Openreach to Cut Missed UK Engineer Visits with Direct Contact System
Good news. Openreach has announced that their direct end customer contact programme is leaving the trial phase and will shortly start to be adopted by broadband ISPs as part of normal business, which will improve the level of contact made between the network operator and consumers for certain installation and repair work.
The Direct End Customer Contact system has long aimed to reduce common problems, such as missed engineer appointments, by sending an SMS (text) and / or landline voice message with a reminder of the upcoming appointment. Additional advice on what to expect on the day may also be included.
The system will now become an integral part of Openreach’s product processes, and all UK ISPs will be opted-in by default. “We will be moving to using direct end customer contact as part of our business as usual processes effective from 18th October 2022,” said Openreach in its latest briefing.
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A lot of broadband providers are already making use of this, so the transition should be fairly smooth. Openreach added that they will continue to “deliver a roadmap of improved functionality and additional use cases, both directly through this programme and as an enabler for other product or process developments.”
Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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How about it enables you to contact the engineer via an anonymised SMS relay – would work off of the job code.
The biggest problem is no show engineers or ones who disappear when the job look like hard work they don’t fancy.
I just want it to be made easier for the end user to request things such as DLM Resets easier.. Most the time when I ring BT to request this they don’t have a clue what I am asking. I then have to get an engineer out for a “fault” to get this done.. Same with moving a phone line, I have never known something so simple to be so overcomplicated.
The DLM is doing what it should and you keep getting the DLM reset is just a fools game.
@MrTruth, not always. The DLM can sometimes get “stuck” meaning it needs to be reset.
Dealt with an Openreach engineer recently, got SMS updates on appointment and time of arrival – also got provided with engineer’s mobile phone number if there were any problems.
So they won’t be so much out of reach, but I will still call them out of reach, because they normally are.
They are not there for you to contact. Your contract and obligations of service are with your provider not OR.
For competent ISPs the problem isn’t users being unavailable for pre-arranged appointments if they are told about the appointments. The problem is engineers not turning up when they should. I’ve have several customers on a weekly basis have an visit aborted because the engineer did not turn up for their appointment
I’m a instalation engineer and I will say this . I get really annoyed when a customer calls me at 8.01am asking when I’m going to arrive at their house. I tell them it can be anytime up untill 1 pm and they have the cheek to ask for a better time . To me this is a bad idea and I’m sick of people thinking we will just drop what we are doing to come to you. We have 4 other morning appointments. Just wait !!!
I share your frustration. Until very recently I worked as a Fault Manager for an ISP. We’d have customers ringing from 8am demanding to know where their engineer is!
And the ISPs customers then keep the number as some sort of personal help desk weeks later! F off block contact.
At the moment you should normally get a text with the engineers number and time range of appointment. I agree above being an OR engineer getting a call at just after 7am when am I on my way considering I don’t start until 8am is frustrating. All for calling the customer upfront to give them a time for EtA so they can plan a day but not when I’m eating my weetabix ready for a busy day
I set mobile to flight mode then turn on WiFi and tether to my personal mobile, make sure WiFi calling is off. That way all fasttests can be done. Send a sms with number withheld prior to travel from personal mobile. That ensures a more peaceful life
The bigger problem is that on full fibre installations at least where I live (Belfast) if there’s any extra work involved in getting the cable into your property the engineers just lose all interest and say they’ll have to come back at a later date. I had my appointment for installation put back first for 2 weeks, then for a month more and finally for 3 months. I wasn’t notified of non arrival on any of these dates. I had to login to the BT website to see that my appointment was delayed. Eventually I called BT and they told me if it had been postponed as many times as that I’d be best cancelling as it wasn’t going to be installed. I know of 5 other people who all live in properties they own who had a similar experience. I think the availability figures for full fibre for Belfast have to taken with a huge grain of salt as I don’t know anyone who has had a successful installation even if your address shows as being ready for full fibre. I tried to complain to openreach about my experience and they had no interest whatsoever.