It's a sorry situation

[Neilski]

Two weeks ago (Sunday, 4th November at around 0630) I lost my Business Broadband ADSL service.  Whilst I could connect, I could not send/receive data.  I phoned the BT support team who, after several diagnostic test confirmed the problem and said that they would raise it for investigation with BT Wholesale who would respond within 48 hours - fair enough.

On Tuesday morning (6th November), I checked the on-line status of my fault and found that it had been closed!  I checked the line again to find that I still could not connect.  Another phone call to BT Support and the promise of a call-back within 48-hours.  On Thursday I did indeed receive a call-back informing me that there was good news and that the problem had been fixed -  it had not!  An engineer visit was scheduled for Friday, 9th November.

After two hours on-site and two hours on the phone the engineer concluded that whilst his JDSU equipment was showing a PPP error, the service provider could not see a fault.  As a last option, the engineer retrieved a new BT Hub 3.0 form the van and to everyone surprise an ADSL connection was established - albeit a slow one.  The engineer left.

Unfortunately, access to the internet was short lived and the connection failed completely at 2000 the same day.  On Saturday morning I phoned BT support again and, after numerous lengthy tests, confirmed that there was indeed a fault on the line and that the problem would be raised to BT Wholesale - again!  I was assured though that this fault was now with the Escalation Team and it would be resolved.

On Monday afternoon, after they had failed to call me, I called BT support they arranged for an engineer to visit me on Tuesday morning (13th November).  No visit, but I did get a phone call from an engineer who was, apparently, in my local exchange.  The engineer confirmed that the same problem existed at the exchange and that he would need to escalate the problem to a 'transmission engineer' (whatever that is) and I would get an update later that day - I did not.

On Wednesday having heard nothing, I checked the on-line fault and saw that once again it had been cleared!  It had not.  Another phone call to BT.  More apologies and the promise of a response within two hours.  No response came.

On Thursday morning I received a text saying that I would get a call between 1015 and 1215 - I did not.  Another call to BT Support.  More apologies and the promise of a callback within two hours - no call was received.  I called BT again and more apologies a a promise that an update would be available the next day (Friday, 16th).

Friday, 16th November.  No call back.  No update.  No ADSL (though the on-line fault page is still showing the fault as cleared).

Today, Saturday, 17th November.  It has been two weeks tomorrow and I know from previous experience, nothing is likely to happen until Monday.

No callback, no information, no response so I decided to post this tome to ask if anyone can give me any advice on what I should do now to try and expedite this problem.  To be honest, fixing the problem, whilst important, has become the secondary concern.  All I really want right now is accurate information on what the problem is and when it will be fixed.  If I had that, I could organise my business and take appropriate action.

I should also mention that there is a certian feeling of de ja vu about all this, last year we were without service from the 7th to the 24th October and the pattern of missed responses and lack of information was disturbingly similar - the only good news is we now at least have some resilience in the form of a 3G data dongle!

Fundamentally, it is the missed promises and lack of meaningful information that is my frustration here.  ADSL is hardly a new or niche technology - how hard can it really be for BT to diagnose the fault and schedule a fix?

Any suggestions of what I can/should do next would be greatly appreciated.