FTTP Installation Woes

[MilkyJoe]

BT/OpenReach were due to activate my FTTP install on the 19th of November. When they arrived, however, I was informed that a portion of my drive needed to be dug up, and that another team would have to carry out that work in the near future. Not a problem - these things happen. The engineers completed the internal and external work that they could, and I was informed I’d be told when to expect the next team.

About a week passed when I suddenly noticed BT engineers out the front of my house. I’d received no communication to let me know to expect anyone. They talked me through my options, and said they’d be back the following day to complete the work. As promised, they were there bright and early, and the work was completed (and a great job they did too). I was told that everything was now ready - the fibre cable has been pulled through to my property, and is coiled up, waiting - and that I should expect another team to be around in a day or two to complete the final step of plugging the cable into the external box.

3 working days passed and nothing… no communication or anything. So I called up, only to be told that additional work was now required to the protective tube around the cable, under the ground (or something like that). Apparently, it could take a further 4 weeks!!! Why had no one bothered to get in touch with me to tell me this!? When the last team left, they seemed pretty happy that everything was in place - no mention of any additional problems - so what changed in the mean-time!? This is proving to be a really frustrating experience. The lack of communication is especially annoying.

I can’t help but feel that something has gone wrong with the process, and that everything IS ready, but a clerical mistake has been made somewhere. The team that pulled the cable through assured me I was good to go! I have to say that every person/team I’ve dealt with has been approachable and great at their job, but what a frustrating experience! And I’ve still no idea what’s going on, or when my connection will be active. Someone is apparently going to call me on the 9th…

[MilkyJoe]

I’ve just found mention of an FTTP direct number - 08005874787 - so I’ll give that a try later today…

[Keith_Beddoe]

@MilkyJoe 

BT Openreach do not exist, its just Openreach now. who work for all providers. The engineers work for Openreach, not BT.

If you have placed your order with BT Retail, then they will simply be passing the job to Openreach, and will try to keep you informed about the progress of your order.

If you have placed your order with another provider, then you need to ask on their user forum.

[Starwire]

When an Installation is sent for a Civils Job they usually push the Installation Date back as far as possible to prevent the job from Auto Closing.

Usually once the Civils Work is complete Openreach bring the Appointment forward, although they have this annoying habit of not confirming the Date/Time is OK with EU’s and the Installation Engineers rocks up to either no one at home or they’re getting you out of bed because you were unaware they were coming.

[MilkyJoe]

@Keith_Beddoe The order is with BT. I called, and they automatically raised a complain on my behalf, as they agreed that I should have been receiving updates.

I’m still not convinced that a clerical error hasn’t been made though, based on what the OpenReach team told me.

[Starwire]

Just needs the Local FTTP Coord Team to change the Appointment.

In fact as the Internal Work is complete all they’d really need to do is build an ONF Network Task, which doesn’t require an Appointment to send an Engineer out to just joint the two Fibres on the outside. That’s if the Installation Engineer has done what he/she was supposed is correctly and Activate the ONT.

[MilkyJoe · Accepted solution]

OpenReach turned up this morning, unannounced, and simply connected the fibre cable to the unit on the wall. I’m up and running.

As suspected, there was no issue with anything underground, but I’m up and running, so no harm done.