British Telecom
 

<rant mode on >
Just moved into a new build house (26/01/07), so 2 weeks before the move, I rang BT up as per their website and told them of my impending move. They told me that they could connect my line up on the 07/02/07 for a fee of £120 (brand new line required) Wasnt happy as they say within 5 days but though hey ho can forget about it.
Just had a call today (1 day before installation) to tell me that the max capacity has been reached on the estate and that they need to dig up a road to lay additional cabling etc but the council will only let them do it this weekend (thats assuming the weather holds out). This is going to mean another 2 weeks at least without a landline. What gets me is they have had to get planning permission from the council and they would have known this before today yet they only let me know today. Wouldnt mind but I rang at the end of last week to see if they had any cancellations to bring the work forward and they didnt mention any of this!!!

Would have gone to cable/ntl but they dont cover this area
:mad:
<rant mode off>

Push for compensation. When they were unable to do a connection to a flat we used to rent, I said that I wanted then 50 quid connection fee back, as they hadn't done what they promised.

They said that they couldn't do that, but instead compensated me 30 quid for each day I was without the phone - it took 3 days, so actually got 90 quid off them instead - I'd have been happy to get 50 :D

if the engineer gets there and finds this - there isnt a LOT he can do though TBH

and it costs £120 because houses arent automatically connected to BT exchanges thanks to this countries GLORIOUS anti-competition laws.

so it takes you longer to stop upsetting ntl etc.

i know it doesnt help much but **** happens really!

not bothered about the fee as I understand its a brand new line that has been layed (although this was put in to each house automatically when the roads were being built on the estate so I was reliably told earlier by the site foreman!.

My rant was about a communication company not communicating as they havent found this info out today. They would have known when they fitted the last phone line that max capacity was reached, they would have also known due to the continued building work going on that more houses would want to be connected (I imagine they would know no other svs is available) yet they still took my order and gave me a date of 07/02/07 knowing that they wouldnt be able to fulfill this date!

the lines are laid underground but never connected in the exchange, line box and main socket of the house - i worked in homemovers for 2 years and believe me, 2 weeks delay is NOTHING - once quoted someone in london 9 months to have an extension socket fitted!

funnily, they offered to divert the (currently) disconnected bt line to my mobile. Very nice offer, however there is no signal in my house and I have to go onto the drive to get a signal.!

Sounds awful! I'd move if I were you! ;)

think youll find bt in now seperated from the engineers who are now a sub company called openreach. all providers get the same treatments and can put thier equipment in BT exchanges. the engineers connect whos ever equipment on thier job to the physical line and ensures it gets to your house from the exchange. the problem with the cable could be due to them using all the pairs available to the area. It could also be the cable has gone faulty and needs to be upgraded or replaced, in which case they will not install your line as it will not work....so there would be no point wasting your time or the engineers time.
You'll always find problems around this type of weather as a lot more faults are raised by damaged poles, etc from the bad weather.

thought openreach was the broadband side of things :wonder:

My rant was about the fact that they let me know 1 day before when they obviously knew about it beforehand (planning permission required and granted to dig up part of a main road on a weekend only)

It is the fact that there are no pairs left which will cover the new estate that I am on, so obviously BT would have known about this before, but they havent been pro active in sorting it out.

nope openreach deal with the network side of things from the exchange to the customer. BT and all over service providers just provide the line at the exchange.

^^^^^

speaks the truth!

About Openreach

getting worse
 

still waiting for the line. The ducting work has been done and was successful?, and the cabling was due to be done yesterday, but guess what, I ring them up today to get an update on when my line would be connected and they tell me the work wasnt completed due to a blockage in the brand new ducting that they have just fitted. Now told they have logged a A55 which from what the guy was saying means that they need to dig up the road/pavement where the blockage is to sort that out and to then try to do the cabling again. No estimates given except I am due a call from them tomorrow :mad:

latest update, blockage was located and rectified, was then waiting on the cabling people and guess what, they have run out of cable!! (for f***s sake how much billshut can they give)

Best thing is on saturday, I heard a van outside so looked outsife and there was a bt van, hmmm good I thought they are finally going to connect me. Well no, they went to my neighbour 3 doors down who had only been in a week (ive been in over 5) and connected them up!!!

Rang BT this morning to find out how that can be so expecting a callback. Anyone any ideas how this can be? (connected to the same exchange)

"hey would have also known due to the continued building work going on that more houses would want to be connected !"

Write to ofcom and suggest BT should be allowed to use their existing exchanges and position to pro-actively provde a better service. While you're writing suggest the split of openreach and the rest of BT is not meeting your needs as a telecoms customer and you'd prefer BT to be able to act and deal with customers as a single company for all services. So for example when you order your service from BT Retail - they'd have a complete view of the line plant available to openreach.

Ofcom see the world differently to you.

gets better, the neighbour who was connected on saturday lives in an end town house. His neighbour in the middle has been waiting 3 months for his phone!, and the neighbour on the other end has 2 phone lines, 1 for business and 1 for personal use. I live on an end townhouse which is next to the one with 2 lines (if you see what I mean) so it is 1 connected, 1 not, 1 connected, 1 not.

Does anyone know how the infrastructure is set up that every other house has a line and the in betweens dont?
As even the bt customer svs think it is a load of rubbish