Quickly check the speed of your broadband connection

nelly_2

^ yeah but they should then say -

Were flogging you a product that does exactly what it says on the tin, unless of course Doris next door is surfing Amazon for a new zimmer frame, then it'll only be half the speed but that wont get reflected in the bill we will still invoice you the same amount for a lesser service.

coensel

And that is exactly what they say, let's see and look what we get when going to the talk talk terms and conditions.

4.13 wrote:

We will try to give you the ‘download’ Transmission Speed that you have signed up for. This may be 8 mbps but we cannot guarantee that you will always be able to get this Transmission Speed. If we cannot provide you with the Transmission Speed you have signed up for, we will give you the next available lower Transmission Speed. The Transmission Speed may also change if you move house because they are dependent on your proximity to your local telephone exchange. You accept that ‘upload’ speeds will always be slower than ‘download’ speeds. We will provide
you with further details of these upon request.

There quite frankly is no guarantee (although I have to say, the mentioning of it is pathetically short).

I may as well start complaining to Garnier and Maybelline that my girlfriend is stilll getting older despite walking around in a constant film of cream.

With so many providers around, why complain? Just move to another, the prices are more or less identical anyway (ignoring these so called "free internet" options) and if you just move your customs away that hurts them most. But then, with all these external factors, you may find that the situation for you may be the same elsewhere.

deefadog

nelly, that's a fancy test page

I'm on with madasafish 8mb line, i get 3.5mb ish

nelly_2

^ Id just pay half the bill mate siteing half the performance as reason.

Its like buying a dozen eggs from Tesco and only getting 5.

coensel

And what if deefadog tries again a bit later? It is 9.00 am now so all your crazy neighbours are up and awake, the whole of the UK is getting into work and checking their emails and bookmarks, obviously speeds will be slower now.

Anyone tried to internet during the World Cup this year, it was practically impossible during match times as part of the network became noticably slower. Half the world was online.

So he pays 50% now and a 100% later this day? I am really interested to see how complaining will work, or even not paying as your contract states differently. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to see a solution to this, or at least more accurate speeds (BTs ADSL speedcheck tells you what your expected maximum speed is, and this needs to be applauded for being honest), I suppose you need to target specific providers with a large amount of complaints?

Nelly wrote:

Its like buying a dozen eggs from Tesco and only getting 5.

6 eh?

Mad_Marty

nelly wrote:

^ Id just pay half the bill mate siteing half the performance as reason.

Its like buying a dozen eggs from Tesco and only getting 5.

It's more like buying a car, but you never get to the top speed quoted by the manufacturer. This could be due to a number of things - the quality of the roads, the petrol you use etc.

Luggworm

[QUOTE=coensel

<snip>
[*]Copper quality of the line from BT Exchange to your house, I live a long way away from my exchange, and should not be able to get more then 3Mbit, but I am getting 5 - 6, this is likely to be the quality of the line.
<snip>

[/QUOTE]

In addition your local in house wiring can make a big difference as well. Dodgy extension wiring, and unfiltered outlets can seriously knock connection speeds. Also changing the front plate of your master socket to one with a built in filter can make a huge difference. (From 2.5 Mbps to 5Mbps for a friend of mine on a long line).

sllimk

I have to agree with nelly - these companies are using loopholes in the law to make false claims and smallprint to "cover their #*rses". You also find that threats to move to another service provider mean nothing to these companies as they make it extremely difficult to dump them and charge you for leaving.

I worked in the IT & telecoms field for a number of years and can tell you all telcos are crap. They all sell products before they have been fully developed. All they are concerned with is the ink drying on the contract and once they've got you, you can then put up with their poor service as the contract is heavily weighted in their favour and the difficulty and frustration in trying to opt out of any contract is daunting for individuals and even large companies.

This type of poor service and lack of respect is not just confined to telcos though, the majority of large corporates (e/g insurance companies, banks) provide services that basically say (reading between contract lines and experience of)-

"our marketing has conned you into thinking we're wonderful, you've signed up with us so put up with our poor service as the chances of you "escaping" are very remote due to the frustrating and difficult to negotiate hurdles we put in place to prevent you from leaving. Lifes tough kid - deal with it".

These companies should be seriously fined for their poor service - even if it puts them out of business!! This way we may find that a few decent companies will emerge who will treat their customers decently. Please don't mention monopolies -e.g. BT (they still are).

I don't want to get into a slanging match with the techies (or employees of these dreadful companies) among the community pointing out the reasons (already mentioned in this thread) for poor performance. My point is that we are all being treated abysmally and conned out of our hard earned money.

Most people are generally to busy (life is these days) to complain about these things as life is very hectic and it is stressful having to deal with these companies - something they are well aware of and rely on to retain business and avoid compensating customers.

Bertville

I'm on 4Mb with Telewest & got 3.939Mb download on the test with 363Kb upload. Pretty close to the maximum possible on my line.

cybersavvy

If you cannot get broadband, or the speed of connection you require for your needs, please complete the Access to Broadband Campaign Notspot survey at http://www.notspot.info

This information is being used to inform Ofcom, the government, the ISPs, and the media about the current state of Broadband Britain, and to discover solutions for all.

Speed tests such as http://www.toast.net and http://www.internetfrog.com are worth looking at too.

Support the campaign http://www.ABCampaign.org.uk to light the fibre in this country and bring true, affordable, ubiquitous, accessible broadband to this country. We are being left behind many other nations.