This topic

Supplier change hell

c0deape — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 08:48:16 GMT

Due to move from BT FTTP to PlusNet FTTP on the 20th Sept, order placed on the 16th Aug. Same company, so should be straight forward, right?

20th AUGUST, my line stopped working...

Had a bunch of engineer appointments booked, and have been on with BT support more times that I care to mention, and yesterday was the first time one came to the house (an OpenReach engineer). He got through to someone who said the line is set to MIGRATING (shock... that's what I said to BT tech support several times and was told that wasn't the case) which is why it's not working.

Additionally, I've been on with BT support pretty much daily since the 20th Aug, each time, they switch on the 4G mini hub, then get an engineer to look at something, they say "looks fine from our side", and the 4g hub shuts down... Support keep telling me there is a note on the account to keep the 4g alive until I confirm it's working, but that never happens. I also keep getting told it'll be fixed "today". I've gone through diagnostics with just about every call centre BT has - yes its solid orange, no restarting it doesn't help, yes the normal lights are on the OpenReach box.

I usually use my own router but when that stopped working I put the BT SmartHub 2 back in place for diagnostic purposes, so that's not the reason (as neither work).

It's clear that my account was set to migrate 1 month too early somewhere, but no one at BT knows what to do, and PlusNet are powerless as the line isn't theirs yet.

As much as I'm looking forward to funding my retirement via the automatic compensation scheme, I'd rather have my broadband working...

This is mostly a rant, but if anyone has any suggestions I'd be very grateful! I suggest someone at BT (wholesale?) needs to close my FTTP account and reopen it

Re: Supplier change hell

naylor2006 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:07:34 GMT

Ultimately sounds like complaint territory to me, at least then you'll hopefully get a decent agent who will oversea the case for you and be a single point of contact.

Dreadful situation to be in, we are mostly all customers on these forums, or ex customers so insights are limited onto the accounts side of things, you may have a mod turn up and assist though.

Assuming you have an ONT, what are the lights doing on that and what is the light on the SH2 doing?

With your own router have you looked at the logs on it?

Its not that I think there isnt an issue but some further insight might be helpful.

Re: Supplier change hell

iniltous — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:18:55 GMT

Who arranged the change to PN ? , with a normal migration between ISP’s on Openreach , you don’t contact the losing provider ( BT ) only the gaining provider PN , and they control the migration, they set the date for both parts of the migration , the losing provider BT is in effect passive apart from sending the ‘sorry to see you leave’ notification…so did you only contact PN and leave everything to them ? did you receive the ‘sorry to see you leave’ notification ? .

If you followed this and it’s gone wrong , then it’s difficult to see how ‘BT’ are at fault , however , although just a guess , Ofcom have mandated a new switching process called OTS ( one touch switching ) which somewhat nonsensically includes customers moving ISP but staying on Openreach where the GPL system ( gaining provider led ) process is well established , as well as customers moving from ( for example ) a City Fibre ISP customer moving to Netomnia ISP ( admittedly that’s a unlikely scenario ) .

This OTS is apparently useless ( it’s not a BT system btw but an independent Ofcom instigated one ) and ISP’s are required by Ofcom to test its effectiveness with ‘live’ customers, so you may be a unknowing test subject …obviously it may not be OTS with your situation, but it may be worth asking PN about that .

As far as compensation from BT , it really depends if BT were told September or were told August to remove your service by PN , BT may have done exactly what they were told by PN , even if that differs from what PN told you .

Re: Supplier change hell

c0deape — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:16:40 GMT

Thanks for the reply.

Yea only contacted PN, all dates on emails (from PN and BT) state 20th Sep. Contacted PN after BT, who said line still shows as owned by BT so they can't do anything yet to activate it as its not "theirs" yet.

Re: Supplier change hell

c0deape — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 09:32:25 GMT

Thanks, appreciate were customers here, mostly a rant really 🙂

Hardware wise, all is well, my own router logs don't give away too much, "network unreachable". Expected to see something around handshakes, credentials at least but guess not. My own is a TP Deco.

Re: Supplier change hell

c0deape — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 10:29:54 GMT

Got through to openreach helpdesk who thought I was an engineer (didn't correct them), I feel complete sympathy for the openreach engineers out in the field as a result, they must be saints!

Stuck in a loop of:

"the service will start on the 20th",

Yes but the old service should still work

"that is correct"

but it's not

"the service will be provisioned on the customers requested date"

But the current service isnt working

"one moment"

...

"you'll need to speak to your manager / team lead for further instruction"

Re: Supplier change hell

naylor2006 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:22:42 GMT

@c0deape said:
Thanks, appreciate were customers here, mostly a rant really
Hardware wise, all is well, my own router logs don't give away too much, "network unreachable". Expected to see something around handshakes, credentials at least but guess not. My own is a TP Deco.

Nah I meant what are the lights on the ONT doing?

Re: Supplier change hell

c0deape — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:26:06 GMT

Power on

Los off

Pon on

Lan on

Openreach guy did a signal test yesterday too and said it was very good, 17db rings a bell when he was on the phone to the helpdesk

Re: Supplier change hell

naylor2006 — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:27:54 GMT

Yeah, well that looks fine, I was just interested to see if you had any errors there also which might reflect a more physical issue that has occurred.

Re: Supplier change hell

c0deape — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:29:54 GMT

Yea, physically, everything looks good. Hardware, tried 2 routers that worked previously (with different ethernet cables) and neither work so confident its not that. Did full factor reset on smart hub 2 as well.

Mixed messages from various helpdesks, fairly sure they're now just stuck and running down the clock until 20th sept 😞

Re: Supplier change hell

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:37:39 GMT

@c0deape

As you are moving to Plusnet, you need to post on their forum, one of the moderators there should be able to look at your order.

https://community.plus.net/t5/Forum/ct-p/Forum

Plusnet are just a BT Group company, nothing to do with BT Residential.

Re: Supplier change hell

c0deape — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 11:39:13 GMT

Yea, posted on there too, plusnet support said they were stuck as line is still down as belonging to BT. Stuck in limbo I think

Re: Supplier change hell

c0deape — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 21:11:09 GMT

After another openreach visit I finally got someone useful at BT side! They got in contact with BT wholesale and could see what they (BT) had done wrong with the migration.

Had 3 options:

-Leave it to die out on the 20th Sept

-Close the migration, reopen the line

-Close the migration, ask PlusNet to take over the line tomorrow

Going with option 3. Expect it'll still be a problem getting them to set things up earlier, but at least something is now moving after daily calls and being told everything looks fine...