BT Broadband is the worst - never again.

I have not had broadband service for 9 days. BT customer service is
the worst. It should be called BT torture service. Their off-shore
call center in India is overloaded and inept.

Scenario of events:
There was an outage in my area for 2 days.
After that, I still had no broadband.
They said there was something wrong with the line.
They tested the line. They said it was okay.
So they sent me a new modem - it took 5 days elapsed.
I plug in the modem and still no broadband signal.
Now they tell me the line is bad.
So they are checking the line again.

All along I tell them I want to cancel.
They say that I can't until my contract is over.

What a nightmare.
Don't ever sign up with BT broadband!

P.S. I even sent a nasty email to their customer service telling them
I want to cancel.
The email came back saying that they were too overloaded and the email
will be processed in due time.

On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:08:35 -0700, ManOfPeace <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>I have not had broadband service for 9 days. BT customer service is
>the worst. It should be called BT torture service. Their off-shore
>call center in India is overloaded and inept.
>
>Scenario of events:
>There was an outage in my area for 2 days.
>After that, I still had no broadband.
>They said there was something wrong with the line.
>They tested the line. They said it was okay.
>So they sent me a new modem - it took 5 days elapsed.
>I plug in the modem and still no broadband signal.
>Now they tell me the line is bad.
>So they are checking the line again.
>
>All along I tell them I want to cancel.
>They say that I can't until my contract is over.
>
>What a nightmare.
>Don't ever sign up with BT broadband!
>
>P.S. I even sent a nasty email to their customer service telling them
>I want to cancel.
>The email came back saying that they were too overloaded and the email
>will be processed in due time.

While I sympathise with your problem, to balance your coments and
experience, I have used BT Broadband for the past 4 years and never
have had a problem.

I'm lucky, maybe, but I am sure all ISPs have problems from time to
time. With respect to line problems, changing the ISP will not solve
line problems, all use the same 'copper'.

"Edward W. Thompson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...

> I'm lucky, maybe, but I am sure all ISPs have problems from time to
> time. With respect to line problems, changing the ISP will not solve
> line problems, all use the same 'copper'.

Very true. What differs is the ability to investigate and fix the problems -
the willingness to involve the people in BT who investigate ADSL line
problems.

I have a customer who signed up with Wanadoo and never had a broadband
carrier during the several months that I was involved on and off in trying
to get Wanadoo to fix it: their customer service was spectactuarly bad.
After a lot of faffing around they said that they'd arranged for a BT
broadband engineer to call to investigate from the customer's premises, but
the engineer never turned up; when the customer investigated he found that
there was no record of the request to BT. The same thing happened a second
time, so the customer cancelled with them and got all his money back - being
a lawyer has its uses when it comes to contract law!

I signed him up with Plusnet instead. I ran their customer service
department in advance and told them about the history and that there was a
suspected line problem. Sure enough, there was no ADSL carrier on the
activation day. The differnce was that when I contacted Plusnet, they saw
the reference in their notes, got a BT engineer out within a couple of days
who found a fault with the overhead line somewhere between the house and the
exchange and fixed it.

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 06:09:50 UTC, Edward W. Thompson
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I'm lucky, maybe, but I am sure all ISPs have problems from time to
> time. With respect to line problems, changing the ISP will not solve
> line problems, all use the same 'copper'.

Yes and no. Some ISPs will never chase BT to get a problem fixed. Others
will.
--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

Mortimer wrote:

> "Edward W. Thompson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote
>
> > I'm lucky, maybe, but I am sure all ISPs have problems from time to
> > time. With respect to line problems, changing the ISP will not solve
> > line problems, all use the same 'copper'.
>
> Very true. What differs is the ability to investigate and fix the problems -
> the willingness to involve the people in BT who investigate ADSL line
> problems.
>
> I have a customer who signed up with Wanadoo and never had a broadband
> carrier during the several months that I was involved on and off in trying
> to get Wanadoo to fix it: their customer service was spectactuarly bad.
> After a lot of faffing around they said that they'd arranged for a BT
> broadband engineer to call to investigate from the customer's premises, but
> the engineer never turned up; when the customer investigated he found that
> there was no record of the request to BT. The same thing happened a second
> time, so the customer cancelled with them and got all his money back - being
> a lawyer has its uses when it comes to contract law!
>
> I signed him up with Plusnet instead. I ran their customer service
> department in advance and told them about the history and that there was a
> suspected line problem. Sure enough, there was no ADSL carrier on the
> activation day. The differnce was that when I contacted Plusnet, they saw
> the reference in their notes, got a BT engineer out within a couple of days
> who found a fault with the overhead line somewhere between the house and the
> exchange and fixed it.

Good to hear that but I actually had to leave Plusnet to get a line fault
sorted. Plusnet refused to involve BT. When I moved to Idnet, they called out
BT promptly and the problem was fixed within 15 minutes of the engineer's
arrival.

Graham

Bob Eager wrote:

> Edward W. Thompson wrote:
>
> > I'm lucky, maybe, but I am sure all ISPs have problems from time to
> > time. With respect to line problems, changing the ISP will not solve
> > line problems, all use the same 'copper'.
>
> Yes and no. Some ISPs will never chase BT to get a problem fixed. Others
> will.

Uusually, the bigger and more advertised the ISP, the worse they are.

Graham

"ManOfPeace" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
>I have not had broadband service for 9 days. BT customer service is
> the worst. It should be called BT torture service. Their off-shore
> call center in India is overloaded and inept.

BT Teletubbies for faults are better than most (whereas regular sales are
****)

>
> Scenario of events:
> There was an outage in my area for 2 days.
> After that, I still had no broadband.
> They said there was something wrong with the line.
> They tested the line. They said it was okay.
> So they sent me a new modem - it took 5 days elapsed.
> I plug in the modem and still no broadband signal.
> Now they tell me the line is bad.
> So they are checking the line again.
>
> All along I tell them I want to cancel.
> They say that I can't until my contract is over.

They are in breach of the contract, unless they rectify the problem in a
reasonable time then the contract has been terminated by their breach.

>
> What a nightmare.
> Don't ever sign up with BT broadband!
>
> P.S. I even sent a nasty email to their customer service telling them
> I want to cancel.
> The email came back saying that they were too overloaded and the email
> will be processed in due time.
>

On Sat, 15 Sep 2007 08:08:17 UTC, Eeyore
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Bob Eager wrote:
>
> > Edward W. Thompson wrote:
> >
> > > I'm lucky, maybe, but I am sure all ISPs have problems from time to
> > > time. With respect to line problems, changing the ISP will not solve
> > > line problems, all use the same 'copper'.
> >
> > Yes and no. Some ISPs will never chase BT to get a problem fixed. Others
> > will.
>
> Uusually, the bigger and more advertised the ISP, the worse they are.

I only avoided saying that because it would have looked as if I was
plugging my ISP again!

--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

"Edward W. Thompson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Fri, 14 Sep 2007 02:08:35 -0700, ManOfPeace <(E-Mail Removed)>
> wrote:
>
>>I have not had broadband service for 9 days. BT customer service is
>>the worst. It should be called BT torture service. Their off-shore
>>call center in India is overloaded and inept.
>>
> I'm lucky, maybe, but I am sure all ISPs have problems from time to
> time. With respect to line problems, changing the ISP will not solve
> line problems, all use the same 'copper'.

I assumed the same until I went with Zen from Tiscali.

It sorted out all the problems with the copper and the faults which were
'obviously' inherent in my hardware.