Spotter request ignored for over a month?

[wificallerrors]

Hi,

I moved to a new address over a month ago, and I have put in multiple requests for Virgin Media to send a spotter to confirm that the address is serviceable. 

The address is for a newly built property, which has not been added to Royal Mail’s database until recently. But all the neighbouring houses (one of which has the same street name and number) are serviceable by Virgin Media. So it would be highly unlikely that this new address isn’t serviceable.

The first person I spoke to at Virgin Media said it would take 2-3 days to send out a spotter. The second person said it would take about a week. The third person asked me to give up, and recommended that I cancel my account. The fourth person said it can take up to 4 months to send a spotter. The fifth person said she would escalate the request, and that this would force a spotter to visit the address within 48 hours. The sixth person said the escalated request can take up to 1 week. The seventh person said the escalated request doesn’t guarantee that they will send a spotter at all; and I was recommended yet again to “give up” and look for another internet provider (what the heck?). 

Rather than calling Virgin Media an eight time I thought I could try the forums.

Long story short: could you please send a spotter? I  have no doubt that you would find it serviceable if you simply sent someone to check it out.

It is mind boggling to me that you are so busy that you would rather recommend a loyal customer of 5+ years to give up and sign up with one of your competitors, rather than simply sending a person to confirm the address? How many spotters do you have in this country? 1? Is he/she taking a really long summer holiday or what is keeping you from sending someone over?

Thanks

(P.S the address is in Headington, Oxford)

[Matthew_ML]

Hey wificallerrors, thank you for reaching out and I am sorry to hear about your experience so far.

I would like to look into this and get the raised for you so we can send someone down.

I am going to send you a PM, so I can take some details from you.

Please look out for the purple envelope. Thanks 

[wificallerrors]

Thanks, Matt. Looking forward to your PM/help with this 

[wificallerrors]

Hi again. I had a lengthy discussion with the mover pre installation team earlier today, and the support agent very clearly explained that the harsh reality is that spotter request are "part of an old system" and that those types of requests are rarely fulfilled.

The person that I spoke to explained that realistically, the only way to have someone come to the address would be to escalate this with the AFM's (Area Field Managers) and ask them to please agree to send a technician/engineer to confirm that the address is serviceable. With that in mind (and seeing as it has been 1-2 months since I first raised this issue with Virgin Media), if possible could you please help contact the AFM for Headington, Oxford (OX3) and ask them to please send someone to my address? Thanks 

[Natalie_L]

Hi wificallerrors, 

Thank you for your update to the thread. 

I can see that you are currently within a private chat with my colleague. 

With this being the case, we will continue to pick this matter up with you from there to avoid delays. 

Thanks, 

[hyjt1]

Hello there

I realise this thread is old now but I am having exactly the same problem as the person who originally posted this thread. We have moved into a new build address on a street where the rest of the houses are older. Our address isn’t yet listed on the VM website although it is now registered with Royal Mail. Every other address under the same post code is serviceable by Virgin including my next door neighbour who is only metres away. We can see their VM network address when we log in to our devices. I have called multiple times to explain this issue and get passed from call handler to call handler who all say different things but most have said our post code is indeed in a Virgin Media area and it shouldn’t be a problem getting services here. I have been told that a spotter was sent to our address but when I spoke to another person, the said they needed to send a second spotter to the address and to expect a call back within 10 days. This never happened. When I called back again to chase this up I was just told that the address was unserviceable and there was nothing that could be done, which clearly doesn’t make sense if every other address under our post code is serviceable including our next door neighbour.

Please can you help us with this. We have been trying to sort this out for over a month and it seems silly that the only reason we can not just order directly on the website is because our address is not listed on your address checker, and that there is apparently no way of entering the address manually on the VM website in order to process the order and start the installation process. 

Many thanks

[wificallerrors · Accepted solution]

It took me 4 months to sort this out in my case. I called Virgin Media almost every day for a month, but this is what worked in the end. Godspeed

1. Call pre-installation, insist that you want to speak with the construction team. Or dig up the direct number to the construction team somewhere online

2. Explain your situation to someone at the construction team, and ask if they would be willing to knowingly cheat the system by ordering a technician to do a site survey (instead of waiting for a spotter). The site survey must be ordered for your neighbor's address (which isn't allowed of course, hence cheating the system...)

3. Wait on the road/outside your neighbor's house on the day that the site survey technician is supposed to arrive.Talk to the technician, kindly guide them towards your address and ask them to assess that

4. Even if the site survey technician ends up submitting a positive report to state that your address is serviceable, then you might have a difficult time getting someone at Virgin Media (back office, internal house files team etc) to pay attention to that, seeing as the site survey wasn't booked for your actual address

5. Call Virgin Media a hundred times until you find someone willing to connect you to a "Network Sales Advisor"

6. Explain to the Network Sales Advisor that you have already had a site survey completed, that was booked with the help of construction. And that you would like your address to be marked as serviceable/added to their residential system based on the technician's report/findings

7. If you are lucky, then the Network Sales Advisor will add your address, and help you place an order

8. Wait 1-3 months for external work, pre-pull / installing Tees, main installation etc to completed. In the meantime you can ask for a free "construction data SIM" to keep you connected

9. Done

[hyjt1]

Good God you had an absolute nightmare, but I have to say I admire your persistence! Thank you so much for replying to my message and taking time out of your day to post such detailed advice. It is absolutely ludicrous that we have to be put through this gauntlet in order to set up something so straightforward as broadband. This is clearly not an uncommon problem VM have and I am amazed that they have not investigated this to streamline this aspect of their service. But again thank you so much for replying and I’m glad you finally got it sorted out. 

[wificallerrors]

No worries, hope this was somewhat helpful. To add to my previous message, I have spoken to most, if not all "departments" within Virgin Media - including Virgin Media Business. I have tried submitting several spotter requests, ten or more "Tell us about where you live"-forms, two "hotdesk" requests (via pre-installation/construction), three requests to internal house files, two requests sent to the Area Field Manager(s), etc etc

The only ones that were able to make things happen were 1) the construction team that helped book a site survey, and 2) the Network Sales Advisor.

I assume that the Network Sales Advisor must be fairly high up in the hierarchy, and she was able to mark my address as serviceable with a click of a button. So if I were in your position I would probably start by calling Virgin Media again and again and again, until you get connected to someone that is willing to forward you to Network Sales. Best of luck!

[hyjt1]

How frustrating. I really appreciate the advice. I’ll highlight what you’ve said to Virgin to see if this can expedite our situation somewhat. You’ve been incredibly helpful. Sorry you had to go through all of that. Thank you again, and Merry Christmas.