Virgin Media Community

[awg102]

Hello,

I am experiencing a similar problem. A health and safety flag appears on a property (flat) I have just purchased which is already served by an active Virgin media broadband account. I spoke to Virgin Media numerous times prior to completing my house purchase to ensure I could continue to receive broadband services via the fibre optic cable which was previously installed in the property by the seller. I was assured that (as Virgin services were already active in the property) the health and safety flag must have been added to the account by mistake, and it would not be a problem to remove it, and receive services going forward. I proceeded on this reliance.

I spoke (again) with Virgin Media yesterday who removed the flag so they could close down the old account on the property, and process my new order for services. They took my account details and signed me up for new services over the phone, telling me the flag had been removed and I could do the installation myself without needing an engineer to attend, because the property was already fitted with a fibre-optic cable. As soon as I'd signed up, this advice changed and they informed me that I would need to wait for an engineer appointment, which I accepted (and arranged for Friday). Today I received an email from Virgin (no phone call) stating that the health and safety flag was, in fact, valid because of access to cabling and the property could no longer receive Virgin services, so they were cancelling my services. No call, or explanation of why this is the case. As until yesterday, services were obtainable via the property and the seller had an active Virgin account he was paying for. There has been no change to the infrastructure, or access to the property, as between yesterday and today. Can someone please explain what the issue is and why no-one has been able to explain it to me over the phone despite numerous lengthy calls with Virgin Media?

Please can you also explain why, when I phoned your general sales team they were not able to talk to me about this issue? They stated that I must speak to the person who sent me the email. When I asked for them to transfer me to the person who sent me the email, they told me this was also possible; individuals no longer accept calls and correspondence must be by email. Clearly, this is an issue where I need to speak to someone directly to understand what is going on.

Thanks,

Andy

[MOD EDIT: post split from old thread]

[GazHackney]

Received an email notification about your post.

I tried for weeks and was told the flag was removed a number of times and was then told they cant do anything and then eventually i stopped trying.

I think Virgin were denied access to the blocks cabinet as the council potentially introduced some new health and safety guidance, any exisiting connections could remain but no new ones were accepted.

The above assumption is because G Network were advertising in the area shortly after but they told me an engineer cant come out as they are yet to receive the final ok in regards to the health and safety directive.

and then community fibre came along. Seems to be the councils partner of choice, expecting them to install my new connection next week. Id you're based in London, have a look at their website.

I very much doubt you will get Virgin up and running. Search available wifi networks as well, if you notice lots random providors like plusnet,talktalk,bt then most people on standard adsl line. 

[nodrogd]

It may be an internal cabinet issue. Also some blocks were wired externally when the original cable company took on customers back as early as 1990. VM is an amalgamation of 20 or so of these original companies, some of which installed at heights long before H&S rules were tightened up. VM now only has a handful of these specialist trained teams, & these seem to be fully occupied dealing with their predecessors installs from years ago that are now causing issues.

Also some councils have banned visible external wiring on any communal accommodation.

[John_GS]

Hi awg102

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community. 

I am sorry for the confusion about the install. If you have been advised prior that it is a no and we cannot service the property, the answer would more than likely be the same but I will do my best to get you the explanation for this.

I shall send you a PM now to get some details and we can go from there.

Best,

[jpeg1]

Councils are now looking closely at external cables and cable trunking on their blocks as part of the high profile cladding issue. 

[awg102]

Thanks, this is helpful.

3+ weeks and counting and Virgin is still unable to give me a straight answer as to why my block is suddenly unserviceable. Similar to you, they never call me back when they say they will, and I think they are just hoping I give up trying to get an answer out of them. 
It does make me wonder if something is going on that they don’t want to disclose. It’s clearly illogical to say, on the one hand, they can’t service new accounts because of health and safety / accessibility issues (which they won’t explain) but for them to then continue to service existing account in the same building without issue. My property already has active cable in it, so there’s no need for a new connection, so it’s just a maintenance issue (which would apply to new and old accounts in the same way). 
I will keep trying to if I don’t receive a reasonable explanation I will see I can explore other options / refer to a watchdog.  

[Z92]

VM have done it before where they don't want to connect up new accounts but they'll happily keep existing accounts until a problem occurs, at which point they state the the problem isn't fixable and cancel the contract (sometimes after a few weeks/months of paying compensation for loss of service).

Watchdogs and OFCOM/etc are not interested as VM is under no obligation to install services and can refuse connection for any reason - unlike BT which must offer a download speed of at least 10 Mbit/s and an upload speed of at least 1 Mbit/s.