Urgent help needed re O2 broadband cheating me

jatindersaini

Hi
Thanks in advance

I have been with O2 broadband (£17.5/month) for 4 months. Before signing up I was told that because of my proximity to telephone exchange, I will be getting more than 6 MBPS. However I have been getting between 1-2 MBPS only most of the time.

On my repeated questioning I would be told that BT is upgrading the system and it will be soerted. Off-course, it never happened. Last month I was told it will be sorted on 13th of Jan and was given offer of 1 month's fee waiver or I could negotiate it after the problem is sorted on 13th. But it never got sorted.

I called them today. They are still blaming BT saying they have taken BT to Ofcom. But despite agreeing that they are not giving what they promised, they are refusing the compensation and not letting me terminate the contract.

I will appreciate advice on how to proceed from here.

Thanks for reading

kaisersoze_2

The speed they give is just an estimate but it is supposed to be close to what you will actually get. The infrastructure if unbundled is run and upgraded by BT so O2 are probably giving you the dates thay have received thats why they have reported them.

£17.50 seems high for 6 meg, their lowest one is upto 8 meg and only £7.50, i think you should at least get the package changed as you dont need to be on the highest one i wouldnt have thought

magictom123

the thing with all of these broadband providers is that they use clever wording when advertising their products. Although oviously annoying and frustrating, it probablys in your contract they will provide upto xx mb - with upto being the operative word.

So, if thats the case and I guess thats the reason they wont discuss compo I would play them at their own game and tell them you are reporting them to OFcom and trading standards. o2 do use BT lines for their connections so I guess in some way they are tied down to what BT can offer in terms of line speed. Having said that, surely this would and could have been checked before you signed up with them contacting BT and doing a line test.

So, no real answers but good luck as I had similar problems with orange broadband not ptoviding a service and it was a nightmare to get it sorted.

DatabaseError

£17.50 is the charge for O2 access, after discount.
you need to get your stats (connection speed, attenuation and SNR) from our router, it is quite possible the problem is not O2, or BT, but your wiring

kaisersoze_2

DatabaseError wrote: »

£17.50 is the charge for O2 access, after discount.

Is that if its not been unbundled by O2?

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You could try this site http://www.samknows.com/broadband/checker2.php

moonrakerz

jatindersaini wrote: »

I was told that because of my proximity to telephone exchange, I will be getting more than 6 MBPS. But despite agreeing that they are not giving what they promised, they are refusing the compensation and not letting me terminate the contract.

I feel that somehow your post doesn't give the true picture,
"I will be getting............................ ........................ what they promised"

Do you have any of this in writing ? It is likely that you signed up to an "up to 8mbs" type deal.
O2 are not going to make "promises" about the quality of service they can provide when (as is probably the case here) when they are totally reliant on some one else's infrastructure.
The main factor in broadband speed is the distance you are from the exchange and the quality of the line connecting you to it. O2 will have absolutely no control over either of those factors - I really don't think that they would contractually "promise" to deliver a certain speed to you. I agree that "up to" can be a little misleading and the ISPs could be perhaps a little more helpful in providing future customers with a better estimate of what speeds they are likely to achieve.

I am with O2 on an "up to 16mbs" deal. My local exchange is LLU, which means that some of the equipment providing my broadband now belongs to O2 - but the copper wire from the exchange to my house still belongs to BT.
Perhaps my BT copper wire is in better condition than yours - why blame O2 ?

DatabaseError

kaisersoze wrote: »

Is that if its not been unbundled by O2?

yep...iirc £22.50 -£5 discount

Sponge

why blame O2 ?

Playing Devil's advocate:

Because it's O2 the customer is paying to provide the service, not BT? If O2 also made promises about the level of that service, again it's their responsibility, not BT's.

If I buy a TV from a retailer and it goes wrong, it's the retailer that's responsible, not the manufacturer. If the retailer sells said TV as having a particular feature and one's decision to purchase is based on that reported feature and it doesn't have it, it's again their fault, not the manufacturer's.

Quentin

Thing is this hasn't gone wrong!

The op gets what he is paying for - the product (o2 Access) is advertised as:

O2 Home Broadband Access has a download speed of up to 8 meg

Quentin

DatabaseError wrote: »

yep...iirc £22.50 -£5 discount

The current charge is £22.02/month. O2 customers get £4.89 discount making it £17.13.

DatabaseError

^oh well...only slightly out...I blame vat