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.

[slogess]

Quick update on the complaint.

just received a call from the customer service number 0345 454 1111 about my complaint spoke with a person the usual sympathy and assurances they are working on it and will strive to do better, also given a number for construction and that after installation someone would be in contact regarding compensation.  I may give the number a call on Thursday or Friday and see what they say I will be really if a team turn up and at least start working, I will not hold my breath.

[Paulina_Z]

Hi @slogess,

Thank you for coming back to us about your ongoing install issue. I do apologise that this problem is ongoing, we understand that this is not the ideal customer experience and not the service we aim to provide for our customers.

I understand that your complaint has been escalated to the right team. Please keep us updated on how your install goes and if you need any further assistance.

Thank you.

[Kain_W]

Thanks for the update slogess,

Do let us know if the team has been in contact.

Take care,

[slogess]

Hi Kain,

As I posted on Monday I was contacted by someone from complaints who gave me the phone number for the field team, I gave them a call this morning and asked if the work to install the cable will go ahead on Saturday as per the appointment.  The chap I spoke with said the appointment on Saturday 18/06/2022 is just the cable blow/pull through, the work to clear the blockage and install the cable duct will be carried out on Friday 17/06/2022 and everything had been arrange for that to go ahead, the connection installation should be completed on Monday 20/06/2022.

I’m not bothered that I had to make the call because the result has given me hope that there is light at the end of the tunnel at long last, the big test will be someone actually turning up and digging up the road on Friday, we will just have to wait and see, but I am feeling a bit more positive about things now.

[slogess]

Silly me thinking things were going to improve….  Up fairly early this morning thinking today something is going to happen, took the 🐕 for a walk about 09:30 no sign of the pavement being dug up no activity and no sign of any contractors, getting back from the walk still nothing.  I managed to wait until 11:17 before I called the construction 0333 number, spoke with some chap explained nothing appeared to be happening, he said they have up till 19:00 to complete the work and the job should take about 2.5 hrs to finish and that the job is still showing as active, I thought well I suppose they might still turn up so I’ll give it a couple of hours.

15:03  Still no sign of anyone, called construction again explained that no one has turned up he said they have until 16:00 to complete the job if not it will be escalated, I remarked that as stated this morning if the job will take 2.5 hrs even if they turn up in the next 10 mins it will not be completed by 16:00, apparently they cannot escalate it before 16:00 so I said I would be back on the phone at 16:00.
I don’t expect anything will change today but I will try to find out -
Have they spoken with the contractors that were supposed to be doing the work, what went wrong, why did no one turn up.
Who will this be escalated to, and how is this going to help.
When is the work going to be carried out.

This is becoming very depressing I was feeling really quite good last night and this morning only to have my hopes dashed again.

[-tony-]

VM CS have no way of contacting the contractors afaik - well drums or smoke signals maybe but non of the methods you or i would use and if they did it could well be pointless as the contractors may well have subbed it out

staff here can contact the AFM but i assume they have done that already and that has not ended well so far - the best advice is sit back take £5.25 a day and save your hair line - ringing is 100% pointless - you get all the updates they think you want to hear - 99.999999% are lies made up on the spot to get rid of you - again VM have no idea whats happening once its with the contractors - the simply dont talk to each other - sometime in the future by whatever means - smoke signals [again] maybe the contractor will tell VM the work is complete - great you think - sorry its not - i had a problem last year - the duct was cleared a pull rope was added - 3 weeks later VM turned up to make the connection - i just took the daily compensation - it was easier

[slogess]

Absolutely spitting, checked the street as expected nothing happening called the construction number 0333 000 5925 opt 2 message stating the lines are closed call back during normal office hours Mon - Fri 08:00 - 16:00

🤬

Complaint submitted

[slogess]

Hi Tony,

Thanks good advice.

[John_GS]

Hi @slogess

Thanks for coming back to us. I am sorry to hear you've not been installed. I've emailed the installs team who'll contact you asap.

Best,

[slogess]

Update
Well yet another fail, as on my post above no one turned up on Friday 17th so the blockage was not cleared and the mini ducting tube was not finished.
Saturday 18th I was quite surprised when a Kier construction van and a couple of guys turned up around 15:00 they seemed a bit disappointed but not surprised that the work had not been finished, after a bit of a chat and assurances that they would get someone to keep me updated they took some photos of the work to be completed and said they would get their boss to try and escalate this, so pretty much the same as usual.

20/06/2022
09:15 Installer turns up in a VM van as he can’t do anything because there is no cable for him to connect, takes some details and says he will speak to his boss and try to get this escalated (if this gets escalated much more we are all going to need oxygen to breath soon), so pretty much the same as all the other visits.

Just about to ring the construction people again to see what they say, will update shortly.