Feel like I’m getting diddled by BT.

wild666

Stu_Wilkie wrote: »

Hey guys,

I'm currently admist a dispute with BT over the installation of my router and was looking for some advice. A fairly lengthy post follows...

On 26/01/18, we had a visit from one of their engineers to install the connection into our property. Whilst setting up, he gave us the option of locating the router in one of two locations - second floor or third floor. As our property is spread over three floors, the engineer advised us that the best location for it in terms of it's wireless connectivity would be on the second floor (middle floor). Having only amateur knowledge ourselves, we agreed and he went ahead and finished the installation.

After he left, we discovered that we could not connect to the router wirelessly anywhere in the property apart from the room that it is located in (which we are rarely in). If we do get a connection, it's horribly slow and frequently disconnects from devices. We contacted BT customer service for advice and were informed of the '10 day stabilisation' period, which gives the connection time to stabilise. We are knowledgeable enough to realise that this was not the problem. However, we decided to give the 10 days a shot just to see if things did in fact ‘stabilise'.

After the 10 day period elapsed, things were still predictably the same. We took it upon ourselves to diagnose the issue by purchasing a telephone extension cable and moving the router to the third-floor landing (the other choice the engineer gave us initially) and voilà, a stable connection throughout the entire property.

We contacted BT customer service again to inform them of this but they said that nothing could be done and in order to rectify the issue (move the router permanently to the new location) they would charge us £130 for the pleasure. Furthermore, we are now obviously well over the 14-day threshold to cancel the contract for free, so we are locked into a fairly large monthly payment for a largely unusable service, and the only way to rectify it is to pay even more.

The fact that their engineers can just plonk down a router anywhere and just leave without any sort of testing routine, is a disgrace. It is so sloppy and unprofessional.

Not sure what we should do.
Thanks in advance.

One question! How old is the line coming into the property? By that I mean from the pole to your box, I had a similar experience with numerous callouts until I told them what was wrong. The wire from the pole to the box in the flat was put in well before broadband was available, around the 70's, so he spent 3 hours changing the line and I got the desired speed ever since.

The other thing is the building could be old and and solidly built so your interior walls block WI-FI signals so you need Boostersall over the place

Stu_Wilkie

Just to update this thread...

After actually emailing Gavin Patterson (CEO) and getting through to some mystical 'excecutive level' support team, they managed to move the socket at no cost to me. It was after a bit of back and forth but they done it in the end. Thank christ.

Additionally, the guy who came out to do it informed me that the old socket was ancient and they really should have changed it the first time they installed the line, or informed me at the very least.

Anyway, there it is, case closed.