Well, that went well 2

A simple thing I thought, order a new phone line for broadband.

My chosen supplier was John Lewis/Plusnet mainly cos it's a 12 month contract and £20.

A bit of a back story to my house, I used to have two phone lines installed (pre-broadband days), but the 2nd line was disconnected a long time ago. One day my original line developed a fault - internet dropped when It rained. The line checked out fine, but the Openreach man swapped the cable with the 2nd line and the world was a happy place.

Now back to the present day, when placing the order for the new line I'm mindful that Openreach probably think I have two lines connected, so as part of the sign up process I put an engineers note to say the other line to my house is faulty/disconnected and does require an engineer visit. This was ordered on the 25th July and to my surprise an appointment for today was created.

I called yesterday to chase up my router and whilst on the phone got them to confirm everything was fine with the installation - when checking with openreach my install was flagged so my install for today was cancelled, so cut to today I get an email telling me my appointment has been rearranged (although the date/time was missing). Calling the ISP to was told I no longer require an engineer visit as I already have a line installed - I was charged £49.99 for a new line installation!!

Seems despite what I wrote or the fact I paid for a new line install openreach either didn't get the message or just ignored it. My install date is now the 16th of August. Whether that happens or not is another thing.

On the plus side my Sagemcom router turned up today and despite what Plusnet(JL) said you can get in to other menus to disable DHCP - which has saved my buying another!

Edited by kebabselector (Wed 02-Aug-17 16:33:24)

Today's email...

Dear Mr Kebab, Please be advised that your engineers appointment has been booked for the 16/08/17 between 1-6PM Please ensure that you are available at the premises during this time frame to allow the engineer access to the property. If the appointment is missed or access is refused you will be charged £65 for the missed appointment. Should you wish to reschedule the appointment please contact us 2 working days in advance of the appointment date on 0800 432 0200 or on 0345 140 0200 Kind regards,

[Sms Message: Your engineer's appointment has been booked for the 16/08/17 between 1-6PM. Please be available to allow the engineer access. If the appointment is missed you will be charged at £49.99 to rebook the appointment. If you wish to change the date and time please contact us in advance on 0800 432 0200 or on 0345 140 0200]

I have no problem with that after all it's a waste of their time/resources. I've queried what they are going to pay me for them not turning up yesterday.

Some things never change :L

One thing changed. They quoted two different charges on the same day for missed appointments.

I think the charges are separate, a punishment of £65 for missing them then £49.99 for the 2nd attempt.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

One thing changed. They quoted two different charges on the same day for missed appointments.

Its a shame we cannot charge them that for their missed appointments.

Paul

I did ask, but instead i'm getting a good will gesture!

(not sure what it is yet)

Credit to the Openreach engineer after my initial problems with the call centre staff that Plusnet/John Lewis dealt with. My new line is in and working now, and what a difference it's made switching the kids over to the new line!

My Broadband Ping

Should be fine without FTTC for a few years I hope. 2x6mbps lines doesn't sound too good, but I should be able to use iPlayer without quality dropping when the kids are on youtube.

Can't monitor the Plusnet line with BQM just yet as the Sagemcom router requires a hack to enable ping from the internet. Might pick up another router as that one isn't too good in terms of design or management (as it's JL/Plusnet locked down).

Edited by kebabselector (Thu 17-Aug-17 10:31:44)

In reply to a post by kebabselector:

I did ask, but instead i'm getting a good will gesture!

(not sure what it is yet)

Turns out they decided to give me my install fee back as the good will gesture. So happy in the end - line installed for free and 12 months at £20 p/m.

Hopefully by the end of the 12 months Openreach will have sorted fibre out and I'll be able to cancel the 2nd line. The current 2 line solution is working well, with the kids on the JL bb connection - seems I can stream stuff again!