Failed house move / cable pull not done

[welchrna]

I notified VM that I was moving house on 9th Nov and told them that we also needed a cable pull as it's a new build (there's even a conduit with a draw string from the grass verge inspection hatch to the house.

When VM turned up on 28th Nov - the day of the move - they said they could not do it as they don't do cable pulls. The guy rebooked it for a months time and left. I was left battling to try to get this done. Been on the phone over 6 hours to VM - got nowhere. Nobody can, or will, help.

I'm left paying for a service I'm not receiving and also £25/month for an emergency 4G SIM.

VM just saying that cable pull is by contractors and they have no control.

Can I contact the contractors directly? Is there anything I can do to resolve this?

[Lee_R]

Hi welchrna, thanks for posting and welcome back to our community.

Sorry to hear of the ongoing delay in your installation.  I would like to take a look on your behalf. I am going to send you a private message. Please look out for the purple envelope in the top right of your screen.

Regards

Lee_R

[welchrna]

Sorry Lee, but I'm afraid it's gone way past the point where I am prepared to tolerate the sheer, for want of a better word, buffoonery that I've encountered persistently when dealing with VM.

The saga continues.

By 2nd January, I'd finally had enough of getting nowhere trying to get advice on the cable pull and when (if) it would happen. Enough was enough. I wrote a letter to VM clearly explaining the background and explaining that I wanted to formally end my contract with VM given that, due to the lack of service and lack of interest by pretty much anyone at VM that I spoke to, it was functionally void anyway. I tried to deliver this via chat, but was told that I needed to speak to a different team, when they attempted to transfer me, no-one responded, so I was left unsure whether it had been accepted/processed.

Having not received any response, I spent two hours on the phone on 10th January attempting to get someone to accept that I was leaving. I went through the normal "thinking of leaving" menu but was told that the retentions team are unable to process terminations! I was then put through to pre-installations who told me I needed to speak to the retentions team. It just went round in circles.

Some of the people I spoke to were extremely rude, especially when I brought up the subject of compensation. I was told wrongly that I wasn't entitled to any, then I was told (again wrongly) that I couldn't get any until the service was connected. I was even accused (accused, mind you) of paying for a service I haven't received. At this point I cancelled all my direct debits with VM.

Finally, on 13th January, two guys from Kelly Communications turned up - without notice - to say they were here to do the cable pull. I told them that I'd cancelled my service and briefly explained the situation which was not a surprise to them. They said that VM kept them in the dark and were a nightmare to work with. After they left, I received a further call 15 minutes later from Kelly's asking to confirm the situation, which I did.

I then got a phenomenally rude phone call from VM which started - of course - by demanding that I go through security. When I answered the questions, I was told that I had failed security, that they could not talk to me and that I would have to call them. As they had called me, I asked why I should call them, but they would not say! After some pointless roundabout discussion where I tried and failed to establish what they wanted to talk to me about, I explained to them quite truthfully and without exaggeration that dealing with VM has become so stressful and unpleasant, that I feel anxious, fearful and even a little nauseous even just at the sight of the VM logo.

I'm clearly not the only one who's having a painful experience trying to part ways with VM. (see https://www.linkedin.com/posts/activity-7019610065590484992-C74E?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_...)

All I want to do now is terminate my ties with VM, get the compensation sorted out and move on. I suspect VM are going to drag this out and make all sorts of claims and even threats, as I believe that they have with others. If anyone has any advice on how to take this forward, I would be very grateful to hear it.

[Andrew-G]

Whilst you're legally within your rights to assert a contract has been made void by VM's non-delivery, as you've found VM aren't even competent to accept that.  As a result they'll keep cranking the handle on the direct debit machine to help themselves to your bank account, and when the money doesn't flop into the company's Consolidated Greed account then they'll treat it as a late and then defaulted payment.  That'll have late payment fees added, then be passed to scumbag debt collectors who'll harass you, and VM will also notify credit reference agencies that you've defaulted on a credit agreement which has negative consequences for years.  Treating this matter as finished is not going to work for you.  VM feel no corporate pain from putting you through their bad debt mangler, it's just an automated process, it is going to happen, you now have to act to stop it (and to get compensation for VM's lying, incompetence, rudeness and inefficiency).  

Read this thread carefully - it features another poor soul in the same boat, and my advice to them. You are going to have to take this to Ombudsman Services, there's a process to follow, and you'll also see my comments in the linked post about getting legal advice.  

[welchrna]

A very good point well made. When I think about the maddening position that many people are in with Virgin Media, paying through the nose for a poor service or even, in my case, no service and facing not only terrible customer care, but also the threat of legal action if you stop paying, I wonder whether a class action against them can't be far away. VM's behavior in this matter - providing no service, taking peoples money and then threatening them when they don't pay - dare I say it, appears to lie somewhere between fraud and extortion.

As regards my own situation, I spent another two hours on the phone to VM this morning, got cut off three times, shunted from dept to dept. I finally got through to someone who seemed capable of accepting that I gave notice on my account on 2nd January. He had the nerve to state that he didn't think I would have to pay a penalty for early termination, but wasn't too helpful when I mentioned compensation. I will definitely be going down that road once VM have confirmed that the account is closed. He told me I'd receive an email asking for equipment back (I would take this as written confirmation that they accept that the account is closed) but I've not received it yet, so not out of the woods just yet. However, I was later called by someone from VM, who then apologised saying that he'd just realised that my account was closed, so perhaps it's the light at the end of the tunnel?

By the way, FWIW, I was given the number 0345 234 0758, which seems to be a far better number to call than the standard 0345 454 1111 number.