Virgin exterior cable replacement

Posted 11th Mar 2023

Hi guys, have had ongoing issues with virgin bb intermittently going slow and tonnes of errors/ warnings all day every day on the settings log, showing partial sevice.
Engineer visited whilst i was at work and told my partner the external cable under drive has become faulty and to make sure cars are off the drive next saturday at 7am because they're coming to dig the drive up, remove old and run a new cable.
The driveway is slabbed on a 50mm full mortar bed and under that is 7 inches of mot1 hard core and the virgin cable is under all that.
Im guessing they just dig and dont put everything back as it was ?
To put it back right im going to have to pay to dispose of the old dry mortar and lay new which is a good 150-200kg under this long run of slabs or do they have to cover costs ?
I was guessing they will just be trying to pat the hardcore back down with a shovel, no compactor and just resting the slabs back down on the old mortar so they're loose and wobbling ?
Anyone else experience anything similar and did they just send the usual virgin engineer out with a shovel or someone who can actually put it back how it was ?
TIA

23 Comments

sorted by

TristanDeCoonha
11th Mar
In this circumstance I would suggest you ring virgin and ask the questions, making sure you record the call, or do it online and copy the text / get the transcript.
Sometimes this is contracted out, and so it could depend on how much the engineer could get away with on overtime.
One person's experience is not an acceptable regarding this.
I had them come into my garden and run a cable around the wall to the upstairs flat without permission. So it depends.
Toon_army
11th Mar
When I moved in the house I'm in 8 years ago, Virgin came to install my new stuff, all was well until they tried to activate it. They said the wire going under my garden to the main road was knackered, they had to get in contact with the council for permission of lift the pavement which is a footpath... that took 3 weeks, they came and fitted new wires which took no time at all.
I'd just ask them to do it via the footpath like mine, digging up a drive is ridiculous
Mark_Hickman Author
11th Mar
I think the engineer just saw the drive was slabbed and assumed it was probably dirt underneath not mot1 and thought easy half hour job and just drop the slabs back down loose but they dont realise we're on a hill and the drive has been raised to meet the path after the cable was installed years ago so the cables deep
SUMMONER
11th Mar
One of these I would guess...

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Deedie
11th Mar
Can they not just route a new cable around the driveway? Instead of digging it up.
Mark_Hickman Author
11th Mar
Thats what im going to suggest, but im not sure if they're allowed to dig up part of the public footpath, the issue is the flap on street is in centre of drive so they would need to cut away some tarmac against my edging stones and run it down the street 10 feet then under an edging stone and under some dirt i have next to a path at the side of the drive which isnt solid mot1 all the way down but i doubt they'll do this unless they carry cold lay tarmac with them (edited)
innocent
11th Mar
Can you not forget about Virgin and go for a new provider to save all the hassle or am I being too simplistic?
Mark_Hickman Author
11th Mar
Unfortunately the only options on my street are virgin upto 1gig or 2mbps phone line
TristanDeCoonha
11th Mar
Area dependent, you could have a new supplier sending it in from the telegraph pole. No digging required as they'll just staple it to your outside wall.
For example. I am on the Virgin 100mb at the best price of £17. Toob (using Cityfibre infrastructure ) are now in my area and offer 900 up and down for £25. When Virgin demands an increase then I'll jump ship.
According to the Toob guy, the Virgin connection is on a 1:200 share, hence peak times can cause buffering, but he claims Toob is 1:1.
Mark_Hickman Author
11th Mar
Only option is virgin or 2mbps phone line
aLV426
11th Mar
I guess there is no point sharing my experience and the suggestions on here make sense.
One thing though is why they can;t use the old cable to pull through a replacement?
Mark_Hickman Author
11th Mar
Because the cable is only 50% inside a protective sleeve and a lot of it is unprotected and under 7 inches of compacted mot1 hard core so im guessing it wont pull through.
In theory i should had the cable kept on top of the the mot1 when it was put down years ago, and bought some protective sleeving myself to make it all protected but didn't thinkuch about it when drive was being done, was more concerned about the gas pipe that hadn't been buried correctly and the digger nearly burst it (edited)
fisco2001
11th Mar
Hi Mate
Can not cut a small fillet along where drive starts with boundary and run cable and cement back in till hits a wall etc to run cable round ? (edited)
Mark_Hickman Author
11th Mar
I just found these pictures from when i made the drive, if you look carefully on first picture you'll see the cables going down under hard core, and second picture is after edging stones concreted in place, over side of the gravel boards is now a path which is a single row of slabs and gravel on either side, im hoping they can cut away some tarmac running against edging stones then run it along and go under the last edging stone and bury the cable in the gravel, easiest option but its whether they're allowed to cut away and replace tarmac on public path