tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post8569541237907399306..comments2024-03-28T09:19:27.451+00:00Comments on RevK<sup>®</sup>'s ramblings: Stolen copperRevKhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12369263214193333422noreply@blogger.comBlogger23125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-21570927032218065562016-09-28T20:00:26.872+01:002016-09-28T20:00:26.872+01:00I know this is an old item, but... This is still a...I know this is an old item, but... This is still an issue as of September 2016. Been without phone or broadband for over a week. Openreach were here installing a new line three doors from me and suddenly, no phone or bb. I tell the engineer that I lost everything whilst he was up the pole and he says not my problem mate, then drives off. Turns out my line has been switched to a faulty one with an underground issue, exactly the same fault I had several years ago that Openreach fixed by switching my pair, mmmm. When I checked my online bill, there's a 111 call at exactly the time Openreach were here, I know we didn't make that call.<br /><br />So annoyed, TalkTalk have been useless and Openreach have been trying to trying to fix the line for two days now!mandyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09930253425799070598noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-18188598163614151242014-06-01T19:16:51.272+01:002014-06-01T19:16:51.272+01:00In rural areas they split a pair and use DACS whic...In rural areas they split a pair and use DACS which means neither home can get broadband. Then fuckwits in the council fall for the spin that 'superfast' is soon going to go to that area, and people who can't get 'superfast' can have bonded lines to get 'upto' 2 Mbps. They don't realise the pairs don't even exist. The whole thing is a superfarce.chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07574928297845542047noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-31101410045090598702014-04-23T11:21:05.037+01:002014-04-23T11:21:05.037+01:00Because I wanted a phone line :(Because I wanted a phone line :(rsmckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15783488966174045475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-47411965310154339752014-04-22T14:26:48.899+01:002014-04-22T14:26:48.899+01:00Arghh there's one parked outside my place righ...Arghh there's one parked outside my place right now, I have a photo of his van number plate in case, don't really want to lose my line to them for a second time!Andrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02692242586007925924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-52611742791688442042014-04-22T14:24:25.504+01:002014-04-22T14:24:25.504+01:00Arghh, there's one parked outside my place rig...Arghh, there's one parked outside my place right now, I have a photo of his van number plate just in case. Don't really want this happening to me again!Andrehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02692242586007925924noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-22100688472472513552014-04-02T11:56:46.434+01:002014-04-02T11:56:46.434+01:00I too think this is common and its all until now s...I too think this is common and its all until now someone been caught red handed. There is also stories of things like in villages with long E sides where the newest install gets the one good pair so that good pair keeps changing hands.chrcolukhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01922782032112968876noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-72001249556490185962014-04-01T15:10:02.062+01:002014-04-01T15:10:02.062+01:00Pair theft was a common occurrence with certain ty...Pair theft was a common occurrence with certain types of connection I used to handle occasionally in my job. And the fault repair process often involved checking the capacitance of the now-dead line and calling it "no fault found" if acceptable - without even bothering to check for the signal that should be there.Phil Reynoldshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07080812032624786351noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-31123929820462783042014-03-31T20:38:58.366+01:002014-03-31T20:38:58.366+01:00Looks like this might be going national: http://ww...Looks like this might be going national: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/broadband/387892/broadband-dead-perhaps-bts-reused-your-lineAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00016839911707306752noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-86657527966657984122014-03-29T01:50:14.429+00:002014-03-29T01:50:14.429+00:00Why did you lend him a hard hat? He forgot his, th...Why did you lend him a hard hat? He forgot his, that's his problem and he'll just have to go up the pole without one.Owen Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00890951742186614705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-43526582708670404722014-03-28T19:57:26.951+00:002014-03-28T19:57:26.951+00:00Dammit.. I'm scared for my install next week n...Dammit.. I'm scared for my install next week now, especially since the last one walked out when I didn't have a homehub.Tony Hoylehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06485210895681350152noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-9431433924230193532014-03-28T19:02:36.188+00:002014-03-28T19:02:36.188+00:00Sorry I should say I am Alex Bloor, the writer of ...Sorry I should say I am Alex Bloor, the writer of the original blogpost linked at the end of Adrian's, and I work for A&A. Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08639301077751002703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-34796069170816929182014-03-28T19:01:04.344+00:002014-03-28T19:01:04.344+00:00Nic- would you mind personally emailing me (my con...Nic- would you mind personally emailing me (my contact details are pretty easy to find / guess) I am under the impression that BTOR are keen for evidence based cases rather than "hearsay" based ones. So if you wanted to supply me a chronology and some evidence I'd be delighted to start compiling a dossier. Just to check - it was Kelly? Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08639301077751002703noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-81587711225014525862014-03-28T18:51:13.116+00:002014-03-28T18:51:13.116+00:00For what it's worth, my only experience of Kel...For what it's worth, my only experience of Kelly was the utterly nauseating lack of personal hygiene the FTTC installer exhibited. The last time I smelled something that bad was... Well... You know what? I don't think I have ever smelled something that bad. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-28494610828548306342014-03-28T17:08:10.444+00:002014-03-28T17:08:10.444+00:00This is not really new. Back in the pre-broadband ...This is not really new. Back in the pre-broadband days it was not unknown for ISDN2 lines to fail because the engineer listed on the pair for dialtone, which of course ISDN does not have, thought it was spare and used it.grahammmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04109132566499338078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-83154885507123918272014-03-28T16:51:45.884+00:002014-03-28T16:51:45.884+00:00My experience of Kelly… you might enjoy it.. and d...My experience of Kelly… you might enjoy it.. and don’t get me starting on pair stealing – that happened to me where I used to live too :(<br /><br />An engineer from Kelly Communication (working on behalf of BT Openreach) was at my property to install a second line with the circuit number XXXXX<br /><br />On arrival he didn’t seem to know why he was there, and seemed surprised to find a line already to the property. There seemed to be no knowledge that this was to be a second circuit at the same property. This was an appointment booked for between 1 and 6pm – he arrived at 11.30 and left around 2.30.<br /><br />The master socket had been connected two weeks previously to an extant 1950s junction box (fused) in the hall which in turn was connected by a two core cable to an EBT hidden behind render on the exterior wall. The engineer stated there were “enough pairs” and he would have to visit the pole to find it so then connected his oscillator to the spare pairs on the cable between the junction box and the master socket (e.g. to my internal wiring) subsequently spending 15 minutes up a pole where he, not surprisingly, could not locate a tone. It was only after I, the customer, pointed this out on his return that he then noticed there was only a single pair coming in.<br /><br />Before climbing the pole he pointed out he didn’t have / couldn’t find his hard hat as it has been “left on another job” – I loaned him one which was never returned to me.<br /><br />The pole is accessed via my neighbours property. their garden gate is pushed inwards to open it… the engineer assumed it was stiff and pulled, with some considerable force, ripping the gate from its hinges and splitting the timber. I explained this neighbour had a dog and that the gate needed to be secure. He agreed to fix it but later when my neighbour complained to the engineer his response was “how was I to know you had a dog” … The gate was later repaired by hammering in the screws that had been ripped out!<br /><br />He agreed to split the incoming cable where it meets the property and run a new cable from there to the new master socket. I requested this was ran in the basement which apparently they’re not allowed into for “health and safety” so I had to run my own cable through my property! (my basement is not full height but is floored and fully illuminated)<br /><br />Upon terminating the sockets he couldn’t get his butt-set to work correctly as, by his own admission, “he’s pressed something and doesn’t know what” and it had “done this before” – he ended up using my own DECT telephone to dial back to test and complete the job!<br /><br />In summary, the engineer was unprepared, didn’t seem to know what he was doing, damaged my neighbours property, had to be supplied with PPE by me, the customer who also had to run his own cable!<br /><br />I can only imagine what would have happened if he had visited a customer that doesn’t have things like hard hats, tools etc lying around. Also amazed that a simple NTE and new cable install took 3 hours (!)<br />rsmckhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15783488966174045475noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-84752988505822123032014-03-28T15:46:17.400+00:002014-03-28T15:46:17.400+00:00My story is still ongoing. I was on a BT phone lin...My story is still ongoing. I was on a BT phone line with LLU O2 home broadband. Due to O2 broadband selling to Sky I decided to MAC migrate just the LLU broadband to A&A. I came home in early December to find a totally dead phone line. It took a week to get this fixed, but broadband speeds and reliability are nothing like they were on O2.<br /><br />I've given up on trying to get the speed back, now I just want to get rid of the hundreds of broadband line drops I get per week. I've no idea if a Kelly engineer was involved, I never saw who switched the broadband over and killed the line and I never saw who reconnected it since they didn't tell me what day they were coming. I've had two OpenReach visits since and neither have made any real improvement.<br /><br />I may have to put up with this until we get FTTC some time in 2014, at the moment there is no end in sight.Owen Smithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00890951742186614705noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-85223135677375168562014-03-28T15:13:24.309+00:002014-03-28T15:13:24.309+00:00As a counter example I had a line installed by Kel...As a counter example I had a line installed by Kelly, and despite it taking the engineer quite a long time (apparently most of the pairs that were going to the pole (this was a domestic premises) were dead, so he was up and down the pole a lot), he did get it done.<br /><br />Unfortunately though it wasn't quite perfect as the line has a (quiet but constant) buzz on it, so I then had to raise a fault (which OR sent an engineer with a tester out that claimed was absolutely fine, despite there being a clearly audible buzz) - not quite sure where this one is going to end up...Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08491808572691231544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-8623729693584537072014-03-28T14:22:18.394+00:002014-03-28T14:22:18.394+00:00That sounds similar to what happened to my line a ...That sounds similar to what happened to my line a month or so ago. I spot an Openreach engineer on the street, broadband disappears, I ask the engineer whether he has done anything, I'm assured that he has not, and that I will need to raise a fault.<br /><br />AA do a sterling job in getting a fault raised and an engineer to attend... and, sure enough, the engineer says that a previous engineer has cut our line. He traced it up the street and fixed it, so goodness knows if someone else's broadband died as a result...Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18427000118752159232noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-65157285400127767982014-03-28T13:34:45.272+00:002014-03-28T13:34:45.272+00:00Kelly. That name makes me cry.
When we moved offi...Kelly. That name makes me cry.<br /><br />When we moved office, I had 8 PSTN lines ordered. For reasons known only to Openreach, they were created as 8 individual orders. 8 visits by engineers, 8 separate dates (yes really).<br /><br />3 were installed by "real" openreach engineers - they work just fine<br /><br />5 were installed by "Kelly" openreach engineers - every single one was faulty in some way at install time<br /><br />...which is no real surprise.<br /><br />Some months back a new customer needed 2 PSTN circuits. We ordered them, "Kellyreach" were assigned ... no engineer visited, yet the job was marked as completed. As the premises physically had no extra NTEs we queried this and were told they were "definitely there" ... it took much running around to get this sorted, before it emerged as usual as the job looked tricky, Kellyreach got as far as the easy bit, said "yep that's lovely" and sodded off. I had to fight to get a real openreach engineer to come out and do the job. They also failed because they didn't fit proper NTE (I still doubt it was proper openreach, my money is on them lying to the customer and saying they were not subcontractors) as what was fitted was a bog standard buy it in B&Q "double faceplate" - that's right, no test socket, no useful setup. In the end we sorted it as by luck when we went down and discovered this, there was a real engineer from openreach working down the road who kindly gave us a couple real NTE5 boxes so we did it ourselves (and BT can sue me if they like, they cocked it up twice, we did it properly).<br /><br />Then there is the "Kelly" visit where they lied and said they'd "been refused access" but in reality, they were let in, shown the install location, decided it was tricky (because they'd have to actually run some cabling from the DP in another room) and instead said they were going to van, and disappeared. I had to fight again because BT refuse to believe we were right. We had CCTV of the engineer IN THE BUILDING he was supposedly refused access to, but Openreach insisted the notes they had were the authoritative thing.<br /><br />EVERY single time a job is referred to kellyreach it is a farce, half done, faulty, or just plain refused and lied about.<br /><br />I did discover once that one issue is that kellyreach don't have any kit to test unlike reach openreach so while the real deal use hawk's and so on to completely test, Kelly have an old phone (if you're lucky) and assume any sort of dial-tone is a result. <br /><br />That's my experience...The Backup Exec Goathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16532538047698437455noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-19387202062848206912014-03-28T11:58:21.410+00:002014-03-28T11:58:21.410+00:00Alex should count himself lucky, BT/Openreach swap...Alex should count himself lucky, BT/Openreach swapped a 24 pair cable with another 24 pair cable in the cabinet once here, so our street got another streets phones and they got ours.<br /><br />Of course the only way to resolve it was for everyone to raise their own faults, get an engineers appointment etc. so it took a long time for everyone to get their phone and broadband back. I only got mine done quicker than everyone else by having business broadband, telling them exactly what they had done (I spotted the engineer at the cabinet) and nagging them. <br /><br />PhilipPhilhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10021621329177687470noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-61860902686172022522014-03-28T10:09:33.278+00:002014-03-28T10:09:33.278+00:00Though interestingly it also leaves BT with the bi...Though interestingly it also leaves BT with the bill for the street digging etc, as opposed to potentially being able to apply ECCs to the new line (if it wasn't the first in the premises etc where there's a big exclusion anyway), which should mean BT care more about it as it's a financial penalty to them (not to mention the cost of the engineer to investigate the fault etc)...Alexhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08491808572691231544noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-79952637444770466282014-03-28T08:37:28.640+00:002014-03-28T08:37:28.640+00:00Indeed, if there are no actual spare pairs, and th...Indeed, if there are no actual spare pairs, and the job would become a lot of hassle, an engineer might perhaps be inclined to even take a pair that he knows is not spare to close the job off and have a simple life. That then leaves you with the "street digging" fix as there are no spare pairs to put your line back!RevKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12369263214193333422noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3993498847203183398.post-4699952946098181302014-03-28T08:21:03.207+00:002014-03-28T08:21:03.207+00:00Well, that explains what happened to my A&A li...Well, that explains what happened to my A&A line a while back, and why the engineer who came to fix it (promptly - thanks A&A) seemed puzzled, and why it involved digging up the street.Nick Johnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04083452977458707717noreply@blogger.com