Activation delay

[Jay199]

 I was given a go live date of 2nd May for my new broadband service. This date came and past no activation. I was given zero updates/reasons as to why it was not activated. After numerous calls I was told my activation date is now moved to the 19th May. No reasons given, rubbish communication. I even complained about the service via official complaint, 3 weeks have gone by and no attempt to resolve. The 19th May has now passed and still no activation. Im now fed up, no idea what to do, or if/when I will ever get my Internet activated. I work from home so this has been extremely damaging for me. The support staff on the times I have spoken with them have no idea what's going on as everything dealt with by openreach.

The latest I have been told is that I will get another update on the 26th. Gavin in the tier 2 team is dealing with it , but I cannot contact them. I was told I would get a phonecall from him or some contact but still nothing, just another message of delay and no reasons why or no indication as to if I will ever be connected.

Anyone else experiencing the same!

[gavs82008]

@Jay199 

The network for setting up and maintaining is purely down to OpenReach as NOW don't own it. If it is any consolation you will be given automatic compensation. 

About auto-compensation for broadband and calls (nowtv.com)

[Jay199]

Thanks for the response. I completely understand but some form of communication as to exactly what is happening would be nice. Even an update as to what has been discussed with openreach or rough timescales would be appreciated. I have entered into a contract with NOW not openreach and as such when given various activation dates I expect them to be accurate. If there is a slight delay I understand, but I have been given no updates at all! I have been told I do not need an engineer visit, so as its remote activation I am struggling to understand the issues?!

Compensation is not really a consolation as I have now had no Internet for 3 weeks from my original 'live' date and work from home, so loss of internet for such a period is effect my livelihood and costing me more in other ways . But thanks!

[RoyB]

@Jay199 

The elephant in the room of WFH is that this really requires business broadband levels of service, but people try to do it on the cheap with domestic broadband, with its accordingly lower levels of service 😢

When it works, it works fine; but when it breaks, it just stops, unless you have a fallback in place; BT for instance has a service that will automatically go to cellular, at no extra cost to the customer, within 3 minutes if the landline goes down.

This cellular service is likewise available from the promised landline activation date/time, should activation be delayed.

If you aren’t prepared to pay extra for a service like that, though, then the best way to mitigate your loss is to set your mobile to be a WiFi hotspot, and work over that. With a suitable, reasonable tariff, it’s often the case that this will cost you less per day than the automatic compensation you get for delayed activation.

And even if it costs you more than that, it’s probably still cheaper than not being able to work, and so to earn, in the delay period, or in the case of a later landline outage.