Concerned about Openreach appointment

[#1]

We recently placed an order for standard FTTC broadband. We paid just under £50 for installation because although the house already has a BT socket, we're told it is inactive. I understand that this will require an Openreach engineer to do some work in the street cabinet to reconnect the line. At the time of ordering, we chose an afternoon appointment slot for the day we move in. However, we've since received a text message (SMS) saying the appointment is for that day but in the morning (anywhere between 8am-1pm), asking us to reply CONFIRM or CHANGE. As we have to travel quite a way that morning, it's likely to be mid-morning before we get there, but we didn't want to reply CHANGE in case it cancelled the morning slot and left us with a delayed installation.

I looked up Openreach contact details (please don't laugh) to see if we could get confirmation of whether the engineer would require access to the house or not; we're expecting not, as we've no reason to believe the existing line and socket would need changing, but would rather be sure. I soon learned that Openreach are anything but open or reachable, and say to contact the ISP, so after 45 mins on hold to Plusnet (wondering if we had made a mistake in our choice of supplier) I finally managed to discuss it with someone. Only to be told that although it's likely just to be cabinet work, if the engineer DID need access to the house and we weren't in, then we'd be charged a £65 missed appointment fee... AND that Plusnet have no way of contacting Openreach about this! That seems like a poor system and I'm not at all happy about the potential charge, especially as we didn't choose a morning appointment in the first place. We looked at alternative appointments, but they are all for the following week when we will need the service to be up and running. So, not wanting to lose the existing slot and with an acceptable alternative date seeming unlikely, we replied CONFIRM, but we're still concerned about the so-called "missed appointment" possibility.

So I'm wondering if anyone on here can comment on a) the likelihood of needing to be in on the day, or b) what happens when you reply CHANGE on the text message - does it cancel the existing appointment, does it text you back with alternative appointments (unlikely to be much good), or does it prompt someone to get in touch so we could actually discuss this with someone? Any advice would be much appreciated, as moving is stressful enough without having all of this to worry about!

[#2]

This comes up time and time again, a bit like an Openreach appointment I suppose. Plusnet does their best but this matter is the sole reponsibility of Openreach, and Openreach are a law onto themselves. Individual customers cannot contact them and Plusnet's links to them seem to be just as tenuous as any other provider.

Sadly there is nothing you can do but hope for the best. In fairness the OR technician has a list of jobs to work through, if one holds him up the knockon goes onto the later ones, maybe they rearrange such delayed calls at the end of the day rather than delay all next day's schedule as well? 

Sorry I can't be more optimistic. When I moved ADSL to FTTC years back the move was 10 days later than scheduled because of other works but at least I had adequate broadband, so my sympathies.

Mike

[#3]

Thanks for your comments @Longliner, it does say on the OR website that the engineer will be in touch on the day before attending, so hopefully some common sense will apply and we can be shunted to later in the day if they are down to arrive before we can get there... guess it will all depend on the locations of other appointments though.

[#4]

What Openreach say they do and reality may differ 😑 

[#5]

Hi there,

I'm really sorry to see this, I know moving house is hard enough as it is without added trouble.

We can contact our suppliers helpdesk but ultimately they wouldn't be able to tell us if the engineer will need access to your property as it'll depend on what work needs to be done to install your line.

Engineers don't always only need access to fit a socket or wiring, but sometimes to find the right line outside to connect. There are also many other reasons why an engineer may need access, that's just one of them. 

If you're not wanting us to delay the appointment and if you can't get there by 8am, do you know of anyone you trust in the area who could let the engineer in to your new property on your behalf instead? 

[#6]

Hi @Gandalf, thank you for your reply... it's useful to know about the potential reasons for needing access to the house. I was wondering if we could hope for the best (cabinet work only) and worst case perhaps negotiate a later slot if we happen to have been scheduled quite early in the morning, but it sounds like that could be risky given the potential work and no doubt he/she will have a busy schedule and won't want to mess other customers around by swapping times.

I imagine if we tried to reschedule now, we'd be looking at an appointment well into next week at best, which would be very problematic work-wise. The only other people who could potentially let the engineer into the house are the landlord or letting agent, but from what I know of both I think it's pretty unlikely that either would be able to do that for us (at least at short notice). I did briefly wonder if the engineer could borrow a key from the letting agent with our permission, but I'm not sure if either party would agree and I doubt we can contact the engineer in advance to arrange that.

In the absence of any other options, we might have to see if we can rearrange our plans for the night before and travel up to the new house then and basically camp out on the floor that night so that we're there first thing. That brings its own complications, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's the only option. Not wishing to sound like a right old moaner, but I just wish we could have relied on it being an afternoon appointment as selected when we placed the order!

[#7]

No problem and sorry again for the complications but sounds like a plan.

Let me know how it goes. 

[#8]

Well, we rearranged our plans to be at the property overnight and I'm glad we did, as the engineer arrived before 9 and wanted to check the socket, attached some gizmo and went off to the cabinet for a bit before returning, so just as well we didn't gamble on him not needing access. Anyway, all done and dusted now so we're relieved to have it sorted. Thanks all.

[#9 · Accepted solution]

Glad to see that and cheers for the update!

Let me know if there's anything else you'd need help with.