I reported very slow broadband speed to my provider on 26th June 2012.

After being asked various questions and having spoken to four different members of staff in Technical Support, my provider sent out a new router for me to try.

The router was received, but there was no change in broadband speed, so I returned it.

At that point, my provider arranged for BT ( Open Reach ) to call.

BT called and after trying various things, both at home and at the local distribution box, got the download speed up to 4MB/s, although I was told by the engineer it would be about 6 MB/s.

Considering what it had been like, I was more than happy with this.

That was until  towards the end of August when it again became very slow.

I reported it to my provider on 29^th August 11.15 am and spoke to Technical Support who said I “ might need a new filter and/ or a new ADSL cable.”  After a few tests, they discovered a “high resistance imbalance on the line “ and advised they would look into this and ring me back. No call

 At 5.30 pm I rang the provider and was told “ someone will definitely ring you back this evening “  They didn’t !

On 30^th August I rang my provider at lunchtime, spoke to Technical Support who would get someone to ring me on his return from lunch. No joy

3.40 pm :   Download speed .219 MB/s  

At 3.50 pm I rang the provider again and spoke to Technical Support who said  “ try a corded phone in the broadband socket and ring back.” ( I have  different lines for phone and broadband) I did as requested and spoke to Technical Support again, who said they’d carry out a line check and ring back.

At 5.15 pm I rang the provider and spoke to Technical Support who said they would ask another member of Technical Support, who was aware of the situation, to ring me back.

After hearing nothing, I rang again and spoke to the person concerned (“ hooray” ) who confirmed that there was “definitely something wrong with the BT line. I’ll get date for BT to call and ring you back.”

On Tuesday 4^th September at 1.15 pm I rang the provider and spoke to a member of Technical Support informing him that Iwe’d not had a call from BT. He said he would contact BT and ring me back.

After hearing nothing, at 3.40pm we rang the provider again and being unable to get through to Technical Support we spoke to a very pleasant young lady in Customer Service and told her of our difficulty and asked to be put through to the Technical Support manager. We were put on hold for Technical Support  -  -  -   -  No reply !

Rang AGAIN and spoke to another equally pleasant lady on reception who gave me the mobile number of the Technical Support manager – unable to get reply.

At 4.00pm BT called, but they were expecting the fault to be a line fault, not a broadband fault. They had a look anyway.

4.45 pm  Technical Support manager rang and I told him that BT were here at that time.

5^th Sept. 9.10 am.  No further forward so rang Technical Support manager and left message.

Broadband download still showing .234 MB/s.

Didn’t hear anything back, so rang provider again at 11.50 am and spoke to Technical Support who arranged a BT  call for the next day.

Thursday 6^th Sept. 8.15 am,  BT called and after checking things out said “ There is nothing I can do. Your provider has capped your broadband at .288MB/s.”

9.10 am, put BT on the phone to Technical Support at my provider to sort things out.

9.25 Technical Support manager rang to say that they were in contact with BT and that they had NOT capped the line and that he’ll ring me back to let me know what has been agreed.

3.00pm Technical Support manager rang asking me to remove the front of the BT box and replace with a filter and requested that we leave it like that and BT will call Friday morning.

Friday 7^th September, 10.45 am.  BT called and identified a bad broadband signal and said  “ There is a definite fault. “  Following an investigation the engineer was unable to get to the cause of the fault so moved us to a new line. A BT test showed 2.8 MB/s so we were reconnected. I was advised to keep a watch on things over the weekend as an occasional drop out was OK, but frequent drop outs were not.

6.30 pm, little improvement. Rang Technical Support manager who could see the problem and asked me to ring him in the office on Saturday morning.

Saturday 8^th September 10.55am. Rang provider ( Technical Support manager) to say we were no further forward and left a message asking for a return call by midday as I had to go out.   No call.

11.45 am. Rang manager again, no reply, so rang and spoke to Technical Support who confirmed that BT were still dealing with the matter and that the Technical Support manager would ring me later in the day.  He didn’t.

Monday 10^th September 9.15 am.  Rang Technical Support manager. No reply so left message.

9.20 am rang provider and spoke to, –  yes that’s right, Technical Support who said that BT are still carrying out tests and that the problem appears to be “quite involved. BT are working in the area and the work should be completed by Tues’ 11^th Sept’.”

 Tuesday 11^th Sept. 1.30pm. Technical Support manager rang to say that they were still progressing this with BT and that we may get another call from BT tomorrow. He will ring later to confirm.

NO CALL.

Friday 14^th September, 9.00am BT called. Two men this time! Connected test equipment to phone line but did nothing else.

I asked if they were not aware of the results of the last BT call on the 7th September and was told that “a week is much too soon for our records to be updated.” So I put them in the picture and they said they would arrange for traffic lights in order to check the junction elsewhere in the village.

Having informed me that Triage were dealing with this they left at 9.20 am.

9.30 am. Rang Technical Support manager who said he was on another call and that he would  call me back in a second.

2.20pm. Rang Technical Support manager to say that I have to go out and as BT were not resolving the problem I would take matters further, i.e. inform “Watchdog” and “BBC Look East” on Friday 21^st Sept.

3.20pm, Technical Support manager rang to say he is progressing this with BT and that he was in full agreement with my intent to make this silly situation public.

He is hoping to send me a cordless phone type router to try.

Subsequently rang to say that router is on the way.

15^th Sept. Router arrived.

Monday 17^th September, Router installed.

Tuesday 18^th September, rang Technical Support manager and left message to update.

12.05pm. Received call from Technical Support with the following message – “ BT are scheduled to progress this issue on 19^th September and although they will be working in the street they would appreciate access to your home.”

Wednesday, 19^th September, 4.10pm. Rang Technical Support manager and left message to say  “no call and no improvement.”

Thursday, 20^th September 1.15pm. Rang Technical Support manager to ask where we are up to? For some reason he was not aware of the message I left on Wednesday, but he will contact BT and phone me back.

4.20pm, Technical Support manager rang to say that BT had changed time of job from the 19^th am to the 20^th pm. ( Might have helped if we’d been informed ! )

No call from BT. Did they do anything ?

Broadband speed still .234 MB/s

Friday 21st Sept. 9.00am.  No change.

12.15 pm Rang Technical Support manager and left message.

2.15 pm, Technical Support manager rang and left message to say BT are still progressing and job should be completed by 6.00 pm.

Saturday 22^nd Sept. 12.30 pm.  Rang Technical Support manager to update on the fact that there was no change, and left message.

2.30 pm, Technical Support manager rang and left me a message to say that the problem could take up to three months to sort out!

Monday 24^th September – 9.30 am. Rang Technical Support manager and left message. At 7.00pm rang again and left another message.

Tuesday, 25^th September 9.50 am, rang provider to speak to Technical Support.  

“ We apologise for keeping you waiting. We’ll answer your call just as soon as we can. Thanks for your patience”      WHAT PATIENCE ? !  !

10.00 am. Rang again and spoke to member of Technical Support, then to the Technical Support manager, who asked if I could please send him photos of the BT line into our property.

Sent three photos to him at 10.40 am.

Friday 28^th September, 4.10pm.  Rang Technical Support manager as hadn’t heard anything.  Left message.

 Monday 31^st September 5.20pm. Rang Technical Support manager who said he is proposing to run a new line into the house to see if things improve.  Will ring me tomorrow to confirm.

No call.

Wednesday 3^rd October, 9.15pm sent Technical Support manager an email saying that I hadn’t heard from him and that my neighbours are on 1.6MB/s and asking him what’s happening ?

He replied apologising and saying that they’d had a few ADSL issues their end. However, BT had planned to carry out work on the 21^st October, and have applied for three way traffic lights. Also, he has requested a new line to be installed on the 24^th October.

 19^th October, confirmed with Technical Support manager that BT are still on to check copper fault on the 21^st.

“ Yes.”

Sunday 21^st October, 8.30am. BT called to repair phone line. ( Hard to believe ! ) But the engineer said he didn’t know anything about broadband. He remade the connection in a terminal box but couldn’t do anything else.

What now ?

 Monday 22^nd October,10.15am rang Technical Support manager and left message.

He rang later and I requested a migration code as by now my patience was running on borrowed time.

He agreed that the BT call based on their report was an “ absolute joke”, but that he had arranged for them to install a new line on Thursday. Could I hold off until then ? 

I checked the date with him as previously I’d been told Wednesday, but no, it was definitely going to be Thursday.

 Wednesday 24th October, 10.50 am  BT called to install new line !  Fortunately we were at home and the line was installed.

Since then broadband has been running at download speeds of between 6 and 7 MB/s. An incredible result, but why did it take so long for BT to identify what appears to be a straight forward line fault ?

While it appears that the main problem with my internet provider is a severe staff shortage, ( hence the repeated and incessant “ We apologise for keeping you waiting “ etc’)  the same cannot be said of BT staff who, with very few exceptions, appear to lack communication, lack experience, lack knowledge and lack a general interest in resolving the problem.

I feel that not only should BT Wholesale pay for installing the new line, but that they should provide compensation to my provider and ourselves for wasting a considerable amount of time and for providing what can only be described as “an appalling service.”

Bad service or what?

What has been your experience of your broadband providers? Have you experienced good service or bad?

Leave a comment below and share your experience.

Computer repair in the Copthorne and Crawley area.

Computer repair, technical support, Crawley & Copthorne area

I know I’m not the only one who has really suffered this week with Eircom downtime (Apparently their DNS servers were hacked. The lady I asked about this on the phone convincingly said “Ah no, I don’t think they were hacked now, is that even possible?”) and just switched to OpenDNS, which was suggested by Komplett.ie’s blog (Thanks Komplett!). The process was relatively painless but if you’re not tech savvy, then the guide offered for Motorola routers likely puzzled you. Luckily Thomas is here to save the day and break down the process for you. I won’t provide screenshots as I don’t think they’re necessary as it’s quite quick, but if you hit a obstacle feel free to leave a comment and I’ll help you to the best of my ability.

1) First, open your router’s settings page by opening it’s address (http://192.168.1.254/ if you’re using the router Eircom provides for free)

2) Hit “Expert Mode” on the left sidebar

3) Confirm that you want to enter expert mode, then click “configure” and then “connection”

4) Scroll down to “Primary DNS Server” and change it to “208.67.222.222″. Change “Secondary DNS server” to “208.67.220.220″.

Hit “Save and Restart Connection” at the bottom of the page, wait a few moments, and complete registration on the OpenDNS site.

And that’s it! I hope this guide helped you with your switch, and I hope you’re happy with your much more secure connection, but don’t be afraid to let Eircom know how annoyed you are with this whole situation. I’ll be expecting some sort of compensation on my bill, or Eircom can expect one less customer next year.

And why?

Let me tell you the story called “Bad Connection”.

It all started when I bought the Belkin Wireless Pre-N Router. That expensive piece of equipment had caused me a real headache with the setup. Whoever said that it is just plug and play, was lying! So yeah after a number of nights with bad luck on no connection, finalyl I had to call my friend Jay from Viewnet at Low Yat to come over and fix it. Seems there was a number of settings that I had to take care of. Ngeh!!

Then we went to the PC Fair at KL Convention Center, which was where I met with the people who were introducing Maxis Broadband. Woo hoo the first ever other broadband service, other than streamyx. On one hand this was great, plus it’s 3g and all (peh… that wasn’t much of a help, if anything it’s super unstable). Let me clarify, when I first started with Maxis 3g Broadband, they had a 30 day trial plan. Those 30 days were beautiful! Loading websites was uber fast and playing Guild Wars was a dream.

Then came the first month, it was still going swell.

Then came the second and third month…

That was when things started to get a bit shaky. It was not at all stable! The connection fluctuated from HSDPA, to UMTS and down to EDGE. Oh my gosh, EDGE is the slowest thing ever! EVER!!!! Plus I’m paying for what RM87 a month for this. Sigh I’m paying the high end broadband too, but there’s a catch to this package from what I heard from a technician that came to my house to fix my connection problem. Yeah because I was having so much of issues with it, I called Maxis and they said maybe it was my modem so they changed it. The technician then told me, that the thing with Maxis is that within a certain area, they only allow a limit of 35 people to receive high end connection. Those 35 people are random. So basically, when Maxis got more people under their belt, they couldn’t handle it, causing the connection to be way slow.

Mister G and I even considered Izzi, Celcom and even U Mobile. Did I mention there is also now such a thing as gamers broadband? I found that such a laugh really. All new competitors in the broadband market, you can take a look at the long list here at Planet Low Yat. Then i just for the easier method of getting Aztech’s Homeplug.

Which is a device that converts your powerpoint in your house into wires for you internet. Like so.

There is a wire sticking out at the bottom, which is my Lan cable so now I can have internet as well upstairs in my room. See my house is a real mess in terms of the architecture (as much as i love it). This is because of all the wires that are shoves in side the walls, wireless connection can be a bit of a prob in receiving the signal.

Originally I was told I could get th eAztech home plug for RM210… imagine my glee when i got it fot RM170 at Sri Computers in Low Yat. That said though I still want to cry because i took out money from my pocket yet again to fix some stupid net issue! Sigh. Sigh sigh…

Oh but my internet woes doesn’t just end there..

To be continued…..