#i normally suggest this when people are having problems with annoying people at work/neighbours and such but i believe it works on cables too:

scrape its face off with a hammer drill then beat it to death with your penis.

Haven’t read all the thread, but having dealt with this very problem many times through work i can tell you that no contractor should break the ground without a valid signed wayleave.

Ask to see the wayleave and if none exists request they remove it forthwith and provide repairs/reinstatement to the standard that it was before their trespass

They didn’t ask permission to put it in, so why should you ask permission to remove it.

In law, as in the playground, two wrongs don’t make a right.

Nonsense! The cable was illegally installed on your land and damage was done to your property in the process.

Leaving it in place could unwittingly be giving permission to permit further unauthorized digging up and damage to your property.

It’s your[u] land and you can do whatever you like with it! There is no “wrong” on your part in removing this cable.

Talk to your buidlings insurer if you have legal cover.

I would write and tell Virgin and your neighbour to remove the cable within 10 working days and after which, if it remains, you will instruct a contractor to remove it at their cost.

I’d copy the neighbour and send both letter recorded delivery.

I’d file a claim for the damage, inconveniece and distress caused if your insurer will entertain the idea.
Perhaps the i

spongebob was so distressed on the OP’s behalf that he couldn’t carry on typing…

OP: speaking to customer services is unlikely to get anywhere. Virgin Media’s General Counsel is Scott Dresser. You don’t need to speak to him (obviously!) but maybe just address your letter/fax care of his office at HQ. At least that way there is a vague chance that someone will know what to do with it instead of sending it to Customer Service Muppets, PO Box 69, Dipshitville.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/industries/2011/03/29/virgin-media-wins-patent-case-brought-gemstar-tv-guide-uk/

Given the damage has already been done I’d just be after an apology and compensation, something OTT like £5k, although that might also be seen as granting future right to access the cable on your property for maintenance etc. Assuming they won’t offer anything like £5k then yeah I’d chop it up, or maybe write to Watchdog for a laugh.

you can do whatever you like with it! There is no “wrong” on your part in removing this cable

Agreed. But there is plenty wrong with damaging the cable in the process. And how on earth will the OP remove it without damaging it?

my recommendation would be firmly in the don’t damage the cable if you want them to resolve it quickly, however theres nothing wrong with deciding to bury a small rare-earth magnet in your garden,maybe just next to some random cable you find there.

Just pull the cable really hard. It will make your neighbours TV and Virgins computer fall over. That’ll learn em both

bury a small rare-earth magnet in your garden,maybe just next to some random cable you find there.

I thought Virgin were fibre optic?

I agree about no damage – if someone parked their car on your land it doesn’t give you the right to trash it.

Decide what resolution you want (either money or removal or both), behave reasonably, do everything in writing (recorded delivery) and stick to your guns.

I thought Virgin were fibre optic?

Not up to your house.

They often use contractors so maybe they just want to get the thing laid to get paid?

😆 @ snowslave

Call the old bill a crime has been committed, this needs stepping up a notch, I’m getting quite annoyed by it all now and the time it’s taking to resolve it.

😡

i suspect this is going to take quite a while to resolve without ‘positive action’.
If you want to get the installers round again pretty quickly (so you can educate them about where they cannot install) I’m pretty sure fibre optic cable doesn’t like going round sharp bends and can fail without being cut.

Fibre certainly doesn’t like sharp bends and folds. It wrecks the fibre strands but leaves the outer casing unmarked. Its been a problem with the stuff we use at work. Very difficult to find the break as well.. very annoying

Call the old bill a crime has been committed, this needs stepping up a notch, I’m getting quite annoyed by it all now and the time it’s taking to resolve it.

1) it’s not your garden.

2) it’s not like it’s actually getting any worse. It’s a cable. It’s just sitting there.

3) it’s only been one business day! 😆

A few things:

The drop to the house from the street cabinet – the cable that’s been buried – is good old coaxial stuff, much like your TV aerial. Bending it won’t make a blind bit of difference.

Secondly, as others have said, don’t damage VM’s property, even if it is on your land – go through the official channels. Avoid customer service and go direct to legal – As above, Scott Dresser seems to be the chap: Scott Dresser. Speak to CAB first – they will give far better advice than teh interwebs.

@ konabunny You might think it’s acceptable behaviour for people to trespass and deface other peoples property but I ruddy well don’t, I can tell you that. This epitomises all that is wrong with society, no respect from the Virgin brigade and your walk on by attitude. This countries going to the dogs and this thread proves it.

You nearly had it sewn up but left off the FACT at the end.

This epitomises all that is wrong with society, no respect from the Virgin brigade and your walk on by attitude

If some pillock laying a cable (lol) across the wrong person’s garden epitomises all that’s wrong with British society, then things are looking up!

My “walk on by” attitude consists of making helpful suggestions to the OP about where he might get a more useful response than dealing with customer service people. Your attitude consists of getting het up, fulminating and suggesting the OP call the police, a step which would be entirely futile because no criminal act has been committed (the mens rea for criminal damage being absent).

Which is more productive? And more importantly why did you omit the phrase “hell in a handbasket” from your post?

If you break the cable, then harass the installers to ‘go round’ when they come to repair it, that is probably the best way of getting it off your land. However, I’d postit that you’ll then have precisely buckleys chance of ever getting any restorative work done.

Leave it alone, tell them you want it moving within (reasonable timescale), restorative work to the value of x for damage incurred (get a quote, builder and gardener I expect), and their comments in writing as to why this has happened.

Your attitude consists of getting het up, fulminating and suggesting the OP call the police, a step which would be entirely futile because no criminal act has been committed.

Reeled in! 😆

Hello ! time for an update.

after mucho calls and threats of legal action, they first offered to return and make right. I reminded them they that will most likely end in having the police called as the do not have a legal right to access and a insisted a responsible! person visit to access the situation.

then shock horror a virgin ‘contractor’ suddenly turns up. Blame has been put directly on the admin as they told they have the ok. Funny to as even if we ok’d the install we should be comsulted as to the route etc.

turns out the actual owner hasnt even ok’d the install to the actual house so he’s hammering them to now. Tentant has given false information virgin. etc, so many ck up’s ! but that now with the owner.
Tentent shortly to be booted !! oops !

anyways, now waiting to discuss action of either removal and compensation or some ‘sweetner’ to leave it in.

lets see what happens. Feel better now they have admitted the major ck ups and now moved to sorting it out.

20meg would be better then my pants 6 meg for COD black ops !

watch this space.. tee hee !
could work out quite nice after all.

Hedge

Reeled in!

You would say that!

</pwned>

@ konabunny try reading between the lines. I didn’t think it needed to be even more ruddy blatant!

Lifer spotted it a mile off, and you well went off on one. 😆

dobbo, trolling/fishing is not big or clever

hedgehog – good work. Stick at it.

But, you know, the danger with agreeing to take Virgin as “compensation” is that you’ll forever be beholden to their hopeless customer services..!

@ DONK It was a tongue in cheek “Daily Mail” style rant, like I said

I didn’t think it needed to be even more ruddy blatant!

Nonsense! The cable was illegally installed on your land and damage was done to your property in the process.

Leaving it in place could unwittingly be giving permission to permit further unauthorized digging up and damage to your property.

It’s your land and you can do whatever you like with it! There is no “wrong” on your part in removing this cable.

I love the never-mind-the-legal-reality-listen-to-my-shouty-idiocy of Spongebob.

Funniest thing I’ve read all day.

😀

trolling/fishing is not big or clever

it’s bigger and cleverer than being the mark. 🙁

No way would I agree to have it left there, if you do they can then demand reasonable access for maintenance purposes which could include a new excavation to replace it if required

So..

something underground, that you never see, that is for a neighbours benefit, is something that you feel “violated by”.

you are only the middle class equivilent of a “street teen adolecent” who complains when the teacher “invades his personal space”.

Its a bloody cable underground. I know Victor Meldrew is a cult hero these days but honestly, at the end of the day, was it going to make even the tiniest difference to your life?

The “false legalese” and “injured pride” make you sound small minded. I am sure your a lovely person, but get some perspective, and not from people who think 3k on a Yeti is normal behaviour.

I always thought you needed at least permission or more likely an easement to run services/utilities across someone elses land – and normally permission comes at a cost.

Juju – I think you need to read his posts and realise what damage has been caused.

Virgin media are one of the worst companies i have ever had the misfortune of dealing with and I pity you. A while back(about a month ago) I posted about my experience with them when i fell for their slick marketing and ordered some of their services. It annoys me to hear them boasting about their broadband speed etc when they so badly misrepresent themselves in being able to actually deliver. After 3 months of messing me around and loosing my phone number which I have used for about 20years i gave up with them. The only good thing was they quickly removed their coiled up useless cable from my land in the end!! Good luck

sorry juju, I had to laugh at that, never been called middle class before.

..as for cable undergound prob not if they had followed their own rules and the law designed to protect people. If they had asked and I was consulted then prob not a problem. I feel you have missed the point.

as for being called a small minded street teen adolecent… lol.

I think i’d have been tempted to lift the cable from being buried & leave it running on top of the soil til they fixed it.