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Engineer confusion

Arcvox — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 14:03:34 GMT

Hi all, We have recently moved into a new flat and aren't covered by Virgin so BT it is. We opted for the BT Fibre 2 package and received our hub on 26th October with 27th October as the activation date, all fine. Got the text on 27th October to say good to go, we had already plugged the hub in correctly, lights were flashing but ended up as a still orange. After numerous phone calls to BT getting a different answer each time, we tracked our fault which showed an engineer appointment booked for yesterday (3rd November). No engineer showed or called. We received a phone call from a random who said the appointment is booked for Wednesday 5th November so of course we said that's not right. Phoned BT again who first said that's not right, but then later said it will be on Wednesday. Some of them have said it's a BT engineer and some have said it's an Openreach engineer, still not a clue what the difference is and why we would need one and not the other. So I supposed my questions are: 1) The previous tenants had Sky and an upstairs flat has BT at the moment so why is this so complex? 2) Is it likely to be a BT engineer or an Openreach engineer and what's the difference? 3) Why would we have one appointment showing for Monday to then be told on the day it's actually Wednesday? (We checked and apparently no engineer came on Monday) 4) Surely they can't charge us at all for this? (We haven't had ANY connection at all since we moved in, the router has just been orange since activation) Thanks in advance everyone.

Re: Engineer confusion

imjolly — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 14:10:11 GMT

you have the dates all wrong - today is 3/11 not yesterday and wednesday is 4th not 5th nov

there are no BT engineers just openreach

does your phone work?

Re: Engineer confusion

Arcvox — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 14:16:53 GMT

Yes sorry, the appointment was yesterday (02/11) and is now apparently booked for tomorrow (04/11).

We have a single basic socket with a microfilter plugged in, the ADSL cable is plugged into the filter and the other end plugged into the hub. We don't have a homephone and aren't planning on getting one. We only got the contract with a homephone as it works out cheaper.

Re: Engineer confusion

Starwire — Tue, 03 Nov 2020 17:53:31 GMT

When they say, BT Engineer they are probably referring to BT’s Home Tech Team. They basically just do things like help setup wifi, BTTV, etc. They don’t work out on the Access Network, as in up Poles, in PCP’s, etc.

There are also BT Engineers who work for BT Technology, they’re the ones who maintain the Core Network, Exchanges, Radio Towers, Data Centres, etc but you’d never have one visit your house.

Openreach Engineers are the ones who maintain the Access Network, from the MDF to the NTE or in the case of FTTP from the Head End to the ONT.

Given the issues you are having I'd say you need an Openreach Engineer.