Come back to BT my arse.......

[Smiffy]

Getting a bit fed up with my ISP (Plusnet) and fancying a change, I decided to take advantage of BT's Autumn offers and swap my phone and broadband back over to them. It was a little more expensive but I was going to get one of those funky looking black "Homehubs" that would look proper smart parked next to the PS3 so I ordered it about two weeks ago.
Eventually got a MAC code from Plusnet and emailed BT with it over a week ago, looking forward to my activation date which was today.
Phoned BT up this morning to find out what was happening, they received my MAC code but had forgotten to process the order so I won't be going live tonight with them.
"When will my BB and phone line be switched on then?" I enquired.
"Don't know" said the girl on the end of the phone "I can find out for you if you like, but it won't be tonight".
"Nope. Poke it up your jacksie. I'm off to Sky" says I.
And I am. From next week.
I can't believe BT cocked it up before I'd even started using them!!

 

[Aztecs27]

O2 broadband is better than any broadband I've ever had. And they offer home phone now too. Might be worth a look if you've not already committed to Sky.

 

[brendy]

On sky also smiffster, far better/faster service without having to pay an arm and a leg.

 

[JustOne]

"Nope. Poke it up your jacksie. I'm off to Sky" says I.
And I am. From next week.

How much will you be paying Sky in total for all the services you currently get/will be getting?

 

[HomerJSimpson]

Looked at Sky but some of my neighbours complain about losing connection with them

 

[RGDave]

No surprise here, I must say.

They messed up my last move so badly, I moved immediately and never looked back. They messed up my parent's move even worse.

We're not talking days b.t.w. we're talking weeks.

We get a monthly mail shot (junk) from BT, which we've asked them not to send. My wife even has an email from the biggest/v.i.p. customer relations/service manager offering to assist. They still arrive.

Apparently they were asking customers to sign up for the "race to infinity" in this area, but (according to the local newspaper) most people couldn't even sign up due to problems with the existing broadband around here.

Embarrassing? I think so. Do BT care? Probably.

Quite frankly I'm beginning to feel sorry for them. The biggest monopoly in the land, no doubt everyone at the top "spins" it how good a company they are (and pay themselves accordingly for the unrivalled business excellence) and what's the real story?

 

[sev112]

Where do you live RGDave - you cant seriously be any slower than where we are
I dont think it would make any difference who we were with - we staill have enhanced broadband speed that cant keep up with my limited typing skills ...

 

[HomerJSimpson]

I agree Sev. Just down the road in Bracknell and internet speed is something out of the dark ages. The server is only suppose to be at Maidenhead

 

[RGDave]

Where do you live RGDave - you cant seriously be any slower than where we are

I'm fairly close to the centre of town. My broadband is actually quite decent. I'm on an "up to 8" and get 5-7 most of the time.

 

[clubchamp07]

Looked at Sky but some of my neighbours complain about losing connection with them

I was with AOl for 10years, nothing but problem after problem. I changed to SKY at the start of this year, Not 1 problem, never lose conection. I haven't had to phone them yet for anything. Fantastic service.
I also have SKY player on in the background all the time.

 

[inthecup]

I'm with sky and think the broadband is pi*h. Keeps cutting out on my laptop all the time. When I switched over from BT I was promised by Sky that my internet would only be down for a few hours but was down for almost a week. Phoned them twice a day to get it sorted and got the usual Sky rubbish.

 

[sawtooth]

Smiffy you may as well stick with PlusNet they use BT infrastructure and Network boxes at the exchange and I think BT might even own PlusNet. How far from the exchange do you live? Chances are you are far from the exchange and can only get p*** poor speeds anyway so moving want make a difference.

I'm a PlusNet customer and before today I was getting just 600K download speed because I live so far from Crowthorne exchange. Luckily for me BT have rolled FTTC (Fibre to the Cabinet) in my area, infact they are doing this all over the place prioritising people in fringe coverage areas like me. I called PlusNet and they stuck me on their FTTC trial, it was installed today by BT and the engineer confirmed 40Mbps download and 10Mbps Upload.

Go to BT infinity web site first to check if your cabinet has been fibred, if yes then ask PlusNet to sign you up.

Ironically my nextdoor neighbour who was with Sky moved to PlusNet because Sky cant offer this.

 

[sawtooth]

I agree Sev. Just down the road in Bracknell and internet speed is something out of the dark ages. The server is only suppose to be at Maidenhead

Homer are you sure? I thought Bracknell has an exhange in the town centre. Funny enough I know a work colleague in Bracknell and he gets 20Mb with Sky with traditional ADSL not FTTC. He lives nr Shepherds Lane so not far from the town centre.

 

[Leftie]

Am I right in thinking that even if you go with Sky, you are still renting the BT line?

I've been with BT for some years now for phone and broadband and never had a problem.

Just tested and got 10.7 and 0.93.

 

[sawtooth]

Yes a Sky broadband customer still uses the BT telephone line but FTTC is different and is not open to Sky customers at least not in our area. I guess BT will have to open this up to all eventually.

 

[brendy]

Your bill will be with sky, your broadband will go into different boxes once you hit the exchange. My broadband speed went from 2mb max with BT to 11mb with Sky. Infinity will be quicker but also a lot more expensive, for a home user it really is overkill. A lot of servers and sites don't have the bandwidth to take advantage of it anyway.

 

[Smiffy]

I was with Sky up until about 2 years ago. I had the total package, TV, BB and telephone but got fed up with the TV package, decided to give up on it, and bought a FreeSat HD PVR (works like Sky+). I had never had any problems with the broadband side of things, had always been really happy with my speeds and connection. But at the time, they didn't offer broadband on it's own otherwise I would have stuck with them.
Went over to PlusNet and my speeds suddenly went all over the place with disconnections at various times. It's got a bit better lately but my speeds are still a bit flakey sometimes. I never had this problem with Sky and my download speeds with them were always showing around 9 whereas with PlusNet, most speed tests show me peaking at around 5-6.
So far, I have been with AOL (for about 5 years and no real problems) Sky (for about 2 and was very happy with the broadband side of things) and PlusNet.
The worst of the three has been PlusNet for both speeds, connection and "customer care"...until this experience with BT!!
Things have already kicked into action, the girl I spoke to at Sky was really helpful yesterday, couldn't have been more polite. And I received an email last night from PlusNet to confirm that a cancellation of my line has already been put into place by Sky. They certainly moved a lot quicker than BT.
Will let you know how I get on.

 

[Imurg]

A mate of mine who lives on one of the newer estates in town is miles from the phone exchange and does not have cable in his street. The phone lines are so poor there he can't get home broadband at all. Using the home PC he's still having to use dial-up and BT wont upgrade the phone lines as they say it'll cost way too much. His only alternative is a lap-top mobile broadband thingy which works but not brilliantly at home.

Technology eh?

 

[bobmac]

There is a company called Fibrestream which helps you get 100Mbps, though you do have to dig it in yourself.

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/story/2010/06...e-villages.html

 

[sawtooth]

I have FTTC but some people are on FTTP (Fibre to the premises) trials that promises speeds up to 100Mbits/sec

Coming from half a meg download to below I'm a happy bunny....for now.