In reply to a post by zebedeee:

Every single person that I spoke to at BT about my elusive line problems warned about the £144+VAT charge, from their customer service staff to the Openreach blokes. Maybe this is BT's way of lightening the load ? Scare off those of a low income, and nervous disposition ?

Very good point

I know for one, that I'm put off having an Engineer to come in if they're not willing to check things their side. I already face around £345 for 'visits' that have achieved nowt as they can't be bothered to check up the pole or wherever.

£165.60 is an awful lot of money to be told "it's your fault! La la la, we're not listening!!!"

Regarding the H.R. Dis or whatever ot may be, if the fault is at the pole (or anywhere after the exchange) am I right in thinking that this would be up to B.T. (or part of) to fix? Not the ISP?

I'm just likening the infrastructure to a Railway service.

You can have the fastest bullet train available (ADSL) but if the tracks (Telephone line) are in poor condition, then the train is restricted for speed and unable to achieve its full potential?

Somebody has to maintain the tracks, in this case line. Might be simple, but I like it!

Phill

Edited by deleted (Sat 08-Aug-09 13:10:41)

In reply to a post by zebedeee:

Every single person that I spoke to at BT about my elusive line problems warned about the £144+VAT charge, from their customer service staff to the Openreach blokes. Maybe this is BT's way of lightening the load ? Scare off those of a low income, and nervous disposition ?

I think you are absolutely right. My daughter has a fault on her line which has existed for a month. Her line rental is with Sky who have given her the £144 + VAT story if the fault turns out to be her internal wiring. The consequence is that she is scared to get the line fixed because she can't afford the charge.

If you ring the number, it is permanently engaged. How can that be anything but a BT line fault?

>>If you ring the number, it is permanently engaged.

Odds on favourite for being inside so Sky are right to warn of charges.

Personally was charged over £200 in my case for a voice fault. Followed all the correct procedures, but as quite often happens the fault wasn't present when the engineer came and was put down to faulty filters. Said filters since tested on another connection and work fine.
Fault is in the wiring before the test socket i.e. BT's responsibility and I'm due my 2nd SFI visit Monday to hopefully get it sorted. BE explicitly asked for cable joints to be checked when the LL5 task was raised for the 1st visit and the engineer refused to go anywhere near any cables.

I did complain and got it refunded as a "goodwill gesture", but still don't have my problem fixed - well yet anyway

And a 2 hour tme slot for an SFI visit is just ridiculous

If you don't already, you decent engineers out there should give the management a good sharp kick every now and then

Edited by nredwood (Sat 08-Aug-09 19:47:20)

bang on the money, I been saying it myself few months back when this was a heated discussion on the entanet section.

we have SFI charges now been very common plus engineers falsely diagnosing wiring/router faults and then bingo openreach come out claiming both the following....

1 - faults are been reduced.
2 - most faults are due to home wiring.

Taking the heat of BT's ancient network of course and media sites such as this site believe them.

http://www.dslzoneuk.net/forum/viewtopic.php?p=14325...

instead of doing the right thing, BT have turned the situation on its head and are now making money off faults it seems or at least trying to.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sun 09-Aug-09 04:59:33)

After carrying out more (what is seeming more and more pointless) tests running Router Stats whilst using different filters, I noticed there was now a crackle present with just a telephone connected in to the 'Test' socket on the NTE5.

After getting in touch with B.T. Support again;and basically ignoring the crackle bit, I decided to email Ian Livingston regarding the matter.

And got the following reply:

It is not correct for the ISP to blame things on BT wholesale. It is them that you pay and they should manage it on your behalf.

I will ask our service team to look into the fault. If it is PSTN and we are your provider, we will sort it. If not, I expect that we will ask you to go back to your service provider to coordinate. They have industry standard escalation processes if they want to use them.

eh? I thought B.T. Wholesale provided the backbone for the ISP to work? What's the bet they wont find anything wrong again?! Another charge too?

Have also been in touch with Trading Standards who say that I shouldn't have to pay Fast or B.T. for the Engineer visits as it achieved nothing.

After all, everything has been replaced my end. Routers, filters and cables.

If only somebody would've made physical checks of the D.P. at the pole and at the property.

God this is getting me down. Never thought I'd say this, but I wish I'd have stayed with Pipex/Tiscali (but then again, if this fault is due to wires...)

I also think I'm getting confused with all this B.T. Openreach, B.T. Wholesale and B.T. Retail business. I'd have thought that Ian Livingston is the C.E.O. of all of them and would've been able to sort out whose department this fault occurs under.

Whatever, it looks like B.T. in any guise, is never wrong.

Phill

Edited by deleted (Fri 14-Aug-09 15:18:33)

he ultimately is in charge of them all, others on here claim after they email him, he takes control of the situation and helps them get things resolved. So either you got him on a bad day or perhaps the others did something else.

try this, I am quoting izools on his dslzone posts, he has managed to get openreach to fix his line.

In reference to www.dslzoneuk.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=17105&start=15:

But yes, telling the engineer that the voice is distant, i.e. "Low Transmission" during twilight and night hours normally reaps some results

In reply to a post by Chrysalis:

he ultimately is in charge of them all, others on here claim after they email him, he takes control of the situation and helps them get things resolved. So either you got him on a bad day or perhaps the others did something else..........

Not exactly. Ian Livingston will pass things on to a high-level manager, who will take control of the problem, but at the outset a lot will depend on how the initial email is worded. If you start the email openly attacking BT Wholesale, it's not the smartest move to get him onside.

Hi,

I managed (somehow) not to turn in to something from the Exorcist! Hopefully it's just a Friday afternoon thing!

I had to look at what he was referring to, and I gather it was this as it is the only time I mentioned B.T. Wholesale:

My ISP say that despite appeals to B.T. Wholesale regarding the
decision to charge, these have proved unsuccessful.

By the time of writing the email, I'd gotten quite confused about who's who and what's what in B.T. Fast only mentioned B.T., not what department in B.T.

The buck's been passed a lot, and I expect it's going to carry on being passed.

I never thought it'd be so difficult to get someone to check up the pole or even the NTE5 in general. As there is now a crackle on the line with no ADSL gear connected (phone in test socket), this is back to B.T.

No doubt these PSTN checks are not going to involve somebody's eyes gazing over any cable terminations.

I am actually really concerned about having another Engineer come out in case I am charged again. Even though I've changed everything my end, I keep thinking I've maybe missed something. Seems like easy money for somebody.

But surely after replacing Routers, cables and filters; and having the same results as before, then there's nothing more I can do?

Cheers,

Phill

to be honest I think his reply to flip74 wasn't smart. As the chief exec he is the face of the company, and his reply says to me he doesn't care about flip74's situation.

What is the point of only helping 'some' people, if he wants to avoid bad publicity then he should adopt the same attitude to every reply.

When I emailed james murdoch at sky about a set top box problem, I didn't get a reply back saying, tough luck you have to keep trying via the normal channels, instead his PA got hold of me over the phone and the situation was resolved sharpish.