Disgusted - offsite faulty line 10 days wait for engineer

Hi guys & gals,

I don't know if plusnet is still owned by BT but I just feel the need to vent over their poor service. (ticket number 57358070)

I have had no phone line or broadband at the property since Thursday evening. Reported the problem on Friday and texted them back to agree to their £60 charge if the fault is at my end. Chased them up again today only to be told they can not send and engineer out until Monday the 16th. What century do these people live in seriously? Such poor service should be illegal!!!! (I am really concerned as the property is in a very poor mobile reception area, I have to walk around outside to get a signal which breaks up! There is an elderly person also living in the property under heart medication! What happens if there is a medical emergancy? Can't ring 999!!!)

I will be looking for an LLU provider asap.

I know the problem is offsite as there is only one master socket with 2 wires connected in to it. If I follow the wires they got straight out to a post in the street. Therefore the problem has to be off site. No dial tone on the phone and the broadband adsl light keeps flashing from green to orange every few seconds.

I am very annoyed by this whole affair and thinking of contacting the local papers tomorrow.

LLU would make no difference.

All engineering work is done by Openreach, who do not schedule this type of work as urgent unless you have a Service level Agreement in force, such as on a business line.

I'm not saying it isn't bad service, but the fault is with Openreach. I suggest you look into a business line with an SLA and a backup line if there is a serious possibility of an emergency.

Edited by RobertoS (Mon 09-Jul-12 00:30:31)

Do you pay your line rental to Plusnet?

It's impossible to say why there is a delay.

BT have declared MBORC in various regions due to poor weather and I suspect more will be added to this over the next few days due to the flooding in various parts of the country.

If you are in a region that is classed as MBORC, or has recently had this, there could be a backlog.

If not, it could be there is a reason for the delay which is not a quick fix.

As Bob says, regardless if you were with a LLU supplier or not, it is still Openreach
(the same people that will come out on behalf of Plusnet/your telco provider) who will attend.

Matt

Thanks for the replies.

Yes my line rental is paid to plusnet.

Not sure about the MBORC thing. The property is at BH23 6AL.

The neighbours seems to be having no problems. They did make a mess of things last year when they inversed the wires in the street cabinets and calls to the local sewerage plant were being routed to the property.

I suspect it's a problem in the street cabinets again.

Do I have to pay for the period that they are not providing any service?

Thanks again

Edited by deleted (Mon 09-Jul-12 01:08:44)

In reply to a post by simon222:

Do I have to pay for the period that they are not providing any service?

Thanks again

I can't speak for the line rental, but any broadband outage issues due to Plusnet have not been charged, as long as I raise them. Not a lot of money (monthly fee divided by 30 x number of days out). However, they are generally willing to make amends if they find they are at fault.

The phone line aspect while billed by Plusnet and the first point of contact ought to be Plusnet, and line issues will be Openreach. I imagine this type of problem will be escalated due to the possible need for 999 calls.

As silly as it sounds, a walkie talkie system with a neighbour might be a stop-gap, or even a backup system for the future.

I'm afraid this is all perfectly normal for phone line faults, happened to my 85-year-old neighbour a few months back, makes no difference who you pay your line rental to - just one word: Openreach.

Apologies for the delayed response from ourselves.

We would view that as a long time to wait for an engineer to. Please bear with me as I'm looking into your case now.

I'll do all I can to help move things forward and keep you updated.

Adam

Adam, thanks for the offer, I don't mean to be rude to you as I'm sure you mean well but your company is useless!!!! over 2 weeks now with no telephone or broadband and and waiting for a second engineer visit on 26th. The problem has not changed since day one!!! My experience of is plusnet is that nobody will take accountability for anything and the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. Totally disgusted!!!

It's working again!!! )))))))) Although notified on Friday that an engineer would be visiting on the 25th one turned up on Sunday morning and the fault on the line was cleared on Sunday evening. I'm sure you must have had something to do with it Adam so thank you!!! Your help is much appreciated.