This topic

OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:07:00 GMT

I've moved into a newly renovated apartment in central London on the 9th of January. Signed up with EE broadband as I already had my mobile with them.

I ordered broadband only on Jan/10 with EE. I was given an engineer visit date of Jan/24. On the date, I got this SMS.

Hi from EE. Your broadband order is progressing but it is taking longer than expected. However we're working on it, so there's no need to call us. We'll contact you again on 25/01/2023 with further updates. Thanks.

I called them on the 26th and asked what happened here because I haven't been contacted. They said OpenReach cancelled the order and this case is now closed. I was very confused. Asked why but the agent couldn't answer either. We ended up creating another order on the phone together.

3 days later, EE called again to say there's an exception with my order and they need my permission to restart it. I just said I approve and the agent hung up.

Right after this, I decided to sign up with Sky broadband. Maybe they could get an engineer here to install a line to a central London house.

I signed up for Sky, and then the next day, got the following SMS:

Unfortunately we are unable to complete your order. Please contact us at 03442 410046 to discuss further.

When I called, the agent had no idea that this order was having issues. I was put on hold for 20 minutes and then the agent told me my order was cancelled. The agent had to manually re-register the request. However this time, the agent said it will be £7 more expensive per month than what I originally signed up for. This sounded like a scam so I asked the agent to cancel everything altogether.

Then I signed up with BT on Feb/6. The website said they will just activate my service without requiring an engineer visit. They sent me the BT SmartHub in the mail and I was happy. On Feb/13, my order got cancelled. I received an email saying an OpenReach engineer will come and visit me on Feb/17. On Feb/14, that order got cancelled too. I was confused. I wasn't doing anything wrong.

I called BT, they apologised and put me on hold for another 10 minutes. The person on the phone transferred me to some other agent. The new agent told me he doesn't understand either and they will call me back in 48 hours. I wasn't satisfied with this answer so I called again. After explaining the issue, I got transferred to yet another agent. This agent recreated the order and manually registered an OpenReach engineer visit for Feb/23. I am pretty sure this is going to get cancelled too and it seems like BT, EE, Sky and OpenReach are all having a communication problem.

I've asked the agent to file a complaint for me but I don't think that is going to change anything. I believe there is something wrong with one of the backend services of OpenReach, causing this order to get cancelled without human intervention and that's why agents are so confused.

All of these orders were brodband only. I don't want a landline. Does anyone have any reason to think that's causing a problem?

How do I get internet in my flat? Did anyone have a similar experience?

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:12:18 GMT

@celikk

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail phone and broadband customers.

Use the address checker on the page below, and post the results, but edit out your address details first.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADS

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

imjolly — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:12:41 GMT

I think you have caused a lot of confusion placing orders with various ISPs all of which use openreach so if one ISP say cancelled by openreach the result will be same for all

is you address correct on royal mail database?

try entering your address and post results

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:47:45 GMT

According to this, my address supports all modern standards right? Maybe there is something wrong at the distribution box coming into my flat. What can we do with this information?

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 09:53:10 GMT

Hi, thanks for checking. RoyalMail address is correct. Also haven't had any problems where deliveries failed to find my address. It's a regular central London address.

I didn't place multiple orders at the same time. I initially placed an order with EE and that kept getting cancelled. Then went to Sky and then BT.

Even if there were multiple orders at the same time, you would think one of the broadband providers would get a response back from OpenReach saying there is a duplicate order right?

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

Keith_Beddoe — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 10:48:34 GMT

@celikk

I have asked a moderator to assist.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

JohnC2 — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 11:18:25 GMT

Hi @celikk, sorry you've had trouble with your orders to get connected.

When was your order placed with us and have you received any order confirmation?

Cheers

John

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 12:17:39 GMT

Please read the original post before replying:

Yes. I have received order confirmation emails.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

JohnC2 — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 12:23:36 GMT

Hi @celikk, sorry for any confusion. I was referring to when you called after this order was cancelled to get the new order placed.

I've sent you a Private Message so you can get in touch with the Mod team and we'll be happy to check how your order is progressing.

Cheers

John

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 12:50:23 GMT

I have contacted BT agents yesterday last. Feb/14. Thanks for clarifying your question.

I didn't contact them again because agents were not able to see the reason for cancellation. They were not able to help.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 15:25:39 GMT

In addition, I have received the following SMS from BT at 10.33AM Feb/15.

Hello Celik, BT here. Just a reminder, we'll call you today between 12pm and 2pm to discuss your complaint.

Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes

It's 3.23PM and I haven't received any communications. I'm going to keep documenting my experience here.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

licquorice — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 15:33:52 GMT

Have you contacted the mods as offered by @JohnC2 ?

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 15:51:02 GMT

Yes, I have responded with my account number. BT agents were able to retrieve my order history with that before.

As @JohnC2 mentioned in his private message, moderators respond within 3-5 days. I'll try calling BT again later to ask for updates on this while I wait for the moderator team's answer.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

Stan78 — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 16:20:48 GMT

My story is similar.
I ordered full fibre on 10/12/22. I have had a similar saga since. If I raise any issues, eg my availability dates to avoid openreach wasted journeys, the solution seems to be: cancel order, mark it complete and go back to the reorder process.
I have just had my latest order cancelled. It is without details - just a brief text without a name.
I am on my fourth order number, now all cancelled! I have been through the order process three times and had email confirmations each time. A notification says I asked for cancellation of the last order, which is wholly untrue.
Is the order process failing, is communication between BT and Openreach failing or are both short of staff for too many orders? The lack of explanation or feedback makes us wonder.
I have a promise of feedback from an agent on Monday, now eight weeks from initial order. I pray that at last my order will be honoured. Am I a fool to carry on? We will see!

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Wed, 15 Feb 2023 17:38:33 GMT

I've called BT again. The first agent could not find my complaint from my account number and said there's nothing he can do and hung up.

I've called for the 2nd time. The second agent was able to find my complaint and someone from the "Early Life" team was supposed to contact me. He transferred me to this team.

Eve from this team will give me a call back on Feb/25. 2 days after my again scheduled engineer appointment.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:24:42 GMT

I received an SMS today at 10:32AM.

Hello Celik, BT here. Just a reminder, we'll call you today between 12pm and 2pm to discuss your complaint.

Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes

The agent called me at 3.08PM to get in touch about my complaint. He confirmed there's an open order in my account. I had to explain the whole context to the agent again. They did not read the correspondence or did not have a correspondence to read from. They put me on hold for some time to figure out what happened after I explained everything again to the agent. No one knows why my order keeps being cancelled. He put me on hold for 15 mintues and I had to go back to work so I asked them to give me a call back later. I spoke with Krishta this time.

So, BT just called me to put me on hold. The agent was polite but he was just as surprised as to why this order is cancelled.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

licquorice — Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:27:32 GMT

Just wait for the mods to get back to you, you're wasting your time talking to anybody else.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Fri, 17 Feb 2023 14:17:36 GMT

I've randomly received 2 return kits from RoyalMail today. I only have 1 BT SmartHub router I received before my 1st auto-cancellation. I'm assuming these are the automatically generated and sent to my address after all the auto-cancellations I had.

When re-instantiating my order, the agent told me I won't have to return anything and they linked my existing router with the new order.

I called BT today to check what's going on. Agent said to ignore the return bags I've received as he could not see any registered equipment in any of my accounts. I've talked to John this time.

On another note, I bought a 5G router and a data only SIM. Getting 300+Mbps consistently. It's half the price I'm paying for the BT contract and a lot faster than 59Mbps. If you're having problems with BT and OpenReach, I would suggest you to give 5G a try.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

celikk — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 14:21:21 GMT

Following the previous post on this forum, BT kept sending me SMS messages almost daily to confirm my engineer appointment. I've had a bad experience until I started writing about my experience on this forum. I think the moderators and my numerous complaints and multiple calls to BT helped.

On the 23rd of February, BT sent me the OpenReach engineer's phone number via email and the engineer arrived within the timeslot.

After the appointment I had BT internet. It's all working now. After many many cancellations, chats with various agents, it's finally resolved.

During this time I've been using my 5G router and it's 6x faster, 60% cheaper and is not bound by a 24mo contract. The 5G router also supports Wi-Fi 6 and has better range compared to BT smart hub. BT and EE not being able to provide my flat internet for 1+ month has forced me to explore alternative options and now I'm thinking if I should keep 5G or BT.

If in the future, you have similar problems and come across this post, consider 5G.

Re: OpenReach (EE, BT, Sky) keeps cancelling my broadband order

aniriansha — Tue, 30 May 2023 15:07:52 GMT

Hi @celikk,
Please can you share the total turn-around time to resolve your BT/ Openreach issue?
And which 5G router did you use that worked well in the interim?
I am in a similar situation, and weighing my options.
Thank you.