No sign of Openreach engineer, despite arrival text

[ZondaFRoadster]

I was due to be upgraded to full fibre today. I have been present in the house since the start of the time window in which the Openreach engineer was due to turn up, and both myself and my neighbour working outdoors across the road have been keeping an eye out.

About 25 minutes into the window, I receive a text from them, saying:

"Hi it's Openreach. Your engineer <Mohammed> has now arrived on site and is connecting your service on behalf of your Service Provider."

This was well over an hour ago, and there has been no sign of any engineer. No other update texts, no van outside, not even so much as a knock at the door.

Is this text just sent out automatically, regardless of when/if the engineer does turn up? Because I had to book an afternoon off work to be present for this installation, and that is valuable time I will not be getting back if nobody shows up today.

[Chrisee]

@ZondaFRoadster while they could be doing work at the distribution point that doesnt sound particularly hopeful. If the engineer doesnt turn up you will be due compensation see Customer Auto-Compensation | Sky Help | Sky.com

Sky wont know anything until tomorrow as Openreach update the system.overnight.

[ZondaFRoadster]

Well, it's been nearly 3 hours since the "arrival" text now, and still no sign of anyone. The window closes in less than 2 hours, so I'm expecting disappointment at this stage.

Compensation or no, it's still an afternoon of work leave wasted that I won't be able to get back. And now I'll have to book some more, knowing now that the exact same thing could happen again.

I'm supposed to be getting a new TV package next week too, and frankly, today's experience isn't filling me with confidence for that happening either.

[TimmyBGood]

@ZondaFRoadster 

Unfortunately no ISP can guarantee the arrival of Openreach personnel, and they also cannot contract with anyone else.

[ZondaFRoadster]

So just to be clear, since the engineer was a no-show and therefore there was no installation of the new cables, this would count as both a missed appointment and delayed provisioning, so I should receive separate compensation for both?

[Chrisee]

@ZondaFRoadster I would think so yes.if it helps I had similar issues on my own full fibre install and ended up with the compensation covering the first 6 months of the new service. It is Openreach who calculate the compensation but it is credited to your Skyvaccount.

[ZondaFRoadster]

@Chrisee How many attempts did it take for you to have someone turn up? Because I fear the same thing happening again for the rescheduled appointment.

[Chrisee]

@ZondaFRoadster they missed two appointments and it was third time lucky but it was during a period of industrial action. During this process I visited Sky's HQ totally disconnected to the issue but mentioned it to one of Sky's managers who sympathised as he had had similar issues with his installation.

In some areas Sky's own engineers do the installs and they are far more reliable but getting them is down to luck.

[ZondaFRoadster]

So, update.

The engineer did turn up, right at 6pm as the window was ending (so booking the afternoon off work was a complete waste of time and leave allowance), and when they did arrive, they were only able to do half the job.
They installed the hub and interior/exterior sockets no problem. But because it was already dark when they arrived, they couldn't do the replacement work on the overhead cables for "health and safety reasons".

So even though someone did eventually arrive, and technically arrived on time, my full fibre switch on is still delayed until a second engineer can come and do the rest of the installation work. And even though the rest of the work is on the exterior of the house, I'll still need to take more time off so they can get into the house to test everything.