This topic

Terrible Service

UnhappyNeighbour — Fri, 24 May 2024 09:16:55 GMT

Had a fibre installation earlier this week, swapping from our prior BT Internet service. Openreach managed to cut through our tv aerial cable and our eldery neighbours. Despite the engineer supposedly reporting and me spending an hour and a half on the live chat and an hour on the phone our neighbours tv aerial has still not been repaired. Was today told to contact Openreach who said they needed to contact their provider and claim compensation. They shouldn't need to do this. I've done everything to try and get them back up and running and we're no further on. I have registered a complaint but what else can I do??

Re: Terrible Service

iniltous — Fri, 24 May 2024 09:33:52 GMT

BT didn’t visit , BT didn’t damage anything , your neighbour needs to contact Openreach

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/damage-health-and-safety

For any damage to your property caused by Openreach

Click on the chat icon on the bottom right corner of the screen
Choose “Damage, Health & Safety” from the menu
Choose the “Damage to my property” option from the menu
If you want to claim for damage we have caused to your property while we've been working, we're very sorry. If the damage was caused by one of our vehicles, please email BTMotorClaims@dwf.law, for anything else, please email BTPLClaims@dwf.law. Please include your full name, address, telephone number, email address and the date & details of the damage. We’ll respond to you within 2 working days
If you believe the standard of the engineering visit is not up to your expectations, please choose the “Put something right” option
You will then be asked to fill in your (name, telephone, email)
Then you will be passed to a live agent to whom you can make the complaint

Re: Terrible Service

UnhappyNeighbour — Fri, 24 May 2024 11:00:26 GMT

Unfortunately BT didn't tell me this until this morning despite speaking to various people over the past two days and speaking to a Manager. We contacted Openreach this morning (had to help the neighbour do this) and they said it's not them, they need to contact Virgin then the chat failed. All we want to do is speak to a person who can help them and that feels impossible at the moment.

Re: Terrible Service

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 24 May 2024 11:05:50 GMT

What has Virgin got to do with it, if you are a BT Broadband customer?

Re: Terrible Service

iniltous — Fri, 24 May 2024 11:26:40 GMT

Accidents happen, the remedy has nothing to do with BT Consumer as such , the method to be recompensed is detailed on the OR website…for whatever reason you seem to think BT did the damage or are responsible , but even if Openreach were there at BT’s request ( and TBH its not clear if BT were even partially involved, as your post seems to suggest BT are not your current provider but the provider you had previously ) your post suggests you now use someone else, not BT , and it was whoever that new ISP is , that ‘sent’ Openreach along , perhaps you can clarify if you ( still ) are a BT customer or not , although it’s not really relevant as far as getting repairs done , but if even indirectly this has any BT involvement.

It’s also unclear how OR working on your property installing a service ( on behalf of BT or some other ISP ) could damage aerial cables on both your property and a neighbours property .

As stated , if the person with the damaged aerial cable isn’t a customer of a Openreach ISP is irrelevant OR are insured against these things , so just because your neighbour is a Virgin customer, changes nothing , but you seem to think that BT Consumer need to get involved, but they don’t .

If BT are giving nonsensical advice ( like your neighbour to contact Virgin ) perhaps it’s partly because they don’t understand why you are calling BT about damage apparently caused by Openreach to a Virgin customer, I suspect they have incorrectly assumed it’s VM service that’s been damaged not an aerial cable and obviously only VM can repair VM cables.

Re: Terrible Service

UnhappyNeighbour — Fri, 24 May 2024 12:00:03 GMT

We are (and were) BT customers but our neighbours are Virgin customers. Somehow are aerial cables are joined and then spur off (not sure how or why) but were cut. After speaking to BT as our tv also wasn't working, they sent somebody to fx our aerial but the contractor who came wasn't authorised to do the neighbours. The Openreach engineer left a telephone number for us to call but it was no longer a valid number hence having to try and find out who to contact for the neighbour

Re: Terrible Service

UnhappyNeighbour — Fri, 24 May 2024 12:11:52 GMT

We were and are BT customers. The telephone number left by the engineer was invalid and as our tv also wasn't working I contacted BT. They sent us an engineer to fix our aerial the following day but nothing so far for the neighbour. I am trying to help them but struggling to speak to someone.

Re: Terrible Service

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 24 May 2024 12:12:11 GMT

Then your neighbour needs to contact Virgin and report a fault.

If Virgin then want to make a damage claim against Openreach, then it up to them.

Re: Terrible Service

iniltous — Fri, 24 May 2024 12:55:22 GMT

This gets even more convoluted but ultimately changes nothing ….its difficult to see how an aerial can serve two addresses without it being an issue, if this aerial had simply failed , who is responsible you or your neighbour, or both ? , what if one party didn’t care but the other party did , pay 50% for something you don’t use ? ……presumably if it’s an aerial cable from an external aerial and the cable from it runs to both you and your neighbour ( and although they use VM , they don’t use Virgin to supply their TV ) the next question is , unless the OR tech damaged the aerial cable in two separate places , one place ( now repaired ) has restored your TV but the other place affects only your neighbours TV , but was damaged within the boundary of your property ( I’m fairly sure the OR tech never went on your neighbours ‘property’ so the damage cannot be within the confines of their property) and the repairer that was sent out only ‘fixed’ one cut cable even though another fault was visible within the confines of your property….how did the repairer know which ‘fault ‘ to repair, if there were two cut cables ? , and if there was only one cut cable , why didn’t both TV services get restored when that single cut cable was repaired ?

TBH , this all sounds extremely odd , but as said , if ‘convinced’ that your neighbours TV service has stopped working due to the actions of Openreach, and the TV service is from the same aerial as your TV service , and not VM’s cable , and this has been damaged by OR ( in some incomprehensible way ) by OR working on your property , then they fill in the form on the OR website .

Presumably OR will either supply an aerial contractors to your neighbour address to repair their service ( or first confirm the damage , and then if appropriate do a repair ) or OR will ask the complainant to get the work done and submit the invoice, or come to some other arrangement.

TBH ,in the words of the Mod Father , the more I known the less I understand , this really makes little sense, are these standard properties or some sort of communal address in which case the aerial would be the building owner’s property.

TBH , much as you may want to help , it’s your neighbour that needs to sort this out with Openreach, and if they consent for you to act on their behalf, you will need to use the appropriate method to contact OR , and not try to include BT in something that isn’t BT’s problem.

Re: Terrible Service

Anonymous — Fri, 24 May 2024 12:40:06 GMT

Assuming that it is the neighbour's aerial cable that has been damaged & not the coax providing their internet, this issue has nothing whatsoever to do with Virgin.

@UnhappyNeighbour

Has your neighbour just lost TV from the aerial or have they lost broadband? If the former, you need to go back to Openreach & re-report this without mentioning Virgin.

It might be quicker in the short-term to get an aerial installer out to fix the issue & then claim from Openreach.

Re: Terrible Service

UnhappyNeighbour — Fri, 24 May 2024 13:58:54 GMT

Thankyou. It was just their aerial so I think that's what we're going to have to do. I just feel bad as they are elderly and not really able to sort this themselves, especially as it was caused by something being done at our property. I don't think they mentioned Virgin in the chat to Openreach, they just said it wasn't within their contract. We'll get there in the end I guess.

Re: Terrible Service

UnhappyNeighbour — Fri, 24 May 2024 14:08:35 GMT

I can't say I understand it either. The engineer was working outside our property when our neighbour came out and said their TV reception had stopped working. When ours was checked, we also couldn't get a tv reception. The OR went into their property and confirmed that he had caused the issue (and ours too). He put in a call to report the issue but nobody has contacted them and the number the OR Engineer left has a recorded message to say it was no longer in service.

It's a standard although older semi so nothing unusual about the property. All the cables have been in place since well before we moved here so not sure how this was all set up or why it was done this way.

It's now been reported to Virgin so hopefully it will be repaired soon.