Virgin Media - What would you do?

GamerInfo

Need some advice

Beginning of December i was made aware by a family member that our home telephone was 'engaged' - as they'd been trying to get through to us for several hours they were curious as to who we were speaking to.....

I love to talk - but certainly not for several hours - we checked both phone were on their bases and when we lifted the 'receiver' all we could hear was a really bad line (no dialling tone). The last phonecall we received was from the previous evening.

After a few hours messing around trying we called Virgin media. After 5 phonecalls on my son's mobile phone (all of which i was hung up on - 2 of which never even made it as far as being connected to an advisor) we were told the line was faulty and we needed an engineer out to look at it - the appointment for this was made some 3 days later

The engineer came out and spent around 45mins checking the line - turns out it's waterlogged and the whole thing needs re-wiring - 250m of wiring was ordered and i was told i needed to await a phonecall for an appointment to be made for around mid January - shocked at this the engineer told us not to worry he'd have the work completed within 2wks.

No phonecall ever came and it was only by me keep pestering and emailing t5heir CEO office that i got a phonecall to tell me an appointment had been booked for the work to be carried out on 24th january 2012. Not pleased with this the person i spoke to said the council specifically said they couldn't commence road works to re-wire the street until after January 4th and our re-wire up our driveway (which is about 40ft long) is anticipated to be done on 5th january.

I was again promised a return phonecall to confirm this - obviously again this never happened. I emailed their CEO office again and was called back the following day - no work had been booked in as there were problems - i was promised another phonecall back today - this never happened.

So as of now ive been nearly 3wks without a home phone line and no closer to knowing when one will be fitted -all ive been offered to date is a refund on my service charge for my phone line rental - now as ive clearly been without one they shouldn't be charging me anyhow - best part is i still have to pay for the month ill have been without a telephone line and they'll refund my charges off my january bill - a total of £13


Ive told them how seriously inconvenienced ive been throughout this - not least the money it's cost me to keep chasing them via mobile phone - but ive been told they dont do compensation packages as it's a grey area apparently

If anyone could give me any advice on where i stand - it's the lack of communication on their part that really annoys me - why should i be doing all the chasing to find out information they should rightfully be providing me with?

Heinz

It merely demonstrates how much VM values your custom - not at all.

Get a PSTN line installed.

Mark_In_Hampshire

It's not clear whether this is a Virgin Media (cable) phone line , or one they rent from Openreach (non cable)

In cases where the road/street needs digging up and they need permissions to do that, these repairs can take weeks. There isn't all that much the company can do, really.

What they can do, however, is keep you updated. If it's a VM line then they should be able to do so, as it's all in house. If it isn't then the repairs will be by a third party over whom they have no control.

It sounds as though there's some expectation that the repair can be done in the first week of January.

With regard to compensation this doesn't normally apply to residential contracts, though that said, I thought you could usually claim some money towards the cost of mobile calls during the period of downtime. Might be worth a trawl through their Ts and Cs to see what it says and if what you were told is actually correct.

GamerInfo

Thanks for the replies - things have gotten more interesting this morning - a Virgin Media engineer came out and we now have a working phone line. It transpires that there are two phone wires - one of which is indeed water-logged and will need replacing - however the other phone line works perfectly well and we have been connected to that.

Question i have now is why was i inconvenienced when i didn't need to be? 3wks without a home phone line and all the time it could have been fixed and i shouldn't have gone without a working phone line?

I understood their position in the fact that if the council said they couldn't dig up the road then there wasn't a lot they could do about it - however they could have done something to lessen my inconvenience throughout this period.

Virgin are a big company, they could have provided me with a cheap PAYG handset either loaded with credit or put me on a 30day phone contract - it's not like they don't know my phone usage, ive been a customer of their for 6+yrs!!!!

Instead i had to go out and purchase a PAYG mobile phone at my own cost - it now turns out i didn't have to do that, if the first engineer would have carried out the work fully, i wouldn't have been without a phone line at all and i didn't need to buy a phone!!!!

So what should Virgin do about this problem now - it's clearly their fault ive gone without a phone line - the problem could have been fixed wks ago!!!!

spike7451

Sounds to me line the drop cable from the street cabinet to the house was damaged & had been repaired,it's impossible for the cable to become water logged unless it has been damaged as it is flooded with a waterproofing gel to prevent water getting into it.If the cable is cut & spliced badly (and I've seen this many times as a service engineer) then water can get into the repair & cause the problems you have had,it can also happen when the installer nicks the internal pairs in the drop cable while stripping back the outer covering.In extreme cases,this can cause the drop cable to short across the pairs & dial 999.(Seen that a few times!)
The is a minimum number of pairs in a drop cable,normally 1 in use & 1+ spare.Normal proceedure would be for the engineer to try the spare pair.If this doesn't work,then they have also been damaged or not connected up,chances are the CoAx is also damaged in that case. (quite often when the council cut thru the cables & ducting when doing roadworks)
Now it sounds like the engineer has ordered a re-pull,that will involve replacing not just the phone cable but also the Coax cable used for the TV/BBand because the both cables are joined together,called a Siamese drop cable.Mark is indeed correct about the road works as it depends where the damage is,where the manhole pits are (road or footpath) & availablility of the 2 man repull crew.
The is NO WAY that VM would provide you with a P&G mobile,none what so ever,nor would they put you one a 30 day contract.It was YOUR choice to go & buy a mobile,not VM's,they could have diverted your calls to another landline or mobile number. (Sorry to be blunt,but that's the way VM (and BT/O2/Sky ect will look at it!)

GamerInfo

Alas the story continues.....

The so called 'working' line that was connected this morning is now showing the same signs as the previous one - whenever someone tries to call they are presented with a engaged tone and when we pick up our handset we get no dialling tone....

More blunders made by Virgin Media - so i still have no phone line

With regards to me buying a PAYG mobile - a landline number is vital to us - up until last friday i had two children at school, should anything happen i needed a constant line of communication with them - i couldn't have this through my landline so was forced to provide this line of communication by other means - in addition to this is the fact that one of my elderly family members was taqken in to hospital 2wks ago and i need to be able to know what's going on if the worst should happen.

Virgin 'could' have provided me with a cheap PAYG mobile or a temp mobile contract (which is returned to them when the phone line is fixed) they have the means to do so and it wouldn't cost them anything to have done so!!

The fact ive not once been contacted once by them is the most annoying part - each time they've contacted me it's been because ive phoned/emailed them first - not good customer service is it!!!

spike7451

GamerInfo wrote: »

Alas the story continues.....

The so called 'working' line that was connected this morning is now showing the same signs as the previous one - whenever someone tries to call they are presented with a engaged tone and when we pick up our handset we get no dialling tone....

More blunders made by Virgin Media - so i still have no phone line

With regards to me buying a PAYG mobile - a landline number is vital to us - up until last friday i had two children at school, should anything happen i needed a constant line of communication with them - i couldn't have this through my landline so was forced to provide this line of communication by other means - in addition to this is the fact that one of my elderly family members was taqken in to hospital 2wks ago and i need to be able to know what's going on if the worst should happen.

Virgin 'could' have provided me with a cheap PAYG mobile or a temp mobile contract (which is returned to them when the phone line is fixed) they have the means to do so and it wouldn't cost them anything to have done so!!

The fact ive not once been contacted once by them is the most annoying part - each time they've contacted me it's been because ive phoned/emailed them first - not good customer service is it!!!

Damaged pairs in the drop cable as I said or a faulty Krone D-Side strip in the cab.Engineer should have swapped the pairs & changed the D Side in the Mux & Cab (Mux is the exchange)

Buzby

I fail to see why you think VM have a responsibility to pay for a loan mobile. You have no service guarantees unless you pay additionally for it. VM will certainly credit you in full for the period you line is not working, so they play fair.

As for Henz's comment, BT wouldn't do it either - and as VM have more customers with fibre to the cabinet that BT has, BT customers are more likely to have this issue (and VM National customers) than those on cable.

I'm sure you already will have a mobile - use that instead until the issue is resolved.

Kirri

Put in another complaint, I had a similar problem, so far I've had water in the phone line and broadband on separate occasions - I did finally get the complaint escalated and got about £60-£80 credit after being without broadband for 2 weeks. Initial complaints they refused to do anything but the standard pittance of a refund, so keep pushing. Or cancel. I did say I'd had to pay for internet cafe etc.

GamerInfo

Buzby wrote: »

I fail to see why you think VM have a responsibility to pay for a loan mobile. You have no service guarantees unless you pay additionally for it. VM will certainly credit you in full for the period you line is not working, so they play fair.

As for Henz's comment, BT wouldn't do it either - and as VM have more customers with fibre to the cabinet that BT has, BT customers are more likely to have this issue (and VM National customers) than those on cable.

I'm sure you already will have a mobile - use that instead until the issue is resolved.

I never said they had a responsibility to provide me with a PAYG or temp contract phone - i merely said they 'could' do it if they wanted to and it wouldn't cost them any more money.

Why is wrong of me to think Virgin Media would at least try and lessen the inconvenience caused throughout this period? Using the PAYG mobile was an example of what they 'could' have done to try and help - although to be honest if they just kept me updated about how things were going that would be a good start.

With regards top them refunding me in full for the period ive been without a phone line - personally they shouldn't be charging me at all and as for crediting me - it's not exactly a credit is it? why should i pay for something ive not had? i certainly wouldn't walk in to sainsbury's fill my trolley, go through the checkout, hand my money over and then walk out empty handed would i? No, i'd walk out with the goods ive just handed money over for!!! Virgin Media are no different - they failed to provide me with a service - i shouldn't be charged for it - they are not doing me some sort of favour by telling me they will not charge me!!!!!! There is not a single person i know of that would be happy to pay for a phone line they cannot use - that statement regarding them playing fair is quite frankly ridiculous!!!!

With regards to using my mobile phone until the issue is resolved - re-read my 2nd post where i stated i had to go and purchase a PAYG mobile phone - bear in mind when making statements that this PAYG mobile doesn't have any fancy additional 'free' minutes or texts and every call i make is charged at a ridiculous rate - which i wouldn't have to endure if i had my home phone as my package allowed me free evening and weekend calls - a feature not available with my PAYG mobile phone purchase!!!!

Thanks anyway for your comments

GamerInfo

Kirri wrote: »

Put in another complaint, I had a similar problem, so far I've had water in the phone line and broadband on separate occasions - I did finally get the complaint escalated and got about £60-£80 credit after being without broadband for 2 weeks. Initial complaints they refused to do anything but the standard pittance of a refund, so keep pushing. Or cancel. I did say I'd had to pay for internet cafe etc.

Thanks for the reply to be honest ive already got a quote to switch to sky - they will give me better equipment than ive currently got with Virgin and they'll charge me about £5 per month less than Virgin!!! All i want to see now is how i'll be treated by Virgin up until the point my phone line is working - this will be the decider on whether i stay or go (although my leaving wont bother Virgin, they'll just replace me with a few more hundred customers)