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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Rebecca Smithers

Why is Virgin Media taking months to fix my landline?

Virgin Media
Virgin Media said the fault with the landline was due to a damaged cable. Photograph: Nick Ansell/PA

In April we had problems with our Virgin Media landline and were told we needed a replacement cable from the road to our house. A date was given but nobody turned up. This happened again. After numerous calls from our mobile, we were told Virgin was waiting to hear from the local authority as the road had to be dug up to access the cable. In early June, its “construction” department told me it had not received any such instruction. Each call triggered patronising responses such as “we realise how difficult this must be for you”. We were then told that restoring the line could take up to three months.

Because of this our burglar alarm, which connects to the police, is inactive, but we have still incurred monthly charges and have had to inform our house insurance company, again incurring extra costs and creating a vulnerable situation for our safety and security. We have also run up substantial additional costs to our mobile tariffs. This whole situation is very stressful.

KB, Stockport

Virgin has admitted that it was unable to resolve the access issues in any sort of reasonable timescale, so you are moving to Sky.

Virgin Media confirms that the fault with your landline was due to a damaged cable and to repair the fault roadworks are required which involves several permissions being granted. It says: “We sincerely apologise to Mr and Mrs B … and have waived their final bill as a gesture of goodwill.”

We welcome letters but cannot answer individually. Email us at consumer.champions@theguardian.com or write to Consumer Champions, Money, the Guardian, 90 York Way, London N1 9GU. Please include a daytime phone number. Submission and publication of all letters is subject to our terms and conditions: http://gu.com/letters-terms

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