I hate BT :(

[axod]

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My ADSL has started disconnecting about once a day for a couple of minutes.

So I call up BT...
"What version of windows are you using?"...
"Can you disconnect your Sky box and see if you can browse the web"
"Do you have the problem in the day time? or in the night?"

Seriously... where do they recruit these people??? Not to mention them all being very hard to understand what with their foreign accents.
As soon as we have a choice here, I'll move away from BT for sure...
Anyone else had issues with BT ADSL?

[a4uforummember]

they seem pretty valid questions to me.

I have found the bt support process to be second to none.

[axod]

OK, Maybe because I'm not an average user, they are invalid.
The version of windows isn't going to have a bearing on how often the ADSL modem disconnects from the internet. As it happens I don't use windows. I guess perhaps they think that when I say 'the modem disconnects', I mean "I'm using a crappy old version of windows that has serious issues", rather than "I've just checked the ADSL modem on 192.168.1.1, and it reports that over the last 4 days, it's disconnected 13 times."
Also the problem happens maybe once or twice a day. He wanted me to disconnect my sky box while on the phone, and see if I could browse. - "Of course I can browse. It's not disconnected at the moment "

they seem pretty valid questions to me.

I have found the bt support process to be second to none.

[Darren]

I'm with BT and have had similar experiences. It's common knowledge that, since the bandwidth increases 'up to 8 meg' went live, there have been problems nationwide (essentially, BT's infastruture wasn't ready for it).

My connection is dropping perhaps 3 or 4 times a day. I've had numerous calls, with the ignorant foriegners asking me irrelevant questions, even had an engineer out (who I was charged for!) and still no solution.

[purple]

Interesting my connection drops a couple of times a day too, I always had the problem with calls dropping my line connection sometimes, recently upgraded my connection so maybe thats why I am having this problem


Seems like a national problem as I am over in Bristol

[axod]

Mine has been fine for a few months now at 8meg. Just this last week it's started dropping. Luckily the last time it went wrong, I got a 2nd line with a 2nd ADSL on it (I can't live without an internet connection).

Last time, it just disconnected completely. I called BT, got the idiot customer support etc. They wouldn't give me a number for the actual faults department (Against their policy). They said the faults dept. would call me when they knew what the fault was. I kept calling etc, got no answers over the next 2 days. There was a definate brick wall of idiot "have you tried turning it off and on again?" people, that was just impossible to get past. I even asked for a number for my local exchange so I could talk to someone who had a clue... They wouldn't give me a number of course

3 days later, my ADSL modem connected. I called them up, and was told "Oh yeah we replaced your 'board' at the exchange and now it works"...

Being without internet for 3 days is just unacceptable these days IMHO

[a4uforummember]

you seem very angry.

many people forget to put a micro filter on their sky boxes. To give efficient support do you not think bt would need to know which operating system you are using.

OK, Maybe because I'm not an average user, they are invalid.
The version of windows isn't going to have a bearing on how often the ADSL modem disconnects from the internet. As it happens I don't use windows. I guess perhaps they think that when I say 'the modem disconnects', I mean "I'm using a crappy old version of windows that has serious issues", rather than "I've just checked the ADSL modem on 192.168.1.1, and it reports that over the last 4 days, it's disconnected 13 times."
Also the problem happens maybe once or twice a day. He wanted me to disconnect my sky box while on the phone, and see if I could browse. - "Of course I can browse. It's not disconnected at the moment "

[axod]

OK, maybe I forgot to say... First thing I said to the BT person was "My ADSL has worked fine for months, I have not changed anything at my house, and now it is not working well".
Sure I can appreciate if someone forgot to put a filter on their sky box etc when setting it up for the first time etc.

As far as O/S is concerned though, I disagree. My O/S is irrelevant completely. I could be using my PSP or Nintendo DS via wifi... does that make a difference? No. The ADSL modem is not able to stay connected to the BT exchange. The O/S I happen to be using on one of my computers is pretty unrelated to that problem.

I think they should have one support line for "I can't access my email because I don't know how to use a computer", and one support line for "The DNS servers you are giving out via DHCP are invalid and not responding. Can you fix it please".

Ah well

PS. I'm always angry at someone... only way to get things done when surrounded by idiots!!! (Just kidding)

you seem very angry.

many people forget to put a micro filter on their sky boxes. To give efficient support do you not think bt would need to know which operating system you are using.

[trevHCS]

"What version of windows are you using?"...

Might be irrelevent if it's a router, but not if it's one of those "free modems" that Tiscali and such give away as they can't run without the computer, and in many cases Windows. Not sure what BTinternet supply by default, but their tech people won't be trained in anything else.

"Can you disconnect your Sky box and see if you can browse the web"

Disconnecting everything would be a good idea including all phones, although a little impractical if it doesn't happen at a specific time of day. Sky Boxes, answering machines and cheap cordless phones seem to be the main culprits to sending ADSL into a spin.

"Do you have the problem in the day time? or in the night?"

Sounds logical as BT often seem to reset ours around 4.30 to 5pm so I'd guess they are doing work and rebooting it at the end of the day. Also I believe they start new connections at 6am so might well end up interupting things then too. Never worked out why they have to schedule everything.

Seriously... where do they recruit these people???

Universities of India I suspect as everyone seems to have gone over there for their support. Why oh why they do that when people didn't much like call centres anyway I don't know, but I'd agree that Indian accents really don't work well over a phone when you're not used to them.

As soon as we have a choice here, I'll move away from BT for sure...

Trouble is, you're likely to find the same kind of problems with most of the bigger ISPs as they mostly use the same call centres and the same computer programs for the support. Only the smaller ones like the one I use tend to have people in the UK, although support isn't 24 hour.

Just don't go to Tiscali, Wanadoo/Orange or TalkTalk as they are all unbundling the lines and causing total chaos.

Trev

[gerry180]

Funny, I was reading this post while trying to get through to BT support to let them know that my new 8meg broadband connection keeps disconnecting. Unlike the 1meg that worked fine for the last twelve months.

I was all ready to go though the disconnect sky, check filters saga but they said optimizing for the new 8 meg speed goes on for about 15 – 20 days and that in my case it will be fine in three more days.

I said I’ll call you back next week then? They said yes ok.

[Frostie]

LOL - yup I switched from BT to Tiscali. Same product just different name, same reliability (or lack of). I hate the internet! lol

I also recently jacked BT in for my phone and went to Toucan only last week.

[steveaich]

You pays your money and makes your choice, I pay a little extra each month for Zen, (touch wood) not had any downtime in nearly two years.

As for the BT support, I've been on both sides of that fence, tech support for NTL dealing with muppets who don't know a mouse from a keyboard, and similar experience with other phone lines. Often find it is easiest to answer all their questions, treat them like humans, get the mesage through that you have a clue and then you often will get the support you need. Of course if their grasp of the english language is limited and the phone quality is abysmal it's normally best to cancell and find a different supplier.

[accelerator]

Universities of India I suspect as everyone seems to have gone over there for their support. Why oh why they do that when people didn't much like call centres anyway I don't know,

jimmymoore/Trev, you can thank market capitalism for that. The cost of an Indian call centre operative is approx. one third of a UK employee. Let's guess that BT has 15,000 call centre staff, and that the av UK salary was £21,000, that would be a saving of £14,000 x 15,000 or £210,000,000 a year. Few Captains of Industry would be able to resist the pressure to move offshore. You will have to lobby your MP for a restriction on offshoring ...

Rgds

[trevHCS]

The cost of an Indian call centre operative is approx. one third of a UK employee.

Well if they went to Canada is would be around 50% cheaper than the UK and we'd be able to understand the accents much better. If they are paying call centre staff £21,000 how comes so many are absolutely useless?

Now if they are going to save millions on that - any chance we could have some of the cash back do you think without it going to the blinking shareholders?

Trev

[Shane]

Don't get me started on BT, I've only just calmed down from the 3 month total and utter clusterfeck that was wannadoo/orange broadband connection.

my last BT phone bill :

cost £53.45

cost of calls £ 1.31

I made one call from home (no it's not cos I have no mates, it's due to me just using my mobile all the time ) in the last billing period the rest is standing charges and vat.

last time I was in the states I remember seeing ads for 8 meg broadband, a kazillion cable channels and unlimited calls for like $40 a month.