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Pre pull delays

Moogliboogli
On our wavelength

Here’s my problem and it’s getting a bit out of hand now.
So my original connection date was : 3/11/21

And after doing all the leg work getting Wayleave documents signed and getting permission from the housing association I was told that I don’t need to worry and that my build was on the priority list to be completed asap it’s now been weeks or rescheduled appointments to have nobody show up. They even at one point tried to cancel my order as my location was apparently  “unserviceable” considering we have a virgin media connection point at the end of our footpath so all they need to do is drop in a cable along the footpath to our house.This is literally a straight line with space for a little tench for the cable also.  I appealed that decision after being on the phone for around an hour with a junior advisor eventually convincing him to pass me on to an account specialist. The account specialist took a look at my case and managed to get it overturned and they are now going ahead with the installation. The dates seem to just continually roll over which has mostly involved me chasing them for information and updates. I was supposed to have my cable pre pull on 24/11/21 and didn’t happen. That then turned into it being 26/11/21 then nobody showed up. It’s now changed to 29/11/21. What is going on ? We do not want to cancel at all. We just want Virgin’s internet it’s not much to ask for. I have been trying to get some help on my situation as I really need it installed considering we currently receive less than 10mb and live in a rural area the problem is we rely on our internet for Wi-Fi calling as we get no network coverage out here. Virgin has its network in this area so what’s the issue? I feel like this needs tackling by someone who can communicate with the cable pullers. Can someone from virgin offer me some help on getting my installation done? 

68 REPLIES 68

Paulina_Z
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

Hi @Moogliboogli,

Thank you for coming back to us. Please keep us updated on your install construction work on Saturday and let us know if you need any further help or support going forward. 

Thank you. 

Paulina_Z
Forum Team

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We are having the same issues raised in this thread.

can someone please help with my pre pull installation.. we placed and order on 30th Nov and since then been given numerous dates which have been rescheduled everytime. Raised complaints which are not resolved.. no one has a clue when we ring CS. Both me and my partner are working from home on hotspot which is not easy. VM has been a nightmare. 
we moved to a new house and never expected getting broadband was going to be stressful.

we keep getting lied to , they raise our hopes but nothing gets done.

any idea how to escalate the issue to an area manager. As all the teams at the call centre are rubbish. We have raised a complaint on 30th Dec, 6th Jan and 20th Jan no calls from case handlers and this morning get a resolution to say complaint is about ‘wifi pods’ which is not even a complaint we raised.. ridiculous !!

The best thing you can do is speak to the pre installation team and the forum team on here too. They are monitoring this thread apparently so they should see you. My appointment for today is scheduled all day but I highly doubt they’ll be turning up now I’ll update this thread at the end of the day. They now have everything they need but they’re still failing somehow. 

Update,

My appointment that was scheduled today has once again not happened. I called to find out what was happening and I was told that a technician was not assigned to today’s appointment. Also it seems that the departments involved are not communicating. Nobody seems to know why my cable pre pull appointment isn’t happening. They applied for a permission from the council already and they were granted it. We depend on our connection as we do not have cellular coverage in this area. Please just grab this with both hands and stop dragging your feet. We have been waiting since November 2021. Just get on the phone to your 3rd party contractors and order them to do it. We’ve been on their list so they know it needs to be done. I’m getting tired of spending hours on the phone like today just to get the same result. 

UPDATE

I am fuming. I’ve been checking up with virgin this week and in fact I called only yesterday to make everything was going to go ahead as planned. I just received my FOURTH delay text message as follows “ Hello, it's Virgin Media. We need to do some extra work outside before we can get your broadband up and running. This means we've had to move your installation to 15/02/2022 between 08AM-01PM. We're really sorry about that. If you want to know more, reply 'CHAT' then option 1 for Technician Visit to start texting with us.” I’m now convinced at this point that they aren’t actually going to install my services and that maybe I’ve just been strung along the whole time. I have been waiting since November 2021. 
what is virgin going to do to fix this and actually get my cable pull appointment done ? I’m so sick of the excuses now. I’ve given them no ends of patience up until now. Please can someone elevate this to someone with authority to get this fast tracked? I’m currently paying upwards of £70 because I’m out of contract with Sky waiting for Virgin media. 

@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.

I hate to say it but you’ve absolutely hit the nail on the head, they honestly do not care at all. I’ve messaged their head of installations on LinkedIn but he couldn’t careless either. 

I must add, that was the most well written and definitely the best explanation of Virgin Media that I have seen ever. I hope they see this and take a good long hard look in the mirror. (Very funny reply also ) I laughed for a good few minutes 

I would go straight to their CEO and Head of CS. After a few emails to get them to sit up, I had a call come in from the director's team to handle my case.

I managed to find their email addresses and send them a polite, yet stern message of the situation I and countless others are in. I would do the same if you can. Don't settle with sending 1 email btw, ping them after a day or so if no replies come in.

Zak_M
Forum Team (Retired)
Forum Team (Retired)

We are really sorry for the inconvenience that this has caused. 

 

I can see that we reached out to you on the 31st, what have they advised? 

 

Kind regards,

Zak_M