Virgin Media can't service my address after being told they could, compensation?

juliushibert

TL;DR 
Virgin said they could supply my address, turns out they can't due to access restrictions and distance from the road. Am I due any compensation for mis-sold or the time without service.

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I set up a new contract with Virgin Media for broadband. I was told over the phone that the service could be supplied. An installation engineer came to the property on the agreed installation date but couldn’t connect the cabling, as they couldn’t find a cable box on the outside of the property or a street-level duct where the fibre would likely run into the property.

They left my property and conducted further investigations, consulting their street-level infrastructure contractors. A couple of days later, the installation engineer and their manager both confirmed that, due to the property being too far away from the main street and behind private property, the address was unserviceable and should never have been recorded as serviceable in the first place.

They checked through old order records and found that although someone had tried to order VM at the property about five years ago, the same issue had occurred. They said they would now update the address to be unserviceable to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Although this is frustrating, I believe I can get fibre from Openreach. However, am I entitled to any compensation because I was mis-sold the service, even though it appears they had prior knowledge that the address was unserviceable but hadn’t updated their records?

I placed the order on Wednesday, 21 August, the engineer visited on Saturday, 24 August, and I was informed that the address was unserviceable on Monday, 26 August.

la531983

What is your financial loss? Cant see how they would be liable for anything, suspect their Terms and Conditions will easily cover this scenario where yes you are in a cabled area but local conditions prevent the service being supplied.

la531983

Pretty sure 10.1 and 10.5 cover them. At this point you are relying on goodwill and nothing more.

https://www.virginmedia.com/content/dam/virginmedia/dotcom/documents/legal/Terms and Conditions - TV, Fibre and Phone_PRE_17_June_22 v4.pdf

10. We do not have to connect the equipment at your home, or otherwise keep to this agreement to the extent the following affects our ability to do so, if:

1. your home is outside our service area or in a part of our service area where no cable has been laid, or we are unable to activate the services on your line or at your home for any reason;
2. you do not qualify under our current credit policy;
3. you have previously misused our television service;
4. your computer or device (or its operating software) does not work correctly or as reasonably expected for internet access; or
5. it is not practical to carry out the connection for health and safety reasons or for any other reason

Exodi

But you haven't paid anything right?

I can't see how you can be mis-sold something if you haven't bought anything.

lookbook

Exodi said:

But you haven't paid anything right?

I can't see how you can be mis-sold something if you haven't bought anything.

Exactly. Perfectly said.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

If a contract has been formed and they have breached it you would be entitled to be in the position you would have had been in had that breach not occurred so if you can get the same/similar service somewhere else but it cost more you could attempt to seek the difference as damages.

A more easier route would be to complain upwards and hope they offer some "goodwill"

la531983 said:

Pretty sure 10.1 and 10.5 cover them. At this point you are relying on goodwill and nothing more.

https://www.virginmedia.com/content/dam/virginmedia/dotcom/documents/legal/Terms and Conditions - TV, Fibre and Phone_PRE_17_June_22 v4.pdf

10. We do not have to connect the equipment at your home, or otherwise keep to this agreement to the extent the following affects our ability to do so, if:

1. your home is outside our service area or in a part of our service area where no cable has been laid, or we are unable to activate the services on your line or at your home for any reason;
2. you do not qualify under our current credit policy;
3. you have previously misused our television service;
4. your computer or device (or its operating software) does not work correctly or as reasonably expected for internet access; or
5. it is not practical to carry out the connection for health and safety reasons or for any other reason

Those terms are interesting and would need to be tested for fairness, balance is required in consumer contracts and the terms would be deemed void if unfair by the criteria outlined in the CRA.

But as per the first word in this post, if VM are smart they'd only form a contract once they were certain they could provide the service so in terms of "rights" you'd have to ensure you actually have a contract for broadband service at this point rather than it occurring after the install of the connection.  

littleboo

If you were given a start date for the new service:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/automatic-compensation-need-know/

juliushibert

littleboo said:

If you were given a start date for the new service:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/automatic-compensation-need-know/

Does the auto-compensation scheme still work if they're not able to complete the service connection? 

Seems to imply that auto-comp is applied automatically to a customer's bill once the service is connected and becomes live. 

user1977

juliushibert said:

littleboo said:

If you were given a start date for the new service:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/automatic-compensation-need-know/

Does the auto-compensation scheme still work if they're not able to complete the service connection? 

Seems to imply that auto-comp is applied automatically to a customer's bill once the service is connected and becomes live. 

Yes, I had similar issues with Openreach, the scheme doesn't appear to be of any use if the c0ck-ups are of a nature which means your account is never opened.

Claddagh_Noir

I renewed my contract with VM in January 2024.  I asked a question  during the renewal about potentially moving out halfway through the contract.  They said I had to provide the address and they will check if they can service the property.  I provided the address some months later and gave some spiel about the costs if it was a one man or two man job. 

They said I had to wait a month before they could give me a definitive answer about transferring the account to the new address.  I called to chase up after the month elapsed and said they had not done anything whatsoever!  Spoke to someone a few days later a few days later and they said they COULD NOT service the address. 

They said I had to provide proof that I had moved to the unserviceable address and the will waive the early cancellation fee / disconnection fee which in my case was £500.00 for the rest of the contract. 

My new provider was whomever the previous owners were on, ironically, it was a blessing in disguise because I pay over half of what I was paying before with VM even with their retention discount! 

Okell

I'd have thought the contract in this case was frustrated as VM could never have provided the service at all.  So to the extent that the OP has paid nothing to VM there's nothing to be compensated for.

I'd agree with @the_lunatic_is_in_my_head that OP's best bet is to try to get some sort of goodwill gesture from VM.  I'd write to them complaining that they should have known that the service couldn't be provided to this address as this issue had arisen before and the address should have been flagged as "unserviceable" but VM hadn't done this.  I'd say I'd been seriously inconvenienced by this as I would have explored other avenues earlier if VM had told me they couldn't provide the service to my address when I originally phoned them to enquire.

juliushibert said:

littleboo said:

If you were given a start date for the new service:
https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-and-broadband/service-quality/automatic-compensation-need-know/

Does the auto-compensation scheme still work if they're not able to complete the service connection? ...

I'd say "No" because you don't have a service provider because you don't have a contract.