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PlanBee
23-11-2010, 00:31
Despite having 15 years’ experience of drilling holes in houses, our VM engineer had never hit a pipe, until he came to our house. He was tasked with moving our modem.
My father-in-law was house sitting for me and assisted the engineer with umpteen buckets of water as the heating, the header tank and mains washed into my home office. The engineer was genuinely mortified and very apologetic. I think he struggled with our relaxed approach as he demanded we call him names and swear at him.
The engineer, who apparently is getting a lot of stick at work, missed his noon appraisal to find out what the process was for recovery. A process that promised me a plumber ASAP. 9am the next morning the Virgin recovery machine arrived. By close of play we had heating, had the wall plastered and had an agreement on carpet replacement.
I have a fitted office to unfit. The engineer is due back on Saturday to complete the modem move.
I’d sooner not have a house full of water and a freezing evening with no heating but I can’t fault the recovery and the engineer deserves a brownie point for texting me on the Saturday from the rugby to make sure the plumber had plumbed.

MovedGoalPosts
23-11-2010, 10:36
Accidents happen but it's good to know that there are systems in place to mitigate them :tu:

Jonnymeg
24-11-2010, 17:04
Despite having 15 years’ experience of drilling holes in houses, our VM engineer had never hit a pipe, until he came to our house. He was tasked with moving our modem.
My father-in-law was house sitting for me and assisted the engineer with umpteen buckets of water as the heating, the header tank and mains washed into my home office. The engineer was genuinely mortified and very apologetic. I think he struggled with our relaxed approach as he demanded we call him names and swear at him.
The engineer, who apparently is getting a lot of stick at work, missed his noon appraisal to find out what the process was for recovery. A process that promised me a plumber ASAP. 9am the next morning the Virgin recovery machine arrived. By close of play we had heating, had the wall plastered and had an agreement on carpet replacement.
I have a fitted office to unfit. The engineer is due back on Saturday to complete the modem move.
I’d sooner not have a house full of water and a freezing evening with no heating but I can’t fault the recovery and the engineer deserves a brownie point for texting me on the Saturday from the rugby to make sure the plumber had plumbed.

The downside is that if he worked for a contractor (its v.hard to tell the difference as they all wear virgin uniforms and drive Virgin vans) he will unfortunately be paying for the whole thing.
I did that once and it cost me £1500.

I feel really sorry for him.

Glad to hear you are all sorted though.

martyh
24-11-2010, 17:24
The downside is that if he worked for a contractor (its v.hard to tell the difference as they all wear virgin uniforms and drive Virgin vans) he will unfortunately be paying for the whole thing.
I did that once and it cost me £1500.

I feel really sorry for him.

Glad to hear you are all sorted though.

no public liability insurance then ? naughty naughty :nono:

@planbee glad you got sorted quickly ,

beeman
25-11-2010, 00:55
The downside is that if he worked for a contractor (its v.hard to tell the difference as they all wear virgin uniforms and drive Virgin vans) he will unfortunately be paying for the whole thing.
I did that once and it cost me £1500.

I feel really sorry for him.

Glad to hear you are all sorted though.

Yup there is NO WAY you should bee paying for the repair yourselves. Working in other peoples houses you are required to bee covered by an addiquate public liabilty insurance policy which will pay out for such instances. All that should bee required is for you to pay the exess charges.

If your not aduquately covered then i would suggest you look into getting your own personal cover (its only between £80-150pa for £2-5million cover).

To PlanBee i have to say a BIG well done to you (and virgin too) its not easy keeping your calm when things like this happen but it dose make putting things right soooooo much easier when your dealing with a calm and understanding custmer.

Jonnymeg
26-11-2010, 13:32
no public liability insurance then ? naughty naughty :nono:

@planbee glad you got sorted quickly ,

Of course the contractors do have insurance but do not claim of in to keep premiums low.
They just pass the charges on to the poor lad that had the accident.

Dave_
29-11-2010, 01:16
Of course the contractors do have insurance but do not claim of in to keep premiums low.
They just pass the charges on to the poor lad that had the accident.

Along with the "damage" to vans and "lost" tools.

Poor guy indeed.

Maggy
29-11-2010, 08:39
Let's please stay on topic and not descend into a panto routine...

candy1567
29-11-2010, 10:17
well planbee you are the lucky one

my sister moved house last feb, virgin came to install i was there as she was at work, all was well until the guys were going, on the doorstep one of the guys said ive put a staple through ur gas pipe but dont worry ive sealed it with silicon sealant and if there are any problems give me a call and he gave me a card with his mobile on it. He then quickly left as i stood gobsmacked on the doorstep.

Immediately i turned off gas supply and called national grid who duly reported that there was indeed a pin hole in the gaspipe leading from the gas cupboard in the living room. He disconnected the meter and caped it off and told me to call virgin.

After 30 mins bein shunted to different departments eventually the manager from the install spoke to me and said that was i sure i def had a leak, and how do i know it was virgin who caused it, after so much hassle he eventually agreed to visit. My sister has 3 kids 1 being a 3 month baby and cooks and heats by gas which by now she couldn't do either and the house was freezing.

After the managers visit we were told we had to pay for the repair and then to bill virgin, i said not on ur life, in the end he stated that if he couldn't get a gas fitter out to repair he would have to book her into hotel for the night, yeah right it never happened!!!!

she came to stay with me for 3 days as we couldn't get hold of this manager and on the 4th day it started all over again, eventually he arranged a gas fitter to come and fix the pipe and said he would pay for it and wen the fitter turned up to call him and he would sort the bill out.

Yeah u guessed it fitter came fixed pipe reconnected the gas and i called the manager but no answer, fitter jumping up and down wanting to get paid,i said nothing to do with us as we didn't organise him to do job and after 17 called to manager with still no answer tension was running high at my sisters.

My battery was on low on my mobile so i used my hubbys, and hey presto the manager answered on the second ring, u could tell by the sound of his voice he was really p***ed off, and i just said oh my batt was low so used my husbands mobile and i wondered if somthing was wrong with ur phone.

I passed mobile to fitter and he then took payment from the manager, manager then turned up and took the length of pipe with the hole in it so that it could be investigated. I said i was sorry if the install guy would get into trouble as i know he didn't do it on purpose but he shouldn't have used silicon sealant to seal a gas pipe, and he should have said somthing wen he did it as he was there for at least 30 mins after he went through the pipe as this was the first bit of stapling he did and installed tv, phone and broadband after stapling the gas pipe, i said this was very dangerous,

all she got was a 10 quid credit on her bill for the inconvenience, how appauling, just goes to show like usual there are workers in virgin media who go the extra mile, but also those who dont give a toss

I know this is a rare occurance and ive been a virgin customer for years even before they were virgin and never had much probs,

Juliexx

Nedkelly
04-12-2010, 11:44
Wow i cant belive the gas one the process was not followed .Each area should have a list of tradesmen that can be called in a emergency our contractors have the same list .all of ours are VM approved and get paid when they invoice the company .I know some of the techs do not like some new houses as the pipes are plastic and can not be traced and the plaster board with silver foil backing oh what fun :D