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Sometimes, I really despair of BT! Long time account holder, with a solid trouble-free ADSL2 connection. However, recently placed an upgrade order for Superfast Fibre 1, due to be installed 23rd January. Then got a reminder that our Line Rental Saver deal was due to expire on the 24th and would we like to renew? Of course, the answer was �Yes�...PROBLEM...can�t seem to renew online cos it�s saying that we have an open order (presumably, the fibre upgrade)....OK, bit of a pain but we�ll phone Customer Services and they can sort it out for us over the phone...OH NO THEY CAN�T!
Apparently BT policy is that you can only ever have one order open at a time so we can�t renew our Line Rental Saver until the Fibre Upgrade order has been cleared! The young lady we spoke to couldn�t understand the problem because as she said, our fibre upgrade will be completed on the 23rd and we can then place your Rental Saver order on the next day (last day of the current agreement) � of course, BT fibre orders never miss their intial install dates!
To ensure that we didn�t lose our Rental Saver deal, we had to 1) Get her to cancel our open fibre order; 2) wait 24 hours (presumably for the open order to be removed from the system); 3) Phone back again (another 45 minute wait, no doubt) and, over the phone, they could then process a renewal for Rental Saver and open/reinstate the Fibre upgrade order (although, presumably, with a new install date)....you really couldn�t make it up.
Unfortunately, we�re in a rural area and BT are �the only player in town� so we�re stuck with having to work around their stupid system and processes rather than doing the sensible thing of finding an alternative less-inefficient supplier
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There are suppliers other than BT Retail that sell Openreach services. It may or may not fix the issue but perhaps trying one of the others would give different results.
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That is strange, when we upgraded from ADSL 2+ over to FTTP we also renewed our phone service as well and we also have line rental saver where we pay for the year.
So the upgrade to FTTP was added first, then the line rental saver and then the move over to FVA.
And that was all over the same phone call, so that was 3 open orders.
This was a few years back, so maybe this has changed, or maybe you was just unlucky and spoke to the wrong person.
Paul
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Unfortunately, we�re in a rural area and BT are �the only player in town� so we�re stuck with having to work around their stupid system and processes rather than doing the sensible thing of finding an alternative less-inefficient supplier
I'd be surprised if you are on an FTTC Cab and only have BT Retail as an option
Surely Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, Zen etc would be able to offer service to you. EE and PlusNet are probably there too, as subsidiaries of BT it would be very unlikely they don't have a package available to you
Shop around and Ditch BT if they are not giving you what you're looking for
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Recently had a similar thing with Plusnet. Missed the renewal date for Line Rental Saver (my fault) but had to renew BB/Phone contract with PN first. No problem, did that, then immediately paid Line Rental Saver. Delighted to see that the next monthly bill included a refund for the normal line rental I had paid to cover the month between renewing Line Rental Saver. Incidentally all done over the phone to PN customer services after less than one minute waiting for them to answer!
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Living in the far west of Cornwall, most of the suppliers couldn't give a monkey about us and aren't interested in providing us with a broadband service. Having said that, it appears that Zen will now provide fiber so that will defo be worth a look once I sorted this mess out.
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Think it might depend on exactly how the operators enter the transactions. We started the fiber upgrade via the normal online route and that seems to have started all the problems. Even though the previous CS operator thought they'd canceled the fiber order, it was still hanging around and blocking everything else cos of the engineers appointment which it had generated. It seems that when they cancelled the fiber order, it didn't delete the appointment order (don't you just love rubbish system integration?) and that was still blocking everything else.
Spoke to another CS operator today who was very switched on. She managed to delete the appointment order which then, according to My.BT, closed down the fiber order. However, the Rental Saver order still crapped out cos, apparently, there was yet another hidden order (something to do with the BT January special offers).
After an hour of trying, she finally managed to action our Saver order but we won't be able to do the fiber upgrade until our old Rental Saver expires towards the end of the month. What a palaver! On the plus side, she is going to ring me as soon as the Saver order clears and walk through the fiber upgrade with me.
So, brownie points to this CS op who [fingers crossed] managed to sort things out, but boos and kick in the nuts to BT and their stupid, over-complicated systems which seem to make an apparently simple thing totally complicated. No wonder they're loosing market share!
PS; forgot to mention that the first CS op said that it is BT policy to only allow one open order on your account at any time. Dunno if this only applies to home accounts or includes business ones, as well
Edited by deleted (Thu 09-Jan-20 17:21:45)
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Just out of interest I have shortly to renew my broadband when my current contract expires so am well aware of your problems. Just renewed my line rental saver so that is out of the way. But you will be aware that BT have now introduced new phone tariff plans and I need to move from my current anytime call package to the new 500 minute one. I suspect they won't be able to renew the broadband (to give me a new 'introductory discount') AND move me to the new call tariff at the same time as it will be two orders! If I try and do it via the website (which offers me my current rate price) it insists on wanting to charge me a tenner for a new router which I don't need (and use my own router anyway), and there is no mention of phone tariffs. What should be a quick phone call no doubt will be anything but.
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Just done this in Dec via the website with no issues, there was an option later to not get the new router, phone tariffs came in a 2nd step. But all done at the same time.
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Yeah, we only used the site to see if FTTP became available which it did, so I phoned BT to double check and they confirmed it was.
So yeah we didn't do any order stuff via BT's Site, its so badly done, well for our account it is, like the custom deals for us, always errors out due to we are on their highest tier of package. You would think that they would have checks for this, sadly they don't.
Just be lucky you don't have a TAG on your line, BT say that they cannot do anything until "their supplier" (that still cracks me up) removes the TAG, yet if you send enough emails and make loads of phone calls to BT high up people the TAG's get removed, funny that 
Also with FTTP you don't get the normal Support Staff, on average I normally wait 20 mins, but it has been as quick as 2 mins and as long as 35 mins in the queue when I have phoned them in the last year, so not too bad.
Paul
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I'm interested by where this so rural part of Cornwall is that only has BT available. In a recent post you said the far west.
I'm currently in the Helston area, which has loads of FTTC from all the major and many minor ISPs. I frequently stay in Porthleven which has had Sky ADSL+ and all the BT Wholesale services for years and is now pretty well covered by FTTC in most places and FTTP in many.
Might you at some point have been misled by BT Consumer advertising?
My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk. Domains, site and mail hosting - Tsohost.
Connection - Three 4G, tbb tests normally 35-45Mpbs down, 65Mbps off-peak, 9-24 up.
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"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde |
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LOL
Porthleven\Helston is hardly the "far west" of Cornwall. Think of St Just\Pendeen.
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the most monotone poster here  |
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Bob didn't say he was in the far west. He said he thought the OP was and then said where he was - didn't actually link the two.
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Interesting though his current whereabouts may be that's not relevant to the OP.
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the most monotone poster here |
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Or it may be because we don't know where the OP is and experience of an area in Cornwall that may be relatively close is potentially relevant. Also, the point Bob is making and that I made earlier is that it is fairly unusual for somewhere to only be served by BT Retail and that it is more likely that there are a number of other suppliers that use the Openreach tails that could deliver a service.
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I encountered this in December 2018 and escalated it and got assistance after I complained to the CEO's office
I have emails from BT apologising that while "the system" was awaiting completion of one order (upgrade from ADSL to FTTC) it was not possibly to make changes to my BT TV package because of the limitations purely of the ordering system.
For clarity I should point out that all my services are with BT
BTBroadband
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It does rather seem that a couple of training problems may exist.
From the past, the old discredited adverts from BT Consumer about �Infinity� had the sales staff genuinely amazed when they were told by users that other ISPs also supplied FTTC. There were many posters on these forums being told FTTC was �only from BT�.
I moved from O2 ADSL2+ to FTTC with IDNet, but when I decided after my 12 months that the premium pricing didn�t really justify itself to me I enquired about migrating it to BT the BT sales staff and immediate management were adamant I could not be correct about having it already and I was mistaken. It that FTTC meant Infinity, and that was �only available from BT� was deep-seated in their heads.
That was why I ended up with Plusnet, who managed to get me across even though their ordering system didn�t have inward FTTC migration built in at the time.
The second aspect of the thread is this �single order� one, where I wonder if some BT CS are confused about the known Openreach ordering system problem that doesn�t generally allow any order to be placed on a line when there is a non-completed one outstanding.
Could the staff not be realising that line rental saver is nothing whatsoever to do with a Openreach? That they haven�t been told that product changes that don�t cause an order to be placed on Openreach do not have this problem?
Maybe it is just too complicated for the script-writers.
My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk. Domains, site and mail hosting - Tsohost.
Connection - Three 4G, tbb tests normally 35-45Mpbs down, 65Mbps off-peak, 9-24 up.
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"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde |
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Just done this in Dec via the website with no issues, there was an option later to not get the new router, phone tariffs came in a 2nd step. But all done at the same time.
Thanks. Just went via the website again. The 9.99 charge for the router disappeared as soon as I selected the package and went to the next screen. It had also worked out I was on anytime calls and put me on the new anytime tariff - which I edited to the 500 minutes option. All gone through smoothly. I declined on the option to give £1 a month to their new sports charity... It looks like BT are slowly getting things right on their website.
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Or it may be because we don't know where the OP is and experience of an area in Cornwall that may be relatively close is potentially relevant. That's rather the point. Helston isn't close to the far West of Cornwall, either physically or - more relevant - as far as infrastructure is concerned.
I might as well say that I am in Brighton and can get Virgin cable here.
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the most monotone poster here
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Tamar crossing on the A30 (Cornwall/Devon border to save people having to look it up) to Helston 64-67 miles depending on the route. Helston to Land's End, 23 miles.
Close enough to justify my questions about where the poster actually means and whether they have been (possibly unintentionally) misled by BT staff.
I feel a jaunt to Sennen Cove calling. It is a beautiful sunny day .
My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk. Domains, site and mail hosting - Tsohost.
Connection - Three 4G, tbb tests normally 35-45Mpbs down, 65Mbps off-peak, 9-24 up.
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"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde |
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You probably have to live in Cornwall to appreciate the difference. It's not something that can be measured in miles.
BTW, the real far West of Cornwall is more than 26 miles beyond Lands End - but I doubt that's where the OP meant. 
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the most monotone poster here Edited by TinyMongomery (Fri 10-Jan-20 11:28:56)
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I don't think the OP has mentioned whether their new 'fibre' connection is going to be via VDSL (pseudo-fibre) or FTTP (proper fibre).
If it is FTTP then it's not unusual to find that there are a very limited number of possible providers (including those already mentioned, i.e. BT and Zen) so not due to being in the far west of Cornwall.
As for Brighton, AFAIK there's no Virgin cable there or indeed any other part of Cornwall.
Edited a few words ( in bold) to reflect that I was incorrectly addressing TinyMontgomery in terms of answering the OP
FTTP 80/20 Mbps
Edited by Rastus (Fri 10-Jan-20 11:47:50)
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As for Brighton, AFAIK there's no Virgin cable there or indeed any other part of Cornwall.
Good one.
(It is, apparently, available in parts of Saltash - but I'm sure no-one would claim that as Cornwall. )
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the most monotone poster here
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Sennen has a small Huawei combo on the left soon after you arrive. Turn right a few yards further on to Sennen Cove and there is another on the right not far down.
So definitely FTTC in the area. About a mile and a half from the Land's End Hotel.
I also took a photo of what could be an FTTP DP at the top of a telegraph pole on the road along the front towards the RNLI station down at the Cove. I'll perhaps post it somewhere later for someone to check.
At least we can be sure FTTC is available less than two miles from LE, and if only BT Consumer can supply it I will be very surprised.
My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk. Domains, site and mail hosting - Tsohost.
Connection - Three 4G, tbb tests normally 35-45Mpbs down, 65Mbps off-peak, 9-24 up.
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"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde |
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Helston, Porthleven, Sennen...they're up-county, almost up-country, aren't they?
We're west of Newlyn, actually. BT seemingly found it cheaper/easier/more convenient to meet their cabling/connection SLA by laying FTTP infrastructure to our small estate rather than mess around with FTTC in cabinets which are regularly hit by farm machinery!
So, defo no fibre from Sky, Virgin, Talk Talk etc but, as previously advised, we can now have fibre from Zen as well as BT so that's definitely an option when it comes to renewal
Time for a pasty, I think.....proper job!
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Sky and talk talk don't yet sell their services over widely Openreach FTTP. There are other ISPs that do, but still not that many.
Virgin only sell using their own network.
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Sennen<>Newlyn
My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk. Domains, site and mail hosting - Tsohost.
Connection - Three 4G, tbb tests normally 35-45Mpbs down, 65Mbps off-peak, 9-24 up.
==================================================
"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde
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Ironic that just a few miles from you used to be the hub for communications with the rest of the world - now it's a haven for naturists.
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the most monotone poster here |
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Still got the main gchq cable tap 'just round the corner'
Edited by deleted (Sat 11-Jan-20 21:38:56)
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Goonhilly?
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Porthcurno.
My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk. Domains, site and mail hosting - Tsohost.
Connection - Three 4G, tbb tests normally 35-45Mpbs down, 65Mbps off-peak, 9-24 up.
==================================================
"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde |
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I sympathise, their customer support is woeful.
I've got a different problem in tthat I signed up to one of those deals via website that promises £28.99 pcm... except BT have no record of it and want to charge me £44.49 instead.
I've still got the email and a ref no from the website but BT are dragging their heels/unable to come to any decision about.
At this rate I'll have to cancel the contract and re-order it all over again. Madness. I'm still within the 14 day cooling off period but its running out fast.
Onto the phone again on monday...
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That's where the cables come ashore..... I was thinking of the place a couple of miles NW of Porthcurno!
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Ironic that just a few miles from you used to be the hub for communications with the rest of the world - now it's a haven for naturists.
Only a bare-bones system left, then.
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Via the official BT web site. Or a third-party web site? Or even a third-party web site passing itself off as the official BT web site?
BT Infinity 1 (unlimited)
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I was replying to the Goonhilly suggestion/question .
My broadband basic info/help site - www.robertos.me.uk. Domains, site and mail hosting - Tsohost.
Connection - Three 4G, tbb tests normally 35-45Mpbs down, 65Mbps off-peak, 9-24 up.
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"Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the people." Oscar Wilde |
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Perhaps if they used the original Poldhu cabling?
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Poldhu was strictly wireless.
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the most monotone poster here |
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Poetic licence. It's obvious you'd NOT use the "cables" for broadband - but all power to you, for educating me...
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