No connection

[drmlou]

Hi, advice welcome on how to escalate and if one of the admins from BT could please help that would be great as Open Reach have left me with no connection. They did what they called a lift and shift which didn't work and then tried to reverse it which also didn't work. 

I now have no internet at all and been passed pillar to post between BT ans Openreach, with constantly changing excuses and answers. Apparently, I now need a specialist engineer which isn't available until next week as the issues is wiring whatever that means. Meanwhile I have been left with no connection and been repeatedly lied to about time frames and outcomes. A complaint was escalated but that was closed for no reason and no resolution.

I'd rather have the slow, dropping connection that I've had for weeks than to now be left with nothing and being entirely fobbed off. 

Been a loyal BT customer for years and evidently loyalty is, in fact, not rewarded and I have less than zero faith now..

[36ULW]

Sounds like it’s either a faulty DSLAM Card and or a problem with the tie cables and or Splitter.

When I worked as a CST we could go into the line side of them DSLAM to replace/resit splitters and or fix a DIS.

The actual Card though, that requires an NGA Engineer. Back when I was there NGA Engineers were scarce, usually because you had to be Electrical Trained and not many Openreach Engineers are. Openreach wouldn’t pay to put them through the Training and solely replied on people who just happened to have the qualification from outside the Company.

[FIZZYLP]

Hello @drmlou 

Sorry to hear about that.

Some faults are extremely complex and require a certain type of engineer, each area is different and depends on how many depots you have in your area, how many specialist faults investigators (SFI) also known as N11 Engineers work that area and how many jobs they have.

Your contract allows Openreach a maximum of 30 days to resolve the fault or you can leave No Held To Term (HTTC).

You would qualify for £9.50+ a day for Total Loss Of Service (TLOS).

BT/EE can provide a 4/5G Tactical Mini Hub allowing you to have 60 days of internet at no extra cost or if you have an EE mobile we can add 50GB of Data to your mobile phone instead.

These options allow you to remain connected to the Internet by using the hotspots feature.

All broadband customers also get free access to the EE Wi-Fi (EE Hotspots) formerly known as BT Wi-Fi.

Unfortunately even if this case was escalated it wouldn’t speed up the fault repair.

@36ULW Also most Senior/Chief/Patch Engineers are electrical trained if not Civil’s contractors are.

[drmlou]

Thank you for the response @FIZZYLP 

Shame none of the people I've spoken with have explained it like this.

'ah well, you aren't with EE so nothing we can do' has been the fallback. I was told a mini hub would be pointless as it wouldn't get delivered on time?! hotspots; being in a relativity rural area that option is limited anyway.

I understand faults are what they are. That's not particularly my issue as annoying as it is, (although, I would have ather continued with a poor connection than none!). But, being told mutliple different versions of something and outright lies stated on the fault tracker... simply just made it worse.

I wanted an honest and realistic time frame for this being fixed and to know what happens if it is not, and what other support there is since 30 days is along time to wait for any options to become available to me to get a connection if this can't be fixed soon.

So the escalation was more about this and the fact that a complaint was opened and then closed with zero communication or resolution. It certainly isn't closed or resolved on my part!

[FIZZYLP]

Hello again @drmlou 

thank you for the extra details.

Its your right to re-open the complaint and escalate it as well.

mini hubs take 1 working day to arrive by DPD.

you can absolutely request one or use EE Wi-Fi and see if it works for you, something is better then nothing.

external faults are hard for any ISP to give accurate updates about as the updates and time frames are set by Openreach.

internal faults require an appointment and are set by your availability.

external faults don’t require an appointment and you are not required to be in, for that reason has a time scare of at least 5 working days for each engineer visit, OR give ISPs an estimated fix date not a guarantee fix date.

any new updates takes to the end of the day for the ISP to see it, this is why it can come across as the Guides are lying but in fact that information is now out of date but they won’t know that until the next day.

30 day repair time frame isn’t the length the fault takes to be repairs, most faults have a fix time of 48 hours.

You get auto compensation of £9.50+ not including the first 2 days, 

Your fault could be repaired by Friday, any SLA that is missed by OR you can request BT to escalate the fault directly with OR but this isn’t linked to your complaint.

You can track your fault HERE.

[36ULW]

Quote;

‘(SFI) also known as N11 Engineers work that area and how many jobs they have.’

Thats wrong.

An SFI, Specialist Fault Investigation refers to an Engineer who is trained to fix ADSL Broadband. It has absolutely no bearing on FTTP at all. 

Also being an SFI Trained Engineer doesn’t mean anything now anyway. Years ago when I did my SFI/Boost Training it was 5 Days in the Classroom followed by 2 weeks buddying a skilled SFI Engineer. You also had to be full Accredited to now only work on the MDF but also the HDF.

The SFI Training now is literally a 2/3 hour Computer Based Training. Followed by no more than a 2 Day Buddying Period with an Engineer who probably only did his/her Training the week before. 😒

An N11 Accredited Engineer is in ref to FTTP but believe me, it doesn’t mean they’re in the least but skilled in identifying and repairing FTTP Faults.

All the N11 Accreditation is for is so they know how identify and report and defects with Network Equipment such as Fibre Nodes. 

To be able to Repair FTTP Network Faults you need to have attended the Tri-Band OTDR Course, which carries no Accreditation and also the Fibre Foundation Course and or Up Skill, which will give you the N23 Accreditation.

[drmlou]

---

Thank you for the additional information.

I spoke to someone last night as the booking made for Tuesday the day before magically disappeared. So now it will supposedly be Wednesday but that booking has now also magically disappeared, and no mention of a specialist required either (apparently that was never the case I'm now told). Awaiting another callback.

I've asked for the mini hub and have still been fobbed off about it not arriving in time even though they could have sent it Friday and would have got it tomorrow, and with all these 'disappearing' appointments, it'll be a wonder that it ever gets looked at yet alone actually fixed 😄