BT wants its Smarthubs back!

Many Plusnet customers in particular find the BT HH6 gives much better performance than the supplied router. Those thinking about changing might note that BT is going to charge for unreturned HH6. Maybe because they have seen so many HH6s for sale on Gumtree etc so from last month they only loan them and charge £43 if you don�t return them for reconditioning and re-issue when you terminate your service, see https://www.bt.com/assets/pdf/BT_PhoneTariff_Residen...

Would be very disappointed to get a reconditioned router when taking out a contract with an ISP.

One argument in favour of loaning routers is that most likely many of them end up in the dustbin after changing ISP, which is bad for the environment.

Good, they can keep it, the rebooting sack of ****.

Edited by wolvesmad (Tue 21-Jan-20 16:47:16)

Why would anyone want to use the rubbish Smart Hubs, they are full of bugs that never got fixed while I used one and become sluggish when using the whole connection.

I only keep mine so that if BT want to do tests on our line I can just temp connect it, else its currently in its box it came in.

Paul

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

Why would anyone want to use the rubbish Smart Hubs, they are full of bugs that never got fixed while I used one and become sluggish when using the whole connection

Conversely, mine works a treat.

Different strokes innit.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

Why would anyone want to use the rubbish Smart Hubs, they are full of bugs that never got fixed while I used one and become sluggish when using the whole connection

Conversely, mine works a treat.

Different strokes innit.

It must be LUL
Don't get me wrong, its better than some routers that I have used and is specially better than the hub 4, its just we had soo many issues with it and no place to report the bugs to, I tried reporting them to BTCare over Twitter and over the phone to BT, none of them had any knowledge where to send the bugs to.

Paul

Maybe the EU should insist that the hubs should work with other ISPs, just like they wish to standardize mobile phone charging sockets, and the UK want to make it possible for mobile phones to roam from one network to another as they do when they are used abroad,

Hmmm,

surely that would result in ISP�s providing the cheapest old tat going ... wouldn�t it ?

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Maybe the EU should insist that the hubs should work with other ISPs

Yes, although if customers get a new one for "free" when switching ISP they'd also have to implement a charge for new routers which people could opt out of if they want to use the router from their previous ISP.

A bit like the plastic bag charge, but for routers.

In reply to a post by Michael_Chare:

Maybe the EU should insist that the hubs should work with other ISPs, just like they wish to standardize mobile phone charging sockets, and the UK want to make it possible for mobile phones to roam from one network to another as they do when they are used abroad,

We are leaving the eu , and we don't want them meddling any more

In reply to a post by tommy45:

We are leaving the eu , and we don't want them meddling any more

I care more about the environment than the EU. Anything that reduce the numbers of routers ending up in landfill is worth exploring.

Argument for making the metwork sockets on a router the demarcation point?

No more filter fandango when your ADSL/VDSL connection doesn't work as it should though if that manifesto pledge of full fibre everywhere by 2025 comes to pass (not holding my breath) that'll become a moot point.

As long as ADSL/VDSL persists then yep, make it fully managed.

Or ensure the network demarcation point is a standard Ethernet RJ45 connector with DHCP or PPPoE. At that point a choice of NAT router or "hub" or "gateway" is the customers choice.

What we had with cable in 1999.

In reply to a post by Zarjaz:

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

Why would anyone want to use the rubbish Smart Hubs, they are full of bugs that never got fixed while I used one and become sluggish when using the whole connection

Conversely, mine works a treat.

Different strokes innit.

*dons tin hoil hat

Ah, but you work for BT so they hand picked yours

In reply to a post by techguy:

Ah, but you work for BT so they hand picked yours

I had a HH4, it was ok but the reboot every 14 days irked me. From what I gather, this is still a "feature" of the Smart Hubs.

Conversely, the Plusnet firmware on the re-badged HH5 does not do this.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

One argument in favour of loaning routers is that most likely many of them end up in the dustbin after changing ISP, which is bad for the environment.

I would point out that putting a router or any electrical item in the dustbin has been illegal under WEEE regulations for at least a decade. Perhaps it's about time that councils enforce existing regulations. They should go in the small electrics at the local recycling centre.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

I would point out that putting a router or any electrical item in the dustbin has been illegal under WEEE regulations for at least a decade.

Indeed, I have my doubts as to how well observed the WEEE regulations are, and it would be hard to collate statistics on compliance. I don't know if the councils can afford to pay people to scour every individual's rubbish for prohibited waste.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

They should go in the small electrics at the local recycling centre.

There is no doorstep collection of small electricals like there is for other types of waste adding to the likelihood of people choosing the dustbin, maybe councils need to bring this into consideration and provide some kind of doorstep provision.

In reply to a post by jabuzzard:

I would point out that putting a router or any electrical item in the dustbin has been illegal under WEEE regulations for at least a decade. Perhaps it's about time that councils enforce existing regulations. They should go in the small electrics at the local recycling centre.

It is unclear if domestic users are at risk of prosecution under WEEE; there are bigger fish to fry. Corporates are heavily fined for not correctly disposing of WEEE.

The regulations were for Producers and Distributors. In theory you should return the WEEE to the distributor (e.g. local supermarket, Argos, or Amazon) for recycling.

I suspect this is why BT want unused Hubs back.

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

I had a HH4, it was ok but the reboot every 14 days irked me. From what I gather, this is still a "feature" of the Smart Hubs.

Conversely, the Plusnet firmware on the re-badged HH5 does not do this.

I also had a HH4 that rebooted every 10 to 14 days, very annoying as hell, my Smart Hub use to stay up for months so that was better, but sadly it became sluggish when we used our full connection, plus it had other issues, so I moved over to a Linksys WRT 3200 ACM and never had any issues like I was having with the Smart Hub.

Plus there is no place to report bugs and issues with the Smart Hub to, where there is for Linksys.

Maybe the firmware on the Smart Hub is better now, but I have no way of knowing, plus the Linksys router is all running and setup as I wanted, so I am not messing with it LOL

I was also offered one of the new Smart Hubs when I renewed for 2 years where I got my very good deal, but I told them I would never use it due to all the issues I had with their previous version.

Paul

In reply to a post by Oliver341:

There is no doorstep collection of small electricals like there is for other types of waste adding to the likelihood of people choosing the dustbin, maybe councils need to bring this into consideration and provide some kind of doorstep provision.

We just contact our local council for a rubbish pickup stating how many items and what they are.
They have taken all sorts of rubbish, old TV's, Audio Equipment, Garden Rubbish, old beds, sofas etc they take the lot.

Plus a few times we have put out some old computer parts, monitors etc and they are gone before the council arrive to pick them up.

Paul

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

We just contact our local council for a rubbish pickup stating how many items and what they are.
They have taken all sorts of rubbish, old TV's, Audio Equipment, Garden Rubbish, old beds, sofas etc they take the lot.

I know about the chargeable collection services for larger items, I was referring more to small electricals which fit within a dustbin.

Something that is being missed here is that under WEEE regulations any supplier of WEEE equipment is obliged to offer a free take back service of your own equipment that is being replaced.

See Chapter 6 of the Gov website guidelines.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/...

Also see chapter 7 on how consumers can dispose of it.

According to the rules Plusnet must take back their equipment free of charge.

Edited by deleted (Sun 26-Jan-20 17:53:37)

In reply to a post by funkydan:

Something that is being missed here is that under WEEE regulations any supplier of WEEE equipment is obliged to offer a free take back service of your own equipment that is being replaced.

See Chapter 6 of the Gov website guidelines.
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/...

According to the rules Plusnet must take back their equipment free of charge.

BT do that, when I got a replacement HH4 several years back it arrived in a box in a bag which came with a free post stamp of it, dropped it off at our local post office and it was sent back for free.

Paul

In reply to a post by funkydan:

According to the rules Plusnet must take back their equipment free of charge.

The issue is whether consumers can be bothered to do so if there is no financial disincentive to do so. People only stopped throwing endless plastic bags away when it hit them in the pocket.

Council here collects small eletricals if left in a bag next to recycling bin

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Council here collects small eletricals if left in a bag next to recycling bin

That's good, that really needs to be nationwide.

Agreed, there's no problem returning old kit for WEEE disposal, but my point is that BT will charge you if you DON'T send the Smarthub back!

Good, it's free for customers to avoid the charge.

Recently left BT and a blue returns bag has arrived today for the Smart Hub.

after your contract has finished could you charge them for storage of their equipment for the time you waited to receive the bag to return it in?

If you change the contract that you agree with them and get them to sign off the changes then yes. But, under the contract that people agree I standard then I suspect not.