How to complain to BT? Cannot change from old fixed speed.

I am trying to help a neighbour who I discovered has been left behind on the old 512 fixed rate service. His speeds are 576 down, 288 up, and his downstream noise margin is 15, indicating potential for faster speeds. I checked everything at his house and everything is normal. He has no extension wiring at all. (By the way fibre is not coming to us.)

I told him what to say to BT and he has tried hard, again and again. Below are extracts from his emails to me about what he has tried. You can see how BT is making him suffer. Here they are in order.

Some years ago I was on the fixed rate service and they changed me to the variable rate service very easily. When he refers to the "telecomms expert" that is me. Unfortunately I'm not an expert, but I know a bit. More perhaps than the people at the BT call centre!

Can you help please? I need a way to get to someone senior who will actually do something instead of fobbing him off.

Earlier on 4 June
I have called BT and relayed the story as you presented it to me. Unfortunately I drew a blank. The person I spoke to said that they have 21st Century networks and 20th Century networks (bizarre I know). He said that as we are on a 20th Century network, they are not given the option to change the service that I am on. I asked him when fibre was due to be installed in the cabinet and he said that they are in our area and putting fibre in is under review.
Not much joy really.

Later on 4 June
Job done Richard
I called India and was told that, after checking, that it is not possible for me to be put on ADSL max. I spoke forcibly and said that I had employed a telecomms expert who said that people on the same exchange and further away than me are on ADSL max. He put me on hold, played some ghastly music, and then came back to let me know that I could actually be put on ADSL max. I asked him when, stating that I want this done today. He replied that it would be done by midnight. So there we are, thank you for your technical input to the debate.

Today, 6 June 2015
No joy from BT I'm afraid Richard. I have made several calls this morning, my calls being 'dropped'. Last call was a lengthy argument where they tried to tell me that I was already on ADSL max. I could not get any sense from them. I eventually spoke with a supervisor who said that it should be possible. He said that he would call me back later. He rang while I was out and left a message saying that there were some problems with trying to give me ADSLmax on the fixed service. I think I will give up.

Ask BT for a MAC, that sometimes can make an ISP more cooperative.

http://consumers.ofcom.org.uk/internet/broadband-swi...

has he tried re-booting the modem since they said they would / have changed it?

What exchange is this on out of interest?

Matt

Yes, he rebooted it today, no change at all. And today they said they couldn't do it.

I should have given some more info.

This is the 01285, Miserden exchange. It is getting fibre but the villages we are in are much too far from our cabinet for this to work for us. We are in the last "1%" probably.

What does this checker say for his phone number?

On old IPStream Max exchanges there are the fixed rate products and the up to 8 Mbps products.

For stability some providers may have left some people on the fixed rate services, if a provider no matter who refuses to allow an upgrade without a decent explanation the answer is to change provider.

If LLU available that may be the cheapest option.

I tried the checker. It says:

Telephone Number 012858213xxx on Exchange MISERDEN is served by Cabinet 1

Featured Products/Downstream Line Rate(Mbps)/Upstream Line Rate(Mbps)/Downstream Range(Mbps)/Availability Date
ADSL Max Up to 1 -- 0.25 to 2 Available
Fixed Rate 1 -- -- Available

LLU is not available from the Miserden exchange (SSMSD)

Even if he changed to another ISP, how could he be sure that they would not encounter the same issue, with BT Openreach refusing to offer him ADSL Max? It would be frustrating to do all that just to be in the same position.

He doesn't want to change. Please can you suggest any other way to tackle BT. He is tired of phoning them again and again, and getting fobbed off with a variety of reasons - even including the claim they would do it.

Note that the BT checker says he can have ADSL Max, and it should give about 1MB, which seems plausible given his noise margin.

When they make the change from fixed rate to ADSL Max, is that something that is done automatically without a human, or does it have to wait until an engineer does something, perhaps at the exchange?

I'm thinking that perhaps it may still be going to happen as promised in the second phone call.

Edited by Growltiger (Sun 07-Jun-15 10:57:38)