BT Openreach engineer... Complete failure to do anything... ever!

[#1]

Upgraded to Plusnet Fibre Broadband Mid January.
Saturday 26th January 2013 – Internet connection went down. Our village suffered minor flooding in lowland parts due to melting snow and severe rainfall. I assumed this was the cause.
Monday 28th January 2013 – Internet was still down by early evening so I reported the fault to Plusnet.  They ran a few checks on my line and said that an engineer would have to visit to sort the fault, and that they would be in touch to arrange.
Thursday 31st January 2013 – Text message received from Plusnet. Explaining the 8-1/1-6 Mon-Fri policy. It asked me to name three timeslots that would be convenient. As with probably most people, that is of absolutely no use to me, at all, they might as well have just given me a time. Nevertheless I replied to the text giving three timeslots.
Friday 1st February 2013 – Text message received, confirming an appointment for Tuesday 5th February 2013. The messaged advised that I would need to give 24 hours notice of any required changes to this.
Tuesday 5th February 2013 – Received a phone call around 12.30 from Plusnet who asked if BT Openreach had been in touch with me regarding the appointment. I explained that they hadn’t. Rather unapologetically this person said something along the lines of’
“yeah (sniggers)! He ain’t comin’”
FABULOUS half day wasted.
He then said that they had automatically re-arranged the appointment for the following day between 8am and 1pm. Again, THANKS!
Wednesday 6th February 2013 – Engineer arrives and was at the property at around 12.30 and was there for over an hour. At 6.07pm text message received from Plusnet explaining that the engineer believed that he solved the problem by replacing the modem, but that Plusnet wanted to test the line in a couple of days to see if this was actually the case. I arrive home at about 6.45pm to find the internet working. By 7.15pm it wasn’t working again. I went out for the evening, came back about 1am, still - no internet.
Thursday 7th February 2013 – Internet wasn’t working in the morning before I left for work. I rang my girlfriend who was at the property, just before 6pm, and it still wasn’t working. I sent a text to Plusnet asking for a call back.
Saturday 9th February 2013 – Bored of waiting for the call, I phoned Plusnet who rebooked an appointment for an engineer to visit for Tuesday 12th February 2013 between 8am and 1pm.
Tuesday 12th February 2013 12.30 - Still no sign of an engineer, so I phoned Plusnet who, after looking into the problem could see that BT Openreach had found an external fault and therefore might not need to come to the property, but also that he was not absolutely sure of this and would have to check with a colleague, who would phone me back. I did get a call back from Plusnet who explained that BT Openreach were not going to be visiting me today, but [Censored], shock, horror, they had re-booked my appointment for the following day between 8am and 1pm.
Tuesday 12th February 2013 14.40 – Text message received, this time from my girlfriend who had been advised by someone who was at the property that the BT engineer had arrived. They then had to forward me, their phone number – no contact from the BT engineer.
At this point I phoned the engineer and I had to explain all of the issues. According to him, he had no idea what had previously happened (Why? – Is this info not logged?) I asked that he call me back when he’d finished letting me know what he had done. I also explained that Plusnet had arranged for an engineer to come tomorrow morning, to which he explained that he had just been given the instruction to come to our property, and that he had probably been told to come early because “they didn’t have ‘out on”.
He called me almost exactly an hour later to say that he had been to our green box where he believed the fault to be, replaced “some parts that looked a bit crappy” but also that some of his testing equipment had failed and he could not complete the work. He then told me that he had logged this (where, I couldn’t tell you) and that I would need to explain the full situation to the engineer when they arrive tomorrow because if I don’t, and I use HIS words here,
“They’ll just change yer modem an [Censored] off”...
I have no idea of this guy’s name but his number is XXXXXXXXX... feel free to send abuse.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings, probably a moody boss because I have had to come to the office late AGAIN, and a complete absence of internet!!!
Why is this happening?
I have read that BT Openreach is struggling, but with what? Quarter 3, 2012 they made £675 MILLION profit. Surely if they are struggling with something, investing in their service engineers department, and taking a hit on their profit, would go some way towards alleviating their plight!
That said Plusnet... My broadband contract is with YOU! NOT BT Openreach. Though I do understand that it is not actually your fault as such, it is your company that I have to express my disgust at this level of service!
As I understand it, BT acquired Plusnet in 2007, but something prior to this, would have been negotiated with BT over the supply of internet services, as you do you use BT phonelines. When this was negotiated you accepted that this service level was acceptable, and continue to do so. So yes I will direct my frustration at you, and I do expect you to go some way to rectify the situation. The “my hands are tied – we can’t do anything else – I understand your frustration” [Censored] needs to stop... It isn’t working... DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
Kind regards/hugs and kisses.
James.
adie:red removed a mobile phone number

[#2]

I'm really sorry to hear about the issues you've had here.
It's obvious there's a few things that need to be fed back to our suppliers about the engineers you've dealt with so I'll make sure that happens.
I'm sorry if anyone you've spoken to about the issue here has given the impression that we want to defer blame or be dismissive about the issue. You are right about us being owned by BT Retail, we still operate as an autonomous company and our relationship with our suppliers (BT Wholesale) remains unchanged since before the take over and we're still able to push back using the same channels as before.
More importantly I want to make sure this is resolved quickly so as I'm collating feedback to pass on about your encounters with Openreach engineers it makes sense for me to take ownership of this as well. There's a few unanswered questions for me (and I'm sure for you too) as to why the engineers didn't arrive when they were supposed to so I'll also aim to find out what happened.
Moving forwards I can see that there's another engineer visit booked in for today so it goes with out saying that we'll need to see what the outcome is so I'll make sure one of us gets in touch with you later. In the meantime I'll start preparing my feedback and look deeper into what's happened.

[#3]

Thanks for your reply... Let's see what happens today.

[#4]

I'd say its amazing... but it isn't really is it!
Its now gone 1pm and there is no sign of an engineer.
DO NOT CALL ME BACK UNITIL YOU HAVE ARRANGED AN ENGINEER TO COME WHEN IT SUITS ME!!!!

[#5]

Gutted to hear that, can you let me know when does suit you for another visit as I don't want to assume.
I'm contacting our suppliers right now to see what's happened.

[#6]

after 6.30pm any weekday, or all day saturday.
Thanks
James

[#7]

OK, the slots on offer are 08:00 to 13:00 or 13:00 to 18:00 mon-fri. Some Saturday ones are possible and where as I can't guarantee we can get one I'll try my best for you.
Adam

[#8]

Well Im not going to be arranging for anyone to be at the property any more, This is a total JOKE!
We've lost too much money and let too many people down because of this service! I do not care what your slots are, I'm telling you when its convenient for me!
Those are the times...

[#9]

And have have we made any progress in establishing why nobody has turned up?

[#10]

I'm sorry you feel this way but that won't help resolve the fault. The time slots I've mentioned are the only ones offered from our suppliers. I appreciate if that might not be convenient for you but it doesn't change what we're able to offer I'm afraid.
I'm chasing this with our suppliers as I type this so I'll be in touch if I can arrange a Saturday appointment, that's unless you are able to make arrangements for someone to be in for one of the other times.
EDIT: I've requested an appointment for this Saturday 16/2/13 and I'm expecting confirmation/otherwise from our suppliers by email within the next 2 hours so I'll make sure I let you know what the outcome is.
The first details about the missed visits are emerging but I'd like to dig into this further, I'll be updating your fault ticket with more information about that shortly.
Adam

[#11]

I cannot arrange for anybody to be at the property any more.
Its a 50 mile round trip for me to get there from my office, My girlfriend and her father (whom I have arranged to be at the property on the previous occassions) have businesses to run which means they cannot commit to being at the property between those hours.
To be honest with you Adam, If an engineer had been to each one of the previous appointments but was unable to fix the issue then I'd accept this and put up with having to take the time away from my office myself... But this is not the case is it?
What you are telling me then Adam is that you want me to arrange for someone to be at the property, or be there myself for a fifth time? All the while running the high risk of wasting yet more time because the liklihood of the engineer actually making an appearance is slim to none?
Lets look at it another way. This would be the fifth occasion where I would have to do this... That is FIVE FULL DAYS.. 1 WORKING WEEK... 20% of my total annual leave allowance LOST/WASTED!
How long is this going to drag on for Adam? How Bloody Long? I have no assurances whatsoever that an engineer is going to turn up.

[#12]

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to be honest with you Adam, If an engineer had been to each one of the previous appointments but was unable to fix the issue then I'd accept this and put up with having to take the time away from my office myself... But this is not the case is it?

Please see my update on ticket 65119727 where I've added more information about the previous missed engineer visits.

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hat you are telling me then Adam is that you want me to arrange for someone to be at the property, or be there myself for a fifth time? All the while running the high risk of wasting yet more time because the liklihood of the engineer actually making an appearance is slim to none?

I didn't actually realise this was the 5th missed visit, I'm aware of ones from 5/2/13 12/2/13 and today but I will now go further back when I go back to dealing with this further.

Quote

Lets look at it another way. This would be the fifth occasion where I would have to do this... That is FIVE FULL DAYS.. 1 WORKING WEEK... 20% of my total annual leave allowance LOST/WASTED!

I agree, that's not good I will make sure we credit you appropriately when this fault has been resolved.
As mentioned, I'm doing all I can to put things right but I won't be able to do so instantly so please bear with me while I do so.

[#13]

Adam to reply to your points:
The missed engineer's visit from yesterday was not quite as simple as he didn't turn up. After speaking with one your colleagues (after 1pm - by which time no engineer had been) an engineer was arranged to come this morning. Shortly after this phonecall (as explained above in the timeline) at 14.40 an engineer did arrive. This engineer had faulty equipment. So although you explain his absence with the fact his equipment fault (though I fail to see how this is such a big problem - JUST SEND ANOTHER ENGINEER), he did actually come a whole hour and forty minutes late! Adverse weather cannot excuse this, nor the fact that no contact was made to explain. By the by... I spoke with him, and explained that an engineer had been rebooked to come today (13/02), to which he replied that he might be the one that was due tomrrow but was sent early due to having nothing on. What use is that?
Your next point about the 5th missed visit - it isn't, I have never suggested that 5 appointments have been missed. So far there have been 5 appopintments. The first was the install, back in mid-Jan. That engineer turned up at the crack of sparrow's fart Adam! In fact, he phoned just before 8am to advise that he was working on the exchange in Delph and would be but a few minutes. He was gone by 9/half 9 and I would have arrived at the office at my usual time had I not booked the time off. The second appointment was missed, the third appointment was attanded but the issue wasn't solved... IE I still only had intermitant internet (as I do now), The fourth appointment was sort of attended an hour and forty minutes late (this was yesterday 12/02) and today was the fifth where nobody came.
5 appts - 2 attended - 1 late (REALLY LATE) - 2 missed completely
I Look forward to hearing how my account will be credited.

[#14]

http://www.burytec.com/telephone-engineer-manchester
Is this not an option?

[#15]

I'm afraid not as the engineers would need to access BT equipment on the local network including the green cabinets you'll see out on the street and the exchange so it needs to be an Openreach engineer.
I'm talking to our suppliers again now to see if there's any confirmation for that appointment.
EDIT:
It seems that I wont be able to confirm/not confirm the request for a Saturday appointment until tomorrow now, I will pick this up again then for you.