This topic

FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 12:46:55 GMT

Hi,

Ordered FTTH Feb 21st.

BT Wifi account registered Feb 21st

SH2 despatched for delivery March 3rd. Arrived 10th - due RM backlog

Service activation date March 6th - nothing happened. Following day and every working day since the activation date has chjanged. Its currently the 13th March, but I expect it to change at midnight.

OR van showed up on 9th March, and said civil need to did the path from manhole cover to my property wall. Approx 1 metre.

There is already a VM cable from that duct to me wall into my property, so why can they not use the same path?

Today I received an SMS stating there is a delay of maybe some weeks due to one of various issues, which could be - getting the road closed, finding a mini digger, road closure to access manholes or consent to access private property.

As stated above the manhole cover with the duct in is approx 1m from my property. OR internal have confirmed there is zero reasons why the install cannot take place, (Their planning special team called me ) which is at odds with what BT are saying in their SMS.

So from reading other messages here, I see I am not yet as bad off as others, so as I cannot see anyway to contact BT for updates, I just have to wait on the next SMS.

I assume I will be compensated for the delayed installation, but that's not really what the point is.

Any suggestions?

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

pippincp — Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:27:53 GMT

Contact the FTTP team, 0800 587 4787 if put through to normal CS hang up and try again.

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 06:45:59 GMT

Thanks for the number. Is that OR or BT?

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

imjolly — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 07:57:27 GMT

BT openreach are not a public facing company

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:00:23 GMT

OK Thanks.

I had several tel conversations with OR prior to placing my order. They called me back a few times from their special engineering group to confirm there was a hub in my street and exactly where it was.

Ill call the BT number and see if I get any joy

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

-Richie- — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:10:54 GMT

@skhm28wrote:
I assume I will be compensated for the delayed installation, but that's not really what the point is.

That will depend if BT confirmed your service would be activated on a set day, if you've not been given a date for activation because the delay was anticipated, then no compensation is given as BT haven't missed an agreed go live date.

More info at BT.com - Automatic Compensation

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:56:51 GMT

Hi -

So I called BT, and a nice chap spoke to me at length, then he called OR and established that a form A55 had been submitted only yesterday to get permission to dig the 1 metre required between the BT Manhole and my property. Apparently they cant use the same identical path used by VM to reach my property, but never mind. I'm advised to check back on the 21st to see if that has been approved.

So at least some movement.

Meanwhile - I was told via MyBT app that install would be done on March 6th, and I received an SMS on Sun 5th saying

Your Full Fibre services will be up and running tomorrow (06-Mar-2023) but it could start any time up till 23:59.

Does that count ?

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

OLD_MAN — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 08:19:55 GMT

Hi,

I have no idea what problems there are with Fibre Installs but, I was invited by BT via SMS and email to sign-up for 'Full, Fast & Furious' Fibre service on 10th November 2022. I contacted sales and agreed that service and contract changes on that same day.

I cannot comment on the number of provisional dates I had been given, the number of days I stayed at home because the BT app was saying 'Engineer due today' but, I did ring BT every week at least once and even twice to progress the install.

Eventually with so much frustration on both sides, myself and BT, the install was completed after FIFTEEN weeks to the day. Had I let it run to the last confirmed date I was given it would have been TWENTY THREE weeks.

My advice? Don't get your hopes up too high and be prepared to ring & ring until someone takes notice and actually gets Openreach into action. Am I satisfied now? well I have 925Mbps down and 111Mbps up but my next battle is .... Compensation for the delay. Will I get anything? BT and OR cover their tracks well so make a copy of everything!

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Thu, 16 Mar 2023 22:54:05 GMT

Thanks.

im still getting daily updates in the app to say will be installed on the day.

today its the 16th, tomorrow will say 17th and so on.

i,m taking a photo each day - Do you expect 15 x 5 days compo?

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 09:31:36 GMT

Updater.

Activity.

Civil works showed up at 830am and proceeded to dig the required trench to link my property wall to the BT Manhole - same path as VM but a separate UG Pipe installed.

So looks like the A55 was approved, and we are a step closer to the install. Nice chaps said they will do all the path works and "the engineers" will come to install the cable (Fibre).

fingers crossed could be live by next week bearing in mind its Friday.

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

iniltous — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 10:17:10 GMT

Before you can order FTTP , all the addresses in your ‘area’ are given a brief ‘survey’ , this indicates the installation process and any potential issues , check your address here ,

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

It should be similar to this ,

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed with no anticipated issues….it also should state KCI2 or single stage .

if it says congested duct , or similar then the delay was inevitable, OR were even indicating that fact , if it’s ‘no anticipated issues’ , then the lack of duct to the property was never picked up at survey, and the ISP gave a good faith date but were ‘failed’ by OR, if issues were anticipated then you should have been given a longer lead time so OR could do a two stage install , not a single stage one.

Failed appointments etc. are the responsibility of the provider, so BT in your case , once service is in , your compensation should be something like the number of days after the appointment minus 2 ( the first two days don’t count ) plus a missed appointment fee , added as a bill credit.

BT may be compensated by OR if the failure was OR fault , the fact that your date kept being moved may affect what you get , TBH , it’s supposedly automatic, so until you get a ££ figure , you won’t know for sure if it’s in line with expectations, or better or worse.

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

OLD_MAN — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 10:15:16 GMT

Good that the 'Civils' have turned up and the FTTP installation wheels have started turning. I was very impressed with their work with grass seed and top dressing on the lawn and new topsoil on the flower border. All swept up afterwards and to be honest, It was hard to see where they had been.

However we then had a long wait for the fibre pull thru and the boxes to be fitted to the external and Internal wall.

At he end of the day, no doubt you will be well pleased with the new 'fast and furious' (as BT likes to call it) fibre service.
I think that their reference is to the Broadband speed and not the installation process!

............ Granddad

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Fri, 17 Mar 2023 13:33:22 GMT

I checked the link, and no issues documented, however having said that, the original OR guys that showed up, checked the manholes, and painted the path where to dig. I don't know if they actually lifted the MH covers and peeked in to check for a clear run.

OR special support verbally told me all was good and no reason why can not be installed - "ask BT to call us if any issue"

Obviously they didn't know about the need to add a pipe from the MH to my wall.

The fibre run from that wall to my house external wall is above ground - so no issues when they do come to pull that.

I don't care about getting compensation, I just want the service which I have been waiting 10 plus years to be able to order having suffered with 64k/isdn/adsl 4mb max until I finally went to VM. But that service was great initially and now suffers from outages pretty much weekly.

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Mon, 20 Mar 2023 21:13:08 GMT

updater.

despite the pipe being dug into the pathway, and receiving SMS from BT to say the install will be completed on March 6th - which it wasnt - today I received an update to my order to say the installation will take place on MAY 26th !!!!!

Disappointed is an understatement - is there anyway to challenge that? 67 days seems a very long time, and definately not the result I was hoping for,

😞

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 13:42:42 GMT

Last but one msg I hope.

Called BT support on 0800 587 4787 and after some discussions and explanations regarding the civils being completed, my appointment is changed to `APRIL 3rd.

So 67 days becomes 13 days............ Lets see if it actually happens.

🙂

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

He-Man — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 13:56:37 GMT

Fingers crossed all goes well on the 3rd!

I know you previously said you weren't too bothered about the compensation side of things, but just as an FYI, their process is detailed here: https://www.bt.com/help/account-and-billing/automatic-compensation

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

OLD_MAN — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 19:49:40 GMT

My install was eventually completed 64 days after the initial 'promised' date which was 41 days after the order was placed. That was a total of 105 days and more important, much shorter time than the second promised date given by BT. I phoned BT so many items to progress the order but it seemed to be an OpenReach problem and I/we/you cannot contact them directly.

I did try the compensation route, quick call, pleasant chat and all sorted within minutes. I was previously advised that you have to wait 30 days after completion of the install and that I did and was more than pleasantly surprised with the amount awarded. Be patient, at the end of the day, superbly satisfied and a very good stable connection at 925Mbps down and 110MBps up . My wallet is very happy too!

.... Granddad

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Mon, 03 Apr 2023 11:54:47 GMT

So,

April 3rd arrived. Nice OR engineer arrived and after a bit of discussion "I usually drill a hole in the wall next to the external box" and "not sure I can run the fibre upstairs" he agreed to use the cable path I had prepared. This avoided drilling any holes in the face of my property, and brought the fibre into the first floor room, under the floor I wanted. From there it was routed along a joist and popped out next to the position the NTU was to be located. `All good and took no more than an hour.

Very happy with that part.

Next problem - the outside work was not yet done, so no FTTP yet. The civils were done a week or so ago, and I expected the outside work to be done today, so did the engineer, but alas no.

I'm now waiting to find out when that will happen and hope not too long as I want to cancel VM service. This is Docsis 3 so not a fibre switch.

At the moment, I will have to pay both for at least a month once the BT fibre (OR) is pulled in.

Am I now in the compensation mode assuming it isnt installed later today?

🙂

Re: FTTP installation delay woes

skhm28 — Thu, 13 Apr 2023 11:32:26 GMT

Here we are on April 13th - thankfully that's Thursday not Friday.

Yesterday having not heard from BT I sent a HELP message to their usual SMS about "were coming tomorrow - send confirm or change" .

Nice chap called me today to advise that there was a "fault". After quite a bit of discussion it transpires that the engineer that did the 3/4/23 internals had reported the "fault" which was the fact the external cable was not installed. I now have to wait for 10 working days from today - not from the 3rd when the issue was reported, for OR to come and survey yet again. This will be the third visit to survey, in addition to the civils to install ducting and the internals engineer.

In addition, I asked about my phone line, was due to be cancelled on March 6th but obviously not as BT called me on it (my order shows it was terminated on the web site on 6/3). I wanted to confirm again that the number will be ported to the digital line when the fibre was installed eventually, and I was told they don't have a request for that. I did confirm I had requested and had confirmed the number would be ported at the time, but that seems to have gone amiss along the way. Anyway, seems I now have to order that once the FF is actually working. I did ask for a note on file to ensure I retained the number.

It was confirmed my order was placed Feb 21st with original install date March 6th and compensation would be from that date. So now I have to wait another 10 days to see if they do the latest survey, and then give me an actual install date.

Meanwhile I continue to suffer with VM outages.

Re: FTTP installation delay woes - UPDATE with question

skhm28 — Thu, 20 Apr 2023 18:24:53 GMT

Today I received a email from BT to say that my FF will be installed on 26th April - hurrah -

Only the email stated I need to be in so the engineer can do the installation.

On the 6th April the internal works were done. Fibre ran inside, wall box connected and ethernet to the modem hooked up.

What was missing was the external part of the installation.

So, I called BT again, spoke to a very nice lady and explained the situation. She called "the engineers" and explained to them that the inside work was completed. They said the Survey that was required (per last post) wasn't actually required, and it will be completed on the 26th.

I again stated that the external works were the part not completed - Fibre to the CBT. All civils are completed, and asked for a note to be placed on file to that effect.

Thinking that was it, I hung up and started the wait until the 26th.

Only to receive an SMS from BT 2 hours later to say the install will be on the 26th, and I need to be at home.? Why is that?

So my question is - if anyone can intervene - if the internal work is done and all hooked up, why do they need to come inside again? Or do they?

Is the router preset or has to be configured? DO the guys that pull the FTTH do that or is it another guy for inside?

I wont be available on the day, but I don't want to cancel the install since I've waited long enough.

Can any BT folks on here confirm if I need to be at home considering everything inside is done. The engineer that did the inside said they don't need to come in now. Which is it?

Any help figuring this out would be appreciated.

🤔