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A sad tale about OPENREACH

Here's a sad tale of just how wrong Openreach can get it when attempting to switch a copper line to fibre.

So.....

My girlfriend is with Primus (good basic ISP), and we decided to move to fibre (20 times faster!).

I phone Primus, and they say "we'll give you an appointment within the next 10-14 days", and sure enough, 10 days later, we get one.

On the day, a surprisingly young looking guy arrives from Openreach. A friendly type, he smiles and asks "So you're going with TalkTalk then?"

I tell him "No", so he asks, "did Primus send you a Router?

Again, I tell him "No".

He looks perplexed.

I ask him "So have you brought an Openreach Fibre Router, or should I have got that from Primus?"

"I haven't got one" he says, looking a little downcast.

"Actually", I reply, "I do have one from a previous install (two years ago) at a previous address. Would you like to use that?"

"Ooh, yes please" he enthuses.

I get it, and he proceeds to connect it to the currently installed Primus Technicolor router.

After 15 minutes, he is looking perplexed again. He can't get it to work.

He turns to me "Well, on my system, it says you are Talktalk, so I tell you what - I'll fit you a Talktalk Router - they are REALLY good!"

He gets one from his van "These are REALLY new - this is the first one I've done - don't even need the Openreach Fibre router with this - does it ALL itself!"

After another 15 minutes he announces "There we are all done - you just have to wait 20 minutes for that red light to go out"

I say "but what if it doesn't go out?"

"Oh, it will" he happily announces.

(Now I realise that I was hit by a bout of stupidity at this point, because I accepted what he said, and let him go off to his next "pro" install. Could have asked him for his mobile number, but I didn't. Stupid.)

Needless to say, half an hour later, the light was still glowing a lovely shade of red......

So....

"Best ring Primus" I mutter to myself. But Primus do ALL their communication over T'interweb, and I don't currently have any access to their details, including the required telephone number. Grrrrrr.

But, wait a mo...the Talktalk router is sending a message to my PC with a "report a fault" telephone number....

When I ring it, obviously, they can't find my account, because, despite what the young boy's system told him, we are NOT with Talktalk. He tells me that the Talktalk router will NEVER work for a Primus account. Fortunately, the kind person at Talktalk has a number for Openreach.

I ring Openreach, and after negotiating a good ten minutes of "menu choosing" and another ten minutes of "we are very busy at the moment", I get through to a chap who sounds to be sitting in a marketplace in Marakesh, who basically tells me to f*** off (because I can't access the internet to give him an order number!!). He does, however, give me a number for Primus. Unfortunately, it is a US number!

I now fall back on old technology, and ring 118 118 and get the UK number for Primus.

When I get through, a very nice man tells me that the Talktalk router WILL work - it just needs configuring - he proceeds to talk me through how to do it. Unfortunately, the IP address he asks me to use is incorrect. We get nowhere.

He tells me he can't help further.

I ask him if anyone else can. He says "The XYZ department are the ones you need to talk to, but they don't take telephone calls".

Eventually, he tells me that Primus will get the CORRECT equipment to me by tomorrow.

And do you know what? They did.....

And when I opened the packaging, I found the EXACT SAME router as I already had. NO Fibre router (they obviously DO expect Openreach to supply one)

And it took me all of THREE minutes to successfully install it.

Openreach, bless them, FAILED to bring a Fibre router with them (which they SHOULD have provided), and they failed to tell their young boy installer to PRESS THE RESET BUTTON on the Primus router - because, if he had, it would have bloody worked!

So I spent half a day ringing worldwide call centres and a day without web access.

And I now have a spare Primus router AND a Talktalk router....... Anybody want one?

Stupid, ill-trained, wasteful and unnecessary.

OPENREACH:crap::crap::crap:
 
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So to conclude, were you 100% it was an Openreach engineer? It's highly unusual these days for jobs to go to Openreach engineers, normally the jobs are via contractors such as MJ Quinn and Kelly Communications.

I would also be interested to know, if the job was appointed as a "managed install". Normally this is not the case with most providers, in such, any engineer helping you setup an install is doing so in kindness. Engineers job is to check sync and then that's it. The rest is really down to your ISP....Primus (TalkTalk Wholesale).
 
Martin, are you saying it is rare for a Fibre install - or for a Talk Talk Fibre install??

Between family friends and work, we have all sorts of ISP providers (including Sky), yet OpenReach have done all the connections, fault repairs and line provisions.

Of course Malvern is the arse-end of nowhere, so perhaps we are a special case.

BTW, really pleased with my Aquiss Fibre, I can get the latest HD Game of Thrones episode downloaded in less time than the credits take to roll, even with my wireless router limiting me to 42Mbps (54Mb when bonding two dongles).
 
Martin, are you saying it is rare for a Fibre install - or for a Talk Talk Fibre install??

Rare for any fibre install. Most of the country is now chopped up to contractors (examples West midlands is MJ Quinn and East Midlands is Kellys) who will do the bulk of the work. Openreach only get used for overspills, faults and repeats, on the whole. London is an exception, with the bulk currently going to Openreach themselves.

We check all our fibre installs to find out who did the work, since the start of the year 84% of installs has been a contractor, rather than Openreach directly.
 
Martin, are you saying it is rare for a Fibre install - or for a Talk Talk Fibre install??

Between family friends and work, we have all sorts of ISP providers (including Sky), yet OpenReach have done all the connections, fault repairs and line provisions.

Sadly they have vans that have Openreach in large letters and the contractors name in small so you look and think you have openreach engineer. Look at van doors for the contractor details most are on the doors MJ Quinns are if it is openreach door and sides of van then you are a lucky person...
 
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I had a similar tale of woe when I went from copper to fibre. When they tried to contact the engineer that had previously visited, it turns out that the guy on the job sheet had actually been on holiday in the Isle of Wight at the time. I think it would have gone on for weeks if Martin at Aquiss hadn't stepped in and got it sorted for me.
 
Yes, it was an Openreach van, and the young lad was wearing Openreach branded clothing.

@aquiss - Why did I ring Openreach? Because they had just been in my property and failed to do what they were contracted to do - instead they had supplied equipment that simply didn't work. If you think they shouldn't have to take any responsibility for that, that is up to you.

To me, ANY company supplying a service on other folks' property should be responsible for their actions. Even, God forbid, Openreach!

As has been pointed out, Primus IS connected to Talktalk - which was probably why Talktalk came up on the installer's system.

But the fact that this prompted him to supply the WRONG router is surely indicative that he really had little knowledge of what he was doing.

And please explain why the ONLY reason I now have any internet access is because I myself supplied an old Openreach Fibre router from a previous address of mine.

Neither Primus OR Openreach could be arsed to supply one. Should I be happy with that?:crap:
 
If you think they shouldn't have to take any responsibility for that, that is up to you.

You have a contract with Primus, not Openreach. Primus should have contacted their contracted supplier, TalkTalk, who in turn would contact their contracted supplier Openreach.

However, you appear to be answering your own questions. You should have called Primus, your contracted supplier and asked for the VDSL modem/router to be supplied if one was not provided, as aprt of a contract. However, if Primus are only buying in a "Wires Only" install, then no hardware would be supplied by BT Openreach.
 
Neither Primus OR Openreach could be arsed to supply one. Should I be happy with that?:crap:

I have to agree with Martin on this.

How do you know that Primus put the order in right and the OR engineer did what was asked of him correctly?

How is OR contracted to you? They are not they are contracted to Talktalk who then are contracted to Primus.
 
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Well, all I can say is that if you guys can so easily condone that level of buck passing, then I can fully understand why the service is so crap.

@aquiss. If you read my OP properly, you will see that I DID phone Primus.

The reason (as I stated) that it was not my first call was because I had no internet, so could not access my account details.

I would also have been able to do a quick "buck-passing within the fibre internet installation market" Google, and been privy to the ludicrous "ve were only obeying orders, herr kapitan" scenario that you now outline.

But as I didn't, and sadly, I am not psychic, I had no idea.

I am sure you are correct in your knowledge of how the system works. That does not, however, make it an acceptable system.

Your defence of it speaks volumes to me. Thanks for taking time to highlight just how complacent an industry can get these days.:crap:
 
Malvern seems to be a special case; I spotted two OR vans yesterday, and both were the real thing, in fact I havent seen a OR contractors van in weeks.

What I HAVE seen is a number of BT fibre modems on sale at a car boot site in Worcester last weekend, perhaps some untrustworthy SOBs working for the contractors??
 
We don't seem to get the sub-contractors down in Poole, always Openreach originals.
 
Was a contractor that did a recent install at a school over the road. The guy didn't even have a hawq? and couldn't tell me the sync rate on the line. Poor.

Tom - www.mouselike.org
 
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I think the OP's issue was along the line between VISP ISP supplier was it was ordered wrong some where and OR/Contractor only did what was asked of them.
 
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