Enough to drive you bonkers.

[#1]

I've had an ongoing problem since December and the whole system to get faults fixed is just plain stupid. Let start from the customer <> PlusNet  correspondence. You raise a ticket and wait then the ticket tennis starts.  Days/weeks go by before anything constructive happens. No good phoning C/S they seem to know nothing and only try to fob you off. You keep the ticket updated and wait for some response. If none is forthcoming you have to resort to the forums.
Then you come to the joke called BT - PlusNet can only talk to BTW who in turn talk to BTOpenreach who in turn talk to the Engineer who do not have a clue what the fault is or how to fix it.  Then the engineer sends a report claiming to have done things he had not to Openreach who then send it to BTW who then updates PlusNet if they ask who then updates the customer if pressed. You try to explain the problem to the engineer but he just looks at you with a glazed expression, does a few test then disappears leaving the fault unfixed.
Would it not save a LOT of time and a LOT of money and even more frustration if once the fault has been raised Openreach would talk to the customer to get details of the fault and keep the customer updated? This stupid business of having to go up and down a chain is simple ridiculous, time wasting,  frustrating and expensive not only on the part of BT but the customer who may have to take several days off work to be in for engineers who don't always turn up.

[#2]

Hi George,
I recognise that your situation may be frustrating, however may I suggest that we keep things to a single forum thread so we don't lose track of what's happening?

[#3]

This is a different thread for a different subject - The stupidity of the faults reporting system!

[#4]

Fair enough.
Regarding the point about the competence of engineers, I must admit to having been lucky over the years.
I've dealt with five or six different SFI engineers due to problems various I've had with the lines I've look after. Only one of them I can admit to giving the impression that he didn't know what he was doing. The rest went above and beyond spending hours where necessary up telegraph poles, at the cabinet/exchange etc.
The last guy was surprisingly good, he stayed well after 6pm to ensure my problem was fixed

[#5]

Can you send one of them round to me then. I've had one bloke three times and the first thing he says is he's tired, fed up or bored. Another, who was supposed to have been a confident SFI said he's only had a half days training going out with another engineer. One came 40 miles from another area, his first words were I don't know much about Broadband and said as he was leaving he had learnt more from me the two hours he was here doing nothing, than is the past few months. Every single of of them said they had no 21CN training and had no ADSL2+ equipment. Their equipment is knackered and out of date and their telephone help service they have know no more than they do. And of course they have a further hand tied behind their backs because they can't talk direct to the various department within BT.
As I said if the customer could talk direct to Openreach once the fault was raised if would not only save BT a fortune but cut down on the frustration customers have to suffer waiting for faults to travel up and down these chains.

[#6]

He's another typical example of time wasting and poor communication. BTW tell BTO to change SSFP at customers premises. BTO Engineer carries out task. Next day ISP calls customer because BTW have told them customer refused to have SSFP changed. Customer tells ISP SSFP was changed without any problem. ISP then has to phone BTW who no doubt then phones BTO and so it goes back and forth.
What a colossal waste of time, money and resources for BT, the ISP and the customer. There has to be a better way than the current system.

[#7]

George, I absolutely agree. i have had a bit of a rant on this very subject on my post, but the current faults process both within Plus, and BTO, is just laughable.  Case in point, the last engineer who came out, had no idea what was going on with my fault. Its basically a new fault to each engineer, so how have we got any hope of getting complex faults fixed.  Surely plusnet know the current situation is just plain unacceptable, and BT cannot be allowed to just get away with it.  In the end, we PAY for a service, from BT,  they answer to the customer, NOT the other way round......

[#8]

Unfortunately PlusNet take a lot of blame for what is an utter shambles called BT and that can be partly the blame of OFCOM who insisted the company be split up. So you have this stupid chain system where one person cannot talk to another. Added to this engineers not doing what they are supposed or instructed to do plus lack of training or saying they have done things which they have not. I have a fair technical knowledge so god knows what it must be like for people who don't..
Unless all ISP get together to get things changed nothing will change whilst BT can get away with it  Either that or  major share holders finding out how much money is being wasted.

[#9]

It would seem Engineers would also like to take ownership of complex faults for serveral reasons. One being they get to find out what was causing a fault and how it was cured so next time they come across they same fault they know how to fix it. UInfortunately for some stupid reason OFCOM rules do not allow this so we are stuck with this stupid up and down the chain situation.

[#10]

Had 6 x BT engineers out with my ongoing probs since I joined PN on 1st April.......all of which have been incompetent, one even wired back up the orange ring wire......thats how thick they are.......

[#11]

Hi all,
Just thought I'd add my two penn'orth as I've been dealing with all of you in some capacity.
We do have to remain responsible for the service we are providing here even though we are reliant on our suppliers to provide, repair and maintain the service.
However the buck definitely does not stop with apologies as any issues relating to engineer visits are being fed back in each and every instance here and I'll be doing all I can to ensure that we do keep focus on pushing back where failures are occurring.

[#12]

The thing is from a customers point of view the fault system as handled by BTW.BTO is total chaos. Another example I was told the ADSL Nation face plate was not compatible with their Hawk test equipment and it had to be replaced with one of their SSFP. This is just daft because the engineers never rest through the SSFP. They either test from the test socket or more often than not remove the back plate as well and test direct to bare cables.
I still think that if customers and indeed the BTO engineers could talk directly to BTW it would save an imense  amount of time and money

[#13]

Hi George,
To my awareness (and I have seen at first hand an engineer use one) a hawk just connects to a standard telephone jack, although I will check.
I can agree to what you say about customers having direct contact with BTO and BTW but I would not expect this to happen as that would mean that those sides of BT would need to expand their contact centres and retrain all the staff in dealing with customers directly.

[#14]

Quote from: adamwalker

and retrain all the staff in dealing with customers directly.

Nah, that would never happen. It's contrary to BT policies to train staff.

[#15]

Hi James,
Yes it will connect to a standard telephone jack and they have an adapter (like a ADSL filter) with lead with crocodile clips on the end. Either way they don't connect via the SSFP. It's either via the test socket or direct to the cable.
As for training staff it would help if they trained their engineers who have to deal with ADSL faults. Most have told me they have had less than half a day and the rest they have picked up as they have gone along. They are basicaly just telephone engineers.

Quote from: adamwalker

Hi George, To my awareness (and I have seen at first hand an engineer use one) a hawk just connects to a standard telephone jack, although I will check. I can agree to what you say about customers having direct contact with BTO and BTW but I would not expect this to happen as that would mean that those sides of BT would need to expand their contact centres and retrain all the staff in dealing with customers directly.