Reply to: BT Broadband is rubbish

[ChimpMaster]

Get a USB 3G dongle as a backup - you can check coverage maps online. I got a T-Mobile Huawei dongle, £30 pre-paid for 3 months' unlimited usage, as a failover.

Download speed is commensurate with my fixed line (and way better than when it's faulty!) as in 2.5mb/s.

It does now work with Lion OS and Windaz, of course....

Get a dongle. I got a Vodafone PAYG one when I had BT problems, it works well enough as backup and doesn't cost when I'm not using it.

I realised yesterday that my iPhone 4S can act as a Wifi hotspot so I can use this - I'm not sure what the speed will be like compared to the dongles you mention. Might try a test at home later.

Anyway BT rebooted 'something' at my exchange last night and so I have broadband again. Speed is sh1te though, anywhere from 1Mb/s to 4Mb/s. 4 is pretty much normal but the engineer this morning said I should be getting 10 Mb/s because I'm close to the exchange.

I can't believe I have to stick with BT for this 18 month contract

[Ignis Fatuus]

Advice appreciated (seriously this has been a very frustrating few days)

Get a dongle. I got a Vodafone PAYG one when I had BT problems, it works well enough as backup and doesn't cost when I'm not using it.

[Dearnla]

Get a USB 3G dongle as a backup - you can check coverage maps online. I got a T-Mobile Huawei dongle, £30 pre-paid for 3 months' unlimited usage, as a failover.

Download speed is commensurate with my fixed line (and way better than when it's faulty!) as in 2.5mb/s.

It does now work with Lion OS and Windaz, of course....

[Zippy]

Update from BT today, they still don't know when it will be fixed but definitley not this week, or even maybe the week after...

Much qui... erm... but plenty cheap .... erm....
Oh

Sack the chiselling chunts.

[Cliphead]

Update from BT today, they still don't know when it will be fixed but definitley not this week, or even maybe the week after...

[Alphafemale]

I'm really glad I spotted this thread. We live in the countryside and only get 1mb download speed so horrendously slow broadband. BT have just sent me an offer inviting me to their broadband for £10 a month but it sounds as if that's £10 too much atm. We currently pay £16 via O2.

[Epiphone]

No idea who to complain to and I doubt it'll make any difference.

ian.livingston @ bt.com

CEO.

[d000hg]

If you think BT is rubbish, just try TalkTalk - they even send the debt collectors in when you've terminated your account legitimately.

Though we've now switched from TT, I never found their product was bad and their Bobs were reasonably OK. Main thing that annoyed us was that apparently* TT put a block on your line which has to be removed before you can switch provider.

* according to our new provider who charged us to remedy this

[ChimpMaster]

Phoning every day but no direct number. Not just my house there are several others affected and they are also putting on the pressure. I know one neighbour is contacting the local MP tomorrow and I may do the same. There are a couple of shops in a village four miles away which have no phone and can't take card payments and it's hitting their business.

I'll get satellite comms as a backup but not likely to be installed before BT get me back online.

Ok, mods here comes another infraction - BT are still a bunch of c^nts. Do yer worst

Agreed. I just can't fathom how poor their service is.

Day 4 without internet: actually happy to be in the office for once!

[Cliphead]

I phoned every day and will continue to do so as far as possible. I doubt the engineer will do anything but you have to keep pushing, especially when it comes to the Bobs.

Lodge a complaint online and email Ofcom. The more of us that do it, the better. Yes I too doubt it'll come to much but it's all we can do.

If I wasn't in contract with BT I would have asked them for a MAC and moved on already. It's bugging me most that BT are supposed to be the one-stop-shop for broadband but they are utterly useless. Unfortunately in my area I have no cable either.

Have you got a direct line number for UK support at BT? I hate being put through repeatedly to the useless offshore centre.

Phoning every day but no direct number. Not just my house there are several others affected and they are also putting on the pressure. I know one neighbour is contacting the local MP tomorrow and I may do the same. There are a couple of shops in a village four miles away which have no phone and can't take card payments and it's hitting their business.

I'll get satellite comms as a backup but not likely to be installed before BT get me back online.

Ok, mods here comes another infraction - BT are still a bunch of c^nts. Do yer worst

[VectraMan]

I'm with Zen Internet, and have never had any problems.

They're a bit pricey, at least for my unlimited download business tariff (c £90 per month), but worth it to avoid hassle.

I was with Zen until a few months ago, but I'd started to wonder why I was paying £25 per month when the likes of PlusNet offered the same service for £6. So now I'm with Plusnet, and only paid £6 pm a couple of times before I had to upgrade and now it's £12pm, and I have half the upload speed, and much more flakiness than I ever had with Zen.

So maybe it was worth it after all.

If you have an Android phone on 3G you can turn it into a WiFi hot spot. Makes for a pretty good backup. At the end of the day, none of these broadband services come with a service agreement, so the only way to be reasonably sure of reliability is to have your own redundancy system.

[~Craig~]

I'm with Andrews & Arnold on the BE network. Really good service, call centre based in Reading I think.

[scooterscot]

Used BT broadband whilst living in Edinburgh without a problem. The only grumble I would make is that I was paying for a 8Mbit line and I'd be lucky if data would though at a 5th of that. Rip-off.

Using kabel deutschland now, no complaints. €20 a month get my 32Mbits download, 100% of that, unlimited usage, don't remember the last outage. The funny side of which is most staff on the phone speak very good English.

Look on the bright side the UK still have AAA rating.

[Paddy]

Like what? I can't access client systems over dial-up...

WiFi spots, 3G dongle or sat uplink - there are cheap offers these days.

I have a backup home 3g plus a mobile 3g

Sat links are available and used in some Welsh villages.

http://www.toowaybroadband.co.uk/order_now.php

[ChimpMaster]

BT haven't been iin touch since the 7th when the fault was supposed to be fixed. Repeated requests for an update get ignored by both India and UK.

No idea who to complain to and I doubt it'll make any difference.

I phoned every day and will continue to do so as far as possible. I doubt the engineer will do anything but you have to keep pushing, especially when it comes to the Bobs.

Lodge a complaint online and email Ofcom. The more of us that do it, the better. Yes I too doubt it'll come to much but it's all we can do.

If I wasn't in contract with BT I would have asked them for a MAC and moved on already. It's bugging me most that BT are supposed to be the one-stop-shop for broadband but they are utterly useless. Unfortunately in my area I have no cable either.

Have you got a direct line number for UK support at BT? I hate being put through repeatedly to the useless offshore centre.