BT Infinity installation nightmare

With a just-active FTTC cabinet 100 yards away I requested a MAC from Xilo on 25th February. I received it on 3rd March and immediately placed an order for BT Infinity, entering the MAC on the order form. A letter from BT dated 4th March confirmed the order, stated that the Home Hub would be delivered on 9th March and that the installation would take place on the 11th March.

The Home Hub arrived on schedule but the engineer did not turn up to do the installation on the 11th with no phone call to say why. I rang BT in the evening to be told that there had been a glitch in their communications and the installation engineer had not been booked. Abject apologies, and the installation was re-scheduled for the afternoon of 21st March.

The engineer did not turn up to do the installation on the 21st and again there was no phone call to say why. Being twice bitten, I rang BT mid-afternoon to be told that there was a problem with the order and that the installation specialist team would phone me in the next 4 hours. They didn't. Rang BT again, and was told that that the team would contact me early this morning. They didn't.

I rang BT later this morning, and this time was passed on to someone who sounded as though they knew what was what. They said BT Wholesale had rejected the order because they had not received a MAC code. I repeated the MAC to them, whereupon they reinstated the order and came up with an installation date of 28th March. I asked if this could be expedited and was told they would try for the 24th. I could expect a call back to say when.

They called back! Bad news, the order had not been accepted by BT Wholesale because there was an "Open Order" on the line. My contact promised to get this resolved within 24 hours.

When I try to track the order on the BT site I get "The order details you have entered were for a cancelled order, which we are unable to display."

Edit: I've just received an email with a new order number scheduling installation on the 29th March. However, the order tracker says: "We will contact you shortly to re-schedule your appointment, if you wish to contact us regarding this, please call us on 0800 800 150.

The mind boggles. I'll keep you informed of "progress".

Edited by ffox (Tue 22-Mar-11 14:33:54)

You could of course cancel the Infinity order and get FTTC from xilo?

bit pricey though from Xilo

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

You could of course cancel the Infinity order and get FTTC from xilo?

I wouldn't be so cruel. They would have to deal with the same installation team and consequently wouldn't have time to support anyone else.

Update: BT Support phoned at 17:30 to say that "something" was delaying BT Wholesale; the chances of an installation on the 24th were zero and it didn't look as though the installation would be done on the 29th either!

Support were unable to tell me what "something" was. My MAC expires on the 30th so maybe the sorry saga will repeat itself throughout April.

We're not all ignorant cheapskates like yourself.

feel your pain bt customer servces are so poor , hence the reason i stay well clear from them i went with AQUISS and was installed within 7 days with updates on the order can not fault the service they provide

We're not all ignorant cheapskates like yourself.

Are you 15 years old? If not then why do you insist on behaving in a completely different manner than you would if you were speaking to someone face to face? Or perhaps you just think it's clever to wind people up? You never seem to have anything productive to say anyway.

I think you should twitter somewhere else.

Might have used slightly different wording but must agree, there was no need for zadeks post, and further instances like that will see moderators removing your right to post.

I assume you don't mean my right to post?

We wouldn't mind... after all, that REIN issue went on for ages

Matt

No, the installation wasn't done on the 29th!

There are rumours in the village that the BT Wholesale Checker was premature when it reported the CABs ready. That's a very plausible theory. I mentioned it when talking to BT Support - they would neither confirm nor deny.

If it really is the case, why don't BT say so? I would me much happier with a known situation rather than the nebulous "something is preventing the installation".

The initial date for the CABs was 31/12/10. This changed to 31/03/11 and then to 15/02/11. Perhaps the 31st March date will be reinstated but I'm not hopeful.

The support desk might be using inaccurate information too. If their checker said yes then they're using information received from "the other bit of BT" that says so.

The saga continues. BT Support said they would place the order manually themselves to resolve the problem. I got a second MAC code from Xilo and forwarded it to BT support yesterday morning.

This morning I couldn't connect to the internet although I was synched OK. After about an hour the internet came back up and emails arrived fom Xilo saying that they had received notification from BT that the migration was complete so the automatic system had cut me off. However, from what I'd said earlier they assumed the BT notification was an error, which of course it was. Excellent service from Xilo again.

Phoned BT support, who admit that currently they haven't a clue what is going on. They will phone me back when the situation is resolved.

Classic example why BT aren't worth their cheap rates.

Pay the extra and stick with a better supplier. Sure they are all using BTWS, but they're not as bad as BT Broadband. A good provider will ride BTWS to ensure the problem is resolved swiftly.