In reply to a post by Pheasant:

I think they (not perhaps unreasonably) took a more conservative approach with household and resi based services. For a start they are coming into peoples homes and the potential risks are far higher in frequency, diversity and range of exposure scenarios for both customer and service provider than for many other businesses. You only have to look at these boards to see the massive variation in folks attitudes to whether they are (or were) prepared to take that risk in having them come in. So I don't think that's wholly unreasonable at all.

I agree and I don't think that was unreasonable. However, what I did find unreasonable was their refusal to take account of individual circumstances and their inconsistent approach. For example - they just said that anyone with an existing service over 30 Mbps would have in-flight orders delayed. In our case the FTTP connection was an additional connection solely for home working (as required by policy due to sensitive nature of job role). They absolutely point blank refused to budge and allow the install to go ahead. And then to add insult to injury - new neighbours moved in on our street and they came along and installed FTTP when there was a perfectly good working copper phone line in that house capable of running well above 30 Mbps!

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

Yes that order was oD. Perhaps should be renamed the great exercise in restraint and patience...

Or maybe renamed the great exercise in being robbed of colossal amounts of money? haha

In reply to a post by candlerb:

It could be that they were an engineer short that day. Perhaps they were self-isolating due to working in a house where there was a positive Covid test later?

Or it could be that a job took longer than expected. We know from this list how sometimes people make special requests for how they want their fibre routed, and engineers do try to be accommodating. Or maybe there was an unexpected problem and they needed to send out for some special bit of equipment.

Either way, your job was dropped not because they couldn't be bothered, but because they were helping someone else. It's frustrating though.

As for what happens now: contact Zen to get your new appointment sorted out.

I always choose an AM slot when available, on the assumption that the earlier in the day I'm scheduled, the less likely it is that an earlier job will cause an unexpected delay.

Good advice on the AM slot.

When it comes to reasons why a particular customer should be a priority, you will find everyone has individual exceptional circumstances.

Not sure if going for a morning appointment will lead to less likely missed appointment. An am appointment done in the afternoon is still a missed appointment and could lead to another missed pm appointment making 2 missed appointments out of 1. Maybe better to just drop one.

I would imagine appointing work of an unknown duration is something that has perplexed the best minds in the UK and India for many years. Or more likely the best computers in India.

Missed appointments lead to automatic compo to the provider so I would imagine they are something that Openreach are keen to minimise.

Edited by deleted (Tue 30-Mar-21 10:00:51)

In reply to a post by Rolandrat:

Have you had any activity from Openreach as they quite often do the feed from the street especially with underground feeds to house beforehand and on installation day they do the house work. Might be different for a pole feed though.

No activity has taken place so far. Our CBT is on top of a pole and our house is then fed via a duct (56) off the base of the pole.

In reply to a post by partial:

When it comes to reasons why a particular customer should be a priority, you will find everyone has individual exceptional circumstances.

I agree and that's why they should have allowed exceptions to their blanket stance in my opinion. These things are rarely black and white and they should have at least allowed deviation from their stance where an explanation of individual circumstances was able to justify the need for the order to continue.

The vast majority I'm sure were happy with having their order delayed but inevitably there have been people with individual circumstances that have been negatively affected by the blanket stance.

You must be meeting a different vast majority to me then.

The vast majority I meet have some reason why they should be first to repair, install or roll out to.

In reply to a post by partial:

You must be meeting a different vast majority to me then.

The vast majority I meet have some reason why they should be first to repair, install or roll out to.

Where are you meeting your vast majority? If it's on here then that's probably the issue - bit of an echo chamber!

I suspect the wider public at large were very sympathetic and agreed with the delays, and rightly so given the awful situation we were in. However it still doesn't change the fact that I believe exceptions should have been allowed where they were justified.

In reply to a post by threelegs:

when my install was done (pre covid) the engineer needed another engineer to be present as there has to be two present if pole climbing is involved which there was as i have a cbt at the top of the pole in the garden. he sat waiting in his van for 3+ hours then abandoned the job as no other person was available. so delays do happen and can compound jobs. my engineer(s) had to come back another day to finish the job

Our install involves a pole climb so yes they will need two engineers and that I understand - it's just the lack of communication and missing the appointment that bothers me.

EDIT: Zarjaz has confirmed that only one engineer is required so that's good news.

Edited by ashlez (Tue 30-Mar-21 13:04:35)

Exceptions were allowed, for instance if the customer had no service at all, or if their existing slow service meant they were unable to carry out a key role ....