FTTC cancelled, FFTC no longer avail, £6K FTTP install

Associate
Joined
10 Jan 2004
Posts
155
I have a real pain in the arse on my hands.

I had FTTC that was working up until this morning. It turns out someone has miskeyed a cancellation on the line and it is now terminated. Zen said they could replace the order but when they tried to they found my exchange was no longer allowing FTTC and it had to be FTTP.

Unfortunately, the reason I don't have FTTP is due to costs that started at ~£12K to install and ended up near £7K after a re-survey.

Has anyone else been in this situation? Any idea on what I can do? I now can't order any services and am stuck. I can't see that Openreach would be allowed to create this scenario but I am struggling to see how I get this resolved through a provider or ofcom.
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,053
Are you quoting FTTP on demand prices? You shouldn’t be affected by a stop-sell unless you can actually get FTTP.

What does the BT Wholesale checker say when you put your address in?
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,824
Escalate to executive level complaints - you shouldn't have to but sadly I've encountered this before and it was the only way to get any realistic resolution - anything else just went around and around with people unable to do anything or have any escalation path.

EDIT: Though as a Zen customer that might be a bit more difficult if the problem was at their end rather than BT or OR.
 
Sgarrista
Commissario
Joined
9 Aug 2013
Posts
10,421
Location
Bromsgrove
Escalate to executive level complaints

This. None of the call-center even highest level managers in there have the ability to do anything, it has to be handled by very high ups who will assign someone to go sort it on a 1-by-1 basis.

I had a problem on my line a few years back that they ended up sending a specific engineer from south kent to sort out because he had to have a certain "access level" that only a handful in the UK have. How this company is still functional is beyond me . . .
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,053
As well as the above, Zen should have notified you of the pending cease - did this get missed or did they simply not notify you? This is important if you want to pursue a claim, as your contract was with Zen.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2005
Posts
19,208
Location
Norfolk, South Scotland
I’m sorry but this is nonsense. Just call Zen and tell them you want your internet turned back on. You don’t care if it’s FTTC or FTTP but they need to get you connected. It was their error that disconnected you and if it costs them £7K to reconnect you then that’s their problem.

Be very polite and very clear. Turn it back on. If it ends up costing £7K to get FTTP on demand then you expect them to cover that.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Jul 2007
Posts
5,182
Location
Lincolnshire
I'm calling complete rubbish. No way your exchange (in turn, Openreach) is only allowing FTTPoD orders, unless you have native FTTP in your area (in which case no build fees)? Not a chance they are forcing FTTPoD on any new/migrating customers in your town who wish to order broadband, which would mean every single person having to pay £5-15k.

What sounds more likely is your cabinet is full so they can't order FTTC again for you right now. In which case it's still not your fault regardless, Zen has to sort it which is who your contract is with. They messed up, they didn't notify you of the pending migration/disconnect, so you could've contacted them to avoid it happening in the first place.

Don't forget you can claim £8.40 a day from Zen for the loss of service, make sure you remind them that too. ;)

Source: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-tel...-and-billing/automatic-compensation-need-know

Edit: Can you post the results when you input your address on Openreach's checker here? Just blank out any address details.
https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome
 
Last edited:
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,053
Yup it sounds like a full cabinet issue. Zen can supply you with a leased line if they want to make good on their own mistake.
 
Associate
Joined
24 Jul 2009
Posts
2,070
Location
-
Guarantee that if you start saying you'll be going to ofcom and you want this escalating higher as they have messed up, it'll be magically fixed within a few days/week max. Stand your ground as this was not your fault, it is their fault and they need to fix it by providing you the service based on your contract with them.
 
Associate
Joined
30 Mar 2019
Posts
14
Guarantee that if you start saying you'll be going to ofcom and you want this escalating higher as they have messed up, it'll be magically fixed within a few days/week max. Stand your ground as this was not your fault, it is their fault and they need to fix it by providing you the service based on your contract with them.
You can’t just “go to” Ofcom. They don’t deal with individual customer complaints.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Jul 2010
Posts
25,660
Of course they do. It’s a huge link on the first page of their website.
But they'll usually respond advising that Zen's own complaint process must be exhausted first, then Zen will have an Alternative Dispute Resolution system too which needs to be run through as well. OFCOM as said won't really take an individual complaint on board and investigate with Zen. At least not to begin with.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2005
Posts
19,208
Location
Norfolk, South Scotland
But they'll usually respond advising that Zen's own complaint process must be exhausted first, then Zen will have an Alternative Dispute Resolution system too which needs to be run through as well. OFCOM as said won't really take an individual complaint on board and investigate with Zen. At least not to begin with.

The post I was responding to said that OFCOM don‘t deal with consumer complaints. They do.

And you work for Sky, so you’d know all about complaints :)
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Jul 2010
Posts
25,660
The post I was responding to said that OFCOM don‘t deal with consumer complaints. They do.

And you work for Sky, so you’d know all about complaints :)
Sadly you’re incorrect, at least with complaints to OFCOM.

Pulling individual sections:

TalkTalk and Shell Energy generated the most broadband complaints, primarily due to faults and service issues.

TalkTalk was also the most complained-about landline provider, while EE and Sky attracted the fewest broadband and landline complaints.


iD Mobile, Vodafone and Virgin Mobile were the most complained-about mobile operators, and Virgin Media generated the highest volume of pay-TV complaints. The main reason customers complained to Ofcom was related to how these companies handled their complaints.

EE, Tesco Mobile and Sky attracted the fewest complaints in the mobile sector, and Sky was the least complained-about pay-TV provider.


Also to add, ‘Although Ofcom cannot resolve individual complaints, we offer consumers advice, and the information we receive can lead to us launching investigations.’
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2005
Posts
19,208
Location
Norfolk, South Scotland
You keep believing that. Anyone who has dealt with Sky know about your business practices. You’ll happily charge £100 a month until someone notices then suddenly you can do the same package for half that. That’s immoral. It might not be illegal, but it‘s pretty poor ethically.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
13 Oct 2006
Posts
90,824
Good few years ago now but we've gone through Ofcom before as individuals but didn't really accomplish much though they did add overall pressure on the situation - that involved, unsurprisingly, TalkTalk... who post a marketing call tried to take over a line without permission.
 
Soldato
Joined
13 Jul 2005
Posts
19,208
Location
Norfolk, South Scotland
And maybe if Sky tell people not to contact OFCOM because they don’t take complaints from consumers that might explain their low rate of being complained about. Although if OFCOM don’t take complaints from consumers who exactly is registering all these complaints?
 
Caporegime
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
26,053
I'm generally confused by Ofcom's stance on complaints, because they say on their website not to complain to them because they can't do anything on an individual level, but then go on to say if you send them a complaint they will use the data when putting these complaint reports together, which sort of suggests that the reports they publish about customer complaints is made up only from cases submitted by people after they've been told that Ofcom can't help.

It would be more useful if they aggregated ADR cases and forced ISPs to collect complaint data in a common set of categories and then published that.
 
Caporegime
Joined
17 Jul 2010
Posts
25,660
You keep believing that. Anyone who has dealt with Sky know about your business practices. You’ll happily charge £100 a month until someone notices then suddenly you can do the same package for half that. That’s immoral. It might not be illegal, but it‘s pretty poor ethically.
Business practices and complaints to OFCOM are very different. And when it comes to prices sky can charge whatever they like, it’s up to customers to vote with their wallets if they’re not happy. You go into a car dealer looking for a new car and the dealer wants to charge you as much as they can, that’s how a business works.
 
Associate
OP
Joined
10 Jan 2004
Posts
155
Thank you for the replies. I will update with progress. As it stands Zen are dealing with the complaint but I have a "contact" at BT who is looking at it too, see what the actual deal is with this FTTP vs FTTPoD vs FTTC mess.

To the point about cancellation, it appears that someone ordered against the wrong address and it was cancelled but the cease was not stopped. I was away for a month and on return found the letter which is why I contacted Zen. When I spoke to them they said the cease was cancelled and all was OK. Three days later, well here we are...
 
Back
Top Bottom