Three months to install, worked one day, then down for a week and counting

[JaspalX]

[Title was: How long does cityfibre take to fix 'blocked' fibre pipes/paths/whatever? Been a month...]

Hi, Had a gigafast install partly completed a month ago but the guys said that they couldn't pull the fibre through to the house because there was a 'blockage' 80m down the road. I've had one check in from Vodafone that told me, 'cityfibre haven't done the work yet' (which really, I could tell already). 

Anyone have experience of how long this might take and how to get it progressed?

I'm in support limbo...I can't log into my vodafone because not activated, I can't track my order because now it is 'not found'....

This is in the Solihull area if that makes a difference.

I'm just glad that the cancellation of our (to be fair, very reliable EE service) didn't go through on the original switchover date.

Thanks.

[JaspalX]

What a shower.

Even having this escalated to 'the complaints' team has had no noticeable benefit/effect.

The same old, 'we are waiting for an update from cityfibre'.

Supposed to get an update on the 15th July

Someone came and fixed the blockage a week before that (wasn't notified, but they were very nice and tidied some damage the last guys had left).

No update from Vodafone after the 15th, despite being chased.

It seems the only thing left is to connect the fibre the last foot or so from outside my house to the box inside my house and activate it...but still, ten days after the last 'updated due'...nothing, no news, no updates, no nothing.

[JaspalX]

This just gets better:

1. The complaints team don't respond to email...they say they do, but they don't actually respond, instead they seem to send form emails based upon scheduled triggers (e.g. they said I'd get an update on 15 July, but any email sent to them before that gets no response and on the 18th I received a form email that made no reference to the emails I sent)

2. Vodafone only honours Ofcom's (voluntary) compensation scheme (£5.25/day for no service, £26.24 for missed appointments) for services delivered via OpenReach, not City Fibre. That's a clear indication that Vodafone know that the CityFibre installation service is not up to scratch.

3. It seems Vodafone cancelled my original order without informing me and I had to run through an entirely new order and the new prices are £192 more than the original contract over the life of the contract (which I have only just spotted)

[Jayach]

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@JaspalX wrote:

2. Vodafone only honours Ofcom's (voluntary) compensation scheme (£5.25/day for no service, £26.24 for missed appointments) for services delivered via OpenReach, not City Fibre. That's a clear indication that Vodafone know that the CityFibre installation service is not up to scratch.

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Not really, it's because it was negotiated by Ofcom between the ISP's and Openreach. CityFibre (and the other Altnets) weren't included. Openreach and UK ISPs Reach Deal on Automatic Compensation - ISPreview UK

[JaspalX]

16 August, engineer due to visit between 0800 and 1300 to do the 'last bit' which is connect the cable outside the house to the terminal inside the house.

Took 45 minutes on chat with support, to discover that cityfibre need and extra 24 hours to fix the cable - that's another five hours and 45 minutes wasted sat at home because of these guys.

I don't see much point contacting the team that posts here via 'social media' as last time I tried they took more than 24 hours to respond.

[JaspalX]

OMG what a mess. I literally just posted the last message based on what the support guys told me and then received a call from the engineer who said, 'i'll be ten minutes, coming to install your broadband today'!!!!!!

[Jayach]

Fingers crossed then 🤞

The communication between Vodafone and City-Fibre is awful. (to be honest, it's awful between Vodafone departments. as well)

[JaspalX]

We finally got it working and it was certainly fast, though the kids said it seemed not great for gaming (latency?).

But that happy situation only lasted for 24 hours or so and as of yesterday morning we have no broadband service at all and I've been moving the vf router around the house trying to find the best place to get a signal from the 4g dongle. 

The cityfibre/kellys guys did manage to come out quickly and then said we have a fault/break on the cable between the house and the cabinet, which looks like it will take days to fix.

The vodafone complaints team has picked up its game (sort of), now it seems I get two or three calls a day from someone checking on more or less the same thing...I was even offered a 'special discount that would not be offered to customers routinely of 50% off the service cost'....exactly the same offer that came through my door on a flyer a couple of days ago!

So, after three months there's light at the end of the tunnel, albeit a somewhat dim and murky light at the moment.

[JaspalX]

Seems I spoke too soon. 
been told variously:

• fixed in 48 hours
• fixed before monday
• fixed on monday
• ’these things take time’
• ‘No eta on a fix’

and cityfibre blithely updating their portal with info that is simply not true (eg engineer visited today and identified the problem, when in fact their engineer visited 4 days ago, etc. )

at least I can warn all my neighbours about this ‘service’ - we’ve all just received a door drop with a 50%off offer for Vodafone broadband

[JaspalX]

I must be getting better at chasing for updates.

It used to take at least 40 minutes but now I'm now down to 25 minutes from dialling to getting a 'they are chasing the team who will do the work, but can't say when it will be done' response.

I get the sense that these problems are common...the broadband team at Vodafone seem to have had a lot of practice empathising without being able to fix.

In the meantime, a 5g broadband router from Three is working quite well on a £24 rolling 30 day contract and keeping us sane.

[JaspalX]

People from Kellys turned up today and replaced the fibre and the service is now up, thankfully.