Although that implies there's a two tier service for those who want to pay more and other people just have to wait
Business customers pay more depending on what SLA they want. That has always been the case.
Bear in mind that a residential connection should not be used for business.
Have you considered a 4G mobile backup for when you have a fault?
If you have a full fibre connection, then fibre faults can sometime take a long time to be fixed, as they are more complex because of the multiple nodes.
Although not having internet access is frustrating, you need to keep in mind you pay for a residential service, if you chose to use it for business purposes that’s your choice , but makes your ‘problem’ no more important than someone who can’t check the weather forecast, as already indicated, business tariffs ( that cost more ) get a higher level of response , or for business critical situations, network resilience can be purchased, but this is expensive and aimed at business like Banks where outages could stop business operations .
The standard residential service level agreement,(SLA) is an aim to fix within 2 working days , the day of the report and weekends don’t count , obviously depending on what the problem is, some outages can take longer than 2 days to remedy ( roadworks cutting through cables for example ) , but it’s also possible that some faults are cleared before the 2 day window has expired , automatic compensation is paid for outages that exceed the SLA .
As stated it’s frustrating , but the network operator Openreach ( who are responsible for repairs etc ) earn around £0.50p a day from your ISP , a 2 day response and compensation per day that is more than 10 times the daily rate you actually pay, for 50p a day is pretty good .
If you noticed your service not working on Tuesday , and today is Friday , that’s not 5 days , its 4 , plus the day of the report (Tuesday ) doesn’t count towards the SLA , so Wednesday and Thursday were the target repair days , so putting it into perspective, your resolution is currently 1 day ‘late’ , hopefully it will be resolved today .
Obviously it would be preferable to know the nature of the problem to gauge how long the outage is likely to be
Some information about BT Business broadband https://business.bt.com/content/dam/terms/broadband/BTL_BTBPS_BsnssBrdbnd(BB4)_Sch.pdf
This information from a moderator may help, if you decide to move to BT Business.
"Customers who convert their Residential account to a Business account are entitled to have the Early Termination Charges refunded, providing they've had their Business service for more than 14 days. So once your business account is active over 14 days you can request a refund of the termination charges for the residential service"
So I've had a chat with BT Values team. The answer for freelancers and sole traders like us is the unbreakable hybrid router. When fibre goes down it seamlessly goes over to 4G. Slightly more expensive but worth it for the connectivity.
I guess this is not really the right forum for regular customers. It feels a bit judgy, like its my fault for not being able to work from home and putting poor old open reach to the trouble of doing their job. People don't use the Internet to check the weather forecast, they use it for smart tvs, smart central heating, doorbells, alarm and emergency call systems, gaming, broadband only VOIP calling, studying, contacting family via zoom, and all the other things that make up a connected home in 2023. BT advertise their Halo products accordingly and we have a contract with them
Try 2 years, fun times
You're kidding. I guess you've looked into changing provider but it hasn't helped
Im now being told there is no plans to install fibre in my area.... Except its already here, my neighbors have it, i can see it through the wall.
What can you do when BT and open reach dont even know they already have fibre outside? I was previously told there was no capacity but now they think they dont even have it installed in the first place.
No compensation either, even tho they have a duty to provide automatic compensation that i dont have to claim for myself.