A BLOG about broadband connections going down, or slowing up, prompted sympathetic responses.
Andrew Banks says the broadband supply to his village has been a continuing mess, and “BT finally put in new lines, but only 50 out of 100 work”. While he waited for BT to install the new lines, he started a dial-up connection with Orange. But now, “BT won’t change my working dial-up to a new line and Orange can’t make them.”
David Jones is equally frustrated. “I have a new Dell computer and I’m on BT Broadband Option 3. My internet connection often disappears and I have to click ‘diagnose and repair’ then ‘Microsoft repair’. I phoned BT without any joy. Dell did ‘factory image restore’ on my computer and I had to reinstall my programmes. The ‘fault’ persists and I must now accept that it will remain for all time.”
Meanwhile, it is the customer service that annoyed Les Harrow: “I had my worst experience of customer service recently with Sky broadband on my first call to their centre, before I was even connected. After 45 minutes of being transferred to people in different departments, I decided enough was enough. I cancelled. When I said that I wanted to complain, I was told, ‘We don’t take complaints over the phone. You need to put it in writing’.”
Keith Jones has a better tale. “I have been with BT/Yahoo! for 18 months, and my speeds have routinely exceeded the suggested ‘up to’ rates. I did have one problem a year ago, and my call was answered quickly. I was called back within the promised five minutes, and put into online contact with a technical service located in India. After a chat about the cricket, and with my approval, my computer was taken over and the problem resolved within minutes.”