6 months of trying to get BT to install services and no further ahead.

Billco_2

Hey guys, as always looking for some advice please.

Been with Virgin for years in Basildon, Essex. Last year got told BT are now available in our area and was overjoyed at the option of switching away from Virgins diabolical customer service and numerous issues.

However, since September I have spent days on the phone to BT. Had my order cancelled and restarted 3 times, had to send back 3 sets of hardware, chased multiple emails and am nowhere further forward.

When the first order was placed, after a couple weeks the open reach sub contractors showed up, told me they were going to dig up the pavement and our driveway to get everything laid, perfect. They dug the pavement up, put the conduit and cable in but told me they didn't have the right gear to cut my concrete driveway and would have to come back.

That was the last time I ever saw them. In the meantime Openreach have just told BT over and over that they are "waiting for permission from a 3rd party" but won't say who due to "data protection"

During the second order I raised an official complaint with BT. The next day I actually got a call from Openreach, very helpful guy who said he hadn't received a permit to work form from us. Well nobody had ever supplied us one to sign, it had just been "respond to this text with consent", so he emailed me the forms, we signed them and returned them, happy days but Openreach had a 8-12 week backlog so it would be a while before they would do the dig.

During this time, the order timed out or something at BT's end and was automatically cancelled, so it had to be replaced yet again.

Since then however, Openreach have gone back to the "waiting for 3rd party" but they are adamant its not the homeowner this time. My BT guy who has even given up after constant call backs, basically told me off the record that it's Essex County Council not giving them permission to dig up the pavement and that apparently, the original dig, should not have gone ahead because they didn't have the right permission back then.

I've tried contacting ECC. Essex Highways. BT. I've emailed the guy at Openreach that I spoke to previously a few times with no response. I Just can't get anywhere with them and its crazy to me. Openreach have now closed the order and so have BT so I don't currently have any orders in place. I was going to just put another order online to keep the ball rolling but i'm getting sick of the jumping through hoops and getting nowhere. I was persevering out of principle originally, plus in my mind, they would have had to pay me compensation due to a late installation dated back to the original order - but that would have almost certainly been a fight as well.

Anyone got any experience of similar and/or suggestions on how to proceed please? I can't raise a complaint with Openreach because its not about an engineer. I must have raised 5 or 6 complaints with BT during the whole process and they always just got closed eventually with nothing ever really happening.

You might ask yourself why I still want to switch from Virgin at this stage but the service from them has actually been even worse. Plus once I have fibre installed it opens up my options as other providers show up.