Virgin Media Community

[mattH117]

Hiya, new customer here. I've been eagerly awaiting Virgin in our area for quite some time and a few months back work had begun to bring Virgin in. On the waiting list I finally received notification that it was going to be ready and having witnessed the works going on at the new cabinets, then finally the trenches directly outside the house (blocking our drive for quite some time I might add!) I was getting very excited.

A few weeks later I was given the all clear and immediately placed my order for Gig1.

Our installation date has already been moved three times as "extra work outside" is required yet at no point has anybody actually showed up outside. We had an engineer visit after my last phone call with preinstall team who confirmed the microduct is ready and simply needs fibre blown down by a third party company... Alas nobody has visited. CCTV footage captures the toby right outside the house which remains untouched. Install date has since been moved again!!

Calls to preinstall team simply give me todays date for external works but this is clearly just a placeholder. I feel helpless and frustrated...

I've seen plenty of other reports of the same issues and no solution... just keep waiting and hope that one day somebody actually turns up!?

[-tony-]

welcome to the wonderful world of VM - search for other threads of a similar nature - its all there 

but there is good news you are due compensation of a fiver and a bit a day from the 1st install date you were given and if you decide that VM are as rubbish at CS as you are quickly learning dont cancel the install - let them carry on being pretty useless and collect a fiver a day until they finally get all the things in place and then cancel

you might have to push for the compo as they will likely say you are not due any or much but if that happens come back for advice

[Kath_F]

Hi mattH117, 

Thanks for your post and welcome to the forums. It's great having you on board with us in the Community. ⭐

I'm really sorry to hear that we've had to put the installation on hold for now due to further works being needed to be completed. 

Whilst this isn't ideal, it does happen on occasions due to the way we provide our network. Sometimes this can take around 10 weeks to complete depending on the issue at hand. 

Whilst we're not able to expedite things, I'm happy to take a look at things for you to have the latest update.

To do this I will need some information from you in order to help. I have sent you a private message regarding this and will investigate further once I receive your reply. Just click on the little plum envelope at the top right hand side of the page to access your inbox.

Thanks,

[mattH117]

Hi Kath thanks for the message. I have sent you account details.

I understand delays can happen however this seems an excessively long time to have somebody blow fibre down the microduct to the house. There has been absolutely zero works attempted on this... 

[-tony-]

it can sometimes take 10 weeks - where did that come from - a wet finger in the air i guess - the longest we know of via the forum is 13 months and there are others - still its better than the old [defunked] excuse that council permits can take 6 weeks when in fact its usually 48 hours

[mattH117]

"Depending on the issue at hand" so could still blame council haha.

I know what the issue is but nobody at Virgin seems to know, nor do they seem to care as nothing is being processed. Intrigued to see if mod team come to the same conclusion as me or reel the same excuses pre-install team use?

[mattH117]

Who would have guessed... Installation has been moved yet again! Despite having had a call only yesterday to confirm installation was going ahead. I told them on the phone it's not going to happen and they assured me it would. Too predictable...

Apparently two months isn't enough time to blow fibre from one end of the road to the other...

[Kath_F]

Hi mattH117, 

Thanks for coming back to us in the Community regarding this. 

We're sorry to hear the installation has been delayed again. As per our latest update via Private Message, I can see the complaint is still open and sitting with the relevant team and we're not able to expedite the process I'm afraid. 

We need the work to be completed before we can complete the installation. 

For any further updates, please call the team on 150 / 0345 454 1111 and select options 1, 3 then 1 again and this will get you through to the pre-installs team. 

Apologies once again. 

Thanks, 

[mattH117]

Delayed yet again. Now the latest date is 27th March.

Absolute joke as it's very clear nobody is even attempting to blow the fibre line down.

96 days/3 months... for... nothing to happen?

[goslow]

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@mattH117 wrote:

Delayed yet again. Now the latest date is 27th March.

Absolute joke as it's very clear nobody is even attempting to blow the fibre line down.

96 days/3 months... for... nothing to happen?

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If the 96 days is from 'the date initially confirmed in writing' when VM first said a VM technician would activate your services, when you first placed your order, then you would be entitled to 96 days x £5.25 = £504 and counting (plus any technician failed visits when you were asked to be home and VM did not give you 24 hours notice of the cancellation @ £26.24).

Read the compensation scheme minimum requirements below

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

and current rates

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

Keep accurate, ongoing records in the form of a timeline to track all of VM's failures. This will help ensure you receive any compensation due (especially if/when you have to go to arbitration to get paid).