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[Chrysalis]

I think I would even accept a merge of BTw and openreach back to BT rather than staying as it is, BT was better ran that way before that artifical split, and those divisions will coordinate with each other anyway for mutual benefit, as is their responsibility to BT shareholders.

[Chrysalis]

Also years ago in my adsl days when openreach were not so bad.

Our posts crossed, but having just seen yours, it fits quite nicely with what I just typed. 
So why has Openreach got worse since fttc?  Could the 2 points above not be helping?

Its not since FTTC specifically its over time its gradually got worse, I read about a lot of the changes that are done every 1-2 years with each change been worse than previous policy on revk's blog..  Openreach didnt even exist when I had Freeserve ADSL, it was all under the BT name.  There was none of this nonsense of engineers pretending they dont work for BT.

[Chrysalis]

lol... I just did an edit too.

The current system allows an isp to profit from faults, if engineer is a no show they get payment from openreach whilst customer still paying them for a faulty service.

That is just plain wrong that the ISPs dont pass this back to the EU.  OFCOM should be looking at that practice 

Whats the largest fine ofcom has imposed e.g.?  Here if an isp is lieing about what its selling they get told nicely to change their adverts, meanwhile elsewhere http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/at-t-fined-100m-us-for-throttling-unlimited-internet-plans-1.3117225

Again an area which OFCOM in the UK seems to ignore and its more down to ASA.

You are correct that OFCOM does appear in instances like this, not really protecting public interests.

Ofcom are only here to promote competition, the bit about them serving the public is somewhat a lie, the ASA should slap ofcom for false advertising

An example of how bad they are is when I brought it up with ofcom about plusnet not letting people go on LRS when prices went up, As I told ofcom the call charges and fee's still went up so even with no line rental it was a detriment change, ofcom just bailed out of it saying those costs were not part of the regulation.  What? 

You cannot make it up how bad they are. Its as if they deliberately leave loopholes in place.

[WWWombat]

Is there actually any compensation paid at all?

I kinda agree on this area - get the compensation right, and it might well act as the right incentive to Openreach.

Strangely, because my wife and I largely work from home, we aren't inconvenienced in any extra way from a missed appointment. Plenty of frustration, and ongoing inconvenience from the problematic comms, but not about losing days of holiday.

That means we don't tend to focus on compensation for a missed appointment.

However, while I haven't ever got something from Plusnet that could be directly attributed as "compensation from Openreach", I find they are always willing to ensure you don't pay for missed service, and often offer free months service as their compensation. And, of course, a missed appointment by Openreach means there is longer for Plusnet to have to compensate me.

I have no idea about other ISPs, but I'm OK at this kind of balance. But most people aren't as good at figuring out balance like this - and directly demand eyes for eyes, teeth for teeth.

I also have the same laid-back approach to paying the ISP over the period when things go wrong. I know they'll sort out compensation at the end, so I don't go jumping down their throats every time I receive a direct-debit warning if service isn't 100%.

So it is possible to get another engineer out now, even if it is 8pm, and even if he is on overtime, to finish the job that should have been done by 6pm. It is possible to send someone on Saturday or even Sunday to finish.

I've had some Openreach issues, and I don't think I've ever seen someone turn up in either of these two ways.

I've certainly had a guy turn up to do a job, and have it take an awful lot longer than expected ... but it still didn't reach completion that day.

IMO, RevK has something right (that lack of priority of jobs where Openreach stuffed up). I also think Ofcom got things wrong when they concentrated on just setting SLA times in their "quality" review a couple of years ago. It seems to me that the biggest problem Openreach causes to the man in the street - one with work to attend - is to fail to fix a problem in one job. Whether that is by a missed appointment, or an appointment cancelled by Openreach without good warning to the EU, or by allocating too little time, or from turning up with the wrong tools. Requiring a second half-day off work is a serious impact to most people.

I believe that for most people, it is better for Openreach to turn up on the expected day than it is for that day to be one or two days quicker. Ofcom should be measuring, and setting, targets for appointment-reliability and fix-on-first-appointment.