Blocked duct

[DanSimms]

Hi all

I live on a small cul-de-sac with five houses. I’m 3 months into a FTTP order (ordered in 2022). The original problem was a blocked duct on the main road near my house, that blocked FTTP for all five houses.

I’ll spare you the full detail of the saga. Myself and two other neighbours have independently ordered FTTP.  Openreach turned up three times to discover the same blockage!

After two digs, the fibre’s have been pulled through to the manhole outside our houses. There’s no further blockages. We just need the final external work competing.

Here’s the problem - I’ve been told that BT can’t arrange the final external work as the permission to dig the road/for traffic management hasn’t been received from the council yet. I’ve explained that the dig has taken place, but Openreach (via BT) won’t listen. Apparently the next dig is booked for mid-May.

I think the problem is that the the duct was repaired under another neighbours order and Openreach’s systems are not connected. 

I’ve spent many hours on the phone to BT over the past 3 months, and on the advice of the BT customer services team I have raised two complaints. The second complaint has been escalated to a level 2. It’s been two weeks since then and the only feedback I’ve received is that Openreach have been able to identify work has taken place nearby. I’ve suggested that Openreach send an engineer to investigate and haven’t received any feedback.

BT customer service has been very good. The Openreach staff have been good too. Their systems not so good.

Does anyone have good advice about how to move this forward. I fear that this won’t get resolved until the dig team turn up in May (with all the cost of traffic management) only to find the work has been completed previously. That will be another 6 week delay and wasted time/money.

Dan Simms

[Keith_Beddoe]

@DanSimms 

Welcome to this user forum for BT Retail phone and broadband customers.

This is just a customer to customer help forum, everyone here, including myself, are just customers.

The only BT Employees are the forum moderators who may be able to look at your order.

[DanielS]

Good morning @DanSimms.

I am sorry that it's taking so long to get your services installed.

When it comes to issues like this, we need to contact Openreach's first level of support. If we aren't getting any further forward, we should then be raising an escalation with Openreach. They can take a couple of working days to get back to us to let us know when they are picking it up and if they can help.

I've sent you a private message so we can pick this up for you.

Thanks
DanielS

[DanSimms]

Thanks. I’ve sent you my details by PM. This is already at a level 2 escalation and has been for a couple of weeks. I called BT twice this week in and the first person I spoke to told me they they expect this to only get fixed when they turn up the dig the road up in May and discover that the work has already been competed. The second person was able to get through to the escalations team and apparently there will be a further update next Tuesday. They also offered me a mini hub with 4G in the mean time. This is most definitely a systems issue - Openreach don’t seem to be able to link the same work request when it’s come from multiple ISP orders. I bet this is wasting thousands of pounds across the country as this situation cannot be a ‘one off’.

[DanSimms]

I called in today as I was promised an update. Apparently the person that was due to update me is on a training course. The update is that Openreach have put the update back by 48 hours until the 6th.  I’ll call back then. The call handler told me that a third line of escalation is possible if the second line escalation doesn’t work.

BT have provided me with a 4G mini-hub to keep me connected whilst they work through this issue. This arrived on Saturday. 

Dan

[DanSimms]

Received a text message this morning at 8.33 am saying:

Hello Dan, BT here. Just a reminder, we'll call you today between 10am and 12pm to discuss your complaint.

Calls may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes

No one called, presumably because Openreach aren’t providing an update until tomorrow. I’ve received several of these text messages previously and typically the call doesn’t happen.

[DanSimms]

Received a call back at 1pm, one hour outside the time period I was given. Passed through to another team as the caller wasn’t trained on FTTP. Had to go through security checks even though they called me!  Was then welcomed with a ‘how can I help you’. I had to explain that they called me, which the call handler found confusing. 

Apparently the problem might be because the person that raised the level 2 escalation has now left BT, as they should have called me.

Spent 42 minutes explaining the whole case again and have persuaded the call handler to initiate a level 3 escalation.

Openreach are still convinced a dig is required and that council permission for the civils and traffic lights are required. I’ve requested that an engineer comes and inspects the work/ fibres that the original team pulled through. It’s frustrating that I can’t talk directly to Openreach. I’ve half considered lifting the manhole outside my house and taking a photo of the fibres (I’m not going to do this).

I am 100% convinced that this is a systems issue. BT and Openreach’s IT systems are designed for known workflows. As soon as there’s an exception it all seems to fall down.

Next update on Monday.

I still think that this will only be resolved when the dig team and traffic lights turn up in May only to discover the work has taken place. I can only imagine what that team will have to say about the situation.

I really hope this isn’t taking place elsewhere across the country - this must be wasting BT and Openreach a colossal amount of money.

Dan

[DanSimms]

Here’s the latest update.

I didn’t receive a callback from BT yesterday.

However today two helpful Openreach engineers turned up to install FTTP for my neighbour in the same cul-de-sac. They confirmed what I already know, that the duct has already been repaired and that no further civils work is required. The funny thing is that my neighbour (who ordered FTTP from Sky after me) will be connected next week!

I asked the engineer to email the Openreach escalation team for me (a previous BT employee gave me their name of the person handling the escalation) which they have done, so hopefully this will unblock the order. They said if they don’t receive a response they will deal with it directly. They could see how frustrated I was so they’ve pulled the fibre from the manhole through to my house. It’s now coiled up on the outside of my house. The team are going to update the system to say this is the case.

I also called BT and they also called Openreach to pass over the name of the engineer on site today. Apparently the person forgot to call me back yesterday and they will call me tomorrow. Openreach told BT that they need their escalation team to acknowledge this before they can move the order to the next stage. 

So it feels like it’s getting closer…..

Dan

[DanSimms]

Received an email from the Openreach escalation team confirming that they now accept that no further dig work is required and that the internal work can proceed. Apparently I will receive a call from my case handler today to book in the internal work. Hurray!

[DanSimms]

Call received yesterday afternoon - external work now complete, internal work booked in for this Saturday! Double hurray!