BT Open Reach

My son uses BT for his broadband - (and phone) although he rarely uses the phone itself. Several weeks ago he started getting a problem with their line. Open Reach investigated and have not done any repairs yet. They told him that the problem was a number of metres along the line and the last we heard they were trying to get access to a property to get to a pole. They told him that they had written to the owner - but the house is empty (we have told engineer (I caught him on the day he was looking) and the call centre who have not been helpful at all. They are not keeping him updated and it is looking unlikely that he will get his internet back this side of Christmas. My question is - is there anyone we can complain to and use them to lean on Open Reach/ BT to get them communicating and moving to repair this line. From what I have seen the pole can be accessed from another garden - I can't see what the problem is - unless that engineer I spoke to didn't know what he was doing!!!!

My question is - is there anyone we can complain to and use them to lean on Open Reach/ BT to get them communicating and moving to repair this line.

Yes, speak to BT.

" From what I have seen the pole can be accessed from another garden - I can't see what the problem is - unless that engineer I spoke to didn't know what he was doing!!!! "

Sad to say its not just a case of throwing a ladder against the pole and running up it any more. We need to get to the pole to test it and put a lable on the base of the pole ect ect , get caught not doing any of it and its P45 time.

That is the point I am making - my son is trying to talk to them but it is an impossible task - no-one seems to know what is what and they keep telling him they will send someone else to the house - but no-one turns up! Not that they can do anything - the engineer who comes to the house can't go up the poles! Different equipment - so different engineer. He has asked to speak to a manager - which he did - he was told it would be done on Friday, - but nothing has happened. - You can't talk directly to anyone - you just get someone in a call centre and no communication with the engineers on the ground. It has now been 3 weeks without a phone line - he has no other means of getting internet. But if the pole in question is in the property that is now empty because the owner has gone into a home - miles away - sending a letter to this property isn't going to get anywhere. My son has told them this. No-one can give him answers and he is not convinced that they really know where the fault is. Absolute lack of communication and total frustration.

Oh nice - a BT person! No it isn't a case of running a ladder up a pole - there is a problem with vegetation/ tree. But if it is the pole that was pointed out to me then access can be gained to the tree from the garden on the other side - I have looked at a bird's eye view of the gardens. Do you have to gain permission to go onto land before work is done? I thought legal niceties were sorted when the poles were put on the land in the first place.

I'd suggest that your son phones BT, pointedly (but politely) asks the name of the person he is speaking to and notes it down. The pause while he writes it down will get their attention. Now use the expression "formal complaint". They will still try to wriggle but you have set the ball rolling. I would also suggest that he tells them that he will be sending a copy of the complaint to BT in writing. And do so, don't bluff. If you do not do this your "formal complaint" is likely to evaporate at their end. He will need to check the back of the paper bill (in the unlikely event that he gets one) or dig through the ts and cs on the BT web site to find the BT complaint process. Or possibly some kind soul on this forum is familiar with it and can point to it.

At least after this you will no longer have an open ended wait. If BT don't respond as described in their complaints process then you have the right to escalate it further, again as described in their complaints process.

Good luck.

John

While a complaint about the way things have been handed may be justified access to poles and cutting back of stuff to gain safe access can be a long drawn out affair.

An empty house with no-one answering the door does not give Openreach the automatic right to do stuff, their code powers might after a period of time when a landlord/owner has proven not contactable, but that is beyond the local faults engineers and more to do with the legal teams.

Do you have to gain permission to go onto land before work is done?

I'd have to say yes, if it's private land. It sounds like there's branches to be cut down too ..... these don't belong to Openreach either, so the owners permission must be sought.

As Bert says, it ain't as cut and dried as perhaps you imagine.

My son has been told after over 100 attempts to get through to speak to someone who knows - you get put through to a call centre whose only response is to say they will send an engineer to the house - and then put through from one department to another with no-one really knowing what the problem is. He spoke to someone yesterday in the end who says that we have to find the owner of the land and get his permission to do the work! I am sorry but that is not right. If they can't access this pole then they should provide him with a new line - he suggested that and they told him they would have to bill him for digging up the road (the supply is overhead and they have just provided service to a new house a few doors away - no roads have been dug up). If this was one of our couple of elderly vulnerable neighbours what would they do then! There must be some outside body who can advise us and tell us how to proceed because BT seem to have just wiped their hands of it.

You can try Ofcom but they do not deal with individual complaints.

If there is someone vulnerable they can register their line in advance and extra effort is made to keep a service running, which can mean things like mobile phones delivered to allow contact if a line is without voice service.

The only time Openreach would be allowed to trespass and remove the blocking green stuff would be this was deemed an emergency, e.g. car crashes into pole and pole is left in a dangerous condition.

No engineer will go onto any ones land unless they know they have the clearance, (a) it would mean the sack for breaking company policy and (b) they could be done for trespass individually.

If the phone is working well enough to make an emergency call then a crackly line will be down the list of priorities. That is the harsh reality, requesting BT to install a new telephone pole and run new copper is not going to win you many friends in the call centres.

Edited by MrSaffron (Wed 17-Dec-14 12:46:12)