No FTTP for a week - waiting for Openreach

[heavywater]

Hi all,

Had an issue pop up on Wednesday last week - some engineers came to sort Virgin fibre for a property along the road, went into the BT manhole outside my window and started yanking on cables. My internet immediately dropped out and I have had a LOS light on the ONT since. I went outside to remonstrate with the engineers but I was told "we haven't touched yours, it's probably just a coincidence" and then, when asked if they could have another look at the cables I'd just watched them forcefully not touch, was told "sorry, can't do that, we're working on a Virgin install, you'll need to get Openreach to look at your issue that we definitely didn't cause".

Spoke to web support immediately who did some basic troubleshooting and then escalated to level 2, who escalated again to Openreach immediately after they reviewed the ticket. Perfect.

Unfortunately that escalation was Thursday. I've now received a couple of calls from Vodafone asking me to update the times I'll be available for Openreach visits (I was free Friday, then updated to all Monday and Tuesday morning, then updated to all Tuesday and Wednesday morning). Slightly worried that I've still heard nothing from Openreach about tomorrow and I'll just receive another call from Vodafone soon to arrange new time slots where I'll again have to wait home.

Couple of questions:

1. Is this normal for Openreach? I've been stuck at home for 4 working days now because I don't want to miss them if I'm in the office (I'm told they may need access to property). Is there anything I can do to help move this along?

2. I've been tethering to my phone for internet connectivity, but am now running out of data . I have a 5G modem (and SIM) that were provided by Vodafone previously when they accidentally cut off my internet for a month, any idea whether they'd be willing to reactivate the SIM and provide unlimited data while I'm waiting for this to be sorted properly?

Thanks for any info!

[Effie]

Hey @heavywater I hope you're doing well. I am genuinely very sorry to hear what has happened. It does sound like all of the correct escalation processes have been followed and we are now unfortunately just having to wait for Openreach to fulfil the booking. In regards to unlimited data, you would need to speak to the dedicated Broadband Team on 0333 304 0191 or via LiveChat so they can look into this for you. 

[heavywater]

Great, thanks @Effie, I'll have a word and see what they're able to do.

With regards to Openreach, any idea on how far in advance they'd usually contact to confirm an appointment? If tomorrow's appointment window is missed I won't have another day that I know for sure I'll be in the property for a while, and I can't stay at home indefinitely waiting for an appointment that hasn't been confirmed.

[Effie]

They should have committed a date for your appointment by now so the Broadband Team will be able to check the account and appointments system and let you know if there have been any further delays or cancellations @heavywater 

[heavywater]

Phoned the broadband team, I was told the ticket had been "cleared" and so there wasn't going to be anything happening on it. He's apparently set it back to pending to put it back in the queue, but has told me I'll need to wait until after morning in case Openreach show up (I still haven't had any communications from them at all so I'm doubtful) or respond to the ticket.

After that he'll phone me back and "we can work out what to do", which also isn't particularly encouraging phrasing.

[Janey]

Thanks for letting us know @heavywater I agree, that's less than ideal phrasing. I'd like to apologise again that this hasn't been a smooth journey, it's really not what I'd expect to see. If no progress has been made after the call back, it might be worth seeking to escalate, paricularly given that you're totally without service. Our social team can help with this. Whilst we won't be able to investigate from a technical perspective, if you drop us a message we can escalate to the specialist teams for investigation. Just let them know you've posted here too.

[heavywater]

Hi @Janey , thanks for that.

Good news is that an Openreach appointment has now been booked and confirmed for Monday and the person I spoke to kindly added a month of unlimited data to my pay monthly contract to allow me to continue tethering for the time being.

Fingers crossed for a resolution on Monday, if not I'll be sure to reach out to the social team.

Thanks!

[Charlotte]

That's great to hear, @heavywater. Thanks for letting us know that things are now moving in the right direction, and please don't hesitate to get back in touch with the Social Media Team if you have any further questions. 

[heavywater]

Hi all, good news is that everything is back up and running! Openreach engineer attended this morning and found that a connection had been pulled out during the neighbour's install (pretty much as expected), he's re-run the fibre to add to some additional slack to prevent it happening again and everything is back up.