I hate Openreach

My only experience with Openreach: a couple of years ago I was having a business premises refurbished and I phoned them up to get a quote for moving some of their cables, which were attached to the front of the building although didn't serve it. They wanted something like £400 just to send somebody out and tell me whether the work could be done and, if so, how much it would cost.

I was sorely tempted to wait for the next big storm and arrange an accident, but in the end we just tucked them away somewhere vaguely out of sight.

 

Sounds like he swapped the pairs and basically fixed it by breaking someone else's, in this case yours.

You just had a crappy engineer though rather than a mas problem with Openreach (in this case). Fortunately you're with Zen, one of the good guys of internet provision so they'll get another engineer to get it sorted first. It's a bugger that you'll need to be in for the engineer, but that's how Openreach work.

 

To be fair though, they have to be a monopoly really - how do you break down the network (other than splitting them from BT). I would much prefer them to be nationalised and put some customer care into there service rather than chasing the profit.

 

You’re lucky to get an engineer. I just kept getting through to various people in their offshore call centre.... where all they wanted to know was how many screws my socket had. Took about 3 hours to decide it was working fine... despite my side showing less than 1mb. Now a virgin customer, 100 times quicker!

 

Its time it was re-nationalised and the country was cabled properly.
BT fudging the internet using outdated telephone cabling ought to be seen as a joke rather than an accepted norm.

 

Natural monopolies should be run democratically as a service - not for profit.

Water's the one that really gets me. Companies making billions off assets that were largely paid for and installed municipally. We should still own them as citizens, and instead we've put ourselves into the world's worse sell and lease back arrangement.

 

Agreed.

 

They wanted you in the test socket and to know what faceplate you had. That way, they can rule out internal wiring causing a loss of sync speed.

 

On a technicality, they wont, but if you speak to someone with a brain at Zen, they'll log it for you and Openreach are forced to investigate - even if the engineer does say tough.

 

I have been with BT (Openreach) for years now, and a while back when I was moving house, they arranged the moving over date for the line and the broadband. They said an engineer would visit so I needed to be in. Stayed in all day, no engineer turned up, no phone call, nothing. Got an email about 5 pm that day saying the line and broadband should now be working etc. etc. I checked and it was working, but I thought what a waste of a day. No customer care or thought at all for people

 

In my experience with Openreach, that's what they lack -- the end user care. Actually, the customer care to their customer too (the ISP) as well. But they have got better. A lot better.

 

We swapped to virgin and they've been better than talk talk but still have the odd evening Internet disruption.

 

I think they're bringing the call centres slowly but surely back into the UK aren't they? That will help

 

They are for the end user. But not for the ISPs. So if the ISP needs to contact OR (Or BTWholesale) they still get someone from abroad who has never used the technology and knows only how to understand scripted very basic questions.

 

I hope I've understood correctly, but are you sure about this?

I've not had a landline for 7 years, and I've never had cable. I use a mobile router which uses the mobile network in my area, just as your phone would do. I have a 24 month unlimited data SIM contract with Three, which costs £22 per month (although I'm currently paying £11 per month as there is a 6 month 50% starting discount). It's not the fastest (about 20MB) but it's acceptable. That was the best deal I could get at the time, but Three are now offering a similar deal for £17.

http://www.three.co.uk/store/broadband/home-broadband/threehomebroadband

 

When I used VM, many years ago (so it's hopefully changed) I was on there top package. Probably 50Mbps in them days .... their peak time restrictions would cripple you.

Also - no ability to give a static IP on residential accounts
And no real information on the actual theoretical package you're signing up for. This annoys me as, while I want to know my average, I want to know the product too (i.e. with OR suppliers, fibre to the cabinet, you know it's a theoretical maximum of 40 or 80Mbps) and then you get your estimate as well - which admittedly may be a lot less.

 

We've finally sacked off Plusnet after years of being with them. Since last Christmas, performance has been dropping to a point now where I get well below the guaranteed minimum acceptable. Even ditched the phone line and going to Virgin for their 350Mbps BB only service. Goes live next week so hoping for a massive improvement.

Had 3 engineers out at various times for improvement to be noticed for a few days - then drop well below.

Would have considered moving to another xDSL provider but its pointless as they are all over the Openreach network anyhow.