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EXTENSIVE, HONEST, CHEEKY (and nicely formatted) REVIEW AND RANT ABOUT BT BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE

KAK — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:13:48 GMT

INTRODUCTORY RANT

The first two paragraphs are a bit cheeky, mostly just summarizing the absolute cheek of BT. Please refer to CHAPTER 1: The Saga Begins for the actual issues I'm having with the mini-router if that's why you're here. -

- Cheers.

BT has us waiting almost 2 months to even speak to an engineer, yet another month before it's estimated an engineer will come to view what needs doing externally. I can't do my job because I don't have sufficient speeds, so I'm offered this mini hub. Typing this up on behalf of my mother, as she wouldn't know where to begin cause she is 60 odd and barely knows how set up a hotspot on her phone, let alone diagnose the issues I'm facing with this modernized dial-up box sent in place of their fastest fibre package.
I take it, of course.
Apologies for being curt, and making a joke out of everything - but it is my way of coping with the rage of losing work. I am a cinematographer and motion graphics designer and need to upload, and download a lot of 4k-8k footage. Impossible, near all of my projects are on hold - and my poor old mother can't even watch her Ghost Whisperer show on this rubbish. I am forced to deal with faulty temporary solutions in place of the fibre package we ordered and I'm told that we'll be waiting 3 months, so he's this 4g mini router with unlimited data yadda yadda blah blah, jargon jargon.
LASTLY, THE FACT THAT MY MOTHER HAS BEEN SENT A BILL - A FULL BILL FOR THIS?
I didn't realise your "Watch images load pixel by pixel for nostalgia and a reason to stare at the wall because u lost moar packets while paying for supar dupar fibar supur sonik speed hehehehe im sooo cheeeeeeky 😻😈" package amounted to the same worth as your top fibre deals. Incredible, really. What an utterly smashing deal. Cheers boys.

CHAPTER 1: THE SAGA BEGINS -

(BT sent me this cool puzzle!)

Luckily, I'm not completely incompetent and I know a thing or two about internet - and I'm pretty sure I've exhausted my resources on my end but here's what I've tried with BT's glorified sim card signal emitter eueueeoeeueoueoeueoue-
First of all, it's locked at 2.4ghz. First, I try to connect wirelessly. Crappy speeds and disconnects, so I make some alterations to my adapter. Disconnects stop, but after another quick ping test I'm met with the following LAUGHABLE results as seen in ARTICLE A.

ARTICLE A (a picture of really, really, really rubbish internet)

A delicious 1532ms.

CONSTANT PACKET LOSS. IS THIS DIAL UP, OR WHAT?
Need I mention, I checked service in my area - and it's very good. My first suspicion was that the 2.4gh channel was over saturated. I reset the device numerous times and I faced the same issue. Wi-fi introduced CONSTANT packet loss.

CHAPTER 2: TETHER? NEVER.

(How to Surf the Web Like it's 1997)

I figured I may be able to tether it like I would my phone, and I did.
Agh, yes. Ethernet 3, it 'worked'. Alas, I was plesently surprised, for about ten minutes. 40-50ms is still not ideal but if you've only consumed literal battery acid for days and you're gifted a raw potato to nibble on, it would be a nice surprise. Albiet, that joy was short lived and I was once again met with the same issue I had on wireless.
Please see my gradual decent into depression as my potato was snatched from my hands in ARTICLE B
ARTICLE B (tbh, this really hurt my feelings.)
So, through tethering - I am edging on having usable internet but only in two minute intervals where we MUST REPENT WITH 5 MINUTES OF VICTORIAN ENGLAND ROLEPLAY, and even then, it isn't good enough for what we need it for. How on earth am I to download, let alone upload 40-50GB of footage to my cloud services?

~~mmm just look at that up and down latency mmmmmm~~

CHAPTER 3: POTENTIAL CAUSE

(Of My Imminent Mental Deterioration)

So, to Tether - I need the battery, as without - apparently, the mini hub is unable to draw enough energy from all of my USBs. Oh look, red battery.
It also doesn't seem to recognize tethering as being used, and will consistently just go for a wee nap in the middle of a shift.
Battery in? Overheating, doesn't fix my current issues at all.
Now, plugged into an outlet - it seems to stay on if my device is connected, but why on gods green earth would I want to have my device connected to it over Wifi? (Please see ARTICLE A thank you) There's only space for ONE, SINGULAR CONNECTION - AND THUS, TO HAVE CONSISENT POWER I MUST NOT USE ETHERNET.

Maybe I'd have less issues if I was able to switch bands, channels or an extra USB, or even RJ45 slot? -
However, no. This seems to be an impossibility.

CONCLUSION

OPEN LETTER

(Underpaid Tecnician? When did you hire my sorry-)

After hours of trying to find a solution for BT's

'S o L u T i O n'

I actually just found a
REALLY RUBBISH EXCUSE FOR A TERRIBLE SERVICE.
At the end of the day, I'm not a BT technician. We're not paying for fibre so I can fix a cheaply made battery pack that you shoved a sim into to provide myself a service that WE ARE PAYING YOU FOR.
You are not paying me, and I am in fact LOSING money in my work. I'm not here for solutions, as I'll get that tomorrow when I speak to a human on the phone. But I'm here to show the absolute DISCRACE that BT has become. I don't want to hear the technicians being overworked excuse. I have PAID YOU FOR A SERVICE. It's good they're overworked, because I am UNDERWORKED - B E C A U S E O F B T D U R I N G A C O S T O F L I V I N G C R I S I S

Fixing this box ain't my issue. I'm the customer.

"Your bill is ready" - excuse me, who's bill? bill for? what for?
nahnahanahan ahanhananahahnahnah.

nah

no.

That's the end of my presentation.

Cheers, cheeky boys.

Re: EXTENSIVE, HONEST, CHEEKY (and nicely formatted) REVIEW AND RANT ABOUT BT BASED ON MY EXPERIENC

garybs29 — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:15:55 GMT

The business forum is at https://business.forums.bt.com/

I'm guessing you meant to post there as bb is as important to your work

Re: EXTENSIVE, HONEST, CHEEKY (and nicely formatted) REVIEW AND RANT ABOUT BT BASED ON MY EXPERIENC

KAK — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:18:04 GMT

Loss of work or not, my experience has been poo. I'd not consider it a business issue.

Re: EXTENSIVE, HONEST, CHEEKY (and nicely formatted) REVIEW AND RANT ABOUT BT BASED ON MY EXPERIENC

garybs29 — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:23:01 GMT

Putting the shocking experience aside for now, if your work is that important to you why don't you have a business account anyway? Would have proper sla's etc for outages too instead of the residential one

Re: EXTENSIVE, HONEST, CHEEKY (and nicely formatted) REVIEW AND RANT ABOUT BT BASED ON MY EXPERIENC

KAK — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:40:48 GMT

I have written this on behalf of my mother as I am staying with her and helping her get the internet set up. She is a bus driver. She does not need a business acount.

Whether or not I decide I need a business account is irrelevent to the discussion presented above. Either way, if you read what I said above, you will see that I am reviewing my experience with BT as a whole, not just in light of the way it has affected my work.

If somebody pays for a package promising 100mb/s+ - they don't expect to wait three months for install, and then also be charged for the months in which they wait. I would be equally angry, even if my work was not an element in this. A business account wouldn't be needed if BT could fulfil their promised packages.

Re: EXTENSIVE, HONEST, CHEEKY (and nicely formatted) REVIEW AND RANT ABOUT BT BASED ON MY EXPERIENC

garybs29 — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 22:49:55 GMT

You will be entitled to automatic compensation if it's a delayed install which will far exceed the monthly costs paid in the meantime, this will be sorted after the issue is resolved but the bill still has to be paid in the meantime

Re: EXTENSIVE, HONEST, CHEEKY (and nicely formatted) REVIEW AND RANT ABOUT BT BASED ON MY EXPERIENC

KAK — Sat, 03 Dec 2022 23:06:35 GMT

In the meantime and future compensation are also irrelevent, as right now - it's a hassle.

If somebody experienced an injury, but they were compensated with some cash, they were still injured, and they can still be annoyed about it.

UPDATE

KAK — Sun, 04 Dec 2022 04:43:33 GMT

UPDATE

After hours of fiddling around with settings, I managed to switch bands to 5G and combat the sleep mode by having both 5G Tethering and Wifi at the same time. After playing with my wireless adapter configuration and mini hub configuration, determining which bands and channels worked best - I found no real success. Latency is still a major issue, and though there is slightly less packet loss, the ping is substantially higher. Yes, that says 2343ms.
Thus, I now believe that even with optimal settings, and with use of my previous suggested solutons - I conclude that I am doomed to an existance of sporadic, unreliable dysfunction until engineers rise from the ashes and install the fibre.

Yep, cheers again.

More updates soon.