Pre-pull...Kelly group

[mda99das]

I am new to VM and awaiting Kelly to place a new RG11 cable in. It turns out that the cable and wireless line that was laid in 1996 was routed to a green cabinet box that is no longer in use. It is still physically present, but the VM engineer advised me that it is locked and its in an awful condition.

Now I know many of you are in the same boat and awaiting a repull / pre-pull. This is not done by VM at all. I understand that there are certain areas that have fibre and open reach have public infrastructure access so VM can lay their own cables in BT ducting. Otherwise it is outsourced to Kelly group who are based in Wembley.

After some googling, it appears that there is a breakdown in communication. Also the cable pullers are only paid for the jobs they complete via bonus. So they get a basic rate, and this is topped up with commissions . I totally understand that if a job is too difficult and its going to take 4 hours and no guarantee, then they will decline. The staff morale which you can read on recruitment sites like indeed is not great. My engineer has been in touch with his manager who in turn has been in touch with Kelly and I have lost count of the number of times of no shows. 2 men did arrive on the 7th after someone spray painted the CATV cover bright green 2 days prior, and a blue rope is in place.

But to those that are still waiting, hopefully this gives you an insight as to why things may be so bad...

[mda99das]

Just thought I would add, the VM team on this forum have been great, and really appreciate their efforts to help a new customer. 

There are also some very knowledgeable people on this forum as well that have given me hints and tips.

Once my work has been completed I will probably write a blog sharing my experience. But so far I am please with my connection, and have got used to the Virgin boxes.

[mda99das]

Firstly I would like to thank the mods on this forum that have helped me.

Kelly finally pulled the cable today.

As mentioned on earlier threads, I am new to VM and decided to ditch sky after over 22 years of service. Here are some tips for newbies.

1) Check to see if you have cables, if not this will be subcontracted to the Kelly group, and they need to be chased constantly. Do not cancel your old package until the cables are in

2) Get your contract to start 1 month in the future, and give notice to your old provider. Think about where you want the cables to go. If your place is complex get a pre-install visit. They may give you the cable to lay yourself. Just a word of warning, they will not go into uninhabitable basements, or lofts. You will have to route this yourself. The more you do, the easier it is for the engineer, and the smoother things will run.  I made a mistake and gave Sky the wrong dates for service termination, but strangely the ADSL connection cut out on the morning of my virgin media install. 

3) If you take out an O2 plan, and have an 02 number that is out of contract they can actually transfer these numbers internally. Mine took 50 mins to transfer over. Also the 02 contract does start pretty much when they dispatch the sim. In my case they overlooked my future contract start date, but they credited me the amount pro -rata. 

4) For Netflix you will get an email to set up your account, and you can merge your existing account

5) Don't forget to pair your remotes, makes things easier. I have to say the virgin boxes are more responsive than sky q

This forum has been great, just thought I would share my tips based on my experience. I think I got lucky with Kelly group, others will share stories of waiting much longer.

[nodrogd]

A couple of things to note.

Take care when porting a phone number into VM from another provider. Porting in to VM is a “new provider led” process under OFCOM rules. VM should deal with the entire process INCLUDING terminating your old providers phone service. Cancelling yourself could lead to the number port failing or you even losing your number.

Kelly Coms are one of several contractors doing pre-install. It depends where you live as to who has the contract.

https://www.constructionenquirer.com/2020/03/03/six-firms-to-share-3bn-virgin-media-civils-works/ 

[alexw1983]

The guys in the north west are not very good!

Two weeks and counting and still haven’t had a re-pull after a total loss of service.

[mda99das]

I'm in NW London, and not sure if this is a coincidence but Kelly groups main office is 4 miles away.

[alexw1983]

Ahh sorry I meant north west of England 🙂

[mpmc]

nodrogd

Thanks for the link! No wonder the VM install and build we experienced was extremely good as it was done my Comex. BT on the other hand was a very mixed bag. The proper OR engineers sent out to fix our old line faults we're great, you just had to go through the ladder of meh/quick fix and run sub contractors first to get one. Which IIRC all worked for Kelly Group. Very strange.