Here's a suggestion. Email the ceo of BT Consumer ( google will help with that) and copy your local MP into it, then sit back and wait for the phone to ring

In reply to a post by Ribble:

Here's a suggestion. Email the ceo of BT Consumer ( google will help with that) and copy your local MP into it, then sit back and wait for the phone to ring

Agreed, when ever our local MP gets involved, we normally receive a phone call within 10 mins after their email was sent.

Paul

And a Tory MP seems to carry more 'weight', but you can't really do much about that for the time being.

In reply to a post by Ribble:

And a Tory MP seems to carry more 'weight', but you can't really do much about that for the time being.

Yeah, shame that
Maybe the next election

*** update ***
Oh yeah, have you heard any more about our FTTP install, I tried to PM you but you have disabled it again

Paul

Edited by PaulKirby (Fri 20-Nov-15 22:31:16)

No idea, and neither does Openreach

In reply to a post by Ribble:

No idea, and neither does Openreach

Ok, thanks.
I will just wait the 9 remaining days, and if no fibre I will contact my local MP again.

Paul

In reply to a post by smithpd11:

Just an update. I still have no internet connection. We have had 6 Engineers visits.
..
Technical explained that there was nothing they could do until 27/11/15.
..
I have to say that the service is poor and is nothing to do with customer care.

Thanks for the update. Despite the denials you'll hear, this is all too familiar.

To put a timeframe on things:

Your migration from ADSL to FTTC was scheduled for 29/10. In spite of six visits from engineers (to date) none of them could find your pair at the PCP. Then they wondered if you have an EO line; meaning FTTC isn't available at all. So they "shrugged their shoulders" and gave up at that point. By now they'd disconnected your ADSL service, leaving you with no home broadband. Neverthless, they've fobbed you off until 27/11 (at the earliest).

That's just under a month; 29 days, without service, so far. Not impressive, is it.

I wonder if this poor service is, in large part, down to the subcontracting nature of the work. The OR engineer has a job to do (switching a line to FTTC) and when they encounter a problem their contract is not with the end customer so they have no interest in leaving things in a satisfactory state. They simply report back (to BT in this case) and it is down to BT to decide what to do next and book further appointments.

I'm pretty sure this is what happened to us. OR came and disconnected our TalkTalk line and connected it to a BT line (which they messed up initially, crossing 2 lines). They then disconnected the ASDL and tried to connect FTTC, found there wasn't a spare port and gave up.

It took 18 days of failed promises from BT before they got infinity working - during which I kept requesting ADSL in the meantime but they just seemed incapable of making that temporary move. It was all or nothing as far as Openreach were concerned.

I think you are close with that.

Personally, I think it is a consequence of the separation of Openreach, and the way in which "equivalence" operates in practice.

First, as you say, everything (whether it is a successful change, a failure, a question, or a report) has to roundtrip back via the CP, or the CP's CP. Making fast decisions - whether to pay more, investigate further, give up, or revert - is impossible. Often made more impossible when every actor is trying to prune costs.

Second is the fact that each roundtrip drops you to the back of the task queue - more waiting. There are ways to expedite, but it either takes time, or money to trigger this ... unlikely to happen in big, cost-focussed ISPs. The common support model - where you get to talk to different support staff members each time you call - makes it hard for ISPs to easily figure the people who need this.

Third, the system used to place orders for broadband - enforcing the equivalence rules - only allows one order at a time. It is impossible to be subtle, say, ordering a line fix to be investigated with a temporary ADSL provision if all else fails. Right now, getting a temporary ADSL connection provision requires the FTTC order to be cancelled first, and reordered after an ADSL order succeeds.

Without a vertical monopoly, I can't see how we can fix this on a single, open access infrastructure.

Should Openreach staff be split into silo's for each CP? All able to work on the same infrastructure, but only for their own CP customers? With Ofcom measuring the support statistics?

I don't see that separating Openreach from BT would make this better or worse.