Low Hanging Cable

[Rephidim]

I presume that TalkTalk and BT have some sort of agreement regarding the overhead cables that connect homes to the telegraph poles on the opposing side of the street. It would appear that BT are not keeping their side of the agreement. I regularly see BT engineers climbing up and down the pole to carry out maintenance work but they have never once attempted to tighten the drooping cable that connects to my house.  Of all the cables coming off the pole only mine is sagging. I know that one or two of my neighbours are also with TalkTalk so I can't imagine that any agreement would stipulate that only TalkTalk customers should endure drooping cables. Any ideas as to what is going on here?

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Rephidim,

As I said earlier, if you have an issue with your service then we can look into this and arrange an engineer visit if required but you would have to report the sagging cable directly to Openreach and it would then be up to them if they think it needs rectifying. 

Chris

[martswain]

@AllyM , well said.

@Rephidim your gripe is most certainly with Openreach and if the cable is actually drooping dangerously as it crosses the road then contact both Openreach and your local council.

The TT staff member @Chris-TalkTalk  has advised you what to do in post #9.

You are wasting your time posting here.

[AllyM]

@Rephidim ,

Just to be clear, I'm a customer just like you.

The process will be the same whatever ISP you use, if they use Openreach's infrastructure. It's not just a TalkTalk policy.

An ISP can't raise a fault with Openreach for a cable hanging a bit low.

If you are concerned about it, report it to Openreach as previously advised.

Here's the next words down on Openreach's website page you quoted from earlier:

"Tell us about unsafe, damaged or vandalised equipment

If you spot any unsafe, damaged or vandalised equipment which you think belongs to Openreach, it’s important that you tell us about it."

All the time and energy you have wasted posting on here you could easily have reported it to Openreach and possibly got it fixed by now, for some reason, you seem to be more concerned about bashing TalkTalk.

[Skynet_TX]

TalkTalk can only report faults to Openreach, currently there is no fault, if you would like Openreach to look at this potential issue for you then you will need to report it to Openreach directly. TalkTalk will be very happy to help you if a fault occurs, but they are not able to call Openreach out for an issue like this, you need to report it to Openreach directly, and the Openreach website gives you a way to do this. If you are concerned about this issue then I really would suggest that you report it to Openreach yourself using their website.

[Rephidim]

AllyM wrote - "That is your opinion, and sounds like a reasonable argument and suggestion, however you have been advised several times by staff and others that it is not the way the process works."

It seems you are more concerned with process than safety. You are more concerned with process than customer service. You are more concerned with process than common sense. You are more concerned with process than reaching agreement. Process that, I might add, seems to be defined by the corporate entity that is TalkTalk. I have to say this is typical of numerous dealings with TalkTalk that I have had over several matters.

[AllyM]

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@Rephidim wrote:

I have not contacted BT Openreach because even their own website suggests that the provider ie TalkTalk should act on my behalf. After all my agreement is with you and not them. Here is a quote from their website - "Our Damage reporting team does not have any access to your account information.  Your phone or broadband provider will have all of your details and will work with us to organise any installation or repair work on your behalf."

No , it does not.

You are taking that quote out of context.

Here's the full section:

Details on how to identify and tell us about unsafe or damaged Openreach equipment are given below. 

Please talk to your phone or broadband provider if you:

• have a question about your bill
• have a problem with your service, like a fault
• have a query about an engineer visit
• want to order phone or broadband, or upgrade to fibre.

Our Damage reporting team does not have any access to your account information.  Your phone or broadband provider will have all of your details and will work with us to organise any installation or repair work on your behalf.

So, the first sentence is saying: If you have noticed some damaged or unsafe Openreach equipment, then see the details further down the page on how to report that to Openreach. The second sentence says that you should contact your phone and/or broadband provider if the issue is actually one of the things listed in the bullet points, since the Openreach damage reporting team can't help with those issues.

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@Rephidim wrote:

Whilst I appreciate there is no damage at this stage my original point still stands that both TalkTalk and BT should work together to pre-empt issues.

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That is your opinion, and sounds like a reasonable argument and suggestion, however you have been advised several times by staff and others that it is not the way the process works. If it is not affecting your service, TalkTalk can't raise it as a fault with Openreach, so if you are worried about it you have to report it directly to Openreach. I can't understand why you stubbornly refuse to do so.

[martswain]

TT and Openreach will fix a fault, however you do not have one as yet.

[Rephidim]

As Storm Malik batters the north, wind speeds in my locality have picked up and I have noticed my cable moving a lot. Photographs of course can't show this vibration.  But this is exactly the scenario that I had envisioned in my previous posts when I had used such hyperbole as catastrophe.

I have not contacted BT Openreach because even their own website suggests that the provider ie TalkTalk should act on my behalf. After all my agreement is with you and not them. Here is a quote from their website - "Our Damage reporting team does not have any access to your account information.  Your phone or broadband provider will have all of your details and will work with us to organise any installation or repair work on your behalf."

Whilst I appreciate there is no damage at this stage my original point still stands that both TalkTalk and BT should work together to pre-empt issues.

[AllyM]

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@Rephidim wrote:

I can't describe by how much it's sagging but let me put it this way - there is no way that a trained engineer wouldn't notice it and think to themselves that that is not an issue.

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Unless you are a trained telecoms engineer, how would you know whether or not it's an issue?

Perhaps they have noticed it and decided that it's not a major issue?

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@Rephidim wrote:

The idea of maintenance is to pre-empt future issues and not deal with problems when they reach catastrophic levels. 

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What issue or "catastrophe" do you foresee?

Looking at your photo, it is clearly hanging down a bit lower than one would normally expect to see but I don't really see what imminent danger there is. One thing I can't clearly see from the angle of your photo is what height the cable is from the ground and what is underneath it. If it were crossing a road, for example, and could potentially be snagged by a high vehicle, I could see that being an issue. Personally, I would be more concerned if it appeared to be overly tight, in which case it could contract and snap in extreme cold weather.

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@Rephidim wrote:

I was not going to raise the issue with BT Openreach directly because I feel that they are in breach of an agreement with TalkTalk. You should be pressing them to engage in their due responsibility of maintenance. 

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Just my personal opinion as I don't work for Openreach or TalkTalk, but I would imagine the agreement would be that Openreach provide the infrastructure to enable TalkTalk to deliver broadband and/or phone services. If it is doing that, then they can't really complain. The agreement will be that Openreach will attempt to fix any fault in a timely manner but TalkTalk can't really dictate to another company how they maintain their own equipment

There is a mechanism, as I posted earlier, for you to report issues directly to Openreach. I would suggest that your best bet would be to do that to make sure they are aware of it and get an actual expert out to assess it if the were not already aware.

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Thanks for posting the photo. From what I can see I'm not sure that Openreach would see that as an issue but it's worth checking with them if it's bothering you

Chris

[Rephidim]

low cable

[ferguson]

@Rephidim Feel free to post the pictures btw, use the camera/image icon at the top of the composition box. 

[Chris-TalkTalk]

Hi Rephidim,

If you have a problem with your service then we would raise this to Openreach but with this type of issue you would need to raise this directly with Openreach via their website

Chris

[Rephidim]

Well, I have taken pictures of the drooping cable. Should I share them here? I can't describe by how much it's sagging but let me put it this way - there is no way that a trained engineer wouldn't notice it and think to themselves that that is not an issue. In fact I imagine that most people on my street will have noticed it. The idea of maintenance is to pre-empt future issues and not deal with problems when they reach catastrophic levels. I was not going to raise the issue with BT Openreach directly because I feel that they are in breach of an agreement with TalkTalk. You should be pressing them to engage in their due responsibility of maintenance. 

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Morning,

Can I just confirm, how low are the cables drooping? If this is not service affecting then this can be raised directly to Openreach via their website.

Thanks

[AllyM]

You can report damaged Openreach equipment or infrastructure causing a "safety issue" directly to them via their website here: Report damage, vandalism or a health & safety issue | Openreach

I'm not sure whether or not they would consider it an issue which needs to be fixed though.

[Skynet_TX]

Hi @Rephidim,

Openreach are responsible for those cables (regardless of the ISP), but if your connection is working fine it can sometimes be a bit of a challenge to get them to look at it, if your connection actually had a fault due to that wire then it would be much simpler to get the issue resolved !.

You can't contact Openreach directly, but TalkTalk can raise issues with them, I'm just not sure if they can raise an issue about a sagging cable if it is still working fine. However the staff here on the community will be back tomorrow and they will be able to let you know what can be done.