UPDATE (23/10/2020): After emailing our local MP (Rt Hon Dame Cheryl Gillian), and reaching out to Openreach CEO Clive Selley, we've finally been connected!
A member of the Chief Engineer Technical Escalation Team was put on the case, who arranged for a Senior Engineer to visit us today. The engineer arrived early this morning, and immediately set about finishing the copper run from several poles away to us. Before long he was back at our door to handle the internal wiring, which he quickly noted had an unnecessary route bridge, which was degrading the signal. After the fix, he got us up and running at just under 30Mb/s (7Mb/s upload) - not stellar, but this will do until our longer term plans come to fruition (a joint FTTPoD order with many of our neighbours, using the Government's DCMS Gigabit Voucher Scheme to bring us 900Mb/s full-fibre).
My family and I are extremely grateful to Clive Selley and his team for taking a personal interest in our case, and local MP Cheryl Gillian's staff for playing their part. (sadly there was no response from Sky CEO Jeremy Darroch.)
The engineer who ultimately got us connected today told me he was in the process of studying for a masters in Nuclear Engineering, and I wish him the very best in that endeavour!
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After an extremely protracted process, my family and I managed to pull off a complex sale/purchase this year, enabling us to realise our multi-year dream of upgrading to a long-term home. This process was fraught with unexpected complications, like our original buyers attempting to use COVID-19 as an excuse to bully us into some crippling price reductions, but we could never have imagined the long term consequence of moving would be no landline-based Internet connection for 78 days (and counting)!
Back at the start of August, a couple of weeks before even buying our new home, we placed an order for Sky Fibre (FTTC / VDSL2) - this seemed like a safe option having been using the same setup in our previous home since late 2018 with zero issues. We knew the house would need a new telephone line to be installed, but felt reassured by the fact Sky offered us an installation date only a week after the planned purchase date.
Things started to go awry mere days after placing the order, with Sky notifying us that Openreach had rejected the order multiple times. Closer to the day of completion Sky's 'order recovery team' notified us that everything was back on track, and that we were even still going to get connected on the original date (a week after completion); the term they used was 'Openreach have committed to the date' - something Sky later denied ever saying. Having booked a week off work for the move, it didn't seem like a terrible thing that I might need to work over 4G for a couple of days.
Closer to the installation date, we were a little nervous that the router had not turned up (nor any indication it had even been dispatched) - not the end of the world, as we still had our original from the previous house (It was not due to be returned until some time in September). Telephoning Sky, they insisted a router would not be sent without a confirmed activation date - this didn't sound good - what happened to that 'committed date' from Openreach (Sky now insisted we would never have been told that)? At some point later we were told Openreach needed to do some cabling before we could be connected, and this would be taking place in the background. At the end of August, we were told Openreach *might* be visiting on Saturday morning, so delayed plans to go and enjoy the lovely weather in favour of the possibility we might finally get the vital connectivity needed for modern life. (no one turned up.)
On the morning of the 1st of September, an Openreach engineer arrived outside, and we could almost not believe it. The engineer was friendly, and helpful, but lowered our expectations when he mentioned his job was simply to run a cable for us from the local pole, back to the exchange - still, progress. He remarked that since we had no "drop wire" from the pole to our house, he would put a note on the system that a hoist (cherry picker) would needed, so the next engineer would come equipped with one. Before leaving, he was good enough to tell us that he had managed to sort out the entire run of the cable, back to the exchange, and had "proven the pair" (tested end-to-end, with labels attached to help the next engineer).
On the 15th of September Engineer #2 arrived bright and early to connect us up, although, slight problem - he noted that we would require the services of a hoist - clearly engineer #1 forgot to follow through on his promised note on the system. Never the less, Engineer #2 had a great can-do attitude, and promised to get a hoist to come out whatever it took. Through his persistence, one did indeed arrive along with Engineer #3 later that day, and spent an hour or two installing the new drop wire between the pole and our house (which was pre-wired with telephone sockets, and an external cable tucked into the front soffit). After the hoist was done, Engineer #2 drove off to the street cab to connect us up for VDSL2 service (technically the only thing the line will connect to, as Openreach no longer seems to sell telephone lines with dial-tone services anymore). Sadly he had issues identifying the correct copper pair at the street cab (he had placed a test signal generator at our house, and was trying to locate the pair by listening for the signal). He told us someone would be along the next day to finish the job. (no one came.)
On the 17th Sky advised us that they had booked a new Openreach engineer appointment for the 30th of September. Next on the 24th of September Sky advised us in a pair of emails in the early hours of the morning (delivered 7 seconds apart) that they had failed to reach us multiple times in regards to the complaint we had opened many weeks ago (no missed calls at our end) and that per policy the complaint would be closed in 28 days; the second message advised us the complaint had now been closed. Naturally I telephoned requesting the complaint be reopened, but was stonewalled, with their member of staff point blank insisting there was nothing to complain about, because we had been given an installation date (September 30th), and should be happy with that. A day or two later, I got through to someone else, who described this as a "service failure" by an outsource partner, and reopened the complaint for us.
On the 30th of September Engineer #4 arrived - again eager to get our broadband up and running, and quite apologetic for the delay - in his view it made no sense that we had been left waiting two weeks since the previous visit. He connected a clever pice of equipment up, that identified a "break in the cable" some 100 meters away - likely not our pole, but the next one - the "DP" (distribution point). He told us that investigating further would again require the services of a hoist, which he managed to have return later the same day (along with Engineer #3 again). Here's where things went south: it turned out the "break in cable" was actually that since the previous visit on the 15th (two weeks earlier), another engineer had mistakenly identified our proven-pair as unused (no dial tone means not in use, apparently), and allocated it to someone else! They advised us that all bets were off now, and we could be in for a "really long" wait. (no more cables left in the bundle running through the underground ducts.)
Several days later, we saw an Openreach van, and they had indeed been working to run a new cable. On the 12th of October, a friendly face arrived at our door - Engineer #2 was back, although quite puzzled about his role in all of this. Once up to speed, he expressed frustration in telling us that the remaining work (pulling our newly-laid cable through ducting from a couple of poles away) was beyond his remit, as he's not "underground trained". He was quite dissatisfied with the situation, and called his supervisor for instructions. In the end, he was told to hand the job back, but advised that the supervisor would have "Control" schedule a certified engineer ASAP. He also added that a puzzling factor in this was that our job was listed in the system as "low priority" (something Sky seem puzzled about too, and tell me "isn't a thing").
Several days later, Sky advised us that the Openreach case notes suggested an engineer might turn up on the 21st of October (today), but that since their work queue operates on a fluid-basis, this was by no means guaranteed. (no one turned up.)
By this point I've lost the plot over this whole thing, having been working remotely since mid-Feb, and getting by on 4G since moving into our new home mid-August. We have small children that like to watch Peppa Pig et al via Netflix/Amazon Prime/BBC iPlayer, and lives that revolve around connectivity (like everyone else). This has taken its toll on us, and we're simply drained at this point, seemingly with no end in sight. If you've reached this far, thank you for taking the time to understand our plight.