Openreach - how long to fix a fault

[timbo343]

We've had the first line support openreach engineer come out and assess the state of our line after having issues with our hlme connection.

Everything at our end is fine and he put his cable tester on the line to find there is a fault 34 meters away from our test socket.

 

The engineer said he's going to have to escalate this to the underground team as there's a fault unground.

 

The underground team came out that afternoon and stayed in the area for about an hour.

 

I've noticed a new marking on the pavement that says BT/OR which is directly out side a neighbour's drive where i think gas work has been recently done (im sure the neighbour's will appreciate ourside their house been dug up again.)

 

So after a little background into our issue, does anyone know how long it takes for Openreach to fix a faulty cable underground?

[jamesreedersmith]

to tweak an old phrase.... "how longs a bt cable?"

 

Ive found it varies in different areas due to demand and staff available (poles and holes guys) generally stick to either "poles" (overhead lines) or "holes" (underground lines) and depending on there work load. I would hope they can get it done within a couple of weeks but nothing is guaranteed in this world (other than death and taxes!).

 

Best plan is to get a contact at the call centre and get contact details for them and chase ever couple of days until its done.

[timbo343]

Cheers, which call centre? The ISP or openreach's? I didnt think openreach could talk the the general public.

[jamesreedersmith]

Yes, your ISP's as they will have to speak to open reach but its more in there interest to keep you happy as well!

 

If needed do the whole speak to a manager at the call centre to show them you are unhappy and want it escalating - can also help move things as managers dont want to have to deal with issues, they want them sorted!

[Jamman960]

We had a problem with a cable on a pole a while back, a normal engineer would come out each time then call in an aerial team, if there wasn't enough light by the time they came out they'd have to start again the next day... they then decided they needed to put traffic management in place which required permission from the council. This took Openreach forever to apply for and they'd never confirm whether or not they'd even applied. It took us over 3 weeks to get an FTTC line sorted and even then we had to pull a few strings via a staff members family member.

[timbo343]

They've finally started work outside (only a week later). Well, i say they started work, there's a barrier, a cone and a cover over the hole but still there's no dial tone on the line.

[robk]

Wait for 2 days and then to fill in the hole. Only then will someone come to fix the cable. Rinse and repeat a few times.... Took 4 weeks for some friends with a dead line if this.

[AlanD]

....and notice that you can have these long delays with leased lines too. What about the guarantee of service I hear you ask? The guarantee is NOT that the line will be fixed....only that you will get "service" (probably someone on site) in under 4 hours. The best "guarantee" is to have two connections - into different corners of the school from two different cabinets....or 2 different technologies. We use a Virgin (asymetric, contended) line - originally installed as "backup" but now used for extra BYOD bandwidth and FTTC into a load balancing router. We have had several instances of one or other line being down...and no one notices...except for the odd complain that the internet seemed a bit slower. And we rarely see any evidence of contention during school hours.

[ellsandell]

I would try the exec complaints line via BT Retail. I have used them in the past and have got very good results in getting faults resolved quickly.

[rich_tech]

company I am with now, took us from October to Last week to get a fibre installed into a premise after much, much, much hassle with BT Openreach (if they have to dig up any roads add 30 days of time while they serve notice), They can be horrific and I feel your pain.

[timbo343]

They [openreach] have fixed the phone line, it got sorted wednesday/thursday so we now have a dial tone on the line how its still crackly, poppy and fuzzy, so its going to to be another complaint talktalk to now get the original problem sorted - slow speeds of 1.5mb and interferance on the line. No doubt we will be seeing openreach again [emoji35] [emoji20]

[john]

They [openreach] have fixed the phone line, it got sorted wednesday/thursday so we now have a dial tone on the line how its still crackly, poppy and fuzzy, so its going to to be another complaint talktalk to now get the original problem sorted - slow speeds of 1.5mb and interferance on the line. No doubt we will be seeing openreach again [emoji35] [emoji20]

 

Who supplies the line is it TT Direct or is it BT with TT ISP over it? If its BT withTT over it log a voice complaint that the cracking / popping means voice calls are bad and it will move much quicker.

[timbo343]

I did that yesterday, spent about 30 mins on the phone to them. At first i told them everything they needed to know even down to the type of socket however they still insisted on reading through the dam script.

 

They were just about to give me a reference number for an open reach engineer until they looked at the ticket log and saw an engineer still needs to sort the issue out. I would seem the issue regarding the broken cable hasn't been fully completed. It would have been nice to know this from the start of the conversation!

[timbo343]

Im at my wits end with this dam ISP. I've never know a company so absymal!!

 

We are now on 6th Sept and we still have a total loss of service (TLoS) at home and i don't know what to do next. I keep getting lied to on the phone, their twitter account holders have ignored me and im paying for a service that doesnt work.

 

Should i cancel the Direct Debit? And when they come to take payment they will ask why there isnt a payment. That way i can say i will pay once the line is fixed.

 

Ive started taking photos of work that has been carried out outside my house and noting down day by day any activity on the phone line, needless to say its all no dial tone and loss of the net.

Edited September 6, 2017 by timbo343

[elsiegee40]

Im at my wits end with this dam ISP. I've never know a company so absymal!!

 

We are now on 6th Sept and we still have a total loss of service (TLoS) at home and i don't know what to do next. I keep getting lied to on the phone, their twitter account holders have ignored me and im paying for a service that doesnt work.

 

Should i cancel the Direct Debit? And when they come to take payment they will ask why there isnt a payment. That way i can say i will pay once the line is fixed.

 

Ive started taking photos of work that has been carried out outside my house and noting down day by day any activity on the phone line, needless to say its all no dial tone and loss of the net.

 

Have you considered contacting one of the newspaper consumer champions? All the papers seem to have someone; usually they do a weekly column where they embarrass the company concerned into sorting things out.

[timbo343]

Have you considered contacting one of the newspaper consumer champions? All the papers seem to have someone; usually they do a weekly column where they embarrass the company concerned into sorting things out.

That sounds like a good idea might have to get hold of some papers, i wonder which is the best?

 

The worst of this is the lies, things like "it will definately be fixed by xxxx i assure you" and "you have an AM slot for an engineer to come round".... wait in and ring... "is there an engineer due today?"... "no, no there isn't, whats the issue?" "Wait, the last call was recorded, the operator told me it was recorded" FFS!!! Also to be told "issues are fixed in 72 hours". The lack of english speaking people to in these calls centers frustrates the hell out of me.

 

If we gave this level of **** service we'd be out of a job but because they are in a call center in a far east country they dont give a ****.

 

I even said to one of them, "in all honestly, while you're satbthere at your desk seeing this issue, you're telling me this issue is going to be fixed tomorrow, can you honestly tell me that it's going to be fixed?" Their reply... "no". Great, so at least you were honest!!

 

Do i have the right to ring the absymal so called tech team (reading from a script) and ask to speak to a manager?

 

I can see why the general public get naffed off with all tech support, i wonder if they are all as bad as this?

 

I may have up set them a little today though, a tweet from me when i got in..

 

"just got in, still no dial tone (total loss). There best be a ******* good reason why it's not fixed, was promised it would be!!!"

 

That might not have gone down well but im past caring.

 

No doubt when i ring up tomorrow i will be given another date to put my hopes on.

[elsiegee40]

We read The Times and both Saturday and Sunday editions have people doing this.

 

I am pretty sure the Mail has someone. I can't speak for the others.

 

The other alternative is the Consumers Association (Which?) but you might have to be a member

[timbo343]

Thank you. I've tweeted to Ofcom to see if they can help too.

[teddybear]

Whenever I start to get hassle from companies, I e-mail their CEO. I know it won't go anywhere near them, but usually someone higher up than a call centre.

 

http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-9593

 

Mr Clive Selley - Chief Executive

 

Email [email protected]

[ellsandell]

Whenever I start to get hassle from companies, I e-mail their CEO. I know it won't go anywhere near them, but usually someone higher up than a call centre.

 

http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-9593

 

Mr Clive Selley - Chief Executive

 

Email [email protected]

 

I agree with this, have gone down this route with BT Retail a number of times. Might be worth trying the ISP CEO/ exec complaints as well.

[timbo343]

Thanks, i might have to try it this weekend. I was promised an engineer would be assigned the job yesterday and the work would be carried out... nothing has happened so was on hold to talktalk for 20 mins before hanging up, now waiting for an online, been waiting 30 mins now. Either talktalk have decided to have a POETS day or they are having serious problems.

[timbo343]

So, after waiting 40mins to connect to an agent (ehem.. MARYGRACE, aparently) and over an hour of chat to them, the result is, openreach have updated the report... an engineer has been dispatched to investigate the issue. So i said, maybe he has got lost as that is what i was told last time, over a week ago.

 

You can probably tell i had lost all my patience by this point.

 

One question that was asked.. are you using your talktalk internet or a 3g/4g data connection? I replied and said, if claimed youve read my account you will see that ive got total loss of service on my line therefore im still using a 3g/4g connection.

 

So i need go wait 24 to 48 hours for a.fault manager to get incontact with me... im not holding my breathe for this phone call, infact i know its not going to happen.. Sigh!

[AlanD]

What irritated me when we had a problem with our FTTC line was not the delay in sending engineers but their inability to fix it. In our case we had a "connection" and high signal to noise ration but do data. The Openreach team came and tested the line (waste of time) and announced there was not fault. But my internet doesn't work I complained to openreach. Must be your router they said - well actually ) said its your router - and anyhow I had tried 3 routers. They sent another team - obviously not next day because by now it was to late to schedule that. The next team....tested the line again and announced there was no problem. Why are you testing the the line I asked - and the answer was because it was the only thing the team could do. More calls to open reach. More accusations it was our router. The third team to arrive (after a weekend now) again could only test the line again - but one of their young guys said you could ask them to do a "lift and shift" in the cabinet....but they weren't tasked to do that - clearly above their pay grade. So eventually a fourth team came - after a lot of abuse on the phone to openreach (well actually - it was to my provider to be fair were doing their best - and didn't have "lift and shift" as an option. And of course after a lift and shift it worked fine. And this highlights the problems of separating openreach from internet supply....because openreach reach keep getting their money all the time. If we were able to stop openreach getting money when our internet stops they would have some financial motivation to to fix stuff.

[elsiegee40]

Troubleshooter details for the Saturday edition of the Times

[timbo343]

After contacting their tech support team today to see of id receive a phone call in what would be 24 hours, MARVIN (ahem, yeah right) decided to check my mobile number on the logged call. It turns out all this time thr mobile has been wrong... FFS!! Even though the details on my account are correct.

 

I asked him to verify what address he had on screen in front of him, he couldn't tell me for security reasons so i asked to confirm we were talking about the same account number.

 

Normally they ask for name, phone number and password listed on the account. Only name and phone number was asked for.

 

I asked if he could see the openreach report and confirm when it was last updated. He said it was updated middle of august but MARYGRACE said it was updated on the 8th septeber at 13.38.

 

Trying to get the same story out of them is like getting water out of a stone.

 

So went on to twitter and started to moan on there.

 

I wish someone would just tell me straight what is going on.

 

I wish i had used chat all the time so i had a paper trail of what BS i was been told, luckily ive got times and dates written down from what has been said on the phone.