I’m Too Expensive To Be Connected To Virgin Media

Sweeney37

So here’s the story....

I bought myself out of my contract with BT to be with Virgin Media as they have far superior speeds than BT do presently in my area. I arranged the installation date for the same day that I was due to be disconnected from BT so I would have the least amount of disruption. 

12th April arrives and get disconnected from BT. Approximately 10am, an engineer from Kelly Communications arrives and says that there’s a problem in that the pre-installation team that came before the 12th didn’t do their job properly as there is no fibre optic cable to extract. So with no cables, I wouldn’t be connected that day. The engineer also said that the process to survey, apply for permission, etc could take approx. 6-7 weeks so I could potentially be without internet. 

The next day I receive an email from Virgin Media saying that my new installation date will be on the 8th June. So from the 12th April until the 8th June, I would be without an internet connection (57 days).

On Monday, I log into my Virgin Media account and notice that the installation date has changed to the 1st June. A little bit of good news - or so I thought....

Someone from the Construction team left a voicemail on my phone yesterday morning saying that the cost of installing the cables to my property exceeded their budget, therefore my property has been labelled as unserviceable and my account will be cancelled.

What I want to know is: Can they just cancel your account just like that and also where do I stand legally with this situation?

If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated.

Sweeney37

Also tried to speak to someone regarding my issues and kept getting passed from pillar to post. 1st call lasted 34mins before being cut off.

[Deleted User]

Legally, you can go to another provider with no cancellation fee, as they have cancelled your account.

You won't be able to force Virgin to take you on as a customer.

Sweeney37

Deleted_User said:

Legally, you can go to another provider with no cancellation fee, as they have cancelled your account.

You won't be able to force Virgin to take you on as a customer.

After my recent customer experience with them, I’m glad they have cancelled my contract!

Surely I am entitled to some sort of compensation for the lack of service?

southsidergs

It says it all that they waited until the day of installation & didn't carry out any surveys beforehand, if they'd done one beforehand you would have known sooner

GeordieGeorge

Sweeney37 said:

Deleted_User said:

Legally, you can go to another provider with no cancellation fee, as they have cancelled your account.

You won't be able to force Virgin to take you on as a customer.

After my recent customer experience with them, I’m glad they have cancelled my contract!

Surely I am entitled to some sort of compensation for the lack of service?

Yes, once they are not providing you a service they should stop charging you.

matelodave

It's never a good idea to cancel your previous contract before the new one is up and running. If they dont provide a service and dont charge you then why should you have any compensation

Sweeney37

matelodave said:

It's never a good idea to cancel your previous contract before the new one is up and running. If they dont provide a service and dont charge you then why should you have any compensation

Why should I pay for 2 services?

I’m not saying I should be compensated for leaving BT, I feel I should be compensated for being mucked about by VM

iniltous

VM have no universal service obligation ( unlike BT who have to provide service to anyone who reasonably requests it ) , so basically, if VM decide that they don’t want to provide you with service, irrespective of the reason,  they don’t have to, even if they initially say they will give you service , it will be in the T&C’s that it’s ‘subject to survey’, so legally they are within their rights.
If you paid to exit your BT contract on the basis of getting VM and VM then say ‘No’, you could ask VM for a goodwill payment, but frankly the chances of them agreeing are negligible, they will say you should have waited until VM was installed , but no harm in asking.

tired_dad

Similar issue of unserviceable supply here but they were actually v helpful. Sent a surveyor who looked at options; discussed with me; a solution emerged. 

Required legal dept involvement as works on road needed etc. It’s taken 1 y to sort but I should be on in the next few weeks.

littleboo

It seems that you paid an early termination charge on the BT service, so certainly in that situation it would have been worth having an overlap since retaining the service longer would reduce the ETC and you would have something for your money. As previously mentioned,if continued service is important, its usually good advice to do that anyway since there is always a chance of delayed activation when switching between two networks. But that history.
Virgin are part of the voluntary code to provide compensation for delayed activation, you may be entitled to something under that, unless there is is an exception where no service is possible.