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

[Anonymous]

Thanks! I'm glad others are feeling the same way about Virgin Media's non existent service with this kind of matter. 

I take your point on the WiFi but I'm not 100% convinced (I could be wrong as I'm not an expert) but the box's 'signal' definitely appears as an option on my reachable WiFi options and I've never had WiFi issues like this in the past.

Anyway the principle still stands but thanks for your support. 

[jpeg1 · Accepted solution]

Before accepting a contract and proceeding with an installation, Virgin always do a credit check to ensure they will get paid (the one part of the company that works efficiently).

They would have been given a bank account by the applicant that agreed with them living at your address.  It would be interesting to know how the applicant managed this. 

[jpeg1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks! I'm glad others are feeling the same way about Virgin Media's non existent service with this kind of matter. 

I take your point on the WiFi but I'm not 100% convinced (I could be wrong as I'm not an expert) but the box's 'signal' definitely appears as an option on my reachable WiFi options and I've never had WiFi issues like this in the past.

Anyway the principle still stands but thanks for your support. 

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If you take off the lid from the box you will see there is nothing inside that could radiate a WiFi signal. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you Tony and definitely agree that life is too short, I shouldn't be spending my Sunday stressing over someone else's mistakes.

Sometimes though I think certain things in life are worth fighting for, even if to make sure it raises awareness and may just help someone else, if nothing else.

I'm not going to let the incompetent morons at VM get away with this just yet! I'm sure they have one decent intelligent, empathetic worker in the UK who may just end up reading this post some time soon and do something about it...let's see!

Thanks again for your support!

[Anonymous]

Thanks...hmmm in that case again I've been given wrong information by an 'agent' over the phone who said that because the box has been set up for an account it would be giving off a signal?!

Just curious...if it was actually for a real customer - where would the router get the signal from if not the box, and where is the cable going to (in the ground)?

Thanks again. 

[spell]

The fact that you are not a Virgin customer makes their complaints procedure redundant and actually makes the way clear. You have tried your best to negotiate with them (total waste of time). It is a very straightforward matter to progress this through the civil court for trespass and criminal damage - the attitude might well change on receipt of court papers (if they just don't go in the bin) but the eventual outcome is inevitable - don't be short changed when you get the judgement. I think you may have realised by now they are just waiting for you to get worn down and go away. Good luck with it. 

[Anonymous]

Well that's very interesting, because I'm pretty sure some of the letters which were coming to my property, and were addressed to the very same name (from O2) some weeks ago were warning letters for non payment!

I was given a fraud claim reference by VM some weeks ago but unsurprisingly - no contact since!

[spell]

Normal procedure is to mark them as not known at this address and repost unopened. In this case you should put them to one side as evidence and make a log of everything to date. Install a free app on your phone to record any further conversations with VM. A chat or email with Citizens Advice may be of benefit although I believe they are a bit busy currently.

[jpeg1]

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks...hmmm in that case again I've been given wrong information by an 'agent' over the phone who said that because the box has been set up for an account it would be giving off a signal?!

Just curious...if it was actually for a real customer - where would the router get the signal from if not the box, and where is the cable going to (in the ground)?

Thanks again. 

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The agents on the phone are not trained beyond how to read standard Q and As off their computer screen, and how to close down the call ASAP.

The outside box is just a place to connect the outside cable from the road with the inside cable to the indoor equipment. That would include a router hub that radiates the Wi-Fi signal, just like the box you already have from your existing broadband supplier.  Without that internal box there can be no Wi-Fi.

The Virginmedia signal you can see will be from a neighbour using the Virgin service. 

[Anonymous]

Thank you. I'm still a bit confused. Because at the time of the installation nobody was home and so there is only a cable from the pavement going to the box. There is nothing going from the box to anywhere inside the house? So even if it was for a genuine customer, they would have surely come back to finish the job?

Also, when I search for WiFi signals on my phone for example, I can see where there are VM customers nearby because the signal comes up as VM123456 or whatever, but this closest signal only comes up simply as 'Virgin Media'.