sky broadband always worked fine on ext, always had 17.6 dwn 1mb up, never missed a beat

i did and both were almost identical

Well your downstream seems fast. The problem is the upload, I thought you said?

I think the wiring is suspect, and the stats from the test socket downstairs would help to confirm that.

yes it is the uploads i think are slow, i signed up on this !

http://i296.photobucket.com/albums/mm177/ds1962/Scre...

both give same stats

downstairs :
same results on the master:

6. Data Rate: 5400 / 50696
7. Maximum Data Rate: 5519 / 62493
8. Noise Margin: 6.1 / 6.8
9. Line Attenuation: 0.0 / 24.2
10. Signal Attenuation: 0.0 / 0.0

upstairs:
6. Data Rate: 5187 / 53023
7. Maximum Data Rate: 5284 / 63899
8. Noise Margin: 6.1 / 6.4
9. Line Attenuation: 0.0 / 24.5
10. Signal Attenuation: 0.0 / 0.0

My thought is that a bridge tap has been introduced.

Wiring to downstairs master looks like internal on the back A B connectors

If now two masters and phone works in both test sockets when faceplates are off then wiring is likely cause.

So, if engineer had ran extension from master it would be ok?
I had read thats what they would do but he seemed in a big hurry when I mentioned it!

Fitting vdsl faceplate and running data extension from there is preferred way.

Other ways are possible too