Broadband misery :o(

[wemfish]

Hi all,

Just moved house last month (20th) and have not had broadband since. . .

I was with Supanet, but they made such a mess of moving over to the new line that I told them to get lost. .

I asked Supanet for a MAC code but they refused and only finally agreed that they would provide one for £50, this was before the new rules came in on the 14th of February, I of course refused to pay.

I phoned BT and asked if I could have broadband from them, they agreed, but as Supanet had an account they had to wait for Supanet’s order to disconnect their BB in preparation for a new order to be made.

On the 12th of Feb. the Supanet’s order to disconnect went through and BT accepted the order for BB from me.

Yesterday the line was supposed to go live, the equipment arrived and I plugged it in, eagerly awaiting a decent connection for the first time in a month. . . but no, nothing. . The letter from BT said if nothing, wait till 8pm and plug in the equipment and wait an hour for the connection to stabilise. This I did, but still nothing, I messed about for another hour trying different cables and filters to try and get it working, but still nothing. I called the phone number on the paperwork only to be told that the office was closed! Do they do this on purpose? Get you to wait until it’s too late to do anything about it until Monday morning if it does not work?

The only info I got first of all was that the BB had not been switched on because the order had been cancelled! Well it was not me that cancelled it and further investigation revealed that it was something to do with another company’s marker on the line.

So after all this, I am stuck all weekend with no BB and the prospect of having to place yet another order for BB and wait yet another week or more before I can get sorted!

I said to the manager at the BT Broadband centre that if I was a big company like ICI etc they would sort it out immediately, but he still insisted that nothing could be done. I said that there are BT vans running about all the time, surly they could get on to pop in to the exchange and sort it out manually but they refused, even under the threat that I would cancel all my services with BT and go with another provider if nothing was done.

I will have to accept that for the moment, even if I give BT the push and go with another provider.

But I do have one question;

Does anyone have a phone number for someone high up in BT that has the power to over rule all their petty rules and sort something out immediately?

[MrShed]

Unfortunately, you are pretty much stuck. I learned a long time ago that BT basically have no complaints department, and will not entertain complaints, regarding the time taken to activate broadband. This is because it is dependant on a "business to business" subsidiary of BT, BT Wholesale, who will not speak to you directly. And the ISP's themselves will not complain on your behalf, as they know BTW will not do anything.

That said, I am PMing you a name...

[wemfish]

Thank you MrShed, I will try on Monday.

In the mean time, any more names/numbers or advice will be much appreciated

[buzby]

BT's hands are tied. If there's a marker left on the line, BT's system cannot do a thing until it is clear - one of the problems of having all this 'competition'. You need to expedite the removal of the flag by SupaNet, or appeal to the regulator for an enforced removal if they're playing silly sods.

[wemfish]

I have not got the BB sorted yet but it should be in a few days. . . .

I have got a couple of phone numbers here for anyone interested,

BT Wholesale, who can deal with tag removal etc (they are the real broadband provider) who were quite helpfull, and informed me that BT were messing me about and there was no marker on the line, just BT's incompetance here, and BT fobbing me off with excuses!!
0800 169 0934

And BT's head office, who have now helped speed things along for me, once I pointed out that the BB department had been messing me about;
0207 356 5000

[MrShed]

WF, I am curious - did you actually manage to speak to someone at BT Wholesale, who would actually speak to you??? I tried that one for days!!

[wemfish]

Yes, I phoned the No. above and got a very helpful chap on the line.

[Rich44]

Yes that BTW number is specifically for people with Marker issues on their line once you call it should be off the line within 10 days (sometimes sooner).

It's nothing to do with competition etc its just to do with the way that BT have set up ADSL systems in the UK if they wanted to they could sort it so the markers could be removed far quicker but why should they as BTW DONT have any competition so they dont need to worry about anything theyre in control.

Keep checking the BT wholesale line checker each day and as soon as it stops showing the ISDN/ADSL message at the bottom then your line should be clear and you can order however you're going to get saddled with the £50 activation fee well unless you sign up to a 12 month contract so the ISP pays it for you then recoups it but I would advise otherwise in case you have problems.

As for MACs well you cant use a MAC when you move house its for migrations on the same phone line only if you move house you get stuffed for activation fees even if the line already has been connected to a DSLAM which is ridiculous

[wemfish]

I had a phone call today from the manager of the complaints department at BT's head office, apologising for the problem's and promising to have me connected within 2 days . . . result!!

[wemfish]

and in less than 24 hours the broad band was on

so it goes to prove that they can turn on broadband as fast as they like, and the "it takes 5 days and cannot be done any faster, even if you talk to head office" is a load of b######'s"