Connection Dropping and slow, terrible old cables

[natswright]

Well, an update,

3 faults fixed and 2 engineer visits later and still no further forwards. The line still has intermittent crackling on it and drops as soon as an incoming or outgoing call is taken. I now have to wait until 26th for another engineer and to be honest, i've had enough

BT make vast vast profits but simply do not invest this in the crumbling infrastructure.

Virgin have now moved into my area and its tempting to simply order super fast broadband from them.

Oh, and I cannot fault the openreach engineers, they have done all they can, but when they have to work with the rubbish excuse BT offer as in infrastructure, how can one expect them to fix something that needs replacing?

[WSH]

BT don’t own the infrastructure, Openreach do.  They are separate companies today.

And Virgin support…  Well, I suggest you read their user forum and make your own mind up.

[natswright]

BT own Openreach, so my original point stands

Our company | Openreach

BTs Tech support is not great either, and i've spoken to a lot of folks about this and all say Virgin is very good and reliable. Forums are often full of people complaining anyway so are not a good guide.

Irony? Kind of, as here we are with me complaining. You see folks dont wake up in the morning and think, hey, my broadband is great, I'll go on the forum to say how great it is.

BT have facebook groups dedicated to how bad they are too.

Personally, of the last 9 years with BT, i've had 7 months of issues, and i'd say thats pretty bad going for them.

Openreach wont leave calls open, for a week, in case a fault comes back, so you have to log a fresh one each time for intermittent faults.

And I work in the IT support industry and yes, I leave calls open for customers that have issues like this, so they dont have to go through reporting it all over again. 

[PaddyB]

Hi @natswright,

Thank you for posting. I understand your frustration and I'm sorry if the fault hasn't been fixed. If you hear noise on the line when using your phone this would indicate a high-resistance fault. This would need to be reported to BT as a telephone fault. These types of faults can harm the Broadband and by their nature are difficult to pinpoint. If you send me your details, I'll take a look at the fault and run a few checks on your line.

I have sent you a private message with instructions on how to contact the team.  You can access your messages via the envelope icon at the top right of the screen, or click on this link, Private messages

Thanks,

Paddy

[natswright]

Thanks @PaddyB I have managed to report this to BT, and a 3rd engineer is attending on the 26th, March. Its just frustrating as the issue is really down to the state of the lines. Mine is joined in so many places now and as there are no spare pairs, they have to keep fixing it.

Lets see what happens on the 26th, this is BT's last chance as far as I'm concerned, after that, i'll be moving to virgin as I need a reliable broadband connection.

[PaddyB]

Hi @natswright,

Thank you for replying. Please keep us update and let us know how things go on the 26th.

Thanks,

Paddy

[natswright]

Hiya @PaddyB, this has finally been resolved after around 7 or 8 engineer visits and my broadband seems fairly stable. Its dropped a few times while the line stabilises.

The line crackle has gone and I can make and receive calls without the broadband going off.

However one very annoying thing is that BT have made no attempt to apologise for 3 months of terrible service and have offered no compensation.

[natswright]

Finally, last week engineer number, I forget, seven? Maybe number eight? Well, they found the fault on my line that had been causing the broadband to run slowly and drop all the time, an intermittent crackle on the line and the broadband also dropping when I made of received a call.

While I'm happy this is working, and the overreach engineers have worked their socks of and kept me in the loop, BT themselves have been a appalling. They never really got in touch, when they did, they never followed up on my calls.

I was promised compensation for 2 months of a continuous fault, yet have had nothing. I've paid £120 for a none existent service this last 2 months, and have had to take countless days off work to be in for engineers. 

Why have I had no letter of apology? Why no compensation?

I had to pay for another internet service as internet is essential for my job, much of which is homeworking. This was a cost I could ill afford.

Nothing has been forthcoming

Whats the best way to complain and speak to someone who actually knows what they are doing?

Can a BT mod help here, and get the ball rolling?

[DavidM · Accepted solution]

Thanks for sending over the details and for taking my call @natswright .

I'm glad I was able to sort this out for you.

All the best

David