You should get a real Openreach engineer this time, and every one I have ever had has been excellent .

Let us know how things go.

Just got a phone call, engineer is booked to come tomorrow a.m. Will let you know what happens.

Well, we did get an Openreach engineer and a really good one at that. Really pleasant and courteous and obviously knew his job. Arrived at 8.30 a.m. left at just after 11.00. Star wiring has been disconnected. The cable coming into the loft was unpinned from the outside wall, taken down and pinned along the front of the house going into the lounge under the window where he fitted an NT5E socket. He told us what he recommended and we went along with it. Nothing was too much trouble for him and we are delighted. Had to ask next door neighbour's permission for him to put his ladder in their garden to gain access to the side of our house where phone cable was but that wasn't a problem. When he tested the speed using his equipment we were sync'd at 21.74 down, 1.2 up, SNR 6, attenuation 30.5. Using our BT modem (ECI) and Asus router sync is 16.83 down, 1.17 up, downloading at 16.32.

Just wondered though whether by matching the chip in the modem to the chip in the dslam (think that's the right terminology) would we sync any higher and is there a way of finding out what chip is in the there, or does it really matter?

Thank you all so much for your help. Much appreciated. Marie.

Result!

Rather better than you ever hoped for in fact .

In reply to a post by whisper:

Think I have worn my poor hubby's ears out.

Are they better now?

Absolutely, very pleased. Hubby's ears are back to normal and he's grinning from ear to ear!

Great news but not hard to see why the Kelly's guy did not want to do it , 2 1/2hrs extra work and they only get £25 for the whole job.

So £25 per appointment?

and i guess they want to get 1 per hr?

Doesn't even pay for the van, never mind the man.

Yep.

£25 per appointment yes.

Part of the problem is that OR engineers who subsequently go on the repair don't report the contractor for shoddy workmanship. So there's no downside to the contractor, also for the company everything looks like it's going well.