Utter Incompetence from VirginMedia in House Move!

[ADPSM12DB]

Hello,

I need to make a formal complaint about Virgin Media Broadband Services. The service (or lack thereof) in relation to my house move has been completely unacceptable to date. I have recently moved home and am trying to get my broadband transferred to my new property. The details are below. I would like answers to the questions listed at the bottom of my e-mail. If I do not  receive a satisfactory and timely, I response will escalate this complaint to the communications ombudsman enquiry@commsombudsman.org and simply cancel my subscription, cancel my standing order and seek broadband with an alternative provider:

Pre-move (approx May '24)

• My Virginmedia subscription was up for renewal and I confirmed with Virginmedia that:

1. In the event that I moved home during the course of my contract, that I could receive VirginMedia at my new address
2. My existing tariff would remain in force for the remainder of the contract duration (regardless if I moved house) 

Wednesday 6th Nov '24

• I called Virgin Media to inform you of my move on the 14th Nov and requested an installation on the 15th of November (between 1pm & 6pm)
• I was asked a series of question over Text message re: what type of cabling was present in the property
• I explained that I cannot answer these questions as I have not et taken ownership of the property
• It was agreed that a pre-installation site survey would be conducted on Mon 11th of Nov to assess what existing cables are present so the installation could go ahead on the 15th Nov

Mon 11th Nov '24

• A Virginmedia engineer arrived at the property at approximately 6pm
• I heard from the homeowner who was present, that the Virginmedia engineer indicated they could not do anything meaningful as the account holder was not present
• I heard nothing from Virginmedia until the installation date

Thursday 14th Nov '14

• I moved into my new property

Fri 15th Nov '24

• A Virginmedia engineer arrived and reviewed the site - he apologised and said this would be a failed install as no existing cables were present
• After I queried timelines, he said that the pre-install work would be done within 2-3 days and the actual install, shortly thereafter 

Sat 16th Nov '24

• I received an email from VirginMedia indicating that
• My new monthly bill would be £60 per month 
• My installation would be on the 5th Dec '24
• The contract duration would be 18 months from the 5th Dec '24
• I called VirginMedia to query my bill amount (this should have been £28 per month per the agreement in Apr / May '24) and why my install date was the 5th Dec
• The agent indicated that the email I received was sent in error and that the £28 per month fee would stand and the contraact duration would not be 18 months from 5th Dec
• The agent also explained that the pre-installation by the contractor (to dig up / install cables) was scheduled for TODAY 16th Nov (I had received no phone call text message advising me of this)
•  I was told that I would receive a phone call ahead of the engineer visiting and I rearranged my plans / cancelled personal appointments to ensure I was present for the engineer
• I was also assured that once the pre-installation excavation works were completed, that I would be contacted by VirginMedia to rearange an earlier date for installation (earlier then the 5th Dec)
• I then called VirginMedia multiple times (and was placed on hold for over 20mins) at around 6pm to query when the engineer was arriving, and was initially told they would arrive before 7pm
• I was then informed that no engineer would be coming and that I would be contacted by the field engineer team and the agent hung up on me

My questions

• Why during the pre-installation cable survey on the 11th of Nov '24 was the pre-installation excavation work not scheduled by the field engineer team?
• Why was I repeatedly assured that the engineer would arrive on the 16th Nov '24 (I cancelled personal plans as I was assured that an engineer would be visiting)
• Is it acceptable to leave customers who contact you well ahead of time re: their moving over a month without Broadband?
• How will Virginmedia compensate me for the missed time on Saturday 16th Nov when I rearranged my diary to be present for the engineer to visit?
• Why was a pre-installation cable excavation booked for the same day (16th Nov) without providing me with any notification e.g. e-mail / text message?
• When will the pre-installation cable excavation occur?
• When will I get my installation and be able to access broadband services at my new home?

[jpeg1]

Unfortunately none of this is surprising or unfamiliar. 

The external cable installation is done by subcontractors, and once they have been given the job by VM there is little or no further coordination. The job is done when they get round to it. The date you have been given now is not guaranteed and may be changed.  You will find many cases of installation delays if you care to browse this forum.

There is 'automatic' compensation for delays, as agreed by Ofcom but you may have to fight for it.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/automatic-compensation

[Daniel_Et]

Hi @ADPSM12DB, thank you for your post and welcome to the Virgin Media Community.

We're really sorry to hear about the poor experience you've had.

In order to look into providing answers to your questions, we'll send you a private message on here. Look out for the envelope in the top right-hand corner.

If you're on a portable device with a smaller screen, click on the icon in the top right-hand corner and select "messages" from the additional menu options.

Regards,
Daniel

[-tony-]

you can complian until you are blue in the face it will have no effect what so ever as [i would guess] will the help offered on here by staff - they have little authority other than to apologise - as siad if its gone to outside contractors you are in their hands and anything said from here will go nowhere 

your real choice is to sort something on a temp or [maybe] permanent basis elsewhere - a 5g box from 3 will cost you £25 a month or there abouts on a monthly deal and if you are in one of their areas you could get 400 down - if you want a temp fix then let VM huff and puff and promice whatever - just sit back and let it happen - if and when they do get it sorted you have 14 days to cancel if you dont want it - sit back and collect the compensation - you might have to fight for it but its there to be had whatever rubbish VM tell you other wise

if you go else where dont cancel the install - VM will then cancel all work in progress so if in the future you want to have VM you will be back at square one

and its not incompetance by VM - or they dont see it as that - its normal - they have worked hard to get the service and CS so bad - you are no more than a cash cow - service is not something they are interested in