New Fibre Installation - Contacting OpenReach for Known Problem

[Paul-Somerset]

I am due to have a fibre install at my 1st floor flat.

The actual address / street for the flat is 100m across someone elses land, so any connection has to be done at the rear of my property.

That is not marked in any way and is not easy to find as it involves going to a different street and along a passageway.

I know there will be an issue when OpenReach try to do the install.

HOW do I get in touch with them to discuss the issue and reolve any issues before the "go live" date.

SKY cannot help at all and wont discuss it until the problem actually occurs, by which time it's too late and we will be without broadband until fixed.

As I work from home, I need broadband so cannot just sit on my hands and wait for it to go wrong.

Ideas please.

[TimmyBGood]

@Paul-Somerset 

As in the other thread, wayleave may well be a more delaying issue than access.

Unfortunately there's essentially no way to communicate with Openreach before an installation unless they proactively contact you first: they just aren't a consumer-facing organisation and their contracts are with the ISPs, not householders.

[Paul-Somerset]

OpenReach were due to do our full fibre install today - postponed from August 12th to 21st and now 26th.

8am to 1pm time slot so I drove there and sat in my car outside so I could see the engineer when he arrived and show him where the property was - by 11am I needed the loo so drove the 2 minutes home and by the time I returned I got a text to say the engineer had completed the provisioning and needed access to the property.

I saw him stroll up the road, managed to get a parking space and we went into the flat.

Then, back outside to establish the entry point for the cable etc.

AND THEN.........................

Sorry mate, I can't do the install as I need scaffolding.

So, after a month of delays, me desperately trying to make everyone aware of the issue before it became one, only to reach the expected dead end.

What a Farce

After just speaking with Sky, OpenReach even recorded that they came to do a pre-inspection on July 30th - duh, that went well then.

They have on their records previous installation issues, but didn't bother to read or act on them.

On a positive note, I will be earning £6.24 per day in Compensation (£94 so far from August 12th) and my tenants won't yet get the upgrade I was going to provide for them.

Wayleave delays? - perhaps 4 weeks or longer

Scaffolding - perhaps 4 weeks?

New Install - perhaps add 4 weeks? 

£500+ in compulsory compensation I reckon.

Imagine if Companies in this Country would welcome feedback from customers, all of the above would have been avoided.

[Chrisee]

@Paul-Somerset £500 maybecan underestimate but this link explains the compensation scheme Sky uses  Customer Auto-Compensation | Sky Help | Sky.com  

The scheme follows Ofcom's recommendation and is all that is available.

[Paul-Somerset]

Yes, delayed provisioning of £6.24 per day.

The Sky lady I spoke to on the phone confirmed it is set as Delayed effective August 12th (the original date that OpenReach changed).

If the delay doesn't reach 80 days (£500 compensation) that's fine as I was expecting them to do the job they promised to do today, which wouldn't have cost OpenReach (via Sky) an extra penny - but due to their lack of planning, Im also happy to get every penny I can from them now.

My initial instinct this morning was just to cancel Sky; until I remembered Id be back to square one - at least now they're paying me.

[Chrisee]

@Paul-Somerset resist the temptation to dump Sky as it will mean you will starting from scratch with another ISP who in all probability will use Openreach starting from scratch and you will lose the compensation you have built up with Sky. It is only worth cutting and running if you have access to a different fibre network and even those have issues running lines as testified by the numbervof similar posts about City Fibre instals we are seeing.

[Ken+Reilly]

I have been sent a text saying I am eligible for a Full Fibre 100 upgrade at no extra cost and an engineer has been provisionally booked for 1st October. The text asked if I wanted to proceed and I was told to click Yes or No. There were no buttons to click. I am abroad at the moment and will not return until 3rd October. I have tried to cancel the engineer but I'm told that the visit will be from OpenReach not Sky. How can I cancel the engineer's visit?