Download speed has reduced

[Matt-S]

Hi @rta2000,

Thanks for sending over your account information, I'm sorry that you remain unhappy with your current broadband package.

I have fully reviewed your case and I can see that this case has already been reviewed by Ombudsman Services Communications including their appeal process. Due to this, we will not be able to review this case again.

I'm sorry if that this is not the response you would have hoped for.

Matt

[rta2000]

Thanks for trying.

As Ombudsman Services failed to see anything untoward in me being charged for a service I am not getting, BT withdrawing the package we contracted for without telling me or reducing my bill and the fact my service has declined by 33% since I started with BT, I didn't hold out a lot of hope.

When you provide enough evidence that anybody who wanted to see could see and it was quite plain what was happening and had happened, I can only presume professional blindness took over. There is no way that one party to a contract can decide to withdraw the service it provides without any communication, then provide you with a lesser one in the hope you don't notice, can be seen as either 'Fair' or 'Reasonable'. It can be nothing else but breach of contract, making the contract between myself and BT either null & void or voidable. Apparently it is perfectly acceptable behaviour, according to the 'impartial' Ombudsman, who I can only assume was sitting at the back of the class during the Law of Contract lectures.

This leaves me with the marvelous option of suing for breach, when all I actually want is the service I am still paying for back. It was there once, so all it would take is a bit of common decency and a few switches to give it back.

For the only infrastructure provider in the country, this behaviour is disgusting and a total abuse of Monopoly.

I should have read the reviews of Ombudsman Services before I bothered to try for restitution of service through them. They don't seem to rate very highly and having gone through the pointless process, I can see why.

What is obvious to 'a reasonable man' apparently isn't to them. I hope they get paid well.

Thanks for trying anyway.

[MatthewF45]

Just want to add my experience to this, been on BT Infinity 2 for seven years and in the last three years BT have dropped the download sync speed from about 65mbps to 55mbps then two weeks ago down again to 49mbps, like you say they simply will not consider it a fault because its still "within expected range" and will offer no explanation at all for why the speed that was perfectly stable for years is now 6mbps slower. 

Of course we all know whats actually happening and they are slowing customers to fit more on the same cabinet and hoping users wont notice. 

The joke of it is i ordered BT TV to watch the Football in 4K and my speed has in all likelihood dropped below the level needed to stream 4K acceptably so i will be cancelling the whole lot when the contracts up and moving to Zen.  

[rta2000]

Far cheaper for them to abuse their monopoly position and degrade your service than to upgrade a cabinet.

Very disappointing behaviour from a company that I used to have great respect for.

This is unfortunately not unusual, it seems & is cowboy sharp practice unbefitting of the national infrastructure provider. It's not excusable to degrade your service without notice & not reduce the amount you pay for the new slower service in the hope that you do not notice.

I'm saddened that I appear to be far from alone in this. It's blatent profiteering that small print exclusion causes do not legally justify.

[LukasD]

Same thing looks to have happened to me.

I was on "Superfast Fibre 1", getting a solid and stable 55Mbps for the entire original contract period.  Now just after renewing for another 18 months my speed has dropped to 35-40.

What's more, the speed estimates on the package page have all been reduced to 29-46, instead of the 50-60 it was when I signed up.  Even my "minimum speed guarantee" has been halved!  So I can't even claim on that..

[rta2000]

They're still charging me for Superfast Fibre 2 as that was the contract I took out.

They no longer offer Superfast Fibre 2 at this address [changed after they signed me up for it], so they're charging me for a product their own website now says I can't get. That's 'fair & reasonable' isn't it ?

Perhaps it's time to contact the Monopolies Commission as this is blatent abuse of their Monopoly position.

How can it be legal to stop providing a service that they have contracted for and continue to charge me for when they don't & won't provide it, as their website now says ? Unless you're BT it seems, this is a clear breach of contract. You can't sign up to a contract to deliver ten beans, then deliver only five and continue to charge for ten. That's what they're doing to me.

[rta2000]

In other words, I am still 'tied into the contract' and can't change to Superfast Fibre 1, but BT seem not to be, and only provide Superfast Fibre 1 [or whatever they're calling it this week] instead of the Superfast Fibre 2 we contracted for. Anybody else think this is legal ?

[MatthewF45]

Hmm, as of today my sync speed is back up to 55Mbps, not sure if posting here had any relevance to this event so make of that what you will.

[LukasD]

Yeah, the moment I complained to them directly my connection speed jumped back up to 49Mb.  Suspicious...

Still not back to where it was though.

[rta2000]

That's something at least. If you just surf the web and email, you're not going to notice and they seem to be relying on that. If you're pulling things in 4k or have a lot of large files that regularly update, it's a massive change and not in the spirit of what was contracted for.
They claim to provide 'the best speed your line can handle' but this is obviously not the case as my line used to handle 75mbps and now it's under 50mbps. As it went down in equal 10mbps steps, it's obviously a limit set either at the exchange or cabinet and not anything else. A deliberate policy decision to reduce the service without any communication or compensation to those affected.