FTTC install failure (twice!)

Just after the beginning of April my exchange was enabled for FTTC, which I ordered and upgrade to from my current ISP (Entanet) via my reseller. All seemed fine, and got an install date of the 16th of April.

When the 16th came around, I got a call from the engineer saying he'd be with me in 20 minutes to install the FTTC modem at my house. However 30 minutes later I got a call from him explaining that my line was not where all his documentation said it was, and that he'd not be able to do the install as he couldnt find it, that he'd investigate more, and then update the call to state what needed doing and that I should call my ISP to get them to rearrange the install for a later date.

I spent the next week (up until yesterday in fact) chasing Entanet up (who couldn't have been more helpful, and were probably quite tired of me) as BT seemed incapable of giving them another date. Then came this morning when I got a call from Entanet saying they were surprised to see an email that came in late yesterday stating BT would be on site this morning for a second visit - which was effectively zero notice from BT given it was sent to Entanet after offce hours yesterday.

Thankfully someone happened to be in so we were all systems go, or so I thought. I got a call around an hour later from home saying the BT engineer had once again been unable to upgrade my line as the documentation said my line was somewhere it wasn't (echoes of first visit..). I'll admit I wasn't shocked. But this engineer bothered to investigate more, and seems that my line is documented as going to cabinet 3 here, but apparently it goes to cabinet 5 (which has no associated FTTC cabs at this time according to the engineer) so once again, nothing he could do and we'd require the call to be put through the booking process again.

He said he would put a note on it to explain exactly what's wrong and why he couldn't finish it, he also said that it should have been put through the BT sales process after the first visit (instead of just sending him out with the same worksheet) to be planned again.

Has anyone else been in this position? I'm worried this is going to take quite some time to get BT to do something - I'm assuming we'll need at least a couple of visits to get this sorted, one to move our line to the correct cab, and the second to actually provision the FTTC.

Postcode?

DY12 2PQ

In reply to a post by summat:

..., one to move our line to the correct cab, ...

Er, isn't that just a teensy bit over-optimistic?

Both cabinets are supposed to be done in Phase 7b, according to the December data. However there is a newer April 2012 version that isn't out in the open yet. Cab 5 might have been delayed . I'll see if I can find out anything.

Ok so maybe I should have phrased it "two more 'jobs' with an undetermined number of 'visits' per job".

Friend had 3 lines installed over the last 2 weeks at his office, by a total of 9 different engineer visits. Two different contractors, and I think currently two of the three work...

He means the chnaces of getting your connection moved to another cabinet are extremely low. Unless you want to fork out a few thousand quid.

Yeah I already had a check of the December data.
I bet even if 5 was enabled they couldn't have hooked me up as I'm not where I'm supposed to be.
Many thanks if you can get any more info. Why can things never be simple!

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

He means the chances of getting your connection moved to another cabinet are extremely low. Unless you want to fork out a few thousand quid.

Yep, that's what I meant!

Your postcode indeed served by two cabs.

Cab 5 serves 37% of properties and cab 3 serves the other 63% of properties.

Cab 5 actually went live on the 2nd April 2012, so if you are actually on this cab you should be able to get it.

I suspect that their records show you are on cab 5, hence why you were able to place an order, but when it came down to installation they found their records are wrong, and you are served by cab 3 instead, which is not yet enabled so you can't get FTTC yet from this cab.

Hope this helps...

Thanks for taking a look James.

I got the cab 3/5 info second hand from my brother so he might have got things the other way around I guess. Nothing more can be done by me I guess, just have to wait for BT to decide if they can give me it or not.

Time will tell.

My naivety shocks me at times.

Seen a couple of these round here, huge PITA's. The important bit is that at some point someone accurately records which cabinet your line runs through. Once this is correct, then it must be ensured that an FTTC port on the correct cabinet is provisioned.

Looks like James at ADSL24 has beaten me to it.

Interesting that he is saying the opposite of what you understood from the engineer. Did you possibly post it here wrong way round?

Quite possible as I said to James in my reply, was second hand info from brother, very easy to get things wrong way around.

Either way, need to wait for BT to either say they can sort it, or they can't, and so I can't get FTTC. I shall await any kind of reply I guess!

In reply to a post by summat:

Quite possible as I said to James in my reply, was second hand info from brother, very easy to get things wrong way around.

Yes, I had that almost ready to post and got called away, when James had posted and his was the latest post. So I didn't see the intervening ones until afterwards.

Either way, need to wait for BT to either say they can sort it, or they can't, and so I can't get FTTC. I shall await any kind of reply I guess!

I don't think you need to worry about getting it. Just when, is the question. Take a walk and find cab 3.

http://g.co/maps/6fecu

Their is cabinet 3.

Not a likely place for a fibre cab . Possibly against the brick wall across the road? So road works to put in the link may be the holdup.

Edited by RobertoS (Thu 26-Apr-12 09:26:18)

That's actually exactly where a FTTC cab popped up a little while back in Feb or so.
Just against that fence by the bus stop. There was a tiny trench dug between cab3 and the FTTC cab which now has a strip of fresh tarmac over. Hopefully it wont be too far behind cab5 (not sure where that is..) in being activated.

On the bright side that's about 50 yards from my house so connection ought to be pretty good.

Edit: Come to think of it that cab has actually been replaced by a much more modern looking one than in that picture.

Edited by summat (Thu 26-Apr-12 12:43:18)

http://g.co/maps/7yp2c

That will be cab 5, just up the road from cabinet 3.