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Anonymous User
Not applicable

Into our second month of no internet - can anyone help?

Hi There,

Just wondering if anyone can help as I'm a my wits end with the call center and Tier 2 team.   First a bit of important backgroud:  We moved house on the 6th of October into a house that had BT Broadband active until midnight (between the 5th and the 6th) we'd told NOW we were moving and wanted to bring our existing broadband with us - and we had a connection date of the 10th of October.

We moved in and got a message to say there had been a delay and that we'd get connected on the 14th of October - fair enough it would be a couple of weeks working from home on mobile internet.  the 14th came and went so I call for an update - we were told there was a further dealy and that we'de get an update on the 19th of October.  I called to see what the issue was and was told it had been escalated to the "tier 2 team" but that I couldn't speak to them I'd have t wait for them to contact me.

19th of October came and I got a text at 15:13 to say there had beena  delay and that they were working hard to resolve it and I'd get an update on the 26th of October - at that point I called to see what was happening and again was told it was with the tier 2 team - bear in mind by this point I had been spending a significant amount on mobile broadband.  I was told again about the tier 2 team and that I just have to wait as it is down to Openreach.  I was pretty frustrated at this point as my wife and I both work from home and have 2 kids - so we rely on our internet connection.  I asked what could be done and the advisor told me I would likely to be best to cancel the order and go to BT as they are openreach.    So that is what i did.

I placed an order with BT and it was immediately rejected (as I had an active order elsewhere).  I called back and was told my order hadn't been cancelled, so I asked again and got confirmation it had this time been done - I re-ordered with BT, and the order was rejected again.  I called back, an it transpired that I couldn't cancel (and most importantly shouldn't cancel) as I was past the point of no return.  I asked at that point to raise a complaint as I was being told anything by the agents on thephone just to get me off the phone.

I waited again until the 26th and recieved the same text to say the update would now come on the first of November. the first cam, the text came I would now get an update on the 7th of November, as you can now guess the 7th came, same text, but I'd now hear on the 11th of November.

I called on the 1st to try and get a clear reason why and was told the last update from the tier 2 team was that they had contacted open reach and been told that they would get a further update on the date I had been given - that was what I'd also been told on the previous occasion too.  I asked the agent to add a note to ask specifically what the issue was so at least I could feel like something was being done. I'd also asked about my original complaint which I hadn't heard anything back on and was told I'd have to raise it again but I'd hear back within 10 days. No  update came about my connection on the 7th other than the stock we asked and openreach said we'd have to wait.  

The 11th came and I had no update (not even a text) so I called and was told that the next update would be the 15th of November.

the 15th came and again no update si I called,again, and was told that the update was that an update would come on the 21st of November, at which point I asked if there was a way to escalate this further as we're now well into the second month of no connection - the agent told me she could open a chat with Openreach and did so whilst I was put on hold.  She came back on and success it seemed - Openreach had said something about and error code and that it would be 24h before they could interpret it but that a solution was forthcoming - the agent had asked what that meant and the answer had come back that the EU (end user - me) would be connected on the 17th of November.  She said she'd copy the chat transcript to my file and would call me back on the 17th to help get me set up - fantastic!

Only, no call came today (the 17th) and no connection, so I called back and was told I would just have to wait until the 21st, whcih apparently is what the agent had been told via the openreach chat on the 15th  

So I'm left waiting again for what I feel like will be another update infomring me of a further delay, no clarity on the issue, no idea if anyone is resolving it and no way of escalating this further as none of my comlaints have been responded to.  I just can't understand how a house that had an active broadband connection can be plunged into such chaos withous any end in sight.

does anyone know what I can do differently just to get this moving or get visibility of what is happening?  

8 REPLIES 8
redchiz1
Champion 2

Sorry to read this sad tale. Even more sadly nobody from NOW can help you here as it is primarily a customer based forum. You will have to persevere with NOW broadband support directly I'm afraid.  😕

chilli2
Elite


@Anonymous User wrote:

  I just can't understand how a house that had an active broadband connection can be plunged into such chaos withous any end in sight.

does anyone know what I can do differently just to get this moving or get visibility of what is happening?  


I can understand how a property with a decent connection can be plunged into the wilderness, and in some cases things arent that great and a resolution could be a long, to very long time coming all thanks to the way things work and have been rolled out by BT Wholesale and latterly Openreach

 

In the early days there was only slow dial up internet access this used the same frequencies as a standard voice call and as such you couldnt use your phone whilst on the internet.

 Then a technology called DSL became available, this "injects" a high frequency sound over the phone lines, as this is a higher frequncy it could co-exist with analogue voice traffic and as it was a higher frequency it could also transmit much more data meaning higher speeds upto around 8Mbit , a refinement of this then boosted speeds upto 21mbit (ADSL2+)  which few could benefit from.

 The issue being the length of the copper cable and the quality of joints/connections etc , not to mention interference from boiler timer switches timer switches and so on - the longer the line the more interference then less data can be transmitted

 

To get even faster speeds the solution was to drastically shorten the line length so an even higher frequency could be used, instead of having a thingumy (DSLAM) at the exchange you could put one in a green street cabinet, then run a fibre optic cable back to the exchange - cheaper than rolling out fibre to every property as you can use the existing copper connections to peoples property's and the existing wiring/sockets etc  so in most ( but not all) an engineer doesn't have to attend and the user can self install- hence Fibre to the Cabinet .

 

 The issue with the green cabinets is one of space , a cabinet will often serve more property's than it has space inside to connect to FTTC/VDSL in most cases not everyone will want and FTTC service so typically there are less connection ports than properties as its cheaper to do it that way and take a gamble.

 If all available connections ( ports) are taken then a waiting list is used and if a new VDSL connection is required then it will have to wait its turn for a port to become free, if a property cancels its FTTC/VDSL service then the port is taken up by someone else on the waiting list, if it then wants to re connect it will have to wait its turn .

 If you are moving into a property theres not much you can do about this, if changing provider then you do not cancel with the old provider, instead you sign up with the new one who will deal with the transfer ( migration) - that is for connections on the open reach network ( as used by Now, Sky, plusnet, talk talk, BT etc etc)

 

You may be able to check here for the status of your area/cabinet:

 https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

What does it say?

 

redchiz1
Champion 2

Interesting history lesson @chilli2, but what on earth has it go to do with the delay in provisioning the service here? 

chilli2
Elite

@redchiz1 wrote:

Interesting history lesson @chilli2, but what on earth has it go to do with the delay in provisioning the service here? 



@redchiz1 wrote:

Interesting history lesson @chilli2, but what on earth has it go to do with the delay in provisioning the service here? 


the last bit (repeated below) may be a hint:

 

The issue with the green cabinets is one of space , a cabinet will often serve more property's than it has space inside to connect to FTTC/VDSL in most cases not everyone will want and FTTC service so typically there are less connection ports than properties as its cheaper to do it that way and take a gamble.

 If all available connections ( ports) are taken then a waiting list is used and if a new VDSL connection is required then it will have to wait its turn for a port to become free, if a property cancels its FTTC/VDSL service then the port is taken up by someone else on the waiting list, if it then wants to re connect it will have to wait its turn .

 If you are moving into a property theres not much you can do about this, if changing provider then you do not cancel with the old provider, instead you sign up with the new one who will deal with the transfer ( migration) - that is for connections on the open reach network ( as used by Now, Sky, plusnet, talk talk, BT etc etc)

 

You may be able to check here for the status of your area/cabinet:

 https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL/AddressHome

What does it say?

Jayach
Elite 3

@chilli2 is right the available ports can become full, but even stranger they seem to allocate a fixed number of ports to some ISPs, and when they are full that ISP can't connect any more lines, whereas another ISP can.

I have no proof of that, but I've heard of people being told the cabinet is full, but when they went to another ISP they got connected. Openreach deny it but the ISPs with the same owner at Openreach seem to get priority.

However Now should be able to explain the delay and allow the OP to try another ISP.

@Anonymous User Were/are you still in contract with Now?

Anonymous User
Not applicable

@Jayach wrote:

@chilli2 is right the available ports can become full, but even stranger they seem to allocate a fixed number of ports to some ISPs, and when they are full that ISP can't connect any more lines, whereas another ISP can.

I have no proof of that, but I've heard of people being told the cabinet is full, but when they went to another ISP they got connected. Openreach deny it but the ISPs with the same owner at Openreach seem to get priority.

However Now should be able to explain the delay and allow the OP to try another ISP.

@Anonymous User Were/are you still in contract with Now?


I was - but the process for moving house is that they cancel your contract and then start you a new one when you are connected. I thik I'm left in a  bit of a connection no mans land.

Jayach
Elite 3

@Anonymous User wrote:
I was - but the process for moving house is that they cancel your contract and then start you a new one when you are connected. I thik I'm left in a  bit of a connection no mans land.

If you are starting a new contract, there should be a 14 day "cooling off" period during which you can cancel without penalty. Use their complaints procedure and tell them you want to cancel, they should then release you and you can choose someone new. It will still probably take 10 days to get setup, but hopefully the next ISP will not have whatever is causing Now problems.

NOW complaints procedure and codes of practice (nowtv.com)

Anonymous User
Not applicable

Some interesting info here @chilli2 I checked on that link not sure what it all means but there are lots of 'available' elememnts listed - the system won't let me post images, so table below:

Threshold(Mbps) WBC FTTC Availability Date WBC SOGEA Availability DateHigh Low High Low      VDSL Range A (Clean) 

VDSL Range B (Impacted) 

43.9307.9626.7AvailableAvailable
42.5257.85.620AvailableAvailable
Featured Products Downstream Line Rate(Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Range (Mbps) Availability Date FTTP Install ProcessFTTP on Demand
33050--Available--
ADSL Products Downstream Line Rate (Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Range(Mbps) Availability DateWBC ADSL 2+WBC ADSL2+ Annex MADSL MaxWBC Fixed RateFixed Rate
Up to 13--7.5 to 17.5Available
Up to 13Up to 17.5 to 17.5Available
Up to 6.5--5.5 to 8Available
2----Available
2----Available
SOADSL Products Downstream Line Rate (Mbps) Upstream Line Rate (Mbps) Downstream Range(Mbps) WBC SOADSL Availability Date Left in JumperWBC SOADSL 2+SOADSL MaxSOADSL Fixed Rate
Up to 13--7.5 to 17.5----
Up to 6.5--7.5 to 17.5----
Up to 2--5.5 to 8----
Other Offerings Availability DateVDSL MulticastADSL Multicast
Available
Available
Exchange Product Restrictions StatusFTTP Priority ExchangeWLR WithdrawalSOADSL Restriction
N
N
Y

 

I thought it could be something to do with the full fiber roll out - but that doens't seem to be happening here until 2023 / 24 so unless they keep me hanging on till then it doesn't seem worth their while.

it's really frustrating that I just can't get any information.