View Full Version : didnt know dick turpin worked for VM
jellyfish
29-10-2009, 13:27
currently my TV/BB connection goes to my bedroom where I have the cable box and also my BB modem
since redoing my house I wish to move the connections downstairs. I was quoted 75 pounds for this, didnt know Duck Turpin still existed at VM with these daylight robbery charges
after all the process is to drill new hole 10 cm from the current box outside my house and feed maximum 5m cable inside new living room and job done.
anyway I can get this done for free
Yep, become a VM installation engineer, go through the training then after you've qualified you can do all the work for free and stay within the VM T&C's :D
not sure why you would expect VM to do this for free!! - it is your choice to have it moved downstairs and VM engineers, just like everyone else, have to be paid, along with the helpdesk who answer the call, guys who schedule the engineer etc etc.
£75 is there standard charge (just like minimum callout fee for plumber etc)
RobboEdin
29-10-2009, 14:31
anyway I can get this done for free
...so why do you care how much Virgin Media charge for this service?
Try getting a quote for any job where someone has to come to your house to do something for you. Suddenly £75, to include all materials, looks quite good.
jellyfish
29-10-2009, 14:36
...so why do you care how much Virgin Media charge for this service?
Try getting a quote for any job where someone has to come to your house to do something for you. Suddenly £75, to include all materials, looks quite good.
5 meter cable on ebay goes for 6-7 quid total time to do job 1 hour maximum and even at say 25 quid an hour - 30 quid is what I would pay..but wait on.. dont they charge similar price for a 50MB BB Installation 30 quid ? why not keep the price structure the same across the board instead of charging silly money for these kinds of jobs.
5 meter cable on ebay goes for 6-7 quid total time to do job 1 hour maximum and even at say 25 quid an hour - 30 quid is what I would pay..but wait on.. dont they charge similar price for a 50MB BB Installation 30 quid ? why not keep the price structure the same across the board instead of charging silly money for these kinds of jobs.
That £30 fee is subsidised by the 12 months of fees you pay for 50 meg BB.
It's worth noting that Virgin are not the only company to do this. BT certainly do it (I have experienced this) and I daresay Sky do it as well.
The thing is it *does* cost them a lot to send out an engineer. Maybe not as much as £75 and hour, but factor in time, fuel etc and the costs soon mount.
Now, your call may take a couple of minutes. Fair enough. What if (say) something happened , and the engineer had to stay two or three hours. His or her time needs to be paid for. Until the engineer gets there , VM have no way of knowing how long the job will take. The £75 call out charge is possibly intended to reduce the costs of this somewhat.
It's also probably to discourage unnecessary call outs. Talk to anyone in a job where they deal with the public, and you'll probably find that they get a *lot* of calls where the person could have done the job themselves, they just can't be bothered, or don't know how. You may think it is a joke about the computer company sending an engineer out to fix someone's dead PC, only to find the reason it's dead is because they have a powercut, but, trust me, it's not.
The other issue is with the potential volume of these calls. Yes, it might be a five minute job to move a socket. What if the engineer gets 6 calls lie this (which is a lot more likely to happen if they don't charge), and 2 take an hour each? That's the best part of the morning gone, when he could have been sorting out problems for customers who are having problems getting the service they are paying for. To reduce this, Virgin would have to take on more engineers, which would, of course, cost more.
RobboEdin
29-10-2009, 15:34
5 meter cable on ebay goes for 6-7 quid total time to do job 1 hour maximum and even at say 25 quid an hour - 30 quid is what I would pay..but wait on.. dont they charge similar price for a 50MB BB Installation 30 quid ? why not keep the price structure the same across the board instead of charging silly money for these kinds of jobs.
I doubt you will get many tradesmen for £25 per hour these days!
Whoever quoted you £75 for moving your connection point got it wrong as it is now actually £99 for this service and has been for quite a while.
AndyCambs
29-10-2009, 21:12
Strange how so many people expect things for nothing these days - but wouldn't dream of working for free themselves...
Whoever quoted you £75 for moving your connection point got it wrong as it is now actually £99 for this service and has been for quite a while.
Oops, its gone up!:D
call out charges for engineers are roughly the same? dont BT and BG charge about the same call out charges as well
Last time we had work done from BT (we needed extra phone sockets for Sky) - we got charge £100 per socket. We had to do it from them as we couldn't find anyone else who could move the Master Socket
We needed 3 sockets so got charged £300.
The £99 from Virgin covers all work the engineer is booked out for.
RobboEdin
30-10-2009, 11:24
Strange how so many people expect things for nothing these days - but wouldn't dream of working for free themselves...
CAREFUL - your close to setting me off on a debate as to whether those on Job Seekers Allowance and Incapacity Benefit should be made to work for their benefit!
zing_deleted
30-10-2009, 11:25
Keep your eye out for a VM van ask him nicely and offer him £20 quid ;)
jellyfish
30-10-2009, 12:59
Strange how so many people expect things for nothing these days - but wouldn't dream of working for free themselves...
just for you information, I work for free by volunteering for various charities and organisation on weekends and when on holiday ( I work full time as well)
I just find the 100 quid a bit steep if they can do a 50 MB install for 30 quid . I would be happy to pay that fee, I could do it myself but obviously I will be breaking VM T&C and wouldnt want to do that now would I.
As already stated the 50mb install (and any other install) is subsidised by the fee you pay monthly (hence you're locked into a 12 month contract), any other visit that isn't thier fault should be simply paid for... You had the choice when it was all originally installed to think about where you wanted the wiring, any changes after that isn't really VM's fault so why should they then subsidise that visit???
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