2 months and still no broadband

[Fluke]

A few weeks ago I posted a question here about BT, I had decided to switch from a perfectly good Sky fibre broadband service to BT Infinity, my contract with Sky was finishing, BT had a deal on at the time as well as faster speeds etc so I thought I'd swap (big mistake). The appointed switch day came, my Sky connection was cut off and BT failed to switch me over. There then ensued a series of agonising daily calls to BT talking to people who had no clue what was going on, but they were clear that I was unable to cancel the contract. Oh and btw they took payment from my bank account for the connection fee and the first months charge which they later credited back to my BT account (not my bank account) which they proceeded to use to deduct the next months charge.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=5059

It's now been 2 months and they still haven't connected me, my order seems to have gone down some kind of BT black hole and I'm living in a sort of groundhog world where they ring me each week to tell me they're going to ring me next week. My latest call (yesterday) was to tell me they would contact me on the 13th June with no explanation as to what was so special about the 13th of June. They have never been able to explain what it is that they are finding so difficult about my order save that it is something to do with Openreach. I don't live in a complicated area, my neighbour has been a happy Infinity user for a couple of years, the switch box is opposite my house and I already had a fibre connection.

I saw an Openreach van parked just down the road yesterday so I went over and had a chat with the guy, I asked if he knew of any problems that would prevent me (I pointed to my house) from being connected, were they problems in the cabinet maybe? He walked me over to the cabinet opened it and pointed to 30 as yet unallocated ports. He also told me that they had connected 70 new fibre ports in this immediate area since February. I told him that My order was made in March, he could not explain why I would not have been connected, but he did tell me that they get used up quickly then there can be a wait for another bank of ports to be installed, so I'd better get a move on.

I contacted the communications ombudsman a couple of days ago to raise a complaint as it is now 8 weeks but their process in turn can take a further 8 weeks, in the meantime I still have no broadband and my internet for work is all being done using mobile data from my phone which drops out regularly. Any internet based TV is out of the question. The ombudsman asked what I would like BT to do but I didn't know what to say, can I ask for compensation? if so how much? if not what is the complaint for? In the end I just said I wanted them to connect me and give me the service free for a year. But this seems a bit lame, not to mention pointless, if they could connect me they would have.

Or shall I just go ahead and order from another supplier and just tell BT and the ombudsman that's what I've done. Remember BT told me I couldn't get out to the contract and the ombudsman agreed.

In the mean time those spare ports and going fast.

Help!

[supremetwo]

Director level complaint:-

https://www.openreach.co.uk/orpg/home/a ... iveteam.do

Roddy Thomson,Chief Operating Officer and Managing Director of Service Delivery. took up the role of MD, Service Delivery, in February 2012 having joined Openreach in 2011 as MD Transformation. He is responsible for running our 19,000 strong service delivery operation and the support functions that help them. The Service Delivery team are dedicated to delivering quality engineering to our customers and are responsible for providing and assuring service for all of Openreach’s customers through voice, broadband and fibre based VDSL. Prior to joining BT, Roddy has spent much of his working life in large scale B2B customer service and field environments with leading UK and global organisations.

Also:-

High Level Complaints
Amanda Newstead
DSO & HLC Front Office
Openreach
Web: Openreach.co.uk
Email: hlcopenreach@openreach.co.uk