Virgin Media - Consumer Rights?

So our entire Virgin Media package went down yesterday. No Internet, no TV, no phone. The engineer arrived today and established that a Virgin installer had worked on our road to install a cable for another house. That idiot managed to cut our cable in the process Virgin have said that they can't restore our services for over TWO weeks

Needless to say, I am most unhappy. I have rang them but they are insistent that there is absolutely no way to restore out cable sooner. Their explanation is that it requires a two man team, digging up the road etc. Frankly, I don't care how hard it is. It was a Virgin error that caused the problem and they need to fix it. Leaving us with nothing for two weeks is disgusting She wouldn't put me through to a manager, just spoke to them then relayed back to me that they can't do it any quicker. She said there were "no provisions for emergencies".

Now not having Internet, TV or phone for two weeks is annoying but it's the implications that make it worse. I'm still sorting out my mothers estate and need to call a lot of 0845 numbers which cost a fortune off the mobile. I am arranging mortgages and tradesmen so not having a landline is very inconvenient. It is likely that mamy of these people only have our landline number for contact and wont be able to get through. We have guests, and no TV! I have a very low data allowance on my phone so between accessing the internet and necessary phone calls, my mobile bill will shoot up. Worse, I need to work from home for a few days and this is now impossible as I can only do this via a work laptop and a secure wired Internet connection to communicate with my work system. Now I have to take time off of work and will get behind with my workload I'm likely to need to take another day off of work for when they finally can repair it.

The most Virgin will do is knock £15 off of our monthly payment for the loss of two weeks. They don't care about the impact this will have. I'm already having a very stressful time and this really is the last thing I need. Their rude attitude and total disinterest has made it worse. Talking to them was like banging my head against a brick wall.

Is there anything I can do? Are any consumer rights being breached because they are failing to provide a service? Can I complain to a regulator?

I would be inclined to tell them to forget it and that i'd have Sky instead and that they can whistle for any outstanding monies owed, terrible service

Blimey, they sound like they've really pee'd you off have Virgin!!!!

I strongly suspect it's not just YOU that has gone down, I'm sure they don't have just the one lot of wiring going to your property, so ask the neighbours if any of them are on Virgin and can add to your complaints with them.

First of all, you can easily get your internet working via a dongle thingy from your phone provider, that's what I did here when we moved.

Then you can set your tv up to your local freeview. It's simple if you've got a pretty new tv set, they all have freeview in them, you just need to go into the menu and set it up, it'll pick it up, if it's in your area. You can find that bit out by putting your postcode into the freeview page.

As for the phone, well, you've got a mobile?

Good luck with Virgin, let's hope they manage to sort it out in 2 weeks' time for you.

Yeah, good point!!! We've got Sky all round here, phone, internet and tv and it's the best thing since sliced bread and the cheapest!!!

When I think I was paying £70 a month direct debit to BT, then £60 to Sky for the telly, then another £20 to AOL for the internet, I now pay £80 a months for everything, including all my phone calls!!!

We're only 4 months into an 18 month contract. I'm tempted to tell them to stick it but I suspect that we can't get out of it. This isn't the first problem I've had with Virgin. Their tech support helpline goes via India. Plus their wireless modem is so poor that it can't connect with a computer in the same room we use the Virgin hub for a modem and needed to buy a separate router for decent (or any!) wireless reception. I was appalled that the time that they charge so much for Internet but can't provide a router which can give a useable wireless signal

I'm fairly sure it is just our wire. If its more wide spread they can magically find people to resolve area wide issues

The problem is H, why on Earth should we have to muck around? We have just detached TiVo and found that we have got Freeview built in, so I suppose that's one good thing!

Re: phone and internet. My mobile won't help people who don't have that number contact me. Plus my mobile bill will be sky high and Virgin won't compensate for it. If I pay out for a dongal, Virgin wont compensate for it. Why should I pay out? Plus it won't be a wired connection as required for work I'm going to ask a neighbour of we can access their wifi for a few weeks, although that still doesn't resolve the work problem.

I have much bigger things to worry about. I could understand of it would take a few days to fix. But I think two weeks it's totally unreasonable

Looks like you're stuck with them then It wouldn't be the first time I've heard about their rubbish service, hence the reason we chose Sky for this place.

glad you're getting the tv sorted Amanda, and hopefully, your neighbours might let you use their wifi. Now go and put that kettle on, you sound right stressed out, bit like me when I was moving home!!!! xxxxxxxx

If they do have to dig up the road they can't just come and to it tomorrow as it were.

I do sympathise, we were with virgin last year and they were dire, rude and incompetent. Needless to say we did not renew.

Re the 0870 and 0845 numbers, there is a site called
saynoto0870, if you go into the 'search for an alternative number' and put the number you are wanting to ring it will give you either a landline or freephone number, or you may have to give the company name, either way I have used it for years and coupled with my free calls allowance on my phone it works fine.
it is a nightmare sorting someone's estate out, my mum died in January, and took flaming months to sort even the simple stuff out,and don't get me going on the costs of the funeral!!!!

Emmi, I think I might be a bit more sympathetic to the logistical issues if they seemed to give a damn! I get that it's a big job, but seeing how it was their error, I still think they can do it faster than two weeks. One person said they would put a note on our account in case there is a cancellation but didn't sound hopeful that it would make any difference. But that indicates to me that things could be rearranged/prioritised if they were so inclined. But they are not. They haven't even said sorry!

Thanks tawney, I'll check those out. The estate is a bit of an ongoing nightmare which has required a lot of Internet and phone calls, so the timing is truly terrible