How hard can it be to move a phone line?
Arranged with BT for an engineer to call and move my phone line from one building to another
5th December: Took the afternoon off work for the engineer to turn up and ask me that he would be unable to move the line as the new building was higher than the old one. He said that a site survey should have been carried out before he was sent there.
10th December: Survey team poke around my property while I was at work with no prior warning
7th January: Take the afternoon off work to meet the engineers... who didn't bother showing up. A message was left on my mobile saying that they would phone me on the 8th to discuss the delay.
Try to go online but find that my internet does not work as the connection on the old line has been turned off.
8th January: Received no phone call as promised but do receive a text message apologising for the delay and to email delay.management@ to discuss the matter further. Have not received any replies to the two emails I sent them.
9th January: Phone up the helpline who put back in touch with sales. After much cajoling get them to arrange that my old phone line be re-connected, but with a different number as this has been moved to the line which has yet to be connected. This will be done by the end of the 12th January, which I also have to pay for. This will be refunded when I cancel it.
Confirmation email says that the line will be activated on the 15th January
12th January: Did not receive a telephone call from an engineer as promised
13th January: Contacted BT to tell them of their broken promise. Told that Openreach would confirm by Friday that the necessary re-routing of cabling has been done and that an appointment would be made for next week for the line to installed at the premises.
16th January: BT phoned and said that all necessary re-routing of cabling had been done. A third visit has been arranged for Tuesday.
18th January: Sent a diagram and lengthy email to delay.management explaining why I don't think that the necessary work has been carried out and for them to double-check that it has before I waste another afternoon off work waiting for an engineer to turn up and say that he is unable to proceed
19th January: Received no reply from the email sent yesterday. Contacted BT via their online chat. Asked them to phone me back after 1.30pm as I was at work. Received no phonecall. Contacted again via chat asking for a call back only to be put through to another call centre in India. I gave up at this point as I was at work
Received a call at 18:20 from a UK Call Centre telling me that they had received the email and had been assured by Openreach that all necessary work had been done that that the line will be installed tomorrow as planned.
20th January: Received a phone call at 16:00 from a call centre telling me that an engineer had been trying to contact me but had now left the area and would not be keeping the appointment. Received no call on my mobile, which has always been the number BT use to contact me. Dialling 1471 on the temporary line at the old premises logs a call at 13:30 from a number I do not recognise. No message was left on the answer phone.
21st January: Received a phone call at 6.00 pm from a call centre apologising for yesterday's missed appointment. The engineer has told them that he knocked on the door and left a card stating so. No card was posted through my letterbox. An new afternoon appointment has been made for Friday 23rd.
23rd January: Received a phone call at 16:30 from an engineer asking whether my phone line is now up and running as his notes indicate that an engineer has been at the house, installed the line and faceplate and left.
24th January: Posted this diary on the moneysavingexpert forums in a thread dedicated to BT complaints. A BT representative posted asking me contact him.
26th January: Missed a call to mobile. Message on answerphone tells me it's with regard to the diary I posted on the mse forums and that I would be contacted on Wednesday to arrange anther engineer visit.
Send another email to delay.management@ stating that I had no intention of wasting another afternoon waiting for a visit only for them to tell me that I had no cabling at the property. Send another sitemap of the property and surrounding area indicating the lack of cabling.
27th January: Receive a phonecall at 10am from an Openreach engineer asking for directions to the property.
Receive a phonecall at 5.30pm from a call centre telling me that another site survey is being arranged and that they have received my email. They were unaware of the engineer's call to me in the morning.
28th January: An Openreach van is parked at the base of the pole outside the property. A man is pointing up at the sky between the two poles where no cable exists.
30th January: Missed a call at 13.10. Phone the call centre to be told that the a new pole needs to erected and this should be done by 13th February. Asked for thme to move my old number back to the old property so that I would have internet access again and was told that this would cancel the entire order and pole work. Offered free 30 days on their BT-FON network which I was assured I would be able to connect to even though I live in a remote area in a building with 2 foot thick walls.
11th February: Receive a call from my case manager in Dundee asking me whether I am now happy that my telephone line is working. His case note show that the engineer has been at the property and showed my partner, a Ms Hughes, that it was all up and running. When I told him that I lived alone, I was then asked whether I knew of a Ms Hughes in the area who has recently had a telephone installed. Has promised to call me back by the end of the day with an explanation which he did not do.
12th February: Case manager rang and appeared to be as clueless to the situation as everyone else I have spoken to thus far. Again, enquired whether I lived with a Ms Hughes and then asked the same questions that I have already answered numerous times with other people. When asked as to whether the outside pole and cabling work would be done tomorrow as promised, he did not know.
13th February: No pole or cabling work has been carried out.
16th February: Received an email from BT congratulating me on my new order. I have been assigned a telephone number (I now have three) and an engineer is popping round on the 2nd March to install the box faceplate and cabling inside the house.
18th February: Phone up the Dundee Call Centre and speak to a very apologetic and sincere worker telling me that they have messed this up. Have asked them to scrap everything and to start again with a site survey, which will be fast-tracked and should be completed within five working days. Again enquire whether they can give me my old number back so that I can access the internet. The request has been put in my case notes.
20th February: Receive a call from the Dundee call centre telling me that I need to take another afternoon off work so that the engineer can turn and 'officially' log that he is unable to carry out the work and that a site survey needs to be done. If this does not happen then Openreach will charge me for the survey.
2nd March: Openreach engineer turns up, confirms that a new pole is required and leaves.
3rd March: Receive a phonecall from BT telling me that Openreach have agreed that a new pole is needed and will be done by the 25th March
17th March: A new pole has been erected near the property. No cabling work has been done.
TLDR: BT/Openreach are a bunch of timewasters
Arranged with BT for an engineer to call and move my phone line from one building to another
5th December: Took the afternoon off work for the engineer to turn up and ask me that he would be unable to move the line as the new building was higher than the old one. He said that a site survey should have been carried out before he was sent there.
10th December: Survey team poke around my property while I was at work with no prior warning
7th January: Take the afternoon off work to meet the engineers... who didn't bother showing up. A message was left on my mobile saying that they would phone me on the 8th to discuss the delay.
Try to go online but find that my internet does not work as the connection on the old line has been turned off.
8th January: Received no phone call as promised but do receive a text message apologising for the delay and to email delay.management@ to discuss the matter further. Have not received any replies to the two emails I sent them.
9th January: Phone up the helpline who put back in touch with sales. After much cajoling get them to arrange that my old phone line be re-connected, but with a different number as this has been moved to the line which has yet to be connected. This will be done by the end of the 12th January, which I also have to pay for. This will be refunded when I cancel it.
Confirmation email says that the line will be activated on the 15th January
12th January: Did not receive a telephone call from an engineer as promised
13th January: Contacted BT to tell them of their broken promise. Told that Openreach would confirm by Friday that the necessary re-routing of cabling has been done and that an appointment would be made for next week for the line to installed at the premises.
16th January: BT phoned and said that all necessary re-routing of cabling had been done. A third visit has been arranged for Tuesday.
18th January: Sent a diagram and lengthy email to delay.management explaining why I don't think that the necessary work has been carried out and for them to double-check that it has before I waste another afternoon off work waiting for an engineer to turn up and say that he is unable to proceed
19th January: Received no reply from the email sent yesterday. Contacted BT via their online chat. Asked them to phone me back after 1.30pm as I was at work. Received no phonecall. Contacted again via chat asking for a call back only to be put through to another call centre in India. I gave up at this point as I was at work
Received a call at 18:20 from a UK Call Centre telling me that they had received the email and had been assured by Openreach that all necessary work had been done that that the line will be installed tomorrow as planned.
20th January: Received a phone call at 16:00 from a call centre telling me that an engineer had been trying to contact me but had now left the area and would not be keeping the appointment. Received no call on my mobile, which has always been the number BT use to contact me. Dialling 1471 on the temporary line at the old premises logs a call at 13:30 from a number I do not recognise. No message was left on the answer phone.
21st January: Received a phone call at 6.00 pm from a call centre apologising for yesterday's missed appointment. The engineer has told them that he knocked on the door and left a card stating so. No card was posted through my letterbox. An new afternoon appointment has been made for Friday 23rd.
23rd January: Received a phone call at 16:30 from an engineer asking whether my phone line is now up and running as his notes indicate that an engineer has been at the house, installed the line and faceplate and left.
24th January: Posted this diary on the moneysavingexpert forums in a thread dedicated to BT complaints. A BT representative posted asking me contact him.
26th January: Missed a call to mobile. Message on answerphone tells me it's with regard to the diary I posted on the mse forums and that I would be contacted on Wednesday to arrange anther engineer visit.
Send another email to delay.management@ stating that I had no intention of wasting another afternoon waiting for a visit only for them to tell me that I had no cabling at the property. Send another sitemap of the property and surrounding area indicating the lack of cabling.
27th January: Receive a phonecall at 10am from an Openreach engineer asking for directions to the property.
Receive a phonecall at 5.30pm from a call centre telling me that another site survey is being arranged and that they have received my email. They were unaware of the engineer's call to me in the morning.
28th January: An Openreach van is parked at the base of the pole outside the property. A man is pointing up at the sky between the two poles where no cable exists.
30th January: Missed a call at 13.10. Phone the call centre to be told that the a new pole needs to erected and this should be done by 13th February. Asked for thme to move my old number back to the old property so that I would have internet access again and was told that this would cancel the entire order and pole work. Offered free 30 days on their BT-FON network which I was assured I would be able to connect to even though I live in a remote area in a building with 2 foot thick walls.
11th February: Receive a call from my case manager in Dundee asking me whether I am now happy that my telephone line is working. His case note show that the engineer has been at the property and showed my partner, a Ms Hughes, that it was all up and running. When I told him that I lived alone, I was then asked whether I knew of a Ms Hughes in the area who has recently had a telephone installed. Has promised to call me back by the end of the day with an explanation which he did not do.
12th February: Case manager rang and appeared to be as clueless to the situation as everyone else I have spoken to thus far. Again, enquired whether I lived with a Ms Hughes and then asked the same questions that I have already answered numerous times with other people. When asked as to whether the outside pole and cabling work would be done tomorrow as promised, he did not know.
13th February: No pole or cabling work has been carried out.
16th February: Received an email from BT congratulating me on my new order. I have been assigned a telephone number (I now have three) and an engineer is popping round on the 2nd March to install the box faceplate and cabling inside the house.
18th February: Phone up the Dundee Call Centre and speak to a very apologetic and sincere worker telling me that they have messed this up. Have asked them to scrap everything and to start again with a site survey, which will be fast-tracked and should be completed within five working days. Again enquire whether they can give me my old number back so that I can access the internet. The request has been put in my case notes.
20th February: Receive a call from the Dundee call centre telling me that I need to take another afternoon off work so that the engineer can turn and 'officially' log that he is unable to carry out the work and that a site survey needs to be done. If this does not happen then Openreach will charge me for the survey.
2nd March: Openreach engineer turns up, confirms that a new pole is required and leaves.
3rd March: Receive a phonecall from BT telling me that Openreach have agreed that a new pole is needed and will be done by the 25th March
17th March: A new pole has been erected near the property. No cabling work has been done.
TLDR: BT/Openreach are a bunch of timewasters
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