BT broadband are driving me mad

Treesie

2 weeks ago we were informed by BT that we could receive broadband. The router arrived last Tuesday. We set it up. no broadband. We called the helpline about this and the quality of our line which was put underground by BT 17 years ago (we are the only property this serves) and they said there was a fault and an engineer would visit. We had a call from an engineer who was at the exchange and he said that the old copper line underground did not help. An engineer came out on Saturday said there was no reason we shouldn't have broadband except escept that BT had messed up the initial installation of our sockets and line to the outside wall. He cahnged this and bingo we had broadband....yippee. On Tuesday morning this wek at 9am it disappeard and never came back. Have waited in for two days as BT called to say an engineer was visiting. No one arrived on either day and no courtesy call. I called yesterday and today and to cut a very long story short have been told we cannot have broadband because we are too far from the exchange (despite the house beyond us on the same exchange has broadband with no issues) and if we want someone to look at the line because of the line problem we may get charged £127!!!

Two days lost, no reasoning why we had it now we don't even despite BT having a message on their system saying they have had severe broadband problems.

Fed up with Indian call centre reading scripts without understanding the issue at ground level, they told me today they wouldn't do anything more as I couldn't have it full stop and I needed to listen. Quite clearly if BT cared as much about customer service as they do profit margins theywould be a better company. Fustration is a mild word!

macman

Consider it a lucky escape from BT!
Try rechecking with a decent ISP as to whether you can get a service or not. I suggest you try the exchange mapping facility on www.samknows.com ,as that may give you an indication of speeds. See if you have any LLU options as these will be the best deals on your exchange.
NB: if there is a fault on your line then it is the responsibility of your line rental provider. You will NOT be charged a call out unless the fault is downstream of your master socket or unless you have damaged the line upstream yourselves (which is unlikely if it's underground).

Treesie

Thanks Macman, I'll take a look at that.
I called O2 this afternoon and they have said they can do a package but it depends on the quality of the line so I'm back trying to speak to Open Reach to check out this 17 year old copper line below the track to our home. ever decreasing circles comes to mind

pineapplefish75

It took Openreach 3 visits to my home before they would believe me that they needed to change the physical wire coming into the house it was only because the same Openreach guy came all 3 time's he couldn't believe what was going on he changed the line & hey gone from 1meg to 6.8meg & also i don't have line noise and constant resynch's when my phone rings.All BT wanted to say there was nothing wrong with the line & i would have to pay for them to come out,every lame !!!! excuse they could think of.

BT=Bl**dy To**ers

macman

Treesie wrote: »

Thanks Macman, I'll take a look at that.
I called O2 this afternoon and they have said they can do a package but it depends on the quality of the line so I'm back trying to speak to Open Reach to check out this 17 year old copper line below the track to our home. ever decreasing circles comes to mind

You cannot speak to OpenReach, you have to report a line fault to your line rental provider-OR do not deal with the public.
If you are considering O2 broadband, then make sure that this is the LLU service, not the dire O2 Access (non LLU).
But if you still have a physical line fault, then you need to get that sorted first by BT

pineapplefish75

You've got to get them to acknowledge that there is fault first,the amount of times they said my router,filters any excuse that came into call center robots head.Stick with it & dont give up

Treesie

macman wrote: »

You cannot speak to OpenReach, you have to report a line fault to your line rental provider-OR do not deal with the public.
If you are considering O2 broadband, then make sure that this is the LLU service, not the dire O2 Access (non LLU).
But if you still have a physical line fault, then you need to get that sorted first by BT

It is the BT fault person that told me to email Open Reach to try and get them to understand the situation to avoid any charges.

Pineapplefish, did they charge you for any of the visits? I have told then the first engineer commented on the line and that is where I am taking the lead from. I have no idea what state its in and neither do they. Apparently they couldn't test the quality of the line just before it goes underground as its attached to an electricity pole!

macman

That demonstrates the ineptitude of BT's call centres...you cannot be charged by OR for any work. They can charge BT Retail, it is then up to BT Retail whether to charge you. You have no contract with OR whatsoever.

Treesie

I have been on the website and you are absolutely correct. I cannot contact OpenReach, all the website does is refer you back to BT retail. What a complete waste of time. Why do these operators insist on giving us a frustrating runaround.

BT faults told us yesterday that it is the OpenReach engineer who decides whether or not a customer will be charged and that BT retail has no say in the matter. She actually said Open Reach are a totally different company with no ties to BT, that is not true they all belong to the same group.

I am about to call BT yet again this morning, I have a feeling it will be another hopeless task. OpenReach are due out Monday am. Its a great shame there isn't a BT representative on the forum who could offer some sane assistance.:(

Browntoa

Openreach are a seperate unit to the main part of BT so they are correct in what they are saying ,they seperated the computer systems etc and Bt Retail are trested the same as any other operator like Sky/O2.

There is a BT rep that posts on here and deals with problems

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/member.php?u=687371

they normally ask that you use the email address in their profile and link to this thread

Treesie

Thank you for that info. I've sent a mesage with a link to the contact details.

I did call BT again this morning but couldn't get through but went onto the website and sent an email. Hopefully there will be someone who can help.