No broadband for 11 weeks - and counting

wallacdj

Why are service providers forcing customers onto full fibre fibre bb when it's actually not available. See below....not even installed by BT Openreach! Now likely to be 90+days at £6.10/day (~£550) so clearly penalty is insufficient to get BT Openreach to act quickly. 

Moved to new home.
Could not move migrate Vodafone business but denied retaining copper at new premises even though available so cancelled contract. 
Checked online and apparently only full fibre available at the property. Ordered 12/3/24 in time for 25/3/24 move & install scheduled 27/3/24. Text confirmation received in advance  waited in all day but no show. 

28/3/24 contact sky. Only information BTO awaiting approval from "unknown" for ground work. Cannot be escalated as not yet 21 days. Requested copper service but told by Sky 3/4/24 that it was a dead exchange and could not be activated. 

18/4/24 letter dated 25/3/24 from BTO forwarded from previous property owner addressed by BTO to him as registered owner and forwarded to him at new address. Emailed approval from me sent immediately to BTO with evidence from solicitors that I was property owner. 

Escalated by Sky 19/3/24.
Work scheduled 10/5/24 with engineers from BTO and Sky. Asked about ground work and assured by Sky it would all be done at same time by BTO. No show by either engineers without notification. Apparently ground work needed to be done!

Sky advised new ground work scheduled for 24/5/24. BTO text advised install 4/6/24. No confirmatory text from BTO BY 23/5/24 so called Sky. Apparently what they told me was wrong and it was only a review date for BTO to schedule ground work. In fact review date now set for 18th June by BTO. 

Sky proposed copper connection as backup service (see above refused request) to Sky alternative connections team (?) who would call me 28/3/24. 2 unscheduled calls over w/e from Sky missed by me as expecting call back on agreed date.
Sky failed to call on agreed date! 

Called Sky whose team refused request as less than 21 days to the BTO date. Appeal decision as a)more than 21 days (sic) b) date was only for decision on schedule of ground work. Awaiting appeal and maybe a call 30/5/24.

Mark_d

When you were buying the property, what was said about the broadband connection/phone line?  As a Vodafone business customer I assume broadband is important to you, so you would have enquired about broadband at the property.

iniltous

No such organisation as BTO ,it’s just Openreach , if your chosen ISP is Sky , no point including’BT’ as they are not involved.

TBH , the previous occupant forwarding the communication sent to them at their old ( your new ) address is irrelevant, it’s the lack of any response to that communication that enables a takeover of service, basically no reply is deemed consent , but in this case it’s doubly irrelevant in that the old customer was copper and you were going to be FTTP .

When FTTP is available it becomes the default network so the fact that the address shows OR FTTP as available means copper pair service cannot be selected by the ISP , apart from in exceptional circumstances, you presumably are not classed as exceptional circumstances or  Sky haven’t availed themselves of this option ( it could be your situation doesn’t qualify ) .

When FTTP is made available, Openreach show the survey return  , it’s the basis of the expected installation method and indicates if a single stage or two stage installation process is required, post the return for your address as it may be helpful.

https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

The pertinent part is KCI2 or single stage and the part that is similar to the following,

Our records show the following FTTP network service information for these premises:-Single Dwelling Unit Residential UG Feed with no anticipated issues.


If the entry is something like ‘partial DIG’ and KCI2 then it’s already been observed that the installation may be complex and you should have been given a long lead time , and explained that the date could  be subject to change .

Is Virgin Media available ? , TBH , if it is then the obvious solution would be to use them and cancel Sky 

wallacdj

I moved to Vodafone as Virginmedia were so poor, unreliable etc. I moved to sky because Vodafone were....
I have a package deal with Sky and don't want to lose it.

My issue is with ffbb being shown as available by all service providers and no copper choice despite being available previously. If I had known this at the time I would have gone with Virginmedia short term.

 Although there are exceptions I just heard I don't qualify (?). Install should be completed June 18th but the same assurances were made about 10th May. I remain without any service so my advice to anyone is do not change service whilst moving property. Stick with known incumbent and then migrate. 

iniltous

It’s of little consequence and possibly depending on what’s required, may not be much of a stopgap, but BT provide a ‘free’ EE mobile router when installations  fail in these circumstances, as well as regular outages  

wallacdj

Sorry not with BT but am aware of EE WiFi/ BT WiFi. It's pants with signal dropping every 5 minutes, low bandwidth and weakest channel broadcast. To think some people pay for this!?!

iniltous

How do you know it would be pants dropping every 5 minutes, with low bandwidth etc at your location ? some people chose to be mobile only , in some locations mobile can provide a satisfactory or better connection, it’s not WiFi BTW , it’s mobile 4/5G .
As stated as a stopgap to give you some connectivity it’s an option that your choice of provider doesn’t apparently offer …if you consider it better to wait ( 11 weeks and counting ) and if BT/EE were your provider you would not take this option because your suspect it wouldn’t be any good , that’s up to you ,
FWIW , if BT/EE provide this stopgap connectivity while the installation problems are addressed it’s ‘free’ to the BT/EE customer until the ‘landline’ service is provided, the kit is then simply returned once service provided or restored, as I said it’s of no consequence to you as you are not a BT/EE customer, and although you presumably don’t regret your choice of VF as your provider, you may have had some connectivity in these last 11 weeks if VF were  not your choice of ISP .

littleboo

Arent there two different things being discussed here? BT/EE WiFi is using a some spare bandwidth on a customer home service or is a BT/EE branded wifi service in retail environments. For outages or delayed installs, BT/EE can send a 4G/5G router to provide service. 
FWIW, I have used BT WiFi quite a lot in the past, less so now, but it was always generally pretty good for ad-hoc use