Funding for infrastructure to get line declined?

I had the ok on a new Virgin cable line but at the 11th hour they said they couldn't get the funding sanctioned for the last bit even though they had prepped the pavement outside the house!!

Anyone else had this problem and is a retry in the new financial year worth a go?

BTW they didn't actually voluntarily tell me all this - I had to phone the installs team directly who said they tried ringing me once but I hadn't answered so that was the end of it as far as the were concerned. And they wonder why they get a bad reputation for customer service!

What is the issue? I had the problem where the power cable had been run through the incorrect ducting (where the coax cable is supposed to go). The contractor wasn't prepared to rod the pipe and pull a cable (Health and Safety rubbish). Eventually like yourself I got through to someone and they managed to tell me the cost was too much to fix and they would not fix. They said I could not pay towards (however this was possible if going through Virgin Media Business).

In the end I managed to get them to approve my brother (who worked for Kelly's) at the time to come and rod the ducting and pull some rope in. After this I managed to get them to pull a fresh coax cable through. If I didn't push to get this issue sorted myself I would have been on the no serve list.

VM said they have a rate per house, and if the work would exceed that it won't get done and go on the not serve list. They did say this contribution goes up or down at different points in year or different financial years.

In reply to a post by gary333:

They said I could not pay towards (however this was possible if going through Virgin Media Business).

That's just silly. If it's going to cost £X to install and that is above their threshold of £Y, then if the customer is willing to pay £(X-Y) then why on earth would you not go ahead and do the install.

Thats ridiculous. They were not prepared to get a safety issue fixed but allow some other poor schmuk to risk their own safety in their network!
Got to be a bucket load of H&S violations there.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

In reply to a post by gary333:

They said I could not pay towards (however this was possible if going through Virgin Media Business).

That's just silly. If it's going to cost £X to install and that is above their threshold of £Y, then if the customer is willing to pay £(X-Y) then why on earth would you not go ahead and do the install.

It’s a computer says no moment. They said they do not do this within residential. (This was the construction team in Birmingham not the India roundabout). The work would have been 33m new ducting according to contractor, at approx £85-£95 where as their budget was something well below £1000. There option was to go to virgin media business and see what they said.

Edited by gary333 (Thu 16-Apr-20 21:09:32)

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Thats ridiculous. They were not prepared to get a safety issue fixed but allow some other poor schmuk to risk their own safety in their network!
Got to be a bucket load of H&S violations there.

Construction team said it wasn’t a health and safety issue, and that the power cable for the cabinets is very heavily insulated. They said the coax cable and power ends up in same ducting often. However, they also said they are powerless to force contractors to do this as a technicality so that leads them with no solution as they felt the cost to put right was to high. Bearing in mind this is a project lightening area they should have fined the original contractor or got them to put right, but it seems they couldn’t be bothered with that and it as it only effecting 6 houses it’s easier to put in no sale list.

I was lucky I could get my brother to do the work as Kelly’s are approved contractors to Virgin Media, and he was already working in near by area installing ducting for virgin (albeit FTTP not Hybrid).

When we checked the corner street chambers plenty of other houses were already wired in for virgin with a power cable in the same duct so this was a case of a jobs worth on a Saturday making excuses up. The same contractors had already rodded and installed 5 other houses around the corner to what turned out to be the same cabinet (not the one the contractors were quoting for) they I needed to go to due to the sweep of the ducting.

In my case it was contractors holding VM to ransom as it’s only Virgin Media construction guidelines that said this is how network should be arranged and was not gospel.

In reply to a post by gary333:

In reply to a post by witchunt:

Thats ridiculous. They were not prepared to get a safety issue fixed but allow some other poor schmuk to risk their own safety in their network!
Got to be a bucket load of H&S violations there.

Construction team said it wasn’t a health and safety issue, and that the power cable for the cabinets is very heavily insulated. They said the coax cable and power ends up in same ducting often. However, they also said they are powerless to force contractors to do this as a technicality so that leads them with no solution as they felt the cost to put right was to high. Bearing in mind this is a project lightening area they should have fined the original contractor or got them to put right, but it seems they couldn’t be bothered with that and it as it only effecting 6 houses it’s easier to put in no sale list.

I was lucky I could get my brother to do the work as Kelly’s are approved contractors to Virgin Media, and he was already working in near by area installing ducting for virgin (albeit FTTP not Hybrid).

When we checked the corner street chambers plenty of other houses were already wired in for virgin with a power cable in the same duct so this was a case of a jobs worth on a Saturday making excuses up. The same contractors had already rodded and installed 5 other houses around the corner to what turned out to be the same cabinet (not the one the contractors were quoting for) they I needed to go to due to the sweep of the ducting.

In my case it was contractors holding VM to ransom as it’s only Virgin Media construction guidelines that said this is how network should be arranged and was not gospel.

The smaller cabinets receive their power over coax. That coaxial cable is supposed to be in a different duct from the ones used for customer drops, however it's not a massive deal if it's not the case.

Those ducts with the power-bearing coax have to be rodded to pull new cabling through for various functions anyway.

In reply to a post by fearby:

I had the ok on a new Virgin cable line but at the 11th hour they said they couldn't get the funding sanctioned for the last bit even though they had prepped the pavement outside the house!!

Anyone else had this problem and is a retry in the new financial year worth a go?

It happens. In the new financial year given we're there is probably not going to help, however once the current crisis has calmed they may relax the budget, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Sounds like your install is over budget and whomever holds the purse strings has refused to open them more widely.

Given everything going on it's not that surprising that businesses are getting twitchy about holding onto cash.

In reply to a post by CarlTSpeak:

In reply to a post by fearby:

I had the ok on a new Virgin cable line but at the 11th hour they said they couldn't get the funding sanctioned for the last bit even though they had prepped the pavement outside the house!!

Anyone else had this problem and is a retry in the new financial year worth a go?

It happens. In the new financial year given we're there is probably not going to help, however once the current crisis has calmed they may relax the budget, but I wouldn't hold your breath.

Sounds like your install is over budget and whomever holds the purse strings has refused to open them more widely.

Given everything going on it's not that surprising that businesses are getting twitchy about holding onto cash.

As per always you are quite correct . The power cable was the large powered coaxial cable and it was connecting a large(ish) cabinet to a mini cabinet. In my instance the contractors where unsure where to route my cable as on one note it said the mini cabinet (which was in the opposite direction to my house) and another to the main cabinet. I think they just looked for any old excuse.

They didn't even bother to rod (which would have confirmed the cable couldn't go to the much closer mini, but needed to go to the larger cabinet. As this was around 113 metres away I think they just thought it's Saturday and cannot be bothered.

In the end I got an actual Virgin Media employee to come and pull the coxial through, so it was a happy ending in the end.