Poor service from BT - could I cancel?

ACC_B

Hi,
We switched to BT from Virgin Media in July. Part of the reason was the poor customer service we got from VM.
However, we now have found ourselves without a telephone line for almost a week and although we do still have broadband (ADSL - don't understand how), the speed has dropped from 10-11 mb/s down to 1 mb/s which is useless for streaming - meaning BT Sport, Netfix, NowTV are all unavailable.
My biggest concern is how long it's taking to fix a fundamental problem, and also how little explanation or update there has been. I've used online chat to raise the fault, but had little by way of explanation.
Could I get out of the 12-month contract on account of poor service - due to losing services for 1 week, after ony 7 weeks?

Thanks.

[Deleted User]

No, give them time to fix it then ring up complaints for refund.. have you ruled out problem not in your house as if it is then expect a 130 pounds bill...

brewerdave

If you haven't got a working phone line but have got some internet connectivity, then, most likely one of the two wires carrying the voice signals is broken . Could be literally anywhere from your house back to the local cab. Since you were with Virgin I presume that you had a new BT line installed ? Or did they just reactivate an "old" line ??

ACC_B

Thanks for the replies.
We were pretty confident the problem was outside - although our BT line from pre-VM Cable days had been resurrected and hadn't been in use for MANY years.
Turns out we were right. The repair has now been made, and apparently the problem was caused by an engineer working nearby who pulled a cable too hard and disrupted a number of lines, including ours!
Waiting for a follow-up call, at which point I'll ask what compensation is on offer. As I mentioned above, the biggest problem was not knowing what, if any, action was being taken.

brewerdave

Sorry -but if its a standard home line (not on a business contract) then the best you will get is compensation for downtime based on a straight calculation of days lost. ESPECIALLY as you are not in a position to leave BT (in a minimum time tie in)