Since ordering fiber as an upgrade from a sky DSL copper line broadband package there has been a litany of delays, excuses and inconveniences and at this point i'm unsure as to whether customer service standards are always this low or whether i'm a part of a scientific study to show the effects of consistently poor service on the human brain, and i'd be very interested to know if service is typically this bad.
We initially ordered fiber on the 6th of July, with an installation date of the 24th. Roll on the 24th and an engineer arrived and fitted our kit, he took off for another job but said he would be in touch to check if the connection is working, fine i thought. It turns out it wouldn't activate so we were left without internet as our previous provider (Sky) had disconnected us that morning. We did not find out until weeks later that whilst our fiber line to the house had been fitted the talented individual in charge of that had managed to cut our copper landline, leaving us entirely without internet or telephone, giving no access to our slow to be implemented temporary copper broadband.
For the next three weeks we were left without any form of internet beyond using our mobile phones as hotspots, which when both working from home using remote systems is not ideal, and rendering connected devices such as our fire stick, alexa's etc virtually useless. Despite promises of £40 then £30 then £20 of credit by a variety of customer service staff it was hardly a viable solution and incredibly frustrating given the lack of speed at which our issues have been addressed.
When the fault with the phone line was finally discovered and fixed we have now been left with ADSL which provides speeds so slow remote desktop software loads in as though we're on a dial up modem in 1998. In no way is 6mb (on a good day) down and 0.39 up usable for anything other than pottering around on the web. A far cry from the speeds we have signed up for.
Throughout this we have endured at least 8, if not more,different engineers in the house during a pandemic. Sometimes turning up unannounced providing no warning. All telling us a variety of different things. The internal and external works have been completed at our property twice (as due to the fantastic quality of openreach's work it had to be re-done) and numerous times we have been told that this issue is that too many households have been assigned to the same switch in the cabinet and that we need moving to a different one by the planning team, which would not appear to be something which would take such a hilariously long time although i must be mistaken given the lengthy delay.
Throughout this we have been in touch with the contact center many times, at times we have received stellar service, particularly a lovely lady on the copper line team who moved things along a great deal and at least got us some sort of connection. The same cannot be said for the fiber team or the open reach engineers who repeatedly contradict one another and have to constantly apologies for the lack of callbacks, updates or general correspondence. Given the number of problems we've had i find it shocking that there is so little apparent progress and no clear effort to get us up and running.
once again we have been told this Friday is the day that our fiber will be working, however i hold out no hope that there will be any change. Particularly as this will supposedly be yet another engineer visit which i assume will consist of the same checks done by numerous past engineers and no resolution to this frustrating, boring and irritating saga.
Is anyone able to take a look or provide any further feedback? as we don't seem to be getting anywhere and it isn't apparent how to escalate this (or if that is even possible?)
Also, i would be curious to know from other paying customers if this is the same hilariously poor standard of service they have also received. Short of getting on my hands and knees and begging Sir Richard Branston to bring virgin fiber to my area i don't know what else i can possibly do to stop the constant, never ending disruption to both mine and my girlfriends professional and personal lives.
Welcome to the Community and thanks for your post!
I am sorry to see all the problems you have had with your Fibre upgrade. Rest assured, you are in no way part of a scientific study and I am extremely disappointed that the service you have received up to this point has made you feel that way.
I agree that using a hotspot is far from ideal and I am sorry that you have had to speak with so many of my colleagues for things to remain unresolved.
Due to everything you have went through we will be happy to pick this up and give you a hand from here. I have sent you a private message with instructions on how you can send us over your details and we'll look into this for you. See: Private messages
Cheers,
Robbie
Lights on port 1, pon and power, with pon flashing, although this is immediately after plugging it back into the hub as we were told to unplug it as a potential solution to unusably slow copper line, had all green lights since our last engineer visit
