Very disappointed - Virgin cannot install

[quietriot1983]

In the middle of a house move, I arranged with Virgin to set up at my new address the day after I was to receive the keys - they informed me some pre-works would be needed although it wouldn't require anyone to be there. Out of courtesy, I informed the people who were still living in the house, to which they told me that they'd tried to have Virgin installed previously and "there were no cables".

I flagged this up with Virgin, they "investigated" and came back with the response not to worry, it's there now and some of the neighbours have Virgin fibre so it's all good.

Come to today, up rolls a crew with diggers to run cables (I thought this should have been done previously!), and they said the underground track wasn't where it said it was on the map.

Engineer tips up to "complete the install" and says he's been to this location before and the cable stops further down the street so my new house and my closest neighbours cannot have Virgin fibre.

To sum up:

Virgin - clearly money grabbing and not actually investigating what engineers/workmen/customers report to them.

Communication clearly lacking.

Very very disappointed.

Now having to wait 2 weeks to get up and running with an alternative, when I should have been sorted today.

RUBBISH

[Paul_DN]

Hi quietriot1983,

Thank you for the update, it does sound promising, please let us know if you have any further updates.

Regards

Paul.

[quietriot1983]

UPDATE:

Second failed installation, as despite the green spraypaint, nothing has happened, so when today's engineer tipped up, he couldn't do anything as there's STILL no cables.

Spoke again to the pre-install team and was advised of a date for the work to be done, but it's a bit crap that I have to chase to get this info.

Emailed as shown below...date for the work to be done is August 28th...that's right...a SUNDAY!

[jem101]

Firstly absolutely DO NOT cancel the installation, you are absolutely entitled to compensation of £5.25 per day past the first install date until it finally gets done - if ever! Now you may well have a fight to get what you are entitled to but luckily for you some of us here know the regulations somewhat better than VM’ customer services staff do.

However, let’s work on the worst case scenario, and they mess you around for six months, in the meantime you find an alternative supplier, may not be as fast, but a slower connection is better than a faster one that doesn’t actually exist, no? in the meantime the compensation you are entitled to keep stacking up (remember £5.25 per day), irrespective of whether you are with another supplier or not! 

There are two options here, VM decide that they can’t or won’t get you connected up, they are obliged  to give 30 days notice of this so the compensation keeps racking up for this time, Or VM finally extract digit and get you connected up, you test it and decide to cancel within 14 days which is your right with no cost to you. You are still entitled to compensation until the day it was installed and working, plus the knowledge that the cables are all in place and working should you want to give VM another go in the future.

Now based in other posts here, it is quite likely that VM will deny that you are due any compensation at all - no worries, just post back here in that event and we can advise you on how to proceed.

• John

Now I’ve just read the response you got re. your complaint, took me a while to translate it into proper English to work out what they meant. Personally I’d add and extra £25 to your compensation claim for them being even more incompetent!

[Roger_Gooner]

This may be an FTTP installation whereby VM (or more likely its contractor) will dig a narrow trench for the micro duct to be laid from the cabinet to your house. Once installed the fibre is blown through the duct. Let us know how it works out.

[Jonny-M]

Where do VM staff learn how to write? Whoever put that together should be nowhere near customers, at least without someone else proof-reading their work.

[jem101]

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@Jonny-M wrote:

Where do VM staff learn how to write? Whoever put that together should be nowhere near customers, at least without someone else proof-reading their work.

---

Absolutely true, except I should point out that the people who wrote that are not VM staff. They are outsourced call centre and customer services workers employed by a company who has submitted the lowest tender price!

Of course you get what you pay for, and there is a very good reason why these offshore call centre companies can offer low prices - I'll leave it as an exercise to the reader to work out why this is....

[quietriot1983]

Spoke to the dig team again this morning who said they hadn't had a referral, but when I said about the email explaining it was a 45m run, he said they probably should have. Asked me to leave it with him while he chases and he would call back - that was 2 hours ago.

I'd love to be hopeful but I can now just see this dragging on and on, so have ordered vodafone fibre to be installed. Trouble is Openreach are only coming on the 9th of Sept - which will mean we'll have been in our house over 6 weeks without an internet connection.

[Zach_R]

Hi @quietriot1983,

Thank you for the update on the situation. I'm so sorry to hear you're facing some ongoing delays and complications to the installation of services at your new home.

I'd like to take a closer look at things for you, and see if I can at least provide a clearer picture of the situation if nothing else. Please respond to the private message I'll be sending you shortly and we'll go from there.

Thanks,
 

[quietriot1983]

Update:

So after numerous calls and the dig team (who are the only good CS reps in the company, it appears) chasing up just wth is going on, I spoke to a nice gent in the dig team who said "Oh, this looks like it's been completely cancelled, has no one rang you?"

Silly question really, as through this whole sorry process it's been me who has had to chase various departments for any information. NOT the way to treat a customer - let alone one who has previously used you for 10+ years.

According to the gent at the dig team, someone came to assess the dig (not sure why that wasn't done originally when the road was spray painted a month ago?) and deemed it too long to bother with.

Followed up on my 'complaint' (the one Virgin themselves opened) and said I was very unhappy, but also that I was due at least 30 days compensation due to failed installation(s). The response was "your account was never activated so you're not eligible for anything."

To top it off, despite the promise of @zach_r to look into it further - nothing has come of that either.

To say I'm fuming is an understatement. Next time I move house, there is absolutely no way Virgin media will even come into the conversation.

[goslow · Accepted solution]

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@quietriot1983 wrote:

Update:

So after numerous calls and the dig team (who are the only good CS reps in the company, it appears) chasing up just wth is going on, I spoke to a nice gent in the dig team who said "Oh, this looks like it's been completely cancelled, has no one rang you?"

<snip>

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A sorry story indeed. Sadly, a familiar one on here. The claim about no compensation is, of course, not true. You do not have to be activated for the compensation to be paid. VM have failed to connect you and they have chosen to abandon the project instead.

Hopefully, right back at the start, VM sent you a written confirmation of your technician installation/activation date. If you have that, your compensation period is from that date.

Check out the OFCOM baseline requirements here

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

VM staff often seem to freestyle their own versions of same which have no links to the actual requirements.