BT line down they wont fix it till 10th

[KDS]

BT line down on the 4th of this month no telephone, no internet even the phone divert wont work. BT saying they wont fix it till 10th of this month. when ever I call they are not very apologetic, rude and spoke to me like it's nothing I can do.

what shall I do write to ofcom ?

 

[Captain_Cretin]

Check the small print, I suspect they have to pay compensation if you are unable to use the services you are paying for beyond "X" amount of time, but I have not read up on the actual terms for several years.

 

[KDS]

i can't find it. line was here for ages. . i don't want their money. I need the line fixed my wife works from home on terminal server. which is not practical on mobile broadband I have tried all the dongles. even those mifi ones.

 

[Robert Naylor]

I'm afraid if you want guaranteed fix times It'll have to be a Business Line. Even then depending on the problem it can be down for a while if its a difficult problem.

6 days is a long time - did they say what the problem was?

 

[KDS]

I'm afraid if you want guaranteed fix times It'll have to be a Business Line. Even then depending on the problem it can be down for a while if its a difficult problem.

6 days is a long time - did they say what the problem was?

No, all they saying it's their network problem. and some one from open reach will fix it. and they can't do any thing till 10 of this month.

I can't get virgin media where I live. I'm willing to swap to BT business but they want 3 to 5 year contract, which is why I didn't.

 

[Mel]

I think the last time I had a line fault, it took nearly a week to get an engineer out to fix it, and he warned me that I was likely to lose the connection again, as the underground junction box needed replacing, and the contractors they use tend to dig through the lines.

As I recall it was possible to set up a divert to a mobile on BT's website.

 

[KDS]

As I recall it was possible to set up a divert to a mobile on BT's website.

yea I tried that not working. I even called BT to set it up, no luck. they not even sure why that is as well. phone line keep ringing and then go 2 to the BT 1571. that is a improvement. Before it was kept saying we were on the phone.

Trouble is BT knows we can't do any thing what ever they do.

 

[Captain_Cretin]

So what you are saying that BT are making a monkey of you??

(Strange, it sounded funnier when I said it out loud)

 

[Mark.J]

Sadly, other than trying to get your money back by issueing a claim for lost service (covering the days of downtime as precisely as possible), there's not a aweful lot you can do but wait. I think most people have been in situations where their phone line has died for awhile, often due to bad weather, and unless it's a business line then you're really stuck. Physical fixes to individual lines take time.

 

[icuk]

This does seem an excessively long delay, even for a residential (basic) line with care level 1 presumably. To help shed some light on why there is a delay fixing faults, and installing new lines (we're seeing delays of 4 weeks +) here is a snippet from an Openreach update sent on the 2nd November:

<-- snip -->

Repair

Current fault levels still remain slightly above forecast and work continues to bring the reactive repair work stack back down to a more manageable level. This includes the ongoing use of contractual overtime as well as postponing training and reducing annual leave availability. Improvements are being made in most areas and this is reflected in the lead-time numbers below.
Improvements are being seen in Level 1 Repair with lead-times (ave) having a best performance of 0.83 days being achieved in Northern Ireland and a worst case of 2.77 in the South East of England.

Provision Lead times

Lead time across the country remain high with significant regional variance. The current best case (ave) is 4.95 days in Northern Ireland and with a worst case of 16.09 days in London and the Home Counties. These are regional averages and further breakdowns by major city are available from the service updates page. Work continues to attempt to bring the workstack and lead-times down, however the volume of work continues to remain at a very high level.

<-- snip -->

These lead times don't match KDS's experience, and nor does it match lots of the experiences we are seeing on the lines we're ordering and supporting. However it is good to see that BT Retail are suffering just as much as we are.

I can't help but notice that these delays started to creep in at the same time BT threatened to strike. Would it be wrong of me to suggest "working to rule" since the event?

Paul Barnett
ICUK Computing Services Ltd

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[Kits]

Paul I would say it falls more in line with the number of engineers BT have dropped to save money, you cannot cut back on front line staff and expect to serve customers with excellent care on products.

BBC NEWS | Business | BT to shed a further 15000 jobshttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8049276.stm

Concerns as BT job cuts predicted
Telecoms giant BT is expected to announce plans to cut a further 5,000 jobs when it unveils full-year results this week, it has been reported.


Few top dogs would have saved all these engineers jobs also perhaps no bonuses for making a loss would have considering the amount of bonus BT chiefs get.

 

[KDS]

Sadly, other than trying to get your money back by issueing a claim for lost service (covering the days of downtime as precisely as possible), there's not a aweful lot you can do but wait. I think most people have been in situations where their phone line has died for awhile, often due to bad weather, and unless it's a business line then you're really stuck. Physical fixes to individual lines take time.

still no luck, Yea BT cut jobs and expect their existing staff to work twice as possible> which never going to work.

I don't have much choice. unless a new phone company that cable my area. I'm stuck with BT

 

[icuk]

Kits, although the reduced staff numbers won't help, there has been a significant shift towards delays since the threatened strikes. It was really significant as we went from having new lines being installed in 5-10 days, before the threat, through to the 20+ we now have to content with. The situation seems to be getting worse unless you live in Northern Ireland who seem to be enjoying the speedy responses to faults and new installations.

Paul

 

[Kits]

I personally know of engineers working through their lunch breaks to complete the jobs given them. If this is stopped then they are entitled to their breaks as they are entitled to stop at the time they are employed to unless they agreed to overtime.

I still find it impossible that BT can lay staff off and expect others to work solid to cover which is what BT seemed to think the remaining staff should do.

 

[timeless]

heh, this proves that there are government shareholders... granted they maybe paid but its another perspective on force labour imho.

 

[Mark.J]

I still find it impossible that BT can lay staff off and expect others to work solid to cover which is what BT seemed to think the remaining staff should do.

Sadly that's how most businesses work , especially ones that need to protect their bottom line during harder times. Both myself and many of my friends have been in the same situation, as others lose their jobs the remaining workers are "asked" (read: given little choice) to take on more responsibilities.

 

[KDS]

Only today they manage to fix it. turns out some people nicked some cable from the BT box outside our area. so they have to re-wire the whole thing took this long though.