This topic

Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 09:13:02 GMT

Hi,

I am a brand new BT customer (started the contract on the 27th April) and we have had an issue from the start with our broadband slowing from around 10pm until around 9am down to as low as 0.08mbits/s. In other words, it becomes totally unusable.

I start work (from home) at 8am and it is still running at around 3.0mbits/s, meaning I have to tell people to not contact me for video calls etc until around 10am. At around 10am, it seems to go back up to around 24mbits/s which is what I'd expect for my area.

I have seen posts about capacity issues on exchanges and wonder if this is the same issue? I raised a fault on the 30th April about it and it says it is still ongoing but provides no information on the actual fault.

My real annoyance is that when trying to contact customer support, it keeps bringing me in a circle telling me to 'ask the community' and I cannot get a chat or phone number for BT themselves no matter where I look online. I understand we have a speed guarantee and when I browse to the page about it and how we need to contact BT to claim against it, I click on the 'contact us' button, it brings me back to 'ask the community'. Do I need to raise the speed guarantee claim through the community? Or does anyone have a contact number or any way to contact BT.

I don't want to be one of the usual ranters about how 'I've never experienced this poor customer service before' but the fact is that we switched to BT from Sky, whose customer service was outstanding. We can't even phone or chat to BT and the service being provided is so poor that I cannot actually work from home. To add to the issues, my wife and I are looking after our newborn and for her when she goes to feed them and watch/read something, the Internet doesn't work and our data/phone signal here is terrible, so we've always relied on WiFi.

I'm hoping this will pass when the load on the exchanges drops but is there any form of contact I can get with either someone from BT through here, or if anyone can point me in the right direction so I can at least find out what the issue is and when it is going to be resolved?

I have the analysis from our line and it shows it as pretty standard but at night all speed and usability just vanishes.

Thanks in advance!

James

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

imjolly — Mon, 18 May 2020 09:24:03 GMT

welcome to the BT community forum where customers help customers and only BT employees are the forum mods

in order for the forum members to help please can you post the stats from your router (if hub enter 192.168.1.254 in your browser) and if HH5 then go to troubleshooting then helpdesk and if HH6/SH2 then advanced settings then technical log information .

Have you tried the quiet line test? - dial 17070 option 2 - should hear nothing - best done with a corded phone. if cordless phone you may hear a 'dull hum' which is normal

enter your phone number and post results remember to delete number https://www.broadbandchecker.btwholesale.com/#/ADSL

Someone may then be able to offer help/assistance/suggestions to your problem

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:04:48 GMT

Thanks for the response. Screenshots below:

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:07:40 GMT

Not that it means much, but here is a speed test from BT's wholesale tester from the 9th May at 06:30

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:10:41 GMT

and here is a screenshot of the Ookla test run now (18th may @ 11:09@ from my PC which is wired to the router. I had to tether my PC to my mobile in order to upload this:

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

imjolly — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:45:29 GMT

any noise when you do quiet line test?

have you tried using the test socket with a filter to see if that improves your connection at present your connection speed is below the expected range

are you using powerline adapters

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:53:47 GMT

Yes we have tried a quite line test and there is no noise. There are no powerline adapters being used but we haven't tried the test socket. I will give it a go today and report back.

How do we contact BT customer services though? When I reported the fault, they acknowledged something was wrong and said an engineer would need to visit but now all options for contacting them have been removed. I want to talk to BT about it and claim against the speed guarantee.

Just as a FYI - we didn't have any of these issues before the lockdown - so I am guessing it could be something to do with load (and would support the capacity issue).

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

imjolly — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:54:37 GMT

if it was conegestion that would only affect your download at peak times but your connection and attainable speed is lower that expected range and would not be affected by congestion

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

georgiewot — Mon, 18 May 2020 10:56:53 GMT

its exactly the same for me, im done with this stupid company and useless support, im in COMPLETELY the same boat as you, been waiting 2 weeks for official bt support and no help on community....

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

garybs29 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:04:07 GMT

Quick google brings up the number 0800 800 151 for faults, don't see how there can be no support if people haven't tried calling

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:04:14 GMT

so I have just checked and we do not have a test socket (our house was build in 1979 and I assume the socket is original) and looking at the BT guide, it says to not remove it:

https://btbusiness.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/21507/~/how-to-use-your-test-socket-on-your-mastersocket/c/5106/

Any ideas?

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

imjolly — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:08:58 GMT

do you have any other sockets is the socket which you use where the openreach line enters your home?

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:09:55 GMT

Just to warn you that it isn't just BT. The longer story to this is that I was with BT until March 25th with no issues whatsoever. I then switched to Sky and the problems started, exactly as I am experiencing now. I contacted Sky and they were excellent. They talked me through all possible solutions and in the end they held their hands up and said "sorry, we don't know what it is", so I said to them that as I was within my cooling off period, I would cancel and go back to BT as I wasn't having these issues with them. Sky said they couldn't work out what the problem was as it all runs through the same exchange. I switched back to BT as of the 27th April and have the issue seems to have gotten worse.

I don't believe BT as a supplier is responsible for this issue, as Sky had exactly the same, however BT's response and customer service has been pretty terrible, whereas Sky were very responsive and helpful. I wish I hadn't switched back!

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:12:42 GMT

thanks for that, I have called them twice, the last time being yesterday. I get through to someone who tries to open a new case, after I explain that I already have a case and run through the entire story, then they explain that if I already have a case open that I cannot get any help until it has been resolved and that they do not know when that will be, or what the issue is. I hope that helps you see how there can be no support, as people have tried calling.

Googling that phone number though has brought up the live chat which I couldn't find on their website, so I'm going to try that instead.

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

garybs29 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:14:06 GMT

Did Sky send out an openreach engineer at all as well to carry out checks for any external issues?

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:21:44 GMT

Sky didn't send an engineer, just the router to us as this was at the peak of lockdown. They did tests at their end but acknowledged something was wrong.

Last time I contacted BT they said they couldn't send an engineer out yet and to contact them again later, so I'll give them another try today. This is the only socket coming into our house and there is some old wiring running a phone socket from it to the upstairs so I've disconnected it just in case. I have just tried their online services and got this message, so I'll try the phone again...

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

imjolly — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:27:58 GMT

sorry but how have you disconnected the other socket? if your mater socket is one with solid front face with just phone outlet did you disconnect from the master socket? if so did you notice if there was an orange wire connected to terminal 2 main connections would be 2&5

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:29:56 GMT

there was an adapter/splitter allowing two filters to be plugged in at once. I have removed the adapter and now they only thing plugged into the main socket is the filter for the router.

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

garybs29 — Mon, 18 May 2020 11:31:31 GMT

In that case i'd definately try contacting them again, as much as they can't send an engineer to visit your house they should be able to get one to complete external checks if needed. Only reason I can see for it not progressing just now is if they've diagnosed an issue which requires an engineer to visit the house

Re: Speeds of 0.08mbits, no support, help!

James048 — Mon, 18 May 2020 12:05:29 GMT

Just called them and got through to a someone very helpful. They said there was an issue with the previous fault report and the tracking associated with it so they have created a new one and ran some more diagnostics, talked me through the setup here, confirmed filters in place etc. and confirmed that there is something wrong on the line. They are now able to send me an engineer, which is good news! Booked in for next Tuesday.

Opinion of BT customer service has increased but it seems to be better to call during the day, calling at night gets a call centre based somewhere else with less knowledgeable staff.