Line Down-Very Poor response from Openreach

[#1]

A further thought (yes my brain is a bit slow at times seemingly, although in my defence my thoughts have been elsewhere!):

The road past our property along which are the poles carrying electricity (and in places the Phone Line Distribution points supplied from ducts in the road) is narrow, too narrow for say a delivery van and a bus or tractor to pass.

It is "National Speed limit" for single carriagway roads (60mph) because it has never been regulated, however about 15 years ago it was declassified from a "B" road to a "Former "B" Road. It is a bus route with a bus every hour each way, there are bus stops in the village but mostly you flag the bus down to board, or ring the bell once to stop anywhere on this road.

There are no pavements on the section where our Land-line has been cut, there is over a mile of road without a footpath either side on this section and much of this mile is narrower than where our pole is. Many people walk past on this "busy fast road" according to the Openreach Engineer of the initial report. They walk dogs, ride bikes, ride horses, and all day long Tractors rumble past each way.

I think the safety aspect of the job was over-egged by an Engineer who didn't fancy an outside job in rain and wind that day, and that was probably why two Openreach vans arrived yesterday for a look and assessment. Managers, I suspect. had they given the job to an Experienced Engineer in the first place my line would probably have been repaired before lunchtime on Friday.

[#2]

Well it's now been a week since a flail trimming hedges apparently sliced through the cable supplying myself and nextdoor with landline and Broadband. The first Engineer sent last Friday (the latest quoted date to complete its repair by Openreach) instead put in a safety report with many reasons why he could not repair the cable. A second Engineer confirmed that it probably would not have been normal procedure to request road restrictions and traffic lights but now that they were on the radar other methods would be laid aside

On Monday 2 Openreach vans arrived together and the break was examined but no attempt made to repair. The men stood in the road to do so. a narrow road with no pavements on a bus route and often walked by pedestrians, used by many cyclists, and Horse riders.

There is a manhole in the road about 10 or 11 metres from the BT Openreach pole and Duct. When the drainage pumps down the road fail , as they do from time to time, 8 wheel Sludge Gulpers pump out the drians by parking in the road with yellow beacons flashing. The tankers are on a 2 hour callout 24/7 and come from Rochester I believe. When pumping, One fills, one waits behind it, as the full one pulls out the next takes it place, this can go on over several hours, day or night.

There are no traffic lights,I don't think they use road signage either. Very rarely traffic builds until the road is clear, perhaps 3 vehicles.

Yesterday I noticed an Openreach van parked across my drive and a man carrying large "Keep Left" Blue arrow signs. Hooray! I thought and fetched my coat, but as I walked towards it, it pulled away.

When our severed cable is eventually repaired, I doubt if it will take and hour to complete. A fraction of the time that Openreach have already invested to no result.

Meanwhile, day after day we have had no landline nor cable Broadband. I bought a 4G Router to get going again, today I have added a further 10Gb's to the 30Gb it came with and which I was sure would not all be needed.

I live in hope that one day Openreach will send out someone who actually repairs cable breaks rather than those who simply look at them and walk away.

[#3]

I have just sat on the phone waiting for Customer Services to reply so that I can follow this up with yourselves and try to get some idea when a repair will be effected by Openreach.

The First time I was waiting listening to music for 24 Minutes  and then I had an incoming phone call so broke off.

The second time I waited 12 minutes and really saw no point frittering my life away to no purpose.

Issue No

199160264

 refers.

We Have been without Landline or FTTC Broadband for 10 days now. Since the Rookie Openreach Engineer last Friday found the job too dangerous (or hard?) for him, we had two vans here on Monday, and one on Tuesday. The Tuesday van has actually run Trunking up the Pole with a metal lead in cone at ground level.

Done without Traffic lights by simply putting signs in the road, he even parked his van off the road rather than use it to shield him. With or without traffic lights, it shouldn't take 10 days to restore a severed cable (damaged by a third party) should it, and its going to take even longer. Two properties without phone and broadband services.

CAN SOMEBODY AT PLUSNET CONTACT OPENREACH AND GET A DEFINITE DATE AND TIME FOR THIS REPAIR PLEASE? It is taking forever.

Efforts to contact today suggest that everyone goes home for the weekend at lunchtime on Friday.

[#4 · Accepted solution]

Further to my last Post, Our Phone line and Broadband have been restored in the last hour, very quickly and without traffic lights, I believe. There were no Openreach vans here when I posted that last post.