Need a spotter to attend - how ?

[josh94]

My parents are moving into a property which does not have VM installed, but all properties surrounding the area do have it installed.

VM are only interested in 'new install' being fibre, but are neglecting to realise the nearest property is around 1.2m away from the boundary which does have cable, all the properties are close together. 

I have been on the phone multiple times this morning all saying that they are transferring me to a team which can arrange a spotter but then it rings and immediately hangs up.

I believe there are even ducts going to the property already but have no cable in them and are the property of VM, although this is what the developers have stated and they may have no idea. Openreach's ducts come directly from the path to the properties and do appear to be different. 

Would appreciate any help here please, many thanks forum!!

[Adri_G]

Thanks for replying about this wificallerrors, I'm sure this will be picked up and you will receive our help since you've already sent out the info to our team.
Let us know how you get on and if you need more help.

[wificallerrors]

Thanks, Adri. Unfortunately there has been no progress/update since I first contacted Virgin Media about this in mid June. I’ve been told these spotter requests can sometimes take up to a year. As the house/flat next to my flat already has 1 Gig fiber with Virgin Media, and as it is literally the same street name/number, I think it might be very likely that you would be able to provide broadband internet for my flat as well. It is just unfortunate that the spotter request is slowing down the process to this extent. My understanding is that a spotter would simply need to come to the address, take a look at the outside of the building, and then mark the address as (potentially) serviceable in your system. And once that has happened - we would be able to proceed with booking a (pre-installation) engineer? 

Would there be any way for you to try to escalate this with the AFM's (Area Field Managers) for Headington, Oxford? Thanks 

[Matthew_ML]

Hey wificallerrors, thank you letting me know this and I am sorry about the long delay of the team getting back to you.

Normally what we would do is fill out a sheet and the specialist team would give you a call within 10 working days.

As we filled this form out for you on the 7th August, this lies within the 10 working day time frame.

I am sure someone will reach out shortly with an update. 

[wificallerrors]

Hi Matt, I appreciate that - but there have been “spotter requests” submitted since early July. 

And going back to mid June, I’ve submitted multiple “Tell Us Where You Live”-forms (online, on your website). And when submitting those types of forms you get an automated response saying something to the effect of “We will contact you within 10 days to let you know what services are available!”

I am not sure if the form the forum team members submit is similar to that online form. But in any case, I have never received a callback or email from Virgin Media in response to my ten or so forms that I have submitted since two months back.

I am literally looking out the window at the neighbouring flat which has 1 Gig fiber with Virgin Media. It is situated about 3 meters away from my flat, so I think you would have no problem getting my flat connected as well if only someone would mark my address as serviceable. 

Also I’m not sure if I’ve mentioned this, but oddly my address is showing up as serviceable on the Virgin Media Business website, and I seem to be able to order 1 Gig fiber as a business customer. With that in mind would you be able to help mark the address as serviceable in the residential system as well (to match Virgin Media Business)? Thanks 

[Kath_F]

Hi wificallerrors, 

Thanks for coming back to us on this one and apologies to hear you've not had any reply from the forms yet. 

If the address has been marked as a business address then this would be why it's showing as unserviceable on the residential platform. 

A spotter wouldn't be able to do anything I'm afraid. Instead you'll need to contact the sales team on 0800 183 1234. Advise them that the address is showing as serviceable on the Business site and they will directly contact our internal house files teams to get this swapped back over to residential. From there you can then order services 🙂 

Keep us posted with how you get on. 

Thanks, 

[wificallerrors]

Thanks for the advice, Kath_F. I don’t mean to disagree - but I have seen cases where an address is marked as serviceable in both the residential and business platforms simultaneously. And in my 25+ phone calls with Virgin Media during the last 2 months I’ve never heard anyone mention that the two systems are “competing” in any way. 

For example - in the case of the neighbouring flat that is already serviceable, I am able to find that exact address on both the residential and business websites. I’ve seen this multiple times in the last weeks, and I just confirmed it on both websites to make sure that’s still the case. 

I have pleaded with sales, and movers, and ‘movers pre installation’ to please add the address to the residential system as it is already marked as serviceable on the business platform. But so far this hasn’t helped in any way I’m afraid. 

I don’t mind trying to call the sales team again and specifically request that they ask the internal house files teams to add the address. But I’ve been informed by the people working at movers pre installation that the Area Field Manager might be the only one who can help with this request. Would you or anyone on your team be able to contact the AFM on my behalf? Or is there any way for me to get in direct contact with the AFM (via phone/email)? Thanks 

[wificallerrors]

Just to clarify - the address is for a newly built property (which happens to be at the exact same street name/number as a neighbouring address which is currently serviceable by Virgin Media), so there has never been any active business accounts associated with this particular address. 

Perhaps you meant that if ever someone registers a business at an address that is shown as serviceable in both the residential and business platforms - then that address would then be removed from the residential service? 

In this case though, it is a completely new address, which until recently hasn’t been added to Royal Mail’s database. The address is now showing on Royal Mail’s and Virgin Media Business’ websites - but not on the Virgin Media residential website. So if anything I believe this simply means that the Business platform is just one step ahead of the residential platform when it comes to adding new addresses (?)

[Ilyas_Y]

Thank you for chatting with us today.

I'm glad we were able to get down to the bottom of the issue.
Let us know how it goes when speaking with the team and we can continue from there.

Kind regards.

[VM-Jon]

Hi @joeattridge 

Thank you for reaching out to us here, to the community.

Please accept our apologies for the difficulties you are having, I would like to take a look at this for you and see what I can do to help. In order to do so I will need a little bit more detail so I will send you a private message.

Thank you

Jon