General : New customer

[Jax70]

Hi,
Can anybody offer some advice please, we're tearing our hair out.
We moved into a new house recently and contacted VM online to get the ball rolling for Bb.
All went well, the initial e-mail said we'd be up and running in 2 weeks.
Then we received an e-mail stating the previous owners daughter has an account with VM and we need to give them a quick call to sort it all out. Over a dozen attempts to contact them later we managed to speak to somebody on three occasions. Last week we were told there wasn't a problem, they will shut down the other account within 48 hours and they will phone us back to get our account sorted out. No phone call received.
Rang them again yesterday, they repeated what we'd been told last week and they will phone us back either yesterday or today. No phone call received.
Rang them again today to be now told we can't have an account until the other one is shut down. To do this they have to contact the previous account holder.
As she's moved out without cancelling her VM account we're not holding out much hope.
We couldn't get an actual answer to the question "what happens if she can't be contacted?"
The customer service lady just kept repeating her script. She said she will phone us back either later this afternoon, it's now half 6, or tomorrow. I'm not feeling very hopeful.
I've done a couple of searches and one answer seemed to be 6 weeks before they will shut it down. We're currently piggy-backing off Dd's unlimited Internet to watch t.v. or download anything which is not ideal. If she's not in then we read a book lol.
Looking forward to any helpful advice.
Thank-you.

[General Maximus]

I know it is frustrating and I don't know what the policy is but six weeks sounds very reasonable. They aren't going to close customer's account willy nilly just because somebody rings up and asks them to. Just as you have to give most companies 30 days notice to cancel contracts etc, they probably have to do the same. They might not be able to contact her directly but as a minimum they'll have a registered VM email address on the account which they'll use to provide her notice with and 6 weeks is 30 working days. After that period hopefully they'll close her account and get the ball rolling for you, until then it is just a waiting game. There is a member of the forum called BenMcr and he works for VM and pretty much knows everything. Hopefully he'll be able to clarify the process for you if he picks up on this thread.

and welcome to the forum

[Jax70]

Thank-you General Maximus.
I was more frustrated that I couldn't get any kind of time frame than the actual wait. It's not willy-nilly, she knew she was moving out a couple of months ago when the offer was accepted. I don't understand if why we're now living here why they can't arrange our Internet at the same time as chasing her. We did give notice to all our providers and as there's no VM boxes here, we assumed she had too.
If it takes 6 weeks then that's how long it takes.
Thanks again for your help and hopefully the guy that you suggested does read this.

[General Maximus]

I'll send him a pm and hopefully he'll chip in so you know exactly what the process is and how long it is going to take.

[BenMcr]

So, for a new account it should be sorted within a couple of days as to whether the existing account can be disconnected and then the kit delivery (or engineer install) arranged for around 14 days later, as that's how long it takes to close the existing account.

There are checks done to protect Virgin Media against fraud and abuse of process, but if the new account request is declined, then the reasons why should have been made clear e.g. continued usage of the kit installed for the person that's no longer there.

The six week timescale is there as part of the process, but that's where no contact can be made to anyone involved after Virgin Media being notified of the existing account holder leaving the property.