Where to find pre-pull date?

[martin9595]

I really need to be here when the pre-pull team arrive because there will be an issue over how to route the cable, which they will need info from me. It's a short private leg with 4 houses off it just off the main street, so the cable would go past 2 other houses.  It's fine, there is a strip of grass where the cable can be buried, neighbours are fine with it and we actually plan on removing the grass in the summer anyway.  Also want the box on a specific location, ie to the garage.  

Looked in my account and can only see the install date, 10th March.

I've read too many stories about the pre-pull team cancelling, so I want to answer their questions on the day to avoid this.  Thanks!

[jpeg1]

"It's fine, there is a strip of grass where the cable can be buried, neighbours are fine with it and we actually plan on removing the grass in the summer anyway."

Who owns that strip of grass?  Is it the developer or the Council, or each house that it passes?  Virgin will need to have permissions.  It will need to be dug for conduit to be run, with perhaps a Tee in front of each house.  This could be an expensive job. 

[martin9595]

Thanks for replying, it's private land that's why I mentioned the neighbours are fine with it. Do you know how they will ask permissions, do they knock on the neighbours door or is it letter/email?  Here is a pic to explain it better.  The car wheel you see is the 3rd house along, it's probably about 20-25m from the road, it would need to be burrowed under the block paving as well.  I'd hope they had already looked at this before saying it's available, there are lots of houses in the estate that are on little private block-paved parts. 

[Roger_Gooner]

What do you mean by "estate was only switched on 4 days ago"?

[jpeg1]

From all you have said, I think you may have to resign yourself to not having Virgin Media.  This looks too difficult and/or expensive to install.

[martin9595]

Ridiculous. 

[martin9595]

Just putting on the record that I've called the pre installation team again this morning, said pre-pull happening today.  I pointed out that it's said that every single day since the 25th and that the day keeps changing, she said it is definitely scheduled for today.  I asked if that was definite, guaranteed today she said "yes". 

Also disappointed that VM staff haven't replied to my message on here but answer other people. 

[martin9595]

Obvioulsy I was lied to this morning. Again. So much for "guaranteed" pre-install, and have tried to get virgin staff to reply to this but being deliberately ignored. As I feel this will turn out to be a complaint this thread will be used for evidence. 

[nodrogd]

If the place you are standing at in the picture is the road (which is where the ducting will be), then the distance from this to your house would likely be uneconomic to service even without the block paving in the way. VM have no universal service obligation unlike Openreach, so will refuse anything that is over budget.

[martin9595]

The picture is from google maps. It's no different from a large front garden, we are only talking about 25m of cable I'll pay for it myself. They just need to run the cable along the edge of the grass along the wall. People's opinions and speculation really don't matter until virgin say for definite, and this is all I'm trying to get an answer on.  The route is simple, the only part that requires any effort is coring under the 4m of block paving, from there they can clip the cable onto the bottom of the fence running towards the house, the google images pic is from 2009. The grass can be totally removed for them as well, so they just need to lay the cable and it will be covered by weed membrane and stone chips.  They shouldn't offer if they can't supply. 

edit: I am also not interested in lame badges, every time I get one of these messages I think someone from virgin has finally replied how do I turn that off?

[Alan782]

Martin,

I get your frustration, we all have the same frustration as well. People are just trying to give you heads up as to how this is probably going to turn out in the end.

The theory of, having the pre-pull team contact you when they arrive and you can explain the situation, they can then assess and the job is taken care of, sounds fair and logical and no reason why it shouldn't happen that way.... but it won't. Logic goes right out the window here.

I've had 3 re-pulls scheduled at different times, no-one's ever shown up, no-ones ever contacted me, they are able to operate however they like and there are no comebacks.

The problem seems to be that VM have so many customers that the tiny minority of people who have issues can easily be ignored or fobbed off because it doesn't affect their business in the slightest.

If the VM teams were doing the cable pulls as well, the chances are everything would go much smoother and the communication would be better, but, as others have said, 3rd party contractors do the cable pulls and they basically have zero communication with helpdesk staff etc.. you being told by the pre-pull team that the pre-pull "is definitely happening today" is simply their way of getting you off the phone as quickly as possible, they have No idea if the pre-pull will actually happen or not... it might be on the job sheet for that day, but it doesn't mean it's going to happen.

If I were you I honestly would look to see if you have an alternative provider that you can use. The download speeds of VM are brilliant (I won't lie about that) but the customer support is atrocious (The VM forum staff are normally pretty good to be fair and it's a shame they haven't contacted you directly yet), if I had any other option of a provider I certainly wouldn't be with VM.