I am totally fed up with BT Broadband. On Monday at some point after 8am my broadband at home went down, I called their technical help line that evening at 7pm. I had already done a number of checks and tests and was fairly convinced the problem was with the line and not my PC’s or router.
It took the guy 5 mins to get the right phone number and I struggled to understand his accent at times. I was taken through a number of steps, most of which I had tried myself already. After 40 minutes I was put on hold while he went to talk to some one with more technical knowledge.
At this point the phone went dead!!!!!
I called back and immediately said I had just been cut on and informed them I had been through there fault finding script with another operator and wanted a line test conducted. He was having none of it and reverted to the same script the first operator had taken me through, I did not do the actions on the PC and simply gave the same answers I gave before but it still took 20mins! At this point he then said he could not do anything and would request a line test and they would call back the next day.
I requested a reference number for the call and he would not give it to me saying his Christian name would be all I required…yeah right!!! I argued for a while then gave up as I had been on the phone for over 2 hours at this point.
Next day no change on the line status and trying to call the faults line after I got home resulted in being on hold for over 30mins and then a guy trying to take me through the same fault script yet again. I refused to answer his questions and just asked over and over again what the results of the line test were. He could find no record of my query and submitted yet another line test request and said they would call back. Another hour on the phone!
Wednesday dawned and still no internet, I called again in the evening and again got the same fault script even though I said this is the third day of the problem and I have been on the phone for the best part of 6 hours. This guy would still not let me move away from the script so I said fine, lets go though it all again, at the end of which he said yes there is a problem with the line and it seems to be a stone lying on the line between the house and the exchange…..at this point I burst out in laughter and said that was pretty impressive seeing as you are in India and my house in over 2 miles from the exchange. How are you intending to find this stone and remove it?
He had no answer to this so I said I want a reference number for the fault, there must be one and I want it so I can check the next day with out going through all the pain of the fault script. He refused again to give it to me….I asked to speak to his supervisor.
After a 5 minute wait the supervisor came on the line and I said I want a reference number and a free phone number that I can call to get an update on how they are intending to fix the problem and when it will be fixed. He waffled on that it was not possible and he cannot say when it will be fixed. Fine I said, I want to speak to your manager.
He came on line and I explain my position and point of view, after 15minutes of toing and froing he finally gave me a free phone number and a reference number…..yes it did exist!!! Amazing!!
So today, still no internet and I have been promised a call by noon with an update. If not I will be straight on the phone to get an update and I have already said I want compensation for the outage and they must take into consideration the hours I have spent on the phone since Monday evening.
I feel really sorry for the guys sat in the call centre, it is not their fault and I was careful at all times to treat them with respect and when I started to complain I always said I am not complaining about them, rather their systems that they have to follow.
I am really looking forward to noon as I cant wait for them to miss that deadline so I really line up even more compensation!!!
Frustrated of Sussex!
Jerry
Jerry you are not alone! Watchdog did a piece on Broadband this week, and LOADS of unsatisfied customers, if you would like to take part in the survey it is here.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/broadband_survey.shtml (http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/broadband_survey.shtml)
So when they coming to dig up your garden to find "the Stone"! ;D
Have to say, touch wood, whistle and spin around 3 times, Orange, previously Wannadoo, previously Freeserve have been great, never had a prob (I shouldn't have typed that!) but I think I am maybe just lucky. They are not the cheapest but I am working on the principal that if it aint broke, don't fix it!
Good Luck on your quest!
be thankful you're not with NTL - they're even worse. Hoping service will improve now that Virgin have taken over - at least we get cheery letters now, even if we can't understand the 4 page monthly bills and fluctuating charges.
I migrated ISP's 2 weeks ago from Zen on a 2mb line to UKFSN max dsl but BT have kept my line capped on 2mb. Even a BT engineer said my line was being capped but diden't now how to uncap it.
Funny how quick they are to tell you your phone bill is due.
Sanders you should head on over to www.thinkbroadband.com some quite helpfull people on there who may be able to help you
>:(
Was on BT ages ago and it drove me MAD! Now I have Tesco Broadband (I know, spawn of the devil) and it has worked perfectly for nearly 2 years!
Jerry, you have my sympathy, but well done you for sticking to your guns!
DON'T GO WITH TALKTALK !!!!, THEY'RE CR*P, >:( >:( >:(
Quote from: manicscousers on March 01, 2007, 19:41:59
DON'T GO WITH TALKTALK !!!!, THEY'RE CR*P, >:( >:( >:(
Made me laugh out loud MS cos you've said it so many times - I think you have to tell us the story or maybe you have & I've missed it. :)
Jerry I can't believe you have wasted 6 hours of your life on the phone to BT - that would be some serious compensation due.
ok, marymary
get ready..april 2006..signed up with talktalk..all singing and dancing..cheaper, free(HUH) broadband..phone went on and we were told no free broadband in our area at the moment..
lost count of the number of phone calls about the modem.. august got a letter with our on line date..cancelled our ISP
September, got the modem..didn't work properly, will send you a new one, some of them were faulty
finally got on line again 23rd september
modem still not arrived to date, so many phone calls and e mails, never answered, written to the head bloke, no reply
free broadband not available in our area, no plans at present, modem's crap, we pay 70.00 if we cancel..I 've written to lots of people complaining and I'm still waiting for replies off most of them, very frustrated and will tell everyone..the modem goes off when it feels like, their security system's messed the computer up and we can't take it off
we're going to our eldest sons, he's a computer programmer, HE'll get it off!! ;D ;D
Quote from: mc55 on March 01, 2007, 15:01:09
be thankful you're not with NTL - they're even worse. Hoping service will improve now that Virgin have taken over - at least we get cheery letters now, even if we can't understand the 4 page monthly bills and fluctuating charges.
And now NTL have lost SKY, phoned up to see if i get a reduction in how much i pay for there TV package and guess what "owing to a technical fault we connot take your call". >:(
I signed up with Talk Talk last July and really haven't had much in the way of problems. Once in a while the connection goes down, but I can get right back on, so it's no big deal. - and I just love the free calls to my sister in Canada and my friend in Australia 8).
Just felt I should post a 'not all doom and gloom' opinion of Talk Talk :).
Tricia
our connecton goes off every time our e mail comes in..disconnects itself..no problems with the phone line to be fair.. :) also half way through putting posts on here, modem light goes red, we have to close down, unplug the modem..plug back in, connect, sometimes two or three times..feel like throwing it through the window >:(
Quote from: sandersj89 on March 01, 2007, 11:21:53
would call back. Another hour on the phone!
lying on the line between the house and the exchange…..at this point I burst out in laughter and said that was pretty impressive seeing as you are in India and my house in over 2 miles from the exchange. How are you intending to find this stone and remove it?
(http://img116.exs.cx/img116/1231/z7shysterical.gif)
thanks for that. brightened the day.
We've just absconded from UK Online to Orange.
long and short of it ..... UK Online = crap, Orange = not been disconnected yet.
boss in work having similar no service problems with Talk Talk.
ah 21st century don't you just love it.
;D
MS you are right TT do seem to be absolute c***p.
All this makes me yearn for the days of the GPO when exchanges had names & you pressed button B in the phone box to get your money back. :)
Any progress today sanders?
just been sent an offer from virgin..sounds good but I'm worried about taking something new on..will wait a bit and se if anyone has any problems first ???
I fortunately don't have BT as my ISP. It's bad enough dealing with BT Business Broadband on the firm's behalf. ::)
As for other ISPs, I have been with Pipex for 4 years - almost to the day - now, and I have been more than satisfied over that time. They often come in for criticism for customer service, but I have never found this to be a problem.
In fact I am considering switching to their 'all-in' Pipex Max + Anytime (http://www.pipex.co.uk/products/max/) product which includes 24/7 local and national calls, and up to 8Mb unlimited bandwidth** broadband, all for £27.49/month. (**There are restrictions on 'abnormal use' of course but this won't be an issue for me).
The only snag is that I am 7 months in to an 18 month BT Option 3 contract which I took out last August. Hopefully BT will be kind. ;)
That's what I did with Tiscali.
I had a 2mb connection and thought 8mb would be faster. It was slower and cost more and kept disconnecting. So they sent a new modem.
I rang the helpline so many times they were like family :o
In the end I rang BT and they said my line wasn't able to get 8mb yet although Tiscali said it was.
I am now back to 2mb and less cost, but I did get a £20 adjustment to pay for the calls to the technical helpline. Unfortunately I still get some disconnections.
I'd say have a look at your ISP's forums first - Tiscali's is full of people with problems. I wish I'd looked before I changed what was working OK.
Agree - if it aint broke...
Happy with BT!
Quoteauthor=manicscousers link=topic=28643.msg283913#msg283913 date=1172952938]
just been sent an offer from virgin..sounds good but I'm worried about taking something new on..will wait a bit and se if anyone has any problems first ???
Bear in mind that Virgin was previously NTL, who got one of the worst customer satisfaction ratings in the last Which? (Consumers Association) survey of ISP's. I'm not sure how quickly Virgin can turn this round so waiting would seem a sensible approach.
We started with Waitrose a couple of weeks ago, previously only had dial-up, and so far using both wireless and ethernet connections it seems to be working well.
We are with eclipse and have not had any problems.
We signed up with BT for our broadband in June on a 2 year contract. They have failed to understand the concept of paying on a monthly direct debit arrangement and have spent the last 6 months trying to set up a quarterly direct debit and then suspending our service after just 2 months cos we hadn't paid!
We eventually told them where to put their service ;D and then discovered that they'd only signed us up to a year's contract (which was lucky!)
My mum signed up with BT in february and only got a working service yesterday >:(
We've now signed up with Virgin and have no complaints so far :D ;D
ray's signed up with virgin, talktalk's got too much for him, he suffers with depression and it was, and I quote ' ' 'depressing the hell out of me'..can't say I blame him, seems ok at the moment, apart from our telephone number seems to have been a business before and we keep getting faxes!! :)