Virgin Media Community

[kerzo5]

I was due to move in on the 30th April and decided to go for Virgin broadband due to the great price of their broadband. I was told there needed to be external work prior to moving in, which I confirmed when I received the text, more than a week before moving in. When I moved in the internal engineer came to the house and told me the external work hadn't been done and therefore he could not do his job. He assured me that in 2 to 3 days the external and internal work would be done and we would have internet. It is now 11 days and counting that I don't have internet as no external work has been done. This is despite every day from the 30th there being scheduled an external engineer and when calling up customer support and the installation team was told that someone was coming that day from 8 am-6 pm, BUT no one ever came. Every day I called up 3 times a day to being reassured it would all be done on the day and finished in the next two days but nothing ever happened. I wrote in 2 complaints and yet nothing has been done about it and continuously I have been told I cant follow it up with the third-party engineers by Virgin. So many times the call center said they will raise this to their managers and get it sorted asap, but again nothing has happened with virtually no communication from Virgin. The internal appointment was then booked 2 weeks away from May 4th, which was ridiculous as I had never agreed to the date and it should have been sorted ASAP to fix their mistake. Therefore, the external engineering has again been booked no longer every day but now on the 13th the day before the installation. I have NO faith that the external engineer will even come, considering their failures thus far, and have no hope in Virgin to provide internet as it has now been nearly 2 weeks since moving into a new flat without internet. Has anyone else had these issues or is it just me? One of the most upsetting and stressful experiences in my life, especially as I currently work from home as well as my partner.

[Molly_G]

Hi @kerzo5,

Many thanks for your post and welcome to the forums. 

I'm very sorry to hear of the delay to your installation over the last couple of weeks I understand completely how frustrating this is to be without internet.

The external work needed is a pre-pull of wires which often requires a permit before our engineers can start work, causing delays. This should have been much better communicated to you.

I've been able to locate the account using the details you've registered to forums with and can see that the appointment is set to go ahead this week and the internal installation the day after as you've mentioned. If you have access to your online My VM Account yet you will be able to view these there.

I'm not sure why the agents have advised daily that the pre-pull would be carried out 'on that day' as I can see this has only actually been rescheduled once by the engineering team. I do apologise for the 2 week delay on this however. 

If you have any further questions please let me know.

Thanks,

[kerzo5]

Hi @molly_G

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately, I have just got a text message now telling me that the external work can't be done and the date has been moved to the 20th, which has again confirmed my fears and my lack of faith in Virgin. And now my internal appointment, as a result, has been moved to the 28th of May without confirming the dateme, which is an absolute joke. Please check my account now to see the changes that have been done.

Attaching the text message I just received.

'Hello, it's Virgin Media. We need to do some extra work outside before we can get your broadband up and running. This means we've had to move your installation to 28/05/2021 between 1PM-6PM - we're really sorry about that. If you'd like to know more, reply 'CHAT' then follow option 1 for Technician Visit to start texting with us.'

Absolutely ridiculous and extremely frustrating when the external work should have been done on the 13th and has been booked for that in the last weeks! Once again this all should have been done in mid-April before we moved in and it will be a month since moving in when the internet is installed (IF again it is not delayed again even longer, which i full well expect!). 

I expect a large compensation from Virgin for the absolute mess as we have had to spend large amounts of money to find alternatives in the meantime to even do our jobs.

[Molly_G]

Hi @kerzo5,

Thanks for coming back to me. I am really sorry for the further delay.

I have gone back and checked the new notes on the account and it states delayed due to construction - that we are unable to find the tee for the cabling and also are requesting a 'parking suspension.' I am not sure what that means although to hazard a guess there's public parking where we need to dig and need that suspending by the local council to do our work. 
 

Our pre-install team may be able to advise further 0800 052 1734 as unfortunately this is all the information I have access to currently. 

As per your compensation, I completely understand that this is a very difficult position to have been left with and I sincerely apologise for this. This would qualify for our Automatic Compensation Scheme once the services are up and running.

Kind regards,

[kerzo5]

Hi Molly,

Thank you very much for your reply. Thank you also for giving me this information, something I have not been told by the installation team from the many calls I have had with them. The information you have provided has helped far more than anyone I've spoken to previously and I'm not sure why Virgin haven't notified these notes to me by email before or given me any sort of indication of what was going on other than 'we can't help as it is the third party.

It does not seem very realistic that they will be able to get all of this done by the 20th (which is the new slot booked for external) - and also surely this seems like this will be a job that could last months on end. 

Do you believe there is any guarantee that this external work will be done by the 20th judging by the notes on the account as we really cant go beyond a month without internet. What can we do to speed this up?

Kind Regards

[Molly_G]

Hi @kerzo5,

Thanks for getting back to me and apologies again that this all hasn't been communicated effectively to you in this time.

Since this is over with the construction team who are liaising with the council, our hands are tied from this side of things at the moment. I can't give any guarantee either way.

I do know that once the work is underway this is a job that should not necessarily take more than a day, but it is the process of having the correct access to begin this which is causing the delay.

I do apologise that I can not offer any further assistance at this time on this as this is beyond our jurisdiction, but we are here if you have any other questions and we can try our best to help.

Kind regards,

[kerzo5]

Hi Molly,

Thank you again for your help, which once again has been most help and insight we have recieved during this journey.

One thing about the construction though is that I searched on th Virgin website (https://store.virginmedia.com/serviceability/active) to see if there were virgin media in the area and it is suggested that there is already Virgin Media available around my area and construction has already been done. Also, we recieved a letter a week ago from Virgin letting us know there was Virgin in the area with it saying on the letter 'Liverpool Road is good to go with lightning-fast broadband & calls from £28 a month'. The letter also states 'Your home is hooked up and ready to go'. So if Virgin is already available in the area, why is construction needed?

I am a bit confused.

[Molly_G · Accepted solution]

Hi @kerzo5,

So as standard practice, when a property is having our services installed for the very first time, an engineer visit is required to ensure the all the wiring from the house to the cabinet is complete before the services are activated (If a previous owner had VM in the past, this stage is not necessary as the wiring will already be in place)

As per your message, it sounds like recent work may have been underway to install fibre broadband in the street / general area but your individual flat/house may not have had previous VM services in that time, hence the visit. 

So, from my understanding here, when our engineers have visited for the general check/wiring job, they have been unable to access the cable in order to get this immediately set up. The cable recently installed along your street may need digging up to ensure it can be safely and correctly connected to the local cabinet and then on to your individual property (this is the aspect which needs local council authority). This is the 're-pull' that has been mentioned on the notes, referring to the cable.

Thanks,

[jbrennand · Accepted solution]

As an aside - if the work requires council approval for digging another tee specifically for your property (as other properties are already connected) and running new cables to it , or for parking suspension - then that process will proceed at the speed of your council - and our council walks in treacle. Once they do approve the work, it should show on their website and also the dates approved for their work.

Then when VM have been contacted with approval, they will have to liaise with 3d party contractors to do the outside work and then schedule their own teams to run the new cables and another to connect you up.

I think you will appreciate that installation within a week from today is, shall we say... optimistic.

EDIT: Molly's response tends to support this scenario.  One option is just let the installation run its course and in the meantine sign up to another provider (perhaps 4G/5G SIM) on a monthly contract.  Then when VM is installed you will have 14 days to decide whether to keep it or cancel for free within 14 days and keep your other supplier

[kerzo5]

Hi John and Molly,

Thank you both so much for your help. I think this new information has saved me further days/weeks/months of frustration and believe me I really do appreciate the help as I was literally getting no answers from a large number of calls to the installation team and chatbot/text with most providing very different and vague answers.

I think this will mean I will need to cancel my services, which I will work on starting tomorrow and trying to access compensation. Nevertheless, once more, thank you for taking the time to write and help me understand a bit more.

Kind Regards,