What does 'Automation failure in our application' mean?

[#1]

@Townman wrote:
@JonoH - is there no way of sorting out your supplier's failures here? At what point will BT accept the task of just getting the job done ... irrespective of each micro issue they encounter?

Hi Townman, I've looked into this case and I understand how frustrating it can be to be stuck in this situation. To be clear the service received by @JonoVo2 is not good enough and we, Plusnet are the the company you choose to deal with so the buck stops with us.

For the avoidance of doubt we've used every escalation method available to us to get this resolved as quickly as possible but unfortunately the issue has persisted until now.

Today our suppliers records have finally been updated, we've been able to place the order and once the order is committed on our suppliers systems they have agreed to fast track this for us. We're unable to commit to a firm date yet though but as the work doesn't require an engineer we should be able to get this up and running shortly.

We will update the thread once we have further information

Thanks

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[#2]

@JonoH

For the avoidance of doubt I'm sure every channel of escalation has been used ... and consumed a lot of time in doing so. The concern is that your supplier does not seem capable of delivering an end to end one request solution.

Each individual issue within their systems is bounced back to the ISP to resolve. If you blink and miss what could be (as in this and other recent cases around here) one of several order failure causes, the service provision soon extends from a few days to several weeks.

Your supplier is not doing us proud.

Sorry to have to poke this in your direction but sometimes I feel the front line guys are somewhat getting fobbed by BTw / BTOR. Sadly I've seen it far too many times. Generally I would trust what Plusnet agents tell me - I have though learnt that all too frequently I have not been able to trust what BT have told PlusNet agents.

[#3]

DAY 35 with NO CONNECTION.

So @JonoH you again take your suppliers word and I again have to take yours.

Today our suppliers records have finally been updated, we've been able to place the order and once the order is committed on our suppliers systems they have agreed to fast track this for us.

A customer service agent phoned on Friday (yes, a real person actually phoned, thank you) to say the order has again failed due to a mismatch but not to worry as it will be sorted in 24 hours. Only it didn't turn out like that did it. Unbelievably your suppliers have said I have to wait ANOTHER 13 DAYS!!!

Lets recap. Since BEING TOLD I'M CONNECTED I've been asked to wait:

24 hours

15 Days

3 Days

3 Days

5 Days

3 Days

4 days

and now another 13 Days.

As @Townman has intimated, can you not see they are lying to you? There cannot possibly be that many fields in a connection that can mismatch. As you said, none of this requires an engineer, it just needs someone to commit to updating the system. How can this possibly take ANOTHER 13 days? Do you honestly believe anyone anywhere at OR is actually doing anything to solve this right now or have they put 13 days on it to shut you up?

Why don't they take the settings from the 10th April when I had a perfectly good connection and copy those?

Your agent thought they were unsure which exchange I was connected to. Don't be ridiculous! It's Canterbury, the same exchange the phone line I rent from you is connected to and the same exchange they were supplying a connection to on the 10th April.

It feels as if someone somewhere is being vindictive as I'm leaving overpriced BT isp for a lower cost subsidiary of the same group.

Again I was told that on Friday the matter has been escalated for me, which is odd, because I'm pretty sure you said it had been escalated to the highest possible level days ago. I'll tell you what escalation is. Why don't you take this example and put it on the Plusnet CEO's desk and tell him/her to put it on the OR CEO's desk as an example of the woeful, tragic and totally unacceptable service (not) being provided!

Get it sorted!

To anyone else reading. Should any part of your order ever be cancelled unexpectedly at anytime RUN AWAY. STAY WITH YOUR CURRENT PROVIDER! Plusnet are unable to effect any pressure on Openreach whatsoever to solve any problems once it goes wrong.

Plusnet have offered to try and provide a non-fibre connection whilst I'm waiting although I'm not holding my breath this will ever appear. I'm also concerned it will take away what little incentive there is for anyone to solve this problem EVER!

[#4]

Moderator Note by Dick (Strat)

4 posts released from spam filter and removed.

Sorry about that JonoVo2

[#5]

Sorry to hear about the continued delays. I accidentally responded to one of the other posts that were moved yesterday

I was the one who called you back on Friday and I'm due a further update on this today.

With regards to the points you've raised we've been advised by our suppliers that a field on their end was filled incorrectly which is why the order has failed.

Unfortunately whilst the order has failed it's now stuck on our suppliers systems so they have raised another bridge case which was were the date of the 25th has come from.

I've had a escalation raised on this since last week and we are getting daily updates on the matter. As soon as I get the latest one I'll update your account.

With regards to the escalation we can only escalate a individual order not the case as a whole so each time the issue has been resolved according to our suppliers we have to start from the beginning.

Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

[#6]

@MatthewWheeler, (& @JonoH)

What does it take to get someone in BT to take resolving this as a CASE (as you have) rather than treating each individual issue as a distinct unconnected problem of no particular problem?

Woukd the user complaining direct to (IIRC) Gavin Patterson help / give you guys more leverage as I have done in the past?

Is there anything an ISP can do to check any if this data is correct BEFORE submitting / resubmitting the order?  It is not as though this is a LLU migration where we all know there's lots of room for things to go wrong.  This is a change of billing agent on an established WBC service which ought to need no physical changes ... so just how can so much of the database data be so wrong?

[#7]

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@Townman wrote:

@MatthewWheeler, (& @JonoH)

What does it take to get someone in BT to take resolving this as a CASE (as you have) rather than treating each individual issue as a distinct unconnected problem of no particular problem?

We've submitted this case to our suppliers High Level Escalations team this is the highest possible escalation path, however we cannot guarantee that they will accept the case and are waiting to hear back from them shortly (We've heard back and this has been accepted our next update is due in 5 working hours).

We really are doing everything we can to get this working as soon as possible including exploring the idea of seeing how quickly we can get a new service installed in case we continue to run into errors. There are no spare pairs for this property so we've ordered a survey so we ca n at least get the ball rolling that way.

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@Townman wrote:

@MatthewWheeler, (& @JonoH)

Is there anything an ISP can do to check any if this data is correct BEFORE submitting / resubmitting the order?  It is not as though this is a LLU migration where we all know there's lots of room for things to go wrong. This is a change of billing agent on an established WBC service which ought to need no physical changes ... so just how can so much of the database data be so wrong?

We don't have sight of the data at all, even now the only reason we know what records are incorrect is because that is what our suppliers have told us

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[#8]

@JonoH,

Thank for answering rather punchy questions with good candour. I've never doubted that PN has pushed as best they can on this, my concern is communication and commitment from BT to support PlusNet customers.  I rather hold a perspective that having been given an order, they should sort out any blocking issues themselves ... not bounce it back to the ISP at every twist and turn.

I have had a similar experience today - migration order rejected because the current premises line was previously a non-served premises somehow a standard migration order us the wrong kind of order.  Hopefully someone is on that case.  Really cannot begin to understand how PNs front line support staff cope day in day out with all of this BT mess and the consequential very irritated users they have to mollify.

OMG - no spare pairs - can it really get any worse?

[#9]

Just to update everybody our suppliers have advised the current order has failed and they're going to replace it.

This will kick out a e-mail saying the orders failed but this order will be fast tracked

[#10]

Our suppliers have updated us to inform us that they have cancelled the original order, because of all the problems with the original they will be placing a new order and expediting the new one to have it connected as soon as possible.

I want to make you aware that once this happens you may get some strange emails from us (the emails stating the order is cancelled are sent automatically) and to ignore them.

Edit @MatthewWheeler beat me to it

[#11]

Thank you for the update and thank you for your efforts. I don't envy you having to deal with such issues on a daily basis.

As an aside it's not all bad news. Due to a lack of gadgets the kids have actually regressed back into children. Bow and arrows were fashioned at the weekend. It was all very 1970's.

[#12]

Hi JonoVo2, LOL, I understand, well fresh air never done me any harm so...... Appreciate your understanding, if I can help you again just let me know.

[#13]

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@JonoVo2 wrote:
Thank you for the update and thank you for your efforts. I don't envy you having to deal with such issues on a daily basis.

Try "hourly basis".

I have just come off the phone from needing to agree an excellent mitigation plan on a service migration order ... which was bounced by BTw because it was the "wrong type of migration order because of the type of FROM phone line premises type".  Never heard of such stupidity - a working phone line is a working phone line - BTw systems ought never to have accepted the order against the existing line if it was the wrong type.  It all looks as though BTw's systems are designed to inhibit business, rather than support it.

PlusNet business support have done us proud today, in spite of BTw's attempt to make things very difficult.

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[#14]

DAY 43 WITH NO CONNECTION.

Yesterday marked 6 weeks since I last had an internet connectionand today I received the entirely expected news that my order has again been delayed due to an 'open exception', whatever that is.

After 6 weeks they still can't get it right.

@JonoH what am I to do?

Do I try another ISP starting from scratch? Or am I just supposed to wait indefinitely. 

I am am now seriously out-of-pocket and inconvenienced and expect compensation.

What would you do?

[#15]

@JonoVo2 - Well without really knowing what is meant by “open exception” it’s hard to say, you could move ISP but end up in the same situation.

I appreciate your frustration (and your patience) but can I suggest that it maybe worth your while investing some time in a phone call or chat (so you have a record of what is said) to see if you can illicit some more detail regarding your order that way you'll be able to make an informed decision as to how to proceed.

Just a thought.