Openreach fibre checker incorrect causing massive issues. What next?

[Scalpaca]

Moved into new home.

Ordered full fibre over BT web-chat, I ask to confirm I can definitely get full fibre as I live in a fairly remote village. The agent says yes definitely.

Engineer comes to install a week later. Says we cant get it and that the street behind seems to have it but we can’t siphon from their outlet as it has to be per street. He puts a note to Openreach/BT to say he couldn’t install. Recommends I contact BT to let them know what happened.

I put in a complaint with BT that I was basically missold a service I couldn’t receive and that my wife who works from home really needs some sort of WIFI to work, which has now been delayed.

Complaints team call me back saying ‘Openreach are removing all the copper in the country so they wont install ‘old broadband’ any more. They then send out another engineer to double check we definitely can’t get fibre.

Second engineer comes, confirms again that we can’t get fibre and that he doesn’t even think the street over from us has it either as the previous engineer seemed to imply. He says it doesn’t make sense as the Openreach checker does say we can get it. He tries phoning somebody to get that changed n the checker - to no avail.

BT Complaints phone me back a few days later to see if the case got resolved, I said no, they just said try mobile broadband. I’ve now tried that with 2 different sims form ID and EE with really slow speeds, so not ideal. - we also had to buy a third party device for £40 and a unlimited sim card for £35

We tried that for a few weeks more but its not workable for my wife’s work.

I find a way to contact Openreach myself and tell them the fibre checker is incorrect, they say they will update it. That was about a month ago. Still hasn’t been updated.

I give one final try and phone BT again requesting specifically that I order FTTC (part fibre) or copper broadband. Salesperson is resistant as all she can see on the checker is that I can get fibre. After explaining multiple times that I’ve had 2 engineers confirm that I can’t get full fibre. She says she can order my a part fibre package at 73mbps. FINALLY. I go through with the order.

I receive a confirmation email. Thanks for your FULL FIBRE order. Engineer is coming on Tuesday. 

I do live in a village, but not a hut in the woods, getting broadband shouldn’t be this difficult. I don't have high hopes for our third engineer.

What shall I do if this (likely) fails? Im at my wits end.

[imjolly]

when you say new home I assume you mean existing house new to you and not a new build.  does new home have an existing openreach phone line?

did you try contacting openreach using form

https://www.openreach.com/forms/fibre-broadband-availability---customer-form

can you enter address and post results with notes please

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

[WSH]

You need to press BT to raise an ORDI with Openreach.  (ORDI is Openreach Data Integrity...a check & correct any errors in their database).

And, as I think you've already found, copper is not being turned off, only the old copper based PSTN phone system.  That is being retired in January and replaced with a phone service running as part of the broadband connection.

That broadband may be delivered via full fibre or copper, but if full fibre is available they are supposed to switch to that so copper can be eventually retired.  That won't be until more like 2040 though, if then.

[Scalpaca]

Hi, thanks for providing those links, I haven't used either. Just the standard fibre checker on open reach. Here's the results for my address. I can't quite decipher everything.

[Scalpaca]

Okay, what department should I aim that ORDI request to? Would it be technical support?

Thanks for the reply.

[licquorice]

According to that screenshot, both full fibre and part fibre FTTC are available to you.

[imjolly]

@Scalpaca 

just as you said the checker shows FTTP is available hence why took your order for a new FTTP connection - you were not misold by BT.  you need to contact openreach using the link I provided and get records updated

checker shows FTTC available so if no FTTP then you should be able to get FTTC  fibre to cab and copper to home

[WSH]

Yes, just see if you can push BT support into doing it.  I don't think Openreach (OR) will deal with you personally.

I'm surprised the engineers don't report it back myself.  CityFibre are the same.  I had them turn up and tell me they can't do the install as the infrastructure isn't in place, about eight months ago.  Since then my neighbours have had them out twice, with the same result.  It's got to be a big waste of time and money.

Incidentally, your image is only visible to yourself, moderators and the community leaders until a moderator clears it from quarantine, but make sure you have removed any address info from it as this is a public forum.

Edit: typing at the same time as IMJolly and Licquorice.  I'd go with their advice, as they know best.

[iniltous]

As you live in a village, often the addresses are not in the typical format of house number , street name , locality , town/city , postcode …..is there anything out of the ordinary about your address , like it has a house name rather than a number , or there is no street name , or the postcode covers a very large area ?, anything that marks it out as different in any way ? 
When using the address checker , does the address you posted the return for match identically what your address is officially known as , and is an identical match with the Royal Mail postcode website ?
TBH , ORDI (Openreach data integrity) is often sited as the way to get addressing problems identified and rectified, and that’s often the case , but if your address already is identical to the RM entry , an ORDI check won’t necessarily help as it simply matches OR ‘data’ to the RM data .

If the address you have posted the return for is identical to the RM entry and shows FTTP as available when it isn’t , then that’s an error in OR , that will feed into ISP datasets and give a false positive as far as availability, have you tried looking at your immediate neighbours addresses to see if they also incorrectly show FTTP as available, or it’s just your individual address that has an error ?

[iniltous]

Another thought , as the return from the DSL checker is now visible to everyone on this forum , the CBT type/location is quite unusual , OH external CBT , in that indicates  it’s a wall mounted CBT and is complex L2C (lead to cash the rather weird abbreviation) that would normally indicate something like a terrace of properties where the CBT is placed on the wall of one of the properties in that terrace (normally a gable end )and the ‘complexity’ is that the cabling to any of the other units ( apart from the one with the CBT on it )  may need  permission from owners of the other properties that the cable needs to ‘run’ across ( so for example , if 4 units in a terrace, No1 has the CBT on its wall , No4 orders FTTP , No2 and  No3 need to give permission for the tech to install the cable that will cross over their property to get to No.4 )

If this sounds anything like your situation, it’s possible that the address the CBT was intended to be located  refused permission for the CBT late in the build phase , but OR (in error) didn’t delete availability from that location , if this  sounds nothing like your situation (your address not likely to be served from a block on someone else’s wall ) it’s still  an error , but a different type of error .