I had a text message saying BT would call me as planned this morning

Well, no phone call.

Deadline slipped.

Might have to phone them up from my noisy line just to make a point. If I can get a dial tone!!!

Ended up phoning BT (and on my mobile as I couldn't get a dial tone!)

They booked me an appointment, confirmed all the details, advised it might be chargeable. They then read the engineer notes and said an appointment wasn't required at the moment!!!

They'd better hurry up as i've used almost 5GB on my 4G phone, 2GB left.

In reply to a post by B31:

Ended up phoning BT (and on my mobile as I couldn't get a dial tone!)

They booked me an appointment, confirmed all the details, advised it might be chargeable. They then read the engineer notes and said an appointment wasn't required at the moment!!!

They'd better hurry up as i've used almost 5GB on my 4G phone, 2GB left.

What do they mean by "an appointment wasn't required at the moment" are they taking the flipping mick.
I would ring them up on your mobile when your phone line is dead and demand them to do a flipping line test, your paying for a service that they cannot supply nor do they make any attempt to fix.

I say contact your local MP explain everything that has happened.
Or try and phone the people higher up, contact details at bottom of the page.
http://btplc.com/Thegroup/UKPublicAffairs/UK/Parliam...

It says "If you have an enquiry about your own home or business lines including new orders, please call the Parliamentary Helpline" they are open Mon-Fri 8am to 6pm.

Paul

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

What do they mean by "an appointment wasn't required at the moment" are they taking the flipping mick.

The earlier line tests seem to have indicated the fault is outside the property. So no visit required. Hence no appointment required.

Edited by RobertoS (Sat 05-Dec-15 12:47:55)

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

In reply to a post by PaulKirby:

What do they mean by "an appointment wasn't required at the moment" are they taking the flipping mick.

The earlier line tests seem to have indicated the fault is outside the property. So no visit required. Hence no appointment required.

Ohhh, silly me, I was thinking that they was not putting it down as a fault.
Well that is different, I take most of it back then LOL.

Paul

I've done dafter things .

Yeah presume a network fault, even though the diagram now shows "fault at customers property" again now.

They did a line test again.

The line isn't completely dead. It rings and you can answer it, very noisy still. Mostly no dial tone last few days, and no broadband for pretty much a week now.


They've agreed I'm owed compensation for phone and broadband from day 4 onwards.

Edited by B31 (Sat 05-Dec-15 14:18:06)

B31's problems could have been my own, which were described a month ago elsewhere on the Slow Broadband area. I have had identical and regular problems over the past eight years which was when I first started to use programs like Router Stats and the TB Speedtest.

Problems are not helped by my ISP, whose fault analysis equipment is unhelpful and often inaccurate. Each time there's a Broadband (BB) fault I still have to go through hours of socket tests, router re-starts, equipment disconnections etc etc before they'll call out BTO. Strangely, if I say the problem is phone line noise the engineer will be called out immediately - even if the phone is fine. Perhaps the phone service provider can't always hear line noise at the consumer's end of the line? But if I say it is slow a slow BB, typically, 25% of normal, I have to go through hours/days of pointless checks and testing before an engineer is booked. My problems are always line related so it matters not if the engineer is a phone-only man (some are and others are trained for both phone and BB).

My speeds are similar to the OP's, so we are frustrated even when our service is performing normally. My problems typically start with crackle on the phone when overhead cables rub through their insulation where they pass through trees and following windy, then damp/misty/wet weather. I'll lose the phone, then the BB service, which is more tolerant, a few days later.

This past week I've had very slow BB but no phone. The BTO engineer came on day 6 of the outage, and fixed that connection fine, but the BB has now lost 75% of the speed it had when the phone wasn't working.

I wondered, why? "It's probably down to the DLM - Dynamic Line Management - software at the exchange" (engineer). Why then can other repairs instantly get me up to 185% of normal speed - with an SNR of 6 rather than 16? I think the SNR can be reset if the engineer is BB-trained. Today, 12 hours after my most recent repair, my speed is still only 0.8mbps compared with a possible 3.4mbps when everything is working ok.

BTO have replaced one length of overhead cable at least five times for me alone (there are others in the cable bundle as well) but can't address the underlying cause because it's cheaper to replace the cable every time than re-route it.

When it's an underground fault it's often high resistance or other connection/equipment faults. My line connects direct to the exchange but via numerous poles and sumps where there are cable joins and which are damp. They are often close to a 60mph main road (which requires significant additional H&S procedures) so BTO prefers to avoid sorting out the cumulative resistances and leaves me with an unreliable, slow and noisy connection which if it were a consumer product I'd be able to return to the retailer and demand my money back.

My point is that B31, the OP, has got cable and other equipment serving his property that is quite possibly just old and in need of replacement and, because BTO operates as a monopoly supplier, there is no-one making sure they see to it. And as we cannot take our custom elsewhere, unless we happen to be in an area served by a cable company with their own, separate, infrastructure, we have a big problem.

Your ISP/Phone service supplier will not fight your corner as vigorously as you would for yourself and, as you have no direct contract with them, BTO they won't talk to you direct. My line can deliver 3.4mbps for days at a time but it's usually well below 2 and has been extremely unreliable over the past 3 months - with up to 150 dropouts every 24hrs in a bad period. 3 recent engineer visits have resolved the issue only temporarily, and then it starts over again, just like Groundhog Day.

The infrastructure that the engineers are working with is simply not up to the job, and the repair procedures they have to implement are sticking plaster jobs. With no way of putting pressure on BTO management I know I will have to repeat approaches to my MP, Ofcom and others, whose bark should be louder than my own. But I won't be holding my breath.

And I've not mentioned the similar problems that many other people in the village are having. Divide - via all our different ISPs who can't, or won't, talk to each other - and rule lives on in BTO's ivory tower.

Frustrating isn't it.

I've been talking to the MP about the issues for quite some time, still waiting for the road status to be sorted (discussed elsewhere on this forum).

Fault diagram now shows it as "4. Close to customers property"

So it seems to be flip flopping, I've seen it at 5, then 4, then 5 again and now 4 again!

I'll probably drop my MP an email tonight (want to see how the road adoption/super fast discussions are going anyway) and if the issue isn't fixed at the new estimate of Weds I'll start chasing people higher up at BT...