How Virgin treat us

MondoMondoMondo

Re: Nightmare
Hello All,

It is now 45 days since Virgin ruined our house - despite our efforts we are no further and feel that we have been treated like dirt.



I wrote this open letter to the CEO of Virgin on Thursday 5th May(names have been left out for reasons of confidentiality).

On the advice of people on this forum I originally e mailed him 5 weeks ago and he replied and said he would help sort this out;



Dear ,

my name is Ray - as you may be aware from previous e mails my family has been suffering as a result of Virgin's incompetence in flooding my property six weeks ago and destroying much of our ground flooring and also as a result of non response to the original complaint and then a dismissive attitude batting the problem to your subcontractor Mapgroup despite our complaints re their treatment of us - our contract was and is with Virgin.

I have asked on several occasions not to have to deal with Mapgroup or their agents due to their ignoring of e mails and phone calls, false promises,condescending attitude,and insulting and manipulative conduct but continue to be forced to deal with them in an attempt to sort this out.I have informed your complaints manager of our desire to sort this out via Virgin but last night was subject to a phone call from the insurance broker for Mapgroup in which after refusing to accept her offer she shouted so loud down the phone at me that my wife heard her in the next room.We have asked for £1000 compensation to settle this matter quickly after informal consultation with our family solicitor and our home insurance legal advisor who have given their opinion that this is a very low amount when the extent of our suffering and the longevity of it are considered.The Insurance broker was last night offering only £500 which we find insulting enough but she then began to play a game saying this was a once only offer and it would be withdrawn "off the table" if we refused - is this a game to them ? is it a game to you ? - if so we have always been the losers and whatever compensation we receive we will continue to be the losers.We have had our house and lives turned upside down and have jumped through hoops sorting it out to now be shouted at by a so called professional who tries to twist words and manipulate us to avoid paying what her clients promised.

I would like to ask you a question - if you were due to move into a new home the following day after spending four months refurbishing it and if a workman came to your house later than promised - lied to you re the choices for cabling which were promised in the Virgin guidelines booklet just to make the quickest installation and then did not use his pipe finding equipment or dust sheets provided - flooded your house causing well over £5000 worth of damage and six weeks later your floor was still unrepaired - your walls bare plaster and trip hazards were apparent - if you,your wife and two teenage children had not had access to a washing machine for six weeks because the flooring was too raised to fit it in - if you had to delay moving house for a week meaning you had to beg your landlord for an extension and then live with four people in a half furnished house with no tv or pc for a week whilst your home dried out - if you had been promised money for full repairs up front into your account and then received less than half - if you had sent over 40 e mails and spent over £100 on phone calls to no avail trying to sort another person's mess and often been left with no reply or waited days for a reply - if you had had 15 tradesmen/professionals you had had to arrange trapesing through your house for estimates and quotes - if you had witnessed your wife cry herself to sleep that night and cry more in the ensuing six weeks than in the previous 20 years put together would you consider £1000 compensation a reasonable sum ?

Regards,

Ray

-

We await his reply,

I would like to again thank everyone on this forum for their support and sound advice which we have endeavoured to follow to the best of our ability.

Regards,

Ray.

Kurtis_Blue

Why are you wasting you time with this sort of letter? keep it legal.

Simply give X days to get the works done or you state you will fix and bill. enclose photos of damage.

If no positive reply fix your self and send them copies of the invoices, no payment then take them to county court, not complicated.

You work to your schedule not theirs and this should have been completed by now.

MondoMondoMondo

Hello,

the problem with getting the work done and then billing them is twofold - we have no money - we have just finished our refurbishing of this house and went to the limit of our credit - also we were promised the money up front and then Virgin went back on the promise and then said we could have it if we waived our right to compensation - basically holding us to ransom.
We began without legal representation because Virgin made all the right noises about paying up front and now if we take them to court we will be delayed even more - we've got to hope they do the right thing I guess.What we've asked for in compensation is about a third of what my solicitor has advised me we could hope to gain through court but the delay is too much for us to consider unless as a last resort.

Thank you for your post - regards,

Ray.

MondoMondoMondo

It's 46 days since Virgin flooded our house and they still haven't paid for repairs - but it seems we may have made some progress - we have agreed a sum for compensation and repairs - the compensation is a third of what my solicitor says we could have got but we just can't wait that long so we're cutting our losses I guess - anyway I won't believe it until the money's in my account - they've said they'd pay before remember ! Maybe I'm just a born optomist - will let the forum know if there are any last minute shenanigans.


Regards,


Ray

daggy

Glad you finally got it sorted, although I can't help but feel that they are getting off lightly.

spike7451

MondoMondoMondo wrote: »

It's 46 days since Virgin flooded our house and they still haven't paid for repairs - but it seems we may have made some progress - we have agreed a sum for compensation and repairs - the compensation is a third of what my solicitor says we could have got but we just can't wait that long so we're cutting our losses I guess - anyway I won't believe it until the money's in my account - they've said they'd pay before remember ! Maybe I'm just a born optomist - will let the forum know if there are any last minute shenanigans.


Regards,


Ray

Glad your getting somewhere,but you'll find that it's more likely the contractor who is causing the hassle,I've seen this before when I was sent out to investigate complaints as part of my job. (I once got a crew fired for shoddy workmanship)

MondoMondoMondo

Hello All,


today we finally received the money for repairs and the settlement figure - we had to fight for every penny and it took over 50 days - our house now needs a new floor which we can finally begin to order - Virgin continued to the last to make me deal with their subcontractor mapgroup who's behaviour was quite disgusting to us - broken promises and uneccessary delays - even holding us to ransom for repair money saying we could have it if we let them put in a different floor or gave up on the idea of compensation - quite despicable when you consider that their gross negligence ruined our house and prevented us moving into our new home.


Hopefully we can move on and finally put this behind us - I would like to thank all those who read and especially those who were kind enough to give advice and support - it was most appreciated and helped us immeasurably.


Regards,


Ray,Sarah and family.