Open Letter to OPENREACH

Hello Openreach,
4 X over 7 YEARS we have had 2-3 weeks, NO BROADBAND, & TELEPHONE. Each time.
Service to 2 Villages, Bitterley SY8 3HQ, BEDLAM SY8 3PP.
We understand there are 9 or 10 poles in very poor condition from Hilluppencot farm. SY8 3HR. “Why have you installed new fibre on failing infrastructure?”
The Latest debacle we reported REPORTED ON 13/01/26 Mike No:4 & I No:12 which was pole CP1 ? outside Hilluppencott farm days before it fell down. It was leaning at 15 to 20 degrees over the road, this is being pull down by a number of branches lying on the cables on the way down the hill towards the turn the BEDLAM village on the right.
This is nearest pole number I have. CP2 Bitterley lane from A4117 Angel bank.
This could have been avoided if urgent work was done within a few days or so.
Now many dozens of telephone lines will have to be reconnected plus FIBRE to these villages, this will take weeks (2 to 3 from date the pole fell) to replace poles and reconnect telephone lines.
====================================
These are incident Reports
Regarding: Broadband service at SY8 3PP
2026-01-20 15:52:49 Line down (LostCarrier)
It will be 7 days and counting from 20/01/26 Tuesday.
Openreach gave me Damage reference number is AF-TPD-2901662712.
AND
MSO/PEW reference: IMT7320/26
AF- Reference: AF-IE-2905094494
Broadband service affected: Yes
ERT: 30/01/2026 17:00
====================================
Here's hoping something will happen very soon.
Richard Blair

Hi Richard

What was the thought process for posting your open letter to Openreach here? If you're unhappy why don't you sent it directly to Openreach themselves?

Rich i'm whilst i have some sympathy for you

but here the link that you should be using

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/damage-he...

The post that you made was sadly poor and confrontational(capitalisation like the way you did in the post is considered shouting) . But the other point is what was the point the "open letter to OR" - they do not look at the forum.

Best way sent letter via email to Openreach CEO Clive Selley [removed by tbb]

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:33:34)

Thank you both for your help which I appreciate.

I apologise for the caps letters, this is the first time I have posted here.

One reason I posted on TB was I and 10 other local neighbours have been unable to find an email address (that did not reject our email) for OR and complaints website is very limited and in our opinion poor.

When we, two of us sent warning to OR (on report site) they ignored it, now they have 10 times (if not more) the problem that it was. With now dozens copper telephone to reconnect plus fibre. We at Bedlam and Bitterley village have nothing. About 101 business & homes.

Two of us have sent letter to Openreach in London recorded delivery.

We all are getting very frustrated.

A few of us have only had full- Fibre broadband for only weeks for the first time. Now nothing!

Copper cable internet was poor and many times unusable. 

Mobile signals also poor quality and often don't work.

I personally have been trying to get OR to bring Full-Fibre to our area I even received an estimated from OR for £250,000 about 15 years ago.

Could you suggest a better way to connect OR with contact details?
Thank you.
Rich_42

Just email Clive I am sure he will put you on top priority step!

Edited by adslmax (Mon 02-Feb-26 15:02:37)

Thank you I just have sent an email to [removed by tbb]

Rich_42

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:35:09)

In reply to a post by Rich_42:

Could you suggest a better way to connect OR with contact details?

Please use the email address provided by Max as it has often had positive outcomes for those having major issues. Remember be polite and clear about the issue you're experiencing.

Edit: just seen you have sent the email.

Edited by PCJM40 (Mon 02-Feb-26 15:11:02)

In reply to a post by Rich_42:

Thank you I just have sent an email to [removed by tbb].

Rich_42

Good luck he will sort out for you. Let us know

Edited by seb (Mon 02-Feb-26 21:36:20)

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Best way sent letter via email to Openreach CEO Clive Selley [removed by tbb]

Please don't post direct e-mail addresses for Openreach staff in here. You can PM the user if needed.
I realise it's not difficult to find

Sebastien.

Thank you all for help.

I have received an email from dso@ frorm Chris Wight OR yesterday.

Said that something could start today.

We will see?

Rich_42

That's great news. Glad to help you out.

In reply to a post by seb:

Please don't post direct e-mail addresses for Openreach staff in here. You can PM the user if needed.
I realise it's not difficult to find

Sebastien.

Ok, but to be honest his email was open in public anyway, easy to find his email via google search otherwise if it was hidden in public, I wouldn't post it here.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

In reply to a post by seb:

Please don't post direct e-mail addresses for Openreach staff in here. You can PM the user if needed.
I realise it's not difficult to find

Sebastien.

Ok, but to be honest his email was open in public anyway, easy to find his email via google search otherwise if it was hidden in public, I wouldn't post it here.

It is quite easy to find but we've always said not to post direct e-mail addresses of staff - it's a bit like a chicken and egg issue.. albeit you could argue the horse has bolted too on that one. The difficulty is where does it stop - at what point do we say it's ok to post. Then checking every one you may see. Plenty of people have posted it before so only replied to yours as you were the latest

seb

I'm glad you have now finally made a decision on this as previously you said you was in two minds about what to do about posts containing Clive's email.

Interestingly this post sat in the forum for over 3 years until yesterday when you finally redacted Clive's email address.
Contact the CEO of Openreach

My specific thoughts on Clive's email address is that it's generally available across the internet and linked to the high level complaints department rather than other Openreach email address which are not.

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

I'm glad you have now finally made a decision on this as previously you said you was in two minds about what to do about posts containing Clive's email.

Interestingly this post sat in the forum for over 3 years until yesterday when you finally redacted Clive's email address.
Contact the CEO of Openreach

My specific thoughts on Clive's email address is that it's generally available across the internet and linked to the high level complaints department rather than other Openreach email address which are not.

Yes it had been but after removing one I kind of thought not dealing with others I hadn't all seen would be counterproductive.
in the end people can guess it as it's pretty obvious.

I did note some people have given out the wrong e-mail before.

I think directing people to e-mail him under appropriate circumstances is fine. I don't think people will struggle to find it but it may discourage everyone from using it as first port of call.

Clive did asked me where did you get my email address from? Told him I found it under Google search and he put my case through to someone else to deal with my G.fast issues (left in jumper) as no ones seem bother to take it off and arranged an engineer to come out to get it resolved. Email CEO does the job done.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Clive did asked me where did you get my email address from? Told him I found it under Google search and he put my case through to someone else to deal with my G.fast issues (left in jumper) as no ones seem bother to take it off and arranged an engineer to come out to get it resolved. Email CEO does the job done.

It's sad it's needed but I agree it makes sense.
In case anyone wonders, no one from OR has contacted us about the e-mail addresses being there.


seb

It was also on this site as someone set it up https://www.ceoemail.com

So, I can't be blamed for any of this. Even Google searches for CEO email address just popping up. If the CEO don't like it, they can always ask them to take it down. But, lots of peoples in this forum, PN forum, ISPreview forum and all other forum peoples always email CEO of Openreach if the broadband isn't resolved in a proper way.

Edited by adslmax (Tue 03-Feb-26 14:53:18)

In reply to a post by seb:

It's sad it's needed but I agree it makes sense.

I suspect there are many many cases over the years where normal channels (e.g. ISPs) have been fruitless and a quick email to Clive has delivered the correct outcome. I have a couple and will keep Clive's email address in my arsenal when everything else fails.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

It was also on this site as someone set it up https://www.ceoemail.com

So, I can't be blamed for any of this. Even Google searches for CEO email address just popping up. If the CEO don't like it, they can always ask them to take it down. But, lots of peoples in this forum, PN forum, ISPreview forum and all other forum peoples always email CEO of Openreach if the broadband isn't resolved in a proper way.

Noe one is blaming you

In reply to a post by PCJM40:

In reply to a post by seb:

It's sad it's needed but I agree it makes sense.

I suspect there are many many cases over the years where normal channels (e.g. ISPs) have been fruitless and a quick email to Clive has delivered the correct outcome. I have a couple and will keep Clive's email address in my arsenal when everything else fails.

We sometimes escalate things to ISPs via contacts (not necessarily CEO) so it is something that is sometimes required.

seb

In reply to a post by seb:

We sometimes escalate things to ISPs via contacts (not necessarily CEO) so it is something that is sometimes required.

seb

I do agree when things are not right, and your isp can't really help contacting OR higher up makes sense. I've done it twice. But i've seen many issues (mostly not on here) where poeple just say "email the ceo", keep on doing that en mass it breaks any company from dealing with other things - regardless of size.

Do we need a route to be able to contact OR when things go wrong - yes
Do we really need to use that email - no
Should OR bring in a slightly more public facing department - yes.

Many of us have an OR contact email, i won't give that out in a public facing forum and i think that is correct. I do think in this thread's case using the webform made more sense and going thru that route

In case anyone wonders, no one from OR has contacted us about the e-mail addresses being there.

…. too busy replying to a myriad emails I expect . 🙄

The OR webform are useless most of the time, sometimes they don't listen to our problem arising and pointless reply from indian centre.

I do honest wish OR should open to public via ISP ticket note where we can see it but sadly most ISP won't do it. Just saying OR closed the case with no reason explained are NOT good enough in my view.

Cerberus have their own OR report to public so we can see it. Only Cerberus do this. But sadly Cerberus are expensive but you get what you are paying for!

When I have my own G.fast with Cerberus they got lots of additional on the control panel, including I can run the Openreach diagnostic test. Including line card information on it SV and CV port numbers.

Edited by adslmax (Tue 03-Feb-26 18:20:21)

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In case anyone wonders, no one from OR has contacted us about the e-mail addresses being there.

…. too busy replying to a myriad emails I expect . 🙄

The real problem being that important and resolvable requests will be buried in the noise without a bit of self-restraint on the part of supplicants.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

I do honest wish OR should open to public via ISP ticket note where we can see it but sadly most ISP won't do it. Just saying OR closed the case with no reason explained are NOT good enough in my view.

Your complaint is with your ISP in this instance, as you point out later in your post there's an element of getting what you pay for, and mass-market providers that try and automate as much as possible to keep prices low aren't going to have a highly qualified member of staff spend 2-3 days escalating an availability query to Openreach in the hope of getting £30 a month out of you.

Instances of a row of houses with access to FTTP except one *should* be something that ISPs handle, and if they're buying off a wholesaler you're then reliant on the quality of the staff at the wholesaler, and the appetite to pursue a query. I think most providers run the numbers and determine that it's not worth the resources to try and get premises served that the computer won't let them place an order against, and so they get left out.

In reply to a post by rippedcotton:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In case anyone wonders, no one from OR has contacted us about the e-mail addresses being there.

…. too busy replying to a myriad emails I expect . 🙄

The real problem being that important and resolvable requests will be buried in the noise without a bit of self-restraint on the part of supplicants.

Quite, but in an organisation without good escalastions this can also raise issues that need raising. Sometimes senior people are more empowered to address things

In reply to a post by seb:

In reply to a post by rippedcotton:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

... nested quotes trimmed ...

…. too busy replying to a myriad emails I expect . 🙄

The real problem being that important and resolvable requests will be buried in the noise without a bit of self-restraint on the part of supplicants.

Quite, but in an organisation without good escalastions this can also raise issues that need raising. Sometimes senior people are more empowered to address things

The team that some of us have used, is very good and it should be but that begs the question - why isn't most of these being sorted out at a far lower level.

The poles issue, should have been sorted out years ago - why wasn't it.

The escalations team should only be really dealing with things where the standard proceedure hasn't worked.

In reply to a post by Taras:

that begs the question - why isn't most of these being sorted out at a far lower level.

Its always very frustrating when the Openreach defined process is started by a member of the public but someone at Openreach ignores the Openreach process and closes the report without resolution. Funny how if you go rogue and report it to high level complaints it gets done quickly and correctly, just a shame it isn't done like that first time around.

Edited by PCJM40 (Wed 04-Feb-26 10:31:25)

I agree.
i think we are all agreeing that OR could do better in the commication side, and whilst the ceo team are fab, many issue are arriving there when they shouldn't. As somebody who can see both sides, instantly providing the ceo email or suggesting as such maybe some of use could reframe a little.

The thing is, and here’s the thing …. many ‘lower down the food chain’ are driven by those who only look to keep costs down, or wish to look good to the stats wallahs who abound in many large businesses these days.

Many’s the time you’d prove a fault into a cable length that had been going down for some time …. The pressure to get the fault cleared is high, so you swap out, and hope it doesn’t repeat for a month …. This pleases many, but doesn’t address the underlying issue. Staff were measured by many different metrics, and these would often change within months. Furthering (on for additional work, a different department, etc) may well be the correct thing to do…. but your dweeb manager just saw that your stats were bad, or you were taking too long …..
The very best engineers are always poor performers …. and those above might well say this didn’t bother them … but it always does.

What the answer is, is something that will never happen … so in the meantime, all the company can do is have a team , will no budgets, no stats, no whip hand driving them to clear up the stuff that someone shouted loudest about.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

The thing is, and here’s the thing …. many ‘lower down the food chain’ are driven by those who only look to keep costs down, or wish to look good to the stats wallahs who abound in many large businesses these days.

Many’s the time you’d prove a fault into a cable length that had been going down for some time …. The pressure to get the fault cleared is high, so you swap out, and hope it doesn’t repeat for a month …. This pleases many, but doesn’t address the underlying issue. Staff were measured by many different metrics, and these would often change within months. Furthering (on for additional work, a different department, etc) may well be the correct thing to do…. but your dweeb manager just saw that your stats were bad, or you were taking too long …..
The very best engineers are always poor performers …. and those above might well say this didn’t bother them … but it always does.

What the answer is, is something that will never happen … so in the meantime, all the company can do is have a team , will no budgets, no stats, no whip hand driving them to clear up the stuff that someone shouted loudest about.

Again a very very good set of comments and in a large corporation, like OR about 1000% true. And add to this, any large corp will have show stoppers especially entities like OR. But also its worth asking these questions, they are valid

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

The thing is, and here’s the thing …. many ‘lower down the food chain’ are driven by those who only look to keep costs down, or wish to look good to the stats wallahs who abound in many large businesses these days.

Many’s the time you’d prove a fault into a cable length that had been going down for some time …. The pressure to get the fault cleared is high, so you swap out, and hope it doesn’t repeat for a month …. This pleases many, but doesn’t address the underlying issue. Staff were measured by many different metrics, and these would often change within months. Furthering (on for additional work, a different department, etc) may well be the correct thing to do…. but your dweeb manager just saw that your stats were bad, or you were taking too long …..
The very best engineers are always poor performers …. and those above might well say this didn’t bother them … but it always does.

What the answer is, is something that will never happen … so in the meantime, all the company can do is have a team , will no budgets, no stats, no whip hand driving them to clear up the stuff that someone shouted loudest about.

And there speaks a man who knows.

In reply to a post by rippedcotton:

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

The thing is, and here’s the thing …. many ‘lower down the food chain’ are driven by those who only look to keep costs down, or wish to look good to the stats wallahs who abound in many large businesses these days.

Many’s the time you’d prove a fault into a cable length that had been going down for some time …. The pressure to get the fault cleared is high, so you swap out, and hope it doesn’t repeat for a month …. This pleases many, but doesn’t address the underlying issue. Staff were measured by many different metrics, and these would often change within months. Furthering (on for additional work, a different department, etc) may well be the correct thing to do…. but your dweeb manager just saw that your stats were bad, or you were taking too long …..
The very best engineers are always poor performers …. and those above might well say this didn’t bother them … but it always does.

What the answer is, is something that will never happen … so in the meantime, all the company can do is have a team , will no budgets, no stats, no whip hand driving them to clear up the stuff that someone shouted loudest about.

And there speaks a man who knows.

The minute you give people in the management chain targets (particularly if things like performance-related pay or bonuses come into play) you start driving inappropriate behaviour. The management focus changes from running an efficient customer-facing business to achieving personal targets which may actually involve behaviours that are contrary to what would benefit the business the most.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

The minute you give people in the management chain targets (particularly if things like performance-related pay or bonuses come into play) you start driving inappropriate behaviour. The management focus changes from running an efficient customer-facing business to achieving personal targets which may actually involve behaviours that are contrary to what would benefit the business the most.

Absolutely. People will game the system. It is very hard to avoid 'perverse incentives'. Some great examples here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive including the rat eradication program which paid a bounty for rat's tails. Unfortunately, the tails were cut off and the rats allowed to go free, because obviously, killing the rats would stop them breeding and cut off access to the bounty.

The minute you give people in the management chain targets (particularly if things like performance-related pay or bonuses come into play) you start driving inappropriate behaviour. The management focus changes from running an efficient customer-facing business to achieving personal targets which may actually involve behaviours that are contrary to what would benefit the business the most.

Well said.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

The thing is, and here’s the thing …. many ‘lower down the food chain’ are driven by those who only look to keep costs down, or wish to look good to the stats wallahs who abound in many large businesses these days.

Many’s the time you’d prove a fault into a cable length that had been going down for some time …. The pressure to get the fault cleared is high, so you swap out, and hope it doesn’t repeat for a month …. This pleases many, but doesn’t address the underlying issue. Staff were measured by many different metrics, and these would often change within months. Furthering (on for additional work, a different department, etc) may well be the correct thing to do…. but your dweeb manager just saw that your stats were bad, or you were taking too long …..
The very best engineers are always poor performers …. and those above might well say this didn’t bother them … but it always does.

What the answer is, is something that will never happen … so in the meantime, all the company can do is have a team , will no budgets, no stats, no whip hand driving them to clear up the stuff that someone shouted loudest about.

Not always ... if the manager has come from an engineering background - there will be an understanding.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Best way sent letter via email to Openreach CEO Clive Selley [removed by tbb]

Isn't the CEO Katie Milligan?

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

Isn't the CEO Katie Milligan?

No she isn't. She will be from 1st April 2026, Best read all the article before you come here and make a comment like that

Edited by PCJM40 (Wed 11-Feb-26 12:51:18)

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

In reply to a post by adslmax:

Best way sent letter via email to Openreach CEO Clive Selley [removed by tbb]

Isn't the CEO Katie Milligan?

shuuuuuuuuuush, 😂 let them still send to clive 😋

In reply to a post by squarecrumpets:

Isn't the CEO Katie Milligan?

From April 1st 2026 she will be CEO for Openreach

Not always ... if the manager has come from an engineering background - there will be an understanding

I would have to disagree …. it certainly used to be the case …. but not for a fair few years now.

Hi,

Is everyone sure it's not an April Fool's Day joke????

Yours,

In reply to a post by mking90031:

Is everyone sure it's not an April Fool's Day joke????

Would they not have needed to make the claim on 1st April for that to be true?

I'm surprised that Clive did respond to your email directly!

When I emailed Clive and that was an inquiry regarding wayleave for my building, which obviously since 2018 no wayleave was ever secured.

I never got a response from Clive but only from some guy named Ethan Evans who responded on his behalf. I do not know if the CEO for an important company like Openreach responds directly to customers anyway. I feel that there is a secretary that responds on his behalf.

The thing is that from the other thread where I also posted his email address it was in December 2022. I find it strange that it had been removed and edited out after over 3 years!

Surely if Clive himself wasn't happy he could then let the Administrator of this website know and inform them that he didn't want his email published here on these forums.

I guess in the end, it wasn't really helpful for me to email Clive in regards to wayleave agreements anyway as there's little he can do if my Housing Association declines to grant permission for FTTP. The CEO of my HA would be more relevant in this regard. However, I recently emailed the CEO of my Housing Association for Virgin Media nexfibre and inquired on why my building was left out while the rest of the buildings in my Estate was upgraded. He responded by waiting for the Deputy CEO who resigned from his role.

Now if it is related to a Technical Issue of an existing connection and normal members of staff from Openreach or any other company doesn't help you then it makes sense to escalate it to the CEO.

The CEO is often responsible for recruiting and interviewing candidates of a company and if members of staff misbehave or unreasonably ignore you, emailing the CEO is a useful way of forcing colleagues to be sincere. I also noticed that if you email multiple colleagues as CC that often helps immensely as the person you are emailing is put under pressure to do their job properly, otherwise they know they will be exposed for being indifferent.

Yes he did email me on the 12th January 2026. This was the last email I sent to Clive Selley.

https://i.ibb.co/1YWqkn4M/Screenshot.png

Well, I guess one reason may be because you thanked Openreach for sorting out your connection especially with FTTP going live!
There is this psychological factor where if you thank a person or say that you've solved a problem usually the probability of getting a response is much higher!

I noticed this myself when I respond to someone saying "problem solved" or "thanks for your help", etc I'm usually more likely to get a response because that gives them the reassurance that you'll no longer be nagging them for further troubleshooting.

People like to be flattered and when you show happiness/gratitude it means you are safe and judged as a good personality. It gives them that sense of relief that you'll not be back asking for help or potentially be in an angry state.

Now for example, if FTTP became live in my building and I then emailed Clive saying "thanks for the effort in bringing FTTP to my building"! The chances of me getting a response is higher than if I asked him "please, when are you going to bring FTTP here?" Because the second question triggers a potential long term exchange in conversation, which of-course most people naturally want to avoid being burdened with work! It creates an obligation and uncertainty where it is not guaranteed that an issue will be resolved or a project will be completed.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

There is this psychological factor where if you thank a person or say that you've solved a problem usually the probability of getting a response is much higher!

This is not the case for Clive, he often comes back to you in person (to be absolutely clear not always) even when you raising a difficult issue. The style of email you send him and how you present your case must be a factor on what ones he decides to manage himself thats why people should always be polite and clear about what the problem is.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

The thing is that from the other thread where I also posted his email address it was in December 2022. I find it strange that it had been removed and edited out after over 3 years!
Surely if Clive himself wasn't happy he could then let the Administrator of this website know and inform them that he didn't want his email published here on these forums.

We've always had the rule about not posting personal information including direct e-mail addresses. Just because we didn't see the post before doesn't mean the rule has changed. I appreciate perceptions may have. We've not issues any warnings or anything to anyone who posted them--it was a non-judgmental removal.

Any CEO of a large corporate isn't going to be able to deal with the influx of random e-mails. I suspect many will have filters which PAs use to remove these from their mailbox but having it out there for people to abuse (which may not be the case for posters here but could be the case for people who never post and just want to moan about something and who find it) is not ideal. If they want to put their e-mail out there they can publish it on their website, a bit like we publish ours - even we get a lot of confused e-mails from people angry with us about not fixing their broadband problem, when we have nothing whatsoever to do with their broadband connection. We struggle ourselves with team@ volume ass it's been out there so publicly.


seb

Well, it will be an interesting culture change for Openreach. Clive Selley's degree is in electronic engineering, Katie Milligan's degree is in business.

And yes, I have had a personal e-mail from Mr Selley promising to sort out a long standing Openreach fault that was not being addressed. And yes, it was sorted within two days.

Let's see what the future brings, though I think that Mr Selley is certainly someone who earned his CBE.

In reply to a post by seb:

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

The thing is that from the other thread where I also posted his email address it was in December 2022. I find it strange that it had been removed and edited out after over 3 years!
Surely if Clive himself wasn't happy he could then let the Administrator of this website know and inform them that he didn't want his email published here on these forums.

We've always had the rule about not posting personal information including direct e-mail addresses. Just because we didn't see the post before doesn't mean the rule has changed. I appreciate perceptions may have. We've not issues any warnings or anything to anyone who posted them--it was a non-judgmental removal.

Any CEO of a large corporate isn't going to be able to deal with the influx of random e-mails. I suspect many will have filters which PAs use to remove these from their mailbox but having it out there for people to abuse (which may not be the case for posters here but could be the case for people who never post and just want to moan about something and who find it) is not ideal. If they want to put their e-mail out there they can publish it on their website, a bit like we publish ours - even we get a lot of confused e-mails from people angry with us about not fixing their broadband problem, when we have nothing whatsoever to do with their broadband connection. We struggle ourselves with team@ volume ass it's been out there so publicly.


seb

Fair enough and I totally respect your point!
People shouldn't be posting personal email addresses especially of individuals. I was looking at it from a different perception when I posted Clive's email as a representative of a big organization. But of-course I'll avoid doing that for the future!

There's one other thing to mention regarding personal email addresses. I've noticed some people here on these forums publish their own personal email address on their ThinkBroadband forum profiles! There is an Email section, which of-course is voluntary and I never see the point why ordinary users like myself should have the option to enter our email address when that can also attract a lot of spam or even abuse, which of-course wouldn't be able to be moderated outside the forum site. That "E-mail address (displayed on posts)" will also publicly display the email address as if you have posted your email address on the forum.

If people want to communicate with each other they can use the Private Message button instead. I've always found that odd and never seen this in another forum site where you can include an Email in your public profile.

If for example, I added my email address to my profile (which of-course I won't) then that equally should not be deemed acceptable because if I did post it here on the forum as an individual post then it will be removed, right? So, I don't quite see how this is any different especially considering that these forums allow you to view an individual profile without being logged on to the forum!

Other forum sites are more strict in terms of privacy, you can't view profiles without being logged on the forum and they also have the option to show, which poster viewed their forum profile, which can give clues who the abuser really is. They don't have the option to input an email address on the profile.

But yes, you are right regarding those individuals complaining about their broadband connection problems they shouldn't be moaning or expressing their anger to your support staff. That's not helpful at all. Just like when I was formerly on ADSL Exchange Only Line until Oct 2019 I had tons of connection problems regardless of the ISP I was signed up with, but I never vented my anger on anyone because I knew it was a line fault and nothing could be done about it until the FTTC upgrade finally came and resolved all my problems.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

People shouldn't be posting personal email addresses especially of individuals. I was looking at it from a different perception when I posted Clive's email as a representative of a big organization. But of-course I'll avoid doing that for the future!

Many many years ago we did have problems with cases like this where people were using direct e-mails to certain telco execs. The big organisation actually makes things more difficult because one person typically can fix a problem here or there but if they start getting 100 e-mails a day the 'escalation' stops working. Being able to escalate is great but it really needs to be an escalation, and a random user who finds the e-mail may not necessarily be.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

There's one other thing to mention regarding personal email addresses. I've noticed some people here on these forums publish their own personal email address on their ThinkBroadband forum profiles! There is an Email section, which of-course is voluntary and I never see the point why ordinary users like myself should have the option to enter our email address when that can also attract a lot of spam or even abuse, which of-course wouldn't be able to be moderated outside the forum site. That "E-mail address (displayed on posts)" will also publicly display the email address as if you have posted your email address on the forum.

I would agree that that most people shouldn't publish their e-mail address on a forum profile. However some may. We're not stopping the CEO of Openreach registering on the forum and posting their own address. They wouldn't be the first staff member to use this forum.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

If for example, I added my email address to my profile (which of-course I won't) then that equally should not be deemed acceptable because if I did post it here on the forum as an individual post then it will be removed, right? So, I don't quite see how this is any different especially considering that these forums allow you to view an individual profile without being logged on to the forum!

If *you* put *your own* address in *your* profile that's fine.
If someone then quotes it I guess it depends, but it would make more sense to link to your profile as you could choose to remove it if you started getting more issues.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

Other forum sites are more strict in terms of privacy, you can't view profiles without being logged on the forum and they also have the option to show, which poster viewed their forum profile, which can give clues who the abuser really is. They don't have the option to input an email address on the profile.

I'm not necessarily opposed to limiting viewing profiles to logged in users although I'm not sure if it adds much as most people don't use their profile much. Indeed spammers use their profile links more than anyone else

We don't log profile views in the database and I'm not sure that's wise. I think the wider question of what roles do profiles have is a more important one. Some people like to link to their own websites or such I guess.

In reply to a post by BLaZiNgSPEED:

But yes, you are right regarding those individuals complaining about their broadband connection problems they shouldn't be moaning or expressing their anger to your support staff. That's not helpful at all. Just like when I was formerly on ADSL Exchange Only Line until Oct 2019 I had tons of connection problems regardless of the ISP I was signed up with, but I never vented my anger on anyone because I knew it was a line fault and nothing could be done about it until the FTTC upgrade finally came and resolved all my problems.

We still try to help people with these. It's usually a lot easier when they understand we're helping them out of the goodness of our hearts, not because we're somehow responsible for it. Sometimes it helps to be a neutral third party.


seb

I bet u all incoming CEO Katie Milligan won't be reply to any of you in email soon.

In reply to a post by adslmax:

I bet u all incoming CEO Katie Milligan won't be reply to any of you in email soon.

Bit rude judging someone you've never met, never had any communication with and know next to nothing about?

hopefully they will leave Katie's email addy alone

That said they should create a special issues email which goes to the same esclation /ceo team.

The problem is that if you publish an escalations email address you get people emailing constantly about when FTTP is going to be built.

The fix would be for Openreach to actually staff a helpdesk but be very strict with the tickets that can actually be escalated from there.

That said they should create a special issues email which goes to the same esclation /ceo team

It's trivial to filter email that doesn't come from an internal employee to a separate inbox.

I'd be very surprised if the CEO of any company actually gets these emails directly, rather than going to an escalation team directly.

In reply to a post by melevittfl:

I'd be very surprised if the CEO of any company actually gets these emails directly, rather than going to an escalation team directly.

Yes, they will all go to a high level team within the customer services dept. Some may get shared (via the PA) with the CEO, but I agree very few CEOs would have their email public.

Its likely that a CEO's name email is deliberately set up for this, and they have an internal address for staff.

In reply to a post by jchamier:

In reply to a post by melevittfl:

I'd be very surprised if the CEO of any company actually gets these emails directly, rather than going to an escalation team directly.

Yes, they will all go to a high level team within the customer services dept. Some may get shared (via the PA) with the CEO, but I agree very few CEOs would have their email public.

Its likely that a CEO's name email is deliberately set up for this, and they have an internal address for staff.

There are many different ways of doing this. I suspect things changed over the years for a proper team being in place.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

The minute you give people in the management chain targets (particularly if things like performance-related pay or bonuses come into play) you start driving inappropriate behaviour. The management focus changes from running an efficient customer-facing business to achieving personal targets which may actually involve behaviours that are contrary to what would benefit the business the most.

Well said.

Classic example currently happening in Royal Mail. The top management tell a parliamentary committee that they have issued no instructions to prioritise parcels over letters and that they are both given equal priority. Front-line and middle management have targets which give more priority to parcels than letters. Result: at the front line parcels are given priority with letters on the back burner. I hear from the front-line staff out on deliveries that our local Delivery Office has many duties where letters are only taken out a couple of times a week, the rest of the delivery time being used for parcels.

In reply to a post by GonePostal:

Classic example currently happening in Royal Mail. The top management tell a parliamentary committee that they have issued no instructions to prioritise parcels over letters and that they are both given equal priority. Front-line and middle management have targets which give more priority to parcels than letters. Result: at the front line parcels are given priority with letters on the back burner. I hear from the front-line staff out on deliveries that our local Delivery Office has many duties where letters are only taken out a couple of times a week, the rest of the delivery time being used for parcels.

I am sure you can appreciate that Daniel Kretinsky is a clown and should never have been allowed to own Royal Mail.

I have two close friends who have both experienced late post delivery recently. One, about 3 weeks ago was told by her postie ,"sorry but letters are being 'batched' and parcels given priority". The other friend had to ring the hospital last week to explain that he'd missed a follow-up appointment after a cancer operation because the appointment letter had just arrived when the appointment was for the previous day. They live in different counties/postal districts so it's not just a local issue.

We where told last year by our postie that parcels had priority, this was when gf had many hospital appointments being made, after several discussions with the hospital she started getting appointments by SMS and email as well as post, several times she has had the letter after the appointment.

Apparently this is not consistent across all deports, which has likely favoured royal Mail in less scrutiny.

My letters I tend to get loads at once, once or twice a month and thats it.

I have had first class letters take 3 weeks to arrive and 2nd class a couple of months.

I found my depot on a list somewhere which was apparently the worst performing Royal Mail depots.


But anyway with what you said is bang on, top management will give themselves deniability, even though they know whats going on within the company they manage. The managers below that level wont get interviewed by entities like a parliamentary committee. So it all carries on.