ONT box and NAD key but lost address so no FTTP for 16 days

[PPAli]

We had a good FTTP connection for about two years until we were sold a package to make our phone calls cheaper. The 'new' fibre provision has been supplied to the wrong address twice, due to an error in the NAD database (name and address).

As a result, we have had no broadband to our business for over two weeks. BTLocalBusiness have told us the issue is with the NAD keys and needs to be re-provisioned - which they cannot do as Openreach have to do it.

BT Local Business have now left for the weekend having put in a request to 'find' our address and match it with our ONT (the terminal).

Can we do anything to make this a faster process as it is vital to get our business fully back online?

Any help welcome as we have been sent all around the houses explaining the issue many times and don't want to wait a day longer than necessary as it is embarassing and taking all our time to work around the loss of email and wifi.

[PPAli]

We had a good FTTP connection for about two years until we were sold a package to make our phone calls cheaper. The 'new' fibre provision has been supplied to the wrong address twice, due to an error in the NAD database (name and address).

As a result, we have had no broadband to our business for over two weeks. BTLocalBusiness have told us the issue is with the NAD keys and needs to be re-provisioned - which they cannot do as Openreach have to do it.

BT Local Business have now left for the weekend having put in a request to 'find' our address and match it with our ONT (the terminal).

Can we do anything to make this a faster process as it is vital to get our business fully back online?

Any help welcome as we have been sent all around the houses explaining the issue many times and don't want to wait a day longer than necessary as it is embarassing and taking all our time to work around the loss of email and wifi.

[RyanJames]

Hi PPAli

Sorry for the late reply and sorry to hear you are having these issues with the new install, I know that this will be a massively inconvenient issue for you just now, especially in the run up to the holidays! Unfortunately what BTLB are advising is correct, they need to await that request response from Openreach. They should also be raising a complaint for you in regards to the issue, if they have not already - as clearly this will be having a very negative impact on your and your businesss.

Sorry I couldn't offer up a quicker solution for this one, but I do hope that BTLB can get this sorted for you ASAP!

Regards

Ryan

[PPAli]

Thank you for your reply.

We are no further forward, BTLB are waiting for Openreach and getting irritated with my calls asking for updates.

It is an impossible catch 22 situation and we have been without our fibre for 19 days now.

Briefly: We ordered a fibre line, it was put in the wrong place (twice) so the order had to be cancelled. No new order can be put in until an address is ‘found’. The end.

Openreach needs to ‘find’ us on its database. No one from Openreach will come here until an order is put in (which can’t be done without our address). BT is our provider so Openreach will not talk to us.

I am saying that waiting for Openreach is not good enough and they need to be chased to find a solution urgently. Incredible frustration with lost emails, lost sales, irritated potential customers using facebook, no wifi for customers here, no webcams, extensive work-arounds and lack of functionality to run our 7 day a week business.

[PPAli]

Update - we have had two calls from BT. 'Provisioning' had our NAD key and asked us to check the ports/lights/router (not working) then call from faults, checks again. We are now promised a call back tomorrow afternoon. I have let BTLB know.

[PPAli]

11th January 2019 and still no FTTP connection.

A new person from complaints phoned today to ask the most basic of questions about the problem we have. A new complaint number has been allocated. We re-provided all the past info plus gave the previous complaint ref to try to get them put together. 

We have been pushed from person and department with multiple reference, order, NAD key and ONT numbers. Told that we would be reconnected on the 10th Jan, then on the 10th told it would be the 23rd Jan.

Terrrible, terrible un-joined-up business customer care. Utter frustration, time consuming when we are having to also do time consuming work arounds to get email to work, no wifi, no webcams online. Skype only just works, dropbox doesn't work.

Lost for words to describe how badly this has damaged our work.

[PPAli]

And we have had another text this morning from another person at BT asking for the most basic information on our lost connection. It has been provided over and over again. Including photographs of the back of ONT boxes with serial numbers.

I have asked for the name of the manager of one of the people dealing with our case as I believe I am entitled to do but this has not been provided. 'Escalations' dept has said that they cannot assist. We are stuck in a catch 22 situation.

And this is how BT is dealing with the URGENT loss of connection since 29th November 2018.

Please let me know any ideas on how we can get help.

[Bobby]

Hey PPAli,

It certainly sounds like a very stressful situation and certainly not the service that should be provided for a business customer. I assume that a complaint (usually an IMP- reference) is already raised and being dealt with by a resolutions team? If so, they should be your single point of contact and they should be keeping you updated rather than making you deal with multiple teams and repeating the same information.

What I would recommend is calling the technical team on 0800 800 154 and asking to speak with a manager. They can't refuse to let you speak with a manager on request. I would stress the urgency and even if a complaint is open, make it clear that you want a resolution ASAP and you're not waiting for a callback if that's what they advise. 

Thank you, Bobby

[PPAli]

Thank you for your reply Bobby.

We got our connection back after 64 days. It was the sixth reordering and our separate business (a pub) has been left cut off instead. It seems like it was an error to ever connect both but has taken two months for our pleas to get to this point. We have been shocked by Openreach, very very poor service (one engineer in particular). Perhaps because we are not their customer, BT is. Both said that the NAD key database was not kept by them. Both blamed the other for losing our connection.

Compensation was mentioned to us several times when we were exasperated, perhaps to keep us hanging on without complaining for ANOTHER ten days for 'reconnection' that didn't happen. Now we are getting calls offering a few free months of broadband connection. We employ over 50 people, ran up bills of over £300 with our systems support company to get a work around so our 5 credit card machines worked and our emails got through to multiple pcs (we were grateful for the immediate help they gave us). Another example of a direct loss to us was the use of two webcams for 2 months each, £120. 

Deadlock was mentioned today on the phone but I don't understand what that means. The link in a BT email some weeks ago about complaints to the ombudsman quickly took me to a page which said it did not take complaints from businesses with over 10 employees. Sounds like another catch 22 situation that we will have to work to understand before getting anywhere.