I am having a trying time setting up my broadband connection, and have no broadband to date. This is my experience with both Plusnet and Openreach thus far:
On Friday 21 Sep, an Openreach engineer visited and said he could not find my line. He told me another engineer would have to come by again. When I asked him when the engineer would come, he could not tell me.
On Monday 24 Sep, a second Openreach engineer visited unannounced when I was away. I was in a meeting when he tried to call me. I called back but could not reach him. So I left him a text. He did not respond to my text.
There were then no updates to my Plusnet order. Perturbed, I called Plusnet on Thursday 27 Sep. The Plusnet operator was unsure of the status and said he would need to speak to Openreach. He promised to call me back the next day himself but did not. Instead, I received an email from Plusnet saying that I would need to pay (!) for a repeat visit by an Openreach engineer because I was not in when the second engineer visited.
I had to call Plusnet again and speak to another operator, telling her that I was not informed prior of the visit by the second Openreach engineer. To her credit, she agreed that I should not be charged for a repeat engineer visit.
On Wed 3 Oct, the third Openreach engineer came by. Apparently my port was faulty. There were no spare ports and nothing he could do at the moment. He said I would have to check with Plusnet on whether new ports could be installed.
The next day, a fourth Openreach engineer came by, again unannounced (I happened to be home this time). He was unaware of what the third engineer had done yesterday, and did not have the logs of what the third engineer did, though the third engineer had told me he had entered them into the system. Engineer #4 went about doing what I suspect were similar checks and similarly told me there was nothing he could do since my port was faulty and I had to check with Plusnet.
I called Plusnet again, suffering through a long wait time (50mins). I asked Plusnet operator #3 for a status update. He said he would need to call Openreach. Tired from the lack of progress, I asked to wait on the line while he called Openreach. He agreed, then proceeded to put me on an automated hold that hung up on me! He texted me subsequently, telling me another Openreach engineer would visit to complete the order but booked a slot when I am away. I now have to check with Plusnet again on whether I need to be in for the visit.
It seems every time I ask the Openreach engineer about a resolution to the problem, they tell me to speak to Plusnet and every time I call Plusnet, they tell me they have to speak to Openreach. The updates provided by Plusnet haven't been satisfactory to me, e.g. saying they will call me but not doing so; wanting to charge me for a repeat appointment through no fault of my own; booking an appointment without checking my availability and not clarifying if I need to be in for said appointment.
