Virgin Media - installation has taken 10 weeks now it’s been moved back by another 8 weeks.

bambi894

- [ ] I’ve been having issues with Virgin Media for 10 weeks now. I first applied for broadband from Virgin at the beginning of March. Using an ad I saw on here. My place is a new property and doesn’t have a landline pre-installed. I get a call from a random mobile number and he says he’s a surveyor from Virgin and wants to check the property, he then determines there is a line at the front of the property and should be simple to run it through the property to my flat. This grumpy !!! chap visits 3 times to scope this out. He makes me sign up to a lesser deal in the back of his car, but it’s already been 4 weeks and I’m desperate. I get my first installation for the beginning of April. I get a call the day before, they blame the council or some 3rd party company they use, it gets put back 12 days. This happens 3 more times.
- [ ] I end up speaking to lots of people in and around the company, get the same T&C’s script, blame placed on other parties, lots of ‘sorry about this situation’. At this point I’m given a promise that it will be installed on the 9th May. I phone up on the evening of the 6th to see if it’s all good to go and they confirm, they then phone on the morning of the 7th to say it’s been pushed back again by 5 days. On the 9th I receive another call (the day I was promised it would be installed) to hear once again that it will be pushed back again, for another series of problems and blaming the council. This time they don’t mess about and say it has been pushed back another 6-8 weeks. With little to no apology, any acceptance of responsibility, no acknowledgement that this is now beyond ridiculous.

- [ ] Now, I’ve been given all the comps and money off that the installation team can give. I complained in mid-April over the phone, was told I’d receive a call back in 7 days, and didn’t receive a call back or a message over the phone. I then sent a letter to their complaints team but still no acknowledgment of my complaint. I even emailed the CEO of Virgin Media and received a stock response from his office to say they’ll look into it. Again no real response.
- [ ] I’ve tried other providers and they simply will not come. BT said the best they can do for me was 3-8mbs for £28 p/m.

- [ ] I have no idea what I can do. I’m losing shed loads of money with mobile data add-ons, which has not be recovered by the comps virgin have attached to my account. And having a good internet connection is necessary for work and my studies.

- [ ] Does anyone have any advice on how I could escalate this with virgin? How to get an actual human being at virgin to hear and respond sufficiently with my complaint? Any advice on other/different providers for the meantime? Anyway to speed up virgin with the works? Basically, anything would be greatly appreciated as I’m basically broken by all of this.

iniltous

It there anything out of the ordinary about your property ? , do you live in an area newly served by Virgin or has the general area had VM for a long time ?..
You say, 'simple to run through the property to your flat ' , if they need to run their cable through someone else's property to your flat , obviously permission would be needed from that property owner...is that an issue ?
Normally cable company's , when they first develop an area , place an access point in the footpath opposite every property they pass, then if a property asks for service, they cable from the street cabinet through this access point , across the customers garden onto the customers house wall and then into the property....if they cannot get a cable into the duct that runs to the access point in front of the property, they would need to dig up the road or footpath to clear the blocked duct, this would need a notice to the council,but that's not usually a problem.
It's difficult to offer any advice without a little more info explaining exactly what VM have said..the fact that they sent a survey officer , suggests your property isn't a run of the mill provide, as normally they don't need to do a survey , their records show which property's are serviceable, presumably your address came up as either not existing or a problem address

bambi894

Thanks for the reply.
The flat is at the back of the property and accessed through an alleyway. It is a bit ad-hoc but the property at the front is owned by the same landlord and I've been given permission for access whenever the works take place. So, that isn't a problem.
It's more to do with the cables on the highways. The problem sounds similar to what you explained there, blocked duct and can't simply run the cable from the street cabinet. It's mainly shops out front and public highways. But I was given an excuse of that the permit they need from the council will only allow for work to take place on Sundays.
My mother actually works for the highway department in that council and says that they have canceled permits as they can't get the works done in 3 days, also that the council will allow works to take place on any day. They only need 7 days notice for works that take up to 3 days.
I don't understand why now I have to wait another 8 weeks for them to arrange another installation date. I feel they are being deliberately obstructive now because it's costing them too much money to carry out these works.
Should I phone back up to tell them that I was in touch with the council?
Happy to give more info if you need.