Installation caused damage to render

[garethstamp]

Good afternoon. Fibre was run to my property today, but it seems when fixing the box to the wall there has been some damage to the render. I've included some photos below.

Can anyone advise how I'd go about raising this with Virgin?

[Ayisha_B]

Hi @garethstamp 👋

Welcome to our Community Forums and tanks for your post. 

I am sorry to see the damage caused to your render during install.

I would like to look into this further so will pop you a PM 📩 now and we can take it from there. 

Hope to hear from you soon.

[Ayisha_B]

Thanks for taking the time out to speak with me via PM @garethstamp 

As advised, the complaint has been raised and is currently with our Install & Construction team for further investigation. 

They will seek to get in touch asap.

[garethstamp]

After four weeks of no contact I received a letter today stating:

"We would like to inform you that we have thoroughly investigated the complaint you raised regarding damage to your render and after careful examination and consultation with our engineers, we regret to inform you that we are unable to accept liability for this incident."

The letter then goes on to recommend I contact the legal team if I would like to take this further.

It is puzzling how they managed to thoroughly investigate and conduct careful examination without ever contacting me (no phone call, no email to request photos) or visiting the premises.

Is this something to pursue with the Ombudsman or would it need to be taken further via the Small Claims Court?

[jpeg1]

As predicted above, VM's usual bullying attitude. "We don't care, talk to our lawyers".  

It's not a job for the Ombudsman, you'd have to go to the Small Claims Court with the photos and a bill for the professional repair.  VM of course are betting that it will be too much trouble and you'll give up.  That's your choice of course 

You'll know what to do of course when your contract comes up for renewal, and in the meantime you will no doubt have opportunities to let friends and contacts know your option of Virginmedia's customer service. 

[Cardiffman282]

Although there was no attempt to contact you I imagine there was some degree of internal communication about this by email/Teams. It would be interesting to see just how considered, professional, and respectful it all was... https://www.virginmedia.com/help/dsar-faq

[-tony-]

well that went exactly as expected - its never their fault - all in your court and if you have the patience or determination to take it further - staff may get back to the thread with further offers to help - they have shown what they can [actually] do which is nothing - you can search for the email for the ceo which is not actually hiis but a path to the executive CS team - you might get somewhere - again it depends if you can be bothered - or accept the level of CS you have had [none] and sort it yourself at your expense

its how VM works - the customer is just a cash cow and a major pain in the a r s e when anything goes wrong

[unisoft]

As jpeg1 says, smalls claims court. Not too difficult to do and they will likely settle up before.

You can see its fresh in the photo and the wall plug has gone in too close to side rendering causing it to pop the render, but I can't know exactly where their screw hole mount on the case with alignment of what looks like a wall plug.

If VM have photos or video of work completed after and it's fine - and the popping happened later, then that is going to be more difficult. If it's reasonable cost to fix and a proper trades person, it's more in your favour.

Don't be scared by the contact legal team; it's there to frighten you off. Either get a solicitor to begin a letter to their legal department or go small claims court.

[unisoft]

You'll need to know the cost of the repair in advance so probably best to have a couple of quotes and the one chosen for repair.

Mediation Service:

https://www.gov.uk/make-court-claim-for-money/mediation

Citizen's Advice Bureau:

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/deciding-whether-to-make-...

You should try to exhaust contact with VM and legal team prior to small claims process.

A solicitor may cost more than the repair itself and I'm unclear if their cost can be claimed for. Some solicitors give 30 minutes' legal advice for free. If you have legal protection on buildings insurance they will likely help you with advice.