BT Fibre 1 Problems

[Jonno2207]

Long story so bear with me.

I signed up to Fibre 1 Broadband on August 20th. I've never had home Broadband before only Mobile Broadband (Long story).

I signed up to get a BT Account and downloaded the APP the same day.

I received the Smarthub on 7th September.

Engineer was due to call at my house on the 9th September but didn't turn up. I posted a review on Trustpilot and was directed to Facebook or Twitter. I didn't have either as I can't stand Anti-Social Media. I reluctantly signed up to the Cesspit (Twitter).

An Irish lady rang me after speaking to her on Twitter and stated that the job was signed off but not Completed. She had no idea why. (It stated that due to unforeseen circumstances the job could not be completed in one place in the App and when I clicked on appointment details it stated that it was installed.)

The Engineers appointment was rescheduled for today (21/09/2022) and exactly the same thing has happened (The appointment is still showing in 1 part and shows as installed in appointment details).

I messaged on Twitter again and was told to contact the Connections team. I rang them about 20 minutes ago and the man I spoke to said that this shouldn't have happened (It's happened twice) and I should ring again in the Morning where they can check what Openreach have stated on their records. 

I've taken 2 days off work for this (I'm on probation at work). I've had to move furniture around 4 times so that the Engineer can gain access to the Socket. I'm supposed to be working from home now and I have to travel via rail (70 mile round trip) to get to work with the impending 'Rail strikes of Doom looming'. I've lost 2 stone in 10 weeks (Primarily down to stress of deliveries of my home office equipment not turning up on time). BT is by far the biggest cause of my stress. 

My work is suffering as I'm struggling to sleep. On top of this I have disabilities and BT know this.

Can I claim compensation for all this? Should I complain to OFCOM?

It shouldn't take a month to sort out Home Broadband and I shouldn't be the one chasing it all. I have had messages of 'specialist teams' working on it but nothing progresses.

Noone seems to be taking ownership of this at BT. I think they have too much Monopoly Power and Customer Service is suffering. I've just had a message on Twitter that they will call me in the Morning, I have little faith in BT right now.

I remember the days when BT was King of Customer Service, how the mighty have fallen.

I really want to ensure that this doesn't happen to anyone else.

Thanks for reading / Replying.

[iniltous]

TBH , you were under no obligation to use BT , there are lots of providers, so BT doesn’t have a monopoly on anything, it’s Openreach that would be providing your service on behalf of BT and that would be the same if you used any provider that uses OR network.
You say you need to move furniture to allow access to the phone socket , so presumably the address has had service in the past , quite often OR cancel home visits if they think they can get the socket working without needing to be in the property….have you tried to connect anything in the phone socket to see if it’s ‘live’ , have you looked around , there may be another socket somewhere else that is ‘working’

If you are given a date to be working by and that date is missed , then generally compensation is payable , based on the number of days after the appointment it is until service is provided , but obviously it cannot be paid until service is eventually provided, as they don’t yet know how many days that will be 

[Jonno2207]

Plusnets Parent company is BT, EE is part of the BT Group and Openreach is a wholly owned subsidiary of the BT Group. Sounds like a monopoly to me. 

I have no obligation to use BT, but I do have a reasonable expectation for them to honour their Contract. If they subcontact to Openreach that's their problem not mine. My contract is with BT. 

As regards the socket, it's the only 1 I have and BT have already stated that an Engineer will have to attend the property. I live in a Social Housing property and they all have Openreach sockets and Satellite Dishes fitted as standard.

As far as compensation goes, that aligns with my thoughts.

[iniltous]

So what about Sky, Talk Talk , Zen, Vodafone, or any of the dozens of other providers that use Openreach, they are not BT Group and so obviously cannot be part of any monopoly can they ? you could have opted to use any one of these companies, I absolutely agree your contract is with BT , not OR and you should expect service when you were told it would be provided.., BT don’t subcontract to OR , BT are not a network supplier, OR are the network provider that BT use ( same as Sky , TT etc ) 

[RobbieMac]

Hi @Jonno2207 

Welcome to the Community and thank you for your posts!

I am really sorry for the delay with your order.  I can understand the disappointment.  I see my colleagues on Twitter are managing your complaint and are due to call you back today.  Feel free to keep this thread updated with the progress.

Thanks,

Robbie

[Jonno2207]

Booked another day off work today, Engineer turned up and stated that he couldn't install due to roadworks. 4th wasted day off whilst I'm on probation at work. I've lost all faith in BT.

A Multi Billion pound company that can't even get Broadband installed.

Trustpilot is littered with stories like mine, a score of 1.6 on there is shameful.

Nothing gets escalated, noone takes ownership, nothing gets resolved. Just endless apologies from endless different people and passing of the buck.

My boss is on leave tomorrow, I have to tell her that I can't work from home on Monday, she's already losing patience. Working from home would cut 4 hours off my working day. I've lost 2 stone in nine weeks, I'm exhausted.

My first months probation meeting I was told my work was astonishing, the 2nd my stats hadn't improved, stayed the same down to .1%. My third is due soon, my stats are nowhere as near as good.

Apologies mean nothing at this point.

Due a phone call tomorrow, I'm not holding my breath.

Internet is a right not a privilege, it's a necessity for Disabled people.

[imjolly]

I am surprised you even had an openreach engineer turn up as they were supposed to be on strike today