Pre-pull - disappointing experience, help needed

[Xclusiv042]

Is there a virgin media team that can help contact my area manager to escalate and get this pre-pull work done? I have had my installation dates moved three times now (from February to March and now to April 17th). And it's almost going into the third month of not having any work done. 

My neighbour and I who the virgin team said needed permits for the pre-pull to be done have already signed a Wayleave consent And the Wayleave team confirmed via email that it had been approved. 

This is the description of what needs to be done as documented by the Wayleave team.

NVT & 8M TRACK EXTENTION REQUIRED FROM OUTSIDE OF CUSTOMER’S PROPERTY TO PIT OUTSIDE OF PROPERTY. 8M ON FOOTWAY TARMAC

I have wasted several hours talking to several virgin media departments and they seem to be passing me around.

Is there anyone in this forum that can help escalate this. I have read somewhere that an area manager who can directly contact the the pre-pull team is my only hope now.

[Andrew-G · Accepted solution]

Making a guess from those notes, if that's 8 metres of new ducting in tarmac that is required, then it will likely exceed the fixed installation budget, and the hold up is because the approval sits with some disinterested oik in VM's bureaucracy.  Anything over the budget will not get approval and VM will cancel your order.  Sometimes they'll tell you, sometimes they won't.  Sometimes they'll pay the delayed installation compensation properly, sometimes they won't.

If it does get cancelled and they don't pay the full compensation due, then you'll need to force them to do that through formal complaints, and when VM blame the council for delays, you'll have to contact your council to establish what delays were between VM asking for and getting any permit.  And you may still have to take the matter to Ombudsman Services.  Checkout Ofcom's automatic compensation scheme, including the detail about when a company cancel an install.

[Xclusiv042]

Interestingly, Kelly Communications who I think were contracted by VM to do the work accessed the area and said there is no need to dig up the council path. That it's only my neighbor that I share a driveway that I need  a permission from to make it faster. VM sent wayleave letters for us to sign, which we have done and it's approved.

To be honest, the 8M footpath on tarmac is right in front of my property and more than 4M is within the boundary of my property.

VM call centers keep sharing the compensation scheme with me each time they can't deal with my questions when I call them.

[Andrew-G]

Aaahh, there's hope yet!  On private driveways they'll rarely do a proper dig and reinstatement (which they have to by law on the public highway) and that usually means the cost per metre is a fraction of the job in a public highway.  Chances are that there's tooing and froing between VM and Kelly about the cheapest way to do this, but try and make sure you and the neighbour agree on what is to be done, and to what standard.  Sometimes contractors do an excellent job of install and reinstatement, sometimes it'll look like Mr Bean planned and executed it. If it's the latter you could have a serious falling out with your neighbour, and that's rarely a good thing.

[Xclusiv042]

You are right... I have lovely neighbors and have been super nice since my family moved in here. And I wouldn't want to tamper with the relationship in any way because of a pre pull 😂. 

What's your recommendation on how to get this escalated to the right folks at VM? Was a pre pull done for your installation at some point? How fast was it? I am stressed out calling VM again and I am just thinking of going back to Sky broadband as my contract with them is ending on 27th of February. 

I am hoping that there are VM employees in this forum that can help me sort this out faster.

[Andrew-G]

I'm sorry I can't help with many of those questions - my VM install was done over quarter of a century ago, and became inactive when I left a few weeks back.  I left because VM were a pain to deal with, didn't handle problems or complaints properly, were expensive unless you went through the hassle of playing the retentions pantomime.  And Openreach connections almost always offer better quality than VM's DOCSIS technology, added to which the roll out of FTTP meant that I had high speed options.

There's this to read. But it won't give you much hope.

[Zoie_P]

Hi @Xclusiv042,

Thank you for your post and welcome to our forums 😊

I am sorry you are having issues with getting answers on your pre-pull, I can see you have spoken to our team since your post, have they been able to help and get you some answers?

Let us know and we will do our best to help you from here.

Zoie

[Xclusiv042]

Hey Zoie_P

Thanks for checking and disappointedly nothing has been done yet. I would appreciate any support from your team to get this resolved as my current sky broadband is due to end today.

[Chez92]

I'd advise getting in touch with Sky and begging them to keep your connection live until you get virgin installed.

I moved in November, scheduled the move on the 10th for the 29th and I'm still not connected, had my installation date moved 7 or 8 times and its now the 9th of March. It's possible you'll get a resolution much sooner but be prepared to wait months and months.

[Andrew-G]

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@Chez92 wrote:

I'd advise getting in touch with Sky and begging them to keep your connection live until you get virgin installed.

I moved in November, scheduled the move on the 10th for the 29th and I'm still not connected, had my installation date moved 7 or 8 times and its now the 9th of March. It's possible you'll get a resolution much sooner but be prepared to wait months and months.

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Sound advice.  On the plus side, nobody has had to wait more than a year and six weeks to be connected by VM.  Or rather nobody who's related their story in this forum.