Infinity installation - Openreach too lazy to do the job and lying!

[DeusXM]

Having an incredibly frustrating time with Openreach installing BT Infinity.

I had an appointment booked for a 1pm-6pm slot last Friday and so specifically took the day off work for this.

At 4pm, the engineer arrived. She then explained to me that it was the end of her shift (despite the fact that the slot is between 1pm and 6pm, so that should have given her another 2 hours) and so she wouldn't be able to carry out the work (despite the fact she was there at the doorstep) because there wasn't enough time.

She then made a call and told me she'd arranged for an engineer to come on Saturday morning between 8am-1pm. Fine, that works for me. Bit annoyed that I've lost a whole holiday day but them's the breaks.

Guess what happened?

That's right, no engineer shows up on Saturday. I call BT and they tell me an appointment has been booked for the afternoon of the 21st of March.

So I complain. I've already lost one holiday day waiting for a lazy engineer who can't be bothered to do a full day's work and I can't afford to take another one off. I demand a Saturday appointment - this is Openreach's screw-up, not mine, so they have to work around me, not the other way round.

But now Openreach are refusing to do a Saturday appointment.

I'm sorry but I've lost a holiday day (which is the equivilent of losing over £100 a day for me) and I've had an engineer lie to me. This means something needs to be done despite the fact the computer says 'no'. 

Has anyone else been treated like this by Openreach? At the moment it looks like I'm going to have to cancel my BT subscription because BT can't physically provide it.

[Keith_Beddoe]

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[RobbieMac]

Hi DeusXM,

Thanks for posting.

I'm sorry that the engineer couldn't complete the install on Friday and also that the engineer didn't arrive on Saturday morning.  We'll help sort this out.

To get in touch, click in to my profile and under the "about me" section you'll see the link to "contact the mods".  If you could also include the link to this thread when you complete the form that would be great.

Thanks a million,

Robbie

[Helios]

Openreach engineers have a variety of shift patterns all based on a 36 hour week. None include a scheduled finish time of 6pm.

Two most common are a 5 day week working between 8 am and 15:52. Then there is the 4 day week working between 8 and 17:20. Both have an unpaid 40 minute lunch.

It's more than likely the engineer you had works on a 15:52 finish. Engineers do also work on something called Flex, basically if she saw the job would have taken only 20 mins she could have stayed and done it then take that 20 or so mins back at a later date.

If your job was a long one, say you wanted a data extension that would take an hour or so to do maybe she didn't have time as had to get home for something more important than your internet, maybe something like child care?

[DeusXM]

Well, there's a few things here.

Firstly, the slots offered are 8am-1pm or 1pm-6pm. Either BT should offer slots based on engineer working hours, or Openreach should offer slots based on the hours their staff work. 

Secondly, most of use would be delighted to work just a 36 hour week. Most of us are probably on a minimum of 37.5. As someone who works a 5 day week between 9 and 6 (like everyone else in the real world), I don't really have much sympathy for someone who either clocks off at 4pm or can't even work a full week.

Thirdly, even if we ignore all of this, the point still stands that she told me she had rearranged for an engineer to visit on the Saturday. In other words, a bare-faced lie. If she didn't have time to do the job it was her responsibility to contact her office and they should have spoken to me to rearrange things. I can accept she might have been stitched up by the job allocation system but unless there's a bit of blowback here, things will never get better for either her or customers.

Fourthly, I have just spoken to Sky who have no issue in arranging a Saturday engineering appointment for next week, something BT have been incapable of doing because they claim Openreach don't work Saturdays. Clearly they do.

And the final point. Broadband installation is a SERVICE industry. I also work in the service industry. If I tell a client it's the end of my shift and I can't do the job because it'll take too long, I lose the client and possibly my job. That's how the world of work operates in the real world. It seems Openreach is completely unaccountable for its actions and because it holds a monopoly, there will be no change. 

My question is, what if I was a business that needed internet access by Monday? I would be losing thousands of pounds right now. 

[davidf2012]

couldnt agree more with the above post!

well said

[Helios]

Sky only do Self Install FTTC so they wouldn't need to offer you an appointment.

And if your unhappy about your working hours do something about it, as in take action. Not complain about it on Internet forums.

[DeusXM]

I'm not unhappy with my working hours, as I accept they're what everyone needs to do to get things done.

I just think defending Openreach on the basis that some of their staff have to work a whole 4 full days a week is a bit ridiculous. As the customer, it's not me that needs to change, is it?

What's self-install FTTC - if it's possible to self-install fibre, why can't I just be given the option to do that? I think a lot of customers would welcome that opportunity, and it would certaintly help relieve the pressure on the poor dears at Openreach who can't quite cope with working as late as 4pm. Perhaps some of them would then find that Openreach wouldn't need some of them to work any hours at all!

[DeusXM]

Ok, so I've read up on self-install FTTC.

So as I understand it, basically what I'm waiting for is an engineer to show up to screw one of these little things onto my phone socket -  a BT Openreach - vDSL Interstitial Faceplate

Here's my question, could I just buy one of these, screw it on myself and thus cut out needing someone who can't even manage a full day's work to waste my time?

[john46]

self install still needs an Openreach engineer to carry out the necessary cross connection work at the local cabinets als no VDSL plate is provided jusT filters like conventional ADSL also with a self install there are no speedtests carried out and if your internal wiring is not up to standard fibre speeds can be well below those expected and then you will end up with a chargeable visit to rectify those wiring errors an engineer install is the best option