I need a longer cable

[Horacethree]

I have previously been on this board (jumping onto a similar topic of a similar sounding name) to find out how to get a longer cable after having been left by Virgin with a router that is badly positioned and with no way to relocate it as they have only left approximately 8 inches of cable.  I read on this board that I should not buy my own cable due to possible problems.  So I had a very long conversation with a customer service rep on their web chat last Friday and he assured me that he would send me 5m of cable (free of charge) and it would be with me in 3 to 4 days.  He even gave me an order number! 

Surprise surprise no cable turned up.  I contacted the customer service via the chat facility again last night to chase up the order only to be told that they could not order cable and the order could only be placed by the faults team.  I asked if the original agent therefore worked on the faults team and was told yes.  The customer service agent last night said she would transfer me to their faults chat line and they would be able to help me.  I got transferred to be greeted by one of Virgin's bots who offered me some videos and some further help only on selected topics.  When I replied that none of the topic met my needs I was told that the fault line does not have humans!

The complaints department (I refuse to call them the Resolution Team which is what they call themselves) have been unhelpful during this whole process and have responded to my continued complaint with an email today that says to go out and buy my own cable.

So the question here is I need a longer white cable am I correct in thinking this is just a coaxial cable then can be purchased from the likes of Wilkos, Asda etc. 

Sorry for the length of this message but frankly Virgin Media are useless so I'm hopeful someone will be able to tell me what I need.

[Adduxi]

You cannot alter any VM cable yourself, as it's against the T&C's of your Contract.

It is a very reasonable £25 for a VM technician to visit and do any work you need, and relocate the Hub to where you need it 

If you wait here a day or two a VM Mod will pick this up and arrange.

[Horacethree]

Thanks Adduxi however both customer service and the complaints department have said that I should go out and buy a cable as they do not supply them.  I am not willing to pay £25 to have an technician come out and correct the mistakes they make in the original installation.  Can you tell me if it is a simple coax cable I need?

[Tudor]

Usual telephone support, they always get this wrong. If it’s not on their script they just dream something up. There has even been reports of them sending people to a Virgin Money outlet to pick one up!

[derekheeps]

Hi , from the wording of your query , I take it you're not technical ?

There are many different types of coaxial cable ; I know the external cable from the omni box into the house is RG6U , which is a 75 ohm cable . While this may share the same impedance with the indoor white cable , which may also be RG6U ( I don't know ) it is an entirely different cable designed to do a different job . Other similar cables , used for video signals include RG58 ( 50 ohm ) RG59 ( 75 ohm ) amongst numerous others . All of these cables have different construction and electrical characteristics ; if you use the wrong one it will not only make your own installation sub optimal , but the problems can reflect back down the transmission line and affect other people nearby . I know about these things because I both did electrical and electronic engineering at university , and worked in broadcast video for a number of years .

Oh and the cable you describe is terminated with F connectors ; do you know how to prepare the cable and terminate correctly for these connectors ?

If the answer is no , you should not attempt to do this yourself - it isn't like trying to fit a Belling-Lee connector onto a domestic TV aerial .

You are of course at liberty to argue the toss with VM that you feel the original installation was unsatisfactory and should be rectified FOC , but it is likely to take time , with no assurance of success ; the £25 call out fee for an engineer visit is quite modest and would see the problem resolved quickly and efficiently .

[Horacethree]

Thanks derekheeps.  You are quite correct I am not technical.  I see that VM cables are available via Amazon so presumably I can use one of these. As I mention I have had two web chats and several emails with the complaints department. At no time have I been advised to arrange an engineer, at no time have Virgin requested photographs of the offending installation and at no time have they offered to send someone to have a look. I have asked complaints for confirmation that if I purchase my own cable I will not be in breach of my terms and conditions and that any problems caused by me following their instructions (ie buy your own) will result in my being liable.  I am awaiting a response from this.  However my reading of the T&Cs is that if they tell me to buy equipment I am not breaching the T&Cs but as I say I am awaiting confirmation. 

[jbrennand]

Make sure you have a physical record of the dates of call/chat/text/email etc.. with the name of any VM operative that tells you to buy your own cables - you may need it as evidence in the future

[jem101]

@Horacethree there may well be items for sale on Amazon which 'claim' to be VM cables and may actually work properly without injecting noise (interference) into the network to both your and your neighbours detriment.

As mentioned above, the offshore customer services agents routinely just lie or make stuff up if it doesn't fit an option on their scripts - they don't actually understand the technology itself. Now the Ts and Cs which you agreed to were quite specific, you must not make any changes to the VM infrastructure and I'm not too sure that even if you had a recording of a CS agent telling you to go and buy a cable, it will properly indemnify you against any action that VM may decide to take in the event that your cable causes issues - probably won't but certainly not impossible.

Honestly, annoying as it may seem, just pay the £25 and have it done properly and guaranteed by VM. They will argue that you should have objected to the positioning of the hub at the time - if you didn't then you accepted it for what it was and now have no cause to complain.

[Horacethree]

Hi Jem101 - as mentioned I have a screen shot of a chat with a customer service rep and also an email from the complaints department telling me to buy my own cable. I don't see why that does not cover me.  I don't see why I should pay out money to rectify their mistake.  They were told at the time of the installation that I was happy to rely on their expertise for the siting of the router as they were not able to site it where my old phone line was.  It was only on trying to troubleshoot connection problems that I realised that they should not have left the router on a carpet, facing the back of an electric reclining chair, near a radiator and a cordless phone.  All things the help guide told me to avoid. They also did not leave me the option to simply pick the router up and move it onto a hard surface, away from a radiator, cordless phone and with a clear line of sight into the centre of the room as they only left me with 8 inches of cable!

However it seems to me that everyone is telling me to just pay up as no one is ever going to give decent customer service at Virgin. Why do people on here just accept that everyone in customer service lies and you have to pay more and more money to get any service at all? 

[Anonymous]

There's only so many times you can bang your head against the wall re acceptance of shabby dishonest service (VM forum team excepted). What customers are doing is deciding with their feet and walking (especially with the growing rollout of Openreach FTTP) with VM customer numbers actually down in quarter one https://news.virginmediao2.co.uk/2022-financial-results/q1/  I could go on about the record complaints about VM but none of this will be new to most customers who have experienced VM customer service.