I see one of these every day. Every single day, for the past three months, I have seen one of these vans, without fail. Some days I see two, on occasion, three or four. I walk to work for 20 minutes, walk home for 20 minutes and briefly escape work to pick up lunch. These are the only times I’m ever near a roadside all day, but nevertheless these vans are able to fit themselves into my short schedule. I scarcely see police cars, ambulances; I can’t remember the last time I saw a fire engine. But I can remember the last time I saw a BT van. It was at lunchtime on my short walk to King’s Cross, having been out of my flat for no more than three minutes.
Except it wasn’t a BT van. No, none of them are. In fact, as the Scottish call centre lady calmly explained to me, BT were forced by Ofcom to create the separate Openreach to stop monopolising the market. Openreach are no longer directly connected to BT, but they are their sole technical contractors. So, not much has changed. Well, you’d think that. Except now, BT accept no responsibility for the failures of their technical contractors, because BT are merely a customer too. Now, BT are on your side. So, now, when you complain to BT about the cancelled appointments, the lack of communication and the three month’s delay in getting a phone line, BT say “oh, that’s awful isn’t it. I’m sorry to hear about that”. As if someone ran over your cat. And that they were in no way responsible for that.
Yes, the reason that I take particular note of all the Openreach vans in my area, is that I’m still waiting for one of them to install my phone line, and it’s been three months and counting. Every time I see one drive down my road I naively hope it is doing the “line ducting work” that has been given four different completion dates and not met any of them. And when I see those vans, I’m reminded of the hope I had when I took the morning off work only to be texted the night before at 9.45pm that they wouldn’t be coming. And, I remember the second time I took a morning off work to wait in for the Openreach technician, when I wasn’t contacted at all, and I had to phone up BT to be told they weren’t coming. And, I remember the phone calls and the customer service advisors all feigning surprise and sympathy at my continued delays, each one certain that the next completion date, the 3rd September, the 14th October, the 26th October would be the real one. They weren’t. And, I remember how every one of them insisted I would be called after those dates to be updated on the progress. And, how I’ve not once received a single phone call from one of the world’s largest telecommunications companies. Apparently it’s no longer good to talk.
I’ve tried getting angry, I’ve tried explaining to them that they shouldn’t be contracting a company who consistently break their promises, I’ve tried complaining; but the complaint form they sent me never arrived. And now BT have a new excuse: they’re waiting for the council to approve their work. The buck has been passed on again, whilst I helplessly sit and wait by the phone, watching the vans as they pass me by.
