Openreach consumer rights

JH_997

Hi,

I recently had fibre installed at my home and to do this they had to drill a hole from the outside to the inside of the property. When this hole was drilled the engineer drilled into a radiator water pipe in the wall. This was not obvious at the time of installation. 

When we realised this two days later due to water damage coming through the walls of our home and our boiler breaking down due to lack of pressure from the leak we contacted Openreach to ask them for support in fixing this issue. Openreach were not helpful and kept passing us around on the phone without coming to any resolution. We have also contacted our broadband provider and they stated we needed to speak to Openreach as they couldn’t help either.

We then had to call an emergency plumber as we were left on a weekend with no heating or hot water, water damage on our walls and an active leak. To fix this the plumber had to create a large hole in the wall. The plumber cost £171 to stop the leak and we currently don’t know how much it will cost to fix the wall and the water damage.

We have sent Openreach pictures, videos, emails and told them about the issue multiple times since it occurred and have contacted the complaints department.  

Do we have any rights in terms of getting a refund from Openreach for the work?

Thank you in advance for any answers or advice 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

JH_997 said:

have contacted the complaints department.  

Have you done that as per:

https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/when-to-get-in-touch-with-openreach/complaints-policy

They say

Your complaint will be logged on our internal system and you will be provided with a unique reference number.

A dedicated customer service handler will be allocated to your complaint, or enquiry, to fully investigate and resolve your issue as quickly as possible, keeping you up to date throughout.

Given the time of year it might take longer than usual, if they admit they are responsible I would assume they'll deal with the matter. 

Usually such things require negligence, no idea what level is required for something like this but I would assume they'll resolve if it's clear their engineer did indeed drill through the pipe, checking what's on the other side of the wall before drilling seems a basic thing anyone should do. 

If you Google openreach ceo email the contact email will come up, best to be polite and to the point but I would see what happens with the complaints dept first as its likely to be pushed back to them any way if you email the ceo.

Alderbank

They are doing millions, if not tens of millions, of FTTP installations so this is bound to happen from time to time.

Here is a very similar thread recently from this forum which you should find interesting:
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6470845/property-damage-during-fibre-broadband-installation

35har1old

JH_997 said:

Hi,

I recently had fibre installed at my home and to do this they had to drill a hole from the outside to the inside of the property. When this hole was drilled the engineer drilled into a radiator water pipe in the wall. This was not obvious at the time of installation. 

When we realised this two days later due to water damage coming through the walls of our home and our boiler breaking down due to lack of pressure from the leak we contacted Openreach to ask them for support in fixing this issue. Openreach were not helpful and kept passing us around on the phone without coming to any resolution. We have also contacted our broadband provider and they stated we needed to speak to Openreach as they couldn’t help either.

We then had to call an emergency plumber as we were left on a weekend with no heating or hot water, water damage on our walls and an active leak. To fix this the plumber had to create a large hole in the wall. The plumber cost £171 to stop the leak and we currently don’t know how much it will cost to fix the wall and the water damage.

We have sent Openreach pictures, videos, emails and told them about the issue multiple times since it occurred and have contacted the complaints department.  

Do we have any rights in terms of getting a refund from Openreach for the work?

Thank you in advance for any answers or advice 

When I had my fibre installed the engineer stated that there policy was to drill from the inside.
But as my house is of brick construction  I asked that they drilled from outside to avoid any damage to brick face I was able to identify a save entry point. 
 Even with the best detection equipment if it was a plastic water pipe it would not have been identified 

Taylor1928

Openreach on behalf of Vodafone, started my FFTP installation, they hit a minor problem of a blocked duct, of their own making due to a botched repair of next door. I will have no landline. no internet, for a full month, and i work from home. Vodafone appear not to have any contractual teeth to the network wholesaler who have a buffer between them and the end customer. Im losing a lot of money and i don,t appear to have any redress.

Alderbank

Taylor1928 said:

Openreach on behalf of Vodafone, started my FFTP installation, they hit a minor problem of a blocked duct, of their own making due to a botched repair of next door. I will have no landline. no internet, for a full month, and i work from home. Vodafone appear not to have any contractual teeth to the network wholesaler who have a buffer between them and the end customer. Im losing a lot of money and i don,t appear to have any redress.

Did you choose the right Vodafone package for your needs?

Consumer broadband is for people like me who just use it for recreational purposes really.

Since you are a business user you ought to have Pro II broadband from Vodafone Business Solutions. One of its benefits is 4G backup so that if (or rather when) the wired network is down you can work as normal and don't lose money.

All part of business continuity planning. Other networks have similar deals for business users.

eskbanker

Taylor1928 said:

Openreach on behalf of Vodafone, started my FFTP installation, they hit a minor problem of a blocked duct, of their own making due to a botched repair of next door. I will have no landline. no internet, for a full month, and i work from home. Vodafone appear not to have any contractual teeth to the network wholesaler who have a buffer between them and the end customer. Im losing a lot of money and i don,t appear to have any redress.

Tempting though it is to portray it primarily as a consumer rights issue, it's probably more appropriate to post on a board more suited to this sort of area:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/broadband-internet-access

born_again

Taylor1928 said:

Openreach on behalf of Vodafone, started my FFTP installation, they hit a minor problem of a blocked duct, of their own making due to a botched repair of next door. I will have no landline. no internet, for a full month, and i work from home. Vodafone appear not to have any contractual teeth to the network wholesaler who have a buffer between them and the end customer. Im losing a lot of money and i don,t appear to have any redress.

Have you not asked Vodafone for a 5/4G mobile router to keep you running, or just tether computer to phone to keep working?
But as other have said if you need a solid connection for WFH, then you need to pay more for a business level connection which will have service level agreements.

Jumblebumble

Alderbank said:

Taylor1928 said:

Openreach on behalf of Vodafone, started my FFTP installation, they hit a minor problem of a blocked duct, of their own making due to a botched repair of next door. I will have no landline. no internet, for a full month, and i work from home. Vodafone appear not to have any contractual teeth to the network wholesaler who have a buffer between them and the end customer. Im losing a lot of money and i don,t appear to have any redress.

Did you choose the right Vodafone package for your needs?

Consumer broadband is for people like me who just use it for recreational purposes really.

Since you are a business user you ought to have Pro II broadband from Vodafone Business Solutions. One of its benefits is 4G backup so that if (or rather when) the wired network is down you can work as normal and don't lose money.

All part of business continuity planning. Other networks have similar deals for business users.

Indeed BT business also offer a failover 4G on their FTTP which we have and worked very well including keeping the static IP the same