Engineer no show and no contact

[Lolobee96]

I signed up for Virgin Media broadband on the 28th of October and originally booked an installation date for the 5th of November. This appointment was then rescheduled by Virgin to the 23rd of November as they claimed external work needed done at the property.

I then went on to the app and rescheduled the appointment myself to Saturday the 26th of November between 1pm and 6pm as I work during weekdays so can only be available on the weekend. 

I was in the house from 12pm-6:30pm and no engineer turned up! I got no phone call or any other form of communication to say they were not coming so I was extremely angry and upset by this, it’s absolutely shocking communication!

i phoned customer support at 5:55pm to ask what was going on and was told 2 different things:

1) that someone was at the house at 9:15am that morning, which was not within my 1pm-6pm time slot! 

2) that apparently the external work is still “pending” and has not been completed.

Now, if the second statement is true, then I should have been informed of this at some point so I was not sitting about in the house all day! I also should have been contacted to rearrange my appointment but there has been ZERO contact from virgin about this and it is just appalling customer service.

The woman I spoke to on the phone said she would put me through to the engineers team but then there was an automated message to say that there was an issue with the service and to try again later. I then couldn’t call back as the lines were closed…

This is a massive inconvenience to me because I work from home and I cannot move into my house as I require a solid internet connection for my job. So this one thing is preventing me from moving and it has severely affected the rest of my plans. 

I expect to be compensated for the missed appointment and for each day the start of my new service is delayed. But most importantly, I would prefer to have an engineer sent out on the next possible weekend to install the broadband.

I will be taking this further if it does not get resolved because this is shocking and terrible customer service. 

[Martin_N]

Hi Lolobee96,

Thank you for your post and welcome to the community.

I'm very sorry to hear about what has happened with your installation. 

I have taken a look on our side and it looks as though you have been able to speak with the team regarding this. 

Has this all been sorted for you now?

^Martin

[Lolobee96]

Hello Martin,

I was indeed able to speak with the team a few times over the last couple of days but the issue still is not resolved as my broadband is still not installed and i can’t move into my house until it is.

I don’t think they are actually doing any of the external work that they claim to have been doing the past 3 days as there appears to be no sign of any work being done at my property. This also should have already been done as my initial appointment was pushed back 4 weeks to allow them to do the work.

I believe someone is coming out on Wednesday to survey the site to check whether or not the external work has been done and if it hasn’t, I won’t be able to have the broadband installed until the 13th of December, which is ridiculous as that will be 8 weeks I’ve been waiting and can’t move into my house because of this. I also work weekdays so this is very inconvenient for me and I think that my appointment should be able to be moved to the closest weekend to the 13th and they should be fitting me in as it was their fault my installation was delayed, not mine. I was there on the day that was arranged so I do not find it fair that I should have to wait another 4+ weeks for a weekend appointment.

I also found out my order was cancelled due to a “system error” which further annoyed me as I definitely did not cancel any order, and an agent had to re-order it for me. I really think Virgin needs to take a genuine look at its customer service and make some serious improvements because the communication between the company and their customers is quite terrible. If an engineer decides they’re not going to turn up for an appointment for whatever reason, they should be contacting the customer to let them know so that they are not sitting all day in the house waiting.

I also believe I should be getting some form of compensation for every day that the installation is delayed, as it is delaying other very important plans that I made for my life. 

[Gareth_L]

Hello Lolobee96.

Can we please ask how the visit went yesterday?.

Hopefully you got some positive news.

Regarding compensation we do have this 

Gareth_L

[jpeg1]

It's not absolutely necessary for you to be there when the outside work is done, but it's good if you can be there to ensure it's a neat job with the cable run where you want it.

If you read down the page you will see cases where installation has taken months, or even abandoned if it got too difficult /expensive.  Is there an alternative supplier you can try? Or could you use 4g or 5g data to fill the gap? 

[Lolobee96]

Unfortunately, I can’t be there to oversee the outside work as I haven’t moved in yet, but I don’t mind if it’s a bit messy as the garden will be getting redone in the near future anyway. However, the engineer did go over with me where they planned to run the cables and I was happy with it.

4G/5G sadly will not suffice in the meantime as I need a solid connection for work and my mobile data just does not cut it 😕 however, I have spoken to the engineer now and it was much better communication than all the other phone calls to customer support. My mind has been put at ease and he seemed certain that the internet would be installed by the 13th and that he would be installing it himself.

I think just the most annoying thing about the whole situation was the lack of communication about what was going on, like if a customer has an appointment booked and it looks like the work won’t be done in time then they should be contacted before their appointment to be made aware of this 🙌 

I am definitely feeling better about the situation, however if it doesn’t get installed on the 13th then I will not be happy 😅

[jpeg1 · Accepted solution]

Some installations do go in on time. Hopefully yours will be one of those. 

[Kath_F]

Hi Lolobee96, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one. 

We are glad the visit has put your mind at ease and the engineer was able to talk you through the cabling route. Hopefully this means everything will go forward smoothly without any issues. 

If there are any issues, we will of course get in touch but fingers crossed all will go well. 

Please pop back and update the thread once the installation has taken place. 

Many thanks, 

[M_star99]

I maybe the minority but i had my pre-install visit and they was on time in fact knocked on my door 7:58am (appointment was 8-1pm), was very professional discussed router placement etc etc.  Was a great bloke gave me advice on how to set-up router/boxes and what i should think about on install date.  I had no cable on my property which i was told need council permit etc but my surprise next day they came and did the cable pull to my property and so far i been very happy with the service really fast response to resolve my pre-install issue (no outside cable to property).  

This is why i think this must be area related issues as my neighbour had install last year and they said they had no issues of engineers not showing everything was on time etc.  I am in Watford, Herts.

[jpeg1]

That's good to hear. Proper service as you'd expect from a large multi-national company.