Installation Issues

[costadelbarnet]

Good Morning All - first time user so please be gentle!

So, just to give you a chronology of events per this sorry saga (this is subject to an Executive Complaint & Ombudsman Complaint) so hoping it will be resolved in the fullness of time, but just wanted to gage opinion whether it be informed or uninformed:-

Installation of Broadband confirmed as December 27th 2023.
Engineer attended site on above date and explained that they could not install as no underground connectivity for fibre to new address.
New appointment date was confirmed as Friday 19th April 2024 via Text Message on 2nd April 2024.
New appointment date was confirmed as Thursday 18th June 2024 via Text Message on 12th April 2024.  No attendance happened on 18th June.
New appointment date was confirmed as Friday 28th June 2024 via Text Message on 12th June - just so happened to be the day my wife and I go on holiday - requested to reschedule.
New appointment date was confirmed as Monday 8th July 2024 via Text Message on 15th June.
Groundworks via Open Reach started today (19th June) - with no notification from them or you that this was happening.
Monday 8th July arrived - appointment time set at between 1-6pm - engineer hadn't arrived by 4.30pm and as BT hadn't contacted me, range them at 4.31pm whereby it was confirmed that further works were required.

As of today, 16th July - we still have no Broadband connectivity - BT (or EE in this instance) at an early stage did provide one of those small white boxes, I guess as a hotspot / router type set up, but has only ever worked in one room and works very sporadically, therefore have effectively been without any connectivity for, being generous, around 7 months.

May I ask if anyone else has experienced the type of issues we've had and what the resolution was? 3 complaints made on our part - the first two were closed without consultation / permission, the 3rd as mentioned an Executive Complaint whereby I have received what is called a 'Final Response' which doesn't actually detail whether I will finally get Broadband or not.  For further information too, our road has been dug up twice now, the first time I believe was failure to achieve what was needed and the second by all accounts didn't work either - informed per last communications that a 3rd road closure is now needed.

Thanks for your input,

Tony.

[naylor2006]

Although some of us might have had similar experiences with BT, this forum is for BT customers so you may need to post over on the EE forums. Have you ordered BT Broadband or EE?

Generally as much as you can raise the issues with your ISP because you have to this sounds very much like an Openreach issue. BT/EE Retail who you deal with are just relaying information to Openreach who often give quite poor updates in return, if you have a complaint open with the Executive Team this is a good thing, I had mine there and although my issues were with Openreach it didnt involve roads being dug up which seems more significant. It did take 'BT' 2 months plus to solve the issue but I was compensated per day, which means nothing if you dont have broadband at all, I kept my Virgin cable in place until FTTP went live.

What is the last update from the complaints team, you can usually call them any time and ask for any of the agents to update you?

[costadelbarnet]

Hi Naylor 2006, thanks for taking the time to respond - BT Broadband in answer to above. Response as below from BT:-

What has happened

I’ve checked with Openreach and it does look like further works are required externally to provide service.

We can’t anything to influence getting road closure permits put through any quicker, as it’s between Openreach and another third party, such as the council, that the agreement needs to be made.

Here are the details of how to take your complaint further.

If you want to take your complaint further 

We work hard to give our customers the best possible service and resolve complaints, but if you’re unhappy, and as this is our final response, you can contact Ombudsman Services. They offer a free, independent service to help consumers and companies settle disputes. They take all the facts into account and decide the fairest way to resolve the complaint. You don’t have to accept their decision, but if you do, we have to do what they decide is fair.    

[naylor2006]

No problem, I only mentioned it because you said about having an EE backup.

I dont think there is anything that can be done here, if Openreach need to conduct external works you are at their mercy and if they are at the mercy of road closures then thats and another delay. Openreach took 2 months to solve a light issue with my install and I was only ever was told "there is a light issue and a specialist engineer has been tasked to fix it".

You may be able to take your complaint further via Ombudsman but I dont think it will actually speed up the install at all.

Overly the frustration is when the ISP accepts an order and then the entire thing goes wrong only once OR turn up to install, but every single property will be different and have different requirements, especially those that are not new builds.

Hang tight, sounds like they are trying to solve it, just not on your schedule 😕