Engineer not arrived 3 times, waiting 1 month for broadband

[#1]

Engineer not arrived 3 times, what can I do with it? Nothing. When you contact customer service, you will hear that they are sorry and supplier fail. How does it help me? Do I deal with suppliers? When you are thinking about paying for line for 12 month, think twice.
Best regards

[#2]

Hi folfa,
Welcome to the Forums!
Sorry to hear of the delay with the installation of your service. Unfortunately the previous order we had in place was rejected in our suppliers systems due to mismatch of data regarding your address. I have replaced your order and escalated this to the relevant department to monitor for you and they will confirm the engineer's appointment as soon as they receive this from our suppliers. Unfortunately we do rely on our supplier's engineer availability in order to get your service installed. Please monitor Ticket: 85929327 for further updates regarding this.

[#3]

@folfa
If you have incurred any costs or lost wages due to the missed appointments have a read of this.

[#4]

Quote from: Linn

Unfortunately the previous order we had in place was rejected in our suppliers systems due to mismatch of data regarding your address.

Sorry Linn,
But reading between the lines, would one be right or wrong in concluding...
1. An engineer gets booked with the user before the order is successfully accepted by your supplier's systems - thereby there is an expectation set before the order has been confirmed?
2. When things go wrong there is a (marked?) risk that this will not be recognised in the gap between PN systems and your supplier's?
3. If (1) and (2) are true, how might users be informed so that they not left waiting at home for an engineer who is never going to arrive?
The bit that does not ring clear for me is, if this order has failed and needs to be re-ordered how come the user has had 3 (expected) engineer appointments?
Kevin

[#5]

Hi Kevin,
When a customer signs up and they require an engineer to visit the property (whether it be for phone or Fibre) we ask for 3 provisional appointment dates that the customer will be available for and we do our best to book the engineer for one of these appointments. We do stress that an appointment isn't confirmed until we confirm this via email and text (if applicable). In this instance we couldn't confirm the appointment when placing the order as it needed to go to survey.
folfa,
Just checked back on this and luckily our suppliers have now come back to us with a confirmed appointment date - 04/06/2014 between 8AM and 1PM. Let us know if this isn't suitable and we can look at changing this.

[#6]

Quote from: Linn

We do stress that an appointment isn't confirmed until we confirm this via email and text (if applicable).

This needs reviewing. Having been given provisional appointments then most people would assume that if they hear nothing the appointment is going ahead.
Perhaps just calling them "Available dates" instead of "provisional appointments" would be sufficient.

[#7]

Quote from: Linn

...3 provisional appointment dates that the customer will be available for ... We do stress that an appointment isn't confirmed until we confirm this via email and text (if applicable).

Linn,
Thank you for the clarification.  I guess one concludes that unfortunately Folfa has for some reason thought that the 3 provisional dates were a commitment, not a set of provisional dates to be confirmed?
Kevin

[#8]

I agree, jelv. This is something that is going to be changed with the Provisioning project that is currently being developed.
Kevin, it seems like this may have been the case. Admittedly in this instance we could've communicated this to the customer better and I have fed this back internally.

[#9]

Quote from: jelv

Perhaps just calling them "Available dates" instead of "provisional appointments" would be sufficient.

Hi Jelv,
Our postings crossed over...
I think that there is just the same risk in calling something "available" rather than "provisional" that someone will still think these are set in stone.  For me "available" implies that there are slots open for booking, whereas "provisional" says that the booking slot has been reserved but is open to change until confirmed.
May be changing the wording elsewhere in the communication might be clearer
For provisional dates: "These are provisional dates when the engineer might attend"
For confirmed dates: "This is the confirmed date the engineer is scheduled to attend, please advise us if this is not or becomes inconvenient"
Kevin

[#10]

From plusnet handbook
[..]
Installing a new phone line: this usually takes about a week. If possible we’ll
activate your broadband at the same time
[..]
I ordered broadband in April. According to schedule I will be connected to Internet in June (maybe June, read the last paragraph)
[..23 Apr 2014]
Today you've paid:
£191.11
[..]
Couldn't you just set up direct debit?
[.. 23 Apr 2014]
Your phone service:
We'll arrange for an engineer to come and install your new phone service. [color=red]We won't need to contact you if your preferred appointment date is available. If a different appointment is required, we'll give you a call within a week to make alternative arrangements.
[..][/color]
No one contact me!!
[..]
We'll send an email to let you know. If you've given us your mobile number, we'll text you too.
[..]
No text as well
[.. 22 May 2014]
We now have all the details needed in order to place a simultaneous broadband order.
This means that we should be able to get your broadband service working within 48 hours of your phone line being activated on the [color=red]03/06/2014.
[..]
An engineer is due to activate your Home Phone service on 4/6/2014, 8am-1pm.
[..][/color]
Between 23 Apr and 22 May I did not send any new details!
Some date mismatch.
[.. 21 May 2014]
This seems to have been rejected by our suppliers. Due to this I have placed the query through to a dedicated team of ours who will investigate this for you.
[..]
Does you dedicated team of yours have any news on this case?
If something is rejected by your suppliers you have to know that, so why no one contact with me? Is it the same lack of communication like between you and your suppliers? Need to be investigated
[..]
These types of orders can fail on occasion. If that is the case we will be in touch and your order for the broadband will be submitted once your phone line is active. This will then take a further 5 working days to complete.
[..]
Yes, I know you are sorry. Suppliers failed again.
Regards

[#11]

Hi folfa,
I'm sorry for the delay and we do endeavor to get your services installed as quickly as we can. Unfortunately there was a delay, however, I agree, we could've communicated this to you better.
As for the upfront payment you've made - we can set up a direct debit for your monthly bills, however, we require the initial payment to be paid upfront and this covers you for your first month's service so you don't pay anything else until 1 month after your services have been installed.
We sent you a text message on 24/04/2014 informing you that we needed to confirm the engineer's appointment with you at a later date - if you didn't receive this then can you please PM me your mobile number so that I can check that the correct one is on your account please?
I can confirm that the engineer's appointment is booked for 04/06/2014 between 8AM and 1PM and that we have placed a simultaneous broadband order so that your broadband should be completed on the same day + 24 hours. The last bit of your post is an explanation that is given to every customer who has a simultaneous order in place as there is a chance that the simultaneous broadband order can fail, as explained, if this is the case then we'll replace the broadband order once the phone line is active and the broadband will then take 5 working days to complete. If the confirmed appointment date is not suitable please let us know and we can look at re-arranging this.
I have created Ticket: 86071440 on your account - please have a look at your earliest convenience.

[#12]

I would feel guilty if I did not write any positive feedback.
[.. 23 May 2014]
Apologies for the delay in your phone line being installed. Due to the delay and for the lack of communication from us I will refund the £[color=black]$$.$$ activation fee that you paid upfront.
[..][/color]
I wrote it not because I wanted to cause avalanche of claims but I want customers to know that there is someone who care.
Regards

[#13]

No problem, folfa. Like I said, I admit that we should've communicated this to you in a much better way!

[#14]

Quote from: Linn

We sent you a text message on 24/04/2014 informing you that we needed to confirm the engineer's appointment with you at a later date

Linn,
Does this imply that the communication was sent ONLY via SMS?
This does raise a number of issues to be considered by the team designing the new provisioning system - just how does one communicate with users during the provisioning phase?  The normal communication methods would be via email to postmaster@username.plus.com (default notification address) and may be SMS if the customer has a mobile phone.  The point to note is that (IIRC) the postmaster@ address will not be "available" until AFTER the BB service has been set up*, so that is not a viable communication route.  If the customer has no mobile, then SMS is not viable either.
Does the sign-up process make plain that an email address is required for communication PRIOR TO the installation of the new service?  Even if it does, this is not useful for internet "first timers".
*Note that the postmaster@username.plus.com address will not be "present" unless the user selected the email option on the sign up journey.

Quote from: folfa

[.. 23 Apr 2014] Your phone service: We'll arrange for an engineer to come and install your new phone service. [color=red]We won't need to contact you if your preferred appointment date is available. If a different appointment is required, we'll give you a call within a week to make alternative arrangements. [..][/color] No one contact me!!

With the above it is now quite understandable how a user might take a provisional date to be an agreed date.  IIRC customers are asked to provide THREE preferred dates which are provisionally booked.  If the "preferred appointment date is available" and there is no further communication how does the customer know which ONE of those THREE dates the engineer will arrive on?
For all of the engineer no-show issues which are discovered to be no booked engineer how many of them relate to expectations set from the above?  I suggest that all provisional dates should be just that until positively affirmed - there should be no defaulting on non-communication from provisional to confirmed, such status changes should only occur via affirmative actions.
I hope this is passed on to the provisioning team...
Kevin

[#15]

Very well put, @Townman. I was thinking exactly the same and considering commenting along the same lines.
The process is far from robust with far too many inbuilt assumptions and minimal checks, especially that the customer understands and agrees with things.