@Bill-B wrote:
Hi, thanks for the link to your thread. I think I will keep my old Talk-Talk line, number, and broadband until the Virgin system is in and I know it works, which means asking Virgin for a new phone number, not a transfer.
I suppose the pertinent question I should have asked on this forum is, how do you contact someone at Virgin who actually knows what is going on and can do something about it????? Clearly the help-desk don't / can't. I initially tried the online Chat, but that didn't work. It said "We'd like to continue this conversation via WhatsApp" and asked me to input a mobile number. I don't have a smartphone and I couldn't find a way to get past the request for a mobile # so I could continue the online chat via my PC. That is why I had to ring the help-line.
It is a very pertinent question but alas the answer is, ‘you can’t’ All of this external work is outsourced, and whoever is responsible may well re-outsource it again, there is absolutely nobody working for VM who knows what is happening, who is actually doing the job or when they will turn up!
As you have seen, the way it works is that you get an installation date from VM, in your case 4th July (hint: don’t get your hopes up too much). The pre-installation work is assigned to a contractor who can turn up at any date between then and the install date to do the work - as it is all external, they consider it to not be essential that you are there. VM’s system simply says it is due to be done today (it’s always showing today), and when they don’t get confirmation from the contractors that it has been done, the date simply rolls over to the next day - and so on!
Now you might well think, 'hang on, this is a completely shambolic and dysfunctional system’, I wouldn’t like to comment. But it gets better, there are numerous reported cases of the installation engineer turning up on the day and only then finding out that there is no cable so they clear off, usually saying it all needs to be rescheduled and you’ll get a call later that day (you won’t get a call later that day), and the saga continues. The current record holder has been waiting for 13 months and counting since the first promised installation date - so you do have quite a way to go!
So good luck, the suggestion from @Adduxi to run your own conduit with a draw string exactly where you want it to go is a good one if an all possible. When (if) the installers turn up, they will want to do the job in the quickest and easiest way possible, so lifting stones etc, may be a bit problematic.
So yes, absolutely do not cancel anything with your current provider until the VM install is in an working, they will give you a temporary number first anyway and you can always ask them to port your existing number across later.
John
