Construction Delays

[dancingshoes_04]

Hi,

I've messaged on here before. Hopefully someone can assist from here.

We ordered 1GB Fibre before Xmas and we were given an installation date of 21st January. I received a Text advising of the additional external work that was required.

The engineers arrived to perform the external works and advised me that when they tried to run the cable, that the trunking was blocked and the cable could not be run, They advised that the construction team would need to come out. 

I heard nothing until the 20th January (The Day before the equipment install) where the Keir van arrived again. Looked at the front of the drive, and then 5 minutes later, drove away.

I phoned Various numbers and eventually got through to the "pre install team" who advised that our install would still be happening the next day and then they would tell me what was needed next. I then took a phone call from Virgin Media about an hour later (around 19:00) advising that my local council were not permitting the works to take place outside the house until the 3rd Feb and that our install would be rescheduled to the 9th Feb. 

On the 27th Jan a flat back truck arrived outside the house, my Husband went and spoke to them and they advised they were there to dig up the problem area of pavement and pull the cable (YAY!) We thought we were getting somewhere. 

I then returned home from walking my dog and spoke to the workmen who advised me that there seemed to be a bigger problem that was likely caused by BT. They informed me that a trench would need to be dug to resolve this and they would flag this to their manager. I did ask about a time frame for this and was advised that they have known it as quickly as 2 weeks but sometimes up to 6 Months!!

I sent an email to Virginmedia.construction@virginmedia.co.uk asking for some information about when this may occur. I received a reply suggesting that there was a blockage outside the house and a permit was required to dig up the pavement. It also said that this could take 6-8 weeks.

I emailed again to make sure that this process was underway and was advised that the contract partners were now speaking with the Council to get a permit in place.

I then, a couple of weeks later took a phone call from Virgin Media Construction telling me that this was all booked in for the 3rd March (HOORAY).

My Husband has been checking the one.network site regularly for updates and saw nothing on there for works at our address. On the Friday before the date I was given, I called the construction team again and was advised that according to our account, we were booked in from the 1st - 3rd March. I finally thought I was winning. I did advise that there was nothing on the One.Network site showing any works at our address but was ensured that this was booked in.

The 1st,2nd and 3rd of March all passed without any contact or sign of any workmen so another call was placed to the Construction team at around 15:00 on the Wednesday. I was told then that the (Construction) had been informed at 14:30 (!) that they were delayed on a job and had to postpone our works. As you can imagine, I was annoyed and upset at that as surely, being the customer and having to wait so long, a call should have been made as a courtesy. I was then informed that this would have to be re-applied for which will cause another delay. I have to say, that for a Communications company, the Communications are awful.

My husband has kept checking the one.network site and amazingly, a phone Icon appeared outside our address and clicking on it, suggested that some works were planned from 9th-11th March. I decided to call them on Monday this week (8th) to confirm this and was told that we were booked in for the next day. We had been given a 3 day window in case of any delays. Nobody arrived on Tuesday (Yesterday), which we thought was OK. I've since looked at the One.network again and the status on the works is now cancelled!!. The icon for the works to be done has gone which is a bit of a shock.

I again phoned the Construction Team today who advised me that as far as they were concerned we were still booked in and this work can still happen up until Thursday 11th @ 18:00. I was getting a bit frustrated at this point and the person on the phone said that they would contact the contractor and get back to me. I'm still waiting.

It seems to me that a permit for the 3rd March was never requested and for some reason either the contractor has cancelled the work or the council has rejected it.

All I want to know is when this work is likely to take place and why it keeps being delayed. 

I wanted to go for the quickest broadband I could as I have 2 Gaming, You Tube mad Children and a husband working from home who is constantly on Video Conferences. The reason I am sticking with this is that the previous internet here (It is my late Grandfathers house) only seemed to get to about 20MB maximum and really struggled.

Apologies for the long post but as you can imagine, being without good, stable internet for getting of for 3 months and not being able to find out much info is getting frustrating. It is even more frustrating that I have to keep doing the chasing and do not seem to be getting any contact from VM at all.

Thanks

[tahirhbutt]

Dancingshoes_04 please let me know where you got to with this? Do you have Internet yet?

I am sick to death of this. I moved home April 10th with a Virgin install for 12th April. Engineer turned up to tell me no fibre so it would need to be done by construction guys, genius!

I was then given a date of 23rd April, then the construction guys came and done some digging and some work. Then, apparently we were given an excuse the following day that the cable pullers can't do their work because they fear they might damage the cable that's been put in?! That was determined without them visiting by the way. Anyway, the night before 23rd given a message of another delay until 7th May! 

So we waited, whilst everyone in the house hotspotted to a phone. 6 people in the house, 2 working from home. Forking out money from my own pocket for an unlimited data sim! Cable pullers turned up and like the excuse you were given, they said there was a "blockage". Their manager turned up and said we'll sort something out and you'll have Internet tomorrow (30th April). Some virgin guys did turn up that day, asked what had to be done, said OK then 10minutes later disappeared and never to be seen again.

Then, evening of 6th May I get a message that now delayed until 22nd May! I call virgin 3 times due to being cut off and it's like talking to a robot. No real information given and just like the previous few times they "guarantee" it will be done. 

I have now HAD ENOUGH! I'm ready to go to another provider, having been with virgin for nearly a decade. I'm sick of it, customer service non existent and compassion zero!

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post tahirhbutt, and a very warm welcome to you!

We're terribly sorry to hear of the difficulty installing your services and this therefore being delayed again

We can seek to look into this for you, to get a better understanding of what preventing the installation and also seek to have this escalated. 

If you are however adamant on leaving, we can also cancel the work order for you, if you wanted to

Feel free to come back us and either myself or a member of our team will action this

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[tahirhbutt]

Hi David,

If this can genuinely be escalated and I can genuinely be kept in the loop with accurate information I'd like to stay on. We were promised a temporary connection from the neighbours fibre last week but it never happened and now I'll be spending more money on an unlimited data sim. I would have thought virgin would probably provide a mobile broadband solution in the interim.

Tahir

[David_Bn]

I can seek to escalate this for you @tahirhbutt

But I wouldn't like to make any promises on whether by attempts to escalate will be successful, nor being kept in the loop as I would be effectively relying on another member of staff to work with me.

If you're happy for me to have a go at this for you, then do please let me know, and I'll get the ball rolling via the use of our private messaging function

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[tahirhbutt]

Yes, please go ahead

[dancingshoes_04]

Just to comment back on this. We are still not connected.

We've had an additional 4 or 5 dates on the system come and go and it now appears as if even more construction work is needed.

We are in the unfortunate situation of lack of choice. The quickest other providers we can get estimate speeds of only 25-30MB.

We now don't even have any orders showing on the system so not really sure when to expect to be connected.

[tahirhbutt]

I'm honestly not surprised, terrible. 6 weeks since your last post and zero progress has been made!

[Alex_RM]

Hi tahirhbutt,

Really sorry for the delays with this,

I've popped you over a private message so I can take a closer look for you.

Alex_Rm