Telewest install problem/delay - road access?

[Shellac]

Hi all.

Anyone else had any problems/delays getting telewest installed?
Just bought a house - been a TW customer at the last place for 6 years - VERY happy with the service - TV, Phone, 4Mb net.
I took yesterday off work, Engineer arrives, walks down the street, walks back..

" There's a car blocking the cover in the road" - him

"oh, that thing.. of course there is - it's a road, the parkings really bad round here" - me

" We can't run the cable, you'll need to arrange another visit when the covers clear, see ya" - him

.. get's in his van of zooms off ..

On the phone to telewest..

"The engineer can't run the cable 'cos the roads blocked" - her

"yeah, can you send the engineer to just do the work in the street without me here, and then i'll arrange a visit to do the work in garden / house?" - me

"No, we can't split the job, you'll need to be present for the engineer to do the full job in one visit" - her

"but I can't guarantee the road will be clear, so we'll both just be wasting our time again.. wouldn't it be better to send the engineer out last thing / first thing to see if the covers clear and then do that part of the job first?" - me

"No, the customer needs to be present, next available weekend slot is 10 days time" - her

"ok, but i can't guarantee the cover will be clear" - me

"neither can we" - her

So i've now got to wait 10 days for a weekend visit, and it'll be pure chance if i can get my GF to park her car over the cover the night before so the engineer can get to it.. if he can't, i'm guessing it'll be another 14 days before the next weekend slot.
So i'm stuck relying on pure chance and opportunity.
Anyone had any similar situation??
This is a busy street, people park here for shops / train / school, so it's not likely that the owner of any car can be found..
The house had a BT line recently, but i've never had adsl etc.. I can see this running for months

Shellac.

p.s. Time wouldn't be a problem but the GF's company PDA needs to be uploaded Every Night.. so we're having to drive to her parents every night to upload, and i've seen enough of her mother to last me a lifetime

 

[Avalon]

This is unfortunatly a daily issue though thankfully only a tiny % of installs fail due to this type of problem. I have a few suggestions but due to the situation i'd rather PM/Mail you if that's ok ?

 

[Rich]

"borrow" some of the police cones you see at any roadside near a footy stadium when a match is on. Cover the space with the cones

Either that or "borrow" some roadworks signs.

Failing that, speak with the natives and explain the situation

 

[AtreuS]

Grab a couple of cones and strip any official stuff off them. Stick them out with a note saying "skip coming " or something. That should work.

 

[wolvotim]

Couldn’t he just have knocked a few doors??

I do this quite often at work when a car is parked on a network box or in front of a sub station. Normally after 10 min's or so of knocking doors you find the owner.

We once had an idiot who refused to move his car from in front of a sub station we had to work in so we got the coppers down to lift the car

 

[Stripe]

We once had an idiot who refused to move his car from in front of a sub station we had to work in so we got the coppers down to lift the car

I read that as "we got the chopper down to lift the car".

would have been excessive but cool.

 

[Shellac]

Thanks for replies..

regarding "knocking on doors". I did actually try this, but being the middle of the day.. no one in the nearest houses was home, and with 2 schools right round the corner i doubt it belongs to a resident anyway.

I'm thinking cones might work, and i think i've convinced the GF to park her car over the cover friday night - if it's free - but this weekend just gone there was a car parked over it all friday night / saturday morning.

If anyone has any other good suggestions, feel free to PM/Email.

Thanks.
Shellac

p.s. No internet or Cable TV has meant i've got round to loads of little DIY jobs though