No installation

[slogess]

Towards the end of January received a card through the letterbox advertising that ultrafast Virgin Media broadband was now available in my area, as my combined broadband telephone from BT and TV from Sky were really quite expensive getting it all through VM looked quite attractive.  I made some enquiries and was persuaded the the Volt ultimate package was the one for me, agreed on a 15th Mar installation date to give 31 day notice to BT & Sky was informed some engineers would do an inspection the week before.

Just a quick local description I live on a small estate of high end houses, my street has 10 houses 7 on the road and 3 including mine at the end of a 60 ish meter private drive/lane the lane is about 2/3  along the road my house and another of similar size sits on the left of the lane with a larger house opposite, the lane has a narrow grass verge on each side.

The BT hatch sits on the pavement about 5 meters to the right of the lane, the ducting appears to run down the right hand grass verge and through the end of my neighbour’s drive splitting off to connect to mine and the other house on the left.

A guy from Virgin turns the week before the 15th I show him where the BT point connects to the wall he marks that and the end of my drive with green spray, a couple of days later a van with some guys turn up dig a couple of holes expose the ducting find that they can’t pull trough, get verbal permission to dig a bit on my neighbours drive then declare there is a blockage somewhere between my neighbour’s drive and the BT hatch and can’t do anymore until they get written permission they fill in the holes and say someone will be in touch.

Now the saga begins

11/03/2022 1st email from VM installation on hold need permission of neighbour request contact details for neighbour, spoke with neighbour hereafter referee to as GN good neighbour, he provided his contact details but said he might need to run it past to his solicitor - contact details sent to VM by email.

14/03/2022   Emailed vm asking if there was any update, they replied still waiting for GN contact details, advised I had already sent this but will send it again, they confirmed they have received the details and sent the Wayleave forms.

15/03/2022. Email to vm asking if they had heard from my GN, they respond no still waiting, GN sent the permission back that evening.

16/03/2022  GN confirmed he had signed and returned permission, vm still say they are waiting permission.

18/03/2022. vm still say they have not received permission and have resent the form, GN says he had returned the signed form.

21/03/2022. Email vm they are still saying they have not received permission, I know GN has returned the signed form twice now.

21/03/2022. Email from vm informing that installation is now 04/04/2022 between 13:00 & 18:00

23/04/2022. Email to vm knowing that neighbour has sent permission twice now asking if it has been received and when a team will attend clear the blockage and pull the cable.

24/03/2022. Email from vm saying they have not heard anything from GN and have resent the documents today.

25/03/2022. Email to vm confirming that I had spoken to GN and he had sent the permission form.

28/03/2022. Email to vm, confirming that my neighbour had sent the permission form back he also gave me a copy which I scanned and sent with the email, this was now 4 times the signed form has been returned.

29/03/2022. Email from vm response to the above they confirm they have received the permission and my installation date is 04/04/2022.

29/03/2022. Email to vm asking about when the further work would be carried out - investigate and clear blockage so a cable could be pulled through ready for the installation on 04/04/2022 after all that was what the Wayleave permission was for and they confirmed they now had that.

29/03/2022. Email from vm in response to the above say GN neighbour had advised that the rubbish that was blocking the access had been removed.

This is completely false there was never any rubbish causing access problems, the problem is a blockage in the BT ducting they want to run a fibre cable through.

29/03/2022. Email to vm re above stating that was completely false there had never been any rubbish causing access problems and the work required was to investigate and clear a blockage then pull a cable through so installation could go ahead on 04/04/2022. Wanted someone to call my mobile and clarify this and confirm this work was going to be completed before the installation date, no one ever did.

30/03/2022.  Email from vm re 04/04 they stated that the external and internal works would be completed on the same day for this type of installation and that there would be a site survey on 01/04/2022 to assess the work that needed to take place.

I guess that the original survey and the work carried out on 11/03/2022 that found the blockage or the wayleave permission they requested don’t count for anything.

30/03/2022. Email to vm gave a summary of the work or rather the lack of it since 11/03/2022 and what work was required to complete the installation.

31/03/2022. Email from vm thanking me for the email and saying they can see the installation is due on 04/04/2022 is to be completed by a team that specialises in completing installations that have failed due to issues with ducting and it will take place between 13:00 & 18:00 and they apologise for any inconvenience caused.

01/04/2022. Single guy in a vm van turns up, he is not quite sure what he is there for, agrees that there is indeed no cable pulled through so the guy turning up on 04/04/2022 will not be able to do anything, he said he would speak with his manager and that someone would be in contact and drove off after being at my property for about 10-15mins and he was only there that long as it took time to explain was had gone on so far.

Several phone calls to vm possibly to the pre-install team, it’s as if the people at the call centre just seem to want to send a survey or reschedule the installation or can’t accept there needs to be a cable fitted before it can be connected I was even transferred through to construction to be advised they do not deal with domestic installations, the guy I spoke with said he would fully update my records with what work is required.  Just can’t seem to find who is responsible task the job.

04/04/2022. Installer duly turns up at 14:00 ish and goes oh there’s no cable fitted can’t do the installation after going through the explanation of the saga he gives me his mobile and said he would speak to his manager and call him if there is no progress by Friday I doubt there will be.

Got back onto pre-installation and again they could just not comprehend what the problem is, on a couple of the calls I was even told the cable had been installed, the job needs to be passed to the local contractors to turn up investigate and clear the blockage.  The response was to reschedule the installation for 06/04/2022 and also a service request for 13:00- 18:00, the vm app showed both appointments.

04/04/2022. Email from vm informing me my installation was now 21/04/2022 between 13:00 - 18:00

Survey still showing as going ahead on 06/04/2022.

Getting to the point where I just give up might as well bite the bullet and go back to BT or Sky, have been without broadband since the 28th Mar.

05/04/2022. Wife spoke to a guy at the local vm sales office explained the situation and looking for help to try and find someone to talk to who might actually be able to help, they said they would email all the local managers and see if anyone was aware of the case and may know what was going on, we are not going to hold our breath about this though.

06/04/2022. Service visit this afternoon between 13;00 & 18;00 will try and talk with the guys manager this time.. wish me luck.

[Zoie_P]

Hi Slogess, 

Thank you for your post and welcome to our community, I am so sorry to hear that trying to get our services has been difficult, I can see from our systems our team will be reaching out with an update.

Please keep us posted with how you get on and if you don't hear us know anything and we can look into it.

Zoie

[slogess]

Hi Zoie,

Thanks for the reply and I know there really isn’t very much the forum team can do.  If you mean by reaching out the 3 emails I received today that’s a start I suppose.

Your email at 13:40 thank you.  
Virgin media web team at 13:51 informing me that they were really sorry but they have put my installation planned for 21/04/2022 on hold, that really is a shame because if it does not go ahead then this order will be getting cancelled and I will cut my losses. 
Virgin Media Service update 14:16 yet another apology and an indication I may be due some compensation well I suppose that is an improvement to previous interactions.

Here is an update to my original post.

06/04/2022 Service visit, after an explanation of what had been going on and the lack of any movement the guy was a bit shocked as he thought it should not have been a big deal to get this sorted as the construction teams deal with blockages all the time, he said he would speak to his manager and see if they could get something moving and someone would get back to me the next day.

07/04/2022 By 15:00 and still not heard anything sent a text, good guy (GG) calls back a short time later surprised that I had not heard anything as his boss had been speaking to head of construction in the area and he was going to get moving on things, further call at 18:09 (GG) said I would hear in the morning about what was happening, me feeling a lot more positive that I am actually getting information for the first ‘time.

08/04/2022  10:30 ish 2 Kier vans turn up on the street short time later another crew also turn up by the end of the day they had managed to get a mini duct installed between my property through my neighbours dive and a quarter way up the lane, it turns out that some work in the street at the end of my lane had caused the pavement to collapse damaging the BT duct they were trying to use and they would have to speak to BT and the electric company.  The manager that was there said they would try and get this done as soon as possible, I advised him they have until 21/04/2022 to get this done or I will be cancelling and it will take a serious incentive for me to accept another delay as we have been without broadband since the 29th March.  If I have heard nothing by Thursday I will give (GG) a call and maybe get an update though him.  At the moment I am still fairly positive about the way things are progressing but given the way things have will not be surprised if all turns to 💩 and very pleasantly surprised if I actually get connected on 21/04/2022.  I get the impression that by speaking mostly to local guys a lot more progress has been made in the last few days than if I had exclusively kept dealing with the pre-install call centre who’s performance so far has been abysmal.

I will update again when I get another firm update.

Regards.

[slogess]

Just noticed on my account a new installation date of 06/06/2022 08:00 - 13:00 THIS IS NOT ACCEPTABLE I will go with my update as above and wait for an update this week if it does not look like the problem is going to be resolved by 22/04/2022 then this account will be cancelled I am extremely angry at this.

[Jodi_S]

Thanks for coming back to us slogess, 

We can certainly understand your concerns due to the delay with getting your services installed. We can see from our systems that someone will be contacting you to discuss this matter further.

Please keep us posted.

Kind regards Jodi. 

[slogess]

Well still waiting, last update I had from Virgin was that on 30/05/2022 between 8 and 18:00 they would install the cable I’m guessing this was in cooperation with BT as one of their bits of ducting had to be repaired before they could shoot the cable through, then the broadband would be connected on 06/06/2022.  It’s now 12:35 and no sign of any workmen I get the feeling that it’s going to be yet another disappointment.

Thank goodness I have managed to find an alternative broadband supplier on a rolling contract Cuckoo Broadband they have been great so far and I would have no hesitation in recommending them. 

I will update later on today but I don’t expect anyone to show up I won’t hold my breath, and yet again no feedback from the pre install team.

[slogess]

Yet another failure by Virgin Media.  Called pre installation earlier met with assurances that the appointment today was still valid and work would be done today to get things ready for next Mondays connection and that I would be kept in the loop, now 16:10 and no sign of any contractors, no calls or email so the day has progressed pretty much as I thought it would.

[derekheeps]

Sir , I applaud your patience , and your meticulous logging of events , or non-events .

[slogess]

Thanks, 

I don’t know how long my patience will last though, every time one contacts Virgin Media it appears to be the same BS excuses and promises that they will keep you updated, I really regret getting in contact with them back if February but I have gone on too long to quit now. I will persevere a bit longer but I’m not expecting to actually get a connection on 6th June.

I expect I will be forced to submit a formal complaint soon.

[derekheeps]

The sixth of June is an important date in history , when people who were wronged took up arms and did something about it .

Perhaps history will be repeated this sixth of June ?