BT Issues: Broadband & Data Transmission (Fax)

I'm absolutely at my wits' end and BT seem to have me chasing in
circles spending money hand over fist for something which can *only*
be their fault. If anyone has any advice, it'd be much appreciated!

The potted history of this is that I moved into my current address in
February. The address has one master socket, no extensions. I work
from home for an Internet company and need a good broadband
connection, static IP and the ability to fax. My broadband connection
is an 8mb from Zen and I have an all-in-one fax/scanner/printer.

In my previous address I had no problems *at all* with either my Zen
broadband connection or sending faxes, but from day 1 of moving to
this address neither is working properly. My broadband connection
slows and eventually drops altogether upwards of a dozen times a day
and I cannot send OR receive faxes, getting a 'line error' message
when sending and when receiving the call comes through but cannot
connect and the sender receives a recorded message saying "this number
cannot receive faxes".

The broadband issue has been raised with BT by Zen solidly for a
month. BT demanded I test with new filters, cables and even broadband
routers all with the same result. They then put in a new master socket
and changed the cable into the house with no positive result. They've
also checked the box in the village and swapped me to a different
line, again with no result. They then washed their hands of the issue
and said that, as far as they are concerned, they can see no line
fault although the problem persists and was witnessed by an engineer.
The telephone engineer suggested the faxing problem was down to my fax
so I loaded it in the car and tested it from a friend's house, both
sending and receiving a fax to my office number successfully.
Repeating the same test back at home a few hours later to the same
office number again got me the 'line error' message. Despite having
transmission print-outs in front of him to show that a faxes to the
*same number* from the *same fax machine* sent from different lines
had totally different results (successful from my friend's house and
not from mine), he still mainted that it must be down to my fax ...
even when told that using fax software also didn't work!

BT have now closed the fax issue saying that I'll have to buy a new
fax machine but also that if I do buy a new fax and get the same
problem, I will be charged for opening another fault ticket with them!
On the broadband side of things they've also closed the issue saying
that it must be Zen at fault.

The outcome is that I'm trying to work from home with a broadband
connection that drops every few minutes and without any ability to
send or receive faxes. If this was purely a residential niggle I'd
give up at this point but I HAVE to have both these things working
correctly to continue in my job.

Does anyone have any advice on either a) what could cause a line to
have issues with sending data (fax/broadband) but no issue with using
the telephone or b) where I can go from here to make BT find the fault
instead of continually denying there's a problem or blaming my
equipment, even in the face of absolute proof that it's working.

[snip long tale of woe]
>
> Does anyone have any advice on either a) what could cause a line to
> have issues with sending data (fax/broadband) but no issue with using
> the telephone or b) where I can go from here to make BT find the fault
> instead of continually denying there's a problem or blaming my
> equipment, even in the face of absolute proof that it's working.
>

You could order a completely new phone line to test in parallel with the
existing line ...

Try contacting:

Miss Keris Thomas
BT Internet Operations Complaint Executive
Complaints Review Service
Tel - 0845 6002853
Fax - 01925 712853
PP8, Warrington Contact Centre, 110 Europa Boulevard, Warrington. WA5 7FZ.

.... and go back to Zen for more help - they have a reputation to maintain !

--
Graham J

Ouch, I think I'll avoid ordering a new line - that's another £130
plus the line rental for a minimum of 12 months and getting broadband
moved to a new line which may or may have the issues the current one
does. That's a lot of expense and 'kerfuffle' to prove a point.

Miss Thomas there may well be getting a 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells'
letter though because the cop-out excuse of having no minimum quality
standards with broadband is BS and I'm sure must be against Trading
Standards' 'fit for purpose' description for goods or services.

On 17 Apr, 14:47, "Graham" <gra...@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> You could order a completely new phone line to test in parallel with the
> existing line ...
>
> Try contacting:
>
> Miss Keris Thomas
> BT Internet Operations Complaint Executive
> Complaints Review Service
> Tel - 0845 6002853
> Fax - 01925 712853
> PP8, Warrington Contact Centre, 110 Europa Boulevard, Warrington. WA5 7FZ.
>
> ... and go back to Zen for more help - they have a reputation to maintain!
>
> --
> Graham J

>
> "Exasperated" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com...
>
> Ouch, I think I'll avoid ordering a new line - that's another £130
> plus the line rental for a minimum of 12 months and getting broadband
> moved to a new line which may or may have the issues the current one
> does. That's a lot of expense and 'kerfuffle' to prove a point.

No No No !!!!

The whole point would be to have a completely new ADSL service on the new
line!!! You would then be able to compare like with like. It might also be
instructive to us a different ISP - somebody equally trustworthy - I hear
good things of Andrews & Arnold, see http://www.aaisp.net.uk/ - you might
even ring them first and ask whether they are up to the challenge.

And seriously, if this is for work, then the cost of a second line and
another ISP subscription is surely good value compared with the
inconvenience you have endured so far ...

> Miss Thomas there may well be getting a 'disgusted of Tunbridge Wells'
> letter though because the cop-out excuse of having no minimum quality
> standards with broadband is BS and I'm sure must be against Trading
> Standards' 'fit for purpose' description for goods or services.

Do let us know how you get on with our Keris. Perhaps a personal visit? ...

--
Graham J

Exasperated wrote:
> I'm absolutely at my wits' end and BT seem to have me chasing in
> circles spending money hand over fist for something which can *only*
> be their fault. If anyone has any advice, it'd be much appreciated!

>BT have now closed the fax issue saying that I'll have to buy a new
>fax machine but also that if I do buy a new fax and get the same
>problem,

Don't take any shit from them, you need to keep at them to get a fault
like this sorted try. Try and get them to raise a SFI (special fault
investigation), as a standard cooper monkey isn't going to be able to
sort this out, it's almost certainly some weirdness down at the exchange.

Try posting this to uk.telecom, I have vague memories of a problem
similar to this.

On 17 Apr 2007 04:52:59 -0700, Exasperated <(E-Mail Removed)>
wrote:

>Does anyone have any advice on either a) what could cause a line to
>have issues with sending data (fax/broadband) but no issue with using
>the telephone or b) where I can go from here to make BT find the fault
>instead of continually denying there's a problem or blaming my
>equipment, even in the face of absolute proof that it's working.

Yes I do. The fax machine CAN do it. Zen know this too - or they
certainly used to years ago. Oh and yes the problem DID seem to be fax
machine model/specific line related. I'm sure Boggits said something
about this years ago - he works for Entanet now so maybe Jake could
"prod" him if he sees this and ask if he remembers anything?

A suggestion that wouldn't cost much would be to buy a cheap USB
fax/modem and use that for a while. It would prove things one way or
the other.

On a personal note faxes are an abomination - hell even the most
clueless of s/w agencies (and we have dealt with most of them) uses
email first these days. There are NO good reason for faxes now and in
the few instances where you must fax then a fax<->email service costs
everyone less cash.
--
John Naismith