View Full Version : BT Infinitely Useless
Having been a relatively happy PlusNet customer over the years, I foolishly decided last month to upgrade to BT Infinity plus their TV package (we were fed up of paying Sky's increasingly silly fees). Yes, I know I am still indirectly subsidising Britain's grossly overpaid footballers....
The original engineer's appointment was on October 4th. Not only did they fail to make the broadband work (and therefore the TV install never started), but they have managed to cut off the PlusNet ADSL connection.
Two other engineers' visits have failed to solve the problem. What really amazes me is that BT cannot explain what the outstanding issue is. I have been assured that hub and router (both of which have been test replaced) are working satisfactorily. They clearly lack BOAC's knowledge of the technology.
So, if you are thinking of migrating to BT Infinity, go and take a cold shower, or open a cold beer, or both!
spannersatcx
23rd Oct 2013, 11:20
mine was fine!
pax britanica
23rd Oct 2013, 11:50
My infinity is fine too but there are some things to be wary of.
1 It is not really reliable enough for TV compared to say Sky, by this I mean that while I get 75Mbs on my LAB connected PC my wife's WIFI connected PC never gets more than 25 and that can be very variable.
2. A lot of BT engineers-they are only technicians not engineers as in professional engineers, do not work for BT but are contractors and they do not know much more than how to putt he connection together in your home-if there is a problem they cannot help.
3 BT Customer service in India is worse than useless - find an email address for executive level complaints-they have usually helped me.
Finally good luck its not a bad product when it gets going but BTs support is pretty poor
Ancient Observer
23rd Oct 2013, 12:00
Write a snail mail personally addressed to either the CEO or the Chairman. That will get your case passed to a better class of problem solver who will stay with your case until it is resolved.
Or, find someone who is employed by BT. (Not a contractor). BT staff and pensionners have access to a better class of problem solver.
The more you can convince them to completely replace stuff like their boxes and cables, the better. (Assuming the engineer knows what s/he is doing)
The "Engineers" they send out are, er, variable.
I emailed the CEO of BT Retail last week, and to give him credit, he came back to me within 2 hours, so I was upgraded to an executive level problem solver. That has speeded things up - hardly. Phone call today from some nice help centre in Scotland rather than Mumbai, to say that the Engineers' "Centre of Excellence" (sic) want to visit the house - but not till next Weds - you could not make it up!
They clearly lack BOAC's knowledge of the technology - totally un-warranted flattery! More like knowledge of "BT's ways".
Good advice from AO - the address for the new CEO is
[email protected] - as yet untried in answering complaints, but the 'outgone' Ian Livingston who was quite outstanding in that respect is thought to be monitoring all such complaints until the end of the month. Might be worth copying your email to him at
[email protected]
Don't give up! BTOR are a shambles. No1 son moved to the Borders a year ago and had a line fault (voice/dialling). Lots of nice chats with morons in Asia and 17 visits from engineers, each one reporting it was an exchange fault and the next one coming to investigate a house fault. Remember they are being 'trusted' to implement our UK broadband plan too............................
Thanks BOAC. I knew Ian L from his previous job at Dixons, so have wanged him an email to him just now. I will keep my Pprune friends updated (when I can get online that is!)
Pelikal
23rd Oct 2013, 14:24
Worth having a poke around the BT community forums. Just a thought.
Evanelpus
23rd Oct 2013, 15:57
3 BT Customer service in India is worse than useless - find an email address for executive level complaints-they have usually helped me.
Finally good luck its not a bad product when it gets going but BTs support is pretty poor
Oh boy, is it ever. 18 months ago I had a major blow up with BT, tried CS but couldn't understand a bloody word they were saying, they spoke very quickly and it was oviously from a pre-determined script. To cut a long and boring story short I 'demanded the right' to speak to a UK based operative to help me sort out the problem. A lady with an Irish accent called me and apologised for the problems and told me that all of BT's CS work was coming back to the UK within 12 months.....LIE NUMBER 1
Last week I needed assistance again from BT. Called the CS centre and it sounded like they have now moved to Indonesia/Malaysia, certainly not India but equally certainly not the UK. They promised to call me back that night between 7 and 8pm, I'm still waiting for the call!...........LIE NUMBER 2
Add my experiences to those of friends and family and the bottom line is that BT will lie through their teeth to you via phone and e-mail. :ugh:
mixture
23rd Oct 2013, 19:23
Might be worth copying your email to him at
[email protected]
Keep up old chap !
and
I knew Ian L from his previous job at Dixons, so have wanged him an email to him just now
You have just wasted your time....
Mr Livingston has secured himself a cushy job promoting BT's monopolistic interests at the heart of government in Westminster as Minister of State for Trade and Investment.....(plus a £9m goodbye package from BT).
Keep up old chap ! - spot who is out of touch! As I said, IL is reported to be 'shadowing' until 31/10. Do keep up?
To quote from the TBB forum: 22/10/2013
RobertoS "IIRC the email address for him is still being directed to the Serious Complaints Team. Till the end of this month I think."
XRaySpeX "Yes, just used it successfully."
Your move.
Mixture - I was well aware that IL had moved onwards and upwards, away from the commercial rat race and presumably towards becoming Lord Livingstone (I presume?!). I was merely taking BOAC's lead that IL was taking a distant interest in his former enterprise (or should that be an assembly of buffoons?).
Today's update: visit from superstar engineer promised for Monday. When I pointed out that the last engineer had confirmed that everything within the house was working perfectly, and therefore queried whether a fourth house visit was necessary, all I got was that the next engineer will know more than the last!
Skua - I doubt you will 'get through' - the line seems to be permanently engaged.:)
re Your 'engineer's visit' - only 13 to go:mad:
ShyTorque
24th Oct 2013, 11:41
Haha, when it comes to incompetence, just try Sky or Virgin Media....they're all as bad as each other
I gave up with the former because they blamed BT for their poor to non-existent service. BT blamed Sky. I put all the eggs in BT's basket so no-one company can blame others.
VM cocked up my son's phone connection when they installed his broadband and TV package and at the same time managed to cut off his neighbour's landline as well. It took all summer to sort that one out. In the meantime the neighbour's phone number was changed twice by VM for reasons no-one at the company can explain; main trouble was they forgot to tell them about it. Because they changed his number, the direct debit (which was still being paid of course) didn't match his new phone number so the accounts dept. cut off the phone! It was doubly inconvenient because the neighbour's wife had just been diagnosed with the dreaded C and the hospital couldn't get in touch with them.
xanda_man
25th Oct 2013, 08:32
Don't suppose you know anyone who works there do you? There is an action line that employees can call for situations just like this. There is a team dedicated to resolving issues such as this, which from my experience were quite common.
I no longer work for them so can't help but if you know someone that does then it's an option.
For reference though, as much as they might appear to not give a sh!t they really do so stick with it, they will sort it out. I am now (for the next few days at least) a Virgin Media customer and trust me when I say this, it really doesn't get any worse than these guys.
No doubt the broadband works perfectly on Necker Island!
BT update: my fourth engineer’s appointment this morning.Jimmie, nice lad, ex Royal Signals. Again unaware of the project’s history.Tried everything, but handicapped by the left hand of BT not knowing what itsright hand is doing. I had a wry smile when he was left hanging on interminablewaits on the helpdesk line. Replaced hub and router, tried two ‘lifts’ whateverthey might be. Net result – still nointernet. Not so much speeding down the information super-highway, as limping along a very muddy track.
I am struggling to retain my sanity……
Mike-Bracknell
28th Oct 2013, 15:37
Just email the Ian Livingstone email address posted earlier with a suitable rant.
That email address has _never_ been Ian Livingstone's, but is just a forward to the "executive complaints" team (i.e. the "let's make the customer think the CEO IS actually better than useless team) and they've got suitable experts to sort the issue without resorting to the under-trained monkeys.
FYI, the BT Homehub (and Businesshub) is rubbish, and can readily be replaced with better kit, but the Openreach white modem is a great piece of kit.
My infinity is fine too but there are some things to be wary of.
1 It is not really reliable enough for TV compared to say Sky, by this I mean that while I get 75Mbs on my LAB connected PC my wife's WIFI connected PC never gets more than 25 and that can be very variable.
Please be aware that the performance of your wifi in the house is NOT an indicator of the performance of the broadband connection. Chances are that you have issues or non-optimised environmentals for your wifi which is causing your specific issues. FYI Infinity is perfectly suitable for streaming my Netflix in HD.
Mike
FYI I have been tapped into the "Executive Level Complaints" team (yuck) for the last 2 weeks.
S
Mike-Bracknell
28th Oct 2013, 19:18
If that's the case, have you considered pointing out to them that they can interrogate the Openreach modem for some interesting and indicative stats which might lead towards a solution?
Also, ask them whether they've performed a "cease and reprovide" on the line yet?
mixture
28th Oct 2013, 20:17
the under-trained monkeys
And I thought for a moment I was the only person who formed that opinion of their engineers after many years of experience (or despair, rather !).
The only people with any faith in BT these days are those who's paycheck depends on it.
Unfortunatley not much will change until the regulator grows some teeth.
crewmeal
29th Oct 2013, 06:58
I don't want to rub salt into the wound but.........
A superfast way to go mad - ring BT's call centre in Bangalore | Mail Online (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2478638/A-superfast-way-mad--ring-BTs-centre-Bangalore.html)
Mike
I did as you suggested this morning - and am still awaiting a reply.
Engineers still pondering what went wrong yesterday. I'm promised an update on or before Thursday. They are clearly pulling their finger out!!!
KelvinD
29th Oct 2013, 18:08
Engineers you say. What engineers? They are generally blokes who have had a couple of weeks of specific training and let loose. Many years ago, shortly after leaving the Royal Signals, I worked for a while for GPO Telephones, at a couple of exchanges in the Manchester area. I seem to remember my rank/grade was something like T2A and I came equipped with years of formal training, C& G certificates etc. I believe my grade was one below Technical Officer (TO). Anyway, a few years ago when BT began rolling out a trial for a 64Kbs home service, they piloted it in 2 areas; Leeds and Basingstoke. So I signed up for it and got nowhere. The best I ever got was 9.6Kbs (in theory). Years laterI tried to get whatever the next iteration was and that was equally a failure. Worse, I arrived home to find the BT oik had dismantled my outside junction box and left it dangling in the breeze, looking like it had been bombed! I got nowhere with the standard complaints route, so I wrote to the then Chairman, enclosing photos of the mess and a reference to my web site where I had published my complaint/photos etc. I received not only a nice grovelling letter from the boss and a visit from a technician to put right the damage done etc. I also had a call from a nice bloke in a call centre in the Shetlands. At the end of a good conversation, he arranged to send me a couple of hundred quid as a "sorry" from BT. When the technician came to fix the previous moron's efforts, we had some interesting discussions and, to be fair, he tried absolutely everything to get a decent broadband service sorted out but he had to admit defeat in the end. He knew that the cabinet at the end of my road was full up and I had the worst pair in the whole cabinet. He drove to the exchange to see if he could manage to swap a couple of pairs around to get me a service but had to give up. At least he tried! Eventually, the cabinet was replaced and fibre run out to it. I subscribed to Infinity and, when tested after installation, I had 100Mbs speeds! That, of course, didn't last too long but I was nevertheless getting in excess of 32Mbs. Now, it can vary between 32Mbs and 4Mbs but it is still a lot better than 9.6Kbs! While the last bloke was installing the kit, I asked him about the technicians and their experience/training etc and that was when I learned how they (generally) have sod all previous experience and no qualifications that I would recognise. Aah! The joys and benefits of privatisation!
Interesting, Kelvin - we should all remember that what you describe is basically the 'bright' future for the famous government flagship roll-out of 'Super-fast broadband in ?every? county in the UK AND remember it is your and my money that is being poured into the BT pension fund by this government.
oldbeefer
30th Oct 2013, 09:59
My village - Baschurch in Shropshire - won the race-to-infinity. We were promised rollout in March 2012. Well, there are lots of Openreach vans around and fibre optics being pulled into ducts, but we're still told by the BT website that Superfast not available in your area. Not very promising for the rest of the country.
Ancient Observer
30th Oct 2013, 10:35
Some time before all this Internet speed issue, I had a serious crackling problem with my telephone land line.
The BT guy who came to fix it said there were 2 problems.
1. In places, the lines to our Close went underwater due to heavy rain.
2. Despite the fact that the house was only built in 1979, the wire from their underground junction box, (if that is the right word) about 200 yards away from my house had perished.
He said he would report no 1. I have no idea what they did, if anything.
He simply pulled through a new wire to deal with no 2.
Do they still pull new wires through to solve problems?
I attribute my current high speeds for FTC (not FTH) bt internet to my "new" wire pulled through over 10 years ago to deal with a crackly telephone line.
Later, when my "high speed" internet was slower than a snail, it took umpteen "engineer" visits and lots of new kit to sort it. I still do not know what made it speed up in the end.
Impossible to answer, AO - the 'bit' from the JBox to house is only a small part of the equation. The rest of the line is relevant too - patched/aluminium/drowned - who knows? I suspect you will never know. They may even have swapped your line to a 'better one' at the exchange.
Do they still pull new wires through to solve problems? - it depends how you are 'wired' - if like many round here your grotty wires are just buried in the earth there is nothing to 'pull them through'.
Oldbeefer - a common story, and several 'winners' have found that (as predicted) houses on opposing sides of the street have different results due to 'cabinets and lines' and delays. It was simply a PR stunt and I'm actually glad my village went from No1 at the start to 'off scale' at the end. Your village is now, of course, sadly, 'out' of the running for BDUK money to improve things since you are 'NGA Black' (or 'grey').
vulcanised
30th Oct 2013, 12:32
Similar occasional problem here.
BT engineer told me that the cabinet containing my line, in the adjacent road, suffers from water ingress. When I suggested new door gasket he informed me that the water rose from the ground.
Ancient Observer
31st Oct 2013, 17:57
skua
I do hope you forgive those of us that have a (?morbid?) interest in this.
Do update us when you can! We would all like to know how to prompt better service from BT.
AO
Pelikal
31st Oct 2013, 18:26
I'm assuming nobody has had a poke on the BT Community forums, as my suggestion in post #8, judging by these newer posts.
Mike-Bracknell
31st Oct 2013, 22:02
Similar occasional problem here.
BT engineer told me that the cabinet containing my line, in the adjacent road, suffers from water ingress. When I suggested new door gasket he informed me that the water rose from the ground.
Water ingress is probably the biggest cause of my customers' broadband issues. I can tell when it's peed it down as the phone's ringing.
Thank you for your interest gentleman, and I can now declare that (after the FIFTH engineers' visit) I am (once again) connected!!!
I would have hugged the engineers, but at least one of them had rather pronounced BO! I have had three, yes three, pairs of boots climbing up and down my stairs all day.
For the technically minded, the problem was in the 'cab' - I was put onto port 51, 52 or 53, depending on which of the 5 sets of engineers' visits we are talking about. It was a '50 port card', so I was on a new card. And the card proved to be faulty. No other household had used it, and no one until today had thought of testing it...Errgggh
I am getting 33.96megs download, 7.68 megs upload. And my new best friends say that may improve a little over coming days as my 'profile' settles down. A bit like my blood pressure.