Broadband provider blackmail

Emerion

A few times a year our WiFi grinds to a halt. We think it’s caused by the wet/windy weather getting into a comms box on a telegraph pole on our property. In the past a previous broadband provider sent an engineer out who said it was our fault because the lower branches of a tree on our property could have reached this comms box in high winds. That cost us £120 as a penalty. We had the tree pruned, and we still get the WiFi problems as often as before. Now every time this fault occurs, our current provider seems to stall for time for a few days, and then says the only option is an engineer, who will fine us if he can find an excuse to do so, for example if our equipment is faulty. So because we don’t want to risk that again, we end up putting up with no service until the problem goes away (typically 2-3 weeks), during which time we are paying full price for nothing and maxing our our data allowance on our phones. This doesn’t seem right to me. I don’t understand how a provider can expect you to know if your equipment is faulty. It seems to be working, it’s probably the weather again, but we’re not engineers. I think it’s a devious way to get away with poor service. Does anyone know how to deal with this blackmail?

cajef

No provider guarantees WiFi coverage that is down to either your equipment or positioning of it, do you get problems when using an ethernet connection to any equipment.

Emerion

Hi, yes, we get very poor speeds even when we plug a laptop directly into the socket. We’ve done speed tests - usually they show no connection, or extremely slow, about one in 10 shows normalish speeds.

JJ_Egan

Next time it starts switch wifi off and only use Ethernet .As said ISP do not give any predictions on wifi .
You need to monitor your incoming speeds not over wifi when its wet and windy and when its dry .


You may not be experts but experts can be sent out at a cost . Not your fault then no charge .


Who is this ISP ??
Have you complained about the poor non wifi speed tests .What is the speed/ IP at the router .

Gizmo247

BTW: It is the owner of the overhead wires that is responsible for pruning trees to ensure integrity of their service. This must be at their own expense, not yours; regardless of who owns the tree.

Enterprise_1701C

Next time it happens get an independent phone engineer out, he/she could track it down properly and determine the cause. It could be as simple as a faulty cable, or a poor connection. Or it could be that the box on the pole is not properly sealed. You can then tell BT you have had an independent engineer in and the problem is X.

The only way BT can charge you is if it is down to the cabling in your house, or your equipment, the house side of the main incoming socket is the demarcation point. Everything outside the house is down to BT.

The problem is that engineers have very little training these days, my OH had a 6 month apprenticeship with them quite a few years ago, trained in every part of the work, now they have 2 weeks' training. I have worked with my OH for some time now, and have had to correct a BT engineer at least once.

Farway

Next time it happens try a silent test with your landline phone, a wired one, into master socket, not one using base set

If there is a fault, crackly line etc, do not mention broadband, it is a Telephone Service fault. Although it affects the BB I've found it gives the ISP a nice excuse to wriggle

Assuming your ISP is also the landline provider

I had similar, in the end it was traced to junction box up a telegraph pole, rain getting in with wind

littleboo

Enterprise_1701C wrote: »

Next time it happens get an independent phone engineer out, he/she could track it down properly and determine the cause. It could be as simple as a faulty cable, or a poor connection. Or it could be that the box on the pole is not properly sealed. You can then tell BT you have had an independent engineer in and the problem is X.

The only way BT can charge you is if it is down to the cabling in your house, or your equipment, the house side of the main incoming socket is the demarcation point. Everything outside the house is down to BT.

The problem is that engineers have very little training these days, my OH had a 6 month apprenticeship with them quite a few years ago, trained in every part of the work, now they have 2 weeks' training. I have worked with my OH for some time now, and have had to correct a BT engineer at least once.

This isn't 100% correct. Yes you can employ an independent to check your internal wiring, but they can't access poles, joint boxes, cabinets etc
Openreach can charge you if their equipment on your premises has been damaged by you - wiring, master socket.

Enterprise_1701C

littleboo wrote: »

This isn't 100% correct. Yes you can employ an independent to check your internal wiring, but they can't access poles, joint boxes, cabinets etc
Openreach can charge you if their equipment on your premises has been damaged by you - wiring, master socket.

We have a blurred line there with one of our clients. Before they took over the property there was several poles installed privately to get cable from one building to the next, whoever put them in used connection boxes in case of further development, BT will not touch those without charge. There the demarcation point is the pole on the road outside.

The rest was why I put in the demarcation point being the master socket, In our experience it is unusual for BT wiring to be damaged by the client, tends to be wiring from one building to the next that has been poorly installed. Let's just say we have several gardening companies and window installation companies on our client list :rotfl::rotfl: