Fibre upgrade Order created in July....still nothing!

[#1]

Hi, interested to see if there's any way of getting my problem resolved any quicker through the forum.

I've been on 'Unlimited Fibre' for years and had no problem until my contract expired in July 2022. I was advised that my product wasn't going to be continued, so for a very similar price I opted for the Fibre 74 fttp product. That 24 month contract was signed up to on 16th July. An engineer came out about 3 days later to do the external check and fitted a black cable from the outside of my house through to the underground connection in the road. My new router was delivered on 31st July with the 2nd stage connection into my house booked for 1st August. So far so good.

Then the fun starts. I'm advised by PN that the engineer date has been postponed due to technical issues that couldn't be pinpointed by the call centre and the new installation date is 24th October! I was having no problem with my existing BB anyway so just accepted the date and carried on as I was.

Had a text on 7th Sept confirming new date was till 24th Oct.

Spoke to Jay in Orders on 3rd October to resolve a separate billing issue regarding this fibre upgrade and he still confirmed 24th October engineer date.

Monday 24th comes around and I find it odd that I'd had no confirmation email/text that the engineer was still coming ( I subsequently now know there was a strike that day). At 1am on the 24th my phone line connection was ceased without warning. Later that morning I speak to PN (after a 30 minute wait to get through) and am told I should have been told the job was cancelled and that in fact they've 'dropped the ball' as the whole order should have been cancelled down months ago and started again but in the meantime their systems and OpenReach's systems were showing different things. As self-employed I need to be online to do my job like many others, but was told my line can't be reactivated in the meantime and the Full Fibre product is the only resolution. 

The order has been manually re-ordered but I now have an installation date of 29TH NOVEMBER!!! 6 weeks without a service I'm still paying for and nearly 5 MONTHS from the contract being signed before they can provide the correct product. Had they just left my line active and delayed the installation until the end of November I'd still be ok.

I'm sincerely hoping there's some way of fast tracking this installation date because I can see the next issue I'm going to have is either paying a fortune to get out of the contract and/or having to fight for the correct daily £5 compensation, plus the failed engineer appointment refund of £26.

[#2]

but was told my line can't be reactivated in the meantime and the Full Fibre product is the only resolution. 

That's probably because Openreach have classified your exchange as  'fibre priority' , which means they will not accept any orders for copper based services. So once your landline was ceased, even though in error, OR will not allow any order other than an FTTP product.

I'm sincerely hoping there's some way of fast tracking this installation date because I can see the next issue I'm going to have is either paying a fortune to get out of the contract and/or having to fight for the correct daily £5 compensation, plus the failed engineer appointment refund of £26.

Trying to get an expedite is the best route but OR seem to be 'way' behind with FTTP orders. Compensation is the next best alternative. Ending the contract will probably not achieve anything, since any other ISP using the Openreach network will have the same problems.

[#3]

I was advised the new manual order placed yesterday could take three days to be confirmed and I'm supposed to be getting that confirmation via a call back or email. I'm not sure how I would then go about getting it expedited as I was told 29th would still be the earliest? 

[#4]

Hopefully one of the Plusnet Help team will pick up this thread and see what may be possible. With the ongoing Openreach strikes, installation timescales are appalling at the moment

[#5 · Accepted solution]

Hi there,

I'm really sorry for how long it's taking us to install your full fibre service and the immense issues you've had along the way.

I've been looking into this for you and I've dropped you an email onto the support ticket Here which I hope helps.

In summary, we'll provide the full amount of automatic compensation as your order has been delayed for 60+ days including provide compensation for the missed engineer visits. We'll also make sure you don't pay for a service you've not had by calculating any remaining amounts to credit or refund back to you once you're up and running again.

As for reactivating your previous service, I'm afraid as you're in what's known as a Stop Sell area, this means Openreach aren't taking any further orders to provide a phone line or copper broadband service, so the only thing we can do is work to get your full fibre up and running as soon as possible. Once the new order is confirmed in the supplier systems, we'll get in touch with our suppliers to request the appointment is expedited to a sooner date if possible.

Finally as you were out of contract before upgrading to full fibre and the product change is not yet completed, you can cancel without a termination fee. If you'd like to do this, you'll just need to call us on 0800 013 2632. Although I do hope you'll stay with and we'll do what we can to put things right from this point on. 

[#6]

Thanks so much @Gandalf for getting back to me so quickly, and with such a detailed resolution. I don't know what new role you're going to but you're exactly the type of person PN need on the call centre. Would have saved me an hour and a half of my time just trying to get through had I known to come here first. 

I'll sit tight for a new date to see if how much sooner the job can be done. If it's not any earlier than 29th Nov I'll then decide whether to terminate and go elsewhere. 

Cheers

[#7]

No problem and cheers for getting back to me @qwerty2

I've spent 2 1/2 years in the call centre and as of tonight 5 1/2 years on the Social Media/Forum team. Moving is a big step for me and I'll sure miss this place a lot as it's been like a second home to me but looking forward to the future. 

Really sorry again for the issues you've had. I've escalated the ticket into my "ticket pool" so my colleagues should be keeping an eye on this for you while I'm away and speaking with our suppliers next week.

Cheers