You stuffed up my fibre installation

[#1]

Thank you Plusnet for completely stuffing up my fibre installation. 
You forgot to send me the modem that was ordered and then you send an engineer who was not trained to install it without the modem ("I've never done a Plusnet installation before").  It took four calls to establish this and I'm going to have to take another day off work to have it done properly.

[#2]

BT supply the modem and the (BT) engineer should have brought it with him. Sounds like the engineer didn't have a clue as there's no difference in installing Fibre for any ISP. The ISP supplies the router but the BT engineer doesn't get involved with that, he tests from the modem.

[#3]

Hi timothyharnett,
I'm sorry to hear that your Fibre installation did not go ahead as planned.  I will feed this back via the relevant channels.
Sadly our only option is to re-book the appointment in this scenario and before we can do this we have to wait for our ordering systems to update.  I can see that our provisioning team have scheduled to contact you tomorrow with regards to the re-booking.

[#4]

So would any router do with normal LAN/EWAN sockets do?  The advertized router is only £40 so it can't be anything special can it?

[#5]

This is getting worse.  I'm using a modern and quite expensive Billion 7800n router which does have an EWAN socket and should be compatible - some Infinity customers are using it. 
The "engineer" had so little knowledge that, having been shown the back of the router he rejected it as incompatible.  I've just called him on his mobile and I'm suspicious that he actually doesn't know what the ports on the back of a router do.  The word EWAN seemed foreign to him.
So how do I complain about this "engineer"?

[#6]

Quote

So would any router do with normal LAN/EWAN sockets do

Yes, as long as it has an Ethernet WAN socket and can do pppoe it will work with the BT supplied modem.
Just looked at the 7800n specs and it should be fine, assuming ait can be configued for pppoe on its WAN port and I'd be staggered if it can't

[#7]

@timothyharnett
As long as the router has an ethernet WAN port and supports PPPoE authentication then it should work with the BT VDSL modem. 
The router we provide is a Netgear WNR1000v3 for FTTC customers.  You can also establish your connection to us by connecting your PC directly to the BT modem via ethernet and configuring your PC to dial using the PPPoE protocol so the modem not being on site is not an excuse to abort an installation.  I have passed on the details of this order and engineer visit to our contact at BT Openreach regarding Fibre products and issued a complaint.  I will let you know when I get some feedback from this.
When you called the engineer did you ask about the possibility of the job being passed to another engineer that could complete the install?  Might be worth giving him another try!

[#8]

Thank you MisterW and AR for your responses.

[#9]

For info of anyone reading, this is the manual of the router supplied by Plusnet.  ftp://downloads.netgear.com/files/WNR1000v3_SM_24SEPT2010.pdf
Pretty basic device.

[#10]

Quote from: Alex

@timothyharnett As long as the router has an ethernet WAN port and supports PPPoE authentication then it should work with the BT VDSL modem.  The router we provide is a Netgear WNR1000v3 for FTTC customers.  You can also establish your connection to us by connecting your PC directly to the BT modem via ethernet and configuring your PC to dial using the PPPoE protocol so the modem not being on site is not an excuse to abort an installation.  I have passed on the details of this order and engineer visit to our contact at BT Openreach regarding Fibre products and issued a complaint.  I will let you know when I get some feedback from this. When you called the engineer did you ask about the possibility of the job being passed to another engineer that could complete the install?  Might be worth giving him another try!

Spoke to the  "engineer".  Refused to organise for the job to be passed on to another engineer.  Plusnet has to raise another ticket, apparently.

[#11]

Worth a try!  As discussed we'll have to let the order status change before we can re-book this i'm afraid.  This should occur at midnight tonight.  I'll make sure someone is on to this tomorrow.

[#12]

This sounds particularly reminiscent of when i had my line fitted. My Engineer (Marc  ::)) has got used to me putting my foot down. I basically told him to do the work and if it doesnt work its my problem. (he hadnt done a non-home-hub install)
Id recommend sitting and setting up the connection while hes sat fiddling with the faceplate.

should only take a few minutes,Note: it took Two Reboots (one to apply the EWAN profile settings) and then one the change the port from ADSL to EWAN. Then plug in an ethernet cable to the EWAN port, to the BT Modem. Job done.
Unfortunately your suffering from a BT training issue, fingers crossed PN complain hard enough to get the engineer scalded. (and hopefully they dont send the same one 😉 )
Regards

[#13]

Almost came to the same problem here.
It was the engineers second install, and first that wasn't a BT install.  Apparently with the BT install, he installs the modem, the BT Home Hub, and then hops on your PC and configures that.
I told him to worry about nothing by the modem.  Install that, check it.  And then let me worry about the rest.  He wasn't sure, but I was helped by the fact he was a telecoms engineer, and thus not relishing the idea of messing around with people's PCs.
All in all, I didn't even show him the equipment I was using, nor connect anything to the modem while he was present. 

[#14]

@timothyharnett
As discussed, your appointment has been re-booked.  Any problems please let us know.

[#15]

@timothyharnett
Sorry to hear you had a duff experience, my router was also late arriving.  My engineer was brilliant though, he hadn't done a non-Infinity install and was quite happy to just let me sort it out.  He fitted the faceplate and tested the line (39.7Mbit, the best sync he had seen so far) and left.  I tested it by connecting directly to my PC and dialing up a PPoE connection.  Router arrived two days later.  I then had to wait 7 days to get the speed as PN had forgotten to switch me to the FTTC service.  I let them off as this is all fairly new and it must be a pain to have to rely on engineer visits. 
Just when BT will start allowing self install, they will roll-out FTTP and it will start all over again.
Jez