Virgin Media installation farce!!!

AuntieM

Help!
After numerous VM sales guys knocking on our door, and various offers through the post selling the virtues of the newly installed fibre optics in our area - I placed my order with VM, signed the contract and had the package installed on Wed 30th March.

Unfortunately, the cables hadn't been 'pulled through' to my property. And after many hours & 3 VM vans parked up outside, they had to admit they could only trace the cable for 45metres and then had no idea where the cable went.
I was assured this was being treated as an emergency and I would be connected within 2days.

I have phoned VM to check what's happening - "my installation is booked for 13th April because they don't have a crew available!!!"
After spending ages complaining on the phone, it transpires it's booked for this date because our local council has given VM permission to dig up the road between 10-13th April to lay 150metres of cable.
You couldn't make this up!

I basically want to cancel VM (but can't find my contract), be charged nothing, be reimbursed for my phone calls from my mobile phone (as I don't have a landline), have them collect their equipment, and go back to Sky asap!

I feel they have sold me a product under false pretences, as I'm assuming the product doesn't exist if 150metres of cable is missing! But I can't get the Indian call centre to understand this.

Any help or suggestions would be really appreciated - I can't believe how stressed they have made me feel!

Apologies if I don't respond or thank you quickly - I don't have broadband either, so I'm borrowing friends PC's at present!

Cheers M.:mad:

spike7451

Something about this doesn't sound right to me...First off,the Fibre Optic only goes as far as the Mux & DA,which are two boxes which can be up to 1/2 a mile away from your home.From there to the street cabinet (DP/E cabs) & then onto your home it's copper.

Secondly,what was installed on 30th March?..

When an install is done,a two man crew come's out to your home & physically pulls a Siamese drop cable, which contains the TV/BBand Coax & the Phone cable, from the street cabinet to your home.Then a couple of boxes are mounted on the internal & external walls & the internal TV/BBand & phone points are installed.

It sounds to me like you are off the VM grid & so a new cabinet needs to be installed near your property to serve the homes in your area,hence the dig date from the council.And you do have to get permission from the council to dig up the roads unless it is a vital emergency repair,which this is not.Either that or the ducting which leads to your property is damaged & the VM needs to replace the duct & cabling.However if they need to lay 150m of cable in addition to the 45m they say they could trace,then it's more likely to be the former as at around 200m of cabling,even using an RG11 Drop cable,you are right on the limit of the cable's maximum run. And VM do not offer FTTP like BT Infinity.

AuntieM

Wow, thank you for that your technical reply, really interesting.

The installation on 30th March consisted of the couple of boxes mounted on the internal & external walls & the internal TV/BBand & phone points installed. And (in theory) they just had to pull the piece of rope that was poking out of my garden, that had the cable attached to it.

So everything is installed & activated, but the cable isn't attached to anything!

The floor manager in the Indian call centre 'offered' (like he was doing me a favour) not to charge me for the services I haven't been receiving since 30 March! And after telling me about the cable problem, he then transferred me to 'faults' because he couldn't work out why I had no phone line or broadband as it appears as activated from their end. Give me strength!

Thanks.

spike7451

AuntieM wrote: »

Wow, thank you for that your technical reply, really interesting.

The installation on 30th March consisted of the couple of boxes mounted on the internal & external walls & the internal TV/BBand & phone points installed. And (in theory) they just had to pull the piece of rope that was poking out of my garden, that had the cable attached to it.

So everything is installed & activated, but the cable isn't attached to anything!

The floor manager in the Indian call centre 'offered' (like he was doing me a favour) not to charge me for the services I haven't been receiving since 30 March! And after telling me about the cable problem, he then transferred me to 'faults' because he couldn't work out why I had no phone line or broadband as it appears as activated from their end. Give me strength!

Thanks.

Right,so they've mounted the Isolator & phone points in the home & the ETB (the box on the outside wall) & it does sound like the was previous problems as the rope 'poking out of your garden' is usually done by the construction crew when a street ducting is damaged.
Normally they would shove a 'Cobra' down the hole that feeds to the street pits.
Cobra;


However I can't see how the Indian bloke said your services are activated as they have to connect to the network & get a 'Handshake' from the network before they register to your account.And the billing doesn't start until the services are activated &,as you have no physical connection between your home & the network,the 'handshake' isn't possible.I think the Indian bloke was looking at the wrong screen...
If they were competant installers,they should 'rod the drop' with the cobra & measure off to where it stops,which would normally be the first street pit.

AuntieM

Thank you again for your response - they did use a 'snake' but they said it wasn't long enough.

jb66

Could be a blocked or facing the wrong way round "Tee"

[Deleted User]

Find the name and address of the CEO and send him an email.

spike7451

jb66 wrote: »

Could be a blocked or facing the wrong way round "Tee"

Was thinking that too.(The Tee ,or Swept Tee,is a curved piece of piping that fits between the Toby,which is the bit the rope is poking out of,and the ducting & is used to guide the Cobra in the right direction.

kford224

Very interesting thread! Sorry to hear about your drama with Virgin. We are due to have Virgin installed tomorrow and whilst I was waiting in for a delivery yesterday, I looked outside to see two men digging a hole in the pavement at the bottom of our drive, basically blocking my car in. They had yellow cable on a reel as above and I saw on their hi-vis that they were from Virgin. I text my fiance who said this normal.

I had no idea that this would be happening as part of the installation (not had cable before) and was surprised that they started work out the front of the house without even a note or knock on the door?! Especially as it restricted me from leaving the house!!

Out the front now is a load of black cable sticking out of the ground under a patch of (our neighbours ) grass, I assume this is what shall be going up to the house, although not sure how they will conceal it?!

Sky is definitely a lot easier in terms of installation!! Just hope the installation tomorrow isn't too bad :cool:

jb66

kford224 wrote: »

Very interesting thread! Sorry to hear about your drama with Virgin. We are due to have Virgin installed tomorrow and whilst I was waiting in for a delivery yesterday, I looked outside to see two men digging a hole in the pavement at the bottom of our drive, basically blocking my car in. They had yellow cable on a reel as above and I saw on their hi-vis that they were from Virgin. I text my fiance who said this normal.

I had no idea that this would be happening as part of the installation (not had cable before) and was surprised that they started work out the front of the house without even a note or knock on the door?! Especially as it restricted me from leaving the house!!

Out the front now is a load of black cable sticking out of the ground under a patch of (our neighbours ) grass, I assume this is what shall be going up to the house, although not sure how they will conceal it?!

Sky is definitely a lot easier in terms of installation!! Just hope the installation tomorrow isn't too bad :cool:

Im sure they would move there van if required, they havent prevented you from leaving so not blocked you in. People get so uppity about there driveways! I regularly have to park my van accross driveways as almost everyone has one. Some folk now have double driveways! (thihnk i feel a rant coming on)

Anyway I feel the opposite, I think its more efficiant to get the cable through a day early as it gives them extra time to unblock the T or try a plan B.

spike7451

jb66 wrote: »

Im sure they would move there van if required, they havent prevented you from leaving so not blocked you in. People get so uppity about there driveways! I regularly have to park my van accross driveways as almost everyone has one. Some folk now have double driveways! (thihnk i feel a rant coming on)

Anyway I feel the opposite, I think its more efficiant to get the cable through a day early as it gives them extra time to unblock the T or try a plan B.

Exactly,when I started as an Installer,we had a dedicated crew who would go & pre-pull the cables for the next day's installs & leave the cable coiled up in the first street pit,so all we had to do was to uncoil it from the pit & pull it thru.
By doing this it also flagged up any potential issues like,as mentioned,a blocked duct or a long driveway so we could allow extra time for the install.