Gas pipe strike cancer patient

[Cancergasleak]

I'm a single mum who was being treated for cancer and had The most awful experience with virgin and their  contractors.  I still can't believe happened and virgin have sent a cut and paste complaint response to the misery they caused me no fixed wall, no compensation for anything?
This is a long one. Has anyone had them go through gas pipe happened and how did you get over it and get the hole in the wall resolved.

I made a formal complaint around a sequence of events that has happened following works carried out by Virgin Media to install fibre broadband to my property.

I am a single parent with a 2-year-old son. On the 14th April 2023 I underwent facial surgery to remove cancer. On the 19th April I had an appointment with virgin Media to install fibre broadband on 19th April. I duly informed the engineer of my situation and my hospital appointment that day.

Then engineer drilled directly through my gas pipe.

The engineer went on to reassure me that the situation would be rectified within 4 hours and as I understood it he had arranged a Gas engineer to attend and virgin would replaster and decorate. He left the property with boiler & gas cooker out of use so I had no hot water, heating or means to cook hot food.

4 hours passed and no engineers attended.

Over the following hours I was in contact with the Residential Property Team on over 5 occasions to share information and try to ascertain when an engineer would attend.

At 19:43 I received a call stating that no engineer would be attending I'm asking if it was safe for me to be there as my son needed to go to bed.

I rang my sister who said to call Cadent who attended within 20 minutes of my call and made my property safe.

I was still without heating, hot water or means to cook hot food for myself or my 2-year-old son. My recovery was hindered due to the stress, lack of sleep and the ability to rest in comfortable surroundings I kept thinking it was leaking.

On the 20th April at 10:35 an engineer attended and reinstated gas to my boiler, he was however unable to reconnect the gas to my cooker, so I was still without means to cook hot

food. I was also advised that to fix the feed to my cooker would be a major job as the pipe was in the cavity wall between bricks. I was offered the option of having an electric hob fitted. At the time I agreed to have an electric hob fitted easier quieter option so I could sleep. Don't get me wrong though I questioned it as it sounded ludicrous and asked if virgin would do that and he said yes.

Throughout the rest of the day I am in contact with another virgin contractor on numerous occasions to progress the installation of the hob. I am told that no one is aware of the situation therefore it is not being progressed.

On the 21st April I am again in contact with ISS who informs me that he is weighing up the most cost effective solution while I am stressed unable to relax because of all of this. I am asked measurements for pipe work which I am not in any state to provide and other details. I am unable to rest and recover from my surgery and subsequent infection due to constant phone calls and interruptions. Again numerous correspondence not allowing me to rest and recouperate.

On the 25th April I made contact again chasing the hob, provided dimensions of hob and informed an engineer was sourcing one.

On the 26th April (1 week on) I requested financial compensation so that I could source and have installed a hob myself.

On the 27th April I was advised that an engineer would be attending to fit the hob, I was also informed that an engineer would be coming to fix the gas pipe!

No engineer attended on the 27th April to complete either job.

On the 28th April I was in contact again, was informed that the job was still being costed….

Later in the morning I was informed that an engineer would attend later in the day. The engineer proceeded to measure up for a new hob. He also assessed the damage to the pipe and proceeded to repair it. Within 1.5 hours I had a working hob.

The engineer in attendance then proceeded to video the hob working and turned the video on me. 

I now also have significant damage to my living room wall that needs to be rectified:

It has taken 9 days to rectify what should have been a simple fix but I still need the wall fixing. I have been put under significant stress and deprived of simple home comforts at a time when it was essential for me to rest and recover. 

quotes to rectify the damage to my wall of to cover labour, plaster and paint £250

Three appointments were unattended by engineers, your attendance policy states that you will pay £29.15, for each unattended appointment (one on the 19th April, two on the 27th April)

as a result of Virgin Media’s incompetence in dealing with this incident.

Also, a plethora of unwanted, confusing, ineffective telephone calls - even after requested no phone calls because they were so upsetting. This greatly impeded recovery, as getting little sleep worrying about this and then phone calls disturbing little sleep you got. I also wanted everything in writing because it was so unbelievable what they were all saying and doing dispute me saying how awful it all was for me

Im just so upset that after everything no one cares or has the courtesy to explain and justify all of their actions and decisions throughout this

Leaving a single mum of a 2 year old in a home that they had just caused a gas leak.

I asked for the gas pipe strike policy never sent, data sharing with all the different people coming to my house I didn't even know who they were. No one managed my expectations or guided and supported me. It was disgraceful.

I begged for help in emails, I was crying I told them this made no effect.

I begged for them to raise it back to virgin and apparently they knew all about what was happening so basically watching me crumble.

...........

This was the response :

Here's what we offer as a resolution:
Customer Experience ->Agent or Technician Professionalism - Internal feedback provided

We hope this works for you.

..........

I have no words only upset and disbelief no help with the cost of missed appointments, damage to property and emotional torment.

If Anybody can help me let me know

Thank you

[goslow]

That's a sorry story indeed but, sadly, one which has been described on here before when VM has damaged a customer's property.

The VM forum team will reply here within a few days. They will offer sympathetic words, and maybe even try to help, but, since the damage has mostly been repaired, don't expect too much else from VM, based on similar past topics on here.

If you have made a complaint to VM already, and been fobbed off with a generic irrelevant reply, your next step would normally be to go to arbitration via Ombudsman Services.

https://www.ombudsman-services.org/about-us/contact-us

However, the previous company VM used for arbitration advised it did not cover disputes over property damage so I imagine this may be the same with Ombudsman Services.

Suggest you ring Ombudsman Services, explain your situation, and ask if they will take a complaint in relation to compensation for property damage caused by VM.

In addition, you should also try Citizens Advice

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/about-us/contact-us/contact-us/contact-us/

and see what your options are.

If I have understood all of the events correctly, you still need damage to a wall repairing and also some meaningful compensation from VM for the stress, hassle and inconvenience of everything that happened.

I hope VM gets its act together and completes the necessary repairs and compensates you appropriately.

[Reece_MH]

Hi there,

Thanks for your post and a warm welcome to the Community Forums.

I am truly sorry for the experience you have endured during the installation of your service. I completely understand the stress and inconvenience that this has caused, especially during your recovery. 

It's most certainly not the expectation we have for any of our teams, both internal and external, and I'm going to do my best to get this resolved for you as quickly as possible.

I'm going to send you a private message so I can gather some more details. Please look out for it in the top-right, white envelope. If the envelope isn't there, just tap your Profile Picture, and then the "Messages" tab.

 Regards,

[Cancergasleak]

Please can you help me I had a gas pipe strike in April and still my wall is not fixed. No one is getting in touch 

im chasing complaints but they keep closing them saying they've come up with a resolution and spoken to their staff?!!!!! 

help me 

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Cancergasleak thanks for your reply. Sorry to hear you haven't heard anything so far!

We can see that Reece did send you a Private Message reaching out to you to try and assist with this last week.

Can you please check your Private Message envelope (top right of your screen) to see this and when received, reply to his message directly?

He can take things from there for you.

Many thanks