OpenReach visited my property on 17/10/23 to install Full Fibre broadband, but were unable to proceed then, because they decided that scaffolding was needed to get the line in through the front of my house, where the current line is.
OpenReach then texted me to offer Friday 3rd November (tomorrow, as I type this) as the date to complete the installation, and I accepted this date.
On Tuesday morning (31/10/23), I was surprised by the scaffolders knocking on my front door. Fortunately I was able to stay in for them, but then they told me they couldn't get hold of an engineer, presumably because they'd arrived three days early. Eventually they did get hold of an OpenReach engineer, and he arrived. The scaffolders put the scaffolding up and left. But then the engineer knocked on my door and told me that the scaffolders hadn't installed a safety gate, and he could no longer get hold of them, so again we could not proceed. I asked him if he and they would return on Friday (tomorrow), which was the actual scheduled date for the work. He told me that he did not know, but would let me know before then. (We had swapped mobile numbers.)
Then yesterday (Wednesday, the day after the above visit) I received an automated text message from OpenReach, offering me an appointment on 28/12/23, two months away! This made it sound like the scaffolding would now be left there for two months. Because I won't be at home on 28/12, and in the hope of being offered an earlier appointment, I texted back a message requesting a change, but the automated response offered me only later dates. For now, I have accepted 02/01/24, but I would prefer an earlier date if possible.
One reason is the scaffolding is intruding onto my neighbours' property. The engineer did ask my neighbour's permission for this, but I suspect that he would have told the neighbours that it would be "up and down" the same day, not that it would be left there for over two months.
So yesterday afternoon I telephoned the OpenReach engineer (who had visited my property, and who told me he would let me know whether or not they would be coming back tomorrow). As there was no answer, I left a message on his answerphone, telling him about the latest text messages I'd received, and asking him if he could check whether or not there is some mistake, and whether OpenReach could come back to finish the installation (& remove the scaffolding) sooner. At the time of typing this, the engineer has not yet responded to my answerphone message, although to be fair it's still less than 24 hours.
But yesterday I looked on the OpenReach website for another way to contact their customer service about this, however their website directed me to TalkTalk. So here I am. To repeat my questions: I should like to know if there is some mistake, because after being able to visit my property twice in two weeks, OpenReach are now apparently planning to leave scaffolding up here for over two months, even though it also intrudes onto my neighbour's property. Is this correct, or would it be possible for them to visit sooner?
Also, given that I haven't yet had any official communication that OpenReach aren't coming back tomorrow, Friday 03/11/23 (the actually scheduled date for the scaffolding & installation), it would be good to have confirmation that they aren't coming back tomorrow (or what would be even better: that they ARE coming back tomorrow to finish the work!)
