Fair point, but at least with private companies you have the option of going elsewhere. There's no Virgin fibre here so it is BT or nothing. Openreach hide behind BT's paper walls and seem to have no real world accountability whatsoever, unless you use the sledgehammer of Ofcom.

In reply to a post by Zad:

Fair point, but at least with private companies you have the option of going elsewhere.

However BT IS a private company not state owned. That there isn't a competitor available to you isn't BT's problem so if you are (rightly) angry you should be just as angry with Virgin Media for not investing in your areas as you are with BT.

I'm having a similar problem with BT/OpenReach. In my case I have two ISPs involved, PlusNet and AAISP.

I've got two FTTC lines, both with a common network fault. OR have known since 17th March that they need to dig up a section of the 30 pair cable and replace it. It took about a month for this detail to make it as far as BT, despite me talking to endless OR engineers about it and them talking to their managers to confirm what needs doing.

BT kept sending new OR engineers even when they should have not there was nothing they could do until the common fault was fixed. Most days they send two out, one for each line, sometimes two at a time...

I estimate I've had well over 2 dozen engineer visits or attempted visits (they appeared to stopped bothering to book appointments after a while). In none of the visits did the engineers know the state of play before they turned up.

They have at least stopped doing that, but I've now been waiting for weeks as the keep giving dates to fix the fault that pass without any work happening. The latest date is the 19th June, at which point the faults will have been open over two months.

So despite having two ISPs badgering BT, getting OR to actually do anything to fix non trivial faults seems to be a problem.

Edited by andynormancx (Thu 12-Jun-14 00:22:06)

Have you looked on roadworks.org to see if anything is scheduled presuming it covers your area.

Yes. There is work scheduled on some BT kit a couple of metres from where the fault is.

The work is scheduled for the 3rd September. Hopefully the work isn't directly connected to the fault !

I checked mine, the only work planned on the line route to the cabinet and exchange is resurfacing.

Another one to add to the list...

"I can now confirm that the order has been accepted and the appointment booked for 23-06-2014 between 8 AM and 1 PM.

Please ensure that you are at the property during this period as the engineer will need access to install the fibre equipment. If the engineer cannot gain access, a missed appointment fee of £50 will be due."

So here we are, 3pm on the above date, another day off work, another day with neither sight nor sound of a BT van...

The CEO route is your friend. I too have trod the same well worn route as you. In my cases, lots of missed appointments, promises etc etc. Just took one letter each time to get things moving. So don't delay. It really is the guy at the top of the tree whose job it is to make sure the job is done. Contact him. Who knows, you might even get a nice payout or even a year or so free rental ) Anything to deaden the pain.

But to be honest if I had an alternative to supply my Broadband BT/Openreach would be well down my list.

This is still dragging on. Another month has gone by and still no progress on it at all.

I have been waiting for nearly four months now for Openreach to do some digging to repair/replace some duct work. They have repeatedly given dates for the work to be started, but nothing ever happens.

Their latest reason for not doing the work is that they need to get permission from National Grid because of issues around the gas main.

I've even involved the CEO of Openreach now and despite his promises to try and do something about it no obvious progress is being made. All so frustrating.