Appalling combined effectiveness (Plusnet+BT)

[#1]

Returned from abroad and found I had no phone (yet internet was working). I raised ticket  #90418026 on 22/8 and received an “Estimated Resolution Time: 27/08/14”.  On 26/8 Internet was gone and so I raised a second ticket. A week later, on the 29th  (plus some costly mobile calls to support) I receive a “BT wish to send an engineer to your premises to further investigate your home phone fault”. I am asked to specify three time slots and I doubt they will show up on Friday afternoon so it will probably be after the weekend before the engineer arrives. That is TEN DAYS for the engineer to arrive; NOT for the fault to be resolved which is still unknown!
Is this an isolated incident? No. Only five months ago a similar fault (1st ticket #83007819 18/3/14) took a week to remedy.
I am doing intensive research and other work for my dissertation which is due in a few days. I am normally online most of the day for work which also involves extensive communication. The added cost in mounting aggravation and stress this is causing is tremendous. It is not that I don’t accept occasional faults; It is the turnaround time exceeding 2-3 days (in these two cases a week and 10 days respectively) in this day and age which I find unacceptable!
Is this London or Bananistan?
I have no time for replies and am writing this desperately hoping someone in charge will prevent the next blunder or useless delay.

[#2]

You say you use it for work:
I take it then that you have paid for a business line and are not using a social domestic broadband connection for business purposes?
Business lines come with SLA's (Service level agreements) probably at different levels for different prices on the amount of time it take BT to repair a fault - domestic broadband services do not - BT will do their best efforts and if they are busy on business line repairs then you will have to wait as you have discovered.
Yes business lines are more expensive
You want a better service - pay more: simple.

[#3]

"I am doing intensive research and other work for my dissertation which is due in a few days."
Which surely means they are doing exactly that and not for business purposes.
Does a child researching on the internet for their homeWORK need a business line for that ?- no they don't and neither does the o.p.

[#4]

Quote from: x47c

You say you use it for work: I take it then that you have paid for a business line and are not using a social domestic broadband connection for business purposes?

No, I am a postgraduate student so "work" is meant in this context
dick:green Quote fixed.

[#5]

Hi ledasarg,
I'm sorry to hear that you've had a phone fault which has now started to affect the broadband service and especially at a crucial time for you. Firstly, please accept our apologies for the time it has taken to fix the original fault and now for the time it has taken to get this far with the current one.
I've managed to take a look in the suppliers system and can see that the state of this fault has moved back and forth without resolution, it seems that the original diagnostics results that we submitted to them changed after they ran their own diagnostics which led to a change in the type of engineer required to implement the fix.
At present it seems that the fix date is set for the 01/08/14 and while I know this isn't ideal for you given the work you have to do, it looks as though this will be the earliest date we have to get the phone engineer out for you based on the availability in your area. Given that the fault startet with the introduction of the phone fault I would see no reason to believe that the resolution of this fault wouldn't bring the broadband back up.
The one thing that does require attention (which neither myself nor anyone in the office can address due to the time) is that the requirements for engineer seem to have changed from an external visit which doesn't require access to your property, to access being required for potential works in your home. Unfortunately the team within BT Openreach aren't open right now in order to book a set time so if you're able to call into the call centre tomorrow, they should either be able to book this for you or look to queue the booking.
I'm sorry I couldn't be more help on this one but I'm sure that we can get this resolved for you.

[#6]

Quote from: Adam

At present it seems that the fix date is set for the 01/08/14 and while I know this isn't ideal for you given the work you have to do,

I trust that this was intended to read 01/09/2014 ?

[#7]

Quote from: Adam

The one thing that does require attention (which neither myself nor anyone in the office can address due to the time) is that the requirements for engineer seem to have changed from an external visit which doesn't require access to your property, to access being required for potential works in your home. Unfortunately the team within BT Openreach aren't open right now in order to book a set time so if you're able to call into the call centre tomorrow, they should either be able to book this for you or look to queue the booking.

I got the following Plusnet message:
[Your appointment for a BT engineer has been booked for 01/09/14 08:00 to 13:00. Please let us know if this needs rearranging. Please note, should the BT engineer find the cause of the fault to be on your internal wiring or setup then a charge of £99 will apply.]
Adam, do you still think I should make a call regardless?
Anyway, please accept my thanks for your efforts.
Kind regards,
Leda

[#8]

Quote from: x47c

You say you use it for work:

That seems to me to be academic work, ie studying, a dissertation was mentioned, not quite the same 

[#9]

Quote from: ledasarg

Adam, do you still think I should make a call regardless? Anyway, please accept my thanks for your efforts.

Leda,
It would be wise to call and CONFIRM that the appointment is not a PROVISIONAL appointment.
Kevin

[#10]

Hi ledasarg.
Your appointment is definitely set in stone for today. We'll keep an eye out on this for you.

[#11]

Set in stone?? With Openreach? More likely quicksand!!

[#12]

Quote from: MattyC

Hi ledasarg. Your appointment is definitely set in stone for today. We'll keep an eye out on this for you.

<Your appointment for a BT engineer has been booked for 01/09/14 08:00 to 13:00...>
and CONFIRMED as per recommendations here
It is now 01/09/14 13:25, day TEN of the fault and no engineer has contacted me..
Expenses so far in excess of 60£ due to the fault and counting...
set in stone you say?

[#13]

Hi ledasarg,
The engineer attended today at 08:28, however, they state that they couldn't gain access. They tried to ring the doorbell for the flat but there wasn't any answer.
We will therefore need to re-book the appointment. I have updated the ticket for you as well.

[#14]

Quote from: Linn

Hi ledasarg, The engineer attended today at 08:28, however, they state that they couldn't gain access. They tried to ring the doorbell for the flat but there wasn't any answer. We will therefore need to re-book the appointment. I have updated the ticket for you as well.

This is unbelievable!
I was in the premises, all the time, my mobile number is in the Contact Details and I wear my mobile intravenously not to miss him!!
I submitted three new timeslots, to the ticket, will this do?
Desperate

[#15]

Thanks, I'll update the ticket with the appointment confirmation.