This is my final step before I contract with a provider using Openreach, at least they are capable of installing broadband services.
My street has been cabled by VM (no doubt at great expense and causing lots of disruption, plenty of damage to pavements, neighbours gardens etc.)
But at least we get fast fibre now right? Wrong.
I placed a broadband order in February, and since then, installation dates have been missed twice, and we are now in limbo, with now no installation date scheduled and no sign of it ever being installed.
On 31 March, days before the re-planned installation was due to happen, I was contacted by email by the 'Residential Wayleave' team, who informed me that a wayleave was needed from my neighbours.
It is a shared driveway (so I can understand the initial confusion) however, the piece of the driveway that extends from the pavement where Virgin's 'Toby' is situated, to the front of our property (where the cable will need to be pulled) is our land and our neighbours only have right to cross it for access to enter their own driveway which is on their land (and nowhere near where cable would need to be pulled).
No problem, I thought, I will share evidence of this (a copy of the plan as set out in the property deed) and this should clear up any confusion at Virgin's end that a wayleave is not required.
I was then told that in spite of this clear evidence to the contrary, the engineer has informed them that they would need to cross my neighbour's property in order to pull the cable, and therefore a Wayleave is still required. This is clearly not the case and is in clear contrast to the evidence provided.
I have no intention of asking my neighbour to sign a wayleave (a legally binding agreement which survives their ownership and would need to be disclosed on a future sale of their property) which is completely unnecessary - I would not be willing to sign a wayleave in this case so why should I expect them to either?
I have tried to speak to the Wayleave team (apparently there is no contact number, and the famous VM customer service is unaware of the team's existence!), I have tried reasoning with them by email, and all I get back is copy and pasted rubbish, or statements that the engineer has advised that a wayleave is required (again based upon eyeballing the drive, rather than based on whose land it actually is).
I have now incurred two months of additional costs with my existing broadband provider waiting for the installation to happen. I've tried chasing up installation only to be passed from team to team, each sharing either completely bogus 'pre-pull' dates. I have also had Customer Services representatives rudely 'mute' me, leaving the phone call running but with no sound when they cannot be bothered to try and help. I have raised a complaint about this (which is completely not acceptable customer service) but subsequently followed up and found that there was no record of the complaint!
I will not put up with this any longer so it either gets sorted or I'm gone.
