Shambolic Installation New Build

[Sattar97]

 

 

Today we had an engineer appointment for VM to come and connect up our services at our new build property. Once the engineer turned up he quickly advised that the white coaxial cable installed by the house builders had been cut too short for them to connect anything to it - no services, working from home and no broadband don’t work well together!

Before we joined virgin the white cable on the outside of the house was long enough for VM to do as they needed, as per the picture. After registering for VM services and before our install date I had received a text to say pre-installation work had been carried out and was complete. No prior communication from VM to tell us that someone was coming to do work to the external of our property, we didn’t give permission for the cable to be cut!!

To the eye the pre-installation was just a brown external box having being installed.. we didn’t realise that when this was installed was also when the cable was cut back!!!

tried to call VM today to speak to someone who understood the situation, no chance of that happening.. not a clue at what the problem was and no real way forward other than another engineer appointment, just for me to be able to actually explain what’s gone on and find out who did this during the pre-installation phase!!! Not going to be able to run a new cable through the property as this was done during the electrical first fix before plaster work was done!

total waste of time, going around in circles and no clear way to rectify VM’s incompetence. 

expect a reply by return as moved in and both working from home from Monday!!!!

[goslow]

What is on the opposite side of the wall (inside) to the bit of white cable left outside?

Is the white cable visible inside (or behind a removable wall plate) or is it all concealed within the building?

The answers might determine how easy it will be to fix the problem.

[Sattar97]

Opposite side of that wall as an under stairs cupboard, the lounge is on the opposite side of the hallway and it’s a semi so can’t go in the other side of the house.  

white cable is concealed within the wall, only thing visible in the understates cupboard (the other side of that external wall) is openreach. 

[jb66]

That sucks, can more wire be pulled out with long nose pliers?  

[Sattar97]

VM engineer said he tried and that was the most length he could get 😕

need VM to reply and sort it out 

[goslow]

I think it might also be worth talking to your housebuilder as well.

In an earlier topic on here today, it was mentioned that it is the housebuilder who does the internal wiring for VM and then VM just connects up outside.

The housebuilder may be able to tell you where the VM wire runs internally and if there is any means of accessing it from a different location to either renew or extend it or see if more slack can be found inside.

Worst case you might have to open up a small section of wall inside in the understairs cupboard to get at the cable and extend from in there to outside.

Somewhat amazing that the person fitting the box outside decided to cut off the extra cable length.

[Sattar97]

Thanks for the reply. 

General consensus from others on my estate is that the cable runs into the lounge, no junction box or access to the wire within the cupboard. 

I will ask the house builder but conversations with them today suggest they don’t do the pre-installation but it’s left for VM to do once the home owner buys services from WM. 

ideally VM need to reply!! Next door has CCTV that looks directly at that box so we will be able to see the VM engineer, just need to find out the date it was done. 

[goslow]

We're talking at slightly crossed purposes here.

The housebuilder won't come and install your VM service for you but the housebuilder will have installed the VM cables within the building when the house was being built, so they may have an idea where the hidden cable runs are internally which might help find the cable hidden in walls so it can be accessed and fixed more easily without too much damage to your new house (which might happen if VM is left to its own devices to resolve for you)!

[Sattar97]

That makes more sense - thanks for that

Virgin need to sort out the why someone cut it and get it sorted!

[Ilyas_Y]

Hi @Sattar97 thanks for reaching out to us and a warm welcome to the Virgin Media Community Forums. 👋🏼
I'm sorry to hear about the poor experience you have had with the install. 😞

May I ask if you've been in touch with the team to get the appointment arranged or has something been set in place?
Let us know.

Kind regards,
Ilyas.