Bad News

Holodene · Dec 16, 2010, 20:26:29

We ordered Fibre for the office on Monday after BT marked our cab as active. Today, they changed the date from Live to June 2011 (the cab has been in place since September....). The connection at the office is with Zen. We have asked for an update from Zen, I think it'll be bad news.

Local cab live date has been pushed back from March 2011 to June 2011.

Rik · Dec 16, 2010, 20:28:11

BT are definitely struggling, if only we could find out why...

gizmo71 · Dec 17, 2010, 09:13:50

Yeah, both cabinets near me are up and appear to have had all the work finished but the date has rolled back from December to March.

Rik · Dec 17, 2010, 09:16:09

I think they've realised they forgot the backhaul upgrade.

pctech · Dec 17, 2010, 11:32:41

I'd have thought they would have put the backhaul in place before installing the new kit in the cabinet?

Either that or the current power supply to the cabinet is no longer suitable or was non existent so they are having to wait for one of the local transmission operators to install or change it?

cavillas · Dec 17, 2010, 11:54:12

I also think they haven't got enough capable engineers and contracting out is bad practice.

zappaDPJ · Dec 17, 2010, 13:44:01

The cab in my street was put in and wired up well over a year before it went live although there were some trial connections made.

Holodene · Dec 17, 2010, 18:15:18

Update:

Work cab is now "live" again. Zen have confirmed the install date as 31st December. I can't wait. We've also had the "good news" email from BT today. Too bad we're going with Zen.

Home cab has been delayed again. It's now reporting 1st July 2011...

Rik · Dec 17, 2010, 18:18:26

Cue the Goons

I'm walking backwards to Christmas

pctech · Dec 17, 2010, 18:57:54

I wouldn't bet on 31st December just yet.

Rik · Dec 17, 2010, 19:00:26

I never do, Mitch, it's bad luck.

pctech · Dec 17, 2010, 19:05:45

I just batten down the hatches on December 31st although I'm working during the day this year.

Holodene · Dec 17, 2010, 20:09:28

Quote from: pctech on Dec 17, 2010, 18:57:54
I wouldn't bet on 31st December just yet.

Why not? A BT engineer has been booked.

D-Dan · Dec 17, 2010, 20:24:05

If BT have booked an engineer for Dec 31st, be sure to ask what year. Last week we had an outage on FTTC at my brothers. I called BT when it went off, and was told it was routine maintenance at the exchange and it would be back on in the morning (OK, it was early hours). The next day no connection again, so I phoned again and was told an engineer would call sometime in the next 48 hours!

Needless to say, I kicked up a fuss and got this down to the following morning. Miraculously, the net re-appeared that evening.

I rang them to tell them the good news and to save the engineer a trip. Needless to say he still turned up.

Moral of the story. Whatever BT tell you, the opposite will happen.

Steve

Rik · Dec 18, 2010, 10:29:52

Sadly, that's so often true.

zappaDPJ · Dec 18, 2010, 14:36:19

In my experience if an appointment is booked to install a new service, nine times out of ten the engineer will turn up. If it's a call out due to a fault, I've found the reverse is true. Perhaps they just potter around in the exchange and just don't bother to let you know, who knows. The bottom line is you seem to get a much more professional service for a new installation.

cs · Dec 19, 2010, 00:26:45

My FTTC upgrade was interesting..... Requested upgrade from IDNet, hadn't got as far as booking an appointment with BT.
Then 3 days later an engineer turns up unannounced expecting to install.......Luckily I was in and it all went ok.

Rik · Dec 19, 2010, 09:47:58

BT really need a good shakeup.

cavillas · Dec 19, 2010, 09:54:38

There will be very little improvement with BT/Openreach until the Government becomes involved and all help/support and other lines are brought back to this country and handled by people who understand all the nuances of the language and have some idea of the topography of the country. How can people thousands of miles away know what is going on properly?

Rik · Dec 19, 2010, 09:57:28

Do they care, Alf?

cavillas · Dec 19, 2010, 10:16:17

Probably not. BT come form the same mould as MP's; untrustworthy and spout some things that are far from the truth as well as going back on promises.

Technical Ben · Dec 19, 2010, 14:23:46

Quote from: pctech on Dec 17, 2010, 11:32:41
I'd have thought they would have put the backhaul in place before installing the new kit in the cabinet?

Either that or the current power supply to the cabinet is no longer suitable or was non existent so they are having to wait for one of the local transmission operators to install or change it?

Or in tandem.
What good is a load of cabinets with nothing to plug them into?

Rik · Dec 19, 2010, 17:09:15

It helps the cabinet-making industry out Ben.