Repairs

After 4 years of nearly perfect service my broadband developed the common fault of resyncing and intermittent connection, although my telephone line was perfectly clear. It was with some trepidation I phoned .the customer service number and selected the fault option. After all the stories one hears about the poor service, I was pleasantly surprised to be connected to one of their engineers in a matter of minutes, who went through a full test procedure with me, and although could identify the problem could see from the records the problem of the resyncing etc. He arranged for one of their own engineers to visit (free of charge0 I was kept informed by text about the progress and the engineer arrive exactly at the agreed time. He connected his computer to the test socket and immediately identified the problem with the line as a battery between my home and the cabinet, and arranged for a B.T. Openreach engineer to repair the fault. initially to Openreach engineer said he could not see a problem I then told him what the talk talk engineer had said, and on checking again he eventually could see the fault it took him over two hours to find where the problem was but did fix it, and said the talk talk engineer was quite correct. I can only say I have received first class service from Talk Talk and I'm sure without their help I would still have a problem as the Openreach engineer seemed quite indifferent and as said initially said there was no fault !

Sadly the fault with my service returned at the end of December. Once again I reported the fault and an openreach engineer visit was arranged, he came as scheduled only to tell me that it was an underground fault and he was not trained to rectify this but would arrange another engineer to visit. To cut a long story short after no less than 8 visits from different Openreach engineers who must have done a patch up job which on average lasted about two days, The talktalk service team escalated the problem with my line to talktalks CEO's office, who took ownership of the problem and an appointment was made for yet another Openreach Engineer. He came on Wednesday, and worked all day on my line from his arrival just after 8am until just before 6 pm. This engineer was exceptionably knowledgeable, and has finally resolved the problems. My line is now perfect, in fact it is the best it has been for nearly 2 years. So after at least 8 visits from different openreach engineers this was the first one that took the time to trace each of the faults (there were no less than three on different parts of the old line) (1) from my flat to the junction box on the block. (2) from the junction box to the cabinet. (3) from the cabinet to the exchange. He fitted a new box in my flat, ran new cable to the junction box on the block (the existing cable had been in situ since 1948) and replaced the line to the exchange. I don't know how much the previous visit by the openreach engineers cost them but surely it would be cheaper to do the job properly in the first place. People are quick to complain about ISP's but I can only say the service I have received from Talktalk has been exemplary, I can't help but wonder how many of the problems others have with their service are caused by a crumbling Openreach infrastructure. Whilst Openreach have spent a great deal of money enabling fibre to the cabinet etc. how many other people have cables from their homes which date back to the 1940's and openreach just seem to put a sticking plaster on them which obviously will fail to resolve the problem.

Nice to see positive feedback for a change.

The problem is that in the majority of case the "sticking plaster" type repair DOES resolve the case.
We only on here see the minority where such a course of action does not work.

If BT were to do radical cable replacement for most of the faults the results would be that our line rental bills would rocket skywards and the time to get a repair done would be back to the bad old days of 2 weeks plus.
No one wants that extra cost - they just want their repair done properly and everyone else's bodged up!

Then you need to factor in that if BT are going to be moving to full fibre eventually then why go to the expense of fitting a new copper cables good for the next 40 years if you only want the bodge repair to last 10 years before fibre comes in its place.

After all BT are no different to the home owner who when faced with a leaking roof will just do a bodge up repair to the bit in question. When actually on a decently constructed roof the start of leaks means then rest is on its way out.
But replace the entire roof - you must be joking!
So we see multiplely patched up roofs all over the UK and you find bodged up repairs all over houses as house owners simply refuse to pay for a proper job.

It is true Openreach are currently rolling out fibre to the cabinet in most areas (in fact our cabinet has only just be enabled last month and I live in central London) from what I understand a good copper connection to the cabinet is required for VDSL to work correctly. The chances of fibre to the premises in our area, apart from to the larger business is decades away. Parts of London still have aluminium cable in use for home users. Line rental has always been a bone of contention since the days of the GPO telephone service and the early days of BT before privatisation. In the 1950's it cost £50 to have a telephone line installed, which I believe rose to £250 in the late 1980's.The government had taken the profits for years, but as with the railways failed in invest in the infrastructure. All privatisation has done with regard the cables from our homes to the exchange, has replaced a government monopoly with a private monopoly. After privatisation BT failed to put sufficient money into the infrastructure or keep the pension fund in surplus as it was inherited, and until recently failed to keep the apprentice scheme going which had produced some of the finest telecoms engineers in the world. (that is why we have become reliant on poorly trained engineers from other countries) they have used the copper infrastructure as a milk cow to pay inflated bonuses to executives and shareholder, and exorbitant salaries and expenses to the board and non executive directors. The average monthly charge for line rental at just under £19 is amongst the highest in Europe. it is true on the surface the broadband cost may appear lower than some of our European neighbours but the comparison is often not like for like eg in Lithuania the average speed of broadband is over 200Mbts.

Edited by rego (Sat 25-Feb-17 09:44:54)

Well said Zom22.

nd until recently failed to keep the apprentice scheme going which had produced some of the finest telecoms engineers in the world. (that is why we have become reliant on poorly trained engineers from other countries

This is make believe, where is your proof ?

see this link

http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/bletchley/telecoms/rtc1....

In reply to a post by rego:

see this link

http://www.lightstraw.co.uk/bletchley/telecoms/rtc1....

Completely unsourced blog. I'm sold.

.... and on the page you link to, where is there any reference to to your suggestions, let alone proof of any truth in what you are saying ?