Fibre broadband installation order cancellations

[BazzerE]

I'm wondering if anyone has been in the same position as myself and can provide some information how to move forward.

At the end of last year I received an offer from BT for a free upgrade to full fibre which I accepted. After a lot of cancellations the engineer finally came out in May to install the connection but they found a blockage in the duct under my neighbours lawn. After obtaining permission they arranged for 'civils' to dig a hole in her lawn to clear the blockage. They then found another blockage under my own lawn but left saying a new order would have to be raised then, after a few weeks, someone else came out to dig a hole in my lawn to clear the 2nd blockage.

On 21st August two engineers came out to make the connection but found that the duct was still blocked in exactly the same place under my neighbours lawn, she refused to allow it to be dug up again because they left such a mess the first time. On 22nd August I received an email from BT stating that some external work was required and they would be in touch soon (which they didn't).

On 21st October I eventually called BT to ask for an update and was told that Openreach had carried out a survey and new ducting was required which they would have to charge for and I had refused to pay - this was the first I had ever heard of this. I asked for details of the survey and the cost but was told that the only way BT could obtain this was by cancelling the current order and raising a new one. There was a technical issue stopping them from closing the order immediately so they suggested I keep checking online and when the current order was closed to call them again.    

After a week the order was still open but it had been updated with a message 'some of your order is cancelled, we will be in touch soon to discuss'. I therefore called them today for another update and the person I spoke to put me on hold twice while he talked to the technical team. Eventually he closed the current order and said he would raise a new one and set a date for Openreach to come out in a couple of weeks stating "you should be OK because fibre is available at your postcode". I asked him when I would get details of the survey and he couldn't answer. 

I'm positive that the new order will just cause Openreach to come out and declare there's a blockage, which I already know, then they'll cancel their part of the order again. I'd be quite happy to pay a reasonable sum to obtain a connection but it seems impossible to find out what work is required, when it can be done or how much it will cost.    

I seem to be in a perpetual loop of orders being raised then cancelled (about 6 so far) and just being fobbed off by BT when I call. It's impossible to contact Openreach directly and when questioned their engineers just tell me I have to call BT. Has anyone else been in the same position and found a solution? 

[iniltous]

Things like this shouldn’t happen , unfortunately when they do , getting it solved can be frustrating as there clearly isn’t a process for this exact issue .

TBH , if whoever was sent to unblock the duct first time had done their job properly, they wouldn’t have just done one duct stoppage , their instructions are to made the entire duct run , end to end , jointbox to your house wall  ‘serviceable’ and put a draw rope in to make the cable installation easy , obviously this would have also found the stoppage in your garden as well as the stoppage in your neighbours garden on the first visit  ….the fact they made a mess of reinstatement of your neighbours garden so now they won’t allow further work in their garden is understandable but it does cause another issue in so far as the system will not be designed to put new duct in when duct exists (even if it’s blocked duct ) but that’s Openreach problem not yours ….you shouldn’t be charged for any of this BTW .

I would try searching out the executive level complaints team at Openreach (or search and contact the CEO) and email them , you should get someone senior in the Openreach hierarchy contacting you and taking responsibility for this and they will become your single point of contact until this is resolved…the only issue may be if a new duct is needed , is it possible to get to your address without going through your neighbours garden ?

Out of curiosity, approximately when was your property built , was your neighbours property built at the same time and is there anything out of the ordinary about your addresses, like you share a common driveway  ? with modern ish housing (presumably it’s quite modern as duct has been the default method for 30 odd years ) your duct going through someone else’s property (their garden) is not very common and is normally avoided for the exact reasons you state …what if the neighbour doesn’t agree to someone on their ‘land’ , although in your case they were perfectly reasonable to start off with , some neighbours would  have said no to excavation in their garden from the outset , that’s why this type of ‘your duct in their garden’ scenario is usually avoided by the developer at the construction stage 

[BazzerE]

Thanks for your reply iniltous, 

The house was built in 1986, there are 4 houses in a single row and they all share an unadopted access road. Each house owns the section of road in front of their house but is obliged to provide access to all the others. The land registry deeds also state that provision must be made to allow work on utilities (water, gas, electricity & sewerage) and for building maintenance but there is no mention of telephone or broadband connections.  

We all share a common central duct and smaller ducts run from each house to join the main one, the blockages appear to be where these joints are. The first 2 houses in the row have recently had fibre installed but the last 2, including mine, have the problem of the blocked duct which is preventing the installation.   

There is open council owned park land on the far side of the road so ducting could be run there but it is below a 6 foot wall so the ducting would have to be run up the wall then across some tarmac to the current joint in my garden. To reach the underground BT connection point It would also have to cross a road. This was the reason I was trying to find out what solution the Openreach survey had identified (although I'm not convinced that they actually did one or BT would be able to share it).

Openreach are due to come out again on 6th November (if they don't cancel the order) for a pointless visit to install the fibre (the latest person I spoke to at BT refused to accept that there was a problem) so I'll ask the engineer if he's aware of the survey and where the ducting could be run.      

I'm starting to think that I'll just have to live without fast broadband which seems ridiculous in the modern world. I've looked at using 5G but the signal isn't great here and the speed tops off at around 90MB.