BT - utter rubbish

[Russ]

I mentioned my recent troubles with BT in the Pet hates thread but it's become so bad now that it needs it's own thread to warn people away from such a galactically abysmal company.

2 weeks ago I was taken in by their advert for the Home Hub. Up to 8 meg service, unlimited downloads, discounted for 6 months, yeah that sounded ok so I signed up. It all arrived on 23rd February. I plugged it all in...and nothing. No connection.

OK, I knew it could come on any time throughout the day so I waited. I called their Indian tech support who told me it would be on by 8. 8 came and went so I called them back.

"No-problem-Mr-Russ-it-will-be-on-by-10pm-thank-you-please" were his exact words. So I waited til 10, nothing. Called again, was told it would be on by midnight. Guess what.

The next morning I called them at 7pm. And 7.15. And 7.30. In fact by 11am I'd spoken to 17 different people and I was given 17 different reasons why my broadband wouldn't work.

Finally, by some cosmic stroke of good fortune Igot through to a UK based support depertment called the UK Transfers team. The guy took one look at my situation and said "That's easy, the problem is at the exchange".

Why couldn't the 17 idiots I'd previously spoken to tell me that?

Anyway they sent someone out to the exchange who sorted out the issue.

Happy days! Don't be daft. Still nothing.

After more rubbish from India, it turns out I have a crossed line which is causing the connection problem. I was told an engineer would be called out to sort it out, he'd need to gain access to my property. Fine I said, here's my mobile number for him to call to let me know he's coming. This was tuesday of last week.

On the thursday (1st March) I had a missed call and a voicemail from the engineer saying he'd tried to gain access but I wasn't in. Well duh - I was in work, no-one told me he'd be coming on the thursday which I wouldn't have accepted as I was in work. On the friday I called back up to arrange another visit for today.

Guess what.

By 4pm I had to call them up. "I'm sorry sir there's no record of an appointment booked today".

[expletive deleted]
[and again]
[and again]
[and again]

As I type this I've just come off the phone to BT again who have told me someone will call me tomorrow morning to chase this up. I'm not holding out much hope. If I don't get my broadband on in the next 7 days (along with a very attractive sweetner to keep me with them after all the crap I've put up with) then they can shove their BB home hub where the sun doesn't shine.

[AntiSilence]

Originally Posted by Russ B

The next morning I called them at 7pm

In the morning? At 7pm? That's a good trick Russ! I know you're in Wales but that's just silly!

[handyman]

Originally Posted by Russ B

snip

The thing is its all outsourced rubbish. At least at ntl with cablemaster even the numpton faults staff could book on a tech.

[Kellargh]

See, know I can only get 1mb from the crappy BT exchange, and ever since they've given me the Home Hub all I'm getting is 0.2mb!!!!!

Ive had a gut-full of BT, its always excuses, a PC with 3 hard drives and one guy claimed it my PC's fault because it's slow :O

Any ideas? They also told me 'oh, wait for 10 days and it will be fine!' I'll be phoning on Friday to tell them where to shove it if it still doesn't work...

[Jules]

Seems that BT have not improved since the days that I was with them.

I've had scarcely any problems with my phone line since I joined Nynex all those years ago in final disgust at BT's haphazard connections and inflated bills.I see no reason to go back to them unless I suddenly lose cable or move.even then I'll do my utmost to find an alternative.

[Paul K]

Try emailling your complaint to this guy
ben.verwaayen@bt.com
He hates failures that impact customers and their perception of BT as a company

[handyman]

Paul sent me that email address and I can confirm that It goes directly to bens blackberry and I got a responce within 5 mins, then a responce 2 mins later from the head of bt business.

[Russ]

Yesssss!!! I have my MAC code! Well not quite, apparently they're having 'difficulties' in generating them tonight

The guy I spoke to said he'll email me the code tomorrow - after all the problems I've had with BT agents lying to me and giving misleading rubbish, I'll believe it when I see it.

Oh and by the way, Ben replied to me within about 10 minutes - nice one Ben if you're reading this - but I get the impression it'll all be too late.

I'm getting download speeds of 700kbps now (by the way, tach support told me that by tomorrow it'll be around 2Mb) and if I plug my Vario 2 in to my pc, I get 900kbps. Work that one out

[Tezcatlipoca]

Originally Posted by Kellargh

See, know I can only get 1mb from the crappy BT exchange, and ever since they've given me the Home Hub all I'm getting is 0.2mb!!!!!

Ive had a gut-full of BT, its always excuses, a PC with 3 hard drives and one guy claimed it my PC's fault because it's slow :O

Any ideas? They also told me 'oh, wait for 10 days and it will be fine!' I'll be phoning on Friday to tell them where to shove it if it still doesn't work...

Have a read of....

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/socket.php

Should help if noise is a factor.


Although that won't help if it's your attenuation.... can't improve that (unless you move next to the exchange lol )

Originally Posted by Russ B

Yesssss!!! I have my MAC code! Well not quite, apparently they're having 'difficulties' in generating them tonight

Don't forget to keep at them if they don't give you the MAC. Under the new OFCOM rules, ISPs *have* to provide one within 5 working days of request, & cannot charge you for it...

[Russ]

And as if this 2-bit company couldn't get any worse, I had an automated phone call off them at 2am this morning telling me my fault had been fixed.

Oh how lovely of them to be so determined to give me the good news that they couldn't care that I was sound asleep at the time

[Salu]

There's enough material on this forum for a 12 part sit com I think...

[Paul K]

Originally Posted by Russ B

And as if this 2-bit company couldn't get any worse, I had an automated phone call off them at 2am this morning telling me my fault had been fixed.

Oh how lovely of them to be so determined to give me the good news that they couldn't care that I was sound asleep at the time

Just means it was fixed late by the engineers, as you said it was an automated message which would have been triggered by the closure of the fault. Looks like the engineers were working late to sort something.
Nice to see Ben still answers his emails lol

[dragon]

Originally Posted by Kellargh

See, know I can only get 1mb from the crappy BT exchange, and ever since they've given me the Home Hub all I'm getting is 0.2mb!!!!!

Ive had a gut-full of BT, its always excuses, a PC with 3 hard drives and one guy claimed it my PC's fault because it's slow :O

Any ideas? They also told me 'oh, wait for 10 days and it will be fine!' I'll be phoning on Friday to tell them where to shove it if it still doesn't work...

would suprise me if it was a faulty homehub to me if another modem can get 1mbit +
Either use another router or tell BT you think the homehub is faulty and can they send you another one.

[Russ]

As it stands right now I'm just waiting for Tiscali to swap my line over to them, and hopefully I'll be away from BT for good.

Apparently I can only get a maximum of 2mb at my house BT still want to charge me the full £26 per month for the 8Mb service whereas Tiscali to a 2mb service for £15 - makes much more sense to me. Hopefully the switch over will go ahead this week.

Saying that I've has plenty of grovelling emails and phone calls from BT which sadly is locking the gate after the horse has bolted.