Is it common for ISPs to remove cabling for debt in the UK?

[firth61]

Am finally a homeowner after many years and I am having a real headache trying to get internet installed. When Virgin Media turned up they were really confused (but friendly and helpful), as there was a VM box with no cables in it on the property. The technician said the cables look like they had been removed years ago and that new ones would have to be laid. I guessed this had to do with unpaid bills but I have no idea. Has anyone else encountered this?

[Adduxi]

Hmm, seems strange.  If you read the threads here, you will see VM very rarely, if ever remove anything from properties.  It's usually the owners who would do this, rightly or wrongly, for various reasons. It can also mark a property as "unserviceable" for VM supply.

[jpeg1]

There's no reason why VM would do this. If someone doesn't pay their bill, VM can disconnect them remotely by the click of a mouse. 

It would have been a previous subscriber who found the cable was a nuisance for some reason. 

[carl_pearce]

Not much £ copper from the cables removed, so I assume the prevoius owner wanted rid of the redundant cables as not making use of VM services.

[Sabrina_B]

Hi @firth61 👋.

Thanks for reaching out to us and welcome to the Community Forums. Apologies for the issues that you are having with your installation, there can be a number of reasons that we would remove cabling from a customers property leading up to the service cabinet in the street. Have you been informed of a date for new cabling to be laid to your property to obtain our services? 

Our Pre-Installations team will be able to advise further on this matter: 📞 0800 052 1734.

Sabrina