Degraded broadband

[J-in-L]

Our local broadband has had a problem that's caused a degraded service - but not outage – since 1st October.  We're told it won't be sorted until 4th Nov at the earliest - when a tree surgeon is coming to trim the offending tree!

It is very frustrating.  I have some questions that I don't know where to ask in BT's fault/support telephone system so thought I'd try here.

First - because we have degradation of service, not outage, our problem doesn't appear in the status report on 0800 169 0199.  So we're continually hearing that one or two other areas have temporary problems that'll be fixed soon and there is "a good service in all other areas"!  This is untrue!

Second - there's something wrong with the option management on 0845 600 7020.  After confirming the telephone number and pressing option 1 because the call "is about your existing reported fault" I then get a general message to press one of the following 4 options: 1 for technical ... 2 for sales ... 3 for moving home (why home - I'm on a business help-line - aren't I?) 4 bill .... It then takes ages to get (via several people) to one of the business fault team.

Third – among the 60 customers affected there are at least 6 open fault reports.  Most complainers have been told that it is a known fault so no need to open a new report.  What happens about feedback/ring-back to us.  I seem to be the only one who's been told that it is caused by a tree – which I've passed on to others – but shouldn't we all be being kept informed?  I've got business broadband and maybe the others have residential – does that make a difference?  (Our service is restricted to 512kbps so I do wonder if it's worth paying the premium for business rather than residential – but that's not relevant here.)

Fourth – how can I find details of exactly how our broadband is being provided?

I'd be grateful for any answers here - or a good point(s) of contact that'll give me answers.

[Alun]

Hi J-in-L,

I have had a look at your account and can see that you are on a half meg service so you would not get any more that 500k unless you upgraded to an ADSL max service at no extra cost.

I can also see that you have BT Business Broadband but is on a Residential line.

[J-in-L]

Thanks for comment on the 500k cap - but we're seriously degraded below that - I'm lucky to find more than 100k download.  There are times when I can't get my btinternet.com emails because there isn't sufficient bandwidth!   Trying to do internet banking has been a joke because the bank login times out after 2 minutes - and its not enough just now!

I've looked up ADSL Max and its not clear we'd actually get faster speeds (once the current fault is sorted).  E.g. would I get a minimum dowload speed of more than 511k?

[Alun]

On your particular line I would expect to see a significant increase in speed from 500k.

[J-in-L]

" significant increase in speed from 500k" would be great.

But did you check the exchange as well as our line?  A year or so ago we had an engineer on our premises and he said the line could give us well over 2meg and so the low limit must be an exchange restriction.

[Alun]

I did a speed check based on the noise on your line.