Cramlington exchange enabled

For anyone interested, the Cramlington exchange is now 'live' for FTTC and BT are accepting orders. Booked mine, soonest engineer date (inc new line install) is 17th March.

Happy days!

Thought it worth following this up with a summary of my dealings with BT so far...

- I placed order with BT on 24th Feb for a new line to be installed, and BT Infinity to then be installed.

- I got an installation for both the line and BT Infinity of 17th March.

- Line install got brought forward and was actually installed on 12th March.

- I checked the online order tracking portal at BT on 16th March to make sure the 17th was still on for the Infinity install. Saw that the date had changed to 23rd March. Needless to say, I was straight on the phone to BT.
They told me that 'as it was a new line that the fibre service was being installed onto, the date of the 17th hadn't transferred into the engineer's system and - as a result, the soonest date possible would be 23rd March'.

- I obtained an assurance by the BT person that this date was set, and there would be no delays.

- 23rd March: I had taken a day off work to be at home when BT engineer arrived.
It was an 0800-1300hrs appointment scheduled.
No contact had been made with me by 1315hrs, so I called BT to be fobbed off with all sorts of B.S. and after about 35mins of hanging on the phone I was told to expect a call from a local (Openreach?) engineer later that day.

- 1800hrs came and went, so I called BT again.
More B.S. - told I will definitely get a call by the close of business the next day (i.e. 1700hrs on 24th March).

- 24th March: no call, so I phoned BT again. Yet more rubbish from them, and I still have no idea what is going on.

- 25th March (today): logged back into the portal to be confronted with a new date of 8th April (2 weeks from today). I called BT to question why a further 2 weeks when I should have been a priority case, due to them having missed 2 prior appointment dates.
More holding on the phone, then eventually the rep at the other end came back to tell me exactly nothing.

- Told them I was not happy to go ahead with BT Infinity, as if they cannot even communicate with a customer why their time was being wasted then I held out very little, if any, hope of them resolving any future problems should they arise. So I cancelled my order, to be told that the line would be freed up no sooner than Tuesday of next week!!!

An absolutely abysmal, frustrating service from BT.

I've today pre-advised Aquiss that I'll be signing with them as soon as the line is clear of the stench that is BT!!!

Seeing a few more posts like this recently. Seems if a new line install is involved there's a far larger potential for it to get screwed up in epic fashion as it works it's way through the ordering systems.

Assuming you actually have a new line now and a phone number, what do the checkers say?

i went with aquiss you wont be dissapointed as they say you pay for what you get . its a bit more expensive than BT but aquiss CS look after you and i got my install date within 5 days and that was moving from a different isp as well

Haha. This is getting even better.

I've just received an email from BT telling me that they are also cancelling my new phone line today!!!!!!!!

I'm on the phone to BT as we speak (on hold, of course), but I'm getting very, very close to losing my temper with someone ...

whats the outcome

Hi,

The checkers have said since 14th March that I am in a fibre enabled area and should be expecting sync around 36 / 9.1

A little bit further forward (just a little bit mind!):

- Delays with engineers apparently due to 'some new equipment needed in the exchange', according to the BT lady I spoke to this afternoon. What that equipment was, she wasn't at liberty to say, but at least it's a reason that I am willing to believe.
Quite why engineers who install phones can't be bothered to actually use them to inform customers that they won't be keeping appointments I will never know!!

- The phone line was cancelled as it's a part of a 'package' that included the BT Infinity service that I told them not to proceed with. It seems that if you sign up for a line and the broadband service at the same time, if you cancel the broadband they automatically cancel the line!!

- I've been promised a phone call on Monday from a support centre worker (amazingly, I got her name and her mobile number) to let me know that if she wasn't able to call off the line cancellation process today, that they have reinstated the connection with the same number I had before.

Still one or two things that can go t*ts up, but at least there's some progress.....