BT Broadband - 255kbs Speed - £24.99 per month

[Justy]

Hi Guys and Gals,

I need some help here. Been with BT for 2 weeks - Paid £129 for the line to be activated cause I've just moved into a new property and all because I wanted broadband. I called bt and was advised that the speed would be aprox 1/4 of a meg and the charge was £24.99 per month... my initial reaction was not a chance but the advisor talked me into it cause 'we (bt) have been having probs with our speed prediction software' and she assured me that the engineer would work to get us a better speed... she even went on to say that if I wasn't happy with the speed that I could cancel. I checked my speed today and got 45kbs... and then it went up to 156kbs so I foned Bt to cancel and was going to phone sky for free broadband but have now been informed that the advisor gave me the wrong info and the broadband cant be cancelled as I'm within contract and that they expect me to pay £24.99 for such an awful service...

does any1 have any suggestions of what I could do??? I'm at a real loss here....

[Paul K]

Should be a cooling off period for the contract, with Sky it's 8 days, if you are outside of that you will have to go through an official complaints procedure and state you were miss-sold the service. If possible though you should always check your lines capacity before even thinking of ADSL as so much can impact it including distance from exchange, condition of line etc.
What do you get if you put your info in here?
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php

[Justy]

that website wouldnt work for me so tried this one
http://www.broadbandchecker.co.uk/broadband-checker.php
it says that my line should support up to 2mg but unbundled broadband up to 16mg was available... whats unbundled?
I guess I'm going to have to go down the official complaints process!?! Bt are rip offs!

[Paul K]

The broadbaand checker site you have used only gives you the companies that operate on your exchange and their maximum potential throughput. You need to use
http://www.kitz.co.uk/adsl/adslchecker.php
or a similar site to actually see what speed you can get on your line in relation to the distance from exchage etc.
http://www.adslchecker.bt.com/pls/ad...hecker.welcome was pretty accurate for my line. If your line cannot take a high speed ADSL service then it's more to do with quality of line and distance from exchange than anything but you should have either checked your line capabilities before ordering.

[Justy]

I contacted BT again today and asked to cancel again - this time with the sales rep. she advised that she would need to put me thru to tech support to see if they could help first, then if thats unsuccesful they will cancel it. The tech guy had me take the front panel off my BT telephone socket and try connecting the phone line directly to the phone socket behind (the master socket) but it was a silent tone.... my speed has now 1/2'd again meaning I'm getting 1/8 mg now..... ahhhhh! The tech guy said 'whatevers happened sir I can see that you have just dropped from 6mg to 3mg... thats not good'... ur tellin me (I wish i was gettin 6 mg to begin with) aparently this has never happened before so they think its a problem with the installation! They're sending an engineer out tomorrow morning to look at it but I'm really not confident! I'm about to give up!

[Paul K]

Your speed would have been adjusted to whatever your line could support without errors, unless they find a fault on the line your speed may not improve.

[Justy]

Sorry Paul, what do u mean? I thought I just received the highest possible speed at any givin time....? The tech guy said he checked to see if i was bein traffic shaped but wasn't... this is all kinda new unusual ground to me... if i change from bt can i get dsl max... it says it's available in my area and on my exchange....

[Paul K]

Your line will only support a maximum speed which is based on your distance from exchange, quality of line, quality of equipment on line and contention to name but a few things. Your ADSL service will have adjusted when you first connected to the router by finding the best possible speed without errors or stability issues, there is no point your line running at 16Mb if it is actually corrupting all the data that is being sent/ received.
To know what you are likely to get we would need to know your attenuation level, distance from exchange etc. The link to adsl kitz will give you a good estimate of your speed, if you are too far from exchange moving to ADSL max will make no difference as your line may not support it.

You sure this is not BT accidently putting you on the 288k/288k package as they keep "accidently" doing to customers as of late...

[Paul K]

Thats happening quite a bit to Sky connect users at the mo.

[Justy]

Originally Posted by TraxData

You sure this is not BT accidently putting you on the 288k/288k package as they keep "accidently" doing to customers as of late...

Well, the engineer called and we're still not further on... he came out and fixed the line - not that there was anything wrong with he telephony side of our service but there is now - it's really tinny when we speak, but to be honest I can live with that!. I called up to demand that the service be disconnected and spoke with the sales rep who sold it to me and confirmed 'Vivian, you did tell me that if the speed wasn't up to scratch that you would be able to cancel it' and she (quote) 'yes sir, that's right... I can remember our conversation... you'll have to leave it with me, the only peolple that can cencel a service is tech support'. I waited and got a call back to say that they wont cancel it. I fought tooth and nail and now have a broadband engineer visiting us tomorrow because according to BT there is a problem with our broadband - according to them there is something showing on our line meaning that we will experience a slow connection. Pat - the tech guy we spoke to said if this doesn't resolve the issue we will be able to cancel - yet again another promise that we can cancel if we're not happy but I'm not holding my breath..... ahhhhhh!!!! I am honestly sooo unhappy with this. Ran a test just after the engineers visit and it was running at 56kbps. I ran the test again and got 150kbps, then again 360, then back to 109kbps.... it's just not good enough.

[Kellargh]

I signed up with BT, and within the same week I wanted to cancel due to the terrible service I received. I wasn't allowed to cancel and was told to pay my total contract if I wanted to leave.

I'm sick and tired of them, the worst company I have ever been with. Every day my connection drops and cuts off, I've had 4 engineers out who haven't done anything and say it's fine when it clearly isnt. I used to get speeds of up to 3mb but recently it drops to 0.5mb and disconnects. Tests show that its coming from the line itself and not my equipment - the bt homehub.

If only I could get cable...BT is an utter shambles!!

[Paul K]

Should have been a cooling off period in the contract, with Sky BB its 8 days from connection to service or delivery of router which ever is later.

Most companies have atleast 7 - 10 - 30 days to cancel check your contract should have the info on there

[Justy]

Guys, I'm really at a loss here.... Had the BT engineer out and he said that the extensions that the builders installed when the house was built were to blaim and with them removed i should be getting 5.5mb but hey ho I'm gettin just over 1 mg at times then 400kbps at times... still unhappy cause most times its around the 400kbps mark and it's 24.99 per month and they wont cancel it!

I'm thinkin about askin for a cancellation - regardless of the fee and then takin it up with the cancellations dept cause i'm not payin it... that way i should be free to move to another provider as long as i pay the phone line rental????? Right?????

If there are any BT employees out there that can help me pleaase private message me... I'm in Northern Ireland if that makes any difference... ur help would be greatfully appreciated!!! x