Problems with full fibre installation

[User12]

Dear BT Community

Please would you help.

BT arranged for staff to visit my home on Monday 14 April (last week) as BT said I had to be upgraded to full fibre to my home.

I encountered several problems with the installation that I have summarised below.

1. One of the people doing the work on the inside of my home told me that they had finished the work successfully and that it was working. I went outside to look at the new cabling before they left and found that where it enters my home, the brick has been broken into pieces that they had attempted to stick together very badly with silicon. I asked them what they would do to repair this and they said there was nothing they could do about it and that the silicon was fine. This is clearly not the case. I do not know what this entry point through the broken brick is for as I cannot see the cable entering the inside on my home at this point. The only cabling that seems to be entering the property through the brickwork and attached to the fibre hub connection on the inside of my home is hidden on the outside by a grey cover so I cannot see if this brickwork is also damaged. I asked my brother-in-law to look at the visible brickwork that is broken – he told me it is essential that the silicon has been woefully applied and that the integrity of the brickwork needs to be properly repaired to prevent water ingress and other problems and urged me to raise this as a complaint with BT. Someone from BT/Openreach will need to come and carry out the necessary repairs to the brickwork that has been broken and damaged, and also to inspect whether the other brickwork hidden beneath the grey cover has been similarly damaged.
Question 1: How do I make a complaint about this?
Question 2: When will I receive a visit from a suitably qualified person for these repairs to take place?

2. I had been reassured on the telephone before the installation that the people that came to my home to do the installation would assist me with getting my digital voice telephone working. When I asked them to do so on the day, they told me that they only installed the fibre cable and knew nothing about the telephone service. They also told me that the old copper wire telephone service would continue to work for several weeks. However, the copper wire telephone service stopped working within about an hour of them departing - leaving me without a telephone service. I had to ask a neighbour to help me and he kindly did so.
Question 3: Why did the people sent to do the installation fail to help me get the digital voice telephone service working as had been promised by BT staff prior to the appointment?

3. I asked one of the people doing the work what would happen to the old copper wire cable attached to my home from the telegraph wire (as the new fibre cable has been attached to another part of my home). He said that it was not their responsibility to deal with this copper wire cable. He said that this old copper wire will be removed by another team sent by BT/Openreach in the future, but he said he did not know when this would happen.
Question 4: Should this old copper wire be removed by BT/Openreach and, if so, when will this happen?

Many thanks for your advice - especially in relation to getting my damaged brickwork dealt with and resolved.

[gg30340]

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@User12 wrote:

Dear BT Community

Please would you help.

BT arranged for staff to visit my home on Monday 14 April (last week) as BT said I had to be upgraded to full fibre to my home.

I encountered several problems with the installation that I have summarised below.

1. One of the people doing the work on the inside of my home told me that they had finished the work successfully and that it was working. I went outside to look at the new cabling before they left and found that where it enters my home, the brick has been broken into pieces that they had attempted to stick together very badly with silicon. I asked them what they would do to repair this and they said there was nothing they could do about it and that the silicon was fine. This is clearly not the case. I do not know what this entry point through the broken brick is for as I cannot see the cable entering the inside on my home at this point. The only cabling that seems to be entering the property through the brickwork and attached to the fibre hub connection on the inside of my home is hidden on the outside by a grey cover so I cannot see if this brickwork is also damaged. I asked my brother-in-law to look at the visible brickwork that is broken – he told me it is essential that the silicon has been woefully applied and that the integrity of the brickwork needs to be properly repaired to prevent water ingress and other problems and urged me to raise this as a complaint with BT. Someone from BT/Openreach will need to come and carry out the necessary repairs to the brickwork that has been broken and damaged, and also to inspect whether the other brickwork hidden beneath the grey cover has been similarly damaged.
Question 1: How do I make a complaint about this? You contact BT 0331.1234.150 and raise a complaint about it.
Question 2: When will I receive a visit from a suitably qualified person for these repairs to take place? That will depend totally on when you make the complaint and the response by BT who should pass the complaint onto Openreach and how long it takes them to act on that so basically that is an unknow at this time.

2. I had been reassured on the telephone before the installation that the people that came to my home to do the installation would assist me with getting my digital voice telephone working. When I asked them to do so on the day, they told me that they only installed the fibre cable and knew nothing about the telephone service. They also told me that the old copper wire telephone service would continue to work for several weeks. However, the copper wire telephone service stopped working within about an hour of them departing - leaving me without a telephone service. I had to ask a neighbour to help me and he kindly did so.
Question 3: Why did the people sent to do the installation fail to help me get the digital voice telephone service working as had been promised by BT staff prior to the appointment? It is generally not the responsibility of the Fibre installers to set up your phone because as you have noted, it might not be active by the time the installer is finished the installation of the Fibre. As you may have noticed it is a relatively simple job to remove your phone from where it plugged into the wall socket and then plug it into the phone socket on the rear of your BT Smarthub. The BT staff probably assumed that the person doing the install would do it for you but it is not as far as I am aware in his remit.

3. I asked one of the people doing the work what would happen to the old copper wire cable attached to my home from the telegraph wire (as the new fibre cable has been attached to another part of my home). He said that it was not their responsibility to deal with this copper wire cable. He said that this old copper wire will be removed by another team sent by BT/Openreach in the future, but he said he did not know when this would happen.
Question 4: Should this old copper wire be removed by BT/Openreach and, if so, when will this happen? The copper cable will not normally be removed by Openreach unless it is causing a danger. You could ask BT to contact Openreach on your behalf to have it removed but you should not hold your breath waiting for it to be done.

Many thanks for your advice - especially in relation to getting my damaged brickwork dealt with and resolved.

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[User12]

Dear Distinguished Sage
Many thanks for your rapid reply – that is very helpful of you.
I just rang BT, as you suggested, to raise a complaint about the damage to the brickwork. They communicated with Openreach. I was hoping that they would agree to come and carry out a repair to the brickwork.

However, Openreach, via the BT person I spoke with, said that I need to get it repaired and then invoice them.
To be honest, I didn’t even want the full fibre upgrade as I have an anxiety disorder that is made far worse by having to deal with organising and having work carried out at my home.
But I was told I had to as the copper phoneline would stop working.
Now I am being told by Openreach via BT that I have to find someone to do the work.
I have no idea who to approach to do this work and thinking about it and dealing with it causes me increasing levels of anxiety.
Openreach has not also not provided any information about the maximum costs that they will cover for this work or how long I have to arrange it.
Thinking about all this is already causing my anxiety to considerably worsen and affecting my already poor sleep.
Do you know how I can request Openreach to carry out these repairs (for problems that they have caused) instead of me being left with the problem and corresponding anxiety of finding a trustworthy, capable person who is prepared to carry the work out?
I am very grateful for your advice.

[iniltous]

You have used the process that would more normally be used by someone who discovers that a water/heating pipe has been hit and they now desperately need a plumber to stop a water leak , or some electrical problem now exists because an electric cable has been damaged by the OR tech ( or contractor working on behalf of Openreach )  , where waiting for OR to come out , inspect the damage and arrange repairs etc  just isn’t fast enough  to sort out an urgent issue, and the complainant needs an immediate repair .

FWIW , a damaged brick is not something most would complain about , drilling a hole from inside to outside in most cases will ‘blow out’ a part of the face of a brick on the outside wall , it’s inevitable, and because of that most would simply accept it as what happens when you drill a hole and move on either their lives.

If the ingress hole hasn’t been sealed against water etc , that obviously needs attention, but you mention silicone sealant was applied , so it may already be sealed against the weather,  it may not be attractive but sometimes that’s not possible .

Perhaps you could  take a picture of the damage and post it here ,  to see if your reaction is understandable or you are potentially overreacting 

TBH , what are you expecting as the repair, rebuilding the wall , replacing a few bricks , or simply making it a bit neater and tidier ?

[gg30340]

As regards the brick damage, what @iniltous  has said is correct about "blow out".

The only remedy to stop blow out would be to drill the hole from the out side to the inside which would still cause blow out but you would not see it as it would be on the inside of the brick wall. Doing this always presents the problem as to where exactly to drill the hole as it is very difficult to ensure that drilling fom the out side is going to come out in exactly the right place on the inside. It is always better to drill the hole on the inside so that it is exactly where you want it.

You could contact a local builder and ask them to give you a quote. I doubt that they would replace the brick because it will be a lot of work and probably never get a brick to match, more likely they would either use cement to cover the blow out or fix a cable cover over the hole.  I would not expect it to cost much, which Openreach will reimburse you once it is done.

[WSH]

I would have thought that taking a bit more time and turning the hammer action off for the final part of the drilling would prevent the problem?

[gg30340]

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@WSH wrote:

I would have thought that taking a bit more time and turning the hammer action off for the final part of the drilling would prevent the problem?

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I guess we will never know if it would have.

[36ULW]

All depends on the type of brick.

Engineering Bricks for example, very tough to drill through. Even when using a 230v Mains Drill with a 4 Cutting Edge SDS Masonry Drill Bit. It’s almost virtually guaranteed to blow out a piece of brick even with the hammer mode off.