Am I getting 1 visit or 2 ?

[#1]

On 28th March I agreed to a new contract and FTTP.  

We agreed over the phone at the time that 20th April would be the day for the fibre line to be installed to the house.

Yesterday I received an email from Plusnet Customer Support saying "The engineer appointment to activate your broadband service is confirmed for 31/05/2023. The engineer should arrive between 08:00 - 13:00" and that I'd get a £65 fine if I missed the appointment.

That email gave no indication of whether I am now getting 2 visits or just 1.  Also, the email gave no indication of how I am supposed to respond.

Well, I replied to that email and asked the above question ... and it bounced back.  

"Thank you for your email. Unfortunately we don't pick up any emails sent to this address."

It did tell me that I could phone an 0800 number

Well I don't want to phone because a) I don't want to be hanging on the phone and b) I want it in writing.

Is that why Plusnet prefer I use the phone ... so it's not in writing ?

So, I'm writing the question here ... Am I now expecting 2 visits ... 20th April and 31st May ?

It's possible that there is to be only 1 and it's 31st May and that could be because of the difficulty finding the cable route and feasibility ahead of said visit.  (As of today, Openreach have decided to dig a hole in the road as the trunking (only 20 year old estate) seems to be blocked).  

So, my new contract for FTTP starts 28th April, but maybe I won't actually be getting switched on till 31st May owing to the above-mentioned hurdles.   Obviously, I'd like confirmation, but it would have been a good idea to make it clearer in yesterday's email.

It would also be an improvement if Plusnet Customer Support did actually pick up replies to their emails, because I don't particularly want to phone for this ... and you probably don't particularly want me posting this in this forum ...

[#2]

Hi @irritablegit 

Thanks for reaching out over forums, we don't accept emails but you're more than welcome to reach out over the forums if you're not wanting to call. There's a mixture of staff and superusers who are more than happy to help you out if you need anything. 

Your appointment for the installation is going through for the 31/05/23 between 8AM & 1PM. 

An engineer visited the external site on the 10/04/23 and was unable to complete the external work as further dig work is needed for duct or cabling. An A55 was submitted on the same day which so the dig work could go ahead and Openreach can find out exactly what needs to be done. 

Our orders team is keeping an eye on this for you and are providing updates via email & on this ticket. You can comment on the ticket if you do have any questions in the future. 

[#3]

Just to be clear ... is the booked visit for 20th April cancelled ?

You might think it's obvious as there's now an appointment for 31st May ... but I don't know exactly what was planned to be done and by whom, so as far as I'm concerned two visits might be needed unless you tell me otherwise.

So, is the 20th April visit cancelled ?

[#4]

The 20th April was just an estimated and was never confirmed, nothing will go ahead on this date 

[#5]

20th April was the agreed date.  No-one told me it was an "estimate".

If by "not confirmed" you mean I didn't receive it in writing, that's true.

That was my point about wanting to use email instead of the phone ... I wanted it in writing. 

So you are effectively confirming that verbal agreements don't count ...

At least we now know that there is currently only one visit booked ... 31st May 2023

[#6]

Confirmed dates are those that Openreach have accepted and confirmed when the order is processed by them.  Plusnet (or any other supplier) would only be able to give you an estimated/provisional date before this, based on the info that the Openreach systems say.  Often this date will then be confirmed, but sometimes Openreach will need to change the date (like in your case after they have checked out the site), and they'll give you a different confirmed date.