BT

[petewood]

In my office there are 2 phone lines, each relating to a different business. One of them is rented from Vodaphone Business, which gives me cheaper calls, no minimum charge, and cheaper line rentals. I have no problems at all with this line.

The second line is rented from BT. This line is due to change from BT to Vodaphone today. This morning I tried to make a call using this line and found there was no dialling tone. People who try to call us on this number get a ringing tone, but no-one answers as the phone is not getting any signal at all.

I phoned tech support at Vodaphone who said he would get back to me within 15 minutes. He phoned 25 minutes later and apologised but told me it had taken him 15 minutes to get through to BT's tech support. It is still a BT line as the changeover is not due till 5pm.

BT have said that there is a fault and it will take 3 days before they can fix it. The man from Vodaphone said that this was not at all unusual, and he has had the calls diverted to my other line. I'm sure that a lot of the self-employed people on here would be horrified if they thought their phone was going to be out of action for 3 days and if I did not have the second line to divert to, I would be desperately trying to contact my customers to keep them informed, but you can't contact potential customers who will phone in the next three days.

The last time I had a fault with BT they sent round an engineer the same day to sort it out after I got shirty with them on the phone. I can't help but think that if I was not on the verge of changing supplier then they would not keep a business customer waiting 3 days.

Has anyone had a similar experience with BT?

 

[WoodYouLike]

Has anyone had a similar experience with BT?

Ha, several!
Exchange was exactly 2 meters from our old shop: engineer installs new lines, it takes 3 days to get them working!

At home-office one day I got a knock on the door: BT-engineer. Works needed to be done on some lines and our line was to be disconnected for several hours, did we have the so-called redirect service? No, not at that moment. No problem, engineer says, do you have a mobile? He made one phone call and during his work our calls were directed to my mobile. He even called me to say the works had finished.

Seems it depends on who is working, there are some intelligent BT engineers around

 

[AdamW]

Everyone I know who signed up for BT ADSL had their phoneline upgraded and switched over on the specified day.

Those of us who signed up through other ISPs had delays and problems.

My ADSL had allegedly been activated, but wasn't working. The ISP and BT argued over whose fault it was. By chance, my phoneline died shortly after BT had "installed" ADSL equipment on the exchange end. When the engineer rang to tell me he had fixed it I enquired "is this anything to do with the ADSL?". His reply "Eh? You don't have ADSL installed on that line!".

I get the feeling BT do drag their heels when you are trying to get a non-BT service.

 

[big-all]

my dad had the same when his line was cut by mistake
all his calls were diverted to his mobile he was allowed to make outgoing calls at land line rates but they accidently charged him mobile rates
so keep your eyes open when you get the bill

 

[david and julie]

My phone once went down due to a falling tree in heavy winds. BT redirected me to my mobile and charged me mobile rates because I asked them to do it. It sounds like if you ask you pay whereas they can do it for nothing if its their fault.

 

[Igorian]

I think the BT service is pretty good, but, as previously mentioned, it depends on the engineer.

I had a problem with my broadband, shortly after it was installed. I called and they arranged an appointment for the next day between 8.30 and 10.30. The engineer arrived at 8.30, tested my end (ooer ) and by 10.00 had found a faulty line card at the exchange and I was up and running by midday.

I wonder how this compares to NTL etc...

 

[kendor]

In my old house it was fed by an overhead BT line across the road between telegraph poles these were standard height and the cable was standard cable after a time the low starting height and the stretching of the cable allowed it to sag slightly which became a problem with high vehicles and it used to snap on a regular basis so i would contact BT and usually got prompt service, after the fourth or fifth time i had an engineer virtually accuse me of cutting it down each time he based it on the last time that they repaired it they installed a super heavy duty cable and that in his words it is so strong it would have pulled the corner off the house before it would have broken!
After arguing enough to convince him that it was the lorries etc passing by doing it i finally got a result they disconnected all the house fed by these poles and installed taller ones, voila no more problems.
I just didn't like the attitude of their employee making accusations and made a complaint for what purpose i don't know as i never heard from them again, soon after i went with NTL, funnily enough i'm now back with BT since moving.

 

[verdigris]

Any of you remember British Rail ?

 

[Richardp]

Well! I had to did my own telephone cable in 300yards 18ins down

 

[AdamW]

I wonder how this compares to NTL etc...

There is an ntl cabinet just across the road from me, every now and again it gets vandalised. It usually sits there without doors for up to a week before it is fixed. I had a look at it once and wires had definitely been tugged about with, so I wouldn't be surprised if some people were without phones and/or TV for a week.

Of course, it could be some idiot who has bought one of those "get free cable" books from the US, and thinks he can get the adult channel by fiddling with the wires in the box

 

[werealldoomed]

Of course, it could be some idiot who has bought one of those "get free cable" books from the US, and thinks he can get the adult channel by fiddling with the wires in the box

Damn, well spotted.

 

[Big_Spark]

Similar problems here getting my ADSL from Bulldog, they were great..but BT suddenly had work to do in the exchange that caused a 7 day delay in getting the line working...

 

[AdamW]

You bu**er! I signed up for Bulldog 4meg, the postcode assessment reckoned I was OK for it. But then BT's line test said I couldn't support any more than 1mbps. Obviously whoever laid my phoneline took the scenic route

 

[kendor]

Is it just me or do others think they charge far too much for broadband?
I think with the takeup that a charge of no more than £5 a month should suffice, this takeup would more than cover the need to expand the system to accommadate the increase in demand.
too much skimming off of profits methinks at the moment.

 

[andy]

Has anyone had a similar experience with BT?

not BT but... a few month ago my cable internet died. wasnt gettin a signal from cable to modem, so i phoned them. he tried a few things and it came on again. next day it was off again. phoned them and got thru to some ethnic gentlemen who couldnt speak english, too over 2 mins to understand my account code (4 letters, 5 numbers. not hard), he then said it was the cable between modem and computer at fault and denied it was b4 the modem (even tho my modem was flashing to say it had no signal. he insisted it did. hung up and phoned back. the next person i spoke to done a few tests and told me the modem wasnt responding properly and there was a intermittent fault on the line and arranged for a engineer to come 3 days l8r (that was the first time i would have been in for them). 2 days later, all cable services in my area were dead for 6-7 hours. so much for a fault between my modem and computer.