Have you noticed that when you log on to the BT website to complain about broadband speed, you get the option to 'chat now'. The screen shows the picture of a smiling "blonde" girl and you imagine you will be speaking to someone in the UK. Strange then that you end up conversing with someone who just might be in India.
Now I'm happy with this if they can sort the problem. I live in a small Scottish village and BT aren't exactly rushing to give us fibre optic broadband. I get a broadband speed that ranges from 'dead' to 'geriatric tortoise crawling through treacle'.
When my broadband speed dropped to approximately half its previous value, I contacted the 'Help desk' and was told that the speed I was getting was the maximum I could get. Well, I asked, could they explain why I had been getting almost twice that speed. They said it would vary between zero and very very slow. But, I persisted, it was a lot faster. This they explained was a 'fault' on the system that made it run faster!
I am just so sick of BT and their lousy broadband and useless 'helpdesk'. Unfortunately there are few alternatives here, so I'm looking at 3G mobile wifi or satellite internet.
------------- Two drifters off to see the world.
I'm tired of reality, so I'm off to look for a good fantasy.
I'd prefer they didnt insult our intelligence and come clean on the fact their name was something like Gupta. If they can lie about their own names, god knows what other garbage they will be happy to tell you to shut you up.
Yep, when I worked for Sky 1999 to 2006, they almost launched internet via the Sky mini dish, Astra SES was involved, and they gave us presentation on how it would work, they must have been serious as we all had to go down to the main office at Osterley London, to learn about it.
It came to nothing though, but how brilliant would that have been had it been rolled out.
Apparently we can get 6G but dread to think of the cost!
Capt Lightning, been there and got the T shirt! When our speed dropped from 2.0Mbps to 0.2, it took a year of wholesale speed test records; hours of calls to India; passed from pillar to post; complaints written off as resolved, etc. Finally told BT we would not be paying for the broadband as it was not fit for purpose and we were going to the Ombudsman. Sent first class, registered post. 24 hours later, son took call and nearly fainted when he was told we would not be charged for broadband till the end of our contact some months ahead and would then be charged £5 a month until we could get fibre to cabinet, which was last month. So when son rang to enquire about "super-fast" something must have red-flagged on our account because we're getting it for far less than the advertised price for up to 80Mbps. Not complaining, mind. We're getting fluctuating speeds and the max we've had is 67.5.
------------- " When I die I don`t want my life to flash before me in an instant, I want it to be a 3 hour epic !"
I had issues with my connection dropping out. Got on the phone and spoke to someone in India.
He (Michael) went through the usual fault finding stuff to no avail.
It got weird with him telling me to text his mobile as this would mean I dealt with the same person rather than going through it all again with a different person.
I didn't do this as I thought it was weird, just called the faults number as usual.
Long story short this all went on for about one week with numerous phone calls and no improvement with my connection.
I was so fed up I emailed the CEO of BT and within 24 hrs had the head of technical services call me and agreed with my diagnosis that it was the hub at fault, as I had been telling the Indian call centre people for a week.
Got latest hub delivered within 24 hrs and follow up calls to see all was good,which it was!
I believe the reason for "Michael" asking me to text his mobile, was to keep the number of ongoing issues off the BT system. This would give the impression issues were being quickly resolved when it was actually the opposite.
------------- It is a wise man who has something to say.
It is a fool who has to say something.
All call centres are built to fix the majority of simple and easy calls quickly and cheaply. And to be fair the majority of calls can be solved easily - eg "have you turned it off and on".
When the problem is not normal or needs more specialist knowledge though then they're not the best. Think of it as a GP versus a specialist. The trick here is convincing the GP that you need to see the specialist. Also in my experience the location of the call centre is irrelevant to this formula.
Quote: Originally posted by arthurdent on 25/5/2016
All call centres are built to fix the majority of simple and easy calls quickly and cheaply. And to be fair the majority of calls can be solved easily - eg "have you turned it off and on".
When the problem is not normal or needs more specialist knowledge though then they're not the best. Think of it as a GP versus a specialist. The trick here is convincing the GP that you need to see the specialist. Also in my experience the location of the call centre is irrelevant to this formula.
The problem is that they very rarely escalate the issue to the "specialist" and muddle along re-doing what a lot of us have already done before calling.
They can talk the talk but results are poor in my experience and not just with BT!
I think BT and others must be under pressure to relocate call centres back to the UK , as they have started doing this.
------------- It is a wise man who has something to say.
It is a fool who has to say something.
We had a nightmare with BT and the extremely poor broadband speeds (assuming we had an Internet connection at all - it was very hit and miss!) plus they were charging us for not using our landline enough.
We eventually told them to shove it where the sun don't shine and we (and the majority of our village) now get super fast broadband through Clannet and our phone is through Sipgate.
We get unlimited broadband for £25 a month (cheaper packages available) and no telephone line rental and we top up like you would a pay as you go mobile - as we hardly use our landline it costs us virtually nothing!
My Dad has problems with BT his broad band is so slow My parents live up on hill miles from anywhere in mid west wales they had a thunder storm and the lighting blew the connection out by the window phone was ify but no broad band I had to start by phoning Bt from here in Havant south of England my Dad is profoundly deaf not my account so had to have four way conversation land line to BT my mobile phone to parents mum asking Dad questions with their scribble board relaying back and forth David and I had to drive down to Wales It took four phone calls to get an BT engineer out and a week to sort out plus 460 mile round trip andthey have the cheek to carry on charging normal costs with Virgin you get money off your bill for time broad band is down
After more complaining, somebody from the BT excuses department phoned me. What a load of Bull***t I got. Of course the line speed is variable because when the kids come in form school or Man U are playing etc etc ...
NO listen... when I got this service (I changed from TalkTalk because they were truly apalling) it was fairly reasonable. Over the years this has deteriorated and become very inconsistent. It will run OK for a month or two and then drop. Sometimes it will come back again, sometimes it will need a reset. Occasionally it all but stops.
The BT idiot still tries to tell me that this is normal. He basically said that BT promise me a cr*p service - I am getting a cr*p service, so I have no cause to complain. In fact if on one day a year, it's a bit better, then I should be happy!
Oh, and it's my fault for not running the speed test properly.
Now, I think the real problem is that the phone lines and equipment are simply knackered, but BT are probably pinning their hopes on 'Infinity' and don't spend money on old rural exchanges. Both of my daughters have 'Infinity' in their apartments and both say "Don't bother" - we only took it because it was on offer and it's not worth it.
I'm off to become an off-grid spoon whittler.
------------- Two drifters off to see the world.
I'm tired of reality, so I'm off to look for a good fantasy.
Quote: Originally posted by Mick S. on 23/5/2016
I'd prefer they didnt insult our intelligence and come clean on the fact their name was something like Gupta. If they can lie about their own names, god knows what other garbage they will be happy to tell you to shut you up.
They don't lie about their names. Lots of Indians from lower castes change their names to an English one. The idea being that they lose the stigma of their caste name.
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Please keep your dogs at room temperature!