BT BROADBAND AND HUB

[gingergalore]

I so wish I'd stayed with IDNET. Oh dear me - this is my tale of woe (only here because my sister has allowed me to use her wifi)
BT has to be the most inefficient service provider in the country. I was supposed to be switching to their widely advertised broadband but have had no connection since they switched off my original provider. The only reason I am on here today is because I had to travel to my sister's house to "borrow" her Virgin connection.
Monday 11 July - b'band switched off and then landline went off too. Had to use my mobile to call the service dept. My house phone rang - it was a woman in the next street ringing her landline to check it was working. Openread engineer had crossed our lines. Service dept said engineer would visit Wednesday morning - so that's 2 days after losing b'band.
Tuesday 12 July - engineer arrived to correct phone line, but he could do nothing about b'band and told me to call them again. Eventually reported at 5.30pm.
Wednesday 13 July - BT rang me at 7.10pm to say b'band engineer would be here in the morning of Friday 24 July.
Friday 15 July - day 5 of the saga - engineer rang at 7.15 am and woke me to say he was on his way. Arrived at around 8am and spent 3.5 hours between my house and the junction box. Finally he suggested that the hub itself was at fault and to ring for a replacement. Trying to get any reply from the automated system took forever. The selection of "call back" or "wait in queue" just disconnected the call. Rang "new customer" number in desperation and after 22 minutes spoke to a human. They gave me yet another number to ring and finally got a replacement hub ordered but it would be at least 2 working days. Do they even know what that is?
Monday 18 July - Day 8 - Replacement hub delivered by Royal Mail. Connected it up and it failed - what a surprise. Helpline cuts off numerous times so rang another number. Held on for 13 minutes before someone spoke to me and they transferred me to engineering/fault dept. and after a 32 minute call another engineer was booked for THURSDAY morning.
Thursday 21 July - day 11 - no engineer appeared. 1.15pm I started ringing BT and the woman told me to ring the update number. This is just a recorded message about which areas have problems. Eventually managed to find a number which let me speak to someone and he said the booking hadn't been completed properly and he would get an engineer to me on Friday afternoon.
Friday 22 July - day 12 - As I had a dental appointment which I couldn't cancel, my old mum came to "house sit" in case the engineer needed access to my phone line. No-one came. No phone call of apology, nothing.
Saturday 23 July - day 13 - Rang BT at 7.15 am - thought I might be in with a chance of a short call rather than hanging on for an hour or so at a time. Now ANOTHER engineer is booked for Monday am which will be DAY 15 !!! I won't hold my breath What a ruddy shower they all are.

[Simon]

Sorry to hear of your problems.   Hope they manage to sort things soon.   

[Clive]

Sadly, almost everyone has a tale of woe regarding BT.  They are a truly dreadful company. 

[mervl]

Sadly, almost everyone has a tale of woe regarding BT.  They are a truly dreadful company. 

Dunno. Would BT be any better if they called themselves something else, or got taken over (I think Germans telecomms were talked about at one stage)? Their legacy (both administratively and technically) is awful from their time in the public sector as the GPO (anyone remember?), and they were privatised in one big lump which didn't help. I suspect too as always with the internet, we hear of the problems but not when things work. And the changes in regulation over the years has tied them up in knots. How can you run a business if someone else is forever doing it for you, and moving the goalposts? An example, I think, is the way until post 2000 they were prevented from providing domestic fibre-based services? Why? That was when they should have been laying the foundations for the future. I suspect it was to do with protecting the cable companies, whatever had happened to most of them? Their roll out had stalled.

So BT has an awful reputation, but what do we expect? I think as with anyone who is not master in their own house, they end up doing what they can (or are told), not what they should. And in my experience they are far from alone in that the more they tell their local staff what to do, the more they do something different. It seems to be a British (or perhaps, even European) trait. And above everything else, money doesn't grow on trees. Most of us, BT included, have to cut our suit to fit our cloth. The rail network is much the same, and I don't find many good words for them, either. Too much regulatory interference, and an industry that is a traditional mess, there too.  It's easier to look good when you can pick and choose your business (see Sky). And avoid too much to do with the regulator. BT's history is one of trying to dance around the regulator pulling the strings, and escape its clutches when it can (BT Sport). I suspect the admin (outside billing) is the cinderella, but how do you get a consistent level of service across several hundred exchange teams? Tesco and the rest can't do it in their shops, and they just take it and sell it; they don't make it too.

I wonder too what our customers really think of us? However wonderful we think we are. When I was working I had to participate in what seemed like endless surveys, and if I confess, i wasn't truthful in any of them. Principally because i knew how they would be abused.

[zappaDPJ]

What I find hard to comprehend is why I got away with not having a single outage (except one planned exchange upgrade for which I received prior notification) or any other problems at all for many years with my first ISP, Global Internet. Since then (the last 10 years or so) it's true to say that not a week goes by without having some problem occurring. This was last night.



I gave up trying to work from home via the Internet so it's now just an inconvenience when it goes down but I'd say compared to any/all other service our telecoms infrastructure is a hundred fold worse for none delivery. Imagine the outcry if our power or water supplies failed on a weekly basis.

[Baz]

Well I have to say that BT are fine for me, been with them for over a year now and I cant complain to the extent that every one else seems to. Yes i've had minor issues at the start but they were very quickly sorted with good follow up service and ongoing calls from the technical department keeping me informed to how things were going. I have fibre/landline/tv and now mobile all are good. Who hasnt had any bother to some degree with any provider...it happens. I bet the vast majority of IDNet customers have had bother while been with them, I know I did on a few occasions. I'm not saying IDNet are bad just that any provider gets problems. If they were all the size of BT we would be hearing stories on the scale we do about BT.

I sometimes wonder if the BT thing is geographical...some places affected more than others

[Clive]

The difference is that IDNet usually sort things out very quickly and you get to speak with someone who speaks English.  When I used to complain to BT I couldn't understand a word they said!   

[Baz]

If you ask for a uk based centre with BT they put you through...always works for me.