Well, the installation didn't go as expected. When my Husband spoke to the fibre team they said an initial inspection would be needed. This was also stated when I placed the order. This never happened and the engineer arrived without any advance information on what was involved and that a cherry picker was needed - he had to go away and arrange this, causing a delay.
We went out late afternoon the day before and as a backup plan bought a 600mm bit from Screwfix. A good job, because all the engineer had was a bit that was too short, and a 1M one - too long to be able to get inside the window recess so had to use the one we'd bought.
The installation itself in the house is tidy and inconspicuous, though the cabling to the house is a figure-of-eight copper/fibre type because the engineer didn't know the distance of the spans in advance, and that's all he had that was long enough. Everyone else around has the thinner fibre-only cable and there are lots of kinks and twists in our cable, which doesn't look right - see photo, a bit poor but you can see the kinks.
The big annoyance though is that we'd spoken in advance to the fibre team about having a digital phone service, and when we placed the order this is what was agreed. The order is for broadband and a digital phone upgrade. The person who took the order confirmed that the engineer would bring a new hub, as well as a choice of either a single advanced phone, or two basic models as part of the package we signed up for. The hub turned up in the post, but the engineer did not bring the phones and explained that they never do bring any such equipment.
I spent almost 1 hour trying to get through to the call centre to attempt to sort out what was happening. This caused a further delay because the engineer did not know whether to remove the old copper service, which was his intention. I asked why the phones were missing and was told that I would not be getting an upgraded phone service. Instead we'd have to keep the old copper connection as the digital service is not yet being rolled out to our type of 'Brownfield' location and that there will be many other customers in this situation.
So now we have two separate drop cables to the house going to two different points. However, the engineer said he had done digital voice installs off our exchange, so I'm completely puzzled and angry with BT for agreeing to supply a package that they are unable (or unwilling) to provide.
To make matters worse, I registered my grievance and was given a case number. I was immediately notified by email after the call ended that the case was closed, without any remedy or explanation.
All I have is some notes from my conversation with the call centre, a £20 refund on the account for the inconvenience and a promise from my contact that there will be an investigation into the misinformation but as the case is now closed I'm sure this won't happen.
Where do I go from here? - is there anyone who can actually confirm that we can or cannot get a digital phone service, and what happens when it does become available - will I then get my included phones that should have been supplied with my package? I asked the operator to listen back to me placing the order and what was agreed, but this doesn't seem to have happened due to the rapid closing of the case.
