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Installation date delayed 3 times

sohen1923
Tuning in

Does VM really takes 3 monts to install their work? Bought the internet in last December (1st week). Received email confirming it will be installed before Christmas. Then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (10.01.23). I waited for a month then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (25.01.23). I contacted their customer service promised they will raise the complain and try to arrange the works to be done before their suggested date. Today, on 20.01.23 I received another email saying additional works required and moved the date to 14.02.23. What kind of works are they doing? Should I really wait for another month or shop around? Or wait for another 10 emails to reach 1 year wait?

 

 

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goslow
Alessandro Volta

@sohen1923 wrote:

Does VM really takes 3 monts to install their work? Bought the internet in last December (1st week). Received email confirming it will be installed before Christmas. Then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (10.01.23). I waited for a month then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (25.01.23). I contacted their customer service promised they will raise the complain and try to arrange the works to be done before their suggested date. Today, on 20.01.23 I received another email saying additional works required and moved the date to 14.02.23. What kind of works are they doing? Should I really wait for another month or shop around? Or wait for another 10 emails to reach 1 year wait?


While you wait you will be eligible for compensation as per scheme details here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

and updated rates here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat...

VM generally tries to dodge paying this on the topics which crop up on here for installations with lengthy delays so you may need to escalate to arbitration for any payment.

Advice often given on here is to put in place some kind of temporary connectivity on a rolling monthly basis 4/5G mobile data/hotspot etc. or an Openreach connection on a rolling monthly basis while you wait.

Unfortunately VM's installation processes are so flawed that, when it all goes wrong, getting a reliable answer from VM is all but impossible.

See where this Helpful Answer was posted

23 REPLIES 23

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@sohen1923 wrote:

Does VM really takes 3 monts to install their work? Bought the internet in last December (1st week). Received email confirming it will be installed before Christmas. Then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (10.01.23). I waited for a month then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (25.01.23). I contacted their customer service promised they will raise the complain and try to arrange the works to be done before their suggested date. Today, on 20.01.23 I received another email saying additional works required and moved the date to 14.02.23. What kind of works are they doing? Should I really wait for another month or shop around? Or wait for another 10 emails to reach 1 year wait?


While you wait you will be eligible for compensation as per scheme details here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

and updated rates here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat...

VM generally tries to dodge paying this on the topics which crop up on here for installations with lengthy delays so you may need to escalate to arbitration for any payment.

Advice often given on here is to put in place some kind of temporary connectivity on a rolling monthly basis 4/5G mobile data/hotspot etc. or an Openreach connection on a rolling monthly basis while you wait.

Unfortunately VM's installation processes are so flawed that, when it all goes wrong, getting a reliable answer from VM is all but impossible.

jem101
Superstar

@sohen1923 wrote:

Does VM really takes 3 monts to install their work? Bought the internet in last December (1st week). Received email confirming it will be installed before Christmas. Then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (10.01.23). I waited for a month then received another email saying need extra work, delayed until (25.01.23). I contacted their customer service promised they will raise the complain and try to arrange the works to be done before their suggested date. Today, on 20.01.23 I received another email saying additional works required and moved the date to 14.02.23. What kind of works are they doing? Should I really wait for another month or shop around? Or wait for another 10 emails to reach 1 year wait?

 

 


It might interest you, or possibly horrify you, to know that the longest reported delay on these forums between the first, ‘absolutely guaranteed’ installation date and when the poor sap was finally connected up was a little over 13 MONTHS. 

Now usual advice, set yourself a mental deadline, ie end of the month, and if VM haven’t ‘extracted digit’ and got you connected up, then you will look elsewhere. But whatever you do DO NOT CANCEL, on the grounds that you are entitled to compensation for each and every day that they kept you waiting for an installation. 

So let’s imagine that on 31st February*, you get connected up, by now you have been with <insert other less incompetent supplier here>, for a month at least, you test the VM connection and then immediately cancel without any penalty under the 14 day distance selling regulations. But you now know that the cables are all in place and working if you want it give VM another go in the future. Also the £5.25 (or so) per day compensation is still valid, with any luck VM’s incompetence will pay for your broadband connection from A N Other for the next year!

 Now, realistically, you will have to do a bit of work to get said compensation, no doubt VM’s terminally incompetent backend systems will deny that they owe you anything, you may be fed the usual lies, and that’s all fine really! If and when push comes to shove, you play the game, escalate it to the industry arbitration service, add on a couple of hundred pounds extra compensation for poor complaint handling, failure to abide by the OFCOM regulations which VM willingly signed up for, inconvenience etc, I’m sure I could think of more!

*Yes, I know that date doesn’t exist, bit like the chances of the poster here of getting a sensible and acceptable resolution from VM without having to pull out the heavy guns. No?

Andrew-G
Alessandro Volta

But you now know that the cables are all in place and working if you want it give VM another go in the future.

Whilst I endorse jem101's strategy (in fact I think first proposed by user -tony-), there is a small downside to this in that for a typical house installation you'll have a brown "omnibox" bolted to your outside wall, cabling running to that, you'll have a hole drilled through the wall and an internal connection box fitted somewhere. Sometimes that's neat, unobtrusive and professional.  Sometimes it looks like Mr Bean made the installation.

Depending on how well this is done, and how house-proud you are this may or may not matter.  And then there's other "stakeholders".  My wife would have my ****s if I allowed a company to do that for a service that I immediately cancelled.


@Andrew-G wrote:

But you now know that the cables are all in place and working if you want it give VM another go in the future.

Whilst I endorse jem101's strategy (in fact I think first proposed by user -tony-), there is a small downside to this in that for a typical house installation you'll have a brown "omnibox" bolted to your outside wall, cabling running to that, you'll have a hole drilled through the wall and an internal connection box fitted somewhere. Sometimes that's neat, unobtrusive and professional.  Sometimes it looks like Mr Bean made the installation.

Depending on how well this is done, and how house-proud you are this may or may not matter.  And then there's other "stakeholders".  My wife would have my ****s if I allowed a company to do that for a service that I immediately cancelled.


Actually yes, good point!

  • Thanks for your suggestion. I bought a 4G router and use unlimited sims as you suggested. 
  • Another reschedule from VM now the installation date is moved to March. 
  • I rang the pre-installation team and they have sent an engineer. He said there is a blockage and he could not do anything but he said another team will pull the cable on 16th Feb (today). So I waited the whole day and no one came. 
  • At this point I am not even suprise. Will wait till they sort this thing out and claim the compensation. 

Again, thank you so much for all of your advices.

OP, I'm sorry to hijack the thread...

@goslow, quick question regarding this automatic compensation -

"One of our lovely technicians will be round to install your kit on 29th November" - I was told 6pm 28th November that it'll be delayed because "we need to do some extra work outside". Long story short, in your opinion, would I be eligible for automatic compensation even if the reason that it's delayed is effectively 'insufficient infrastructure' (and made aware 7hrs before the due date lol)

After 4 delays, my new date is set for next Thursday, over 12 week later... I've already contacted the Ombudsman, and a representative of VM template replied 'We'll look into automatic compensation and talk to the relevant people to see if you're elgible', and considering declining the offer and allow the Ombudsman to investigate further if, for whatever reason, I'm not eligble for compensation for a 3 month delay..

goslow
Alessandro Volta

@Frolicly wrote:
OP, I'm sorry to hijack the thread...

@goslow, quick question regarding this automatic compensation -

<snip>

Refer to the OFCOM minimum requirements doc at message #2 above (specifically para 9)

9. Subject to paragraph 40 (exclusions), a Communications Provider must pay automatic compensation to a customer if it does not activate a customer’s fixed line or broadband service by 11.59pm on the date initially confirmed in writing with that customer.

Key words are initially, confirmed and writing

VM has invented the idea of a 'provisional' activation date (the word 'provisional' does not appear in the OFCOM doc) and has tried to retrospectively apply it in past topics (as a means to avoid paying compensation) when the installation ran into problems. In this topic

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Compensation-awarded-by-CISAS-after-faile...

an adjudication found that VM had not offered a provisional date and awarded compensation to the customer.

So, when you placed your order, if the info you received advised that "One of our lovely technicians will be round to install your new kit on 29th November" then that would be your activation date confirmed in writing (unless VM gave you any other information to the contrary at the time when you placed the order). Telling you of a delay the night before your activation date is due does not retrospectively make that original date provisional I would suggest.

The first bit of compensation to be applied would be £26.24 for a missed appointment with less than 24 hours notice. Then 79 days at £5.25 per day would be £414.75 making a running total of £440.99 if I have understood everything above and done my sums correctly.

In similar past cases reported on here, VM representatives on the phone have provided inaccurate, incomplete or misleading information about the compensation scheme and how it should be applied. Presumably the hope is that the waiting customer will just give up and make no claim at all. In the handful of cases which have been reported back on here, customers who have been let down by VM have been awarded substantial compensation when the compensation scheme has been applied correctly. Unfortunately this has invariably involved a complaint to VM first of all (a required formality) before referring to the ombudsman.

Do also refer to para's 36 to 39 in the OFCOM doc regarding a 'cease notice' which VM must give you if they are no longer going to provide compensation. Compensation continues to be applied until they issue one (if they are going to give up and abandon your installation for example). I can't recall reading a topic on here where anyone has reported receiving a cease notice.

If the explanation for the delay is 'insufficient infrastructure' that could mean all sorts of things (including no capacity to connect you in the cabinet or some bigger issue in your area or something else to do with bringing a cable to your home).

The ombudsman won't do any investigating for you. It is up to you to provide sufficient evidence for your claim. They will review the case based on the evidence provided by both sides and come to a decision. Accurate details of all the events in sequence and all communications with VM are everything in making sure you get paid the right compensation. So have a read through the OFCOM scheme and work out what you think you are due in line with the scheme's terms.

In the meantime consider the advice to get some temporary connectivity in place while you wait for VM to install.

 

Hi sohen1923,

Thank you for your post. I'm very sorry to hear about the issues you've had with your installation. 

Can you confirm if you have had any further update regarding this since your last post?

^Martin

Well well well. 

This is the 6th time the installation date have been postponed. Last two time VM doesn't even bother sending me email or call. I had to check in the app and chase it up. Each time I rang VM promised this time it will be installed. By now I don't trust you guys anymore. 

Seems like your pre-installation team and contractors don't care about customer anyway.