Openreach Deny Driver Insurance Claim Delayed Village Pole Repair UPDATE
Homes in the Suffolk (England) village of Felsham have been left without access to broadband and phone services for over a week because, allegedly, Openreach (BT) are unable to fix the problem – a damaged telecoms pole that was struck during a car accident on Cockfield Road – until they’ve received “an estimate” from the driver’s insurance company.
According to the Suffolk News (via Thinkbroadband), a Ford Fiesta collided with a pole last Monday, which was then hit again by an unfortunate motorcyclist as it lay across the road. The female driver of the Fiesta was later arrested on suspicion of drink-driving, while the motorcyclist was taken to Addenbrooke’s Hospital.
The damage has caused a protracted outage of broadband and phone services to a number of homes and the odd business in the area, which has been extremely disruptive, particularly to vulnerable users. But interestingly, one local customer of broadband ISP BT was told by support staff that the reason it was taking so long is because “Openreach was waiting for ‘an estimate’ from the driver’s insurance company before it could complete works.”
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At this point people might logically assume that Openreach would have fixed the problem with their critical network infrastructure first and then resolved responsibility for the costs later, to avoid any of the often-inherent delays that can occur when dealing with insurance companies. But the suggestion is that this was not the case, although Openreach has yet to comment (we’ve asked and will report back soon).
However, it is worth noting that BT itself might not be giving a full appraisal of the facts when they gave this as the excuse, since Openreach has previously informed ISPreview that it typically takes around 20 days to fix damaged poles (here) and we’re only around 8-9 days in to that window.
Pole repairs can also depend upon wider issues of road permits/permissions, availability of engineering resources, the level of local damage and delays from power companies (where relevant) etc. We’ve seen before how some homes in remote rural areas have been left to wait for up to 8-12 weeks before repairs, such as in cases of extreme damage (rare). But in urban areas a downed pole may be a matter of hours or just a few short days.
UPDATE 12:58pm
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Openreach has informed us that the new pole is now in place and their engineers are currently focussed on getting people back in service as quickly as possible. But they also added that there was “no suggestion” they were waiting for insurance details (except the suggestion that came from BT’s support staff, of course).
A Spokesperson for Openreach told ISPreview:
“It’s unfortunate when our equipment gets damaged like this. We’ve finished the work to replace the pole, and our engineers are now due to reconnect around a dozen local homes that are without broadband. We’re hoping to get this done as quickly as possible.”
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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I do wonder why people (BT support in this case) make up fairy stories. Sometimes they even believe them.
Lack of information from openreach leading to customers demanding an explanation for somthing and abusing the agent until there forced lie and get them off the phone.
Speaking from experience unfortunately
@Luke. I can imagine. You have my sympathy. I’m always polite to support people, they don’t get paid enough to take flack and no one should go home stressed out. I can be insistent though, but not aggressive, if I’m being fobbed off. As someone who has had to deal with customers I have had cause to complain that the customer complaints system doesn’t allow me to complain about customers.
@Luke 100 % agree. The agent likely only speculated it was something like this and it later got turned into fact. also sadly speaking from experience in a past life. Equally frustrating when you are the next agent to pick up the case and have to walk back what ever story the last person told them just to get them of the phone though…
As a former fault manager for an ISP, let’s call them “Ken”, I can confirm that sometimes Openreach’s incident updates aren’t always the best in terms of repair progress and some customers simply will not accept anything but the most intricate of detail. To say it’s down to an insurance claim is a new one on me. The most common excuse is it’s subject to an A55, and that means waiting on local authority permission.
“sometimes Openreach’s incident updates aren’t always the best in terms of repair progress ”
Just to be clear, it wasn’t a lack of info from openreach, but more likely a misunderstanding of them by the CPs advisor. Openreach notes dont mention anything about waiting for insurance details.
The advisor at BT would not have that information to give to the customer!
A request from a SENIOR manager could get it but very unlikely as too many hoops to jump through. If the customer complained about this that advisor would be dismissed!!!!
CPs can view notes on openreach incidents
It was probably speculation from the advisor & not fact taken out of context.
For loss of pole a week is common & longer wait times can be expected!
If you as a journalist was to have the press office would probably start an investigation as this advisor is not helpful to the business.
Possibly the customer got mixed up, the estimate is a reference number OR use to keep track of certain stages of a repair, they likely took it to mean the same as a repair estimate from an insurance claim.
Quote: Openreach has previously informed ISPreview that it typically takes around 20 days to fix damaged poles
During the 1980`s I worked for BT as a linesman. Then early one morning I came across an accident along a quiet rural road which had only just occurred, A Pole had been snapped of by a young learner driving a Land Rover who took a corner to fast. The pole layed across the road, but within minutes a local farmer who lived opposite appeared with a chain-saw and removed the blockage. I agreed he could take the timber for his wood-burner for his good deed for the day
The entire road was now without a telephone
I contacted my control using my van radio and reported the problem
I then noted the Drivers insurance details before they left.
I stayed on scene and within “One Hour” a Pole Erection Unit arrived from a Depot at least 30 miles away.
From memory, I would think it was about 3-4 hours when a new Pole was installed, aerial cable re-terminated and service fully restored.
Those were the days !
Unfortunately due to our progressive society we are now bogged down and hampered with red tape for permits, permissions, ‘Hinderence & Stupidity’ (so called Health & Safety) and a dozen other stoppers on getting work done. Old methods best by far.
Every single H&S rule exists because someone died due to its absence. People who go to work expect to go home safely at the end of each day. The ‘old ways’ left widows and orphans.
Sorry about the typos in the previous response.
Poles and replaced and other work done very quickly despite ‘hindrance and stupidity’.
For emergency works, depending on a few factors, notices can go in within two hours of work starting. One reason works may be classed as emergencies is:
‘To prevent or put an end to an unplanned interruption of any supply or service provided by the promoter’
Other factors at play I’m not aware of causing delay, presumably one being potential road closures: closing roads with zero advanced notice gets tricky.
The advisor misunderstood the incident notes . Openreach don’t wait for insurance companies otherwise damage incidents would take months to resolve.