Advice with how to deal with BT

Hi all,

I moved into a brand new house in May this year (three blocks of 7 terraces) and placed and order for phone and broadband with BT on the 27th of May. I am still waiting for my install - various engineers have been out and I now have a complaint with the CEOs office. But it's going no where - I'm still getting calls once a week to say it'll just be another week, then the next week comes and it's the same story.

The developer had already install all the cabling to the property and (when I spoke to the Openreach Engineer) they have loads of capacity in the cabinet. The older houses around me can get both Virgin Media and BT's Fibre products. Which is what is so frustrating, since I've waited this long and we are not going to get connected to the fibre cabinet. There's also a Virgin cabinet right near my front door but it's a connecting cab and Virgin won't be installing to these houses until December!

BT tell me the developer didn't do it's job properly, and they need to fix it but they keep a) lying to me on timescales and b) coming to 'fix' things and not actually doing anything. I'm not the only one in the situation - there are 20 other houses having the exact same issues but Openreach does just seem to give a toss. How can this be right that they have a monopoly in the area and still get away with this kind of treatment.

I've been to the local press but that was over a month ago now and it made no difference.

What can I do? I've been without a home internet connection or a phoneline in a village with poor mobile coverage for nearly 4 months now with no end in sight! I could buy a 3G/4G dongle but the signal is terrible on all networks and they are so expensive! I don't want Satellite broadband as the latency is far too poor for gaming, there are no Wi-Fi operators in my area and community broadband is out the window as the entirety of the rest of the village has Virgin or vDSL from Openreach!

I feel like just destroying every Openreach cab in the village - that way something might get done!

Has anyone on the development (including developers sales office) got a working telephone line?

Developers usually only install the ducting to the property (to avoid BT digging up nice new pavements etc) and then install the wiring in the property. It is rare for the developer to do the wiring outside the home too, and if they did and actually made a mess then yes it may take some time to resolve and without knowing full details its hard to know who is really at fault.

http://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/contactus/conne...

Shows what the developer should have done with regards to installing ducting, sounds like there may be ongoing dispute over signing off the work the developer has done and/or wayleave issues. Wayleave can be a real problem, e.g. if a duct is incorrect going under a road and needs roadworks, the developer may be reluctant to grant it. On new build estates before roads are adopted by the local council, BT does not have code powers.

In terms of monopoly, Virgin can supply ducting to developers to install too and happens sometimes, so maybe developer said no to that, or never asked. There are even FTTH options developers can use from various suppliers these days. If Openreach have the monopoly it is because your developer chose that route, particularly when others nearby have Virgin.

Is the work totally finished, and roads/pavements adopted by the council?

The houses are brownfield infill on one of the main roads through the village - they are not on any sort of estate. They're opposite a park but there is a 70's housing estate at one end of the road (with VM and vDSL) and the Victorian heart of the village the other way (also with VM and vDSL).

As far as I can figure out the lines/trunking was already there before the houses were built.

Edited by deleted (Tue 23-Sep-14 13:54:28)

The main duct was probably there, but very unlikely sub ducting and pavement chambers to link up these houses was present, and if builder put these in wrong that could be the delay.

Has the builder actually had Openreach sign-off on the work they did, i.e. hand it over? If the building did nothing, then when you ordered might have been the first Openreach knew about the properties.

NOTE: No legal requirement beyond getting you a telephone service that works to the property.

BT are under a USO obligation to provide a line providing the costs aren't disproportionate. As Openreach aren't a (directly) customer facing company (by design), that USO has to be actioned via a retail service provider who really ought to deal with this (although, if I understand it right, only BT Retail have an obligation to do so). If you have a complaint about service provision, there is this Ofcom site. Ofcom don't take individual complaints, but there's a process to get unresolved problems to an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. If you've already gone through the formal process of complaining to your chosen service supplier then that's the way to formalise the process. (If the prospect SP isn't BT Retail I'm not quite sure what happens, although if they've accepted an order I would expect them to have to go through this process).

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/complain/phone-and-bro...

I'm sure there's some dispute with the developer over what should and should not have been done, but the first approach to this is getting clarity.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Has the builder actually had Openreach sign-off on the work they did, i.e. hand it over? If the building did nothing, then when you ordered might have been the first Openreach knew about the properties.

I have absolutely no idea to be honest, I can't get hold of them and there's no 'site office' as it's not an estate and all the houses were sold around 6 months ago any way!

What [censored] me off the most if the lies, had a phone call last week "all work will be completed on the 22nd of August". Only today did they come and dig up the grass verge, then I get a phonecall "All work will be completed the 29th August, we have to wait for someone senior to inspect the work". Okay, then why would you cover the work on the grass verge back up again? [censored]. Liars.

No where I go has any teeth to actually do anything for me. It's honestly like living in the dark ages doing everything by GPRS.

Edited by deleted (Tue 23-Sep-14 17:18:25)

So new houses and you can't get hold of the builder? They gone bust? Surly you have some contact details for them... In case of issues with the house.

had a phone call last week "all work will be completed on the 22nd of August"

I take it this is a miss type given we are now @ 23 September

Don't forget that you are dealing with BT, who are then dealing with openreach.

So while BT might get told one thing, what happens maybe something else.

In reply to a post by JohnR:

So new houses and you can't get hold of the builder? They gone bust? Surly you have some contact details for them... In case of issues with the house.

I've no idea - we are renting and the landlord is less than forthcoming with that information for some reason. Any problems we've had they have sent a 3rd party contractor out instead of the developer (which we found odd, since all new houses have a 10 year guarantee!)

In reply to a post by JohnR:

I take it this is a miss type given we are now @ 23 September wink

Yeah it was, sorry. Long day at work! 22 September!

In reply to a post by JohnR:

Don't forget that you are dealing with BT, who are then dealing with openreach.

So while BT might get told one thing, what happens maybe something else.

I completely agree, however both companies have the same parent company, you'd think some communication would go on... I have a big issue about being lied to.

Like some daft bint at VM who told me all of their customers are FTTH! Daft cow!

Edited by deleted (Tue 23-Sep-14 18:38:21)

Invoking the 10 year guarantee can be a pain sometimes, so landlord may elect to bypass and use their own people, depending on what the issue is.

If by 1st October nothing has changed then email me with details of the property, short timeline and link to this thread as a reminder, and will pester management in BT Group.