Not being offered fibre, despite it being installed

[AnthonyHJ]

This is as much about marketing, but there's no section for that...

I just moved and was told that I would have to downgrade from Fibre 150 to Fibre 65 because the new house doesn't support higher speeds. That was annoying, but it is what it is. There's a local company who installed high speed fibre in the area and they seem to lease it to the ISPs (CityFibre in Milton Keynes) advertising up to 1 Gbps to this address, even listing a 900Mbbp Talktalk package that goes to an empty page. 

I thought it was odd, since every other provider in their list was offering either 900Mb or 1Gb. Then the engineer came to install and looked confused. He said he had no idea why he was sent to install ADSL when there was a FTTH router in the other corner of the room. 

Has anyone else had this issue? Anyone know who I need to call?

I really want to stay with TalkTalk, but I'm still within my cooling off period and I have a dozen ISPs offering me up to 900Gbps.

[AnthonyHJ]

I can call again and tell them this, but BT seem to be very good at not turning up and then pretending I wasn't at home...

[Arne-TalkTalk]

When i look at your account it tells me that FTTP is available, via Openreach.

[AnthonyHJ]

Well, I decided to try again after the longest 'we will get back to you' silence. Today, the Loyalty team told me that there is no CityFibre or Openreach available here and to wait for TalkTalk to roll out fibre in my area. Lots of sales-team scripts, but even less help than last time. 

I have to be honest; when the Loyalty team keep quoting marketing materials and reminding me that my contract end date is in 2025 the second I mention that CityFibre are advertising services to me, it doesn't inspire loyalty. 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

I would advise calling directly and asking to speak to the full fibre team, I suspect a new appointment will need to be agreed. 

[AnthonyHJ]

I tried to ask over the online chat system, but I was just told that it would be 'delayed' and then I wasn't able to send messages after that. 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi AnthonyHJ

Sorry that there was a problem.

When you contacted us did you book another appointment? 

[AnthonyHJ]

Well, today was the go-live date and I just found out that the order was delayed with no attempt to contact me.  I would have waited all day for the engineer and they never would have arrived.

Luckily, I contacted TalkTalk this morning because I hadn't had the new hardware delivered and I was told that Openreach 'tried to contact me yesterday' for the external work and couldn't get through - except that I have no missed calls or messages on my mobile and I was in the house all day, so I know that nobody called the landline or rang the doorbell. 

I will be honest; this is really not the standard of customer service I'd expect from either company. I blame BT for 90% of this, since they lied about trying to contact me, but I'm disappointed that TalkTalk didn't contact me to say the order was delayed or to arrange a new date.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

The order is progressing as expecting.

[AnthonyHJ]

I finally have a reply from CityFibre, where they said that the issue is simple to fix and that TalkTalk just need to contact their Order Desk team. Somewhere in this complex tangle of back and forth, something has gone very wrong, but I suppose this is another avenue to pursue if the OpenReach order falls through... 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Good stuff, again keep us updated.

[AnthonyHJ]

It seems to have worked as an order via OpenReach. The person I spoke to wasn't sure why it worked - he said it should not have worked for a house on the CityFibre network - but it let him place the order and it has not been cancelled even a few days later. 

Thank you for helping me find a solution. Our go-live date is not for a couple of weeks, but everything looks good so far.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Let me know how it goes.

[AnthonyHJ]

When I spoke to the loyalty team about a month ago, they said that the choice was CityFibre or ADSL. The call went on for an hour as they tried every trick they could think of, but I can call again and suggest Openreach.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi AnthonyHJ

Looking at the account the service can be provided via Openreach which would solve the City Fibre issue, Have you spoken to our Loyalty team  03451720088 ?

[AnthonyHJ]

Done.

Thanks for looking into this. Hopefully I can switch back to fibre before long because slow internet is a terrible curse when you have a teenager in the house.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi AnthonyHJ.

Can you add your full address to the private notes section of your community profile and I will see if there is any information we can find about who the line is connected too. 

Thank you.

[AnthonyHJ]

This issue is still unresolved. The TalkTalk sales team keep doing all that they can, but CityFibre just responds that the line is provisioned to another ISP. Since I live here, the line is dead, and there are no bills arriving from another ISP, I find that hard to believe. 

Doesn't help that CityFibre doesn't respond to emails at all and their help pages say to contact TalkTalk. In the end, I reported it to OfCom because it's basically one company (CityFibre won't even tell me who claims to own the line) locking me out of switching to TalkTalk. 

Just massively frustrating to be on ADSL and unable to use the FTTP that I need and which is already installed. 

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Try TalkTalk sales team 0808 108 0465

[AnthonyHJ]

I tried to, but I couldn't find contact details for the sales team other than the one I had called earlier who said their system only had Fibre 65 listed.

[Arne-TalkTalk]

Hi @AnthonyHJ

Did you speak to the sales team, they may have more information and be able to place an order through city fibre directly.