"Free" upgrade to BT Fibre 100

[pitkin]

Hi all,

I received an email a few weeks ago stating that full fibre was now available in my area.  As a Halo3+ customer I get a free upgrade to Fibre 100 when available. Or so I thought.

My first phone call a month ago I was told I could only get this free upgrade by signing a new contract. This would include having to send my existing hub, disc and 4g hub back, and getting new ones as I'd be treated as a new customer. Not being keen on having to disconnect everything, I said that sounds silly, why can't I stay on the same contract and you just give me the free upgrade.

Anyway, after some toing and froing (and a supervisor getting involved) I was told that yes, I could stay as I was and just have the upgrade. 

Two weeks later and I've heard nothing. Another call. This time I get told there was no record of my previous phone call (so no upgrade was in progress). However, for some reason my address was showing fibre is unavailable. All the other houses around me can get it, it's just me who can't.  So, they set up a visit from open reach to sort the problem. 

Two weeks later again, nothing. Another call (sigh). This time I'm told I definitely have to start a new contract to get this free upgrade, nothing they can do about it, that's how it is.

After around 30 minutes of being on hold waiting for someone higher up to speak to, I'm cut off. A month later, I'm no closer to this free upgrade.

So as it stands I don't know if:

A) I can stay on the same contract and simply get the upgrade.

B) There's a problem and it needs open reach to sort it out.

C)  I have to start a new contract to get this free upgrade.

If the answer is C, is it really free if I have to do that? There are now other, much cheaper options in my area, so extending my BT contract will actually cost me money. 

Has anyone else had difficulty in getting the free upgrade? Do we really have to start a new contract? Have I really got to crawl through my loft to disconnect my router (literally a crawl space), so they can send me another one to put in exactly the same place? 

There was me thinking it would be done in an afternoon. I told the wife we'd just have to arrange a day for the engineer to come out to put a box on the wall and then I'd just plug a cable in. 

[pippincp]

As BT have to pay for the install you do have to enter a new contract. It is a change of service.

[NeilO]

Hi, @pitkin welcome to the community and thanks for posting, I'm really sorry you've been given conflicting and incorrect information when you called in. Halo 3+ customers are able to upgrade to Full Fibre 100 for free without the need to re-contract when it becomes available. 

BT Halo 3+ Terms and Conditions

What is BT Halo 3+ and how does it work?

If you have BT Halo 3+, in addition to the rest of the BT Halo 3 Broadband benefits you’ll also get access to our Full Fibre, Hybrid Connect, Complete Wi-Fi and our Smart Hub.

1.  What is Full Fibre? Full Fibre is our next generation fibre broadband piped straight into your home. It’s our fastest and most reliable broadband yet. We are bringing speeds of up to 900Mb to our customers and our speeds are more consistent no matter how many devices are connected and what time of day.  Current BT Halo 3+ customers will be able to upgrade for free to Full Fibre 100 when it becomes available in your area. You will not need to re-contract.

Can you post the results from the broadband availability checker? Make sure to remove your telephone number or address details.

Thanks

Neil 

[pitkin]

Hi NeilO

Thanks for the reply and clarifying the re-contract situation.

Here's my results from the availability checker, with my neighbours below for reference. Mine says Fibre is not available, but my neighbours and the people opposite shows it as available. Maybe the second person was right. 

  

[imjolly]

is your home connected to same telegraph pole as the neighbours you posted stats for?

Is your address correct on royal mail database?  is is the same on your BT account?

[pitkin]

Hi Imjolly,

You've probably hit the nail on the head. Our phone line used to come directly from the same pole as the neighbour. About 20 years ago a delivery driver hooked the line off the side of our house with his van.

When BT came out to fix it, they said they would have to install another pole to heighten the wire as it originally crossed over our drive at too low an angle. They installed a new pole on the other side of our drive to keep the height. The line now comes from the new pole over our front garden instead of over the drive. It's only us that comes off this new pole, so that's probably it.

I guess openreach just missed that pole when they came up our road a couple of months ago.  

[pitkin]

I suppose the next question is is there anybody here that can organise openreach to come and connect our pole up?

The last guy I phoned removed the request for them to come out off the system as he thought it wasn't needed. (Not that they appeared to be coming anyway.)

Or, what would be the best option to connect to when phoning the 0800 number? 

[imjolly]

I think you need to try openreach. https://www.openreach.com/broadband-network/fibre-availability

[pitkin]

Just for information in case this crops up for anyone else.

I contacted openreach through their website and they said there's no problem, I should just be able to order through BT. (I think this may have been an automated response)

After more time on the phone to BT, they made a discovery. Our house has no number, just a name. That name is wrong on the openreach database (a missing "The" in the name) , so it doesn't provide a match when trying to place an order. So now I'm in limbo. A request has been put in with openreach to correct the house name, but as of yet, nothing.

I've no way of escalating this, so I just can't get fibre at the moment because of a typo at openreach. I may never get fibre because I can't talk to openreach directly to explain the problem. 

 

[imjolly]

@pitkin 

as you now have found the cause of the problem and now just need the openreach database aligned with BT Retail I have asked mods to help and probably raise an ORDI with openreach to get address changed

mods will post here