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Slow change over to 4G with Assure and low speed

timdf911
Member

I  live in a rural area with poor land line quality resulting in regular VDSL drop outs, so I signed up for BT Assure with Super Fast Fibre enhanced and value line on the basis that EE coverage was good here and it would provide a seemless back up.  Seemed like a good deal at £41.99 / month plus VAT.

The service went live on 22nd July 2019 but sadly I've found that the change over time to 4G is several minutes or more - actually slower than the land line dropping out and re-connecting plus EE coverage is actually poor no matter where I locate the dongle.  Typically I get 3 bars and -100dBm.

Then to top it all my first bill was for £64.04 plus vat not the £41.99 plus vat.

Line speed on VDSL is as it should be when it works  (20M), but change over speed to Assure is very slow as mentioned above and the 4G speed when it does work is <1M at best sometimes only 300k.

I don't think Assure is fit for purpose here and would like to cancel - anyone know what the terms / conditions are for cancellation ?  I've not had the service for 30 days yet if that's a factor but looks as though I'm outside the 14 day cooling off period.

Alternatively I'd like a discount and or down grade the service to non Assure as clearly Assure is not practical at this location - despite EE coverage map claiming otherwise !

 

Regards Tim

3 REPLIES 3

timdf911
Member

Seems my bill was high due to a partial month and I'm told the next regular bill will be £41.99 always assuming I'm still with BT !

 

OR engineer has been out and as expected found nothing wrong with the line (I explained it was very intermittent) but he had not ecountered a business Assure dongle before and I had to explain how it worked.

 

As there was no fault found the ticket was closed as resolved, so subsequently I spent about 1/2 hour on the phone explaining the problem and was promised a call back from accounts to discuss a discount as I'm not getting what I'm paying for.  In fact I'm paying more for less as my connection actually works better with the dongle NOT plugged in !

 

Still waiting for that call from accounts so looks like another 1/2 hour conversation with BT tomorrow.

 

Bottom line for Assure is that it's not a silver bullet for unstable connections as it takes way too long to change over when the VDSL line drops or re-syncs plus the 4G speed is less than 1M.  This despite EE coverage map stating good signal indoors or outdoors .

 

Let's see if this post prompts a response from BT.

 

Not a happy camper.....

Beazer
Member
Similar issue. Bought 4G Assure as my broadband would occasionally drop out when it rained.
But when it switches over to 4G it won’t switch back despite the claim that BT would know and fix things they don’t know and don’t monitor it.
So it then sits on 4G for weeks at a much slower speed until I call BT, spend hours on the phone, get an engineer out (despite the threat of a £140 call out charge) to get the regular broadband back up.
This has happened twice in three months.

It’s a known issue; 4G assure doesn’t work as advertised. I was told to unplug it and put in a drawer and plug it back in when the broadband fails again..

RyanJames
BT Employee
BT Employee

Hi All

 

I know this is a very late reply - apologies, I have been absent these past few months. WIth the 4G assure, it should work fine - if it doesn't then there must be a fault or  in the original posters case, a potential mis-sale. We should only provide 4G assure products if the 4G signal in the area is above a certain strength.

 

Beazer, in your case I would recommend getting back in touch with us on 0800 800 154, when you have multiple recurring issues on the broadband we should be opening up a complaint for that and dealing with it until it is sorted, that goes for the 4G assure also. Your issue sounds like either a fault with the dongle or perhaps the router itself, as in most cases the switchover between the 4G and the regular connection should be instant. If you give our technical department a call on the above number they should be able to look into that for you.

 

Regards

Ryan