Cable break - long wait to fix
 

We had some large shrubs removed and the side of the garden dug over but I forgot to tell them that our cable run somewhere beneath and I guess it got cut although all services lost for a minute, they returned for some hours before phone and internet went off. I went to great lengths to explain the situation despite a language barrier on the phone and the guy that turned up was unaware. So after prodding about in the soil, decided that a complete new cable would be needed so will be without phone and more importantly Internet for over 3 weeks. I'm sure if they had been more prepared and there had been more than one guy they could have put the effort in and found the break - strangely tv is still working but sometimes flakey. Disappointed in their lack of info, the lack of effort and the long wait without internet.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

so have they actually booked the new installation and given you a date in 3 weeks or have you had to wait 3 weeks for someone to come out? I would speak to retentions and ask for a discount on your bill as the ming mongs in idea were unable to accurately diagnose the fault and have wasted a month. I would explode tbh because I can't live without my internet.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

Best hope they don't charge for damage to their cable while at it of course.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

After what amounts to a cursory look for the cable, the guy cut it & pronounced it dead. This initially made the TV reception worse but now is back to normal despite piece of cut cable protruding from ground. The guy just hadn't been briefed properly and was not expecting a potential broken cable situation. He booked a call to fit complete new cable & advised the 'earliest' date which is just over 3 weeks time - I would happily dig it up myself if it would help - no internet service (& phone & daughters TV) for 3 weeks. I think this is a very poor service to a longstanding VM customer, spending £80+ per month.

---------- Post added at 10:36 ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 ----------

Don't mind paying - just want it fixing in a reasonable timeframe.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

to be fair they have different teams of guys that deal with different problems and I imagine the guys who dig stuff up and lay new cable are very busy and stuffed is planned for them well in advance. Igni made a good point though, I would conscious of the fact that they might charge you a couple of hundred £ as all this cost for labour and parts is technically your fault and not VMs. I would be amazed if they do it for free.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

You might look at your household insurance to see if you can claim off it.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

If you can claim on your household insurance you may find the excess on the household insurance is more than the cost of replacing the cable.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

Not sure if they charge many people nowadays, the service Tech that first visited should have done a temporary splice to at least give you service whilst waiting for a new cable. He should of dealt with this regardless of proper brief, many faults are not clear until you visit the customers premise and see for yourself what is wrong.

Very poor, you should complain about this.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

UPDATE: I phoned VM to see if anything could be done to improve time - got through to the 'want to remove services' dept & after recounting situation said I wanted to drop broadband off the account as I may move to Sky who reckon they can can get me on in 5 days. She said I needed to talk to Broadband dept & tell them this - The dept I was put through to ( & had to tell the tail again...Grrrr) said I need you to perform some checks for me..... No, no we've done all this..re-told the tail....Okay, wrong Dept.....they will call you back. To be fair, they did call back & I got the guy who handles complaints I guess & is always up for a fight - very bolshy attitude 'so if we remove broadband from your bill it will reduce from £85 to £72...What? So just TV & phone is £72. Yes, a small reduction as you have a bundle with discounts.....Oh and did you realise we have to ask your local council for permission in case it crosses roads or boundaries & this can take 6 weeks....What? but surely it will just trace the same run? Yes but we still have to do it.....No idea if this is BS or not but sounds ridiculous - anyway, he said he would ask for escalation & is calling back tomorrow.........holding breath.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

I cut my cable a few years back. They wanted to charge me to replace it. I argued that it wasn't buried deep enough to begin with (it was literally just an inch below the surface).

They sent out an inspector or something, who agreed that the cable should be replaced for free as it hadn't been buried deep enough to begin with. But note, this was back when VM was "Cable & Wireless", so its going back quite some years.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

mine is just about 2" under the lawn

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

That is rubbish. VM are big on bundle deals and wont want their subscriber stats to drop. I kniw there are discounts involved but there us no way phone and tv are £72. I think the truth was stretched to make you think it isnt worth dropping down.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

I absolutely agree. Every big organisation has the guy you get put through to who will argue their case but I'm just so disappointed that after being BIG user of VM with all services etc, this is just dismissed as 'go to the back of the queue' and you have to wait for internet access for 3 weeks. Cable & wireless we're great.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

If you pull the cable up yourself and find the break you could always call virgin back out for a temporary repair. I used to cut the cable at the tee and run a lead across the grass as a temporary line untill the work was to be completed properly, obviously I couldnt do that in all situations

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

I noticed the tick light was on, on the super hub this morning and yes, amazingly t'internet was back with us for a tantalising hour before disappearing again......and back on now..... Not sure whether to mention this to virgin as obviously not right but I think another visit to investigate maybe better than a long wait for new cable. So not as 'dead' as originally diagnosed

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

I wouldn't bother because I can guarantee the ming mongs in India will ping the modem, see it is online, mark the connection as working and close the ticket

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

I agree its a long wait.
They are service techs, who service the products. We can repair cables if its straight forward. Looking for a break in the cable is a needle in a hay stack. What if its cut in multiple places?
Also, we are issued 41 minutes per service call including travelling time.
To be honest, i agree again its a long wait. But you have to take responsibility for cutting through the cable, as you have already admitted blame. And because your at fault, they can charge you in excess of £150. This is the cost of the new cable, and the man hours.
Its not as straight forward as "just repairing the cable". I do my best in fixing the broken cables, but we are limited on time

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

what sort of geographical area have you got to cover? I am assuming that you are no more than 6 miles/10 minutes from each call if you have got to include travelling time?

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

Find the break and should be an easy fix. Thing is it could be a tiny knick that will be hard to find with mud attached to it

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

yeah, if TV continued to work and he has intermittent BB it can't be that bad

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

All depends where the works routed. Can be 5 mins or can br half hour travelling

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

After complaining about the long wait Virgin have brought the date forward by a few days. I just think that a) my situation wasn't noted fully by the call handler who just wanted to talk about internet connection....the possible cable damage has cut off our phone, limited TV channels & initially cut off broadband which returned but is now too slow to use. I don't think any of this was recorded as b) the engineer had no knowledge of this situation & despite declaring the connection 'dead', we still have limited access. It's just really poor communication with VM which will probably result in guys turning up to fix out internet connection when it's actually TV, phone & internet that are affected. I just think a better initial investigation could have provided a quick fix for this problem.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

This one would have been an easy one surely, he would already known the problem and where. A temporary splice OR temporary fix using spare length of cable would have got the customer with service until replacement.

Telling the customer he should take responsibility when hardly any drop cables are buried at the correct depth is a bit poor as well.

Re: Cable break - long wait to fix
 

There are two different departments within Virgin for faults - one deals with broadband, the other deals with TV/Phone. Realistically, the broadband agent was right to not deal with the phone line aspect as he doesn't know anything about it, however he should have also transferred you over to FMC as it's a separate fault (even if it has the same cause).

Phone lines are higher priority as well.