In the scheme of things its not a major issue, but we’ve had an on going issue with our landline/broadband (broad doesn’t reflect the bandwidth we get) for the last six weeks or so, although its a reoccurence of a regular problem. According to BT we have had six different problems but that reflects their system of signing the problem off as soon as they put the phone down.
We basically have a phone line you can’t hear for the static and a broadband speed last measured at 0.01Mb/s (its so bad even the hamsters at STW fall asleep making a connection). I can’t fault the customer service people for politeness, empathy etc but resolving the issue doesn’t seem to be a strong point. We did get an engineer out last week but he couldn’t do anything because the diagnostic kit in the exchange isn’t working. We are as sure as we can be its not something at our end (all the cables (phone and data) have been changed twice, and we’re on our sixth ADSL filter (none of which made a blind bit of difference)).
We do live in a village but we’re no where remote (unless your definition of remote is anywhere beyond crawling distance of a tube station and a Starbucks). The kids can’t do their homework, which according to the school is our problem because part of the ’school contract’ is a reliable broadband connection, and work is difficult because picking up emails or sharing data is virtually impossible .
Does anyone have any tips for getting things resolved this year without resorting to violence?
When I was struggling with BT issues earlier in the year somone on here gave me the email of the CEO which when I put the complaint to them got a decent response from the complaints dept - not somone just reading from a script. Have a look in my history on here and you will probably find the thread and email address
Thanks, I’ll do that
I had some success using Twitter but that was some time ago (9 years :-0 )
No. We had issues with broadband cutting out when the phone went. They insisted it wasn't a fault their end so we agreed for them to send an engineer to come out and if the fault was our end, it'd be a 150 fee.
He came out, changed the facing on the plug and it worked. Fair enough.
Internet worked but then there was static on the line afterwards. They insisted it was not their end and it must be our phone and they could send engineer out again but would be another 150 quid.
Now with talk talk. Significantly cheaper, internet doesn't drop out at all and phone is ok.
Also, more my fault, after the offer period had ended we were getting charged 59 quid for line rental and standard broadband. I didn't notice this for a couple of months. Oops.
I'll always shop around now and never go back to BT.
I too have had success by emailing the Chief Exec direct - Gavin Patterson
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/bills-and-utilities/phone/bt-make-customer-services-listen-complaint/
They insisted it wasn’t a fault their end so we agreed for them to send an engineer to come out and if the fault was our end, it’d be a 150 fee.
^^ this
The critical bit is you agreeing to get Openreach to call round
In our case they visited after 3 weeks and confirmed our end was OK. About a week later they parked up the road by the green junction box, knocked on the door and asked if it was still playing up. Matey opens junction box, he's in there literally 5 minutes, knocks on our door again and says it should be ok now. Been fine ever since.
Sorry I can't offer any help but would like to just add: after my experiences with them I will never ever go back to BT, by some margin the worst company I've ever had to deal with
The critical bit is you agreeing to get Openreach to call round
They’ve been round unfortunately the diagnostic kit in the exchange isn’t working so they couldn’t do anything other than establish the kit at our end is fine.
Does anyone know whether ADSL filters get fried by line faults? As i said putting a new one in improves the static for a day or so but this could be BT resetting the line each time. After a couple of days we’re back to square one.
I had virtually the same problem which continued for 6 years . Customer services were particularly useless ,just repeatedly reading from a set menu,and the ongoing continual problem was never fixed.Finally an Openreach engineer told the truth and said we had a rotten underground line which it would take Openreach years to get round to replacing and it was pretty pointless persevering with it.
Had they been upfront from the start we would have had it disconnected years ago.
Sorry I can’t offer any help but would like to just add: after my experiences with them I will never ever go back to BT, by some margin the worst company I’ve ever had to deal with
+1
BT ended up putting a derogatory on my credit report which I had to get removed. BT could have done it but they didn't.
I reckon I wasted about 15 hours on the phone to them
When we moved house last we eventually got given the number of a UK based 'elite' call centre after my wife broke down in frustration on the phone to India for the 36th time...
BT's 'elite' call centre understood the problem immediately, explained the problem to us and sorted it in about 5 minutes.
So BT do have a competent call centre that you can get to if your sobbing and hysteria fulfil some sort of criteria.
Mind you Vodafone are as bad IMHO.
as above, if you manage to complain enough and loud enough there is a small department staffed by people who actually know what they are doing. I had a named individual who emailed me directly from her work email (not a generic address) and actually phoned back with updates when she promised. Then she offered me compensation and a follow up deal when it was all resolved.
BT’s ‘elite’ call centre understood the problem immediately, explained the problem to us and sorted it in about 5 minutes.
We’ve got beyond that, had the speech about the additional diagnostic kit they have access to, the last call centre I would need to call etc etc. The fix lasted four days just the same as every other re-set. The focus seems to be to force everyone onto fibre (with the additional line rental) by not maintaining the existing kit. We are getting on for a mile from the box (we are not but that’s the length of cable between us and the box - someone must have had a particularly good break before routing the cable) so I can’t imagine we are going to get anything approaching the speed we would be paying extra for.
I had a named individual who emailed me directly from her work email (not a generic address) and actually phoned back with updates when she promised. Then she offered me compensation and a follow up deal when it was all resolved.
I'd forgotten the 'named individual bit'. What a difference that made
We’ve got beyond that, had the speech about the additional diagnostic kit they have access to, the last call centre I would need to call etc etc. The fix lasted four days just the same as every other re-set.
Oh dear, sorry!
If there's noise on the line, push it as a phone problem not broadband. They have to fix that ASAP.
I've had noise problems a number of times and it will cause the line to drop at times. Each time it's been an issue with the cabinet. I've also had a couple of times now the voice part of the line totally dead. Again the cabinet and both times shortly after an engineer had been seen fiddling with the cabinet.
I'm with PlusNet and while it's BT owned now I get great results through their support forum. They push it through BT to sort it out properly, whereas going through the official support to raise tickets with BT drags on forever.
Does anyone know whether ADSL filters get fried by line faults? As i said putting a new one in improves the static for a day or so but this could be BT resetting the line each time. After a couple of days we’re back to square one.
Have you got a filter than plugs into a socket, or is it a faceplate on the master socket with an ADSL socket?
Now with talk talk. Significantly cheaper, internet doesn’t drop out at all and phone is ok.
Oh god! You're damn lucky it works, but if ever there's an issue, you're with the number 1 worst ISP in the UK for customer service. Universally hated.
On switching though, did they send an engineer out and/or did they give you a new router? Likely they fixed the problem but it still could have been in your home (inc router which is basically your problem if you pay for the router, though ISP's problem if they effectively loan it to you, like cable companies do).
It all goes through the same wiring to the exchange, owned by BT and further BT equipment in the exchange unless it's an unbundled service. Connection drops are rarely to do with the ISP (except BT), but the wiring, exchange/cabinet or home equipment.