What else can we do!?

[jayandfoo]

Ok, my mum and dad had VM broadband, TV and phone installed last Tuesday.

I was in the house whilst the engineers did the installation but as I had my newborn baby with me, I didn't go outside to check the installtion after they had gone.

However, when my dad got home from work, he wasn't very happy. The engineers had left cabling exposed on the pathway, had run the cabling along the fence (this may be normal practice) and attached the box outside to a fence post rather than the house - there was ample space on the outside of the house so I don't know why on earth they did this.

The cover on the box outside is hanging off and all the wires/cabling inside are exposed to the elements.

My mum rang immediately, maybe about 3 hours after the engineers left and explained the situation. She asked if someone could come at the weekend when they were in to look at the installation. She was told that because of the exposed cabling on the pathway, this was classed as urgent and they would have to arrange for the Crew Supervisor to call the next morning.

So, the next day I again had to go to their house to wait for the crew supervisor who never turned up. My mum rang at various points that day and was told that someone would be with us soon. Nobody arrived.

We were promised a call back from the Crew Supervisor after he failed to visit. He never called.

We were then told our only option was to lodge an official complaint form, which HAD to be addressed within 48 hours. This was on Thursday. Not hearing anything by Monday, we called again yesterday and were told the original complaints form had been lost and we had to file another one, again to be addressed within 48 hours.

We were however promised that someone would investigate with the Crew supervisor and call us back today. Guess what....nobody called again.

I cannot stress to you how much of a mess this installation has been....it really is shoddy work and the fact that cabling on the pathway has been left exposed, potentially for a member of the public to come and trip over is worrying.

I feel partly guilty as I recommended VM to my mum and dad and since the day of installation they have had nothing but hassle.

I just don't see what else we can do to try and get this sorted, short of sending a letter of complaint which just adds on more waiting time. Everytime we are promised a call back, it never happens, complaints forms have gone missing, we've been promised that it will be sorted so many times, we are quickly realising that ringing VM does absolutely nothing. We've probably made no less than 8 telephone calls to them, spending on average about 10 minutes per call.

Please, can someone help.....what else can we do to try and get this sorted. VM should at the very least come and sort the exposed cabling out, it's in their interest!

Edited to add - Sorry for the long post and thank you for getting this far!

[punky]

Sorry to hear your installation was done like that.

We do have a contact within WM who resolves problems for our members. If you want, if you PM me your parents VM account details and contact details, i'll pass it on for you.

[NTLVictim]

Also the Department of Trade and Industry have an online form..

As to exposed cable on the pathway, the Health and Safety Executive might well be interested.

[jayandfoo]

Thanks Gavin - will pm my details to you.

NTLVictim - Thanks for the link. Had to ring them again today, as the promised call back within 48 hours.

I was advised that the complaint was closed this morning - without reason - by the Crew Supervisor who was meant to address the issue last week.

He's not been out to see the installation issues, the cable is still exposed on the pathway so maybe he has developed psychic abilities!?

I asked for the complaint to be reopened and escalated and for the Crew Supervisor to be contacted to ask why he closed the call without even seeing the mess the engineers had made.

I was advised that the engineers and supervisor in question were contractors, no wonder they don't seem bothered.

Credit to the people I have spoken to at VM, who answer the phone - they've all been really helpful and I realise there is only so much they can do to help.

I think mum and dad are going to cancel their services, they've not had much luck at all.

[Acropolis]

I would get them to ring up and either try and cancel the service if within 14 days, and when asked why tell them the full story, or ring em up and tell them someone has just tripped over the cable and badly hurt themselves, you watch how quick they will be out then.

[awibble]

Sounds like a Health and safety issue for sure, but it sounds like the contractors dont want to deal with it, probably coz they wont get paid for fixing it, as its their fault to start with.

I would personally call them, and let them know if its not resolved you will be contacting the local council about the H&S conserns that you have with the installation.

[Ignatius]

Make sure you take some piccies

The most embarassing thing that could happen is that somebody turns up in your absence, does a bit of minor tidying up that's not to your satisfaction, and then your complaint results in the visit of a site inspector who decides it's not as bad as you were making it out to be.

a few photos could go a long way.

[bw41101]

Reading the thread, it's obvious that the installer has no understanding of the phrase "duty of care". If it were me I would (very strongly) emphasise that fact to customer service representatives.

The issue isn't just the shoddy installation but the (what looks like) blatant disregard for your health and safety. The problem is (in a lot of cases) that installation is done by sub contractors who's only priority is to get the installation completed as quickly as possible. No offence to the installers, but there's no excuse for leaving the job in an unsafe condition. Your health and safety is not negotiable and the installer cannot ignore that fact.

I would contact the installer and make it very clear that if the problem isn't rectified within a reasonable time frame, then you will have no option but to contact your local council Environmental Health department. They carry the authority to deal with kind of matter and (without doubt) would deal with the situation promptly.

What is farcical about this situation is the fact that if you (or family member) had an accident directly attributed to the above, you would be quite within your rights to sue the socks off the installer - costly for the installer and not good for VM's credability.

Si thee

[Paul H]

Chief Executive's Office
Virgin Media
PO BOX 238
Wythenshawe
Manchester
M22 0WJ

[Stuart]

Ok, my mum and dad had VM broadband, TV and phone installed last Tuesday.

I was in the house whilst the engineers did the installation but as I had my newborn baby with me, I didn't go outside to check the installtion after they had gone.

However, when my dad got home from work, he wasn't very happy. The engineers had left cabling exposed on the pathway, had run the cabling along the fence (this may be normal practice) and attached the box outside to a fence post rather than the house - there was ample space on the outside of the house so I don't know why on earth they did this.

The cover on the box outside is hanging off and all the wires/cabling inside are exposed to the elements.



This is not standard procedure. Standard procedure is to run the cable undergound (usually 1 - 2 inches under grass) in ducting until it gets near to the wall. The box should be mounted on the external wall, and the cable connected to it. If done well enough, you'll barely be able to notice the cable is there.