Broadband provision and service in Shetland

[Njugle]

My latest BT development: My outgoing mail server (smtp.btinternet.com)

 

has ceased functioning since this morning :grrr:

[Wifey]

Okay, I got OpenDNS to work but it made no difference.

 

I phoned BT again. She says there's a fault on the line. Funny, since they had phoned this afternoon to say it was fixed. So it'll be fixed again in 3-5 working days, apparently. Why can't I speak to someone who actually knows something about computers? When I told her I had a Mac, she was completely thrown. I mean, the operating system surely doesn't matter. This has nothing to do with caches and cookies and reboots. This whole thing is making me really mad.

[Fjool]

Switched over to OpenDNS here too, to see what would happen. Can't say I've noticed an improvement yet. It might be a bit faster, but it's not enough that I can be certain.

 

The anti-phishing and URL correction features are nice though.

[Mario]

Switched over to OpenDNS here too, to see what would happen. Can't say I've noticed an improvement yet. It might be a bit faster, but it's not enough that I can be certain.

 

The anti-phishing and URL correction features are nice though.

 

Agreed. I maybe foolishly thought it had worked. Alas, no. I still can't buy stuff on Amazon or access some of my favourite sites. I do like the URL Correction & Phishing features too.

 

BT Broadband are getting a letter from Mario in the post. They're so damn ignorant, when in fact, we're almost better placed to tell them it's a fault on their part, rather than ours.

[Mario]

Mario, are you using a BT Home Hub? I can't work out how to change the DNS settings on it.

 

A man from BT phoned earlier. He said the line fault had been fixed. I don't really see a difference. He left a phone number to ring if the problem wasn't solved. I'm just so fed up with all this.

 

Forgot, Wifey, I've tried using the "Home Hub". It is an awful contraption. If you have spare cash, I suggest investing in a diff wireless router. Unless that is you're really just gonna use it for surfing. Port forwarding etc is a complete nightmare.

[Pooks]

I know it's no consolation to those having problems with broadband with BT, but... when your contract runs out, you might want to try a proper provider.

 

Never a truer word spoken. Having had contact with various Internet Providers in the past, BT have, without doubt, been the worst imaginable.

 

This seems to be a pattern with the bigger providers. When it works, it works well, when it doesn't...tough. Don't expect any help and don't expect your problems to be resolved any time soon. Oh, did I mention they are charging you for this 'service'?

 

Seriously, I would recommend that if you are currently a BT Broadband/Dial-Up user, speak to your friends and family and see which ISP they use, whether they have had any problems and if they are happy with the service. If they are happy and have had no significant problems then you know it is going to be better than BT. If they say that they use AOL then just walk out the door shaking your head...but that's another story.

[Njugle]

^ ^

How dare you question my considered choice of ISP.........

 

 

....however I have just come off the phone from Rajeesh, who could tell me they had had an "awful lot of complaints from our area", and that they would be sorted "by morning". The we got onto my mail problem *sighs*, well, here's the quick version.

-Do you have Outlook Express?

-No

-I must give you an address for internet explorer so i can help you with O-Ex,

-I don't use IE, i use mozilla...etc,

blah, blah

eventually dowloaded "GoToAssist"

connected to GTA remote assistance,

 

Rajeesh had a look at my screen(showing Thunderbird), then the last i heard was "This is not...." before the phone went blank for about five minutes, before being disconnected!!! Then the GTA disconnected, FUMING!!!

 

Then, i got a customer feedback form, which i filled in as honestly as possible, ie not happy.

 

Within ten minutes of coming off the phone, my mail was sorted, after not working since this morning. Surprise surprise.

 

BT are crap, i couldn't fault them up to recently, good speeds, never unavailable, but as Pooks says, as soon as something out of the ordinary goes wrong, forget it.

 

I should be fair and say that, had i been using everything that BT expects, it may have been quite impressive, remote assistance an' all. Close, but no cigar.

 

Shame.

[Pooks]

^ ^

How dare you question my considered choice of ISP.........

 

I didn't question it. I told you to get out!

 

BT broadband customers do seem to be having a bad time of it at the moment which suggests to me that BT has implemented something in the dark server room and failed to tell any of their customers that they were going to do it. Most ISP's are performing some form of bandwidth shaping/contention management now to reduce the amount of file sharing and idle time that takes place on their networks. It sounds to me as if BT has recently implemented something which hasn't worked quite as well as it should of. This is of course speculation and BT would never admit to such a thing anyway. Rajeesh probably wouldn't have known about it either which wouldn't have helped matters.

 

The sooner that companies realise that employing somebody without experience on a minimum wage to walk through a list isn't working, the better. If the problem was that easy to fix then you could go through the same checklist on the companies website before you phoned them. You could then tell them that you got to point 73 before it didn't work rather than going through the same nonsense each time.

[trout]

I used to be a BT customer way back in 2001 and lasted with them until my year subscription ran out ... and ran myself!

 

The nightmare started as soon as I got my green Alien face hugger modem and installed everything on their "DIY" plan. It didn't work. No modem lights stayed on, no connection, no nothing; just the self check and that was it! The self check showed the thing was faulty as I found out on the Internet

 

After much wrangling on the phone I got absolutely nowhere! It was all my fault you see, couldn't possibly be anything they were doing! Everytime I got passed on I had to explain the same story over and over again - you would have thought that at least one of them would prime the next with what was going on ... Nope! I was told to wait a week. Perhaps the exchange had been set up wrong - it would take this long to get it fixed !

 

A week later I tried to phone again, and I was on the phone literally for nearly three hours!! I was very terse and demanded not to be passed on. I took the name of the person dealing with me first off and made sure they knew I had laid the issue firmly at their feet!

 

After much "on-hold" and sticking my ground that the modem itself was faulty it ended up that I was passed through to Germany to a BT associated actual modem manufacturers engineers helpdesk. I was tooed and froed there and freaked out that the line was going to get dropped!! An engineer conceded finally that the modem was faulty and passed me back (to someone else!). This tooing and froing ate up the majority of the time .. Grr! Fekin on hold moozak!! Grr!

 

So nearly three hours later, with a very sore neck holding the phone between my shoulder and ear, I finally got a returns work number and sent the modem back.

 

Overall about a month had passed since I should have had my broadband and I got it! I wrote a complaints letter and never heard back!

 

It was at this point I decided to move away and never go back as soon as I could.

[Mario]

Rajeesh probably wouldn't have known about it either which wouldn't have helped matters.

 

The sooner that companies realise that employing somebody without experience on a minimum wage to walk through a list isn't working, the better. If the problem was that easy to fix then you could go through the same checklist on the companies website before you phoned them. You could then tell them that you got to point 73 before it didn't work rather than going through the same nonsense each time.

 

I spoke to Rajeesh last night too! We've spoken a few times, we're like old war buddies now.

 

I agree totally, I normally start my call off with "I know exactly what I'm doing, I work in IT". Then when they ask me to do the inevitable I come back with, some fancy jibberish and then they put me on hold. I bet they get to the point on their list where it says - "Can I get away with BS'ing to this customer?" and have to go with the no path.

 

Classic though, on Sunday I phoned. I was given possibly the most useless pieces of advice and then told me to 'leave it and try in 2 hrs'. Knowing that this was nonsense and realising that the 2 hrs would take me to the point where their lines would close, I just hung up. That's shocking customer support. He also decided that many users, in my area, having similar problems, at exactly the same time was mere coincidence. Last night, after saying this, I was told I had a faulty microfilter - which I knew wasn't true.

 

I don't mind when people admit they don't know what's wrong, that's fine. My problem lies with insisting it's my fault and then blatantly lieing. Also, they ask for a contact number and NEVER call u back.

 

I await to see today's developments.

[Commodore]

think i have possibly spoken to him aswell, probably spoken to most people in their call centre cause get passed from one person to the next!

 

i dont seem to be having any problems with my bt internet but not happy when trying to phone up and get someone that knows what they are talking about. im sure they just use google cause if u ask them something they always are like "hmmmm can i put u on hold for a few minutes"

 

why cant bt give their staff proper training if they are going to outsourse their call centres to different countries!

[Tomblands]

BT probably have given their staff training, but it seems to stop at "Have you made sure it's connected to the computer? Is it plugged into the wall?" which normally leaves you ready to smash your phone up in some hope that it will hurt the person on the other end of the phone for being so dense.

 

Surely BT must admit to some problem on the Lerwick end of the line. I may suggest getting in touch with Big Tav, maybe some political pressure (again) might get them off their arses and sort something.

 

BT really do send out some terrible kit though, I got their Voyager 205 router as part of my package. If I wanted to only surf the internet on 1 PC, it was great. But when it comes to any other software which might need to send information over the internet, it's a shambles. The most irritating (or funny looking back on it) piece was that I took that package as they advertised it as being their "Console Gaming Package" or such like with the intention of using my PS2 online. Despite being advertised as a case of "plug your PS2 into the router and off you go", It required more Port Forwarding to be done on the router. I would guess that anyone who had taken this package for their kids without much PC experience would have been completely stuck as BT probably wouldn't know a port forward if it crawled up their ass and brought them to orgasm through prostate stimulation.

[Njugle]

BT has been worse today, if anything. I've sent a complaint and explanation to their online feedback/complaints thing, we'll see what comes of that. I don't think there's much point in harassing Rajeesh, as he's pretty powerless. Hoping the online service goes to a different source, failing that i/we will need to figure out a different line of approach perhaps. Ofcom? MP? Watchdog?

[Tomblands]

MP is probably a good bet. Last thing BT should want is Tavish speaking out again about the Broadband service in Shetland given that it's only a couple of months since he last did it.

[Colin]

Had a very stressful 53 minutes with one of BT's call centres yesterday...

Not a PC or Router problem, checked tested and OK. The LINE is faulty.

What really gets to me is that I have been in IT since before most of them were born and, despite telling them that I KNOW what I'm talking about, they insist on plodding through their damned checklist.. (Swearing, I'm getting stressed just thinking about it).

Kept getting put on hold while the operator went to check something(?). Anyway, after telling the young lady that I had already answered THAT question several times (she kept retuning to the start of her list) I started getting a little aggressive..

I think it works when you point out to them that you think that they have no technical knowledge whatsoever, have failed to understand the nature of your complaint and and that you wish to speak to their supervisor immediately. I also suggested that it would help if said supervisor was someone who had English as their first language as I was tired of trying to communicate with someone who was so obviously lacking in that department.

Offensive, possibly, but it got a result.

An engineer will be checking the line today.

 

A quick line test (not 100% accurate) that most could try.

Disconnect all equipment from the phone lines.

Plug an 'old' style telephone into the master socket.

Lift the receiver and dial any single digit.

You should be able to hear 'nothing'

Crackles, hum, buzzing etc suggest that there may be a problem with the line or master socket.