Without a telephone line for two weeks.

mark*w · 17-04-2007, 13:26

Hi,

I hope someone can help me, I'm a new Virgin Media customer (NTL area), DE72, or 01332 area code.

I've recently just got cable broadband, tv, and a phone line installed (Thursday last week in fact). My wife warned me about NTL's customer service, but I said it was Virgin now so it must be better.

Everything was installed on Thursday and we tested the telephone line (which worked fine if a little bit noisy). We left on Friday for a weekend away, and came back to find the phone not working (getting no dial tone and if we rang our number the line came up as engaged). The service came back briefly, once again the line was noisy, but the line has been dead now for 3 days.

I've phoned the customer service number 4 times now (at my expense on my mobile), been put on hold for 30 minutes, had an Indian call centre tell me to phone back as all their systems were down, had another Indian call centre transfer me and finally got through to a UK centre this lunchtime.

But, they're saying they can't get an engineer out to me until Monday morning, plus they couldn't check the fault as their systems were down!! I find that outrageous, my wife is at home and not very well, and doesn't like using her mobile because of the cost, yet I've got to wait a week until they can get someone out to check the line, when it's highly likely it was a faulty installation. Plus, I feel awful for getting Virgin installed and stuffing up the telephone line which is making her feel worse and more stressed.

Is there an emergency telephone line I can call to try and get a quicker service? Or am I really stuck without a landline for a week and a half.

I really hope someone can help.

ladyboy · 17-04-2007, 17:35

you could ring them and tell them its a life line number and your wife is seriously ill.its abit dishonest but hey they messed you up in the first place.no emergency number that i know of...good luck.

Rapid Dr3am · 18-04-2007, 11:12

Good plan, say it's lifeline. When the tech turns up sees no lifeline and goes and charges for the visit.

Real smooth.

Taf · 13-06-2007, 12:12

I've been without a working phoneline for 8 days now, reporting the fault via the website doesn't appear to have done anything at all...

And in this home are 2 handicapped kids and 2 poorly-controlled diabetics who need a phone to get help and advice from a diabetic nurse.

CraigT · 13-06-2007, 16:01

Think yourself lucky 5 months here

came today to do the pull through after i have lost 5 days holiday for them to turn up each time to tell me the tee needs moving tee moved 3 weeks ago pulled through today and still no line as the cable between my brown box and socket was knackered (I suspect that was the problem all along)

To be told i would have to wait another week and another lost days holiday

I ended up running a new cable myself today and all is working

Pfft 5 lost days holiday, about £100 in mobile phone calls to them thats wthout all the normal calls i have had to make of my mobile because of no landline lots of frustration and only just been fixed by myself in the end so all in all i would say its cost me in the region of £700 and i'm awaiting a bill for £120 to move the tee as well

all this because they said the cable was rotten under my drive and i bet it was the cable from the brown box to the socket all along

I,m not a happy man at the moment

MrChef · 13-06-2007, 18:38

Good luck,Ihope you dont have to wait 6 weeks like we did earlier this year,when I phoned faults I was passed from pillar to post,told there system was down,got mysteriously disconnected and had 4 different people turn up at different times all failing to communicate with the correct departments to get the work done.Apparently constructions should have been informed to dig concrete out.Iam reluctant to have A BT line again as their lines are not very good in this area for Broadband and I did get a good deal with Broadband and TV with Virgin but I find their phone charges high.I am still in contract at the moment and they do have a good quality product and excellent clear phone lines the only problem is when you have a fault everything seems to go pear shaped and it needs sorting

Felix the Foccer · 23-06-2007, 16:26

wow ... !

Just seen this thread ... I had Broadband, V+ and a phone installed on 22nd May .. since then the phone line is yet to work ...

The original installation engineer (who i think didn't really give a s**t) said the telephone people would be along later .. no-one came ...

Since then I've waited in on four occasions, on the 1st two the engineers came and scratched their heads ... and said there was no cables ....

The third time, he came, had a look and went again ....

4th time (15th June) I waited in all day, no-one came ...

763 hours on the phone later (internet phone might i add), they say it needs a 're-pull' and the earliest they can get is Wednesday 27th .. (FFS, they known about this for ages!) ...

Close to giving up on them!

MorrisA · 24-06-2007, 16:07

I have 2 phone lines and broadband, was ntl (Cambridge area), now supplied by VM.

Saturday 16th June one phone went dead so rang 150 and was told engineer would call on Friday between 12 noon and 6pm, assuming this to mean 22nd.

Friday 22nd June no sign of an engineer so at 6.45 phone 150 and was told that the work ticket was still open and the engineer may be delayed but would still be calling.

Saturday 23rd June no engineer, ring up again to see if I should stay in all weekend for an engineer. Operator checks with supervisor and says that the engineer will be calling on Friday 29th June!! I question this politely buy firmly stating that 2 weeks to wait before an engineer can even look at the problem is excessive. Told that is the best they can do.

I suspect that the engineer failed to complete all outstanding jobs on the ticket and so they have put me back in the 6 day waiting list. This service is appalling, was very good with Cambridge Cable (the original provider), got much worse under ntl.

Hope they turn up on 29th June

Arthurgray50@blu · 24-06-2007, 23:24

I wouldn't hold your breath, l would write a strong letter to Sir Richard, he normally gets thing done, l was 18 hours without anything, l got something done, but this should not happen should it.

MorrisA · 01-07-2007, 14:49

Good News – My telephone was fixed on June 29th after a 2 week delay

My earlier suspicions that the first engineer failed to call were confirmed when this engineer enquired if anyone called on the previous Friday.

The fault was located in the wiring at the exchange and both my phones were rerouted and reconfigured.

The same thing happened a couple of years ago with the same explanation about exchange wiring, so why a 2 week wait to check out their wiring?

mmm · 02-07-2007, 20:43

You do realize that with cable there is no real 'exchange'. The phone is connected to the green box within a couple of hundred metres of your house then digital signal is transmitted by fibre optic cable. Routing is done by distributed computers, based on databases configured by myriad of billing/provisioning systems.

BT/LLU phones are different, there's a pair of wires that go all the way to a real exchange, via lots of junction boxes plenty of opportunity for errors/ crossed wires etc.