Openreach - Is there any way of contacting them?

lee111s

Ok so your internet speed should generally be pretty decent.

Is your router connected to the master socket or test socket?

Did that checker also give speeds for FTTC albeit with "Waiting list" along side it?

neilio

Yes, the router is definitely connected to the master socket. The engineer last week tried two different routers in the event mine was faulty; they all had the same result.

VDSL Range A (Clean)
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps): High 55; Low 40
Upstream Line Rate(Mbps): High 13.4; Low 8.8
WBC FTTC Availability Date: Waiting list

VDSL Range B (Impacted)
Downstream Line Rate(Mbps): High 43.6; Low 27.4
Upstream Line Rate(Mbps): High 10.4; Low 5.4
WBC FTTC Availability Date: Waiting list

lee111s

Then the only way to have it resolved is with an engineer visit

There's a chance those estimates for ADSL are wrong though, looking through some other postcodes in that new build area. The estimates are all roughly 1-3meg.

neilio

boatman wrote: »

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/loadRaiseComplaint.do

I'm having trouble submitting my complaint via this link. To adequately get my point across, I've written a lot. I think I've exceeded the number of characters, although it doesn't say that. The error says:


Values entered for this field has invalid characters. Valid characters are as follows:
- Characters : a-z / A-Z
- Numbers : 0 -9
- Special Characters :~ @ # $ £ ^ & * ( ) - _ + = [ ] { } | \ , . ? : '
- Spaces are allowed


I've read through repeatedly and there are no invalid characters. It must be too long, but I don't want to cut it down (I don't even know how much it needs to be cut down by) and miss the point. Any suggestions?

lee111s

You shouldn't really be going down the complaint route I don't think.

You need to raise an enquiry as to what the plans are for increased capacity at your cabinet.

Owain_Moneysaver

neilio wrote: »

I'm having trouble submitting my complaint via this link. To adequately get my point across, I've written a lot. I think I've exceeded the number of characters, although it doesn't say that. The error says:

Values entered for this field has invalid characters.

That might be the error for 'too much text'! Or if you've copied-and-pasted from something else there may be a non-plaintext character copied across; something like an em dash may have got inserted.

neilio

It's not really a complaint. I've explained my predicament, what I've done so far regarding BT technical support, the engineer visits, limitations of the cabinet, being told fibre is in the area but there is a wait list, and that I've exhausted all these avenues as nobody else has any other answers for me other than Openreach and that what I want to know is when and how they intend to bring more fibre to the area and what they can do to get me adequate broadband in the mean time.

lee111s

neilio wrote: »

It's not really a complaint. I've explained my predicament, what I've done so far regarding BT technical support, the engineer visits, limitations of the cabinet, being told fibre is in the area but there is a wait list, and that I've exhausted all these avenues as nobody else has any other answers for me other than Openreach and that what I want to know is when and how they intend to bring more fibre to the area and what they can do to get me adequate broadband in the mean time.

They won't answer anything other than what the plans are, if any, rgearding increasing cabinet capacity.

They'll direct you to your ISP for all other issues.

neilio

Things have moved on but haven’t become any less frustrating.

An Openreach engineer visited several weeks ago and spent four hours tinkering at the cabinet. He was able to squeeze out extra capacity on my line to its limit, telling me I should be able to get 3Mbps on the copper wire (apparently my home is approximately 7km from the exchange). This immediately degraded again back down to less than 1Mbps after he left. He explained that I might be able to get FTTP if I asked for it. I queried with BT but they said FTTP is not possible at my location, explaining that they cannot deliver to just one property unless there are plans to deliver to an entire neighbourhood due to the disruption of digging up roads. I’ve gone back to Berkeley to confirm that ducts that could contain FTTP have been provided (I think they have). They’ve not come back to me yet. I’ll watch this space.

Meanwhile, I continued to attempt upgrading to FTTC superfast broadband over the next few days, but kept being told no orders were being accepted due to capacity issues. Then, unexpectedly, I called BT on 11 November and they were able to accept and process my order. They confirmed there is a waiting list and that they would update me on 24 November with news from Openreach on the status of the cabinet upgrade. On the 17th, I received an email telling me the superfast broadband service would activate on the 24th. I called BT on the 24th to confirm this was the case, but they informed me the email was auto-generated in anticipation of the original order but in fact it wouldn’t be going live as Openreach hadn’t upgraded it yet. They told me I’d get a further update on 05 December (today). I complained that I shouldn’t have received the email at all.

Last week I received an email saying the superfast broadband service would activate on 07 December. I called BT today to ask them to clarify as I was due a call-back anyway. They told me, again, the message was sent in error and that they’d need to request an update from the engineers on 08 December! I complained again about the incorrect email, and that I’d been lied to twice now. I also told them that I want detailed information to be given to me from Openreach explaining exactly what the problem is at the cabinet, what needs to be done, when, etc, because being told “computer says no” and receiving misleading emails every two weeks, only to be told I am due an update several days later, is unacceptable.

It’s not unreasonable to expect to be told WHEN this is being connected, not being fobbed off every couple of weeks. I’m sick of this now. I need to adjust my expectations accordingly instead of being told that it will be “soon” when clearly it is not. If it’s going to be February, March, or April next year, then flippin well tell me so! It should not be impossible to be told.

Now I am trying to figure out how I complain to Ofcom because none of this is adequate. Does anybody know how I contact Ofcom? The Ofcom website isn’t very helpful.

mwarby

If you want to track status of new cabinet install, try looking at roadworks.org, this will probably get an entry when new cabinet is physically installed, but it will be a few weeks from then to it being active

It's quite possible open reach don't know the date themselves yet, as they maybe waiting on permissions or suppliers/surveys. Also with the fibre rollout still happening in some areas they have to balance the commitments made under those funding schemes