Illegally Installed Box / Criminal Damage to Private Property By Virgin Media

[Anonymous]

Hi,

On Saturday 29 October 2022 (AM), yes FIVE WEEKS AGO, Virgin Media came and installed a box ILLEGALLY in my property, when nobody was home. I only realised because I came home (only out for 1 hour!) to find the bins in the front garden had been moved around and there was a load of drilling dust on the floor! There was a white cheap plastic looking box on the wall and then a black wire going across the wall and somewhere into the ground where the house meets the pavement?!

I checked with everyone in the house and with neighbours to see if anyone knew anything about a Virgin broadband order - ZERO. So the next day I spent forever on the phone to Virgin, sent them pics of the CRIMINAL DAMAGE as requested and was then supposedly transferred to the Field Engineers Team - before being cut off from their side two hours later!

To cut a long story short, five weeks later and 30-40, YES 30-40 CALLS later I am no further with my complaint. Half of the people I speak to barely understand English (today one woman asked me to spell my name phonetically five times), and the rest may understand English but have no clue what to do about a non-customer complaint. I have also been cut off at least 8 times, I don't think that's a coincidence! I've heard things from 'We can't compensate non Virgin customers because we can only apply credit to customer accounts' - to 'We can offer you £50 compensation onto your account' - to 'We cannot deal with this query because you are not a customer' - 'We are not allowed to directly contact the Field Support Team and can only escalate via email' - the list goes on. I've even been transferred to SALES on a few occasions without any kind of warning as the agent obviously did not know what to do about the complaint. I've been given a complaint reference, a fraud claim reference and some other reference beginning with I!

On average the calls I am making are taking up 1.5 to 2 hours of my time, including waiting time and being put on hold. Each time I get told the same thing - someone from the Field Support Team will call you back within 48 hours - NOTHING SO FAR. The last person I spoke to this afternoon, before being cut off, told me that the Field Support Team did not have my number and had left messages with the customer service team asking when the damage happened and where exactly it was. My question is where has the contact information I have given over 30 times been entered or passed on to?! As you can tell I have given up on the phone/chat options and so here I am!

My complaint points which I need resolved are:

1. To remove the illegally installed box and wires, repair the wall/floor back to exactly how it was including the colour WITHOUT LEAVING A MESS THIS TIME - and in ONE visit. I will not have someone coming to LOOK at the damage - what is the point of asking for pictures???

2. I need to know how Virgin have allowed someone using a fake name to have a box installed in my property and an account set up on my address. Do they not make any kind of checks beforehand, in which case this can happen again? I was given the name on the account by three different agents on the phone and that person (even if real) has never lived at my address. WHY IS THE FAKE ACCOUNT EVEN STILL ACTIVE AS OF TODAY?!?

3. I have requested compensation for:

- the immense stress this has caused me and my family over the last 5 weeks

- the constant issues I have had with my work because of the box interfering with my own Wi-Fi - including being cut off work calls over and over

- the hours and days I have spent trying to resolve this

- the damage caused to my property. Here I would like to mention that I need the property put back to how it was before the illegal installation. That does not only mean filling the holes but making the wall the SAME colour as the rest of the house - I WILL NOT ACCEPT A VISIBLE 'PATCH' in one corner of the house. So unless Virgin can come up with a process for mixing a 15 year old paint, I will need the rest of the property painted. 

I will leave it there for now, in the hope that someone out there has some ideas or may have experienced something similar, or can even connect me to the team who can finally deal with this mess. I really cannot spend any more hours/days on the phone to incompetent agents and really hope that it doesn't affect my mental health for many more days!

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to read this long post or respond!

L

[Roger_Gooner]

Can you post the pictures here.

[Anonymous]

This doesn't show the full extent of the drilling but shows where the box has been fitted into the wall and the wire (which goes around the wall from the box - with pins hammered in) going into the ground. 

  

[M_star99]

When you take out your contract they have a right to install cable services (wire??) to the nearest point of the property, as you obliged for them to offer you the service and for them to fulfill that service they did that (work).  If its NOT been done correctly/tidy etc etc thats where you can argue.  From what i have seen mostly these people are Kelly communications who do this stuff? they are very messy

[Anonymous]

I did NOT request any Virgin Media services and have NEVER been a customer. This box was installed without my permission (I am the owner of the property) and an account set up on my address fraudulently, which Virgin failed to conduct proper checks on. 

[Paul_DN]

Hi luk-ldn,

Thank you for reaching out to us in our community and welcome, we are sorry to hear the services were installed in your property without your permision and that there was damaged caused, when you say the account was set up fraudulently, was this done by a tennant?

Regards

Paul.

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I am the owner of the property, there are NO tenants living at the address. I have no idea who the name (your agents have given to me over the phone three times) belongs to and he has certainly NEVER lived at this property since it's existence.

I should say that I was receiving a lot of mail addressed to the very same name some weeks/months ago from O2, which I eventually managed to get stopped, probably because at least with them you get to speak to an agent in the UK who understands English!

As far as I know O2 and Virgin Media are together? And so I'd be interested to know the outcome of your 'fraud investigation' which was apparently 'escalated' some weeks ago before vanishing into thin air.

Anyway the simple answer is NO, it was not done by a tenant (because there isn't one) and I have no idea who the named person is, or if they are even real. The error still lies fully with Virgin for allowing people to set up accounts on properties without conducting any kind of checks on who owns the property or whether permission has been received!!

Another sleepless night and another woeful day of WiFi disturbance ahead thanks to Virgin's illegally installed box. 

Thank you,

L

[Anonymous]

I would like to add that it's now 37 days since the box was illegally installed and 36 days since my initial complaint (including sending the photos in).

Not ONE phone call or email received from Virgin in connection to this, despite 30-40 phone calls/web chats.

I have no idea what kind of service Virgin customers get but from my experience I can tell you that Virgin couldn't care less about non customers. Imagine being told by an agent that there is no way of compensating a non customer as the only way to apply compensation is via credit directly to an existing account?!?

Most of the agents I spoke to seem to be baffled at the fact that I was not a customer and had no clue what to do next, and that's half the reason I have been sent round in circles.

[jpeg1]

Just one small point. This cable and box are not interfering with your WiFi. There is no way this could happen. 

Good luck with getting this sorted. As you have found, Virginmedia have great problems dealing with any situation out of the ordinary. 

[-tony-]

you need to think about what you want - i know what you say you want but as sure as night follows days VM will take you round in circles and not much to nothing will happen - ringing will get you no where as you have found - they will promise this and that [at best] or simply hang up on you - emails from VM are non existent as are call backs - yes they will promise a call back in 48 hours - a week or whenever - it will not happen - the offshore numpties have one thing in mind and thats to close the call with what can be seen as a successful outcome - the promise of a callback fills that requirement

there is nothing wrong with what you are asking - your best hope is via this forum with staff getting involved but they are limited - they are likely to take your details and pass it on to the area field manager who will more than likely ignore you in the hope you give up and go away

its not what you want to hear but the solution is in your hands - a screwdriver to remove the box and wire cutters to cut the wire - put it all in the bin and fill any holes with silicone

other than that keep pushing here - you could take it to CICAS - that needs a complaint opening - staff here should so that and when its closed as they do a deadlock letter obtained - where that will take you i have no ide but [imo] lifes too short just sort it and move on