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Stuck in a broadband loop
I have been using a dial-up modem for a number of years and have recently been thinking about upgrading to broadband. After seeing a Pipex advert in your last magazine offering broadband for only a pound or two more per month than my dial-up account, I decided to take the plunge. BT's broadband checker said that I wouldn't be able to get a 2 MB connection, but that I might be able to get a 1 MB connection. I didn't think there would be a problem - I live in the middle of Southampton after all -- a major UK city -- getting a connection will be fine. So I signed up.
But it seems there *is* a problem. Pipex were told by BT Wholesale that the signal loss on my line was too great, so Pipex rejected my application. Now, I know where my exchange is, and I know it is broadband enabled. I live within 3km of the exchange, and although it is the length of the line that counts and not my physical distance from the exchange, I understand that a 1MB connection can now be made up to 6 km from the exchange, and there is no set limit for a 0.5 MB connection.
So I contact BT to try to find out what the problem is. But BT are only interested in my voice telephone connection, which works fine. Broadband is supplied through BT Wholesale - who will only talk to ISPs - so no help there. BT said that I should 'demand' (their choice of word - not mine) that Pipex should get BT Wholesale to investigate the problem, as there may be a solution such as rerouting my line.
But Pipex aren't interested - they say the problem is with the line, which is BTs. And I don't think I'm in a position to 'demand' anything from Pipex, to whom I haven't yet paid a penny, and to be fair to them it is going to cost them time and money to investigate a problem for a customer trying to sign up on their most basic package.
So it now seems that I'm a bit stuck. I originally chose Pipex as they had a cheap package with a 1 GB cap. I don't download videos or music so that should be fine. Now if I choose a more expensive package from, say, BT Broadband, then I suspect the problem with my line would get investigated and possibly resolved, but I would then be stuck with an expensive package I don't need on a 12 month contract. Shouldn't BT be willing to support its customers with broadband connection issues before they sign-up so that they can make a free choice of service providers?
Stuart Conner
I also have been struggling with my broadband service for more than a year. I signed up for broadband when the distance limit was relaxed. Over the last year my ISP (virgin.net) has tried through BT to get me a satisfactory service. My house has been rewired by BT twice and I have been upgraded in the local 'pillar' once. I still lose the connection for days on end. I pay for a 1GB service, but am limited to 512K in actuality. I sincerely wish that there was realistic advice on the broadband service. All this talk of TV over BB, 22GB download speed, etc is so much hot air.
Posted by John Duell | November 12, 2005 7:42 PM
I would strongly advise that you contact Ofcom regarding these issues. They are funded by the us (through Licence fees) and the comunications industry to address such market related issues, and even if they cannot help in a particular instance, they will learn more about issues affecting cosumers out there such as these from specific cases.
Posted by Richard F. | November 14, 2005 7:27 AM
Hi,
I thought I would write this article seeing that I have not seen anything
regarding this matter anywhere in the news.
I have bt broadband and have the top home package they offer, back in
September I placed an order to regrade my 1MB line to 2MB, I was told this
would take 7 days to complete, happy with that I left them to it.
2 weeks later nothing had happened, I called up customer service and was
told... "oh sorry the order got stuck in the system, we will cancel it and
re-order this through for you, but it will take another 7 days" being a
patient man I understood things can happen and put it down to experience.
Its now November and on the 18th Nov they regraded my line, unfortunately I
have NO broadband service, I promptly rang customer service who said " your
line is in the process of being upgraded and it could take up to 30 minutes"
I replied with " but this has been 5 hours since this happened" they replied
"oh, I will have to check with bt wholesale to see what's happening". I was
left on hold for a further 35 minutes and when they came back they said " it
appears there is an engineer working on this as we speak it should be
resolved shortly" I replied to this " is the engineer actually at the
exchange?" the operator replied "yes". To this I looked out of my window at
the exchange to see no bt van or any one there.
Monday I rang again after trying broadband again, got through to a very
helpful guy called nick, who got onto wholesale again, he after some time I
think it was about half an hour got me through to a "Technical Specialist"
who of course was based in another country, this I know as the ringing tone
waiting for him to answer was the single long tone.
He actually did not listen to a word I said regarding the problem, and just
kept fobbing me off with, "the line is ok and there is nothing he can do".
Please turn off your router and leave it for an hour, then try again" this I
though was kind of feasible as it could be a locked session on the exchange
so I did this without question.
By now as you can imagine I have no broadband, I am unable to work from
home, an I'm getting mighty pissed off with the whole crappy customer
service I am getting.
I phone back on Tuesday to find out what's going on, and to my surprise
there are no records of my previous calls on the BT system, WHAT A JOKE!
So again I went though all the problem with a new operator, who escalated it
again and got someone to call me back who went through all the same routine
and they said " ahh yes there does seem to be a problem we will have to get
back to you on that" this time I got a fault reference.
The operator who I started with called me back Wednesday morning to see if
all was ok, of course the others had not phoned back yet, he chased them and
I got another so called "Techy" calling me asking me all the questions I had
previously answered as least 3 times. I was unable to test a couple of
things he suggested so I asked for another call back at 4.15pm as I would be
back from the office then, they said that unfortunately they had no free
slots left in the day it would be the following day, I was fuming !!! I said
I want to speak with you line manager, eventually the line manager came on
and said no there are no free spaces, I replied with you better find one or
put me through to your head. They went away and came back with " we have
found you a slot for 4.30pm" .................................5.50pm I get a
call I had run through the routine I was asked and went through them gave
them the answers they needed, but basically they insulted my intelligence.
"I will escalate this and you will get a call in the morning @ 9am".
Thursday.... I waited ....... Waited.................
Waited...............until 4.50pm when I got in from the office, I rang
customer service, I was sat in a queue for 25 minutes, then was answered
promptly gave fault reference, "oh" I hear from the operator, I was fuming
by this point, being fobbed from pillar to post, he put me on hold while he
contacted BT wholesale, 25 minutes later he came back on saying "he still
cant get though to them and would I like to keep holding?" I replied "Hell
yes!!!".
After another lengthy wait he came back on and to his credit he told me the
truth about what was going on - basically this is what I was told:
"Bt Wholesale Computers have locked all regrade & new broadband orders in
the system due to a fault, we are in fact unable to provide any service
until after the 30th of November which is the date BT wholesale have give us
as the date for the system to be working again"
Shocking............ why could they not tell me this from the beginning
rather than trying to make out it was a fault with either the router or my
pc... which I knew was not the case.????
For a communications company BT have terrible communication and very poor
customer care.
VERY DISGRUNTLED
Stuart Taylor
Sheffield
Posted by stuart taylor | November 25, 2005 10:59 AM
And I thought it was only me in Never Never Land - what a relief. My ISP was Wanadoo. Living in a "remote" rural area ( about seven miles from the exchange!)I checked twice with BT directly to make sure I would be able to get Broadband before applying and Wanadoo making their own checks. There then followed 8 weeks of calls to "help" lines, including Wanadoo giving me callback numbers to ensure I was talking to the same person. Unfortunately they forgot to mention that it's not possible to ensure you contact the right call centre again. At Wanadoo's request BT made two visits to the house, at both of which the engineer confirmed that the signal would never be stable enough to connect or maintain a mimimum speed. Wanadoo kept taking my subscription while I paid for dial-up to ensure Internet access, and then threatened to "take proceedings" when I cancelled my it. It is not good enough to force customers to play piggy in the middle between ISPs and BT, or for BT to try and sell something they cannot provide (yes, they too offered me Broadband). Presumably BT have met the Government's targets by enabling exchanges. The fact that a large percentage of customers can't use the service seems to be by the by. So much for a future of efficient home e-working and regeneration of rural areas.
Posted by Kay Jackaman | December 1, 2005 12:06 PM
hi i still have no resolution for my problem....
Posted by stuart | December 6, 2005 1:17 PM
I think you'll find that BT is only allowed to deal with their customer i.e. the company they provide wholesale service to - in this case Pipex.
Posted by Brian Harding | February 4, 2006 12:07 AM