Two month delay to installation; still no support

[PG1905]

We signed up with Virgin for TV, internet and phone line when we moved into our new home in December. We received confirmation that we were going to have our installation on 14th January. Two days before the 14th, we were told further work was needed and our installation date would be moved to 8th February. We were due to have an engineer come to do the installation today and no one showed up.

My partner has spent hours on the phone over the last two months trying to find out what's going on with our installation, what's causing the delay, and what can be done to speed up the process. On multiple occasions, Virgin have asked my partner to hold the line while they 'look into this' and promptly hung up the phone. He's on his third attempt at trying to get through today right now, so far with no luck. Apparently someone is calling us back within the hour, but I won't be holding my breath.

We both work from home and the situation is untenable. I am having to use my personal phone to hotspot which is not the most reliable and means I have had to pay extra on my phone bill to cover the cost of using extra data.

Frankly I am disgusted with the 'customer service' Virgin are providing - it's completely unacceptable to leave us waiting for two months without any clear path to resolution. Unless someone installs my phone, internet and TV by the end of this week I will be cancelling my agreement and going with a different provider.

Have other people had similar issues with installation? If so how did you resolve?

[-tony-]

read the forum you are one of many with the same problem - the longest is a year from order to install

VM use contractors for the external work and it seems they either speak different languages or they are on another planet - either way they do not communicate past the first request to get things done

so if you can find another isp then go that route - if you can get a month by month deal then wait for VM and see how good it is - the product is usually good - CS is a whole different matter

even if you go for another isp do not cancel the VM install - if you do that it will all be cancelled and all work stopped so if you want VM in the future you are back to square one - just let them install it and cancell in the 14 day cooling off period at no cost to you

regarding the missed visit - if that was for internal work you should be due £25 compensation but that likely to be a credit - if you do cancel you can push for payment but dont hold your breath

[PG1905]

Thanks Tony, that's helpful to know.

[jem101]

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@PG1905 wrote:

We signed up with Virgin for TV, internet and phone line when we moved into our new home in December. We received confirmation that we were going to have our installation on 14th January. Two days before the 14th, we were told further work was needed and our installation date would be moved to 8th February. We were due to have an engineer come to do the installation today and no one showed up.

My partner has spent hours on the phone over the last two months trying to find out what's going on with our installation, what's causing the delay, and what can be done to speed up the process. On multiple occasions, Virgin have asked my partner to hold the line while they 'look into this' and promptly hung up the phone. He's on his third attempt at trying to get through today right now, so far with no luck. Apparently someone is calling us back within the hour, but I won't be holding my breath.

We both work from home and the situation is untenable. I am having to use my personal phone to hotspot which is not the most reliable and means I have had to pay extra on my phone bill to cover the cost of using extra data.

Frankly I am disgusted with the 'customer service' Virgin are providing - it's completely unacceptable to leave us waiting for two months without any clear path to resolution. Unless someone installs my phone, internet and TV by the end of this week I will be cancelling my agreement and going with a different provider.

Have other people had similar issues with installation? If so how did you resolve?

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A brief examination of this section of the forum, will tell you that no, you aren't alone in this - the record, I believe, for a delayed installation is just over a year - so if you have a desire to be a record breaker, you have a way to go!

Secondly, you won't resolve it, the installation process is all handled by sub contractors and sub sub contractor and so on,  none of which appear to have the ability to coordinate with each other or notify of issues. You or your partner can call customer services literally every day for ever and get no  coherent response - simply because the person on the other end of the phone has no clearer picture of what is actually happening than my pet cat has!

It's a systemic issue on VM's part - their senior management has decided that this is the best way to organise and run the company - presumably it must work for the majority of customers, not that this is much help to you.

The installation will happen, when it happens and not before, and believe me, there is nothing you can do to alter it.

So. what do you do, well, yes, investigate alternative suppliers and when you don't think you can't wait any longer, then sign up with one of them. But my advice would be to NOT cancel the installation with VM. If and when they get you installed, you can test it and cancel the contract with them within the first 14 days without any cost or penalty. But at least you know that you have a working cable connection if and when you decide to give VM another chance in the future.

Best wishes

John

[jem101]

Ah, I see my post and @-tony- 's seem to have crossed - advice is the same though.

[Steven_L]

Hey @PG1905,

Welcome to the community and thanks for taking the time to post your issue on the forums.
I'm really sorry to hear that your time with us has started so badly.

Have you heard anything from the team since your last post, if so what is the latest advice that you have been given?

Have you been given a new install date?

Regards,

Steven_L

[PG1905]

Hi, 

My partner has had to phone again and press for a new installation date.

Apparently the cabling work still hasn't been completed, despite the fact we've had Virgin engineers outside our house. Instead of telling us this in advance and changing our installation date, all that happened was no one turned up on Tuesday.

The fact that we aren't being communicated with and having to constantly chase is ridiculous. 

We've now been told it's going to be 8th March at the earliest, but to be honest I don't expect it to happen, especially not given some people have waited up to a year. How you feel this is reasonable service is beyond me.

We are now actively looking at other providers because we can't keep working from home without internet and because we're having such a bad experience with your customer service.

[Ryan_N]

I am sorry to hear about this and I can only apologise. The team in which you have been speaking with have the information to provide any updates. 

I know this isn't the level of service expected when taking out our services. Please keep me posted on the install in March. 

Cheers, 

Ryan. 

[PG1905]

I'm really disappointed that no one is able to help me with this.

Every time we call we are put through to different people, told something different or given different pieces of the picture.

To anyone thinking about signing up with Virgin, only do it if you can accept lengthy delays with no support.

[jasonmfarrow]

I was originally scheduled for the 4th January. After four attempts to fix the BT pipe access to be able to run the Fibre (3 in Jan and 1 in Feb) The pipe is finally fixed (as of 8th Feb). However my currently scheduled dates for the activation of service are 27th April for the external cable work and 4th May for the internal work. Appalling.

Based on the automatic compensation for the delay in providing the service I'll be owed over £600 in compensation if VM wait until this date [https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automat....

There's no way to contact anyone to ask for this to be rescheduled other than to raise a complaint and I've raised two of those already and one has already missed the 28-day resolution target.  You'll note that all the "contact us" links on the VM un-helpful website result in a 404 page not found error.

When you say "it isn't a level of service expected..." it would appear that no-one in VM is in the least bit interested in addressing the problem and fixing the root-cause issues. The contractor has recently been changed (albeit in name only, as the management team is the same as is the workforce) but that has not improved the situation which so many people on this forum have experienced.