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Drop down cable has dissappeared.

SatiivaaBreathaa

Casual Member
Hello community, new to forum so not sure if I've posted in right place.


I took up a broadband package with Post Office Telecoms recently, a fault was found on the line once I contacted as the router wouldn't sync come the go live date.

A BT engineer was booked to visit either yesterday (23/12) today (24/12) or Friday (27/12).

I arrived home from work yesterday morning at around 8.40am, as I pulled up I noticed about 3ft of cable just hanging from my wall, this was my drop wire it is all frayed at the end it doesn't look like it's been cut cleanly with a pair of wire cutters which is what I'd expect of them.

Our housing association has recently undergone roof replacements in the neighbourhood Openreach visited around a month or 2 ago to lower the drop wire down the wall to make way for scaffolding so I knew I had a drop down cable at this point.

The roof work has been completed and the scaffolding has been taken down but openreach haven't yet returned to raise the cables again but as we all know accidents can happen maybe a scaff pole has snagged the cable but if that was the case the workmen would have had to then climb a ladder on the telephone pole and cut off the drop wire from there too as upon inspection there is no loose cables dangling from the pole not to mention this would have had to been done on the 16th when the firm came to remove the scaffolding as like I said this 3ft piece of cable was the first thing to catch my eye as I pulled in so I'm sure I would've noticed it before now.

It's a really confusing situation racking my head trying to figure out whether I had a drop wire even as late as 22nd as far as I can make of it, it was done yesterday whilst at work so wouldn't know whether it was openreach or me just not noticing it, Is this a common practice for openreach? If the fault on my line was due to the drop wire being faulty would OR come out cut off the cable without notifying the occupant or whether the occupant is home or not and then return and replace it at a later date? would the engineer be able to pinpoint the drop wire being the issue without access to inside my home?

I contacted PO and Openreach neither can tell me whether an engineer visited my home yesterday or not, the worrying part is if it is the case that the line has been damaged due to work being carried out I need to know sooner rather than later as openreach would likely charge me for this.
 
If an engineer has visited then your ISP would generally know about it, even if they might not yet have all the details of that inspection. So if an engineer hasn't visited then your ISP would probably say that they have no record of a visit. I'm not sure if there are cases where this may not be the case but we do have some ISP reps on here, so perhaps they have some input on that.

The situation you have is unusual, although Openreach are responsible for maintaining the cable up until your Master Socket. As such it's conceivable that they could do some work without you knowing about it (especially if you have approved of them doing so by agreeing to an engineer visit on those dates).

We have seen plenty of examples where engineers may do work without the occupant being home, at least so far as is possible. This can be contentious if they cause damage and fail to notify the home owner, but that's very rare.
 
Quite often when we do a copper line test the fault comes back as LN (local Network) no appointment required and we have seen engineers go out and do stuff with the drop wire/lead-in without anyone in the premises knowing. It's very rare that there is no record of at least one engineer attending though, although sometime the 1st will attend and a record of that passed back but a 2nd may go out the same day and sometime forget to update the notes. I would say it's extremely unlikely that an Openreach engineer has cut the drop wire and left it in its current state.
 
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If it’s frayed, chances are the rest is hanging in a tree if you have one between you and the pole, or someone reported a fallen cable and an engineer tied it to the pole or climbed the pole and removed it.
 
Thankyou guys for taking your time to read and reply here's a quick update:

BTOR visited today and knew nothing of the line being broken, I too suspected this would be out of place for a BTOR engineer to do, as I mentioned in my original post about the absence of the rest of the line, I was wrong the rest of the cable had been coiled up and hidden in a neighbours garden bush on the opposite side of the road which the pole is outside of.

This seems to be leaning towards my suspicion of it being broken by the workmen and I have just happened to not notice the cable hanging down my wall for 8 days (not a clue how), and as it was done before the line was active I wouldn't of noticed any service disruption.

I have strong belief that it was infact the workmen as its not the only thing they damaged the canopy above my front door is hanging off now which I and my partner have to pass under with our 13 month old daughter but the fact they didn't take 30 seconds to knock on, explain and apologise boil my blood, accidents happen especially when you're being rushed to meet a large contract deadline but to recognise that you've broken the cable and then make the effort to hide it is utter arrogance and disrespect that is just beyond belief.

Any way OR have ran a new line and my service is finally up and running just in time to host the big family Christmas dinner (please pray for me lol) I have a feeling they may charge my ISP who will push the charge on me as it was physically damaged rather than degraded.

As it can be can imagined, I already have an ongoing case with the firm and housing association about the damages and this is just added to the list but I can't prove they done it and have I feeling they would deny and ask for evidence if I told them they have to reimburse me if BTOR was to charge for the new line, the only evidence I really have is the fact I definetly had a line before the work was carried out as BTOR visited to lower the cables fixing point on everyones house on behalf of the housing association and I doubt the engineer would of moved the fixing point for a 3ft piece of stray cable hanging down, the new line is now on this fixing point but the engineer today left no length for it to be moved back up when they revisit to do this, will they just keep my fixing low which is on line with the bottom of my bedroom window and comes right the way across it and is an ugly sight or will they run another new cable?

New day new problem, probably on the wrong type of forum for my issue now but if anyone has any advice please offer on how to deal with the firm if BTOR charge me for this, and they refuse.
 
Also when I contacted PO and OR on Monday PO said there might be a record of a visit but it would take 24hrs to appear on their side (which I doubt as 15 mins after OR finished and left PO texted me to confirm the fault had been fixed) I guess that visit was recorded and OR said they couldnt help which I expected.

I now highly doubt there will be record as I don't think it was an engineer who did this I was just confused at the time as I was adamant that I'd had an in tact line up until that day but I guess it's just one of them things you don't really look out for it all makes sense now the engineer said the cable was just coiled up in a neighbours garden, an engineer 110% wouldn't do that, and don't the lines carry a voltage and how much if so?

It was still connected at the pole end and the neighbours garden whose it was in has young children so that'll be another thing being brought up, not to mention had one of those children tripped or got caught on the cable hanging down I don't even want to think of the possible outcomes, as I said earlier though maybe the wrong forum for the subject now but any advice will be appreciated.
 
Since the damage was on the BTOR side of the Master socket, it is unlikely they will bill you.
I have had to have my line replaced a couple of times due to damage from a tree belonging to Morgan Cars, AFAIK BTOR have never contacted Morgan Cars to trim back the tree, or to bill them for repair work - the tree has ripped the junction box off the pole several times.
The tree only got trimmed when I confronted the then CEO and told him to get it done, or the tree might get "damaged" and fall on his factory roof.
Since the new owners are Italian, I am on the lookout for a spare horses head, as the tree needs trimming again.
 
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The message from PO following the OR visit will be an automated 'Completion' message from the OR systems into PO, the engineer notes themselves can sometimes take time to be updated and available to the ISP for review.
 
Before I got rid of my BT line and reported a line fault that the automated detector could not find, then they always said they would send an engineer but if the fault was within the property boundary they could apply a charge. That's despite me referring to the fact they were responsible for the wiring up to the master socket. All the faults were elsewhere so never tested what would they would do if it was within the property boundary and will never get the chance again.
 
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