@Tamps wrote:
Hello!
Looking for a bit of advice as to whether this is needs escalating or not.
My area has recently been cabled via telegraph pole. I signed up for Ultimate Volt bundle on the 28th of August.
My original install date was booked for the 9th of September. I've since had 3 reschedule notifications on the 9th of Sept, 30th of Sept and 22 of Oct due to needing 'extra work outside'.
Whilst this is slightly annoying, I'm happy to wait if that's what's required. I'm just a bit baffled that my next door neighbour, who must have signed up with VM around the same time as me, already had their cable installed back in September (I saw the engineers running a new line to the house from the VM box on the telegraph pole over my garden).
I have previously contacted VM to check that all is okay and I was told that extra work was required, but couldn't get any detail of what exactly it entailed.
So, I'm wondering if somethings gone wrong somewhere or if I should just keep sitting tight? Anything I can do to check either way?
When you sign up for VM services, there are usually two 'dates' to be considered. The most important is the installation or go-live date, this is when VM promise that you will be up and running and a technician will attend on that day to connect everything up. But before this can be done, the cable has to be fitted from the VM infrastructure to an 'omnibox' fitted to your outside wall and this is done usually by underground cable or sometimes via a pole, this is the pre-install work
Technically you only need to be there for the first of these as the external work is just that - although many people would like to be there to make sure it is actually done properly.
From the customer's viewpoint the only really important date is the first installation date which is when VM should have had it all up and running, the pre-install date can move around just as long as the work is done before the installation date. So in your case you were told 9th September and presumably made arrangements to be at home on that day - and it didn't happen! Now were you notified that it wouldn't happen less than 24 hours earlier? That too is important!
You are now entitled to £5.25 compensation for the missed 9th September plus an additional £5.25 for each and every subsequent day* until either a) VM get you all connected up and it is working; b) you cancel (but they still have to pay you up to that date); or c) VM decide they aren't going to do it and issue you with a 'cease notice' but they still have to pay the compensation for 30 days after the date that the cease notice is given. If you are required to be home, (and that's just for the actual installation) and they cancel on you with less than 24 hours notice, then that is an additional £26 for each missed appointment to compensate you for the inconvenience.
How does the VM installation work in practice? Well firstly a lot of the pre-install work is done by contractors and VM themselves have little if any control over or knowledge of what they are doing, and when (or not doing!) If you look at your 'My Appointments' you see two dates, the top one being when they 'think' the pre-install work will be done and the bottom one is when they intend to come round and connect you all up. As VM don't actually know when the contractors will turn up (or indeed if they ever will), at the end of each day, if VM are not notified that the work has been done, then this date just automatically rolls on to the next day. If you call VM and ask, they quite literally don't know, the agent just sees the same as you, and they'll 'promise' it will be done 'today' as that what it says on the screen. In reality, of course, what is on their screen is as much a work of fiction as to rival that of H G Wells' - but that's quite literally all they know, they have no more insight or understanding of what is actually happening on the ground, so to speak, as my cat does!
As mentioned above, as you don't technically have to be there for this work, then from their perspective, it isn't a problem, annoying for the customer if they would rather be in attendance but so be it!
Until the 'promised' installation date arrives and VM realise that the external work still hasn't been done, or sometimes the technician turns up anyway only to find they can't do anything - the install date gets bumped up a couple of weeks, the pre-install date just increments another day, and round and round we go! The daily compensation still racks up though (remember it starts from the first install date) plus another £26 for each missed technician appointment if they don't give you at least 24 hours notice!
You might, at this point be thinking 'but this sounds like something from the script writers of 'Fawlty Towers' and carried out with all the skill and professionalism of the 'Keystone Kops'' - and you would be forgiven for thinking so! If you peruse the forum postings on here, you will find many, many similar stories (the current record for a delayed installation is a little over 13 MONTHS) and it has been thus for some time. It is inconceivable that VM's senior management aren't fully aware of the oft shambolic nature of the installation process, presumable it works for the majority of cases and they are prepared to shrug off the times when it all goes Pete Tong and leaves the poor 'customer' flapping the breeze. You might also what to ponder that if this is an example of VM's skill and professionalism when you aren't even a customer yet or paying them any money, what will they be like when you actually are and locked into an 18 month contract? Something to think about anyway!
In the meantime, my advice would be to start investigating alternative suppliers and see what they can offer and their timescales. Maybe set yourself a deadline, ie if no VM by end of November then I'll just go with xxx supplier instead. Note that you don't actually need to cancel the VM install, just forget about it and think about the £5.25 each day. Maybe at some point VM get you connected up, if they do, test it and then cancel under the 14 day cooling off period - this will cost you nothing but you will know that the cables are all in place should you want to give them another go in the future.
* Note that in the link provided earlier, VM refer to 'provisional installation dates' and they don't pay compensation until a 'firm installation date' is given, this claim is even sometimes repeated by staff on here. It is actually rubbish, the OFCOM code of Conduct with VM agreed to and signed up for, makes no reference whatsoever to 'provisional dates'. If VM give a date of 9th September but it doesn't happen because they haven't sorted the cables out first (and no, the oft repeated excuse of waiting for council permission, doesn't fly either), that's not your problem, it's their's and they absolutely are obliged to pay the stipulated compensation.
