@Moogliboogli @8therealdeal8
If you haven’t already done so, then I seriously suggest you read through some of the other threads on here regarding delayed installations (the record is, I believe, a fraction over 13 months, from the original promised installation date)!
Your service may, or indeed, may not ever get installed - personally, I would work on the assumption that it won’t and start looking for alternative suppliers - don’t waste your time containing VM again, all that will happen is you will be fed a made up story (not necessarily the fault of the poor sap on the phone, the disjointed shambles which passes for VM’s operations, almost certainly means that they have about as much idea as you do), promises that it will definitely happen tomorrow, or the next day or the second Sunday after Pentecost; promises that a manager (as long as every single one of them isn’t in a training course at the same time - as one poster reported as being told); whenever it takes to just get you off the line because they absolutely know they can’t help you. Or, more probably, just aren’t paid enough to even want to.
Also deliberately just cutting you off works as well!
A similar thing is true of the forum team here - I doubt they have any more direct insight as to what is going on behind the scenes, although they might have a bit more knowledge about who to contact to find out stuff - if those contacts either can’t be bothered, are stupidly overworked or otherwise don’t reply, then the enquiry goes cold.
’Escalate this to someone with authority to get it fast-tracked’ - not an unreasonable request, except it absolutely will not happen! The whole process appears to be conducted by a series of outsourced contractors, who then sub contract bits of the job out to another and so on. There simply doesn’t seem to be anyone who does take any overall charge, and even if there were, the people digging the holes and dragging cables don’t actually work for VM, if their bosses decide that they are better employed on another (out sourced) job, then so be it. I doubt that VM have any insight into what their contractors are doing or when they intend to do it - probably the first they even realise that a job hasn’t actually been done is when if fails to be logged as ‘completed’ and the end of the day and an automated system simply rolls the projected date over with no human intervention at all!
Annoying and frustrating? Absolutely, anything you can do to make anything happen quicker? Absolutely not!
This is the reality of the situation which some (probably a small proportion, which doesn’t really help you if you happen to fall into that category) of prospective VM customers face. But it is a systemic problem, whoever well-meaning some individuals are, including those on the forum team here, their hands are tied by the system which VM’s senior management have decided is the way to run the business. It is inconceivable that they are unaware of the problems which can happen to some customers, with truly ludicrous outcomes and incomprehensible procedures which even the writers of the Carry On films would dismiss as being too far fetched and ridiculous! The conclusion has to be that either they simply don’t care or that experiences (or customer journeys’ which, I believe, is the latest marketing BS term which is in favour this month) such as your’s are actually a tiny exemption to what is normally a well oiled, practiced and efficient operation. I’ll leave you to decide which of the two is the most likely!
So, in essence then, work on the basis that VM won’t get you connected up anytime this decade and make alternative arrangements with another supplier. Do not cancel the installation from VM though, just don’t bother chasing it or spending any more time on the phone, unless, of course you suffer from dangerously low blood pressure and need something to kick it up a bit. If they do connect you up, then you have the right to cancel within the first 14 days without any penalty - safe in the knowledge that all the infrastructure is there and working, should you decide to join later. Or you may just get some modicum of satisfaction in knowing that VM would have spent a not inconsiderable sum on getting you connected for which they won’t get a penny back from you.
