Openreach Useless!

Hi

So ordered a ADSL connection for my mum,

So I had a line reactivated 2 months after it was deactivated, It was activated with Phone and Broadband from Plusnet.

Two weeks after activation I arrive at mums to setup router and bits and transfer extensions from Virgin master to Openreach master.

Turns out the line was dead and using a basic Ethernet tester I could only just get a faint response on the line.

Call Plusnet and wait 34 minutes on hold!, Openreach engineer will be with you tomorrow.

Openreach guy turns up, finds the line is cut around 3KM away, reconnects on new pair from junction box, Sorted dial tone and also a conversation, so grabs Openreach guy before he pulls off and he investigates the crossed lines issue, meanwhile the conversation between some lady and her daughter about Christmas presents ends so can#'t tell if issue is fixed or not.

Got router connected, synced at just over 1000kbps and only on G.DMT, do some testing and move things about, so leave it for a few hours thinking it needed to adjust from fault.

Next day, the lady and daughter are chatting away again, broadband rubbish, so back on to plusnet, another Openreach visit,

no lady on phone at this point, show openreach guy video evidence of crossed lines he says nothing he can do as line tests fine, I mention broadband issues he says I'm only a phone engineer (WTH Really!)

So back on to Plusnet, Lady from support is [censored] because they closes the fault on the lady on the phone said she can hear the line fault from here end, So she rejects the faults as fixed..

Now I've left my mums and the broadband is dire and on 31/12/14 the Virgin account will close leaving me poor mum with 0.6mbps.

My issue here is, how the hell do you get issues like this fixed, if the engineers can't even use Video evidence.

I asked if he could just change the line pair but wouldn't as there was no problem, and then what made my blood boil was when I mentioned the broadband he said I would need a Broadband engineer and when I asked if he could call through to office and get one arranged, He replied

"well if you was a BT Broadband customer I could but your not"

I replied saying well Plusnet is owned by BT Group just like Openreach and BT, His reply

"Yeah, But your provider is Plusnet not BT"

At which I recapped the visit as, I'm banging my head against a brick wall and I'm screwed as I quickly lead him to the front door.

Is this common practice or did I just get a dud spanner!

Requests for a broadband engineer will always come from the retailer

Engineers can only do what they are allowed to do and the suggestion BT gets favourable treatment could see them disciplined

openreach supports each service provider (circa 530+) in an equal and equivalent way

openreach will only do what they are asked by the service provider

Edited by deleted (Sun 28-Dec-14 12:01:23)

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Requests for a broadband engineer will always come from the retailer

Well I know that now but was surprised that Openreach still worked in two teams, unfortunately I'm still used to Virgin Media technicians and ways,

Been a while since I've dealt with Openreach.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Engineers can only do what they are allowed to do and the suggestion BT gets favourable treatment could see them disciplined

Well my first thought was that Openreach had to deal with all providers as equals, I'm still concerned regarding the Video evidence of the issue and the guy saying good look getting it fixed as its intermittent!

and also why his test couldn't pick up on the line noise though it is apparent on my corded test phone.

"well if you was a BT Broadband customer I could but your not"

Oh dear, that was a HUGE faux pas by the Openreach bod, and also wholly inaccurate.

When you get the crossed lines have you tried shouting into the phone to see if the other people can hear you? If you can then you might be able to find out who they are and therefore arrange to initiate the fault when the engineer is there.

In reply to a post by ian72:

When you get the crossed lines have you tried shouting into the phone to see if the other people can hear you?

Yes but unfortunately they couldn't understand many words I was saying and only made out "hello" "what crossed" and they then hung up and continued their conversation on their mobile phone....

I'm hoping they report the fault but don't think they will.

Unplug all broadband hardware and if crossed lines still occur then report as voice fault, the broadband is irrelevant at that point.

Good chance fixing voice will fix broadband.

Thats what I did to start and the fault is currently with Plusnet, Just waiting for them to reply with a time for an engineer to visit..

Personally I think the broadband is just locked on a low/banded profile and won't budge as their is drops occurring reguarly.

Without seeing the stats from the modem hard to comment on the line being banded, but if there is a voice fault no point pestering to get profiles or banding reset as the automatic systems will just do the same all over again until the underlying voice fault is fixed.