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.
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