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[happy37]

Hello everyone,

For those of you who have been following the goings on regarding my new PlusNet FTTC installation which happened on the 24th, here's how the whole saga unfolded.

As a certain "feline" fellow member on this forum has already suggested in the "MAC advice" thread in the "ISPs" forum:-

I will be interested to read what you friend had discovered and what he had to do to correct the problem.

I asked my BT OpenReach mate to come over last night to check the FTTC install out that the engineer had "engineered" on the 24th (Tuesday).

(Pun duly intended.....)         

When the engineer opened up one of the downstairs extensions in the house to match up the wiring with the Master socket - blue/blue, orange/orange etc.......here's what happened.

1. He didn't ask me to check whether all my extensions worked after he'd wired the Master socket up. I was ONLY asked to do this before. PlusNet have confirmed that he failed to do this part of the job correctly as he should've asked me to check the extensions with a phone once he'd finished wiring up.

2. My friend discovered last night that the engineer had put one the extension covers back on but he had failed to notice that he had screwed one of the orange socket wires inside the cover into the screw hole when he'd put it back on!!! Duh!!!

This caused a short-circuit on my phone line and also caused all of the extensions to stop working.

As you have already said that he is a BT Group employee, I can see no reason for not telling PlusNet what was the problem with this new FTTC installation.

Have done that already last night and have also told PlusNet that I am seeking some form of redress from them, seeing how badly this has all been done. I also paid my BT mate £30 as a courtesy just for the fact that he came over to look at and fix the problem.

Am I right in seeking some form of redress from PlusNet/BT OpenReach as it was the engineer that got it all wrong!?

I also have to add that PlusNet sent me a text stating that the problem had been acknowledged by BT OpenReach, and that it would be dealt with within 7 working days.

Having said all of the above, what do you all think of this saga?

Grateful for all your helpful advice, thoughts and comments (as always).

Regards

happy37

[silversurfer44]

Good morning happy Happy37.

I'm pleased you are now sorted with the phone situation, however I can see a spot of bother for your mate.
Although he is a BT/OR employee as far as I can see he should not be doing jobs on the side so to speak. The problem could arise now that the job has gone to the faults system and an engineer  will be assigned the job, unless you can cancel it.

If you cancel the job then it would be a bit risky to ask for any redress from any of the companies involved if you see what I mean.

[happy37]

Good morning ss44,

Thanks for your reply.

The problem could arise now that the job has gone to the faults system and an engineer  will be assigned the job, unless you can cancel it.

If you cancel the job then it would be a bit risky to ask for any redress from any of the companies involved if you see what I mean.

The job has been cancelled as I have already asked PlusNet not to send out an engineer.

You might agree that up to 7 working days without a phone service isn't good, hence this was why I asked my mate to come over and fix things ASAP.

Regards

happy37

[silversurfer44]

Ah! Glad you canceled the fault call, that makes things easier.
I totally agree that 7 workings days waiting for a repair is absolutely ridiculous, especially as it was caused by the installer.
For that reason alone you could possibly ask for your £30 back from Plusnet, who would have to get it from BT.
Seeing as the repair was on your house wiring, so to speak, you are fully entitled to get a professional to do the job. No need to mention what his profession is.
There must be some sore sort of guarantee with the work that was carried out, so therefore a refund on your cost for the repair would seem in order.

I'll be interested in what others have to say.

[burakkucat]

Your comments read eminently sensible, SS44.

To be fair to PlusNet, they employed Openreach to perform the task. So as happy37 had to outlay £30-00 to correct an error created by the installing Openreach engineer, I cannot see any reason for PlusNet to refuse to reimburse that sum. They, PlusNet, can then recover that sum from Openreach.

To be fair to the installing Openreach engineer, this issue possibly arose due to the incessant "micro-managing" to which they are subjected. Possibly the engineer had been given N tasks to complete in H hours when, in fact, H+1.5 hours would have been far more realistic for the N tasks.

I'm sure that Black Sheep will comment, when he next passes. 

[happy37]

So as happy37 had to outlay £30-00 to correct an error created by the installing Openreach engineer, I cannot see any reason for PlusNet to refuse to reimburse that sum. They, PlusNet, can then recover that sum from Openreach.

Mr B Cat and ss44,

Thanks for your helpful replies - much appreciated.

Here's the reason why I have now made a complaint to BT OpenReach about the engineer's botched installation.

Please see a quote from the email below as received from PlusNet earlier today:-

"Dear Mr ******,

Thanks for getting in touch.

I am sorry to say that ourselves or BT cannot be liable for costs that you have incurred for having this issue corrected.

We advised yesterday that we had a complaint logged with BT to investigate what had happened and to have the corrected.

I am sorry that we cannot be of any further assistance, but if the issue has been resolved in full we will close the complaint and no further action will be taken. Please advise how you would like us to proceed."

I have deliberately highlighted the last line in bold.

I have also been given a weblink to a particular BT OpenReach website by PlusNet where I can make a direct complaint to OpenReach about the engineer's work.

Based on PlusNet's unhelpful response in the email above, I have now gone ahead and submitted a complaint to BT OpenReach.

What can I do next?

Grateful for all your continued helpful advice, thoughts and comments (as always).

Regards

happy37

[Black Sheep]

Your comments read eminently sensible, SS44.

To be fair to PlusNet, they employed Openreach to perform the task. So as happy37 had to outlay £30-00 to correct an error created by the installing Openreach engineer, I cannot see any reason for PlusNet to refuse to reimburse that sum. They, PlusNet, can then recover that sum from Openreach.

To be fair to the installing Openreach engineer, this issue possibly arose due to the incessant "micro-managing" to which they are subjected. Possibly the engineer had been given N tasks to complete in H hours when, in fact, H+1.5 hours would have been far more realistic for the N tasks.

I'm sure that Black Sheep will comment, when he next passes. 

I didn't really want to comment, but seeing as a certain Cat has mentioned myself, well ....... 

I think this whole 'complaint' scenario is a tad OTT . There won't be a single telecoms engineer (Including his mate) who won't have accidentally got a wire trapped, whilst screwing tight a socket front. The bloke made a mistake ..... end of.

Yes BK, micro-managing will always play a part in an individuals day-to-day work. It shouldn't be used as an excuse, but unfortunately it is a fact of life. I don't know what this engineer had to do on this task, or whether he had another 3/4 tasks to attend that day. We do employ whats called a 'Mobile Workforce' who are mainly made up of ex-servicemen. They load these guys up with 'job tours' which adds increasing pressure, compounded with the fact they have little training.

Now, I'm not an idiot, and I realise none of this should be of any concern to the EU and they should expect a flawless experience from Openreach. However, we are humans and as such fallible to the odd mistake. Yes, the engineer should have checked the phones after FTTC installation work was completed. No, the OP shouldn't have got his mate involved, he should have rung his ISP who would have immediately dispatched another engineer to attend site to correct the fault, which would usually be done under the 'e-Viper' escalation route.

Result- OP retains his £30, his phone gets repaired probably less than 24hrs after his mate had a look.

This however looks as though the OP wants a piece of asss, regardless of getting his mate in anyway. I would have gone one way or the other, not down both routes. Just my opinion.

[burakkucat]

b*cat nods, to acknowledge your comments. 

he should have rung his ISP who would have immediately dispatched another engineer to attend site to correct the fault, which would usually be done under the 'e-Viper' escalation route.

The question here is whether happy37's ISP, PlusNet, is aware (and make use) of "the 'e-Viper' escalation route."

[silversurfer44]

I am in agreement with BS in that it was very unwise to go down two different routes. The OR engineer should have checked his work but didn't, and anyone could make a similar mistake.
The part that I found very distasteful was having to wait upto 7 working days for the fault to be rectified. That is time without a proper working telephone.
Now that you have put the complaint in to OR the brown and smelly is hitting the fan. I would be inclined to let things run the course, eat a slice of humble pie and allow the dust to settle.

Put it down to one of life's experiences.

As I was typing b*cat has also posted. I agree entirely, but still hold with my latter comments.

[Black Sheep]

b*cat nods, to acknowledge your comments. 

he should have rung his ISP who would have immediately dispatched another engineer to attend site to correct the fault, which would usually be done under the 'e-Viper' escalation route.

The question here is whether happy37's ISP, PlusNet, is aware (and make use) of "the 'e-Viper' escalation route."

'e-Viper' is Openreach's latest name for 'Customer Complaint Handling' (CCH). As such, all ISP's/CP's have access to it, via their own channels of communication. I've attended umpteen of these over the years, and they range from the ridculous to the sublime, but all are taken extremely seriously with a full audit trail put in place guaranteeing EU satisfaction. Well nearly always, as some are downright fraudulent attempts to extract monies from BT. They have to get up early to get one over on us.

I haven't read the thread about the '7 day waiting time' to repair the fault, but can assure you if the correct procedures were followed (assuming both the EU and the ISP front desk know them), then we'd have been back within hours of the complaint. This is not heresay, this is fact.

[silversurfer44]

<snip>

I also have to add that PlusNet sent me a text stating that the problem had been acknowledged by BT OpenReach, and that it would be dealt with within 7 working days.

happy37

A bit further up the page.

[chrisparr]

7 working days seems like a long time, and to be honest it sounds like we were going to deal with it as a standalone fault, rather than as a result of a simple error during installation.

I've not read any other threads about this fault, but did you contact us to try and pull the 7 days in a bit?

I'll be blunt, I'm not sure we'll refund the £30 as we didn't recommend employing your own engineer to fix this issue and if we'd have sent an engineer to fix it (Openreach Engineer) then it wouldn't have cost at all.

Drop me a ticket ID or your Plusnet username and I'll get one of my guys to review that we did the right things.

[happy37]

Drop me a ticket ID or your Plusnet username and I'll get one of my guys to review that we did the right things.

Chris,

Have sent you a PM with these details.

Regards

happy37

[chrisparr]

Thanks,

I've taken a look over the account, in particular the ticket where the fault was raised. I can see that we said 'We expect to hear from them within 7 working days' when the fault was raised to our supplier, however this wasn't supposed to mean that it would definitely take that long. For this type of fault the turnaround times are much faster, we simply give the worst case to set expectations. Unfortunately it doesn't look like you contacted us following this and just asked your friend to come out without giving us chance to resolve this issue, as such I'm afraid we're not going to be able to refund the £30.

[happy37]

Chris,

Thanks.

I notified Plusnet and BT immediately about this fault after it had happened.

Unfortunately it doesn't look like you contacted us following this and just asked your friend to come out without giving us chance to resolve this issue, as such I'm afraid we're not going to be able to refund the £30.

Th reason why I asked him to come round was that up to 7 days without a phone line is simply too long when it's crucial and is needed.

BT had wanted to charge me to send out an engineer and I wasn't sure how long it would've taken PlusNet to send someone out to fix this fault. I contacted PlusNet again by phone about this matter and I was told that it would not have been fixed on the very same day, and it would've been 24-48 hours for the fault to be acknowledged.

In any case, I have also sent a complaint to BT Openreach to complain about the engineer's work.

Regards

happy37