Applied, argued and was proven correct, delays avoidable

[#1]

Well, I applied for the phone and BB service in January, great. Was notified that I had to pay approx £50 for a new line installation. Argued for ages that this was not required as I had paid BT for the installation in Jan 2009 and the line was fine. BT Openreach and or Plusnet agreed and waived the charge but insisted that I be in the house this afternoon for 5 hours so the engineer could 'install' the line. Plusnet had called Openreach to check this was correct and they were adamant that an engineer had to visit today. Strange thing is I picked up the phone on Sunday the 14th and it was working! having sat here all afternoon and taken a day off work for the pleasure I just had a call from Openreach asking me if the engineer had been??? She was confused that my line was already working and that I indeed already had the line installed. This person confirmed that an engineer visit would not be required and I could go out... bit late for work though and have lost £s.
She also informed me that it would now be up to a week for BB service. I am furious about the unnecessary delay caused by Openreach and feel a complaint coming on, but hey, wait, you cannot complain to them as there are no details on their website and your service provider has to do that for you. Well, I have logged a ticket asking them to complain but the respose time is now at 26 hours so thought I would pop in here see if anyone is moderating and would like to take a shot at Openreach for me, and at the same time ask them/Plusnet to speed up my BB package/application 🙂

[#2]

I wouldn't hold your breath waiting for a response on here mate. Do you want me to PM you the contact details for the Director of Customer Services's office of BT PLC? It's their highest authority for any complaint about their subsidiaries.

[#3]

Hey David, that would come in handy as I cannot imagine they are going to rush through my BB application on the basis of the forum or my ticket complaint.
Can see me going the same way as yourself soon! Do not want to be stuck without any service at all as we are using mobile dongles which are terrible. Really hoping PN will be faster but having read a lot of complaints on here I am begining to doubt that (but then again people only really post on forums to complain 🙂

[#4]

Just PM'd you the info.
The Techies on here seem pretty good to be honest ... I've had a couple of calls from them and they seem genuinely helpful. I think it's the BT influence that's made it all go wrong. I get messages from the help centres that need translation into English when they eventually arrive (usually a few days after you raise the questions) & the cancellation staff I spoke to were clueless at best.
Some of the members on here can get a tad tetchy too ...!!!

[#5]

Hi there,
I'll pick this up for you tomorrow, as I can't talk to the necessary people at this time of night.

[#6]

thanks David, email is on it's way to BT withall details of application date, detailed list of phone calls and durations I have made to call centres, connections and transcripts of all messages. A truely bad experience so far which surpasses Talktalks dreadful service and that is saying something.
Mand, good luck with your contacts.
Thing I do not understand is that I had an active line and could make outgoing emergency calls until a few days after I applied to Plusnet and openreach did something to the exchange which is detailed in the messages section. The line then went dead and they started telling yourselves I needed a 'new installation' then the delays started. surely this should have been a simple case of switching the line on that day.
BB today would be nice 

[#7]

Well Mand, it is half past four and nothing heard from you! I hope you are OK.
Another silly message appeared in my messages today saying that new line installation was now complete and please check if it should be charged... never ending circles indeed.
Also a text today to let me know that BB will be complete on 24th Feb... yesterday's text said up to 5- 7 days, now 16 + 7 = 23. What goes on here?

[#8]

I'm still waiting on a reply to a few emails I sent chasing this earlier.
7 days is standard lead time for a broadband order, I placed it last night, so the 23rd is about right, I'll see if I can get this done any quicker though.
Is there a good time to call you in the morning?

[#9]

On mobile until 10am then land line
Jim

[#10]

Morning came and went, no phone call, nada, rien, Scotch mist!
So glad this is on a month by month basis, as soon as I do it I think I shall be moving but have to wait for BB service to get a code, catch 22.
Anyway, I would advise people to avoid Plusnet and never believe anything they tell you.
Sorry Mand, but this is really very poor indeed...and you have lived up to my expectations of this customer service.

[#11]

Hi there,
I'm really sorry, I've been in meetings all morning.
As discussed, hopefully we're sorted now.

[#12]

Thanks for calling Mand, I will end this thread by mentioning that we have now proven that Openreach have not only made an error insisting that my line was 'ceased' rather than 'stoped' but that they lied in their report to Plusnet that they attended my property on Monday to install cable to the master switch and test the line! Astonishing. Happy enough with the result.

[#13]

lying barstewards 

[#14]

Agree with oldjim,also theres nothing worse than having to take a day of work only for this #h;t to happen and confirms my beliefs that BT not plusnet and openreach are bloody rogue traders

[#15]

I remember when I got a phone line installed in my old house (or rather reconnected), one engineer turned up one morning at about 8am to do the job (the day before they were due!) so I let him - took all of 5 minutes.  Had a phone call the next day at lunch time from a BT engineer who was just about to arrive to do it.  I told him not to bother as it had been done yesterday.  He seemed quite happy about that!
The main problem is it being a privatised industry - too many companies and systems for anybody to really know what is going on.