View Full Version : What would you do if Virgin Media flooded your house?
Here is a question for you.
Is there an ombudsman or a regulator that is applicable to Virgin Media?
The reason I ask is that one of their chaps flooded my study in quite a big way. He handled the situation very well, but sadly his boss cancelled the order for new carpet that they sent me miles to choose. (To use a fitter that was a friend it seems). The net result was a fitted office sitting on wet carpet, on a solid floor for nearly three weeks. You can imagine what happened to it. After an exchange of emails and calls with their local rep, Virgin Media in Swansea wrote with the offer of £250.00 ! But have subsequently not responded to my rejection letter.
Despite sending three different people to the house, Virgin Media left me to uninstall the furniture, lift the old carpet, plaster the wall where the fitted unit had been, go to Ikea, choose a new desk and assemble it. Then offered me the £250 for the furniture, inconvenience and time.
Replacement cost of like for like office furniture is well over £1000.00 so it looks like a job for the small claims court. To take that route I need to satisfy the court that I’ve been through all possible avenues to resolve this.
Check out the PDF for how VM left us for nearly 3 weeks, causing the cancelling of my missus Birthday bash and Christmas festivities.
What would you do next?
Cheers
Noah
Personally, as I have legal protection with my home contents insurance, I would have claimed the full cost of making good the mess with my insurer, and made very sure that they pursued VM both for their own costs and also for mine (policy excess plus any resultant increase in premium arising from the claim).
If you're already well down the road of making good the damage yourself, then the small claims court can be an effective remedy - take good note of all the goings on in this not dissimilar thread (http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/65/33662671-garden-dug-up-cable-installed-my.html) if you're contemplating legal action. It can, and does, work, but you need to be prepared to bear with several months of to-ing and fro-ing between lawyers.
Don't forget to keep detailed records of your time (translated to costs at your normal earnings rate) and your car mileage. They shouldn't get those for free!
MovedGoalPosts
31-01-2011, 15:44
You are quite fortunate if the study furniture itself wasn't damaged sitting on the wet carpet. Usually they are made of a chipboard material and that just sucks up moisture, delaminating. Drying the floor, of a lot of water would also have been problematic. Make sure it wasn't just the surface that dried and there is still water trapped in the screed.
You need to formally respond to the letter VM have offered you £250 and state that it is in no way considered adequate. List your own costs incurred. You most certainly need to formally be notifying VM, and that is in writing ideally by recorded delivery, that you are claiming all losses from them. VM might try and fob you off blaming their contractors, but your contract was with VM not their contractor so you have to slug it out with VM.
Small claims court should be a last resort, and so you should show you have taken reasonable steps to get a resolution before going down that route.
Commiserations on the mess, and I hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction.
Just as a matter of interest, how was the flooding caused?
I was only getting 3MB out of my PowerLine adaptors so the engineer arranged for the modem to be relocated to the same room as my PC. When screwing the little white box to the wall he found the heating pipe with his drill. All of the heating water, its header tank and top up from the mains poured into my study. Only stopping when British Gas turned up to tape the tank off. My father in law was in the house at the time, desperately filling buckets with water. Putting a screw in the hole, would be my top tip.
I’ve written as @Rob suggested (the PDF is from that letter) and totally agree about the impact water has when mixed with modern furniture.
I have to say, they sent their hit squad round within 24 hours to repair the pipe and plaster the hole. They sent us to a carpet shop that would have seen us all sorted in 48Hrs… then they canned the order. I’m hoping there is a precedent for claiming for my time and many trips to the tip !
This post is part of me exploring what other options I have before the small claims court so many many thanks.
MovedGoalPosts
31-01-2011, 16:55
All of the heating water, its header tank and top up from the mains poured into my study. Only stopping when British Gas turned up to tape the tank off.
Unfortunately that is a painful lesson learnt to always know where the mains stop cock is and to periodically check it works. :(
I'd suggest you do itemise all the costs you have incurred, including mileage, etc. If you are going to claim for time expended, be realistic with any hourly rate, don't over exaggerate. Maybe liken that to your actual pay rate, not what would be charged by a plumber. Mileage best way is to look up a rate from the AA or similar motoring costs. If you play fair with your costs, you have a more reasonable chance of getting them upheld.
Bear in mind that VM may well pass this on to their insurer - frame your claim as though you were making a claim on your own insurance.
MovedGoalPosts
31-01-2011, 18:51
Whether or not VM, or some other contractor tries to palm it off onto their insurers is irrelevant to PlanBee who suffered the loss. The third party insurer is not part of the contract between VM and PlanBee and the causer of damage and thus should not be able to influence any settlement that might be acceptable, or not, to PlanBee.
However it remains important to be seen as a reasonable person in any dealing with VM during your claim. If you exaggerate you are more likely to be seen to be pushing your luck.
Unfortunately for the Installer, I imagine that he will be fined by the company he works for as he should have used his metal detector before drilling.
The fault will be dealt with by the installers whomever they are so you need to keep pestering them,(well Virginmedia) as it will go by the wayside mainly because it will be dealt with by the contractor. So unless someone from VM keeps an eye on what has happened,(which won't happen) you'll be mucked about.
He was a VM guy. Really nice chap - Felt so sorry for him. First pipe in 15 years of fitting cable. He did his very best, and did use his metal detector I understand. Its one of those things and wouldn't have been a problem had they not cancelled carpet #1. So the boss should be had for a very bad call. Apparently VM don't pay for the "emothional" side of things. Enjoyed telling my wife that as we rang round cancelling invites to her bash.
I've written agian tonight... very formal. Lets see where this goes next.
Have bucket - will bail
Cheers
haydnwalker
01-02-2011, 11:34
I'm not going to comment on the damage, this has been done already - needless to say, it was a mess and I hope you get it sorted to your satisfaction.
What I will say though, is, if you haven't stated in your letter that you want a response (and in what time scale you think is reasonable for said response) you probably won't get one.
If I'm sending a formal letter like that, I will always state that I would like a response, and usually wish to have that response within 14 days (which to me is reasonable for a large company like VM). That, along with sending either Recorded or Special Delivery, ensures you've covered your back in waiting a reasonable time for them to sort it out.
Whether or not VM, or some other contractor tries to palm it off onto their insurers is irrelevant to PlanBee who suffered the loss. The third party insurer is not part of the contract between VM and PlanBee and the causer of damage and thus should not be able to influence any settlement that might be acceptable, or not, to PlanBee.Agreed. I was just suggesting a way of writing up the claim to make it easy for VM to handle it, in whatever way they see fit. State the facts of the occurrence and list all the costs incurred. The more straightforward your claim, the sooner you'll get your money back.
As you say, PlanBee's contract is with VM, and they are responsible for damage caused by their employees and subcontractors. How VM get the money to recompense PlanBee isn't his concern.
Gave them 2 weeks in the last letter and 2 weeks in yesterdays. The guys that came to do the repairs to the pipe said they get one call a week at least including a chap who fell through the ceiling and making a fancy fibreglass brick to replace a 200 year old real one.
Finally got a response today, just telling me they had my last note. Its made it to a Anthony Cass, Head of Complaints (surely Head of Complain resolution would be a better title)... I hope whomever cancelled the original carpet order to use their mates is due a rocket...
The metal detecters don't work slot of the time due to foil mesh behind Walls, sometimes it's guess and see
Well here is a shocker. "after a full investigation" - that excluded talking to me, Virgin Media won't move from their £250.00 offer. So lets see, £1000 worth of office furniture ruined... Plus time etc... I'm about to become an expert in the small claims court :)
Oh and just dashed off an email to their CEO asking how he would feel if a utility company flooded his study...
Outstanding! Got a response from VM's CEO at 8:30am on a Sunday... Lets see what happens next.
Settled out of court. Not close to covering my loss but... I've had enough and frankly a little bit of movement is all I needed...
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