Infinity 2 - Fibre to the Wrong Cabinet

Thought I would share my experience thus far:

I ordered Infinity 2 on 27th November, was given an install date on 7th December, which I felt was slow, but I figured worth the wait. Booked half a day off work, rushed home, engineer was a nice chap, but the job spec had the wrong cabinet, therefore he could not get the service working, although he installed the openreach socket and left me with a shiny new VDSL modem.

Customer service no help whatsoever, didn't even apologise. I even got a text message claiming that I had missed the appointment!

Next date given: 21st December. This time the engineer is a contractor, he faces the exact same problem (down to the same incorrect cabinet number).

Customer services pretty apologetic this time, sent me a free 3G dongle (doesn't work, but hey). Next date: 15th Jan - I was on holiday for the first two weeks of Jan. Before I went away I received two calls from customer services assuring me they had fixed the "routing" problems, and one call from an engineer checking that the phone line was working.

15th of Jan arrives and the Open Reach Engineer (contractor) is great, but once again the job spec has the wrong cabinet on it. He was even patient enough to wait whilst I got through to customer services and he spoke to them himself for me. I am now awaiting a call back.

So that's three lots of 3/4 of a day off work (inluding travel time) and still no connection. Anyone else finding it's hard to get this product up and running?

I'm not clear why there's still a problem.

It's not unknown for pair details to be wrong on the records - the engineer who installed our FTTC was given details of a pair which, in his words, was hanging in the wind in the PCP. A few minutes with an oscillator and probe sorted out the problem.


Presumably the first engineer went as far as identifying the correct PCP and pair, using an oscillator and probe if necessary. That should have allowed him to submit the correct details. If so, there's little reason other than human error for two subsequent failed visits.

Is there any hope you can persuade someone at BT to read through the engineer notes and chase Openreach for a resolution?

The second and third engineers had no idea this was anything other than a first visit, so I think you have hit the nail on the head - no one is reading the notes from prior visits! However, today's engineer did write very clear notes (on his tablet, right in front of me) so I will certainly ask customer services to make sure they are read this time!

Thanks - I'll keep you posted.

Customer service usually do not get to see the openreach notes, as they are a different division/company. All that usually is shown is a code I believe.

BT Retail needs to ensure that Openreach are made aware of the type of visit required, both parties in this game are known for pressing buttons but not filling the boxes correctly.

BT as a whole organisation are a shower of ****, far too fragmented and divided. My son had 17 engineer visits at his rented property to sort out a 'poor' voice line, none of the 17 had any idea of previous visits or notes.

The suggested remedy is to email the sorry saga to the CEO, Ian Livingstone who I would hope would not be happy with this waste of resources or poor customer service.

[email protected]

The fragmentation is what the regulator wants, so that other providers have the same equivalent level of access to various parts of the group.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

The fragmentation is what the regulator wants, so that other providers have the same equivalent level of access to various parts of the group.

With a recent fault on a line it required something like 7 office based individuals in t e chain plus the technician. Previously it would have been 2 ! There are some many chances for a minor mistake to become a very big one and then there is the additional costs that the fragmentation brings.

All that's needed are for the notes to be read and acted on properly before another engineer is sent - it doesn't much matter if they never leave Openreach.

Sadly, this seems to be too much to hope for sometimes.

Indeed - in my son's case, 16 visits reporting house ok, fault in exchange. No 17 arrives at house to check wiring.............

I wonder -

There may be a pre-existing tie from one cab to another.

I know this is possible as back in the dim and distant past my mother was having repeat loss of sync on her ADSL connection and an appaulingly high attenuation given her distance ATCF from the exchange - 62dB when 1.89KM from exchange.

Eventually Openreach connected her line in WWEXTR PCP160 to a tie in that PCP, which then went to PCP64, which then went back to WWEXTR.

She then had a 42dB attenuation, over double the sync rate and no loss of connection.

Perhaps your line can be routed to the PCP listed on the job sheet in the same way but the engineers aren't aware of the tie?

who does read the notes?

I remember you posting about this in the past and I think your case is highly unusual, because BT usually are highly resistant to rerouting lines, curious how you got that achieved.

I have an annual maintenance visit from British Gas for the boiler and central heating. Plus having 7-8 callouts and other work in the last 5 years.

They just bring up the site history on their laptops. Simples.

My last visit from Openreach was to install FTTC. It went fine. Before that, a few years ago the drop wire from the pole was replaced as it had been damaged by tree branches. Three weeks later, the phone went berserk with noise.

The (very good) engineer who fixed that had the fault report for the noise. No history at all - not even the drop wire replacement three weeks previously. It turned out to be faulty crimps from a duff batch, at the house end of the new drop wire).

Fortunately I was here, so given the recent history by me she went straight to the cause.

Utter lunacy from a company supposedly at the forefront of technology. The waste of engineer time must be huge.

It is the scourge of the job that notes are not read. but you'll be bollocked if you put none on !

In the OP's case, have seen something similar. Routing and records need to update the records held, THEN Openreach FTTC provision team need to be made aware that the punters line is off of a different PCP, THEN a spare port needs to be made live on the correct cab, then, and only then, should an appointment be made for the provision of service.

All hugely unsatisfactory for the punter, and at every stage requires someone to take ownership of the issue.

Routing and records need to update ...

That sounds like a department?

It is.
Most updates for routing can be done via closure screens on the work manager software the engineers laptop runs. These will only get updated if the system the other end sees the suggested routing as spare. For more 'major' routing changes, it is always worth actually ringing them direct.

Engineer's laptop? My Kelly Communications engineer had a Samsung smartphone!!

In reply to a post by bluefish2303:

My Kelly Communications engineer had a Samsung smartphone!!

Must have been a very senior one to get a smartphone. Or very junior, to add to his IQ.

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

I remember you posting about this in the past and I think your case is highly unusual, because BT usually are highly resistant to rerouting lines, curious how you got that achieved.

It was a *REALLY* quiet time. So quiet that the engineers turned up the same day I reported the fault!

I was a bit naughty, too.

I reported it as a PSTN fault on the BT Retail website under the category "Low transmission" and advised the engineers that the problem was that voice would fade into inaudibility every evening.

I had also found out about the possibility of re-routing the line from someone I was speaking to on another popular forum. They checked the plans for the area and advised of the presence of a link to a cab with a shorter E-Side, so I actually presented the engineers with the plan when they arrived.

They obviously didn't record the work they had done though as when the line was moved over to Sky's fully LLU'd service the line went dead - no voice or ADSL.

When they fixed that fault the attenuation went back up to 62dB, suggesting that the records showed the line was still on the old E-Side, so when Openreach re-jumpered the line to Sky's Voice / ADSL MSAN, they did it on the original E-Side at the MDF.

No matter, she's sold that house now

All fun and games!

Edited by deleted (Wed 16-Jan-13 19:03:48)

Solved: My original order for Infinity also included moving my number to a new home. The details that got to openreach had my new address but the old phone number, which the previous owners had taken with them a mile or two away. So openreach activated the firbre port on a cabinet in one part of town, and sent the engineer to an address in another part of town - three times!

It was only the third engineer who queried why I didn't pick up the land line when he rang, and realised the number was wrong. BT broadband then cancelled the order and placed a new one (I got a new "VOL" and email). The fourth appointment today was successful.

Thanks for everyone's input!