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Cut cable - how long for connection to return after fixed?

zetastarz21
Tuning in

As the title says, we found out our cable was mysteriously cut outside. Basically, on Thursday broadband cut out, engineer booked for Friday evening, he found the, in his words, very freshly cut cable outside our property. He managed to book a team to come fix that Saturday morning. They were a no show as expected with VM, rescheduled to Monday, no show again, and then this morning (Tuesday) around 8:20 I saw a Kelly Communications van parked outside and a man pulling some cables. I was hopeful that this was for us as he also walked to our front door and checked the box there. 
He left around 9:30 but we still have no connection. 
When I called the customer support to find out if they were finished, she said it’s still open and to wait until the time slot ends (8am-1pm) and then call again if the connection isn’t back.

I’m general, how long after cables are pulled before the connection starts back up? 

25 REPLIES 25

Hi Daniel,

sorry for the late reply. I don’t get on here often. That was two weeks ago and unfortunately nobody has been to fix our cables yet. We have been given a date of 4 June, tomorrow, and hope this will finally be finished. In the meantime I have opened a complaint due to the consistent lies by the customer service agents and constant canceling and rescheduling of appointments. It has now been more than one month without broadband or tv and has affected our daily lives negatively has many things need to be done online these days. 
Hopefully they will actually come tomorrow, but I honestly have no hope that they will.

On another note, if this cable continues to not get fixed, is this grounds for early cancellation without fees I wonder?

 

zetastarz21
Tuning in

Hi all,

On 2 May our connection dropped with total loss of service. Engineer came next day and said all the cables are live inside the house, checked outside and apparently the cable outside the property had been “freshly cut” and a cable repull would be necessary. He called his manager in front of me and managed to book an emergency repull in two days time. They never came. 
after about two weeks, a team finally came, pulled out some cables, I brought my child to school and they were gone when I came back 30 mins later. Still no connection. 
After the usual back and forth and cancelling and rescheduling and false guarantees, it has now been more than a month. They are supposed to come today, 4 June, between 8am-1pm, but it’s already 10 and no sign of them. I doubt they’ll show up. It’s been a huge stress as my children have many online school assignments, my husband works 3 days at home each week, and I work part time at home every day. I’ve had to increase my mobile data as everyone tethers to it in order to do the work they need to do.

I’ve filed a complaint and have been keeping track of the days in order to receive the proper compensation.

looking around the forum here I see this is quite the common issue. Any ideas how much longer I’m expected to wait for this cable repull? I assumed 2-3 weeks was an average, but it’s been over a month now…

You would do best to stick to your original topic rather than posting again (as it will keep all of your comm's with VM on here in one place and avoid a lot of confusion in getting replies in different places.).

Your cable re-pull may be done today or it may be months away. From many past topics on here, once VM has tasked the sub-contractor with the work, there is little/no communication between the two and the contractor is left to get on with it on their own timescale. This can lead to long delays (especially if VM and the contractor are arguing over costs for the work).

If you want out of your VM contract (and you are in a minimum term period) you should make a formal complaint to VM stating that they have not fixed the fault in a reasonable time and you wish to leave with no early disconnection fees. 

Your compensation will be stacking up so keep a detailed record of all VM's failures to fix the problem. The compensation should help offset any additional costs you may incur while waiting.

zetastarz21
Tuning in

Didn’t show up yesterday, 4 June, as expected. Not even an “appointment has been rescheduled” message.
Are we just forgotten about? There has been absolutely no communication from Virgin. I always have to contact them first to get any rescheduling information. This is ridiculous. More than a month without internet connection is ridiculous. 

zetastarz21
Tuning in

Had to call Virgin myself to find out when it was “rescheduled” for. They’ll supposedly be coming 11 June. Let’s wait and see I guess…

mda99das
Up to speed

If it was a cut cable and I needed it working ASAP, you can get a coupling kit for a couple of quid to join the ends together as an interim solution. 

I would have no idea how to do that, but thanks for the advice. 
Unfortunately, the engineer said he was going to try something like that, but he couldn’t even find the other part of the cable so I have no idea what happened…

zetastarz21
Tuning in

Didn’t show again today. Rescheduled for a week later, 18 June. It’s getting close to a month and a half of complete loss of connection. 
Is there really nothing we can do about this??

Hi zetastarz21

I'm very sorry to hear this isn't yet resolved.

I'll send you a private message now to provide an update.

Please look out for the envelope in the top right of the page and pop back to me when you can.  

Vikki - Forum Team


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Hi Number 6,

To be honest I also had suspicions about this but unfortunately I know next to nothing about this kind of stuff and can’t really judge for myself. he did show us where a cable was cut and it did look cut. As I said, I know nothing about this stuff so I’m not sure if it was freshly cut or an old one unfortunately. He did dig around looking for the other end while I watched and he didn’t find anything.

I wonder if we would be able to get another technician out for a second opinion. Might be worth a try. Thank you for the thoughts.

as a side note, they didn’t show up again yesterday, rescheduled for 25 June, then lay last night rescheduled to today. Told they’d be here between 12:20-1:20. Didn’t show up, then again rescheduled to 28 June…