Pre-Pull Nightmare

[harry2497]

It seems I am one of many who are experiencing this issue, but here we go.

Promised that WiFi would be up and running on the 18th of August, received a email 8pm on the 17th of August informing us that the install date would now be delayed to the 28th of September. Informed this was due to a council permit.

Again it came to the 27th of September after we had engineers round in the day and lo and behold we get an email informing us that the new install date will now be the 15th of October.

Now we have received a new notification telling us that we will finally have WiFi on the 11th of November. This is not a serious outfit is it? There is literally no one on the phones who can give a clear update, other than “The work is meant to take place today” everyday. How are they allowed to get away with this still? Surely a government regulatory body can sanction this joke of a company for this behaviour? 

I think at this point I'm just looking for a concrete answer, tell me when we will be able to stop using our phones to provide WiFi via hotspot in our home. Is there anyone in this organisation that can help?

[luboss]

The answer would seem to be no. Im now over a month, not even had an email or txt. Me chasing them all the time. Raised a complain that was elevated to management level apparently. Now told the complaint was closed and i didnt even receive any communication regards it?!? Farcical. Iv been forced to cancel and go with SKY aftet 10yrs as a customer

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

This being a help forum, I'll try and answer your questions accurately and fully.

This is not a serious outfit is it?

Take a look at Virgin Media's Trustpilot page and draw your own conclusions.  Or review the regular Ofcom complaints data that regularly has VM at the @rse end of the table.

How are they allowed to get away with this still?

This Kafkaesque comedy for installations has been running continuously for two and half years now, and cost VM millions in lost business, compensation, and complaint adjudication fees.  But VM's CEO is more interested in his own hair gel than he is in customer service; With their boss not giving a tinker's cuss, why would his henchman change anything? 

Surely a government regulatory body can sanction this joke of a company for this behaviour? 

Yes.  Ofcom have draconian powers under the Telecommunications Act (2003) but unfortunately Ofcom are also the chocolate teapot amongst regulators and choose to count complaints and do nothing about them.  I work for a government regulator, I wouldn't in my wildest nightmares consider working for the badly run, impotent shambles that is Ofcom.   Ofcom's bosses have bagged themselves the plushest, vastly expensive offices of any regulator, in a prime position overlooking the Thames.  Unfortunately, fancy offices doesn't help improve anything, and having a central London location means they struggle to recruit and retain the high calibre policy, regulation and enforcement professionals that are needed to set, monitor and enforce industry standards.  Meanwhile their CEO spins round in the big leather chair, laughing at how much they're being paid without having to do much.  

Is there anyone in this organisation that can help?

No.  And to offer a more nuanced and detailed answer, no.  The regulars of this forum have watched in wonder, horror and despair at how VM have managed the pre-pull (and related re-pull) activity for the past few years.  Nobody at VM can help you.  Nobody at VM knows anything.  Nobody at VM cares.  Nobody at VM can cut through the North Korean style bureaucracy.  They may be able to offer a hand-wringing apology, and send an email on your behalf to the mythical "area field manager", who in turn is equally unable to help.  They can help your raise a complaint that'll be either completely ignored, or get you a poorly worded fob-off that takes you no further forward. 

The good news is your pre-installation work could be done without notice tomorrow.  The bad news is that the longest known delay reported in this forum was thirteen months.  In some cases VM decide after a few weeks it's all too expensive and they cancel the work altogether.  But you'll get no advance notice (of any reliability) ahead of those three possible outcomes.  The minor and not-really-what-you-want silver lining to the VM cloud is that you're due £5.25 per day for each day between the original installation date and the actual date (or you cancelling in frustration).  Even then VM manage to corrode that silver lining by ignorant call centre staff who don't know the regulations or don't care about them and try to browbeat customers into inadequate settlements or nothing at all, or better educated staff who know the regulations but try an weasel out of the obligations, meaning you need to make a formal complaint to VM, reject their resolution and escalate the complaint to industry complaints adjudicator CISAS.

All in all a total **** show.  But do a search of this form on the term "Netflix", combine that with your own and others' experience of pre-install, and you'll see that that VM has it's own special sauce that sets it apart from everybody else, and it applies that liberally to everything it does.

Sorry that's not the answers you wanted, but that's how it is.

[jem101]

And also, when this inevitably ends up on the desk of the industry adjudicator, when claiming compensation (damages) from VM, you will remember to include the £26 or so for each missed appointment - and as it seems they gave you less than 24 hours notice before not turning up, then it counts towards the compensation, along with the £5.25 or so, for each and every day past the original promised installation date.

[goslow]

---

@Andrew-G wrote:

This being a help forum, I'll try and answer your questions accurately and fully.

<snip>.

---

That post was the perfect executive summary of all the regular nonsense appearing on the (not-so) 'Quick Start' forum.

[Molly_T]

Hi Harry2497, Welcome to the community! Thank you for posting. 

Really sorry to hear of your experience getting installed with us due to pre-pull delays. 

These kinds of cases are complex due to the nature of works involved. 

Re-pull and Pre-pull appointments are completed by multiple engineer, and often involve council permissions, 3rd party contractors, and construction works. 

Delays can happen for all sorts of reasons including awaiting council permits, finding blockages underground, issues in completion due to weather or road works, and many more. 

These delays can happen on the day of an expected installation if workers discover further issues when arriving on site.

Sadly we are limited with what support we can provide for these issues. 

We can ensure a complaint is raised and is sitting with the install/construction team who manage these cases, and we can provide an update with the current scheduled appointment as is listed on your account. (Following the completion of DPA.)

We appreciate this can be an incredibly frustrating experience and please rest assured we have raised this internally as an issue. 

I can refer you to our Auto-comp page https://virg.in/autocomp regarding the kinds of compensation you will be entitled to - and will be automatically applied to your account. 

My sincerest apologies that this has been your experience with us! I hope the installation takes place ASAP without further delays. 

If you would like us to send you a PM and confirm the current date of your installation appointment we will happily do so! You should also be able to see this if you have access to My Virgin Media: https://virg.in/myvmapp. 

Please just let us know if there is anything else we should be aware of to offer you further support. 

All the best. 

[JamesB1995]

I'm in exactly the same boat.

Initial install date was 19th August and now it's 10th December (although I already know this won't go ahead). I have raised complaints that never get resolved; I have called and called only to be passed around from agent to agent, team to team. The staff all absolutely useless.

It is so frustrating and is so obvious that nobody cares or wants to help. One agent even accidently removed me from hold where I could hear her swearing and complaining about dealing with my situation saying she 'makes her life f'ing hard' before cutting me off after been on the phone for 1 hour 29 minutes.

If i could have a different provider at my address I would have cancelled all this a long time ago as this company is a joke.

[JeremyDEagle]

Came here to say the same thing. This now looks like I'm in for a world of pain. 

I was with Sky for 21 years and never had an issue. 

[John_GS]

Hi JeremyDEagle

Thanks for posting and welcome to the community.

I can see you spoke to the team yesterday who confirmed all sorted with the external works and good to go for install 🙂

Let us know how it goes, 

Best wishes,

[JamesB1995]

Any chance of mine being done at all???