Installation Delays

[robuk360]

Hi all,

I'm looking for help on my installation.  It was originally scheduled for 24th Nov 2022, with cabling in BT ducts to take place before.  They initially couldn't pull the cables from the main road to my house down a private street due to the rods not being long enough.  The date was changed and another team came out with longer rods, but this time they said it's a blockage on our private road and needed ground work.  The ground work hasn't been done and my install has been changed 3 more times.  I've seen vans turn up, look around, take photos of my house and leave in a few mintues.  I've had calls from VM the day before the installs saying they cannot do it, but they are so poor at speaking English I cannot understand them and the reasons why the work hasn't been done.  I've called up customer services to find out what's going on and just keep getting passed around, all forignerers that cannot understand what i'm asking and just keep saying the same things about "waiting on the council".  I've tried explaining it's not council land and nothing to do with them, but I get nowhere.  Is it possible to speak to a UK team that actaully understand the language? I use my braodband for work, so cannot keep messing around, espeicially as i'm now out of contact with talktalk and my bill has gone up a lot.  The new install date is 19th Jan 2023.  I can't even find out if permission to dig has been granted, or even requested, by the land owners down the road.

Thanks Rob.

[Andrew-G]

Amusing to hear that VM employees are blaming the council (yet again).  It's a stock excuse they use to avoid admitting that VM are incompetent in many things.

In this case, if it is Openreach ducts, then any digging and fixing will be with Openreach.  That might give hope that it will eventually be done if it's under the Openreach PIA arrangements rather than VM's own ducts, on the other hand VM can't even organise or communicate with their own subcontractors on their own network, so liaison with Openreach is likely to be shambolic, and I'd not be very confident that VM will communicate anything useful or accurate back to you.  Potentially (a) it's all tracking along nicely, whether VM will (b) know that and (c) tell you are three wholly independent variables.  And even when it's unblocked, VM will have to send their own people back to pull the VM cable.  When that has been done VM will need to send another guy to connect the cable at the network end, and probably a different guy on a separate visit to do your installation.  As you can see this will take plenty of time.   

For Openreach or any network operator, private roads are a nightmare - there should be a wayleave in place (but isn't always) there's sometimes complications of access and reinstatement.  There's also a question over whether PIA requires Openreach to clear a blocked duct without charge - as I read the relevant PIA charging details, they do charge, and the minimum price to clear a blockage is £490.  At that sort of price, with the other costs VM will incur to connect you, you're dangerously close to the level at which VM will decide your installation is outside of their set budget for new connections.   In which case, VM will simply cancel your installation and may not even tell you.  You will be eligible for compensation from the original installation date until either VM do connection you, or until they issue you a formal "cease notice" saying they won't connect you and intend to stop paying compensation (but that still requires a further 30 days compo from the date they send you the cease notice).

Where does this leave you?  Pretty much in the dark, I regret to say.

[robuk360]

Thanks for the detailed help Andrew, it's appreciated.  There is a wayleave in place, I've recently moved here and seen all the access on the contracts.  I'm not sure why they keep telling me they are going to send in the contractors to dig it up, even the workmen that have been out and done nothing say they will be dealing with the dig and nothing about Openreach.  I was even told work was scheduled yesteraday, well that never happned lol.

The compensation sounds interesting, the inital start date was 24th Novemeber, so if they have to give 30 days, even from today that's the end of January.  My next install is due 19th Jan, so I could be entitled to quite a bit by the sounds of it. 

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post on our Community Forums @robuk360, and a very warm welcome to you!

Sorry to hear of the issues with the delayed installation of your services.

Check out the purple envelope in the top right hand corner and I'll do all I can to take some details from yourself, and refer to the notes on your account, as well as referring this to the area field managers.

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[TankHavoc]

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@robuk360 wrote:

The compensation sounds interesting, the inital start date was 24th Novemeber, so if they have to give 30 days, even from today that's the end of January.  My next install is due 19th Jan, so I could be entitled to quite a bit by the sounds of it. 

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The record I have seen is £1600. Let them play their silly games and for the sake of your own sanity arrange another Internet provider in the meantime! 

[robuk360]

The saga continues.  So all this time they keep telling me they have arranged to have the road dug up and are contacting the council to get permission, on private land.  They turned up again this morning, just another normal team with a rod lol.  This is the 3rd or 4th time now and guess what, that's right, they can't get through.  This time however it's blocked in a completely different part, 100m away from the previous blockage.  At this rate they will be didging up the entire 140m run.  I have no confidence in ever getting this installed, all the time getting charged full price by TalkTalk while I wait. 

No wonder VM have a bad name.

[David_Bn]

Sorry to hear of the latest development, with a blockage recently being discovered.

Do please feel free to keep us updated with any further developments, and hopefully our team will be able to get this resolved as soon as possible.

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[Andrew-G]

I'm not sure why they keep telling me they are going to send in the contractors to dig it up, even the workmen that have been out and done nothing say they will be dealing with the dig and nothing about Openreach. 

Because VM's installation process is an omnishambles, nobody knows anything, nobody cares.  It is distinctly possible that VM will send contractors to turn up and start digging.  Interfering with Openreach ducts without their authority is undoubtedly some form of offence, but the navvies won't know anything about who owns what, they'll just have a work order from VM.  Interestingly the wayleave will also be in Openreach's name, so again VM or their subbies have no right to dig, even before they get to the duct.  Having seen some of VM's reinstatment, I hope you won't be falling out with your neighbours if VM do any digging, although the real worry is that the contractors will break Openreach connections in their enthusiasm to rod the ducting as vigorously as they would a blocked sewer....

You might want to try phoning Openreach and asking if you can speak to the relevant area manager to try and find out if VM have requested a duct blockage clearance, find out if VM are expected to do any digging, and see if there's any clarity from that side of things. 

[robuk360]

I have honestly never know such an incompitent company.  After 4 attempts to push a rod through they gave up and said it would need digging, to which they contacted all the neighbours for permission.  Once neighbour didn't understand and said no.  Within the hour of recieving a simple email from the wayleave team, i'd spoke to the neghobur, he agreed to work with Virgin and as long as kept him informed and showed him where the fix was required he seemed happy.  He didn't want them digging a million holes randomly all over his property.  Which is understandable.  I called the account manager, expalined all this and the neighour also called him and he said he would sort it and get a survery team sent out to identify the exact place of issue.  Over two weeks have passed now and i've heard nothing.  Called him, sent multiple emails, nothing.  Phone customer services today, construction team, sales and pre install team, no one can help me.  Apparently my order was cancelled on the 31st Jan.  No formal notification or anything.  No mention of the compensation up to that point or going forward.  How do I claim the compensation for this? No one at virgin seem to have a clue what to do now. 

[robuk360]

You can't even raise a complaint with these idiots.  Called customer services, asked for complaints, get passed to retentions.  Asked retentions to put me though to complaints, get put through to installs.  WOW.