Friday, March 20, 2009

Gloria In Excelsis

The seven day BT customer service nightmare is nearly over, the second line engineer detected a line fault that the first had missed (apparently "damp" in a junction box somewhere) but still couldn't get a connection, so we're due a broadband specialist engineer today.

But at 11pm last night the ADSL light suddenly stayed on. I then spent an hour trying to connect (with the old modem - there was nowt wrong with it - £45 wasted on a new one) but just couldn't get a BT internet link.

Come down this morning - all lights are on and the connection is 50% faster than it was before ! Still only 768K, but it was 512 when it went off. We are at the end of several miles of wire - the next house up the road is on a different exchange - at the limits of the technology - so any wiring problems and we're sunk.

I say the nightmare's 'nearly' over. We now have to tell the broadband engineer not to come out. Ring the BT Broadband help number in the book, after many an option it asks you to ring a different number. Ring that one (Bombay) to be told 'you have to ring this UK number - but only after 9am'. The engineer might be on his way by then - still, I did try.

My letter to the Customer Services director of BT, which opens 'I write as one who is rapidly losing the will to live', should have arrived yesterday. He must have the thickest skin in the UK - I have a vision of a Durham postman bent double under the weight of a huge sack of complaints letters - which then get emptied into the furnace to heat the offices.

Blogging will recommence tonight.

6 comments:

Malthebof said...

Laban
Do show us your 'complaint' letter to BT Service Manager, is that not an oxymoron?

Anonymous said...

Only a slight improvement on attempts to get a 'phone installed in the mid-1960s. An application, countersigned by two physicians, a magistrate and and an MP, went to a Panel (ah!, for the days of "Panels") who asked for Grandmother's maiden name etc etc. Six months later an engineer was sent to assess for connection. We eventually got a 'phone, just in time for me to go off to Uni. The post office actually delivered letters in those days, so in the end the 'phone was redundant.

Anonymous said...

I had a broadband problem a couple of years ago. Once my IP had been found not guilty and it was clearly the fault of BT lines, BT engineers were great.
Two separate engineers dealt with it, they both gave me their mobile phone numbers, and one even alerted me to get out of bed as he wanted a 7 am start!
Still took a bloody week to fix mind...

Anonymous said...

That £45 wasn't wasted on a new ADSL modem, you stimulated the economy.
In the world of Gordon Brown the root of the economic problem is that more people aren't wasting money in the same way.

Martin said...

Laban,

No, now, now, repeat after me, then rinse and repeat...

Privatisation makes industry more efficient...

Anonymous said...

Huh! You ain't seen nothin until you are with Tiscrapi. They take the biscuit for 'customer service'. I managed to get off their contract after being 'upgraded' from a 2mb line to a 8 mb line that was actually zero mb line (0, zilch, nul) speed line also no phone connection for 4 weeks. Many complaints to the various email addresses got nowhere, trying to get a response from their bulitem boards for my effoerts got me suspended for 2 weeks for the cheek asking why nothing was being done! I was paying their wages the absolute...anyway.

You could be worse off. I went over to BT who have responded quickly to questions and the line works fine 24/7.