Tesco problems

Hello,

My father has just passed his activation date with Tesco Broadband.
Unfortunately it does not work. The ordering process went fine, equipment
arrived on time etc. The lights on the USB ADSL modem are both solid, and
microfilters are correctly set up.

My father is 85 and disabled so he doesn't know about this sort of stuff,
but I do. When we try to connect we get "The Username/Password is invalid
on the domain". After waiting 20 mins on the first occasion listening to
the canned music on their free support line, then 25 the second time, I
finally got to speak to 'Martin' on the third attempt after over 1 hour of
canned music!! He actually seemed to know what he was talking about, and
said he thought their was an account problem at their end which he had
fixed.

This morning my father still gets the same error. The username and
password are correctly entered. It seems almost pointless going round to
his house and phoning their support number as it would seem likely that I
would not get through before it was time to go home to bed!

I found in a forum somewhere that there were quite a few people talking
about the same problem, so thought I would try a post on here. Apparently
a common cause of trouble for Tesco Broadband customers is that their email
address may be for example (E-Mail Removed), but the name they have to use
to connect is (E-Mail Removed). BUT this is not the cause of the
problem in our case.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I intend to try to get through to the
person I was talking to yesterday via their Customer Services phone number
(as opposed to their Broadband Support number) which he said I should be
able to do. He even gave me his name and extension number!

Failing this though, I think we'll have to cancel the contract, cancel the
credit card payments and wait until we can get set up with another ISP. I
regret the decision to go with Tesco (I am with Pipex myself and have no
problems).

By the way, for those interested, the Tesco Broadband product is based on
DataStream rather than the usual IPStream. I also understand that
DataStream tends to suffer more from contention because of the average size
of the user base.

"Fred" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cjgtnb$kks$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Hello,
>
> My father has just passed his activation date with Tesco Broadband.
> Unfortunately it does not work. The ordering process went fine,
equipment
> arrived on time etc. The lights on the USB ADSL modem are both solid,
and
> microfilters are correctly set up.
>
> My father is 85 and disabled so he doesn't know about this sort of stuff,
> but I do. When we try to connect we get "The Username/Password is
invalid
> on the domain". After waiting 20 mins on the first occasion listening to
> the canned music on their free support line, then 25 the second time, I
> finally got to speak to 'Martin' on the third attempt after over 1 hour of
> canned music!! He actually seemed to know what he was talking about, and
> said he thought their was an account problem at their end which he had
> fixed.
>
> This morning my father still gets the same error. The username and
> password are correctly entered. It seems almost pointless going round to
> his house and phoning their support number as it would seem likely that I
> would not get through before it was time to go home to bed!
>
> I found in a forum somewhere that there were quite a few people talking
> about the same problem, so thought I would try a post on here.
Apparently
> a common cause of trouble for Tesco Broadband customers is that their
email
> address may be for example (E-Mail Removed), but the name they have to
use
> to connect is (E-Mail Removed). BUT this is not the cause of the
> problem in our case.
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions? I intend to try to get through to the
> person I was talking to yesterday via their Customer Services phone number
> (as opposed to their Broadband Support number) which he said I should be
> able to do. He even gave me his name and extension number!
>
> Failing this though, I think we'll have to cancel the contract, cancel the
> credit card payments and wait until we can get set up with another ISP.
I
> regret the decision to go with Tesco (I am with Pipex myself and have no
> problems).
>
> By the way, for those interested, the Tesco Broadband product is based on
> DataStream rather than the usual IPStream. I also understand that
> DataStream tends to suffer more from contention because of the average
size
> of the user base.
>
>

oh dear - I am SO sorry to read this tale. It was like reading my own story.
I had horrendous problems with Tesco but managed to get away.

When I first tried to connect I did have this problem of failure to
authenticate - and it was due to the filters and splitters being in wrong.
That was the one good thing Tesco did - I had a helpful chap called Dominic
who from the end of the telephone guided me through setting up all the
filters on my very complicated system here at home.

Once that was done we could authenticate and get online ...... but that was
just the start of the problems. Once online I couldnt stay online and many
times again I had the failure to get online and when I tried to get through
was told it was because it was this new *data stream* product rather than
the traditional ones.

If you want my opinion get out - but it wont be that easy ........ I had a
month long battle to get away without being penalised and then it is up to
Tesco to free up your line. You are not allowed to contact BT to ask them to
remove the ADSL ... it is up to the ISP. Nor can you go to another one until
your line is free.

Good Luck.

Another thing - definitely go via Customer Services which the number is 0845
650 8000.

I did have a very helpful man on there but while he DID supposedly give me
an extension number - when I tried to use it on subsequent times - was told
it did not exist !!

I havent really helped here sorry !!

Jo


>

Isn't the level of customer support absolutely woeful?

If my public-sector employer gave a service half as bad we would be
crucified all over the papers.

Double standards.

Bobby

"Kit" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Fred" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:cjgtnb$kks$(E-Mail Removed)...
>> Hello,
>>
>> My father has just passed his activation date with Tesco Broadband.
>> Unfortunately it does not work. The ordering process went fine,
> equipment
>> arrived on time etc. The lights on the USB ADSL modem are both solid,
> and
>> microfilters are correctly set up.
>>
>> My father is 85 and disabled so he doesn't know about this sort of stuff,
>> but I do. When we try to connect we get "The Username/Password is
> invalid
>> on the domain". After waiting 20 mins on the first occasion listening
>> to
>> the canned music on their free support line, then 25 the second time, I
>> finally got to speak to 'Martin' on the third attempt after over 1 hour
>> of
>> canned music!! He actually seemed to know what he was talking about, and
>> said he thought their was an account problem at their end which he had
>> fixed.
>>
>> This morning my father still gets the same error. The username and
>> password are correctly entered. It seems almost pointless going round to
>> his house and phoning their support number as it would seem likely that I
>> would not get through before it was time to go home to bed!
>>
>> I found in a forum somewhere that there were quite a few people talking
>> about the same problem, so thought I would try a post on here.
> Apparently
>> a common cause of trouble for Tesco Broadband customers is that their
> email
>> address may be for example (E-Mail Removed), but the name they have to
> use
>> to connect is (E-Mail Removed). BUT this is not the cause of the
>> problem in our case.
>>
>> Does anyone have any suggestions? I intend to try to get through to the
>> person I was talking to yesterday via their Customer Services phone
>> number
>> (as opposed to their Broadband Support number) which he said I should be
>> able to do. He even gave me his name and extension number!
>>
>> Failing this though, I think we'll have to cancel the contract, cancel
>> the
>> credit card payments and wait until we can get set up with another ISP.
> I
>> regret the decision to go with Tesco (I am with Pipex myself and have no
>> problems).
>>
>> By the way, for those interested, the Tesco Broadband product is based on
>> DataStream rather than the usual IPStream. I also understand that
>> DataStream tends to suffer more from contention because of the average
> size
>> of the user base.
>>
>>
>
> oh dear - I am SO sorry to read this tale. It was like reading my own
> story.
> I had horrendous problems with Tesco but managed to get away.
>
> When I first tried to connect I did have this problem of failure to
> authenticate - and it was due to the filters and splitters being in wrong.
> That was the one good thing Tesco did - I had a helpful chap called
> Dominic
> who from the end of the telephone guided me through setting up all the
> filters on my very complicated system here at home.
>
> Once that was done we could authenticate and get online ...... but that
> was
> just the start of the problems. Once online I couldnt stay online and many
> times again I had the failure to get online and when I tried to get
> through
> was told it was because it was this new *data stream* product rather than
> the traditional ones.
>
> If you want my opinion get out - but it wont be that easy ........ I had a
> month long battle to get away without being penalised and then it is up to
> Tesco to free up your line. You are not allowed to contact BT to ask them
> to
> remove the ADSL ... it is up to the ISP. Nor can you go to another one
> until
> your line is free.
>
> Good Luck.
>
> Another thing - definitely go via Customer Services which the number is
> 0845
> 650 8000.
>
> I did have a very helpful man on there but while he DID supposedly give me
> an extension number - when I tried to use it on subsequent times - was
> told
> it did not exist !!
>
> I havent really helped here sorry !!
>
> Jo
>
>
>>
>
>

"Kit" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Fred" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:cjgtnb$kks$(E-Mail Removed)...
> > Hello,
> >
> > My father has just passed his activation date with Tesco Broadband.
> > Unfortunately it does not work. The ordering process went fine,
> equipment
> > arrived on time etc. The lights on the USB ADSL modem are both solid,
> and
> > microfilters are correctly set up.
> >
> > My father is 85 and disabled so he doesn't know about this sort of
stuff,
> > but I do. When we try to connect we get "The Username/Password is
> invalid
> > on the domain". After waiting 20 mins on the first occasion listening
to
> > the canned music on their free support line, then 25 the second time, I
> > finally got to speak to 'Martin' on the third attempt after over 1 hour
of
> > canned music!! He actually seemed to know what he was talking about,
and
> > said he thought their was an account problem at their end which he had
> > fixed.
> >
> > This morning my father still gets the same error. The username and
> > password are correctly entered. It seems almost pointless going round
to
> > his house and phoning their support number as it would seem likely that
I
> > would not get through before it was time to go home to bed!
> >
> > I found in a forum somewhere that there were quite a few people talking
> > about the same problem, so thought I would try a post on here.
> Apparently
> > a common cause of trouble for Tesco Broadband customers is that their
> email
> > address may be for example (E-Mail Removed), but the name they have to
> use
> > to connect is (E-Mail Removed). BUT this is not the cause of the
> > problem in our case.
> >
> > Does anyone have any suggestions? I intend to try to get through to
the
> > person I was talking to yesterday via their Customer Services phone
number
> > (as opposed to their Broadband Support number) which he said I should be
> > able to do. He even gave me his name and extension number!
> >
> > Failing this though, I think we'll have to cancel the contract, cancel
the
> > credit card payments and wait until we can get set up with another ISP.
> I
> > regret the decision to go with Tesco (I am with Pipex myself and have no
> > problems).
> >
> > By the way, for those interested, the Tesco Broadband product is based
on
> > DataStream rather than the usual IPStream. I also understand that
> > DataStream tends to suffer more from contention because of the average
> size
> > of the user base.
> >
> >
>
> oh dear - I am SO sorry to read this tale. It was like reading my own
story.
> I had horrendous problems with Tesco but managed to get away.
>
> When I first tried to connect I did have this problem of failure to
> authenticate - and it was due to the filters and splitters being in wrong.
> That was the one good thing Tesco did - I had a helpful chap called
Dominic
> who from the end of the telephone guided me through setting up all the
> filters on my very complicated system here at home.
>
> Once that was done we could authenticate and get online ...... but that
was
> just the start of the problems. Once online I couldnt stay online and many
> times again I had the failure to get online and when I tried to get
through
> was told it was because it was this new *data stream* product rather than
> the traditional ones.
>
> If you want my opinion get out - but it wont be that easy ........ I had a
> month long battle to get away without being penalised and then it is up to
> Tesco to free up your line. You are not allowed to contact BT to ask them
to
> remove the ADSL ... it is up to the ISP. Nor can you go to another one
until
> your line is free.
>
> Good Luck.
>
> Another thing - definitely go via Customer Services which the number is
0845
> 650 8000.
>
> I did have a very helpful man on there but while he DID supposedly give me
> an extension number - when I tried to use it on subsequent times - was
told
> it did not exist !!
>
> I havent really helped here sorry !!
>
> Jo
>
>
> >
>
>
Thanks Kit. I am aware that it could take a while to get away from Tesco,
but it hasn't quite come to that yet. Tomorrow I shall go round and try the
PC directly into the master socket (with a filter of course!). The trouble
is when the service is this bad there is little you can do except cancel.

Hey, don't forget, "Every Little Helps"....... perhaps they really mean
"Very Little Help" !!

See if you can authenticate as the user "bt_test@startup_domain" (no
password).
If that works then all your equipment is fine and it is either BT not
passing authentication to Tesco or Tesco cocking up the authentication.
If that doesn't work then it could be an equipment setup or line/exchange
problem.

--
Colin
*Drop DEAD from the email address to reply*

"cw" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:Xns9574A52AB8F39cwfidei@212.159.2.88...
> See if you can authenticate as the user "bt_test@startup_domain" (no
> password).
> If that works then all your equipment is fine and it is either BT not
> passing authentication to Tesco or Tesco cocking up the authentication.
> If that doesn't work then it could be an equipment setup or line/exchange
> problem.
>
> --
> Colin
> *Drop DEAD from the email address to reply*

Thanks cw, but I have already tried this. It didn't work either, but the
bloke I spoke to at Tesco Broadband Support said that only works for
IPStream products, and that Tesco's offering is based on DataStream. Does
anyone know an equivalent test for DataStream, or is his statement not true?

In message <cjh8fc$2mo$(E-Mail Removed)>, Fred <(E-Mail Removed)> writes
>Thanks cw, but I have already tried this. It didn't work either, but the
>bloke I spoke to at Tesco Broadband Support said that only works for
>IPStream products, and that Tesco's offering is based on DataStream. Does
>anyone know an equivalent test for DataStream, or is his statement not true?

It is true that bt_test@startup_domain it doesn't work on Datastream
and, to my knowledge, there's no equivalent for Datastream based
products.



David
--
David Wood
(E-Mail Removed)

Fred wrote:

> Hello,
>
> My father has just passed his activation date with Tesco Broadband.
> Unfortunately it does not work. The ordering process went fine, equipment
> arrived on time etc. The lights on the USB ADSL modem are both solid, and
> microfilters are correctly set up.
<snip>

Hope you manage to solve your problems, I do have to say Tesco are the
best ISP I've been with, and is lightning fast compared to Pipex, who
have far worse support in my own experience.

Anyway I best stop saying this now, as it does seem I'm the only happy
customer they have

Cheers,
Chris

"Not Me" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:cjrisg$vja$(E-Mail Removed)...
> Fred wrote:
>
> > Hello,
> >
> > My father has just passed his activation date with Tesco Broadband.
> > Unfortunately it does not work. The ordering process went fine,
equipment
> > arrived on time etc. The lights on the USB ADSL modem are both solid,
and
> > microfilters are correctly set up.
> <snip>
>
> Hope you manage to solve your problems, I do have to say Tesco are the
> best ISP I've been with, and is lightning fast compared to Pipex, who
> have far worse support in my own experience.
>
> Anyway I best stop saying this now, as it does seem I'm the only happy
> customer they have
>
> Cheers,
> Chris
>

My father's Tesco Brodband is now working fine. It took two calls to Tesco
Support, on each occasion having to wait about 1 hour 15 minutes for a
reply! On the second occasion they said they would phone me at my father's
house at a pre-arranged time, but they didn't. They have never replied to
the original email I sent to them.

However, as I say, it is now working fine. The Tesco people 'refreshed our
account details' and this seems to have done the trick.

So, the moral of the story seems to be that Tesco are fine as long as you
don't have any problems. Their Customer Service is completely overloaded.
Hopefully things will improve.

> My father's Tesco Brodband is now working fine. It took two calls to
Tesco
> Support, on each occasion having to wait about 1 hour 15 minutes for a
> reply! On the second occasion they said they would phone me at my
father's
> house at a pre-arranged time, but they didn't. They have never replied
to
> the original email I sent to them.
>
> However, as I say, it is now working fine. The Tesco people 'refreshed
our
> account details' and this seems to have done the trick.
>
> So, the moral of the story seems to be that Tesco are fine as long as you
> don't have any problems. Their Customer Service is completely overloaded.
> Hopefully things will improve.
>
>

You waited a long time on the phone because you were calling NTL. Always
the same with them.