BT Openreach nightmare

aminn

BT Openreach had a team install new cables to where our cables are at the end of October. They cut our cables at the same time. We are with Sky & I complained to them as our internet stopped working. They have then been advising me on a weekly basis that the civics team will be coming out to fix the repair but each time they have not turned up (about 5 times now) So we are now at Christmas Eve with no internet, no ring doorbell security, no subscriptions like Netflix, Disney plus, Amazon music being available. The kids haven’t been able to do their homework & are having to stay in during school breaks to get work done. I know it sounds ridiculous but we rely on the internet so much & I’m feeling so stressed & anxious about it (especially as we have had some cars stolen in the area). Sky have told me BT Openreach will be looking at it again on 23rd Jan 2023. That’s a month away. I don’t know what I can do. We have been hot spotting where we can for some things but I’ve used up almost 100Gb of data (also with Sky) to do this in 2 months. It took me 3 years to build up that amount which I was going to use towards a new phone so my daughter can have my old one. 

I guess i’m asking what are my rights? I know I can get £8.40 a day when this gets resolved (it has been more than 60 days but I’ve not been advised of any cap from Sky which I think they need to inform me if they are capping the compensation)? But more importantly I just want to get this fixed! Where can I go to just get it fixed? I just feel like there are no repercussions for BT Openreach as we can’t contact them as consumers. It feels like they can make a mistake but take ages to fix it as they don’t care. At the moment I’m very emotional & feel like I’m months away from any conclusion. Any advice or help would be great. I can’t be the only one this has happened to. 

onomatopoeia99

It is Sky that are not providing you with the service they contracted to provide, so it is down to Sky to get it sorted out.  You do not have a contract of any kind with Openreach so they have no liability to you, and Sky blaming them is not addressing the problem but is simply to fob you off rather than them taking any substantive action.

Sky should be taking, or at least threatening, legal action against Openreach (actually against BT Wholesale most likely, because of the way things are structured) for non-performance.  That's what my ISP did when I was having a problem that only Openreach could fix, but were failing to.  Suddenly once they got the letter before action they sent out a couple of old boys out that knew what they were doing and got it fixed in a morning, after a dozen previous "engineer" (actually technician) visits that involved a lot of sucking of teeth but no action.

aminn

Thanks for this onomatopoeia99. 

I know I can’t go through to BT openreach but how do I progress this with sky? I have already raised a complaint with them weeks ago and I don’t know why they aren’t threatening legal action like your provider did if that is possible.  Apart from the complaint I have already raised how do I get them to take more action? I don’t understand why they haven’t as they have told me it’s gone to a senior team already and are contacting BT openreach regularly for updates. 

iniltous

There is no such organisation as BT Openreach, it’s Openreach , ‘BT’ have nothing to do with your issue.
The  regulator Ofcom and it’s predecessor Oftel setup the industry, so you only being able to speak to your ISP ( Sky ) and you rely on them advising Openreach of faults , and chasing them when necessary, is exactly how the regulator wants it  , Ofcom , and Sky for that matter , don’t want OR conversing with you directly, they want the conversations to be between you and your ISP ( Sky ) and Sky and Openreach 
As far as repercussions, in a similar way that Sky compensate you for every day you don’t have service, Openreach compensate the ISP , so it’s not true to suggest that OR can simply take their time with no penalty, and anyone else who is also out of service due to this outage , OR will be compensating their ISP as well.
TBH , if it’s taking so long there will be a reason , like a longer then normal notice required by the council , Sky should be asking OR and keeping you advised 

SuzeQStan

Hi OP - can relate to what you have been going through as we had our broadband cut off by TalkTalk back in September 2022 when they failed to let us know our old copper connection would be removed.

They weren’t interested at all in communicating with us despite us having 18 months of contract remaining with them for broadband. Much like your situation with Sky - they promised action which never appeared.

eventually we voted with our feet and moved to BT (I know TT & BT are affiliated but we didn’t have other options in our area.)

BT were great - they topped up our mobiles with free 50GB at a time so we could hot spot and they sent us a free mini hub which also helped so much as we work from home.

After about a month Openreach got our physical fibre connection sorted and we are finally back on proper broadband.

3 months start to finish - it was horrible until we got with BT who were much more responsive and helpful.

there are actions you can take and I would recommend looking at CICAS website to familiarise with procedure.

At the very least you will be owed the compensation you mention however there is additional you can claim for hardship (kids not being able to do homework at home, stress at not being able to protect your home etc) 

born_again

Can sky not provide a mobile hot spot for you, in the short term to allow internet. Instead of you having to hot spot?

littleboo

SuzeQStan said:

Hi OP - can relate to what you have been going through as we had our broadband cut off by TalkTalk back in September 2022 when they failed to let us know our old copper connection would be removed.

They weren’t interested at all in communicating with us despite us having 18 months of contract remaining with them for broadband. Much like your situation with Sky - they promised action which never appeared.

eventually we voted with our feet and moved to BT (I know TT & BT are affiliated but we didn’t have other options in our area.)

BT were great - they topped up our mobiles with free 50GB at a time so we could hot spot and they sent us a free mini hub which also helped so much as we work from home.

After about a month Openreach got our physical fibre connection sorted and we are finally back on proper broadband.

3 months start to finish - it was horrible until we got with BT who were much more responsive and helpful.

there are actions you can take and I would recommend looking at CICAS website to familiarise with procedure.

At the very least you will be owed the compensation you mention however there is additional you can claim for hardship (kids not being able to do homework at home, stress at not being able to protect your home etc) 

they are not affiliated.

littleboo

aminn said:

Thanks for this onomatopoeia99. 

I know I can’t go through to BT openreach but how do I progress this with sky? I have already raised a complaint with them weeks ago and I don’t know why they aren’t threatening legal action like your provider did if that is possible.  Apart from the complaint I have already raised how do I get them to take more action? I don’t understand why they haven’t as they have told me it’s gone to a senior team already and are contacting BT openreach regularly for updates. 

I doubt very much that Sky would be threatening legal action over individual faults, they have overall service levels with Openreach, and within the thousands and thousand of faults that occur, that will always be some that are outliers. If the issue is with civils, then it could be with getting approvals from the necessary authorities to dig, use temporary traffic lights etc.

As mentioned, you contract is with Sky, they need to manage their suppliers. Also be aware that sometimes ISP's will tell you anything to tell you something.

Do you have any alternative suppliers available to you?

FindMyWayBack

Are you absolutely certain you have nothing, have you connected by Ethernet to make sure?
Can you buy some mobile data and tether?

SuzeQStan

littleboo said:they are not affiliated.

Apologies I should have said they use the same infrastructure.

Jumblebumble

aminn said:

BT Openreach had a team install new cables to where our cables are at the end of October. They cut our cables at the same time. We are with Sky & I complained to them as our internet stopped working. They have then been advising me on a weekly basis that the civics team will be coming out to fix the repair but each time they have not turned up (about 5 times now) So we are now at Christmas Eve with no internet, no ring doorbell security, no subscriptions like Netflix, Disney plus, Amazon music being available. The kids haven’t been able to do their homework & are having to stay in during school breaks to get work done. I know it sounds ridiculous but we rely on the internet so much & I’m feeling so stressed & anxious about it (especially as we have had some cars stolen in the area). Sky have told me BT Openreach will be looking at it again on 23rd Jan 2023. That’s a month away. I don’t know what I can do. We have been hot spotting where we can for some things but I’ve used up almost 100Gb of data (also with Sky) to do this in 2 months. It took me 3 years to build up that amount which I was going to use towards a new phone so my daughter can have my old one. 

I guess i’m asking what are my rights? I know I can get £8.40 a day when this gets resolved (it has been more than 60 days but I’ve not been advised of any cap from Sky which I think they need to inform me if they are capping the compensation)? But more importantly I just want to get this fixed! Where can I go to just get it fixed? I just feel like there are no repercussions for BT Openreach as we can’t contact them as consumers. It feels like they can make a mistake but take ages to fix it as they don’t care. At the moment I’m very emotional & feel like I’m months away from any conclusion. Any advice or help would be great. I can’t be the only one this has happened to. 

I would buy a Vodafone  Gigacube ( assuming you get a decent 5G or at least 4G signal)
IIRC It will cost around £180  and take out a 30 day rolling unlimited data contract