No internet for 3 weeks - do virgin really care?

Blackavar

We had some large shrubs removed and the side of the garden dug over but I forgot to tell them that our cable ran somewhere beneath and I guess it got cut although all services lost for a minute, they returned for some hours before phone and internet went off completely. I called virgin media and went to great lengths to explain the situation despite a language barrier on the phone but the VM engineer that turned up 3 days later was unaware of any detail and was probably expecting to switch it off and on again. So after prodding about in the soil, decided that a complete new cable would be needed so will be without phone and more importantly Internet for over 3 weeks. I'm sure if he had been more prepared and there had been more than one guy they could have put the effort in and found the break - strangely tv is still working but sometimes flakey. Disappointed in their lack of info, the lack of effort and the long wait without internet. We have been with virgin for many years, take all 3 services and pay over £80 a month

kwikbreaks

Sounds like it's going to need an installation team to fix it and they may run a complete new cable from the cabinet as joining it underground isn't likely to be a lasting repair. Certainly not something the standard callout blokes who replace duff boxes, juggle taps at the cab, and fit attenuators are likely to be equipped to do.

Could be worse - they might be charging to fix it too.

Blackavar

So after the engineer has declared the cable officially 'dead' we still have TV & bizarrely the internet is now back on, sometimes as normal but sometimes just slow (good download, poor upload). I just think the diagnosis element hasn't been done properly. The phone girl just wanted to book an engineer without taking full details (the engineer didn't set foot in the house to check anything) & the engineer just wasn't very thorough in his investigation of the problem. After complaining about this I've managed to get the date brought forward by a few days but have to say I'm just so disappointed in the response to this from Virgin.

brewerdave

As kwikbreaks says -be prepared to be charged as YOU caused the cable to be damaged!!

I_have_spoken

The cable can't have been severed or all services would be kaput. The gardeners may just have broken the sleeving causing the ground sheath to be exposed to damp soil which will mess up the attenuation. I'd dig about and see of you can locate the damaged section and keep it isolated from the soil until a new section can be laid.

Pincher

It's a simple patching job. A bit of soldering, a wiring box, some self-amalgamating tape to keep it dry.


The supervisors are quite touchy about letting customers fix their cables, though. I spoke to one, and he seems to think that I would hook up mains electricity and kill his engineers.


I do have to agree with him. A tenant (alright, a woman) wired her table lamp plug with MAINS to Earth, handed it to me and said, why isn't it working?

Blackavar

Thanks for all input. Just to close this one off, a couple of engineers arrived, again, not really briefed by VM and decided to fit new cable. They said underground was a problem due to roots so we agreed to attach to fence & they did a really neat job. After they left we had a phone call from a guy claiming to be phoning his home?? We dialed our home number from mobile - it didn't ring. We put a call in & VM guy came out a couple of days later to connect our phone properly. While here he noticed that the previous guys had run our cable from a neighbours VM box that was no longer in use by them. He mentioned that if the neighbour moved or wanted VM again this may cause a problem?