FTTPod order: A couple of missing nails!

Perhaps this belongs in the main FTTPoD thread but this is more about Openreach and the way they do certain things.

For over a year I've been on a long and sometimes exasperating journey to get FTTPoD, and one I sorely wish I'd never started. Of course Covid-19 interrupted this to some degree, and perhaps should be partly to blame.

I live on a B road, on the Wickersley exchange where there's lots of Openreach infrastructure including two FTTC cabs one quite nearby and another about 900meters away. The one I'm connected to currently gives me a capped 25000KB/S, but never much more, so just over a year ago I decided to get a survey and quote for getting FTTPoD installed, which was on the high side of what was expected but nevertheless it was ordered with great anticipation, and then I was committed (I should be) to the FTTPoD installation process.

We are now at the end of that long roller coaster of a process, the CBT is on the top of the pole which is next door, and they did an audit on the installation, which has to pass before they will connect an overhead cable from my house to the CBT.

There were two Openreach vans outside a few weeks ago - and I spoke to one of the engineers, and he said they were doing the audit for my connection. Later that morning I went out - and was told in an extremely serious tone of voice: "The metal covering should have 16 nails in it, and there are only 14 nails. in it" - He also told me that if it was a native FTTP - it would have already been connected, with or without the nails but FTTPoD is different.

What?????

This is a metal sheath like affair which goes up the pole covering the cable, up to a certain height with a metal collar on the base of it covering the exit hole where the cable comes out from a chamber they put in the pavement. On the right side of that metal collar at the base of the pole there are two missing nails. So there are 14, and not 16.

The job controllers have advised today that the circuit failed its audit and has since been sent back to the field team to rectify the errors in the build.
These are minor and should not cause undue delay


Since then nothing. I've been checking for the nails every day since lol! It's clear that these two wretched nails are holding up the next stage of my connection. There are Openreach people working all the time on a new estate being built over my back fence. Indeed the fellow checking the circuit had took time away from working there.

So now I am waiting for someone to come and bang two wretched nails into a telegraph pole so I can get connected. Words cannot currently express the venom I feel for that company right now. No doubt even when they hammer in the nails it will have to be checked and double checked again. No doubt they might find that the similar collar which protects the copper multi core cable going up the pole is completely missing altogether. Maybe that might be the next excuse not to finally connect me.

Then of course - where I live (Wickersley) is now on the official list to get native FTTP - when that might be I've no idea. Probably by 2026 at the rate they seem to do things. Everyone else round here will get FTTP and I will still be waiting for my FTTPoD connection to be finished and the nails still won't be hammered into that collar.

By the way they are special nails with large round shiny metal cylindrical heads. Otherwise I'd have gone round to Screw-Fix to get some and hammered the darn things myself.

I've always found Openreach engineers very approachable/helpful, maybe these guys got out of the wrong side of the bed that day as it would have been quicker to put the nails in the capping rather than failing its audit.

sounds like they're getting sick of tidying up after sub-contractor mistakes so they're making a point of this one

In reply to a post by moosekebab:

sounds like they're getting sick of tidying up after sub-contractor mistakes so they're making a point of this one

You make a good point

In reply to a post by moosekebab:

sounds like they're getting sick of tidying up after sub-contractor mistakes so they're making a point of this one

Well, that might be true, and I could understand it, but the people who did the work were Openreach engineers, or at least they came in a large Openreach van, and then an Openreach cherry picker arrived, so they could put the CBT at the top of the pole.

Perhaps the fellow who did the audit didn't know who had done the work. But he did mention the nails otherwise I wouldn't have even thought about such a thing being a showstopper.

He was quite friendly, I must admit that. I had no problem with him at all. Just the system that's all.

Regards,
Shaun.

Edited by shaunhw (Sun 30-Aug-20 23:53:09)

This time its Openreach but sadly it's "Big company syndrome" hundreds of policies and procedures to follow passed through multiple tiers of authorization and responsibility, Unfortunately inevitable, These companies loose the flexibility and 'obvious' resolutions to the simplest of tasks, and its it very frustrating for customers and staff alike, I left my last job some ten years ago and a large part of that decision was the life sapping frustration of not being able to simply do the job i was being paid for because of the imposed hurdles and blocks to progress, all possibly well intentioned at inception.

Hope you get sorted soon, telecoms really does seem to be an industry that likes to ruin their customers experience of buying something at every available opportunity.

Swac3 wrote:

Hope you get sorted soon, telecoms really does seem to be an industry that likes to ruin their customers experience of buying something at every available opportunity.

Thanks.

You're not kidding though. I wonder how humanity ever did without them for so long.

Anyway - no update - despite one promised in 3-5 working days, which is now overdue.
The last update told me the audit had failed, but with only minor issues "which should not cause unduly delay" progress. Well it seems it has.


It wouldn't be so bad if I could be kept more up to date on the reasoning for the delay.

I looked again at the collar, and though one nail was hard to see, there is in fact only one nail missing. Right near the copper multicore cable for the telephone services on the pole.

No one has been to fix it. The nail is still missing.

Regards,
Shaun.

Edited by shaunhw (Fri 04-Sep-20 16:04:09)

this "stupidity" is the sort of thing that should be brought to the attention of the CEO.
to fail just because a couple of nails are missing is madness. why didnt the TWO "engineers" just hammer in a couple or have they not been trained to use a hammer so couldnt fill out a risk assessment

In reply to a post by threelegs:

this "stupidity" is the sort of thing that should be brought to the attention of the CEO.
to fail just because a couple of nails are missing is madness. why didnt the TWO "engineers" just hammer in a couple or have they not been trained to use a hammer so couldnt fill out a risk assessment

I agree completely.

But they hammered all the other nails in - and there seems to be just one nail missing in fact.

There's a commented picture of it here:
https://tinyurl.com/yyvsb7t5

The problem is that the copper multicore cable which goes up the pole, also comes out of the ground very near the hole in the collar where the nail is missing. I don't know if that has anything to do with it or not. But it's clear that the position of that cable, means they didn't have quite enough of it, when it went up the pole because it bends round quite tightly where it leaves the ground. Which makes me wonder why they didn't put that further round the pole nearer the front so it didn't need to bend backwards...

A skilled person could have fitted a nail, I am sure of that, without cable damage and in any case that's nothing to do with the fibre build. They could connect me, and then fix all that at their own convenience without me wondering what has gone wrong.

Right now, if they don't at least keep me fully informed, I feel like bringing a case of breach of contract. I presume Openreach will have already been paid all the money (about 9.5K + survey costs) I paid the service provider up-front to build the connection?

Shaun.

Edited by shaunhw (Sat 05-Sep-20 18:40:20)

I think you are getting hung up about a nail in a connector bend.

I doubt it has any impact on your delay.