DerekJ Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Hi All, Anyone have experience with dealing with Openreach at work? At the day-job we need to relocate our telecoms cables to a diferent location about 50 meters away. This consists of several copper phone lines and one fibre line. They surveyed the job and we were originaly quoted ~£3k that must be payed up-front. They eventially (after 6 months) moved the phone lines but the engineer said he could not do the fibre line. After a lot of phaffing they re-surveyed and now want to charge us another ~£6k to re-route the fibre line. So, anyone had any similar work done, if so what were you charged by them? Cheers DerekJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdamR Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Openreach = BT = thieves in disguise in my experience. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
B.RAD Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Yep as Adam said, the most horrific experience I've ever had with a company. Moved from Southern Electric (who provide fantastic customer service, highly recommended) to BT Openreach. BT turned off our phone line a week early leaving us without phone or wifi for ten days, and spent the entire time trying to blame anyone but themselves. Had a phone line burnt by our neighbours fire and it took BT over 5 weeks to sort. Our meter and external electrics were also damaged, Southern Electric had them fixed within 24 hours FOC. BT tried to charge me £250 to fix the phone line. Despite being abundantly clear with them about the issue, they kept sending engineers without the right equipment to fix the problem. Avoid at all costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SootySport Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 Dealing with Openreach? I work for the Feckers. Every other customer I visit have big issues with them, you are not alone. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted February 26, 2016 Share Posted February 26, 2016 I deal with them too. To be fair, the vast majority of engineers I see on site are fine fellows. The systems they work to however, are another story. Costs for moving the fibre do seem steep but what do I know? I assume (yes I know...) that the fibre is "their" side of the demarc? If so and you want it moved I doubt you have much choice but to pay them. I guess the only real option would be to pull the SFP out of the router, shove it in an SFP capable switch and run some new fibre yourself to the re-sited router. Not sure what Openreach would have to say about that if it ever needs "support" and it's a bodge if I'm honest... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekJ Posted February 27, 2016 Author Share Posted February 27, 2016 Cheers Guys, As I thought, I'm screwed as Openreach are the only contractor that can handle this. I'll try going down the complaints route and see if I can take it to OffCom as we have some time before the move becomes critical. Thanks again DerekJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John K Posted February 28, 2016 Share Posted February 28, 2016 Potentially a stupid question, but why do you need to move the fibre? Is the current JB being demolished / built over or do you just want to move, for convenience to a different comms cupboard? If the original JB is staying, is laying your own conduit and extending the fibre an option? If the fibre is for networking and you only need an extra 50mtrs, what about going CAT Copper for the final leg? Again sorry if I've missed the obvious or am just being a moron... As for the engineers, I've had the domestic part of BT come and move my home JB (I could have done it myself but wanted to avoid any arguments over unauthorised work if anything subsequently went wrong) and the bloke who came out was a contractor and the nicest bloke in the world. I reckon all the bad eggs are in the back office Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekJ Posted February 28, 2016 Author Share Posted February 28, 2016 Hi John. Got to move the comms cupboard as the building's being demolished. Cheers DerekJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
corsechris Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 I only deal with the engineers themselves, and the ones that come to our place are great guys making as good a job as they can out of rubbish management systems. I'd imagine having to deal with the financial side would be another matter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekJ Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 I'd imagine having to deal with the financial side would be another matter. You would not believe it! At one point, the contractor turned up, could not do the job, then went away saying "he'd be back". Several weeks later we queried why there was no progress only to be told that the job was complete. Openreach said that they could do nothing as their contractor said the job was complete, they could not even come to site to check. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DerekJ Posted April 19, 2016 Author Share Posted April 19, 2016 Hi All, Just digging up this old post for an update. We eventially had the extra cost withdrawn and today, Apri the 19th, almost a year after the original request for a quotation the engineers turned up! :yes: Only to find that the recient roadworks have collapsed the underground conduit and they need to have OpenReach make a repair by digging up the road and making good the damage. God knows how long that's going to take and the only saving grace is that the demolition of the original building has been delayed. Cheers DerekJ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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