Preinstall failure

[bly]

What a saga, history of my endeavours to get Virgin Media are here:

1) https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Installation-shennanigans/td-p/4891049

2) https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Address-order-status/td-p/4901338

I've been waiting for some work to actually happen with the preinstall since mid-October. A manager from Kier Construction showed up last week to explain what was going to happen, it seemed like great progress. He marked up the area on the pavement to be cut, spoke to my neighbours about the cable route along their wall and assured me that his colleague would be on-site for the job to ensure there are no problems.

He explained that they needed to apply for a permit to cut approximately 30cm of the pavement and get a tee installed, after which the cable could be run to my property.

Permit was granted because... Two guys from Kier Construction showed up a few days later at my address so I had to direct them round to the next street, but before they had even seen where they were working, they said they didn't think they could do the job because of a 1" duct or something, who knows? I asked them if they wouldn't mind just coming back round if they can't do it so I know what's happening, they said "no problem".

They drove round to the adjacent street, jumped out their truck for approx. 1 minute then drove off never to be seen again.

I don't think I've ever felt such an overwhelming sense of frustration. After three months, *many* hours on the phone, asking neighbours for permission to cable across their garden, multiple visits from cabling contractors and their managers, even a phone call from the VM directors office and the nail in the coffin was a couple of eejits who show up at the wrong location, pre-empting that they weren't going to lift a finger then unceremoniously disappear.

I can't believe I'm stuck in a house with 10mb broadband that cuts out randomly throughout the day.

Is there any chance of getting this job back on track now? Have tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum really put an end to all these efforts?

[Andrew-G]

The problem here is that the eejits are not Kier's navvies (who are not and never will be "customer care" types), but VM's senior managers, who outsourced what they thought was "mere" construction work to a company that has no expertise whatsoever in managing retail customers or working with bunch of bunglers like VM.  As a result there's no communication processes in place, the navvies simply have a work sheet that tells them what they're supposed to do, and in any dealings with a customer they'll know nothing about anything other than that worksheet.  A worksheet will have about eight entries for the day, each merely described as something like "Job 4: Re-pull cable 35m cabinet corner Scruttock Lane PR6 9XX to access pt 15 Barsteward Road".  They'll know nothing else.  Unless on the job sheet, if digging is needed and hasn't been done, or if the repull cable isn't accessible, or the duct is blocked they'll just put a line through that job and go onto the next one.  There's no option for them to call anybody, no systems access. When a customer asks a question they'll give you a brief spiel that's simply to get you off their back. 

None of this would matter if VM competently organised everything around this, and had capable staff who tracked each job, quickly managed the inevitable problems, communicated with customers, and ensured that the rescheduling of failed jobs was done promptly after getting the obstacles resolved.  That's the bit that's missing, and it all sits with VM, who've seen this mess develop over the past 18 months or so of the "VM-Kier partnership", but either don't know how to fix the mess they've made, or don't care and don't want to fix it.

[bly]

You succinctly describe the problem which has plagued me for the past three months. There is effectively zero communication.

The difference (I thought) this time was that one of the suits and his gaffer came out and explained everything then followed it up with "I'll make sure the gaffer attends so they don't show up at your address to dig". Sure enough, they showed up my address late in the day, ready to bleat our excuses as to why they couldn't do the job before they had even seen it.

The Kier manager said they had three days in which to undertake the work after the permit is granted. If that's true then the three days have long elapsed and it looks like I'm back to square one.

[bly]

I've been down this road four times already, awaiting preinstall works and attempting to actually get something to happen or at very least, some information on whether it may or may not happen prior to the scheduled installation date. One of the benefits of Virgin Media Business is apparently that you're assigned an installation manager, I've experienced this, it's someone in the Philippines who does absolutely nothing to progress the installation (apparently they are unable) but when you enquire with them they treat you with utter contempt.

This time I've got a direct phone number for the person who took my order, she has done so much; been in touch with my local Area Field Manager and relayed important information about the installation. Now I call her and she can't tell me anything either, apparently the AFM is ignoring her emails.

Why is it like this? Is it literally impossible for Virgin Media to communicate with the people they employ for installation work?

[Robert_P]

Hello bly,

It's really disappointing to hear of the problems and delays with your installation, we understand the concern and frustration this can cause.

As with anything that requires permission from a 3rd party, we have no control over how quickly these are granted or denied. We do chase these during this time to try to get the requests cleared but in the meantime book in appointments based off of previous response times. If we are still awaiting for a decision to be made this will then obviously impact that date and delay the installation.

I will send you a Private Message to get some more details from you so I can pass these to our installation complaints team to investigate further,

Rob

[bly]

Hi Robert_P, You said "As with anything that requires permission from a 3rd party, we have no control over how quickly these are granted or denied." but the issues I'm facing are almost exclusively due to the way Virgin Media and Kier Construction undertake installation work and fail to respond to delays and failures. The 3rd party (local authority) evidently didn't cause any delay as the granted permission for Kier to dig and install the tee within a day or two.

Kier just showed up today for the cable pull, completely unaware that their own guys came last week and didn't install the tee. If Kier had known and acted upon the failure last week then they might have been able to rearrange it prior to the planned cable pull today.

Now I have to wait on Kier figuring out it they can apply for their permit, complete the tee installation and do the cable pull in the next two days. I'm fairly confident they can't achieve that, so I expect I'll be able to book a new installation date on Thursday which will be another month away and we're back to square one.

[Andrew-G]

Sorry it's no help, but if you've got sound switched on, this is the theme tune for the Virgin Media-Kier partnership.

[goslow]

I guessed the link before clicking but I was wrong. Thought it was going to be these legends of the small screen (in the aptly-named 'Telephone Traumas'). The script may be similar to whatever communication goes on between VM and Kier during installations. (And apologies to bly for this slight comedy detour) 

[bly]

The theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm pops into my head each time someone shows up because they either show up not intending to do any work, or they show up intending to do work but can't because the last lot never bothered to do anything.

I now have a new installation date booked, 18th Feb. Kier have shown up at my address about 8 or 9 times since mid-October. I just hope the next time they can get the tee fitted. Previous issue was the wayleave form which people seem to have kept misplacing.

[Andrew-G]

I'm hoping that VM get their act together for you.

A company changing something and screwing it up isn't that unusual.  But denying the problem and persisting with the failed process, whilst everybody, staff included, can see it's a complete clusterquack, that's not.  And to add insult to injury, in a few days time Virgin Media's full year results will be released, and you'll be able to read their CEO's nauseatingly upbeat prattle about how many new customers they've signed, how their complaints have shrunk, and how their new customer service model is delivering best ever customer service, and possibly some "post-balance sheet" comments about how well the price rise has landed with customers.