Whose responsibility is it to inform me that the telephone pole to my property is being changed?

[#1]

Openreach have turned up and are changing the telephone pole that carries ome phone and internet to my house and that of my neighbours. We have had no notification and, after asking the engineers doing the job, have been told we are going to be without phone and internet for several hours.

I work from home and we also have several elderly neighbours who rely on these services.

I have tried complaining to Openreach but they only want to speak to my service provider. Going through the Plusnet Help system traps me into a loop of Diagnostic Bots who happily spam me with information I already have - "You appear to have a problem with your connection. We will have an Openreach engineer come out to you - at no cost to you!" - I can save them a journey because I already have 2 engineers within a few feet of my front door.

There doesn't appear to be a straight-forward path to find out who should have informed us and why they didn't.

[#2]

@worsleyfamily1 In an ideal world, Openreach should have had the courtesy to inform you, but as they don't work in an ideal world (for an end user), they have no obligation to inform you. They also would not inform a CP, as they regard the work as general maintenance, affecting only a very small number of properties.

[#3 · Accepted solution]

@worsleyfamily1 - In terms of purely us being your provider and you being without service irrespective of where the pole is, we don't have a system in place to notify you about upcoming maintenance sadly so I don't believe you would get prior information from either us or Openreach about the works.   

Sadly Openreach being the owners of the network and lack of a better word, can do as they please with their network and when they want to, within reason. Depending on safety issues or resourcing of engineers in the area.

For us as your internet provider, this ability they have to affect your service without notice when maintenance is required is covered in our terms and condition surrounding the service not being guaranteed and we have processes in place to help vulnerable and disabled customers get up and running quicker than usual.

Never the less I'm really sorry for the experience you have had with us.

Just so I understand is the pole on your property or on the street somewhere and is it a matter of there being no internet rather than an access issue to the pole on your property?

[#4]

Thanks for the reply.

The pole is in the lane next to our small group of cottages so they had easy access to it without needing to go on to my property of that of my neighbours..

The issue for me was loss of internet and house phone without notice while the work was being carried out - along with a large chunk of the nation, I work remotely so depend on the internet. With notice I would have gone into the office for the day.

There could also have been a problem with access for one of our neighbours whose car was blocked in while the work was carried out - I'm not sure if they had to leave their property at all during this time but they require their car due to mobility problems.

[#5]

I know what you mean. I wish there was more offer by Openreach to notify customer before hand, the trouble i see if that the connection you have is about 50 years old and has actually discontinued. Logically speaking it's only been in the last few years where working from home is on the uptake prior to that it was a high problem for it to go down for a few hours compared to now. Now FTTP is available to about half of the UK, I'd expect to see the network to become far more reliable. I've check and the Openreach version isn't with your get yet, have you see anything about FTTP in year area with other providers?

[#6]

FTTP is being offered by a few companies in the more populated part of the village, however we live in a small group of cottages around 1 kilometer away from the village proper and there appears to be no immediate plans to upgrade the service.

The annoying thing is that the line from exchange to cabinet goes underground within a few feet of the property, but then comes down via overhead lines which are now completely enmeshed with the overhanging trees coming down the lane. In some places the wires are being pushed tight by branches or are even supporting fallen branches.

[#7]

In that case, @worsleyfamily1 I would report the issue to Openreach. Use this link: https://www.openreach.com/help-and-support/damage-health-and-safety

[#8]

@James30 

I'm having difficulty in following your logic in your last post:

You seem to be saying that as the country moves over from copper lines to FTTP, the network will become more reliable. That part I don't argue with.

However, from what I have read on these Plusnet forums and also on BT's equivalent forums, if your copper telephone line is

currently fed underground, then when you eventually get FTTP that will be supplied via the same underground route. If your current copper line is overhead from a pole, then that is how you will eventually get FTTP.

If Openreach replace a pole, isn't that almost always because it has been unsafe for engineers to climb - due to rotting etc?

Wooden poles will still deteriorate over time and need to be replaced - regardless of if they are carrying copper or fibre optic cables.

So how will the migration to FTTP help with this type of issue?

[#9]

I tried reporting it to Openreach...not an easy task. The only way to complain is via their ChatBot, through which I ended up 'speaking' to one of their operatives who, although apologetic (I think he was apologising but at one point he used the statement "I am really sorry we have not got ability to check the details for this issue you need to connect with your service provider and I seek your apology for the behaviour of engineer") was adamant that I addressed this through my Service Provider.

The engineer wasn't at fault and didn't need to apologise (or be apologised to), he was just getting on with his job.

[#10]

I'm thinking in more broader terms, this pole replacement will be most likely a once in a life time event so won't affect you again and when you’re on FTTC you are less likely to have fault relating to noise, interference and water.

We wouldn't suggest contacting Openreach directly about it because we are your point of contact but like before we don't always get to see when maintenance is been done on your line, we'd raise a fault with Openreach and find that the line was down due to Maintenance and let you know it's fixed or give you an estimate repair time.

Hopefully with the FTTP role out will come changes to how outages and maintenance are send out and managed.

[#11]

@worsleyfamily1 

I fully understand that you are upset by being off line for, to quote you, a few hours, without being given warning. 

.On the other hand it reads that you have an old pole on public land with lines entangled in tree branches, a recipe for future problems. This is being fixed for you before it causes an even bigger problem that could result in a much longer break in service. ‘A stitch in time saves nine’.

[#12]

I have no idea of the age of the pole so can't comment on that, however I would liken the situation to being unable to drive to work because Highways have suddenly turned up and decided to dig up the road to help prevent future problems.

Openreach are currently doing another one somewhere further up the lane so I'm still having to access the Internet via my very unreliable (due to location) mobile signal.

...and the trees are still an integral part of the line support system but the new pole looks extremely shiny and new, and no doubt will be there for many years to come.

[#13]

If you subscribe (free) to one.network you will get alerts for ALL works in the local area requiring a permit from your local authority - I have used it to track road closures, FTTP installation, and other activities in my area that I otherwise would have been unaware of in advance.

EDIT: I feel I should add that my ISP does inform me in advance of (rare) planned disruptions (some that wouldn't show on one.network) - even if it is for 1 hour in the middle of the night - so it is within the capabilities of some ISPs to be proactive.

[#14]

I am possibly flogging a dead horse here, BUT if vegetation - trees, whatever are interfering with the phone cables as they appear to be in your case, @worsleyfamily1 , then that is reportable by the  public direct to OR, and they should investigate.

[#15]

I don't believe this is a tree issue.

The replacement of poles is planned months in advance (unless there is a sudden safety issue, such as a vehicle colliding with one). There is plenty of time for affected properties to be notified - and there is almost certainly a (often illegible) sign pinned to the pole at least six weeks before work starts. 

Site such as one.network do list these works - and some ISPs such as Zen do have a status page of Openreach issues.

BTW a disclaimer in the small print is not the same as good customer service.