Virgin Media Community

[deucecorp]

Hi,

West London, moved to a new flat.

New broadband line ordered, Kelly Communication (their contractor) appeared here 10 days ago, didn't do the cable pulls, guy was very rude and angry to come here all the way from Enfield. Spent two minutes at the property then jumped into his van and left.

I tried to approach other Kelly Group / Virgin guys installing a neighbour a few days ago, if they could take a quick look at the state of my installation because first guy found some blockage .. Cable pull guys straight away told me "go buddy, you can call the council". They refused to do anything.

Since then the 'Service request' or 'pre-pull' date is delayed daily, app showing 31st March, 1st April, 2nd April but no one comes to the premises and no updates.

Customer services are useless, before ordering the service agent on the phone said Quick Install available for the property. Then it turned out normal engineer installation needed.

Today one guy transferred me to some old disconnected CC phone number of theirs. IVR voice said Manchester Operations Centre and then line disconnected. Second guy told me to call their contractor but he didn't even knew their name (Kelly Communication it is), third guy played old customer services trick to fake it line is breaking up and he just interrupted the call. 4th guy I already asked manager call back straight away.

I didn't argue with them, just repeated the story and tried to request information what can be done to have my installation succeed.

My agreed final installation date is 6th of April, my partner took a day off work to be at home whole day.

I hope someone will turn up at the property and have this installed, with council pavement works and all that, otherwise I will definitely raise complaints on every possible level.

I understand Covid measures, but rude behaviour of engineers and totally lack of information is not acceptable I believe. Not a single message, email or phone call. Up until ONE working day before the installation!

[DJ_Shadow1966]

Hello

From what you have said there is a blocked duct, so in cases like this Virginmedia need permission from the local council to potentially do some form of digging either in the road or on the pavement and in these cases the council can take between 6 to 8 weeks to give this permission before work can be done.

Regards Mike

[deucecorp]

Thank you for your answer.

I'm well aware of the procedure as I used to work in this. Though I'd argue requesting/granting permission from local council would take 6-8 weeks. That's just fairy tales communicated wrongly to the customer to protect themselves buying some time.

I have seen plenty of digging works going through and being completed in a few days time even (yes, less than a week). The situation is more like they announce road works to the council who is willing to give green lights to 90% of these works straight away (== lifting one piece of pavement slab in my case only).

This is not a lane closure of the M25. 😁 Two weeks passed, so that council notice should have been granted already.

The problem is, that nothing is communicated towards the customer. Agents just unplug the phone mimicking a lost call or repeating the same dates what I see on My Virgin Media app. They also stated they do not communicate with their contractor at all, what actually sounds pretty dreadful. 

As I said above my partner took a day off from work for Tuesday 6th April, the proposed installation day. Would be great if someone actually turned up and do some efforts at least say a 'hello' when seeing the customer or advise what's going on.

[deucecorp]

Updates:

On Saturday 03/04 Virgin confirmed my appointment of 06/04 for the installation in a text message.

Today 05/04 5PM phone is ringing, they apologise but they can not install tomorrow, my pre-pull day with the contractor has been moved to 15/04 and installation day to 21/04. 

No manager call back, no response to my written complaint so far.

[BreadHead]

Exactly the same is happening with me. Ordered start of march and now been pushed back twice to the 25th may. Customer service is an absolute joke. Il most likely be switching to BT

[Corey_C]

Thanks for your post and update, deucecorp,

Sorry to hear that you install has not gone as planned. It will be as @DJ_Shadow1966 advised that delays can be due to permits.  Apologies for the delays.

You are able to track the progress of your complaint from your online account here: https://my.virginmedia.com/my-cases/view Complaints can take up 28 days before you receive an update or resolution depending on the nature and complexity of your complaint. You are welcome to check with our team here by text: 07533051809. If you are dissatisfied with the length of time or the resolution of your complaint then we do advise taking it to 3rd party adjudication. You can read more about this, here: https://virg.in/comcop

Cheers,

Corey C

[deucecorp]

Dear Corey_C,

I see this 'council permit' is the real scapegoat here. You probably didn't work in this, happy to inform you, even a traffic management lights controlled main road lane closure permit can be sourced and set up the whole event in 1-2 weeks with all the workers scheduled and safety equipment transported on-site ready to carry out the dig. (In case you really want to push the job and/or the customer is furious.). And I'm talking serious jobs like road closures, not basic level1 pavement slabs works... 

As I said above already, notices are handed in to the council and they straight away reply that works can go ahead or not (usually within 24 hours or same working day). Blaming the council for any delay of these works is just pure miscommunication. Council even replies with a possible future time frame when the works could get a green light in case of granting permit being refused by them.

Yes, we can stick to 6-8 weeks or 28 days, or how about just replying "we do our best to establish the services" and actually communicate between both you and your contractor and the customer too? 😁 

I just called the contractor Kelly Group myself, (VM CC advised to that anyway). My job is scheduled for Monday 12th Apr. While Virgin Media both on their app and over the phone stated Thursday 15th Apr for these works..

Lack of communication or miscommunication again between the two companies.. Up until 05/04 VM communicated to me they are 99.99% sure it can be and will be connected on 06/04. 🙂 One agent even told me "we can clear the blockage and pull in the cables on same day don't worry".

Still waiting for my manager call back. Never happens. But happy you guys trying to communicate to me what you have learned on the 1-2 days long trainings.

[Beth_G]

Hi deucecorp,

I am really sorry that you have not had the best experience since signing up to our services, it's disappointing to hear that you have been left in the dark.

I can see that you do have an open complaint which has been assigned to the Installation and Constructions Team, I have contacted them and asked for them to make contact as soon as possible to discuss a resolution with you.

If you have any other questions or concerns in the meantime please don't hesitate to ask us.

Kindest regards,

Beth

[deucecorp]

15/04/2021 - 16:09 - Contractor didn't appear to clear the blockage(s) or do the prepull. Zero communication from both Virgin Media and Kelly Communications.

As already mentioned above, they were scheduled to attend on Monday, 12th April 1PM onwards, when I called them 10 days ago.. My Virgin app shows 15th though.

Not sure this will be connected on official install day 21th April. 1 month passed by since the order was placed... 

[Zak_M]

Thank you for coming back to us @deucecorp 

I am going to pop you over a PM so that I can get some account information.  I would like to try and get to the bottom of this. 

Kind regards,

Zak_M