Confusion about engineer visit

[#1]

Hi,

I've been without broadband service since 05/12/21. I have been in touch with support by phone several times and they have told me that my area is currently undergoing an MSO, current estimated completion date 15/12/2021 08:32:55.

I also lost dial tone on 09/12/21, possibly right after a line test was performed (I'm not 100% sure).

I'm a bit confused as have been given different information by different CSRs

1. Will I get any compensation for the outage? If so, for what period and how much?

2. The last CSR detected an external line fault in addition to the MSO. He definitely said it was external, however he seems to have booked an engineer visit for 14/12/2021 23:59:59. I'm annoyed because this was not discussed on the phone call.

a) Surely the time's wrong - an engineer's not going to turn up at one minute to midnight?

b) On the phone call, the CSR said several times that the fault was external and did not mention an engineer - does this mean I will get charged if the engineer finds no internal fault? Does "external" just mean that the fault's before the master socket but maybe inside my premises? 

Thanks a lot (in advance) for answering my questions

Joe

[#2]

@bodrone Welcome to the forum.

You’re a bit confused? I suspect that most will be more bemused!

So the fault is predicted to be cured by the morning of the 15th, so an ‘engineer’ is booked to turn up at your premises at1 second to midnight on the 14th?!

I suggest that you wait and hope that a Plusnet staffer comes along here and picks this up and injects some sanity for you. 

[#3]

Surely Plusnet staff will clarify, but since the fault is external, I presume the date you're saying and the time (23:59) are for clearing the fault. Openreach will not turn up at your door at that time, but they may on site, as it may involve traffic management, meaning that the fault can only be cleared when there's not much traffic, for example. 

I don't think there's anything to be bemused about @Baldrick1 because: a) we're relying on the Internet connection more than ever before; and b) Openreach are not very good at communicating anything. I know myself how frustrating it can be getting Openreach to do anything, if at all. 

[#4]

@Edinburgh_wg 

I think that you are getting things out of context. The performance of Openreach and the fact that the fault would not be cleared until the 15th was not under discussion. It was not even concerning communication with Openreach.

What I find bemusing (as in wryly amusing) is that Plusnet should arrange an 'engineer' to turn up at a customers house at midnight and b) arrange a visit before a known local infrastructure fault has been cleared.

[#5]

Hello @bodrone

No need for an internal engineer at this stage, I've just run a test on the line which is showing the MSO, which Openreach are hoping to resolve by 15/12/2021. We wouldn't really need to arrange an engineer visit at this point.

If you continue to have problems after the incident is closed on Openreach's side, let us know and we'll investigate further.

[#6]

Thanks for the response - that makes sense. I'll wait until the 15th.

[#7]

Thanks for getting back to us @bodrone

No problem, I've just checked the estimated resolution date has been pushed back to 17/12/2021 08:35:11 so it looks like the issue may be more complex than previously thought. 

[#8]

Thanks for letting me know.

[#9]

No problem, let us know how it goes

[#10]

My service resumed again on 16/12 at about 8:30, but unfortunately it's gone down again today (20/12, about 11:30). Could one of the mods do a line check and see if there's an estimated date for it to be fixed?

Cheers.

[#11]

Actually never mind - it's come back up.

[#12]

What's an MSO, by the way?

[#13]

As far as I know it stands for Major Service Outage - it's the Openreach name for a logged fault on the network with an estimated resolution date. 

[#14]

Hey @bodrone,

That would be correct I've just had a look over the account to check if everything's still online and it seems to be all good from what I can see. If there are any issues just give us a shout and we'll be happy to help out.