Internet outage and atrocious customer service

[Nengwe]

So, at 4pm on Monday, my internet goes down so I check in to MyBT, run a test and am informed it should be fixed by 10pm. Not so bad.

Tuesday morning - no internet - website says should be fixed by 10pm the day before. That sounds wrong so I phoned, run a test and am told should be fixed in 2 hours.

Tuesday evening - check again, should be fixed by 10p mon Monday, or 2 hours from now, or 4 hours from now according to the automated SMS you sent.

Wednesday morning - website says should be fixed by 10pm two days ago, phone test says 2 hours and automated SMS says 4 hours.

I call and finally get to speak to an agent - he has no idea what timescale to suggest for the fix, tries live chatting with Openreach but the close the chat on him:-D. He admits it could take up to a month (my internal voice starts screaming "breach of contract") to be fixed.

Wednesday afternoon speak to someone else who suggests Halo 3 as a failover and it's only £3/month - sounds great - but there's a catch - I need to start another two year contract. 

As if!!!!!

[imjolly]

Do you know if it just you or does the outage affect your neighbours?

[Nengwe]

I believe it's the whole of RM10 and no-one can get any info/answers/timescales from BT or Openreach.

[-Richie-]

It sounds like an MSO (Major Service Outage) where Openreach give estimates that can change, it really depends what the cause of the issue is and if replacement parts arrive on time, then engineers to replace said parts.
An MSO would be dealt with as quickly as possible, it would also impact all other ISP's and not limited to just BT.

Re: Halo then yes, it would come with the keep connected promise and other benefits listed Here , any change of broadband package would mean a new minimum term.

[Nengwe]

I'm not inclined to extend my stay at a time when I am not getting the service I am paying for, funnily enough!

That said, these things happen. I guess the real reason I'm miffed is because there's no info about the outage and any communication from you is outdated or quite obviously wrong - not useful when deciding if I need to brave the 3 hour commute to the office instead of WFH, where I may not be able to get online. Again.

Oh, and your service status tracker... could be useful(?) but you have to enter your landline number - does ANYone have one of those these days? 😄

[Nengwe]

To add the above, when I spoke to an agent this morning he opened a complaint - it was closed within 60 seconds without explanation or resolution - another reason why I am not thinking about extending my contract to get Halo!

[rbz5416]

I put four random RM10 phone numbers into the status checker & no issues were reported. Try putting your postcode into Google Maps & selecting a local business phone number for a more precise check.

[Nengwe]

Good idea!

Hmmm... I did that and it says no known issues in RM10.

The plot thickens!

[rbz5416]

Probably shouldn't  discount the high probability that you're being given the "mushroom" treatment by the (no)helpdesk...

[Nengwe]

Haha!

Went back online (at a whopping 0.05Mbps as I've used all my mobile data) to check the status via MyBT and, despite being logged in, I can't it use the test my connection service as "Sorry, we couldn't find your account"

What a shower!