Installation will not be carried out in a new build

[huri000]

I am about to purchase a flat in a new build that has overall 3 flats. One of the first checks that I did was to confirm that the house has Virgin Media broadband available, as VM is the only decent ISP able to provide more than 70Mb in my area. 

From checking the availability in the Postcode Checker, it turned out that the two adjascent houses have Virgin Media connection. However, my future house does not.

My wife and I have spent over 5 hours chatting to VM over the past two weeks, trying to understand the situation.

Yesterday, a representative called back telling me that VM is not planning to carry out installation in the house because the house is a conversion and planning permission would be required to initiate the process. He was not able to expose more information as to why this is such a complicated process, but he was clear that VM is not going to prioritise the installation, and there is nothing that we or he can do to unblock ourselves.

The house we are buying is a semi-detached house, and the adjascent properties (including the other part of the house) both have VM, so why is installation not be possible?

In addition, one of the support representitives noted that the property had been connected to VM in the past, probably before it was rebuilt.

When we started interacting with VM, we thought that the installation process was a trifle, but the past days we have become increasingly concerned about it.

As we both work from home, a good broadband connection is our lifeline.

Can someone please try to help us solve this?

[Christy_D]

Good morning,

I can look into this for you

I’ll pop over a private message to take some details 

Thanks

Christy 

[huri000]

Hey Christy, 

It’s been a week since my first question and I’d like to check in.

Could you please let me know if you’ve found anything re: installation at the property.

Many thanks in advance, 🙏 

~ Daniel

[Kath_F]

Hi Daniel, 

Thanks for your post and apologies to hear that you have not heard anything back from the teams yet. 

We can certainly check the address for the latest update but if you have already been advised that it's unlikely we'll be able to install you then this isn't something we can over ride I'm afraid. 

Either way I can check and get a final decision for you. I have sent you a private message regarding this. Just click on the little plum envelope at the top right-hand side of the page to access your inbox.

Thanks, 

[Kath_F]

Hi huri000, 

Thanks for coming back to me so quickly via private message. I have forwarded the address over to our lightning teams now to see if there are any plans. 

Once I get a reply from the team I will let you know, good or bad. Just to set expectations it may take a few days depending on how busy they are 🙂

Speak soon,
 

[huri000]

Thanks a lot. Hope there will be some good news soon!

[Steven_L]

You're welcome @huri000 and I do hope that we have some good news in the near future for you.

Regards,

Steven_L

[Kath_F]

Hi huri000, 

I just wanted to pop you a post to say that I've not forgotten about you. 

I am still speaking with the team regarding this one. At first, the address wasn't appearing on the Royal Mail site so it couldn't update on our systems but this has since updated so I've forwarded this over. 

We are waiting for our systems to update with your address since all other addresses in the street are serviceable. It may still be a few weeks but I'm hopeful things will be updated soon. 

As soon as I have any further news, I will let you know. 

Thanks, 

[huri000]

Thanks @Kath for actioning this on my behalf, and Esp. for being open about the progress at VM.
Really look forward to reading more great news 🙂

[huri000]

@Kath, hope there are any news?

Since it has been almost 5 weeks since I last heard from VM and there is no resolution in sight, I've issued disconnection from VM broadband services.
---
I swear that I've never tried so hard to keep getting services from a company, but unfortunately it appears that VM does not want my monies

I pay more than 60 GBP / month - quick calculation reveals that by the time I'm finished paying my mortgage, VM will have received more than 10k GBP from me (if you kept me as a customer)

Is 10k not worth it to VM long term??? What kind of business model is that? 😞