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Delayed fibre installation - 10 weeks and counting

iharding1981 — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 19:25:52 GMT

Writing on behalf of my dad who made the cardinal error of signing up with BT (well, to be honest, it is his only option given the monopoly BT have on the network where he is).

Order placed on 19th July with installation date set at 5th August. Nothing happens. Account status update basically just keeps moving the date by a day every time the date is missed.

3 calls to BT placed between 5th and 12th August...3 different people all offering completely different excuses and promises they ultimately failed to keep.

Eventually one call handler suggested that the best course of action was for BT to cancel the order then raise a new one and this would get things moving.

it certainly appeared to get things going; an engineer visited to inspect the new fibre route from the road in to the property-but that’s really as far as it went and that was way back in September.

Since then it has been a succession of failed engineer appointments and a shocking lack of communication. Nobody wants to come clean with the truth it would seem.

Two complaints have been raised since August yet there has been no response. BT wrote to my dad recently and suggested he takes this to the Ombudsman! Fat lot of good that will likely do.

No compensation has been credited which seems to go against OFCOM’s advice of being payable no more than 30 days from the date the service was due to start. BT say they will review compensation within 15 days of the service commencing-if only we had a crystal ball to know when that might be.

Oh, the status update tells him every day that an engineer is due outside the property...yet we know this isn’t the case. Almost as if the service is automated or something to give people just a glimmer of hope.

I’d like to escalate this quickly as he has no other fibre options where he lives (western isles of Scotland).

Re: Delayed fibre installation - 10 weeks and counting

pippincp — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 20:31:41 GMT

Contact DigitalScotland, the enquiry link is at the bottom of the page.

Re: Delayed fibre installation - 10 weeks and counting

RobbieMac — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 07:17:43 GMT

Hi @iharding1981

Welcome to the Community and thanks for your post.

I'm sorry for the problems your Dad has had with his fibre broadband order. That is a long delay and I appreciate the time you've taken to try and get this sorted out.

You can get in touch with us and we will find out what's causing the hold up. I have sent you a private message with instructions on how you can send us over your details and we'll look into this for you. See: Private messages

Cheers,

Robbie

Re: Delayed fibre installation - 10 weeks and counting

iharding1981 — Fri, 13 Nov 2020 08:05:27 GMT

I felt compelled to give an update on this one.

After posting on this forum, BT did make contact with my father so we were encouraged that they’d actually listened for a change.

Unfortunately absolutely nothing has moved on. We are more than 16 weeks from placement of order and 14 weeks from the initial installation date.

There is a worrying lack of transparency from BT and little evidence of accountability on anyone’s part. Can we not expect some frank honesty? Perhaps a valid reason for this embarrassing delay?

BT are also unwilling to discuss due compensation and state that it will be confirmed 15 days after the service begins...oh how we would love to know when that date will be.

Time to step up and do the honourable thing BT. Phone my dad. Tell him you have messed up and then apologise profusely to him. Explain to him exactly why this has happened and then map out exactly how, and when, you are going to fix this please.

Rest assured we will continue to pursue this - we won’t just go away.

Re: Delayed fibre installation - 10 weeks and counting

iharding1981 — Tue, 17 Nov 2020 14:39:49 GMT

Still nothing.

No fibre for nearly 4 months.

Complaint raised on 11th August still not dealt with.

Latest commitment from BT was resolution by 13th November - still nothing. Perhaps I should have asked what year the November in question related to?!

Utterly disgraceful performance BT.

Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

iharding1981 — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 07:41:32 GMT

Raised a complaint regarding delayed fibre installation on 11th August 2020 (Broadband has still not been installed to this day).

The complaint has not progressed for over 100 days.

How can this be escalated successfully?

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 07:57:42 GMT

@iharding1981 wrote:

Raised a complaint regarding delayed fibre installation on 11th August 2020 (Broadband has still not been installed to this day).

The complaint has not progressed for over 100 days.

How can this be escalated successfully?

Did you contact @RobbieMac as requested on 22nd October?

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

iharding1981 — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 08:07:41 GMT

Yes all done. He wrote back at the time but nothing has moved forward.

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 08:09:17 GMT

@iharding1981 wrote:
Yes all done. He wrote back at the time but nothing has moved forward.

I have flagged this to a moderator, for an update

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

DanielS — Sat, 21 Nov 2020 10:38:14 GMT

Hi @iharding1981,

I am sorry for the length of time that this is taking to get resolved. I can see that @NeilO had picked this up. As it's a FTTP order, it was left for the FTTP team to contact you as they are the only ones who can help. They are due to get back to you within 1 working day. I've also let @NeilO that you were in touch.

Thanks

DanielS

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

iharding1981 — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 11:17:48 GMT

So, here we are again. I’d love to be reporting positive news but I can’t.

BT eventually texted my father (much better if you don’t have to speak to the customer) telling us everything will be hunky-dory come 3rd December 2020. The boys will be churning up earth and frantically laying the new ducting for this 21st century technology.

Now, call me cynical but when the status of installation has remained at “estimated” since early August, I don’t naturally become overwhelmed by hope.

For the love of God BT can you please put my father in touch with a human being that can carefully explain why you’ve kept him offline for over 4 months. Just let it all out. Don’t feel ashamed and don’t be overly apologetic (nobody likes to be patronised). Cold, hard facts is what we seek. And perhaps a genuine and realistic date for installation.

Utterly shambolic.

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

iharding1981 — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 08:37:37 GMT

We now have an 'estimated' date of 10th December 2020. Not only that, but it looks like my father will now receive his 3rd BT Smart Hub since he placed his original order on 19th July 2020. Shame he doesn't have any broadband to use them with. I guess he could flog the other two to cover some of his data usage charges.

Something peculiar is going on here behind the scenes and it appears that BT staff are cancelling existing orders and raising new ones (there would be no other reason for dispatching yet another Smart Hub).

The real timeline is fully documented and will be presented to the Ombudsman. We are now 126 DAYS ON FROM THE INITIAL INSTALLATION DATE!!!!!! What other business gets away with that level of performance?

Absolutely no communication from BT until they are chased down. A disgraceful way to treat another paying customer and I'm sure he is far from being the only one that suffers at the hands of big corporations like this.

I came to this forum on the advice that people here get things moving. I'm yet to be convinced. The silence from all parties speaks volumes for the contempt you hold for a lot of your customers.

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

busterboy1 — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 11:32:43 GMT

@iharding1981

I guess he could flog the other two to cover some of his data usage charges.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Maybe you were joking but those routers are the property of BT and will want them returning at some point.

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

iharding1981 — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 11:50:29 GMT

I would have hoped that given my general tone that most would have understood it to be a tongue-in-cheek remark.

Anyway - back on topic. Seeing as the mods on here have deemed this to be in the "too hard to deal with" box (based on the silence), I've taken to writing to some CEO's and the like to see if they actually understand what goes on in their corporation.

Probably won't go anywhere but it'll be fun nonetheless.

Oh, I thought I should mention. BT did actually call my dad this morning (a real-life person, no less) to tell him the wonderful news that the new installation date is now estimated as February 2021. Top-notch service lads. 6 months to get your house in order is totally reasonable.

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

pippincp — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 12:52:19 GMT

The mods here cannot deal with it, only the FTTP team can.

Did you ever contact Digital Scotland?

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

iharding1981 — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 13:15:07 GMT

PippinCP - I did write to them but all they said was our property was now able to receive super fast broadband. In what other way can they assist do you think?

The only fibre available where my father lives is via BT currently.

They have installed all the primary ducting and cabinets in the area. All they need to do now is connect us to the primary infrastructure (about 45m of ducting/cabling to the house).

All his neighbours were online months ago.

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

pippincp — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 13:23:11 GMT

You could try this form.

https://www.openreach.com/fibre-broadband-availability-customer

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

iharding1981 — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 13:48:26 GMT

Thanks...but the availability is not in question. BT super fast broadband is available already and is the only current provider. That will change in the future but will require upgrades to the exchanges.

That link you sent states "If your query is about an existing broadband service please contact your Communications Provider" so that puts me straight back to BT.

Re: Complaints process - over 100 days and counting

pippincp — Fri, 04 Dec 2020 14:15:20 GMT

Use the "Other" option, I presume you actually read the form.