Broadband (Complaint more than a Q)

[GSV3MiaC]

I would like to document the status so far of the mess they have made of moving my phone line and broadband from Surfanytime/Intec to BT.

Despite promises of "easy switch" (using the same ADSL wires after all) on 10th June, the broadband has yet to work. I have now made 5 or 6 support calls, and 3 online chats,  plus an engineer visit on Friday 13th (!) which did not actually materialise at my property.

1) On 10th the broadband did not work. I rang and was (incorrectly) advised I needed to use the BT smart hub, rather than my Draytek modem/router. I knew this was rubbish, but unpacked and installed the hub anyway. I could already see that the issue was no PPP connection being established, which is not router related.

2) It did not work. So I rang again and was told it might not work until 23:59.

3) It still was not working so I rang again on 11th, and the support person remotely restarted my router. Eventually performed a line test and told me there was a fault at my property, an engineer would be needed. Engineer booked for 1-6pm 13th. I told them one more time the problem was CONFIGURATION AT YOUR EXCHANGE (DSLAM, B-RAS, or Routers).

4) Chat ensued later on the 12th (txt copies available), hub was factory reset, still nobody in support who actually understands the issue.

5) At 5:45 on 13th no engineer. Online fault tracking shows update 17:35, but if you click 'details' it lies about the engineer having been and the fault fixed, neither true. I rang again and was assured engineer still coming.

6) After 6pm, no engineer, so another chat session, at which I was informed engineer had not needed to visit fault was outside my property. However fix was delayed until 17th, PM.

7) I later got an email saying an (other!) engineer visit was needed, please book one. So I start another chat session to ask 'WTF is going on', and was told senior engineer needed, can't get one until Tuesday 18th. Now booked.

Look the problem is clearly an incorrect configuration change. The line and adsl worked fine into a UK-ADSL logon portal. BT changed it, and it is broken. My router (and the BT hub) report a perfectly good DSL signal at 4.5mb/s back to the DSLAM (or whatever equivalent is used these days) but LCP requests to establish a PPP session are not getting anywhere. The hub shows:

19:41:23, 01 Oct.
PPP LCP Send Configuration Request
19:41:20, 01 Oct.
PPP LCP Send Configuration Request

(Never worked so has not managed to set a correct date/time!)

Draytek router has LOTS more debug info but basically the same story - PPP session request sent into black hole.

How can I get BT to please arrange for =someone who actually knows what they are doing= to actually contact me (the landline works fine, despite that being listed as the problem on all the fault reports - apparently ADSL failts all get sent to Openreach as 'no dial tone' or similar.

CS support staff in the UK is definitely an improvement over the ones they used to have in India, but they remain technically clueless and just follow a 'what colour is the lights, please reset... etc' script instead of actually listening to the customer and being able to fix it. Openreach, who ought to understand, are apparently forbidden to talk to me.

Oh, and there are no working email addresses for talking to BT - send post letter to their office address? How 19th century!!

p.s. my main email address on a livemail domain is apparently not acceptable to the community for verification??

[Manatarms84]

Your contract is with BT, Openreach own the network and do no speak to customers.

Customer care have a job to do and that will mean they have to ask a set of questions as for instance different colour lights on the router will mean different things.  You were keen to speak to openreach but it was them who attended the fault and reported the issue as fixed to BT, BT were not the ones reporting your issue is fixed.

Call technical support and advise the issue is not resolved and they will investigate further but you will need to make sure BT equipment is the one plugged in before they can help

You sound like you know your stuff but you will get more from customer services if you go in and co operate with what they are asking for, just easier and quicker all round (speaking from years of call centre work in another industry)

[GSV3MiaC]

Nobody reported the fault as fixed, that was just what the bt fault tracking system shows if you click on 'detail'.. like much of the rest of their systems, broken. 

Yes I know openreach own and operate most of the equipment, but i am not sure who makes, or is responsible for, the config changes to move a ADSL customer from one ISP to a new one. Whoever it is, they are the ones I need some action from, not some poor clueless girl working a script in Ireland. 

Did you look at BT reviews on trustpilot recently? I know more people go there to complain than to say 'well done', but BTs score is awful, makes British Gas  and Easyjet look good. 

[imjolly]

@GSV3MiaC 

can I ask if you used the method set out by OFCOM where you just place order with new ISP and they inform existing ISP they are taking over the connection or did you first notify your existing ISP you were leaving  before/as you placed order with BT?

[GSV3MiaC]

Yes, that is the method I used.  I did not inform my old isp until bt picked up the order, at which point my old isp asked for confirmation and a final payment.

The automated online system did not recognise intec as an option, so it had to go thru the old fashioned manual way, but it went thru. The phone line and number moved just fine. The broadband screwed up. As I said the adsl part as far as the exchange (still) works fine.. 4.6 bits/s, which is all 3km of copper is good for. The PPP connection goes nowhere. 

[iniltous]

Perhaps you can provide some clarity, Surf any time  went out of business in 2021 and Intec don’t appear to be an ISP , so  can you confirm who you had a working service with to migrate to BT .

You say your  telephone service is OK but no ‘internet’ ,  it shouldn’t be possible to still have a PSTN phone service , so is your  telephone service  OK and working via the new SH2 , so basically it’s now via BT’s Digital Voice or is your telephone still via the master socket , if it is via the master socket what makes you say the telephone was moved OK as that would suggest your phone service hasn’t been moved at all .

[GSV3MiaC]

• SurfAnytime were bought by firefly, who were bought by intec business, who were my isp (via a uk-adsl login portal.. Same one as surfanytime originally gave me) until 9th  June.

BT (failed to) take over on 10th.

This is a copper adsl line, with, yes, a pstn telephone (3 extensions). You are obviously not familiar with the state of play out here in the wilds of Shropshire, where 'fibre to a nearby village' (ftnv) is still a distant (2027 maybe) dream, and pstn still rules.

P. S. But I THINK they have replaced the Strowger switches now. 

[iniltous]

It’s not possible, even in your exchange area to move provider and stay on PSTN/WLR   , you say your telephone service moved successfully, how are you judging that as dialtone sounds the same irrespective of provider on PSTN/WLR  and you state it’s still being provided to the master socket .

 WLR stop sell means that any new or migrated telephony service will be SOGEA or SoTAP , in your case , presumably there is no SoGEA ( fibre to the cabinet without PSTN /WLR telephony ) available either because you have an E/O line or the distance you are from the ‘cabinet ‘ would make that a poorer choice , that’s assuming what you state is correct , that  it’s the equivalent of ADSL you should be getting  , which is SoTAP , that is the product BT would actually order post WLR stop sell 

For BT to supply you with telephony  requires BTDV , TBH the evidence suggests  your telephone hasn’t been migrated at all , and your telephony is exactly as it was , but for whatever reason your broadband service has been withdrawn.

FYI , the  last Strowger exchange closed in 1995 and that was in rural Scotland  ( 30 years ago )  , but the majority of the exchange switching estate was converted to digital in the decade before 1995, so even your exchange hasn’t had mechanical switches for nearly 4 decades.

Perhaps you would explain what makes you think your telephone is now with BT and not with your previous supplier if you are still getting a working  dialtone  from the master socket ? 

[GSV3MiaC]

I assume it was switched because Bt told me it was, and plan to charge me for it from 9th. Based on their performance elsewhere perhaps I should maybe not believe them?

The Stroweger comment was, a joke.. Guess I misplaced the smiley. 🙂

I Wait to see what their senior engineer does / says when (if) he shows up. My router, and theirs, claimed adsl at 448k up, 3.6m down, so I guess I have not been migrated from adsl.. or would sotap show similarly? 

 

[GSV3MiaC]

Ps if I ask openreach about fibre or broadband for my property I get this. SOTAP not mentioned.