Help me make OpenReach see reason...

Essentially, my issue boils down to not being able to order FTTC, when there is no technological or logistical reason why I should not be able to. The line to my property was originally Exchange-only; as part of attempts to fix it previously, it was re-provisioned from a cabinet less than 150m away from the property. That cabinet is Fibre-enabled (a Huawei 288). Unfortunately, the BT Wholesale database was not updated correctly, indicating that the distance to the PCP was the original distance from property to the exchange, thus locking me out of ordering Fibre.

I pushed my provider to clarify and resolve this with BT Wholesale, but it had the opposite effect; the line is now once again reported as EO, despite the fact that multiple engineers have confirmed that the line is connected at Cabinet 2, with separate D and E sides.

All of this happened towards the end of last year, and after contacting them today to give them one last chance to resolve things, we've called it a day. Now, I need to try to get OR to correct their database so I can migrate to a different provider. Any help or advice anyone can offer would be greatly appreciated.

A clearly worded, brief but to the point, e-mail message highlighting all the relevant facts sent to [removed by tbb] should promote some higher level activity.

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 22:04:39)

I'd probably migrate to a decent supplier and then get them to donthe chasing for it to be updated.

burakkucat's advice is the best course of action to follow.

Who is your provider right now?

Edit: Seen in the OP's profile he is with Plusnet.

My advice would be to speak to Chris Parr or other members of staff on here/Plusnet forums. They should be able to raise this as a data integrity issue with Openreach's database.

Edited by deleted (Thu 16-Mar-17 16:09:29)

It's quite a drastic move to do that, and you will end up paying a lot more for a 'decent supplier'.

There are plenty of capable Plusnet staff on here/their forums who can raise this and provide feedback. I think the biggest issue is getting a staff member to understand the issue, coordinate it with Openreach and then report back to the OP.

In reply to a post by burakkucat:

A clearly worded, brief but to the point, e-mail message highlighting all the relevant facts sent to [removed by tbb] should promote some higher level activity.

It seems they're no longer monitoring that e-mail, as I did give that a go towards the end of last year, but to no avail I managed to get an automated response and a reference number from an OpenReach form yesterday though, so fingers crossed someone picks up the case this time.

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 22:03:33)

In reply to a post by AndyHCZ:

Who is your provider right now?

Edit: Seen in the OP's profile he is with Plusnet.

My advice would be to speak to Chris Parr or other members of staff on here/Plusnet forums. They should be able to raise this as a data integrity issue with Openreach's database.

The bridges with PlusNet are well and truly burnt at this point; they just spent 2 years alternating between implying that I was an idiot, and implying that I was a liar.

It eventually culminated in a senior member of their faults team calling me, 5 days before Christmas last year, and telling me in no uncertain terms that PlusNet will not be fixing the issue, and that they considered the matter closed, regardless of how I felt about it.

The chap then asked why I didn't just move house if this was such a big problem; eventually I decided that explaining to them, yet again, that I'm < 150m away from a FTTC cab, and should - by rights - be getting 80/20, wasn't going to do anything.

I really would suggest trying a final time with a couple of members of staff who are very helpful and knowledgeable.

Try sending a message to Chris on here - http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/showprofile.php?Use... and also try posting on the Plusnet forums if you haven't done so already.

Out of interest, what happens if you put in your address here www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome ?

In reply to a post by AndyHCZ:

Out of interest, what happens if you put in your address here www.dslchecker.bt.com/adsl/adslchecker.welcome ?

DSLChecker is down currently, but if I check by address it shows as EO (as expected, originally the entire block was EO); if I pick a different premises with the same post code, it shows FTTC available at 80/20.

You really need someone who will raise this with ORDI (Openreach Data Integrity) and then go through the channels there. Problem is, only your current phone provider can do this (which I assume is Plusnet).

The guys on the Plusnet forum know about this process so should be able to help.

Edited by deleted (Thu 16-Mar-17 17:48:52)

PlusNet support REALLY don't seem to know what they're doing, unfortunately. It was their last call to ODI which changed the database back to saying that I'm EO

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that OR get back to me via their Formwize, but failing that I imagine I'll be in the market for a new ISP.

Have you tried the Twitter team also? They will have some internal contacts within Openreach that might be able to help.

Openreach are also on Twitter so maybe worth ago ?

https://twitter.com/openreachgb

It will take a few exchanges before you get anywhere, but I think they will refer it internally then.

Heard back from OpenReach, only took them 10 days.

Unfortunately because your query has come through to a helpdesk we have no information regarding this and we are only set up to help point you in the right direction. Regarding the above query I would recommend you contact your service provider because they will deal with your order and have all the details needed. It is their role to liaise with Openreach on your behalf to investigate such issues. If they need to contact Openreach to find any information you are looking for then they are more than welcome to call. This is the agreed process between Openreach and your service provider.

Unfortunately the helpdesk cannot assist you any further with this query.

Thank you again for contacting Openreach.

Kind regards,

Lucy
Further Help Advisor

Absolutely [censored] useless. I really don't know what to do at this point, except take a hammer to the PCP and collar whoever shows up to fix it.

Edited by deleted (Fri 24-Mar-17 23:41:41)

How did it get to that department?

Have you tried emailing the [email protected] (CEO of BT Group) or [email protected] (Chairman of BT)

I sent both of them an email end of last year and I heard back within a few days (if that).

Also try this form: https://www.formwize.com/run/survey3.cfm?idx=505d040...

And choose "Why is there a delay in providing my fibre broadband?" for section 8.
And then wait upto 7 to 10 days for a reply, this is just to get a ref number and also to reply with questions.

Or you could try this form: https://www.formwize.com/run/survey3.cfm?idx=505d040...
And just ask for answers.

That's all I can say to try.

Paul

The latter form was the one I used.

I e-mailed Gavin and Clive (Selley) last year, but both were ignored.

I also contacted Ofcom, who basically said there was nothing they could do, and they could just log the complaint for "statistics".

Is there seriously no accountability whatsoever?

In reply to a post by mdc:

The latter form was the one I used.

I e-mailed Gavin and Clive (Selley) last year, but both were ignored.

I also contacted Ofcom, who basically said there was nothing they could do, and they could just log the complaint for "statistics".

Is there seriously no accountability whatsoever?

Try the chairman's office at BT, the one I sent to Clive Selley also got ignored.
TBH I am not too sure which one they responded to due to I sent the last email to both Gavin Patterson and Michael Rake, but in the phone call they said they was from the Chairman's Office, so I think it was the second email address that was answered.

All the phone calls from that point up to when it was all resolved they was very polite and apologetic and also listened to me when I was explaining the issues to them.

So I cannot fault them for that.

Also there are these email addresses that you could try, I know they were live end of last year.

[email protected]
[email protected]

Paul

Clive Selley was who I emailed to fix a database error like this. I emailed him at 4am and he personally replied at 5am. His lackies then responded on his behalf later in the day and opened a 2nd case.

They have a whole team who answer emails on his behalf and forward some cases on to the HLC/HLE dept (high level complaints/enquiries). Perhaps he had no such team back when you's emailed him?

We point quite a few folk to Clives email over at Kitz and most seem to get a great response. A guy recently had OpenReach digging up his garden 2 days after emailing Clive. It can't do any harm to try again.