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Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Pasthebuck — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 16:52:21 GMT

Hi I hope someone can help me.

The lid on the plastic box housing all the important wires for phone & broadband outside my house is brittle & has broken. I’m sure there’s a technical name.

It’s 12 years old, the wires are exposed & I’m worried about the weather damaging them. I’m a sole trader so rely on my phone/ internet.

I didn’t know who to contact at BT so I chatted to a helpful chat bot & an Openreach man arrived saying it’s a Virgin box get in touch with them!!!

I’ve never had anything to do with Virgin, why would they come out?

I’ve been loyal to BT for 12 years I don’t want to change for the sake of a plastic box. It’s ridiculous.

So BT HELP PLSE I’m sure you’ve come across this before or is there anyone on the forum that can point me in the right direction please.

Thanks

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 16:54:37 GMT

Are you a business user?

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Pasthebuck — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 16:56:39 GMT

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 16:59:30 GMT

You said you were a sole trader, so that would be a BT Business account, as business usage on a residential account is not permitted.

Either way, its Openreach that need to deal.

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

Identifying Openreach equipment

First, take a look at our identifying our equipment guide and check that it's ours.

If it is, please contact our damage team by calling us on 0800 023 2023 (choose option 1 and then choose option 1 again).

Once you’re sure the equipment belongs to us, it would really help us if you use the What3Words App to tell us exactly where the damaged equipment is so that our engineers can locate and make it safe as quickly as possible. You can download the app from the app store on your mobile device, they're a third party and you can access their privacy statement to understand how they use your data."

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Pasthebuck — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 17:10:19 GMT

I’ve probably not explained myself properly. I’m not a Business user & probably wouldn’t describe myself as a sole trader. But that’s neither here nor there.
I got a bit confused & fed up with the Openreach engineer so went back to chat bot again explained what happened & the same Engineer turned up again telling me in no uncertain terms not to use the chat!!

So I’ve got nowhere!! Are you suggesting I go back to them again? You can understand I’m a bit reluctant but then nothing will get done…

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 17:32:37 GMT

Can you post a picture of the box, and does it match any shown on the PDF document on that Openreach web page?

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Pasthebuck — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 19:14:29 GMT

Sadly the box doesn’t match any of the faults in the PDF document .

Good idea , I’ll post a photo of the rogue box on forum tomorrow & see if that will shed any more light.

In the meantime thanks for your suggestions.

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

Keith_Beddoe — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 19:42:27 GMT

It does sound more like a cable TV junction box. Inside there would be rows of co-axial connectors, and strips of cable blocks probably underneath. Its usually quite big.

If its just a small white box, then its just for a single customer, even though you do not use Cable TV. (VM).

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

iniltous — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 19:59:26 GMT

unless you know for certain that in the last 30 to 40 years no one at your address has used Virgin, why are you so certain that the Openreach tech is wrong , just because you are not a Virgin customer doesn’t mean that the address has never had VM ( or one of the cable providers that eventually became VM , like NTL , Comcast etc )

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

chrisjp — Sat, 07 Dec 2024 22:39:30 GMT

But when the OP set up his account with BT would they not have supplied and fitted an Openreach outside box rather than re-using one that had been fitted by Virgin?
Of course, an outside Openreach box is only necessary for fibre to the premises, and the OP hasn't said what type of BT broadband he has (FTTP or FTTC).
If it's FTTC the copper cable will just go straight into the house and be terminated with a standard Openreach master socket

Re: Broken plastic box outside house containing all wires

iniltous — Sun, 08 Dec 2024 09:08:54 GMT

The OP , although stating they have been a BT customer for 12 years made no mention of the ‘box’ in question being provided when they became a BT customer, an as they have already had two Openreach visits ( albeit by the same person ) who stated this ‘box’ has nothing to do with Openreach ( and therefore their BT service ) and the OP has compared it to a site showing common Openreach enclosures and there was no match , it seems a little odd that the OP is convinced the ‘box’ is part of their BT service ……it seems they will post an image if this ‘box’ , until then the evidence available suggests they are barking up the wrong tree, Openreach don’t use any Virgin equipment, Virgin shouldn’t use any BT/Openreach equipment at a customer property, but VM do use PIA ( physical infrastructure access ) but they didn’t 12 years ago .