OpenReach / Vodafone Installation mess.

pjjonah

Apologies in advance - I originally posted this on the wrong forum!

The monopoly that OpenReach has on Broadband fibre installation - and their refusal to deal directly with anyone other than Broadband providers - is completely unworkable.
I decided to switch from Virgin to Vodafone last month, so they arranged for an OpenReach engineer to install the fibre box at home on Monday. I cancelled Virgin when I got the iinstallation date as I was no longer prepared to pay their exhorbitant prices (big mistake!). So that meant I had no Broadband from Saturday.
Anyway, the engineer came and hooked me up. The fibre box wasn't connecting properly (PON light is flashing). He said that was fine - he would make a phone call and it would be sorted in 15 minutes. He jumped into his van and disappeared. 
As I'm sure you can guess, it's still not working. I've been through 2 useless chats with Vodafone and I've spoken to 3 different people in their call centre. They're 'chasing' OpenReach for a solution, and OpenReach have told them an engineer would turn up in 24 hours. Or 48 hours. Or never (as was the case). Today is my 6th day without Broadband and there is no indication of a fix before the weekend. My wife and I are both working form home at the moment, so this isn't a trivial matter.
So I can't deal with OpenReach directly and I'm getting nowhere with Vodafone. Has anybody in this stuation managed to expedite it? Or should I just cancel Vodafone and creep back to Virgin?

niktheguru

Cancelling your virgin on the day of openreach installation was the first mistake. Usually its more sensible to give the one month notice so it is overlapping your openreach installation (by about a week) so that if for some reason your install is complicated/unsuccessful you still have internet and can also if it takes longer than a few days to sort out, cancel your cancellation and keep the internet going.....especially important if working from home.
For the moment I would suggest tethering an online connection from your mobile assuming you have enough data and free tethering.
(obviously this is only for virgin to openreach or vice versa.....if its a standard openreach to openreach port its much simpler)

In your current situation if you're not getting anywhere with the call centre ensure you have raised it as a complaint (see website below with complaints phone number for broadband), also make sure you've noted down all dates of no service so you can be compensated after. Also, send a written email complaint to 
https://www.vodafone.co.uk/help-and-information/complaints/contact-us-

Hope it works out.
(Note you won't be able to speak to openreach directly)

littleboo

As above, you need to keep pushing Vodafone for a resolution, cancelling Virgin before the new service is live is a risk if you have two people reliant on broadband for home working. Is it FTTP? If so, that must a recent thing for Vodafone to offer, their processes may be less than perfect. The ISP's don't want customers speaking to OR which is why you need to push Vodafone for a fix.

pjjonah

Thanks for the advice.
Cancelling Virgin was a definite mistake. When I was applying online to Vodafone the lead time for engineer appointments was 2 weeks but the website wouldn't let me complete the order. Foolishly, I thought I would be safe giving Virgin 1 month's notice with these conditions, only to complete the application via phone and to be told it would be a month.  I'm genuinely sorry I bothered!

matelodave

If you are that reliant on broadband then it really was inadvisable to cancel your VM especially when you were transferring to a different provider and required a totally different type of connection and new technology as well.

However you are where you are but you could either use your mobile phone as a wifi hub or even request VF to provide you with something to tide you over.

We had a problem when we transferred from SKY ADSL to BT FTTP where BT/Openreach managed to disconnect both our phone and broadband for nearly a month. BT credited me £30 and suggested that I got a 4G dongle to keep me going. I actually bought a MiFi unit which now gets used when we go away on holiday. It came in extra useful when the water company dug through the underground optical cable a mile a or so away, just two weeks after we eventually went live. It then took another fortnight to get that fixed.