BT wifi down for a week and we wirk from home - can we get any help?

Jop1947

BT wifi has a major fault in the area and we’re told they aim to get it fixed in a week. We are self employed and work from home. We haven’t been eligible for any covid government business grants. What help can we get? BT suggested we buy/upgrade to a Halo account but won’t send one for us to use whilst they fix the problem. Has anyone been able to get around this. Going to cafes and pubs to use their wifi is getting expensive. 

Browntoa

If you are working from home on a residential line then that's your problem. They are under no obligation to do anything

Upgrading to a business line gives your priority repairs and enhanced service

k3lvc

Do you have a business account or a standard 'home' account ?

Can you piggyback on a (non BT) neighbour for a few days ?

Jop1947

That’s a great idea. I’ll check. The only reason we’re working from home is because we’re unable to do our normal jobs due to covid. 

bradders1983

Tether laptops to your phones if you are on generous data packages.

matelodave

You could get a mifi unit and use a PayGo 4g sim in the interim. or as suggested tether to your phone. I guess that if it's an area wide fault then others are also in the same situation even non-BT providers as most of them, except Virgin use the BT infrastructure.

As others have said, you either need to be on a business package or possibly Halo (where BT will give or loan you a MifFi unit to keep you connected).

It's a bit too late to once the problem has occurred. We've got a MiFi unit for when we've had broadband problems and we can take it away on holiday with us as well.

It's a bit like insurance, I'm afraid you have to pay in advance to sort out protection against problems, not wait until something has gone wrong. You might get the basic compensation from BT (depending on your package T&C's) but it wont get you up and running any quicker.

JJ_Egan

OP you say wifi down .

Do you mean the internet service to the router is down or is it a wifi problem .

Jop1947

Service to router and landline down for all BT customers in the area

macman

You can get a credit for each day of downtime, which is based on the monthly rate pro-rata'd. No compo, as there is no SLA on a residential contract.
In the meantime, tether to your mobile, but watch your data limit.

greyteam1959

I thought bt offered a free dongle if their service went down ??

TadleyBaggie

Only if you. pay for the HALO service