Full fibre installation delayed, old services now disconnected

rabbituk

We are now without Internet connection or landline after the delayed fibre installation yesterday. The OpenReach engineer turned up late without the necessary equipqment required to complete the job. They are now tell us that we will be without broadband or phone until next Tuesday (6 days). What rights do I have in this situation? My gut tells me to follow the money and only complain to the new provider (OneStream). The equipment the engineer needed was entirely foreseeable so OpenReach are principally at fault for this failure. The new provider told the old providers to cease the services so the ADSL no longer works and we cannot make or receive phone calls. It seems crazy to think that the old providers only operate on a date the new provider gives them and do not verify the new service before ceasation - surely that cannot be true?

Mobile phone reception is sketchy and doesn't work when it rains so I really need the landline back working. Currently I'm having to travel into the nearby town to use the Internet reliably which is only a few miles but still a pain not to be able to work at home.

So what rights do I have? What compensation would be reasonable?

rabbituk

Additionally the OpenReach engineer has told the new provider that the internal work is complete and internal access is no longer required. See in the attached photo, surely there should be another fibre cable going into the grey box, therefore internal access /will/ still be required. Not sure how this lie affects the install but surely this deception is not professional. For distracted comments on lack of RJ45 cable in white box, that is not important when the WAN side does not work. Note LOS light! It most definitely is OpenReach's responsibility to run the fibre cable from the outside all the way to the grey box.

iniltous

The Openreach  demarcation point is the ONT ( the white powered box ) , the router that your ISP provides ( if they provided one ) is connected to the ONT ‘LAN ’ ( RJ45 ) socket , if available most installers will connect it , but if its not available ( possibly still in use with the current service ) then they can’t .

35har1old

rabbituk said:

Additionally the OpenReach engineer has told the new provider that the internal work is complete and internal access is no longer required. See in the attached photo, surely there should be another fibre cable going into the grey box, therefore internal access /will/ still be required. Not sure how this lie affects the install but surely this deception is not professional.

I don't have a grey box but there sames to be a cable missing which runs to the router.Where is the router?
The cable that runs to the router is only approx 2m long is this the piece of the equipment  that's missing?

molerat

You are all barking up the wrong tree. OP is saying that the external fibre network is not connected to the grey junction box.  The PON light not being illuminated confirms there is no signal getting to the ONT.

iniltous

The external ‘cable’ from the outside may well have entered from the rear of the CSP ( the grey box ) so not visible in the photo, there would seem be little point providing the Ezibend ( white ) cable and plugging it into the ONT if the CSP needs to be revisited to introduce the external cable and splice it to the provided Ezibend but its possible, but in those circumstances why would the installer say further inside access were not needed  ?

TBH , the ONT serial number is on the CSP which is needed to authenticate once the optical path is completed, so unless a separate record of the serial number is also kept elsewhere , then to ‘scan and go’ that’s the the authentication process ,scanning the ONT bar code ,   access may well be needed to ‘read’ the serial number .

As to the other point , is the previous copper pair broadband also Onestream or someone else ? ,if the OP has lost the existing service , the OP may have been better advised not to tie the provide to the cease by giving them the same date , even if that meant paying for two services for a short while , that way if the installation of the FTTP failed ,( sh*t  happens ) service over the old network would still be available.

Without knowing what the issue is , it’s impossible to apportion blame, the photo  seems to show am odd location for the CSP ( usually on an external wall)  possibly a utility cupboard ? , is the property part of a MDU or some other non standard residential dwelling ? that may have a bearing on why the install failed 

elmer

This happened to me, Open reach took just over a month to connect the fibre, despite telling me that it would be a couple of days, I received £300 compensation off my bill

rabbituk

elmer said:

This happened to me, Open reach took just over a month to connect the fibre, despite telling me that it would be a couple of days, I received £300 compensation off my bill

I am simply gobsmacked that OpenReach think it is acceptable to leave customers without service for so long. My elderly father lives with me and with no public transport, poor mobile reception (we usually have to take mobile phone calls outside the house) and my father having given up his driving license this year, this will really isolate him. So I really hope it won't be over a month to sort. Customers are unable to phone us and the websites that I run are currently offline. £300 would be an insult if I have to wait that long.

I have 2 other tenanted properties that I was thinking to have fibre installed at. I definitely won't be doing that with the current state of the immature installation process. I would never accept a job if I wasn't confident that I could complete it. OpenReach own the line so they know what is required and turned up without a hoist on Wednesday. They have come out several times in recent years because of line faults because they don't maintain the infrastructure adequately, Each time I have to go through the ISP and waste a bunch of time telling them that WAN side errors are nothing to do with WiFi and it is definitely a line fault again.

400ixl

You have purchased a consumer service, so the fact that customers cannot contact you and your business websites (hosted on your premise) are not available is of no concern to OneStream or OpenReach. Likewise they are not to know anything about your father and is not really their concern either. They are not emotionally involved in this transaction in the way you are.

You have to take the responsibility for resilience of these, not the ISP or backend supplier. Sorry to say it, but that is on you.

You have no contract with OpenReach, just Onestream so they are the ones that you should be talking to.

As for the old ISP confirming that the new service is up and running is also not their concern. You have terminated your contract with them, they just do as instructed (stop providing the service on the date they are told to).

With a switch to FTTC to FTTP where the services can overlap, if you had critical services and vulnerable people on your network, you could have run a parallel service until the switch was confirmed. Would have cost you a months extra FTTC service but would have guaranteed no loss of service. If and when FTTP becomes available for my exchange, as  work from home a lot I will be doing exactly that if I don't stay with the same supplier.

99% of transfers go without a hitch, some don't, like yours unfortunately. Some ISP's (BT for example) have higher service level contracts with OpenReach (e.g.priority weekend coverage) than others (likely OneReach). Which can mean different speeds of fixes.

The requirement for a hoist I assume is because your line comes in over poles? That would be a bit of a fubar by OpenReach if so.

You need to speak to your new ISP as they are the ones who can communicate and escalate with OpenReach. They are also responsible for any compensation. You should be entitled to £6.10 per day they fail to start the service, but you will need to apply as they have not signed up to the automatic compensation scheme https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know

Sorry if this comes across as a bit harsh, but that is the way it is unfortunately. Get onto Onestream and have them take whatever action they can.

iniltous

You have absolutely no contractual relationship with Openreach , if your car new broke down because the battery was defective, you wouldn’t stand for the car manufacturer directing you to the battery manufacturer for the repair, the fact is your contractual relationship is with Onestream ,

 if you or they had had considered the possibility of the new service not working immediately and maintaining service was critical, then you probably should have not arranged the cease to be done on the same day , Openreach didn’t make you or Onestream pick the date to cease the old service , that was you or them .

You  expedite reprovide the old broadband, have you asked or have they implied it can’t be done , even though it can .

rabbituk

400ixl said:

You have no contract with OpenReach, just Onestream so they are the ones that you should be talking to.

As for the old ISP confirming that the new service is up and running is also not their concern. You have terminated your contract with them, they just do as instructed (stop providing the service on the date they are told to).

With a switch to FTTC to FTTP where the services can overlap, if you had critical services and vulnerable people on your network, you could have run a parallel service until the switch was confirmed. Would have cost you a months extra FTTC service but would have guaranteed no loss of service. If and when FTTP becomes available for my exchange, as  work from home a lot I will be doing exactly that if I don't stay with the same supplier.

99% of transfers go without a hitch, some don't, like yours unfortunately. Some ISP's (BT for example) have higher service level contracts with OpenReach (e.g.priority weekend coverage) than others (likely OneReach). Which can mean different speeds of fixes.

The requirement for a hoist I assume is because your line comes in over poles? That would be a bit of a fubar by OpenReach if so.

You need to speak to your new ISP as they are the ones who can communicate and escalate with OpenReach. They are also responsible for any compensation. You should be entitled to £6.10 per day they fail to start the service, but you will need to apply as they have not signed up to the automatic compensation scheme https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know

Today the weather is better and have -100dBm on my mobile phone signal. Not great but I can just about use it.

I will get back onto OneStream as I suspected in my initial post. OneStream have said in an email that is incumbent on me to contact OpenReach - which for a telecommuncations company is surprising hard to reach! I've had a reply from the OpenReach CEO's office but no explaination as yet to why they didn't have the necessary equipment to run the line when they accepted the job. Regarding compensation, I'm unclear as to whether this is a new line or replacement/repair of an existing one. The fact that the technology is changing should be irrelevant in determination of a new line IMHO. There also seems to be no reflection in the compensation with regards to where you are located. In an urban area where mobile signal is strong and public transport is good is a very different scenario to rural areas where neither of those attributes are present.

Lastly regarding the old broadband supplier. We are actually paying for an overlapping period (something like 3 weeks) however they have ceased service upon instructions from OneStream. They've said that it is not possible to reinstate the service. I have never chosen a date and simply accepted the date I was given.

I think there are a multitude of mistakes in this install and I will be writing to OneStream to understand this. I find it hard to understand why a failed install leaves us without service as opposed to reverting to the previous services.