Sliced through Virgin Media cable while gardening!

[Deleted User]

Doing a bit of gardening and just sliced the Virgin media Cable. It must have been 2" under the soil.
Talk about dodgy installation!
Anyway who do you think is responsible for this? Shouldn't there be a certain depth?
Anyway I've phoned them and they want me to pay for it. 
Whats everyones take on this?
I am a customer by the way.
Thanks

Browntoa

Your fault unless you can prove it was a dodgy installation.

Hasbeen

Deleted_User said:

Doing a bit of gardening and just sliced the Virgin media Cable. It must have been 2" under the soil.
Talk about dodgy installation!
Anyway who do you think is responsible for this? Shouldn't there be a certain depth?
Anyway I've phoned them and they want me to pay for it. 
Whats everyones take on this?
I am a customer by the way.
Thanks

Phone them back to see if you can get a more knowledgeable CS rep. The engineer when called out to repair will see that the cable is not protected and is not at sufficient depth. You will not be charged £99?

Virgin like others will lay cables cheap and quickly, rather than use expensive armoured cable buried at a good depth. 

It is cheaper for them to repair as required. 

[Deleted User]

Hasbeen said:

Phone them back to see if you can get a more knowledgeable CS rep. The engineer when called out to repair will see that the cable is not protected and is not at sufficient depth. You will not be charged £99?

Cables which run across customer gardens are not "protected" and as far as I am aware all they ever have done is dig a narrow (and shallow) channel in the lawn or flower bed and then bury the cable in it. 

Clearly the customer has forgotten or was unaware about the cable and chopped through it, but that's not Virgin's fault!

However, I doubt very much Virgin will charge anywhere near £99 for a repair. Where have you got this figure? It's not a new installation and will not require a whole new cable run. 

adonis

Let us know what the outcome is, one of the reasons I won't have full fibre is the amount of cables I see in front gardens sometimes like the loch ness monster part buried some you see some you don't up and down in the ground.

iniltous

A relative of mine damaged the VM cable to his home, ( building a garden wall ) , they said it would be a chargeable repair ( no idea of the amount, it was a few a years ago anyway ) so being charged if you cause the damage isn’t unheard of.

[Deleted User]

Moneyineptitude said:

Hasbeen said:

Phone them back to see if you can get a more knowledgeable CS rep. The engineer when called out to repair will see that the cable is not protected and is not at sufficient depth. You will not be charged £99?

Cables which run across customer gardens are not "protected" and as far as I am aware all they ever have done is dig a narrow (and shallow) channel in the lawn or flower bed and then bury the cable in it. 

Clearly the customer has forgotten or was unaware about the cable and chopped through it, but that's not Virgin's fault!

However, I doubt very much Virgin will charge anywhere near £99 for a repair. Where have you got this figure? It's not a new installation and will not require a whole new cable run. 

This was laid way before my time and 2" deep is not deep enough. How am I supposed to know there is a virgin Media cable in the soil? Its not marked on the road where it is (This is the front garden next to the pavement.)
And yes they have told me it will be £99

[Deleted User]

Browntoa said:

Your fault unless you can prove it was a dodgy installation.

How can it be my fault? Am I supposed to check all round the garden looking for cables 2" underground? I didn't ask Virgin to put the installation and cables in it was already here when I bought the property...

Hasbeen

Moneyineptitude said:

However, I doubt very much Virgin will charge anywhere near £99 for a repair. Where have you got this figure? It's not a new installation and will not require a whole new cable run. 

From here: https://www.virginmedia.com/shop/the-legal-stuff/priceguides

And of interest to OP discussion here: https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/QuickStart-set-up-and/underground-cable-repair-cost/td-p/4049103

And OPs later post also confirms they are trying to charge £99 which is unnacceptable.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

as it's not an emergency, you may have to wait some time for an engineer.

For expediency, and to save money, can you repair it yourself?

[Deleted User]

frugalmacdugal said:

Hi,

as it's not an emergency, you may have to wait some time for an engineer.

For expediency, and to save money, can you repair it yourself?

Thanks for the advice but I'm not an electrician.