British Telecom - Rubbish

All my worst fears are in fact true. BT are not very good.
My BT broadband has been out of action, and is still out of action for another 5 days.

So no more blogging I'm afraid.

Having spent best part of 2 hours on the phone to a 'help' desk, convincing them that I did have my phone line connected, and that my PC was switched on, I persuaded them to check the line. What a surprise, there is a fault on the line! 2 hours well spent! And no doubt I am still paying for my access.

Hey Hoe.

As the old saying goes:

"Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes"

That way, when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes.

And my temporary signing off tip :
If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

So long.......

Comments:
It was nice knowing you!
 
i was checking out the Digital Spy broadband forums the other day compariing NTL with BT. The concensus was not to touch BT with a barge pole.

Increasingly BT are becoming out of touch thinking that their "name" will pull them through. Unfortuntely not.

My advice would be to switch to SKY broadband when it's available or to NTL (you can get a broadband only product without having to switch to tv or phone).

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php?f=77
 
also check out

http://www.btopenwoe.org.uk/
 
Hi

Firstly I work for BT under Fault Management in IT but not in resolving faults. If you care to drop me an email at dave.montgomery@bt.com I will TRY and no promises see if I can look into it. The problem is that I am on paternity leave for the next two weeks.

I wish to point out that in comparison like for like, BTs customer service is by far the best. I know of several people that have been wooed by better offers and deals. One of them has now gone back to BT after not being treated very well at all.

Joolian - I checked out your link but there are not new posts on there. I only quickly looked at it but all I could see was things dating from 2.5 years ago and things have generally moved on since then.

BT are about to invest in the biggest transformation of a public telephone system, migrating from copper based lines to digital based lines that is a billion pound investment purely in the UK public market. Its also renoun for a cracking customer focus.

Finally - sky broadband is fine BUT there are two problems here. You cannot check whether your covered in your area (which your likely to not) without having to register interest - which means you will be pestered constantly by advertising. Secondly, broadband from these companies still use BT technology (known as local look unbundling). This means that they charge you for the service, but they go back to BT when there is a problem. Therefore there is not much difference apart from price.

Finally, testing a line can now be done automatically without intervention (My team developed the system). Simply ring 150 and look for a line test, and it will do it for you.

Any other issues or concerns then send it to me at dave.montgomery@bt.com - I cannot promise to solve them but can have a look into it.

Sorry - very finally - if you feel your not getting the service then ring up and ask for compensation as I believe you should be entitled to it but is only given when asked.
 
monty

take your point about customer service - NTL is woeful. But fortunately I don't have cause to use them very often. BT have been nothing but helpful when I've phoned them. But for me it's about price and system performance. I would go back to BT if I could rely on both.

This is the thread I was referring to at Digital Spy asking if anyone would leave NTL for BT home hub something I've recently considered ...

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=452382


The reason I suggested Sky broadband is if Steve has Sky, their broadband offerings will be competitively priced if they ever materialise in Norwich (although I think you have to have a BT phone line).

In my view the telcomms market is far from perfect. At the moment I'm happy with NTL. I review the position annually and have just done this. Am staying with them for the time being.
 
Joolian

In most cases because companies like carphone warehouse, orange, sky and a multitude of others work on the top of BT technology. Its like gas - you don't get a new pipe fitted into the house when you change suppliers, same with BT in most cases in terms of a third party supplier.

Sky are very competitively priced, and there customer service has a reputation to match usually. I also agree that BT in general is more expensive but its imperative to bear in mind that this pricing was not BT's choice, it was regulated for the benefit of customers at what I believe an unfair disadvantage to BT and its commited customer base.

I believe that regulation has finally been removed now the market has grown so much and I would hope to see BT start to market itself far more aggresively and competitively.

I read the page you quoted and its hard to comment. I personally don't know much about the home hub as I have a free broadband connection at home. What I would say is that if NTL promise 10mb then line degredation will occur. The computer may say its receiving 10mb but its not. As soon as there is distance from the exchange, I believe degredation / contention will occur.
 
i've never had any problems with BT apart from price. I really do hope they can start to compete on a level playing field - it has been difficult for them. One thing is I would be very reluctant to go to a micky mouse provider (although I have been trialling Vonage voip)

Be interesting to see what happens when NTL start to offer services in conjuntion with the newly acquired Virgin mobile arm
 
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