Why is BT Business Broadband so poor!

[stuartgoble]

[title changed slightly by moderators]

I recently swapped to BT Business Broadband from the BT Total Broadband residential service.  And so far my level of customer satisfaction is in the basement!  Some of the early niggles we've grown used to, like the POP3 servers timing out all the time.  But today (and even worse tonight) the throughput has been appalling!

My router says it's holding the 7.6Mbps line speed it always has, but using Speedtest.net we're getting an abysmal 96kbps download (yes that's Kilobits per second)

I was sold Business Broadband on the basis of improved performance for the number of devices we have in the house given we are two home workers plus techie kids.  Right now we're using 3G dongles as they're more reliable than BT.

Come on BT - SORT IT OUT!!!

[Alun]

Hi stuartgoble,

Have you contacted the Technical Helpdesk to have your speed issue investigated? If not, I would suggest speaking to them to allow them to look at this. Hope this helps.

[merith]

 I changed 2 of my businesses to bt phone lines. I have been sold a different package from what i get billed. The bill is 3 times a much as what i was told i should be billed !

As for the BT broadband... it really is pants. Luckily...in a care home you dont live on the internet. However, I was going to change my Virgin media broadband to BT for the 'guest house' ( which does live on the internet).... I think I'll definately WONT be changing that in any hurry. Am going to try to get out of this conning package, BT have sold me for the phone lines and tied me down for 24 months. ITs complete nonsense! Very disappointed. Your sales team need urgent monitoring as they are selling unrealistic packages just to bump up there commission and we have to pay the price

[mattseo]

I was on normal BT Personal Broadband as I work from home, but I had speed issues and a sales guy said if I change to bt business broadband it would be faster.. TOTAL RUBBISH  I’m connecting between 1.5mb to 2.3 and this is killing my work as I use Voip on Vonage for my usa calls.

[stuartgoble]

Hi Alun,

Thanks for your note, yes I did try to get through to the Technical Help Desk, waited in the queue, waited, waited some more then got through to someone who didn't seem to speak very good English (or maybe it was my phone line) as I had troubled understanding him.  I explained the problem and was told line faults are an Openreach issue.

So I'll try and ring in again tomorrow if I get a chance.  But frankly, BT Retail is my CP not Openreach and if we want to get all Ofcom, my service commitment comes from BT Retail.

So we'll see how tomorrow goes, I'm willing to accept you may have some dullards on the payroll, but the law of averages would suggest I'll get someone with a brain next time.

By the way, throughput is loads better today, but slowly getting worse as the evening goes on.  So I'm starting to wonder if I'm still contending with Residential users, rather than business users.

[stuartgoble]

As a follow up to any BT Moderators watching, I finally got a fault raised to look at my Broadband (VOL011-42402637805) And WOW! what a surprise, No Fault Found...  Throughput during the working day is OK at around 6Mbps but the evenings still drop off badly to less than 1Mbps.

No calls from BT no emails explaining what they looked at, you just cleared the fault.

So, in an attempt to clear things up, (a) can you confirm this is a Business Broadband account.  (b) Can you confirm the contention ratio on my service. (c) Can someone please give me an indication as to why it slows down (on a business service) so badly at night?

Still looking to clear this up before I raise faults on the BT POP server always timing out and why my static IP addresses don't work. So one step at a time.

PS> When I say CRAP in the title I mean it so please don't moderate...

[frank]

I am totally fed up with BT! I have spent hours and hours trying to speak to somebody about the poor broadband connection that is needed for BT vision. When I do get to speak to somebody (usually in India) I am expected to unplug wires, move the hub etc etc. After doing this last time which took 75 minutes I was then told there was a problem with the service in our area! They are crap, crap crap. Problem is I hear that all the other providers are not much better. Why have we got people out of work while BT force us to talk to people on the other side of the world? Does anybody know a simple phone number where I can get hold of an British person who works with BT and give me the service I am paying for? Just got off the phone from a polite Indian sounding lady who was trying to get me to unscrew my BT plate on a Saturday evening for **bleep**s sake! I told her no; I wasn't going to spend my Saturday evening servicing their equipment. How long before the washing machine repair man asks me to dismantle the machine to see what's wrong before he will come out!!! I amy be getting older (50) but BT service is scandalous.

[Tracey]

Hi Frank,

I am sorry to read about the problems that you are having with your BT Home broadband.

Unfortunately, however as we are business we are not able to view your account what so ever.

I would perhaps suggest posting on one of the boards of the BT Home Forum where one of the forum users or perhaps a moderator would be able to assist you further with your issue

Hope this is of help.

Tracey

BT Business Forum Moderator

[AndyWright]

Are you kidding me. I have had three days of utter **bleep** trying to work with BT Technical and BT Billing.

I have been put through to Mubai, the Phillipines, Northern Scotland and now Lincoln. None of your so-called experts could help. I have asked to speak to ANYONE who could help me Customer Service. Only to be told you could give me a postal address to write to. Some telecommunications company eh?

Have you heard of Customer Service BT? It's not just what you offer when you are conning someone to into buying your second-rate services, it's what people should expect when they have a problem. Alun, your advise doesn't help. It just rubs salt into a very sore wound.

When my contract is up you and your your appalling company are history.

By the way, I own two quite large companies and spend in excess of £50,000 per year with BT. Not for much longer though.

[AndyWright]

Tracey

Your answer is typical of your arrogant monopoly of a company.

You and your company's service is shocking.

If you didn't have the monopoly on people's lines, you'd be out of business in a month.

Try and get a job with a decent company.