To cherry pick or not to cherry pick, that is the question!

So Community Fibre was supposed to be installed in my house by now. They came last Friday and the third party company hired by CF was unable to do the installation since the telegraph pole that serves my house has been marked as defective by Openreach. There are different levels of "defective" poles, mine being one of mild "defective" cases which means engineers can't climb it and need to use a cherry picker (aka boom lift). From what I read on the net Openreach may take years to replace mildly defective poles. In fact both Community Fibre and Openreach have enabled my post with FTTP using a cherry picker. So now replacing the telegraph pole will take more time/work as there are more services installed into it.

Anyway the third party company left without finishing the job. I spoke with CF Customer Services and they say they have an "open case with Engineering" which needs to make a decision on what to do now. I said there is no decision to make, just tell your installer to come with a cherry picker. The reason I say this is because 4 doors down my neighbours had CF installed from the same telegraph pole as my house. They had the same problem, installer needed a cherry picker but in their case they somehow got one within the hour. I don't know if this was a one off or what but clearly it can be done. I spoke with @CommunityFibre via Twitter and they said "the job may not be able to be completed" which is really silly as it obviously can be completed, just needs a cherry picker! If there is an additional cost for the cherry picker then CF should discuss this with me rather than saying the job can't be done. The third party installer clearly has a cherry picker. What's infuriating is that why would CF enable with FTTP a defective telegraph pole that needs a cherry picker if they are then not willing to install customers that need a cherry picker? Makes no sense at all!

I figure this is not uncommon problem in that there is usually a big disconnect between Customer Services, the "Engineering Team" and the installers in the street. So I am hoping this can be progressed. Does anyone got any contacts in Community Fibre to get this unblocked?

Thanks!

They had the same problem, installer needed a cherry picker but in their case they somehow got one within the hour. I don't know if this was a one off or what but clearly it can be done

Not too sure exactly how CF does this. Presumably along similar lines to Openreach - in that pickers and their operators can be 'available' to be booked by the install team at relatively short notice (same day), but other times if there is too much demand with other jobs, so they are fully booked and and advance booking is needed.

It shouldn't be particularly onerous though.

Exactly what I thought. Even looked at cherry picker cost, which is very cheap, an hour (which should be plenty) for £ 30:

https://www.checkatrade.com/blog/cost-guides/cherry-...

I'm not sure where they are getting those prices from but I would be amazed if anybody can make any money by the time they have turned up to your house, worked for an hour and then need to drive to the next job, and only charged £30 for it.

Our pole was labelled as do not climb about four years ago, if Kowboy Communications turn up to install FTTP they just climb it. Last week pole was replaced, pleased to say it was without any loss of service.

I did not think they climb poles these days, I thought it would be a health and safety thing, I was shocked when I saw someone doing it late last year when fibre was being rolled out up here.

I hope they get you sorted soon

if Kowboy Communications turn up to install FTTP they just climb it.

PLEASE report anyone you see doing this …. contact the company they work for and let them know.

Openreach have to have two staff on site when a pole is climbed, but the Kowboys don't care. When neighbours had fibre installed k*ll* Comms turned up with a cherry picker on his own and fixed the cable to the top of the SHARED power/ phone pole against there own guidelines. I reported them to OR and the contractors supervisor came out to ask me about it. He also found that the cable was too low so they had to come back and redo it. The supervisor contacted me some time later to ask if the second team did the job correctly (they did) and mentioned that the first operative no longer worked for them......
Tell openreach as well as the contractors as OR might not know about dodgy practices by the contractors unless they get checked by OR

Edited by threelegs (Wed 08-Feb-23 09:25:49)

One person can climb a pole on their own , if it is deemed safe to do so, but some situations may require a 2nd person e.g. to run a drop cable over a road crossing .

In reply to a post by witchunt:

One person can climb a pole on their own , if it is deemed safe to do so, but some situations may require a 2nd person e.g. to run a drop cable over a road crossing .

What he said.

Two staff required will be a road crossing, or some other issue, or always if there’s a joint user pole to be climbed