Wayleave delays, now Prepull

[Damokinsella82]

When I heard Virgin were coming to our area in May 2023, I was like wow amazing. But the delays have been ridiculous since it became available. First wayleave, now Prepull. You speak to preinstalls & get told the same excuse day after day. The site survey is happening today, and the Prepull today also. But getting the same excuses day after day from pre-install team. 
I’m seriously considering cancelling my order with them, I’ve really had enough of there excuses. 

[goslow]

Sadly, it's a common story which is told over and over again in topics on here.

Did the work scheduled for today happen or was that cancelled/a no-show too?

You should be keeping a detailed record of events (dates, times of all calls, messages, texts etc. along with any missed appointments and failed appointments where someone turns up but no work was carried out). Keep the record in a timeline format with links from the timeline to each piece of recorded evidence. This will make it easy for you in the future to put forward a case to arbitration for the correct compensation, should that be necessary.

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/billing-and-payments/automatic-compensation

[Damokinsella82]

Hi Alessandro

We live in an area where it required wayleave for shared driveway, and then we finally get the permission. And since Monday, the survey engineer & prepull engineers were visiting. Got a phone call at 7pm tonight saying they couldn't come today, there going to turn up between 8am-1pm tomorrow. 

The pre install team don't seem to have a clue about anything, you ring up speak to one team they tell you one thing, then you get put through to another team and they tell you something else. It's so frustrating. 

Virgin Media Internet is amazing, but never had such hassle with trying to get it installed where I live now. 

[goslow]

Here's a reply below to an earlier topic from today which gives my own opinion on VM's installation antics

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/Re-Installation-taking-forever/m-p/545902...

Unfortunately, all you can do is wait.

Don't bet your life savings on anyone really/actually/genuinely turning up tomorrow though. Based on descriptions from the many past topics on here, the VM call handler has no direct access to any information about the job and is just reading an automatically-generated date on the screen in front of them which has rolled over by another day when today's visit turned into a no-show. If they fail to appear tomorrow, the next time you call VM they will simply tell you it will be the day after ('guaranteed' is the word we often see used in the topics on here).

[Damokinsella82]

How long did it take for you?

[goslow]

Not an experience I have had to endure myself, fortunately.

The record wait reported on here is believed to be 18 months

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/18-Months-later-no-connection-27-cancelle...

and the end of which VM said it was cancelling the job and refused to pay compensation. Final outcome unknown.

[Tom_W1]

Hi @Damokinsella82 thanks for your post here in the Community although we're sorry to hear of the concerns you've raised here.

We do appreciate your frustrations with this.

With pre-pulls, there can be many external factors that cause delays such as getting permits from the council for example, if underground works are required.

We will always aim to update you as soon as possible, hopefully this isn't far away for you.

Many thanks

[-tony-]

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@Tom_W1 wrote:

Hi @Damokinsella82thanks for your post here in the Community although we're sorry to hear of the concerns you've raised here.

We do appreciate your frustrations with this.

With pre-pulls, there can be many external factors that cause delays such as getting permits from the council for example, if underground works are required.

We will always aim to update you as soon as possible, hopefully this isn't far away for you.

Many thanks

---

ahhh the permits excuse - i am surprised you did not add the rider of 6 weeks - you know or you should it takes a council 48 normally - 72 at worst to grant a permit and thats assuming you actually need one - in many ares you do not

what staff should have said is that if its gone to outside contractors they [VM] have lost all power to do anything as communications is nil - you are waiting for a team in a white van to turn up and fancy doing the job - if it looks too difficult or its raining or there is an R in the month they are likely to give up and go to the next job or the one after that until the find something easy - its a lottery that VM know well how it works but are not going to say that here 

as to being far away in time just ring CS who will tell you it will happen tomorrow [guaranteed] until it does not happen then its the next day [again guaranteed] etc etc

[Damokinsella82]

Well the good news is my virgin media broadband is all up & running, I was beset delays by false promises of Virgin Media turning up by preinstalls. What was more frustrating was the different advisors I spoke too, 5 on Thursday seemed to tell me a different story. I got to the point where I had enough. 
I did some googling to find some virgin media management, and that I did. I contacted them on LinkedIn & then directly through email. And 36hrs later I had my broadband installed & all outside work completed. Very impressed with that level of service. The manager could have ignored me, they didn’t they sorted it. Very pleased. We had an amazing install guy too called Denis, such a lovely guy & was so helpful to my wife moving furniture around 🙂 

[goslow]

Kudos to you for coming up with your own workaround to the problem!

Next battle, getting some (supposedly automatic) compensation out of VM for the delays!