Broadband

[#1]

I ordered broadband and phone on the 8/5/2009. Having raised a ticked on the 13/05/10 as I had heard nothing back and it was the foruth working day - I was advised that my account was to be activated on the 18/05/09. Yesterday morning I received an automated call to ask me to confirm that an engineer could visit on Friday 21/05/10. I went back to the ticket to ask why an engineer was needed to visit i.e. what work did he need to do. The response (after escalation, which was not of my asking) is that the engineer may not have to come to the premises but they might call from the exchange to see if there has been any improvement since he/she left and what appears to be just a copy and paste response which doesn't actual inform me of anything useful.
Can someone please clarify what is going on?
Have I an active phone line yet?
Is my broadband being activated on Friday?
Also if the engineer doesn't need to  come to the premises how can they check if somethings improved since they left it? 

[#2]

cilliandudley,
I'm sorry to hear you've had some difficulties with this and maybe not the most informative responses from us.
I'm looking into this one now and will do what I can to get to the bottom of this for you to get some clarification. I'll update this thread again ASAP.

[#3]

To shed light on what's happening here the line install for your phone service is due to go ahead on the 21st and an engineer does need to visit to do this.
An appointment has been booked for between 0800 and 1300 for this so please let us know if this is not convenient for you and needs to be rearranged. Following the line installation we will place a broadband order which should complete in 5 working days from that point.
Please accept our apologies for the lack of clarity so far here and also the incorrect date of the 18th which was issued to you. We do acknowledge that first impressions are important and that we've not made a good one here so work will be done to ensure that anyone who has incorrectly advised to will be educated and trained appropriately and I will be making checks on the progress of your order from here to ensure things go more smoothly.
Please don't hesitate to come back to me if you have any further questions or concerns about this.

[#4]

Well after waking up at 7.30am to await the arrival of the BT engineer, there was no sign of him all day.
Had it been a day off work it wouldn't have been too bad, but having waited almost two weeks after an estimate of 2-4 working days to then take a day off work to wait in for an engineer, I am more than a little annoyed to say the least. Also I have to pay for internet access for 2 weeks more than I had planned which is costing me a bomb as it's BTOpenzone.
I would be eager to know how often people get their phone and broadband activated within the 11 working days that are stated.
At this stage I am almost inclined to just get BT to do the whole lot, as they have said prior to me requesting PN that they would reimburse my contract if I took out a contract with their home broadband but I did not take them up on this offer as I thought I would have broadband by now, appears it may be well worth waiting a further two weeks for BT to do it.
Will sleep on it and decide in the morning.

[#5]

Appears I got an email regarding my order just as I was typing the above.
I would like to thank the customer service advisor who dealt with this on the phone in a very good manner, looks like my order is progressing as planned.
I would just hope that not everyone gets such delayed responses since the engineer was meant to have done the work by 13:00 and I got my reply at 22:00. Also, could the engineer not have rang me to advise me he was working at the exchange rather than have me sitting here wating all day? I appreciate this may not be possible, as I have worked in utility companies, but if not it would make more sense to me that the engineer works at the exchange before making appointments for home visits?

[#6]

Hi there,
The engineer appointment needs to be booked in case he needs access to your premises, although this is not always the case. Did the engineer not call the line once the work was complete?
As you said, the order is progressing fine, and Adam is keeping an eye on this for you.

[#7]

Router arrived today... seems to be syncing just no internet connection... any chance of it being activated early?

[#8]

Hi there,
I've checked on the order and it's due to complete on Friday - if we see any connection attempts on your account we can activate your account early for you however unfortunately there's nothing showing at the moment. If you put your username and password into the router and try connecting I can let you know if we're seeing attempts today, and then activate the account if you wish?

[#9]

Hey, tried connecting twice today when I got home from work just after 6pm.
00:14:17 (since last boot) xDSL linestate up (ITU-T G.992.1; downstream: 4896 kbit/s, upstream: 448 kbit/s; output Power Down: 19.5 dBm, Up: 11.5 dBm; line Attenuation Down: 47.0 dB, Up: 29.0 dB; snr Margin Down: 6.0 dB, Up: 21.0 dB)
00:02:18 (since last boot) xDSL linestate up (ITU-T G.992.1; downstream: 4928 kbit/s, upstream: 448 kbit/s; output Power Down: 19.5 dBm, Up: 11.5 dBm; line Attenuation Down: 47.0 dB, Up: 29.0 dB; snr Margin Down: 6.0 dB, Up: 20.0 dB)

[#10]

It looks like they haven't finished the routing work as we're not seeing any connection attempts from this end I'm afraid, and there's nothing on the exchange logs either. It's due to complete tomorrow so we can activate your account today if you wish, however you'll be billed from today and also we won't be able to raise any faults until the order is complete if we do go ahead with that.
Please let us know, thanks.

[#11]

Hey Matt, that would be great if you could activate it anyway... not too fussed about the billing dates and as stated due to go ahead tomorrow anyway... so any faults I won't be out for long...
Thanks

[#12]

Looks like the account was activated this morning at about quarter to nine

[#13]

Well I have tried for the past hour to connect to the internet and no luck.
Getting sync on the DSL but it still says there's no ATM or PPP.
It's defintiely connected to the right socket as the other two aren't giving me any DSL connection.
checked passwords and usernames a million times....
every time I try to connect I just get an error stating
Connection could not be established: Disconnected by user
getting more than a little peeved at this stage, especially having read on another topic that it required an engineer visit and I am not really in the mood to take another half day off work for the same thing to be done as previous.
So much for a 2-4 day and then 5-7 day lead time it is now 20 days to the day and still don't have working internet... it's the internet I want not bothered about the phone itself, hence not having bought one as I keep getting asked when I ring customer services.
Think I may be looking for a refund at this stage.

[#14]

Having bought a phone today just to check the line myself having slow replies (as its the weekend) to my problem - I have discovered that the number they provisioned for my phone and broadband is not actually the number that I have in my property currently... the line in my property is not active at all...
Have logged it with tech support... hopefully this is a quick fix of just moving cables in the exchange come Monday as if it requires the full provisioning time I will definitely be going with someone else... as I am unwilling to wait 20+ days again when I have since realised my savings will not be that much in the long run.

[#15]

I have just received a reply to my ticket [33582573] raised for this fault....
it is a bit vague.... but I think the jist of it is that it's been sent to BT to reprovision the correct number which is going to take seven days, they're just not saying it as such.
If this is the case please don't bother, just refund my money and provide a return address for the router. I have had to pay for so much BTOpenzone access at this stage I am actually quite happy with the service I'm receiving.
Shame.