Over one month on, still no solution, will have to change service providers.

[jjw]

I thought I would share my experience of trying to resolve a technical problem, which as far as I am concerned is no closer to a solution than it was when the problem was first reported over a month ago.

Please not that if anyone from BT reads this, feel free to contact me because this problem has been going on for a very long time and if it cannot be resolved promptly, we will have no choice but to move to another provider as we have simply run out of options.

I first noticed that the internet connection had started to drop out intermittently throughout the day on the 14th of September. The next day however things had settled down but I decided to replace our Netgear router with another one of the same model along with a spare filter  to see if this made a difference however later on that day and the next, the connection began dropping again. 

I visited the site again on the 17th of September to call BT and perform the usual diagnostics. The first time I called, the technician did some checks and ran a line test but which not detect any faults. I then had to call back again as for some reason the office has bad reception for my mobile network. The next person I spoke to told me that the problem was probably because I was using the wrong ADSL login details for that particular phone line (how strange considering they had worked fine since the very beginning and only recently the problem popped up). He then told me that the fault would be investigated either way and that I would receive a call back shortly. As far as I can tell, this never happened. 

I then tested the different phone lines in the building and confirmed that I was in fact using the correct ADSL account with the phone line in question.

At this point it's difficult to recall in precise detail exactly what has happened since off hand because I have had to run through so many diagnostic tests and seemingly endless calls to BT technical support to no avail I'll just put in the basic details.

We have since tried a total of three different routers (the current one was brand new when I installed it recently), three different filters and installed brand new cabling

There have been three engineer visits (after a fair bit of difficulty arranging these), each time from what I understand no fault was detected on the line but the face plate and various cabling have been changed and adjusted for good measure however none of this has made a difference.

As it stands at the moment, last week I called to raise the issue again (I have lost count of how many times now) but was told that there was nothing that could be done at the time because a fault affecting the local area had been detected which I was advised could have been responsible for our problems and that we would have to wait till this particular fault had been resolved before our particular fault could be investigated again. After this local fault had been resolved I called back to check if the fault I had reported was still occurring, unsurprisingly it was!

The issue has again been passed back to BT Wholesale for further investigation and I am waiting hear back although given how the issue has been dealt with so far, I am not expecting much.

I work for the IT solutions company that supports the organisation that uses the broardband service in question. As far as I can see we have done EVERYTHING we possibly can to rule out any other possibly causes of the problem. There just isn't anything else that we can think of doing with our equipment to resolve the problem so for this reason we soon will have no other choice but to move to another ISP as it seems that BT are refusing to take ownership of the problem.

I feel that the overall service I have received has been appalling, even to the point where I don't think asking for compensation due to lack of reliable service would be unreasonable, I just feel like I have been fobbed off and had the buck passed over and over again. 

I'll also add that my company has been badly tarnished by BT's hopeless service in the past which is why since then we have tended to avoid them.

I would be happy to provide account details, references numbers, etc to anyone from BT who would be willing to actually to take ownership of the issue, investigate all that has been done and hopefully get to the bottom of the issue.

If it can be proven that the problem is not down to BT's phone line/broadband service then I'll take this all back but I'm struggling to see what else could be causing the problem.

Regards.

JJW

[Fiona]

Hi JJW

I am really sorry to read about the problems you have had with your BT Business Connection, and I'm sorry you don't seem to have had the support that we would expect. I couldn't have a look at any outstanding issues as you never used your BTConnect details when signing up. If you can private mail me your account information and Business details I would be happy to look over the case and see what should be happening with it.

Kind Regards

Fiona

BT Business Forum Moderator

[RichCreedy]

i have had this issue in the past, it turned out to be an issue with the connection at the exchange. which was found after a request for a 'lift and shift'. to which the engineer phoned me and said, we found the problem, and (touching wood) has been ok.

[cgr]

Hi (first post, adding to the complaints).

We're based in Milton Keynes (01908) and our Broadband download speed suddenly nosedived on Monday 25th October, although upload was unaffected. Went through the usual rigmarole of rebooting the router, swapping microfilters, disconnecting hubs, swapping routers & cables, all to no avail. I placed my first call to the Broadband helpdesk on Tuesday 26th, and spent about an hour on the phone with the helpdesk going through various test procedures to establish if there was anything wrong, including removing the faceplate from our PSTN box and plugging the microfilter into the maintenance port. I was informed by the helpdesk that there appeared to be a fault on the line and that BT Wholesale would be informed and an engineer visit would be booked for the morning of Thursday 28th.

At this point - download speed approx. 200kbps (should be 3Mbps), upload speed 600k

Thursday morning came and went, with no sign of an engineer. I phoned on Thursday afternoon to find out that the engineer visit had been cancelled due to lack of resource. I was promised an appointment on the Friday morning instead. Friday morning - no engineer, so back on the phone to the helpdesk. Again the visit had been cancelled due to lack of resource. Monday morning (1st November) would be first available appointment.

Speed at this point - download 40k, upload 600k

Monday morning, no visit from the engineer, but at around 12 we lost internet connection completely. At 12:40 the connection came back and suddenly the download speed increased to 3.1Mbps. The internet connection remained at this speed for about 2 hours, then back down to 200kbps or slower. Back on the phone to the helpdesk on Tuesday 2nd to be told that BT Wholesale had been to the exchange and "cleared" the problem, and that the helpdesk would pass the call to BT Faults to investigate the PSTN line itself. Cue three days of chasing faults to be told that BT Faults had passed the call to BT Wholesale who rejected it, the BT Faults losing the call information, and basic terrbile communication, not helped by the fact that the Broadband helpdesk didn't note down our office number on the call log (despite repeated requests for an alternative contact number), and so were trying to call back on the broadband line, which is hooked up to a fax machine!

Speed at this point - download anything from 12k to 1.2Mbps, upload STILL ok at around 500-600kbps.

Finally, Monday 8th, and the internet was so slow that e-mails can't be delivered, web sites can't load properly and still no news on any potential fix. A further call was logged with the helpdesk only for us to be told that the earliest an engineer appointment could be made was for Monday 15th!!

We are currently relying on mobile phones, Blackberries and BT USB mobile hubs to get any e-mails. We raised a complaint via the website on Monday afternoon, when the response time was showing as 17 hours and 54 minutes. Curiously we still haven't had a response to this.

Needless to say, BT will not be our ISP for much longer. In addition, our directors are considering what action we can pursue with regard to compensation.

Yes, this is a whinge and yes, this probably isn't the place for it, but from the way BT has behaved over the past 3 weeks I'm trying every possible method to get this resolved, or at least for someone to admit there is a problem and tell us what it is!!

CGR

[J-in-L]

cgr - we have the same problem - hugely variable broadband speeds.  Ours nosedived ~1st October (Laggan 01528).

I'm not sure just adding a couple of posts to an existing thread will attract any attention from the BT folk - but ...

[cgr]

J-in-L - yeah, I know, but had to start somewhere. What's really frustrating is that there are currently 5 BT vehicles outside the office, but no-one knows what they're doing there...

Engineer's booked for exchange and site visit on Monday, so watch this space.

[jjw]

In case this is of use to anyone else having similar problems, I also sent in a complaint to BT here. Within an hour I received a call from a very helpful BT representative who has now taken personal ownership of this case and is currently working through the problem with me. 

Although the problem still remains unresolved I think we are at least making some progress, at least more so than everything that was done up till now. 

Seems that sometimes you have to shout loudly in order to be taken seriously!