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Never ending delays for pre-installation works

No_tone
Tuning in

Hi all - I am a new Virgin Media broadband customer. My original installation delay was the 31st December, however this was cancelled on the 30th December due to pre-installation external works not being completed which prevented the installation from taking place due to permits not being approved. The permits were approved in early January and a new installation date was assigned for the 23rd January by which time an engineer should have completed external works to run the cable to the property.

It's been 3 weeks and the pre-installation external work has still not been completed. When I call Virgin Media they advise that the engineer is alway scheduled for that date, but never does. I have tried to escalate this, but the manager is always in a "meeting" and there is no way to contact the engineers directly. There is currently no broadband at our home as a result and there's no clarity around when this is likely to be completed as scheduled dates seem meaningless to Virgin Media. 

Does anyone have any advice on how to manage this process or who to contact to get more information on what's preventing the external works or to somehow expedite the external works? 

 

 

9 REPLIES 9

Anonymous
Not applicable

It's an age old story on here. 

The pre-installs team can be reached on 0800 052 1734.

VM area field managers are rarer and more elusive than the benefits of Brexit. 

Nb automatic compo https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/automatic-compensation

Also raise a formal complaint https://www.virginmedia.com/help/complaints

 

Thanks, Cardiffman281. It looks like I'm not the first or the last to be in this position and I'm in for the long haul. I will make a formal complaint and continue to badger the pre-install team for updates. 

What's interesting is that I called up my local council and spoke directly to the permits officer today who said that no permit request had been raised by Virgin Media for my road or address. This is contrary to the pre-install team's update where they said the permit had been granted by the local council. Someone's telling porkies.

Kain_W
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Apologies for the issues faced No_tone,

Welcome to the community.

Just to clarify on this, has the team not got an external appointment booked in at all?

Regards,

Kain

Hi Kain - when I call the pre-install team they say that the external works are scheduled for that day, however no engineer is assigned, no work order is raised and the external works do not take place. When I think call Virgin Media, they advise that the external works did not take place and that they are again scheduled for the day I've called. 

I've just had my installation date delayed from the 23rd January to 10th February as the team need to check that they have all the permits and permissions in place to carry out the work. This was the same reason given for the original installation date on the 31st December following which I was assured by the pre-install team that the permits request had been raised and grated. However, when I called my local council last week, they advised that there has been no permit request from Virgin Media for my road in the last 2 years, which is contrary to the pre-install team's advice. 

Can you outline what's the cause of the delay and why an engineer hasn't been assigned to complete the work for 5 weeks now? 

 


@No_tone wrote:

Hi Kain - when I call the pre-install team they say that the external works are scheduled for that day, however no engineer is assigned, no work order is raised and the external works do not take place. When I think call Virgin Media, they advise that the external works did not take place and that they are again scheduled for the day I've called. 

Because that’s all that the information on the screen in front of them says, nobody in VM actually knows when or indeed if the works will be done! They have outsourced these works, which in itself is fine, but also seem to have abrogated any oversight or ownership of making sure that the contractors do it. The system says that it will be done ‘today’ and when the job isn’t logged as being completed, the system just increments the scheduled date to the next day, ad infinitum. Which is why, when you call up, the agent looks at their screen and confidently claims that ‘it will be done today’ - well it might, also Doncaster United might win the Premier League title!

Incidentally, Kain, absolutely does understand this, but as a VM employee, it is likely to be a somewhat career limiting move to openly admit it, hence the somewhat surprised ‘oh have they not booked in a date at all’ - type response! Something you may care to bear in mind if you want to reconsider haven’t VM as a supplier!

I've just had my installation date delayed from the 23rd January to 10th February as the team need to check that they have all the permits and permissions in place to carry out the work. This was the same reason given for the original installation date on the 31st December following which I was assured by the pre-install team that the permits request had been raised and grated. However, when I called my local council last week, they advised that there has been no permit request from Virgin Media for my road in the last 2 years, which is contrary to the pre-install team's advice. 

Oh now, the old, ‘the delay is all down to getting Council permits’, excuse, no sorry, outright lie has reared its ugly head again! It’s fairly common, the truth is, as above, the VM contractors haven’t even got around to arranging permits yet, possibly because they have another, more lucrative job to do first and you can, well, just do one basically. Now as stated, VM have no control over nor interest in, what the contractors are doing, so when you call them will just make something up, and the waiting for permissions, sounds reasonable. However they do rely on the majority of people not knowing that it is possible to double check this, and will just swallow it. 

Can you outline what's the cause of the delay and why an engineer hasn't been assigned to complete the work for 5 weeks now? 

Ultimately, the cause is that nobody has gotten around to you, because, as far as they are concerned, you are unimportant and can just wait - sorry, who are you again? Yes, that sounds harsh, I know, but it actually is the reality of the situation! As reported on here, the longest delay between, it will happen on this date and when the poor sap got connected up was 13 MONTHS.

Now, you don’t have to blindly believe me, just peruse this section of the forum and you will find that stories similar to yours are legion. The reasons aren’t difficult to understand, VM as a company has decided to run their customer services and installation processes like this, presumably it happens to work for the majority and is cheap. The problem arises when it doesn’t work, in which case all four wheels promptly fall of the VM wagon and you are left flapping in the breeze, but it works for most people so who cares about your case? Well certainly not VM as a company entity anyway! Individual VM employees, almost certainly do care and want to help - especially the forum team members here, but they are hamstrung by the procedures that VM as a company have in place.

Bottom line, you will be connected up when VM’s contractors get around to doing it, and nobody, not even VM’s CEO, can or indeed will do anything about it!

The question is though, what are you going to do about it?

.

 


 

Agree with everything you say jem101

I have been fighting with them since my rearranged appointments on the 

17th September 
19th October 
15th November 
8th December 
31st December 
24th January
and then rearranged for
17th February
I don’t expect that it will be installed on that date either.
I have never experienced customer service like this in my entire life

 

09loopy0
On our wavelength

It took 10 months for my pre-installation works to be done, they've even credited my account with £1070 for the delays but it is short a few hundred, it should be higher. 

Eventually they just come round to it, the VM support guy can do nothing. A few weeks before they installed I raised a complaint, that may have been the trigger to get them moving.

Hi @No_tone thanks for your post although I'm sorry to hear of your continued frustration here.

I'm unable to confirm anything here publicly, but we are limited with pre-install issues and what we can do to help over the Forums unfortunately.

What I will do though, is send you a PM as I can look to raise a complaint for you to our pre-installs team directly.

Please allow me to send you a PM so I can look into this further - kindly expect this to arrive shortly and respond directly when you can!
Many thanks

Tom_W

Hey 09loopu0, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear about your experience .

I can see you've spoke to the team about this recently, did they manage to get this resolved for you? Thanks 

Matt - Forum Team


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