I just want to relate what an absolute shambles I’ve found Openreach to be.
First of all, line swapping. They do it, their engineers make all kinds of excuses about not doing it but the evidence is too much to be otherwise. 3 times, 2 with another provider and now again with Plusnet. My internet connection has been degraded after an Openreach engineer has been up the telegraph pole which my line connects to. The first time this happened, it took me a while to put two and two together. The second time it confirmed my suspicions and the most recent time the engineer was up the pole as I arrived home from work and gone before I checked the internet. Guess what? Down from a fast, reliable connection, to only usable for browsing and dropping out all the time.
All this is bad in itself but this time Openreach managed to plumb new depths. I got onto Plusnet and they arranged for an Openreach worker (I won't call them engineers, it would be an insult to real engineers) to attend the day after.
The visit, Bloke turns up and I tell him exactly what is wrong and what needs doing and explain that I know this because Openreach has inflicted this on me twice before. He insists on looking at my master socket and says that it needs upgrading. I say “Ok, but It won’t solve the problem and I ain’t paying for it.” He goes off to get a socket from his van and when he comes back I say “You’re not going to just fit that and leave me with the bad line are you?” He says that once he’s fitted the socket he’s going up the pole to sort it out. After fitting the socket, as he leaves he says “Ok, leave the rest with me and I’ll fix it.”
I then watch from my upstairs window as he sits in his van for 15 minutes before leaving without fixing my fault. So he did a job that didn’t need doing, didn’t do the job he was sent to do and lied to my face.
On contacting Plusnet and relating all this, I’m now informed that it will probably be another week before they can get Openreach to send someone out. And when they do I have absolutely no confidence that it won’t be another lying, lazy, freeloader, just like the last one.
Openreach has a 1 star rating on Trustpilot. Most reviewers say that they would give zero or minus if that was possible. The internet is awash with complaints about Openreach. Ofcom likely has more complaints about Openreach than the rest of the industry put together. Yet we still have to put up with this appalling company, because there is no other way to get a connection without having to deal with them. How on Earth can the UK aspire to have world class broadband whilst Openreach are part of the equation?
