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?

[harry2497]

Thank you very much Andrew for your response, certainly gave me a bit of a chuckle in what was a very frustrating time!

Finally got our WiFi up and running on the 29th of November, a good 10+ weeks from the first install date.

Now trying to chase for the automatic compensation, and this company never fails to amaze me.

We are now being offered comp from the 30th of September to the 11th of November, due to a deluge of reasons such as council permits and it being a "two man job". 

Needless to say I'm not exactly satisfied with this outcome and will be pursuing with the regulator to receive the full comp for the time between our first install date and the 29th of November.

Hoping to be successful but won't be holding my breath, I hope too the other responders in this thread are getting a resolution because it really is a farce.

[David_Bn]

Thanks for your post on our Community Forums @harry2497, and I'm pleased to see that the services have since been installed for you.

Check out the purple envelope in the top right hand corner for a private message from me, and I'll be able to look into the complaint you have open with us.

Kindest regards,

David_Bn

[harry2497]

The debacle continues...

Received another call from an agent today, this time asking if my installation was successful. 

Responded saying yes everything is up and running, and then was told I would only be eligible for two missed appointment fees and no automatic compensation as I wasn't eligible, just days after another agent confirmed I would be recieving compensation for the aforementioned dates.

Does anyone actually communicate internally in this company? In all fairness, I did say to one of the many agents I contacted during the preinstallation period that they would not honour the £5.25 a day comp after he said "you may aswell stay on as you'll recieve £5.25 a day". Ha.

[JamesB1995]

This is not what I want to hear.

I also am staying out for my compensation. This supposed to be from 19th August. Similarly to you I’ve been told many times that I am entitled to receive the auto compensation.

if someone tells me I’m not then I won’t stop until I get it because this whole experience has been appalling.

[goslow]

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@harry2497 wrote:

The debacle continues...

Received another call from an agent today, this time asking if my installation was successful. 

Responded saying yes everything is up and running, and then was told I would only be eligible for two missed appointment fees and no automatic compensation as I wasn't eligible, just days after another agent confirmed I would be recieving compensation for the aforementioned dates.

Does anyone actually communicate internally in this company? In all fairness, I did say to one of the many agents I contacted during the preinstallation period that they would not honour the £5.25 a day comp after he said "you may aswell stay on as you'll recieve £5.25 a day". Ha.

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Stick to your guns ref the compensation claim. Talk of 'two man teams' etc. is a load of old guff which VM has come up with to try to minimise pay-outs.

Read the OFCOM doc here (if you have not done so already) to familiarise yourself with the scheme

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

but update the rates in the doc to the current ones here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat...

Next go back to the first date VM provided you in writing when they said the VM tech would be coming to your home to install equipment and activate your services (para 9 in the OFCOM doc)

From there, put together your own timeline of VM's failures, missed appointments and unfulfilled promises and work out the compensation you think you are due.

If VM is citing the age-old 'council permit' excuse, refer to para 40 of the OFCOM doc which lists the (very limited) ways in which VM can avoid paying compo. Para 40d is their exclusion here where they cannot install while waiting for a permit. This is limited though only to the delay waiting for the permit. So, for example, if you are kept waiting for 10 days, 3 of which were waiting for the council and the rest due to VM bungling, then VM could legitimately deduct 3 days but would have to pay you for 7. Same principle might apply for something like a wayleave waiting to be signed by a third party.

VM has been caught out several times on here claiming delays waiting for council permits when, in fact, no permit has even been applied for. See this most recent post as an example

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Installation-delays-because-of-fake-permi...

You might like to make some enquiries with your own local highways authority to find out when VM applied for, and were granted, any permits for your work and add them into your own timeline and compensation calculations.

Given you had such a long wait for your installation, I hope you are awarded a meaningful amount of compensation. (In all likelihood though, you may well have to take this via the VM complaints procedure and on to CISAS to actually get any pay-out from VM).

[harry2497]

Thank you very much goslow, your response has been extremely helpful in forming my appeal to CISAS.

I have actually been credited the partial automatic compensation now, but as stated it only covers 44 days out of the 102 days that elapsed between the first install date.

Keep being told by Virgins agents that there is no point in pursuing this claim with the regulator as it is actually the regulator that calculates the automatic compensation. Another tactic to reduce the owed compensation?

[Gareth_L]

Hello harry2497.

Thank you very much for your post.

Sorry to hear about the issues you have faced getting our services installed.

I can assure your our inhouse team that deal with and apply the compensation will have applied the correct amount that is due back.

Gareth_L

[Andrew-G]

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@Gareth_L wrote:

Hello harry2497.

I can assure your our inhouse team that deal with and apply the compensation will have applied the correct amount that is due back.

Gareth_L

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What, like this customer?  And there's other reports in this forum of incompetent telephone agents telling customers that they aren't entitled to compensation, that they can't complaint about VM's squalid and disreputable handling of automatic compensation, that the most they can have is £30, and other downright lies.  The word "incompetent" runs through Virgin Media like Blackpool runs through rock.

So, harry2497, VM are still liable to pay compensation for delays caused if they didn't promptly apply for any necessary permits when you requested a new connection, and for delays if they didn't act when they had the permits.  If there's any attempt to play the "council delays" card, then contact your local council's highways team, and ask them if Virgin Media applied for a "Section 50 permit" near to your property, when that was applied for and when it was issued.  Typically the councils are a lot more efficient than urban myth has it, and they'll take a day or two to turn these around, and it's those couple of days that VM might reasonably claim they shouldn't be liable for - in the instances I have in mind they've wilfully tried to misrepresent the delays as entirely or largely down to the council.   

If it seems VM are fobbing you off (one thing they ARE good at) then ask the forum staff to raise a complaint for you (much easier than trying to use VM's broken and dysfunctional web or telephone complaint options), and to identify that the resolution of the complaint is payment of the regulator's compensation, plus a further modest goodwill gesture because of VM's failure to pay resulting in the need to complain - say a further £50.  You should get an acknowledgement and reference number for the complaint.

Then, either VM concede and settle on your terms, or you get a "resolution" that isn't a settlement on your terms.  If it's the latter, then you reply by rejecting the resolution and asking for a deadlock letter.  When you get the deadlock letter you ask the industry complaints adjudicator CISAS to investigate and settle the matter.  This is always a bad outcome for the company, as they get charged by CISAS (always free for you to use), and VM lose or concede the majority of complaints taken to CISAS.  Complaints and adjudication are slow, but may be inevitable if VM aren't playing fair.  If involving CISAS, be very clear if VM were tardy in applying for a permit that you hold them responsible for the delays up until they applied, as well as those after the permit was issued. 

[harry2497]

Since my last post I have been able to be successful in my claim through CISAS, in which the adjudicator has awarded me the outstanding compensation that VM had tried to get away with through a deluge of reasons (all of which knocked back by the adjudicator).

However, the circus doesn't end there. Despite stating in their own settlement statement that a cheque would be sent within 28 days to my home address, lo and behold a credit was added to my account for the amount with the reference 'CISAS Cheque'. I have no intention of renewing with this outfit, so an extra credit is meaningless.

I have since called to rectify this, the credit has been removed but the cheque could now take up to 45 days to arrive (which I assume is their payable days terms), reason given was "delays with the post office". Ha.

This whole experience has been an eye opening one, didn't think a company the size of VM could be this incompetent operations wise!

Don't be beat down by agents, and pursue any owed compensation with the regulator.

[goslow]

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@harry2497 wrote:

Since my last post I have been able to be successful in my claim through CISAS, in which the adjudicator has awarded me the outstanding compensation that VM had tried to get away with through a deluge of reasons (all of which knocked back by the adjudicator).

However, the circus doesn't end there. Despite stating in their own settlement statement that a cheque would be sent within 28 days to my home address, lo and behold a credit was added to my account for the amount with the reference 'CISAS Cheque'. I have no intention of renewing with this outfit, so an extra credit is meaningless.

I have since called to rectify this, the credit has been removed but the cheque could now take up to 45 days to arrive (which I assume is their payable days terms), reason given was "delays with the post office". Ha.

This whole experience has been an eye opening one, didn't think a company the size of VM could be this incompetent operations wise!

Don't be beat down by agents, and pursue any owed compensation with the regulator.

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Well done harry2497 for sticking with it and claiming what was owed to you and also feeding back the outcome to the forum. Sorry to hear there is still further hassle getting paid by VM. You may yet need to get back onto CISAS to chase.

Would you be able to expand a bit on what irrelevant excuses VM put forward and those which were knocked back by the CISAS adjudicator?

The same old irrelevant excuses are trotted out by VM on here time after time as to why compensation will not be paid (council permits, two person installation job, provisional installation dates etc.).

It is useful to have a topic on the forum to refer suffering customers to in the future which shows that VM's irrelevant excuses are not valid when it comes to claiming the compensation.