So that didn't happen
One week on from when it was supposed to be fitted, and still I have no phone line. I am not surprised, but still annoyed.
To be fair to BT (not something that comes easily, trust me), they have been very good at keeping me informed of what's going on (and what's not). They even delivered several lengths of grey pipe, otherwise known as ducting, which I'm meant to dig into trenches where the cable will go under driveways. There's about 40 metres of this, which seems a bit of overkill given that the route the cable will take doesn't actually cross any driveways at all. I'm not complaining about that, mind you. It will come in handy I'm sure. No, what's most irritating is the non-arrival of the 200 metres of phone cable needed.
You would think that a company like BT, whose main job is the delivery of communications services over cable, would have access to almost unlimited quantities of the stuff. This, however, appears not to be the case. I had a very polite phone call from an engineer in Glasgow called Benny, who asked if I could let him know when the cable was delivered. The implication of this is that the engineers don't have access to cable, nor do they know where it is at any given time. An order has been placed, but they seem to have no way of tracking it beyond asking the customer to get in touch when it arrives. As a way to run a company this ranks fairly high up the useless scale.
Presumably when (if) the cable does ever get here, and I let Benny know, there will then be a further delay whilst they find a time slot for an engineer to come out and connect me. How much easier it would be if they could just come with the cable in the back of their van. 200 metres might sound like a lot, but phone cable is thin stuff and that much should fit on a reel two men could handle with ease.
The wifi router and various other electronic gubbins for my broadband connection arrived in good time. I suspect that it will have been superseded by a newer model by the time I can actually use it.
To be fair to BT (not something that comes easily, trust me), they have been very good at keeping me informed of what's going on (and what's not). They even delivered several lengths of grey pipe, otherwise known as ducting, which I'm meant to dig into trenches where the cable will go under driveways. There's about 40 metres of this, which seems a bit of overkill given that the route the cable will take doesn't actually cross any driveways at all. I'm not complaining about that, mind you. It will come in handy I'm sure. No, what's most irritating is the non-arrival of the 200 metres of phone cable needed.
You would think that a company like BT, whose main job is the delivery of communications services over cable, would have access to almost unlimited quantities of the stuff. This, however, appears not to be the case. I had a very polite phone call from an engineer in Glasgow called Benny, who asked if I could let him know when the cable was delivered. The implication of this is that the engineers don't have access to cable, nor do they know where it is at any given time. An order has been placed, but they seem to have no way of tracking it beyond asking the customer to get in touch when it arrives. As a way to run a company this ranks fairly high up the useless scale.
Presumably when (if) the cable does ever get here, and I let Benny know, there will then be a further delay whilst they find a time slot for an engineer to come out and connect me. How much easier it would be if they could just come with the cable in the back of their van. 200 metres might sound like a lot, but phone cable is thin stuff and that much should fit on a reel two men could handle with ease.
The wifi router and various other electronic gubbins for my broadband connection arrived in good time. I suspect that it will have been superseded by a newer model by the time I can actually use it.
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