Terrible Service

[UnhappyNeighbour]

Had a fibre installation earlier this week, swapping from our prior BT Internet service. Openreach managed to cut through our tv aerial cable and our eldery neighbours. Despite the engineer supposedly reporting and me spending an hour and a half on the live chat and an hour on the phone our neighbours tv aerial has still not been repaired. Was today told to contact Openreach who said they needed to contact their provider and claim compensation. They shouldn't need to do this. I've done everything to try and get them back up and running and we're no further on. I have registered a complaint but what else can I do?? 

[iniltous]

BT didn’t visit , BT didn’t damage anything , your neighbour needs to contact Openreach 

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/damage-health-and-safety

For any damage to your property caused by Openreach

1. Click on the chat icon on the bottom right corner of the screen   

2. Choose “Damage, Health & Safety” from the menu

3. Choose the “Damage to my property” option from the menu

4. If you want to claim for damage we have caused to your property while we've been working, we're very sorry. If the damage was caused by one of our vehicles, please email BTMotorClaims@dwf.law, for anything else, please email BTPLClaims@dwf.law. Please include your full name, address, telephone number, email address and the date & details of the damage. We’ll respond to you within 2 working days

5. If you believe the standard of the engineering visit is not up to your expectations, please choose the “Put something right” option

6. You will then be asked to fill in your (name, telephone, email)

7. Then you will be passed to a live agent to whom you can make the complaint

[UnhappyNeighbour]

Unfortunately BT didn't tell me this until this morning despite speaking to various people over the past two days and speaking to a Manager.  We contacted Openreach this morning (had to help the neighbour do this) and they said it's not them, they need to contact Virgin then the chat failed. All we want to do is speak to a person who can help them and that feels impossible at the moment. 

[Keith_Beddoe]

What has Virgin got to do with it, if you are a BT Broadband customer?

[iniltous]

Accidents happen, the remedy has nothing to do with BT Consumer as such , the method to be  recompensed is detailed on the OR website…for whatever reason you seem to think BT did the damage or are responsible , but even if Openreach were there at BT’s request ( and TBH its  not clear if BT were even partially involved,  as your post seems to suggest BT are not your  current provider but the provider you had previously )  your post  suggests   you now use someone else, not BT ,  and it was whoever that new ISP is , that ‘sent’ Openreach along , perhaps you can clarify if you ( still )  are a BT customer or not , although it’s not really relevant as far as getting repairs done , but if even indirectly this has any BT involvement.

It’s also unclear how OR working on your property installing a service ( on behalf of BT or some other ISP ) could damage aerial cables  on both your property and a neighbours property .

As stated , if the person with the damaged aerial cable isn’t a customer of a Openreach ISP is irrelevant OR are insured against these things , so just because your neighbour is a Virgin customer, changes nothing , but you seem to think that BT Consumer need to get involved, but they don’t .

If BT are giving nonsensical advice ( like your neighbour to contact Virgin ) perhaps it’s partly because they don’t understand why you are calling BT about damage apparently caused by Openreach to a Virgin customer, I suspect they have incorrectly assumed it’s VM service that’s been damaged not an aerial cable and obviously  only VM can repair VM cables.

[UnhappyNeighbour]

---

We are (and were)  BT customers but our neighbours are Virgin customers. Somehow are aerial cables are joined and then spur off (not sure how or why) but were cut. After speaking to BT as our tv also wasn't working, they sent somebody to fx our aerial but the contractor who came wasn't authorised to do the neighbours. The Openreach engineer left a telephone number for us to call but it was no longer a valid number hence having to try and find out who to contact for the neighbour 

[UnhappyNeighbour]

We were and are BT customers. The telephone number left by the engineer was invalid and as our tv also wasn't working I contacted BT. They sent us an engineer to fix our aerial the following day but nothing so far for the neighbour. I am trying to help them but struggling to speak to someone.

[Keith_Beddoe]

Then your neighbour needs to contact Virgin and report a fault.

If Virgin then want to make a damage claim against Openreach, then it up to them.

[iniltous]

This gets even more convoluted but ultimately changes nothing ….its difficult to see how an aerial can serve two addresses without it being an issue, if this aerial had simply  failed ,  who is responsible you or your neighbour, or both ? , what if one party didn’t care but the other party did , pay 50% for something you don’t use ? ……presumably if it’s an aerial cable from an external aerial and the cable from it runs to both you and your neighbour ( and although they use VM , they don’t use Virgin to supply their TV ) the next question is , unless the OR tech damaged the aerial cable in two separate places , one place ( now repaired ) has restored your TV but the other place affects only your neighbours TV , but was damaged within the boundary of your property ( I’m fairly sure the OR tech never went on your neighbours ‘property’ so the damage cannot be within the confines of their property)  and the repairer that was sent out only ‘fixed’ one cut cable  even though another fault was visible within the confines of your property….how did the repairer know which ‘fault ‘ to repair,  if there were two cut cables ? , and if there was only one cut cable , why didn’t both TV services get restored when that single cut cable was repaired ? 

TBH , this all sounds extremely odd , but as said , if ‘convinced’ that your neighbours TV  service has stopped working due to the actions of Openreach, and the TV service is from the same aerial as your TV service , and not VM’s cable , and this has been damaged by OR ( in some incomprehensible way  ) by OR working on your property , then they fill in the form on the OR website .

Presumably OR will either supply an aerial contractors  to your neighbour address to repair their service ( or first confirm the damage , and then if appropriate do a repair ) or OR will ask the complainant to get the work done and submit the invoice, or come to some other arrangement.

TBH ,in the words of the Mod Father ,  the more I known the less I understand , this really makes little sense, are these standard properties or some sort of communal address in which case the aerial would be the building owner’s property.

TBH , much as you may want to help , it’s your neighbour that needs to sort this out with Openreach, and if they consent for you to act on their behalf, you will need to use the appropriate method to contact OR , and not try to include BT in something that isn’t BT’s problem.

[rbz5416]

Assuming that it is the neighbour's aerial cable that has been damaged & not the coax providing their internet, this issue has nothing whatsoever to do with Virgin.

@UnhappyNeighbour 

Has your neighbour just lost TV from the aerial or have they lost broadband? If the former, you need to go back to Openreach & re-report this without mentioning Virgin.

It might be quicker in the short-term to get an aerial installer out to fix the issue & then claim from Openreach.