Repeatedly Delayed Installation

[Sean187]

We keep having our Volt Gig1 Fibre Broadband installation delayed and it's getting ridiculous. 

We moved house on 16 Jan, new Virgin Media service was due to be installed on 23 January, which was the earliest date they could give us. 

On 13 January, we were informed the installation had been delayed until 3 March. 

Today (1 March), when confirming the appointment, I was informed that the installation has been delayed until 25 April -- over 3 months later than the first date (!?).

I've tried repeatedly to chat with and call customer service, finally got through to someone today who told me to wait on the line while they talked to some other team (perhaps engineers or install team) to find out the reason for the delay, and while I was waiting they hung up on me/dropped the call. Sigh. Just before I was put on hold, I heard the rep reading through my file and he said I had a "never" account (not sure what that means, but it doesn't sound promising...)

Obviously, if we would have known it would take three months for the install, we would have gone with another provider. They've sent us a dongle to use until the install happens, but this is nowhere near the bandwidth/speed we we need (we work from home) and of course it doesn't include the TV, etc.

Does anyone know what's going on here? In terms of business practice? If this is a regular issue with Virgin installs, it can't be good for business. And what's the rationale here? Tell customers they'll have your product/service at a certain date, just hoping you'll be able to make it happen? How is that sustainable? It seems like sooner or later (if it hasn't already happened) you're going to get bad reputation for over-promising and under-delivering, and begin to lose customers -- not to mention revenue spent on Ofcom penalties...

We're now shopping for another provider (assuming that our new install date of 25 April is also BS). 

I'm left wondering... why is our install being repeatedly delayed and is this business as usual for Virgin?

Frustrated,

S 

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@Sean187 wrote:

We keep having our Volt Gig1 Fibre Broadband installation delayed and it's getting ridiculous. 

<snip>

I'm left wondering... why is our install being repeatedly delayed and is this business as usual for Virgin?

Frustrated,

S 

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Your situation is not unusual for VM installations. Spend some time reading though the many similar topics on this forum and you'll get an idea of what the issues are and why such problems occur.

Review the compensation scheme here

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0026/216962/Industry-Code-of-Practice-for-Automatic-...

and up to date rates

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat...

and keep good records of all VM's failures to date going back to the first installation date they gave you 'initially confirmed in writing' when you placed your order (which will refer to a VM technician coming to install your equipment and activate your services).

[Adri_G]

Hey Sean187, thanks for posting on our help forum and welcome to our community.

We're sorry to see you've experienced delays with installing your services, we'd love to help.

Please, have a read here for more on our cabling and construction works.
If your property has not been served by our network before, the provisioning date we initially confirm may change due to external work needed so we're able to provide the service into the house.

Has the team advised in any of your past communications about the reason for the install date being pushed further down the line?

As you're a ''never'' customer (meaning we haven't activated the services yet), you may speak to our pre-installs team directly at 0800 052 1734 as they can give you all the info you need or even process a cancellation for you should you wish to move to another provider.

We can also assist by checking the account for the latest updates and appointments booked for you, let us know if you want us to do this and we're here to help out.

Can you also confirm if it's 2 times or more that we've rescheduled the activation date for you?
Based on our compensation scheme seen here you may be entitled to credit due to delays caused to your install, let us know and we're eager to advise more.

[Sean187]

Here's an update on our Virgin Media Installation Nightmare:

For those just joining, a brief recap: 

• 28 Dec 2022: Called Virgin Media with address of new house, they said 1GB broadband was available, I signed up, initial install date scheduled for late January '23. 
• Installation was postponed / delayed by Virgin multiple times. Latest installation date was 25 April (3 months later than initially stated.

April 25th came and went, I was home waiting for an engineer, nothing happened, no one had contacted me. After repeated attempts, I was finally able to get ahold of someone a Virgin customer services and/or pre-installs team. They told me the installation had been cancelled. 

When I asked for details, I was first told that the install had been cancelled by the customer (me). I assured them this wasn't the case. After being transferred a few times, someone told me that the the install had been cancelled by Virgin, but there was no reason given. I was then told that the reason the install was cancelled was because the installation work had been deemed to be too expensive.

I asked why no one had bothered to inform me. I was told that I had been given notice. I searched my email/spam, texts, etc -- and there was no notice from Virgin media or any other communication about my aborted installation. I was told to call Sales to discuss my account, or that someone from Virgin's back office would contact me to discuss compensation and what the potential was for the installation pre-work to be completed in the future. A few minutes after I ended the call, I received an email letting me know my installation had been cancelled. 

As of today (9 May) no one from Virgin has contacted me, so I called I started with Customer Service who told me the install showed as pending. They transferred me to the Pre-Installation team who tole me the installation had been automatically cancelled by the system on 5 April because my house had been deemed a non-serviceable address.

When I asked about compensation, I was told that someone from the back office in the UK would be contacting me. I asked how long it would be -- considering it's already been 2 weeks and I haven't heard anything from any department of Virgin. The person with the Pre-Install team assured me that I would be contacted. 

Stay tuned as the Virgin Media Broadband Nightmare enters it's 4th month . . . 

[David_Bn]

Thanks for coming back to our Community Forums @Sean187.

I'd be happy to look into this further for you, to see if there's anything further I can advise, or if there's any answers I'll be able to obtain via contacting some colleagues.

Check out the envelope in the top right hand corner for my private message.

Kindest regards,

David_Bn