BT OpenReach damaging my business

Xenda

Arriving at our office on Friday 30th Jan 2016 to discover that a BT OpenReach engineer had disconnected our Internet and phone to supply an office next door. When asked about this, he said that he had been told that the number was no longer in use. He was informed that it was very much in use for an online business . We complained to our Internet Service provider which is not BT and they are supposed to contact BT OpenReach to rectify the problem. That was 4 days ago and still no solution.

How can BT Openreach take away our line to give to another client?

Any suggestions? The Communication Ombudsman will not deal with any problems less than 8 weeks old. This is damaging our business. We need it solved yesterday.

All responses appreciated.

macman

You need to contact your line rental provider, not your ISP, if different. They will liaise with OR. If you have already contacted your line rental provider, chase them up.
Is this a business contract, or are you running your business on a residential tariff? The former comes with an SLA, the latter does not, and 4 days is not unusual (and this includes the weekend) .
BTW, was the OR engineer a sub-contractor from Kelly Communications? They have a track record of doing this kind of thing...
PS: I suggest you remove your business name, as MSE does not allow you to advertise it on the forum.

Xenda

Thank you so much for the information, I will check our line rental status. We have a business tariff.

Didn't know about not mentioning business names, will see if I can edit.

All I know is that the engineer was working on behalf of OpenReach.

duchy

It doesn't matter that the engineer was an Open Reach engineer - Your contract is with your line rental provider. If you had called them and reported the fault then the usual service agreement is an engineer comes out within 24 hours (assuming you are indeed on a business tariff) but the onus is on you to report the fault to you line rental provider.

It'd be an idea to dig out your contract with your provider as there will be a level of compensation available (assuming it is indeed a business tariff and you reported it correctly).

If nothing else you'd know the correct procedure to follow if you have any phone problems in the future which is vital if you are running an online business.

An awful lot of people don't realize that the SLA is different between business and residential lines -obviously business lines are more expensive but you are paying for faster resolution and compensation for loss of business- but if you don't report it correctly you don't get the benefit. so make sure you know your own provider's process - although this should have all been covered with you when you took out the contract.

macman

Could the OR guy not have investigated the line status before leaving the site, since he was still there when you discovered the issue?

robin58

macman wrote: »

Could the OR guy not have investigated the line status before leaving the site, since he was still there when you discovered the issue?

Don't be daft that would be to easy.

But I bet it was 'It says on my worksheet that this line is not used so I MUST move it over'.

Now days basic common sense is not allowed in business.

corf999

I am still waiting after a month of no phone line for them to fix it (flooding damaged the underground cables and 40 houses have no phone/broadband) - I am not hopeful it is going to be resolved in the next 3 months.

sceptic2

Xenda wrote: »

Thank you so much for the information, I will check our line rental status. We have a business tariff.

Didn't know about not mentioning business names, will see if I can edit.

All I know is that the engineer was working on behalf of OpenReach.

Try this link
[EMAIL="warren.j.buckley@openreach.co.uk"]warren.j.buckley@openreach.co.uk[/EMAIL]


Straight to the top. Hope this helps. Good Luck!