UPDATE
So after 2 weeks of tier 2 investigaions on Friday 6th Jan they agreed to send out a replacement router, still the garbage Adtran 854v6. Was expecting delivery midweek, but had escalated the lack of responses and the fact I was still on the moody IP address whilst all this was going on.
By chance I noticed my next door neighbour walking up the drive on the ring doorbell notification,with a royal mail card, collected the card to be not really understanding how they had done this.

The router was sent to me but sadly Be fibre staff don't have an ability to copy an address from a screen, not overly difficult, say I live at 54a dave streer, it was delivered to 54 dave street, with postie leaving a card for collection at the depot, his was Thursday afternoon, after waiting patiently expecting the parcel, the blooming neighbour gets the attempted delivery on Wednesday. Due to her being close to a hermit, barely venturing out except for bin days, there was no way she would open the door for a parcel, let alone in someone elses name. So I took the card to the depot and hoped they would see the mistake etc.
Thankfully the royal mail lady could see it was a mistake, checked my details and accidentally added the missing a to the parcel.
It was now 1630 so didn't see the point in calling support to go through the setup of the new router, those troubles were for the following day.
So friday, the lady from customer services called, asked if I had the router, and after explaining the previous days efforts,she said to plug it all in, swap cables over and I'll transfer you to support.
Guess what no one was available, so an hour later support called, asked for serial and mac of the new router to add to the system, then another hour passes, we get to setup the router. Took less than 5 mins to go through the screens, then when done, the green light for connection lit........then went out lol
She couldn't understand what happened, so had to waiti longer, still with no internet access since 10am.
I was told it would take an hour or so, but at 1415 I had had enough and called the lady dealing with my complaint, who always is just about to mysteriously call me.
I told her then that if this wasn't sorted by the end of the day, Friday, I'll be expecting to be released from your contract to get a service than can provide internet.
5 minutes later I get another call to say an engineer is coming be there in 30 mins, he arrived and I certainly can't fault the guy, he did what he could, but was honest about he knew very little about the internal side of things as he was mostly outside. So after about 30 minutes of resetting and checking settings ,he called support himself, eventually they discovered the router was sent out with the firmware installed, so 10 mins later, it was all up and running. Best thing about listening to the conversation was that the engineers carry a stock of new routers in their vans and when the engineer asked should I get one of those, that had the correct firmware on, tech said don't really matter, it wouldn't take that long. So why not send an engineer to me, rather than pay best part of £12 postage, send it to the wrong address??????
So far no loss of service, no issues with my S20 dropping wifi, nothing. The engineer did say "don't do too much with the router, changing settings and features etc to let it burn in " lol

Got to say this is by far the worst incident I have ever had with any ISP, I certainly will look for an ISP that allows you to use your own equipment in the future.

Lee

In reply to a post by highlander317:

UPDATE
<snip> I certainly will look for an ISP that allows you to use your own equipment in the future.

Lee

Hi Lee, I just got on to Be-Fibre today. You can use your own equipment and that what I am doing right now. I saw a thread on this that was back in early last year, (either on here or on another site). Having seen that thread, I sent an email before Christmas to support and they confirmed that you can do so. I also then spoke to them as a follow up to my email. You can use your own equipment (Router), in two ways. If your Router has the ability to put in a Clone MAC address, then you can just take the MAC Address from their supplied router, put that in your router, save it and your router will then connect.

If your Router doesn't have a MAC Address clone capability, they said that I can tell them he MAC Address of my Router and they would add it into their RADIUS Server and once that has updated, you would be able to connect.. As my Dreytek Vigor 2866 has the MAC clone capability, I went down that route. I used the Linksys Router that they supplied for all of 30 mins after getting the two green lights. I've been connected ever since.

My IP address has changed once since I first connected (around 12:30 13:00 today), I'm pretty sure they gave me a CGNAT to start with as my Dreytek was telling me one IP but any 'what's my IP' website was telling me another.
During this evening sometime, my IP address has changed and now router and any website is telling me the same IP. As I have also purchased a fixed IP, I don't yet know if this is my purchased fixed IP or just a 'proper' Temp IP from DHCP until I get the true fixed one.

Support will be getting a call on Monday to find out as I'm giving them the weekend, (48 hrs, as they advise, for everything to get updated through their systems.

HTH,
Chris.

In reply to a post by Stroller101:

I just got on to Be-Fibre today. You can use your own equipment and that what I am doing right now. You can just take the MAC Address from their supplied router, put that in your router, save it and your router will then connect.

I used the Linksys Router that they supplied for all of 30 mins after getting the two green lights. I've been connected ever since.

My IP address has changed once since I first connected (around 12:30 13:00 today), I'm pretty sure they gave me a CGNAT to start with as my Dreytek was telling me one IP but any 'what's my IP' website was telling me another.

During this evening sometime, my IP address has changed and now router and any website is telling me the same IP. As I have also purchased a fixed IP, I don't yet know if this is my purchased fixed IP or just a 'proper' Temp IP from DHCP until I get the true fixed one.

Sounds positive as I am researching BeFibre are you able to help with the following:

1. How long did you have to wait from ordering to installation? What do they do when they come and install?

2. What model of Linksys router do they provide? Does it print the MAC you need to clone on the Linksys router box or in the Linksys GUI somewhere? Can you access/setup the Linksys via a browser or do you need to use a phone app?

3. For the short period you had CGNAT was the connection decent and responsive? £4/month is quite a lot is it needed?

4. I know you haven't been a customer for long but with your exposure so far what is your impression of BeFibre? Have speeds be reasonable so far? Is customer services decent?

Thanks

Hi Chris
over the last 18 months of having their service, despite all the issues with the adtran, the linksys and overall service, not once did they mention I could use my own equipment. At the begining it was no, it was something they may look at in the future then nothing since.

Lee

In reply to a post by think26872:

In reply to a post by Stroller101:

I just got on to Be-Fibre today. You can use your own equipment and that what I am doing right now. You can just take the MAC Address from their supplied router, put that in your router, save it and your router will then connect.

I used the Linksys Router that they supplied for all of 30 mins after getting the two green lights. I've been connected ever since.

My IP address has changed once since I first connected (around 12:30 13:00 today), I'm pretty sure they gave me a CGNAT to start with as my Dreytek was telling me one IP but any 'what's my IP' website was telling me another.

During this evening sometime, my IP address has changed and now router and any website is telling me the same IP. As I have also purchased a fixed IP, I don't yet know if this is my purchased fixed IP or just a 'proper' Temp IP from DHCP until I get the true fixed one.

Sounds positive as I am researching BeFibre are you able to help with the following:

1. How long did you have to wait from ordering to installation? What do they do when they come and install?

2. What model of Linksys router do they provide? Does it print the MAC you need to clone on the Linksys router box or in the Linksys GUI somewhere? Can you access/setup the Linksys via a browser or do you need to use a phone app?

3. For the short period you had CGNAT was the connection decent and responsive? £4/month is quite a lot is it needed?

4. I know you haven't been a customer for long but with your exposure so far what is your impression of BeFibre? Have speeds be reasonable so far? Is customer services decent?

Thanks

@think26872
Hi there,

Re: Your Q's....

1. Installation has a 14 day 'max' time period. You may already know, (but if not, here goes) some points to be aware of. The Fibre Infrastructure that has just been put in to our area,(Herefordshire), has been done by Full Fibre, known on the TV and to the Consumer as Fibre Heroes (FH). Be-Fibre is one of a total (currently), 10 ISP's that provide the ISP service over FH's Infrastructure. The installation of the ONT and fibre cable to your house is done by FH and not Be-Fibre. Because of some failures and wrong info supplied to the FH installation engineers, my final connection was delayed by almost two weeks (including Xmas as well). However, they finally got their act together and sent a pair of guys, one with a platform lift, to get my cable set up along the poles from the CBT where they plug it in. BTW, I am out in the sticks and the poles were on the other side of the road outside my house. One guy could just not do it on his own up a ladder etc. I would hope that yours would go in on-time if your CBT connection point is easier.

2. They provided me with the Linksys AX4200. The MAC Address is on a sticker on the underneath of it. Yes, I just used the Linksys GUI to initially set it up, I didn't bother with downloading their App to my phone. More rubbish on my phone LOL.

3. Yes, even with the CGNAT, I was getting 950 Mbps up and down. It nearly blew my PC away as it has never had that sort of speed from the BT/Openreach jumble of spaghetti and wet string they call 'our' network. Even though I was running on Plusnet, BT bought out Plusnet some years ago!
I work from home with my own business and have VPN connections to my business partner and other systems, so I need a static IP so the VPN's are just connected all the time. If you don't need one then just go with the CGNAT. Maybe I have been fortunate but for the brief period I had it, it worked very well and was V.quick.

4. As you say, I haven't been with them for long (4 days LOL) but so far speeds have been very good. Customer Support is at least UK based and they appear to try hard to sort things as quick as they can (dependant on the level of knowledge the person you talk to has of course). I called them today to chase up to confirm if the Static IP address that changed in my router on the weeked was my fixed one. The lady who answered was 100%, and along with a couple of other minor questions about speed and 'in the weeds' things I asked, she straight up told me that those Q's were over her head. She tried to pass me to someone in Tech Support but they were busy/at lunch. She said she would get someone to ring me and 20 mins later I got the call and all the answers I wanted including confirmation that the IP I have now is indeed my fixed IP.

I went with Be-fibre beuase, out of all of the ISP's that provide service to the Full-Fibre/Fibre Heroes/Digital Infastructure, they have recently dropped their prices a lot, as they have been bought-out by the FF/FH infrastructure company and their access fee's have been cut dramatically. £30 for a 900Mbps up & down internet connection is pretty amazing. I don't need or want a landline or a VOIP phone but I have been paying the same price for a 7.5 - 8/0 Mbps and landline that I never use from Plusnet, WHEN in contract... £40 odd pounds when out of one, and I get a £75 spend where you want gift card back from them as well. This month, they have just gone back to the half price for the first 3 months offer for the Be900. Actually, my speeds are at 950 up & down... so I'm getting over what they promised.

HTH,
Chris.

In reply to a post by highlander317:

Hi Chris
over the last 18 months of having their service, despite all the issues with the adtran, the linksys and overall service, not once did they mention I could use my own equipment. At the begining it was no, it was something they may look at in the future then nothing since.

Lee

@highlander317.

Hi Lee,

I'm sorry to hear that they haven't shared this back with you, however, I can asure you that it is working no problem with my Draytek and the Tech Support guy I spoke to today said that they are happy to just take your own router MAC Address and add that to their RADIUS Server if your router can't clone a MAC Address. Of course, the useual disclaimer still applies that if anyone has an issue, e.g. Speed and so forth with their own router or other tech/config issues, they will only look at it if you reconnect their supplied router. He told me that some of their peopl don't know much about other routers but on the whole, most of their Tech guys do know other consmer routers and if you get the right person, they are normally happy to help with your own kit.

If you can, give your own Router a try if it can clone the MAC Most of them do now-days.

All the best,
Chris.

In reply to a post by Stroller101:

1. Installation has a 14 day 'max' time period. You may already know, (but if not, here goes) some points to be aware of. The Fibre Infrastructure that has just been put in to our area,(Herefordshire), has been done by Full Fibre, known on the TV and to the Consumer as Fibre Heroes (FH). Be-Fibre is one of a total (currently), 10 ISP's that provide the ISP service over FH's Infrastructure. The installation of the ONT and fibre cable to your house is done by FH and not Be-Fibre. Because of some failures and wrong info supplied to the FH installation engineers, my final connection was delayed by almost two weeks (including Xmas as well). However, they finally got their act together and sent a pair of guys, one with a platform lift, to get my cable set up along the poles from the CBT where they plug it in. BTW, I am out in the sticks and the poles were on the other side of the road outside my house. One guy could just not do it on his own up a ladder etc. I would hope that yours would go in on-time if your CBT connection point is easier.

Thanks for your detailed reply - very helpful.

Were the installers careful of the property and gave options on how to install?

They didn't take down / interfere with BTs overhead cables or anything like that?

Did they just follow the path of the existing BT wire with their wire so you ended up with two cables into the property?

Thanks

Thanks for your detailed reply - very helpful.

Were the installers careful of the property and gave options on how to install?

Yes they were and yes they also discussed on how they would need to install but there are normally very few options apart from the obvious but they were flexible and did a neat and tidy job.


They didn't take down / interfere with BTs overhead cables or anything like that?

No, they do not touch BT's wires or fixing to your house. They will use a BT pole to string your fibre from it if that is how your line is being delivered and they are authorised to do that.


Did they just follow the path of the existing BT wire with their wire so you ended up with two cables into the property?

Thanks


Yes, that is what they do, more or less.

Hope that helps,

Chris.

Just wondering if everything is still good with your BeFibre connection after using it for a few weeks? Reliability and speed still decent?

Have you been with them for 30 days yet? Equally interested if things get worse after this time as you have no easy way to leave after 30 days?

Thanks

Aplogies for the delay in reply.

Yes, all is still very good with my BeFibre connection. Reliability and Speed has been great.
I have Sky TV which has got all programs/films to be downloaded in UHD if available and those UHD Films are now ready to watch in just a few seconds now where it used to take a number of hours on my FTTC via the Plusnet/Openreach Infrastructure. I have been with Plusnet for 16 years, (contract expires on 15th March but I haven't had their line connected for the last month or so. Just pointless. Plusnet have always been great but the OR infrastructure in my area is just utter, utter rubbish. So many promises from their engineers on dozens of call-ous for lake of any speed and massive buffering and recconects with my Router. They know their is equipment in my Cab that has faults on it for sync but they refuse to replace it until it fails completely.... plus they didn't ever put a cab in anywhere near where I live when they installed FTTC in the area, my Cab is 1.3 Km's away as the cable runs via overhead and ducting, which often floods out in heavy rain.

At the end of it all, I am a very happy bunny with my BeFibre connection.