2 weeks with no phone and zero or very slow internet and still waiting

[#1]

I reported a crackly unusable phone and very low speed internet  fault to PN on 17 December and although they stated that there was no fault when tested from their office, I insisted that a BT engineer came to check it.  They arrived on 19/12 and checked the line which indeed showed a fault on the line to the exchange, 30 metres from the house which would be on the top of a pole just along the road.  OK, but they needed to use a cherry picker crane to get to the wires. OK- over to PN to arrange the next stage.  I was promised 28/12 which was pretty annoying as the family couldn't get online over the Christmas holiday and as I'm in a rural area, 3G is patchy at best inside the house. This date came and went without any apology or explanation why the promised date was missed.  So much for PN "great" customer service. Trying  to complain is also a massive time waster as it takes so long to get through to customer services. There dosen't seem to be an online chat like many other utility companies. I received a call this morning to say that the repair will be on 7 January (still no explanation on the delay) which will make it 3 weeks that is even if it gets done then.  Why am I being pushed to the back of the queue for a line fault to be fixed? Why is the service so poor? Do BT customers always get priority and so PN get pushed back every time?  POOR POOR POOR. 0/5 customer service

[#2]

Sorry to hear you're having issues with your line.

If you can PM me your username I'll be happy to see if we're able to do anything to speed up the repair though it's likely due to engineer availability in the area.

[#3]

Thanks for your private message.

From what I can see an engineer went out on the 19/12/2018 and advised that the fault lies on top of a pole which is on the edge of a very high speed road which would be unsafe to climb without traffic management.

They've submitted an A55 for traffic lights and a hoist. The timeframe for this to be arranged is generally 5 working days as it involves co-operation from several parties including the local council.

We chased this up on the 29/12/2018 after hearing nothing back and we were advised that traffic management has been booked for 07/01/2019. Unfortunately in these situations as a service provider there's nothing we can do to speed this up.

We'll update you when we know more after this date.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

[#4]

I agree that the pole is on a 40 mph road and that traffic lights are needed for safety but as it was reported as a line fault by BT on 19/12, I cannot believe that it has not been fixed by now.  Utility companies and builders use lights all the time in these parts so it is not uncommon at all.  Please chase them up again.  Thanks

[#5]

While I understand what you've said I'm afraid that there's not much more we can do regarding this apart from waiting.

Any further contact into the Openreach contact centre to chase this up before the response time we've been given would likely result in the adviser hard turning us back advising to wait for the response time that they've provided.