New fibre broadband

[Hernameisgem]

Our dad recently died so my mum rung up to change it into her name and see if she could get a reduced bill as she is now living by self and can’t really afford the £80 bill per month. 
Everything was fine they were so helpful and said she would get a reduced bill and she would have a new box in the next couple of weeks. 
They come with the box but turns out they can’t set it up as my mum doesn’t have full fibre so they’ll have to send out another engineer who can install it.

They said they would be back in 10 days to install, this was in April it is now the beginning of July and my mum still has NO internet or phone line. 
She is constantly ringing them up asking for answers and all they say is Openreach is busy at the moment and short staffed and something about a hoist.  And they’ll get back to her within a couple of days with an update, which they never do. 

Mum has put in serval formal complaints but nothing has come of it. Also mum is adding on bolt ons for her o2 data every couple of weeks.

and also every time she rings up to complain they have the audacity to ask her if she wants to switch to them for her mobile phone contract.

sorry I’m just ranting as my mum is getting so frustrated. 

[imjolly]

as this is been going on for months and you have complained on more than one occasion then write email  complaint to customer resolutions team at the address here and you will get some action quickly

https://www.bt.com/bt-plc/assets/documents/about-bt/policy-and-regulation/our-governance-and-strateg...

[WSH]

The team imjolly has recommended are very good.  (I have personal experience from a complaint I raised some months back).

I think it’s important though to appreciate, (if you don’t already), that Openreach (OR) is actually a separate company to BT, (albeit part of BT Group).  As such, BT will have limited sway with OR if the problem is at their end.  And, similarly, there is no direct link between this forum and OR.

(The “hoist” business implies it will be delivered from a pole, rather than underground, and the pole is unsafe to climb with a ladder, hence a cherry-picker is needed.  Unfortunately, as I understand it, that tends to increase the delay even more as they are in short supply).

[36ULW]

There must be more to it than needing a Hoist.

An average most Service Delivery Teams in Openreach have 2 Hoists and at least half a dozen people trained to use them in case one of the usual Hoist Operators is on AL or off on the Sick.

Longest I ever had to wait for one was a day!

[chrisjp]

If the broadband service was working OK before the Dad died, I don't understand why an application by the Mum for a cheaper service (which apparently BT has accepted) needs to have any engineer visit at all.

Or did BT take the opportunity to upsell a fibre to the premises service to replace an existing fully working fibre to the cabinet one, only to find that there was no fibre service at the house so that Openreach would be required to undertake providing this?