I noticed when moving some things into the flat that there was no landline or Virgin socket on the walls. We asked the landlord, and we found that while there was a cable going into the wall, it had been covered up on the inside as part of a refurbishment. He was able to retract the cable, which matched the kind of connection (coaxial, I believe) I use in my current address to connect to my Virgin Hub 3.0. He drilled a new hole in the wall for it to go through.

I spoke to someone on the phone from Virgin on Friday who informed me that on their secondary system, 16b is listed twice, rather than 16a and 16b separately. I asked if he could arrange for 16a to be added to the system so we could complete the moving process – he said he would call me back today to give me an update. He didn't. I called back and got in touch with the movers team again, and spoke to a different staff member, who said they would have to send out a spotter to check if 16a is serviceable - which could take anywhere from 2 - 4 weeks.

We are moving in for good this weekend and both work remotely, so will have to find a mobile broadband alternative while we wait, as there is no landline.

In the meantime, I wondered if anyone on here could help identify if there actually IS a Virgin connection going into the property. I've taken some pictures.

There's this cable coming in from the street: https://i.imgur.com/x9nmfyM.jpg alongside the front garden wall.

This is the box outside the house https://i.imgur.com/qlNoWiN.jpg

(A) is the cable from the first image, which comes from the street

(B) is the cable coming from inside the house

(C) is a different cable coming up from under the ground

Is it likely that 16b was somehow given a Virgin fibre connection but NOT 16a?

Which of the A or C cables is likely to be the correct one for the property?

If it turns out the property is not serviceable by Virgin, what alternatives do we have?

According to the BT site, the property isn't eligible for their fibre, and without a landline we cannot use Sky/BT/other standard ISPs.

[-tony-]

theres no reason that i can see that you cannot have Vm - in fact it may be there now but a bit more info

where exactly does cable B go and where does the black cable thats at the side of cable B on the splitter go

cable C is guess work it looks line a feed cable back to the cab but may have been damaged hence the need for the new overground feed cable A

if cable B goes into your flat and the upstairs install works and thats the black cable from the outlet on the splitter then there is VM into the ground floor flat

whats on the other end of cable B

work my reply out and we might get somewhere

[Chris1138]

Cable B goes into the flat, and has the 'female' coaxial connector on the end, so would accomodate the cable from the Virgin Hub.

The black cable next to it goes into the wall of the upstairs flat.

[-tony-]

then if upstairs has a working VM connection there is no reason other that the computer says no that you cannot have VM - thats not an official statement as i am only a user like you - you need to get the flat number added onto the system

the strange thing is its there already so no idea why its flagging as it is

you can try the moving team they may be able to help or wait here for VM to pick the thread up

[Chris1138]

Thanks for the re-assurance, I suspected that it was likely a system error on their side.

I called their movers team today and was told they would send a spotter to check if the property was serviceable.They said it would take approx. 2-4 weeks and would contact me when they had checked. The last three times they promised to call me back about an issue I never heard anything and had to call them myself, so I expect to be ringing them again in four week's time.

Will wait to see if they pick this up here.

[Chris1138]

Update on this - the very helpful person I spoke to on Friday has arranged for 16a to be added onto their system, will call me back within a week to let me know about transferring my account. Won't count my chickens but here's hoping that's a resolution...

[Chris1138]

As expected - not heard anything back. Can someone from Virgin Media please get back to me on this thread?? 

[Beth_G]

Hi Chris1138,

Thanks for posting on the Community Forums! I'm sorry to hear there's been an issue with your new address on our systems and that you haven't been called back as promised.

From here, I can see that there's been an update regarding this, however I'm afraid that we are unable to assist with moving requests/inquiries from here. However I would definitely recommend getting back in touch so we can discuss this update with you. Please do give us a call on 0345 454 1111 / 150 and our Moving Team will be more than happy to discuss this further with you.

Please do let us know how you get on 🙂

[jem101]

@Chris1138  honestly, I think we are in a 'computer says no' situation here. What alternative broadband suppliers do you have? I don't think this is going to  end well.

[Chris1138]

I’ll call them tomorrow and see if I can get an update. There’s literally no phone line in the property (the only cable coming in is from the box pictured above, which is definitely Virgin cabling as upstairs has it), so any other provider is literally out of the question. 

My partner and I have been using a Three Mobile mi-fi box for now so we have basic internet, but that’s not sustainable for long-term: we both work from home almost full-time and before we moved I was regularly streaming on Twitch (thanks to the really good Virgin upload speeds!!), so the current solution is totally unsustainable.