1 YEAR since fibre order still waiting for install Virgin Media Business

[wits_end]

Hi,

 

What do you think I should do?

 

I ordered Business Fibre 152mb broadband in January 2015

 

Virgin required a £230 deposit which I paid.

 

It is now a year later, hundreds of emails and hours of calls and 6 missed apointments and we seem no closer to an actual installation.

 

Costs initially escalated from £60 for the install to a couple of hundred, and 2 months in I opted for a government Connection Voucher to cover it. Since then they have continued to rise and I've continued to agree to them as they are still less than the grant.

 

Highlights include:

 

a 3 month wait while Virgin was emailing the wrong email address to get the installation started

 

being asked to pay £3895 excess costs which turned out to be a basic algebra error resulting from adding the £3000 connection voucher grant and actual £895 costs together

 

waiting for contractors to not show up to do work on 6 different weekends

 

I made a formal complaint in October and have a reference for it, but all the complaints department do is chase their Manilla call centre to give me an update, which typically doesn't contain any information.

 

It has been a very frustrating year and the practical and financial impact on my business is huge.

 

There is also no sign this is going to end with Virgin actually getting round to the installation...

 

I've thought about complaining to CISAS, which is the ombudsman Virgin Media seem to be linked to, what should i be asking them for?

 

Is there anything else I could do?

[ericsbrother]

How much do they charge for you failing to be there whan an appointment is made and missed? typically £40-90 so bill them for 5 of the 6 missed appointments at their rate. Also make it clear that you expect to pay the agreed amount unless they can supply a contractual reason why not. You could demand your deposit back and go with a competitor and add interest to the amount

[JoeyJoeC]

Where are you based?

[fkofilee]

Time to make them sweat!

 

[email protected]

 

See if that gets them to move on...

[wits_end]

Where are you based?

Bermondsey SE1

[wits_end]

Just tried Ofcom and gave them the details for their industry statistics, but they can't resolve individual complaints.

 

Ofcom also say there is no stipulation or legislation regarding timescale for installations.

 

Trying CISAS next.

 

Good ideas to charge for missed appointments and to only pay the original quote for the installation.

 

Any other ideas?

[BankFodder]

Well it seems to me that they are in breach of contract and so my favoured course of action would be to sue them in the County Court.

 

I think it will be pretty straightforward and I imagine that soon as they receive the court papers it would leap into action. However, given the problems that they have caused you I think that a claim for a reasonable amount of compensation should be met.

 

Do you think you would be interested in doing this

[wits_end]

Thanks for your reply Bankfodder, they have sent me a copy of their terms and conditions which I'm looking at.

 

It may come down to how to interpret their terms regarding consequential loss and their responsibilities.

 

Perhaps I can PM you with them?

 

I've also complained to Ofcom today who took the details to "monitor the industry but can't respond to individual complaints"

 

Ofcom also said on the phone that there is "no stipulation or legislation regarding timescale for installations."

 

I was surprised by this as a whole year seems unreasonable.

 

It is quite a complex chain of responsibility involving Virgin Media Business, their sub-contractors Kelly's and of course the council who give them permissions - but more than a year once they've accepted the order?

[BankFodder]

I don't understand what terms and conditions might have to do with it. I also don't understand why it should be any matter of interpretation.

 

It's entirely clear.

 

You made a contract, you paid the money, they undertook to provide the service and whether or not it is written into the contract, the requirement for them was to provide the service within a reasonable time.

 

In fact you have very good evidence that the service should have been installed by now because you have told us that they made errors and were unable to contact you because of their own administrative problems.

 

Also, it is clear from what you have told us that they have been mismanaging the account because they have also made errors in terms of the way that they have attempted to calculate various sums of money.

 

You don't need the terms and conditions. It's a load of nonsense. They are bound by a contract and they are in breach of contract.

 

You now need to figure out how to enforce the contract and also whether you should be entitled to any compensation.

 

Enforcing the contract is extremely easy. You simply send them a letter before action and give them 14 days and then you start the action in the County Court. You can be absolutely certain that once they receive the court papers somebody in authority will read it and realise what hash they making of it all and they will leap into action it always works this way.

 

The reason that nothing has happened so far is because quite frankly you've been a bit supine about it and you gone along with it – and even now rather than take action, you're prepared to be flanneled by a set of terms and conditions and start studying it in an attempt to discover that they are somehow justified by set of rules of their own making in making you the victim of this intolerable delay.

 

It seems to me that you still can scarcely believe that virgin or any other company could make mistakes.

 

You've asked for a business service so therefore I imagine that you are running a business? Is this true?

 

Do you feel that you have suffered any losses as a result of this extraordinary delay?

 

Are you prepared to take the necessary legal action in a County Court to get this sorted out once and for all – and quite quickly?