I recently installed broadband for a
neighbour a couple of doors away. It turned out to have 3Meg download
speed.
"Mine's only 1Meg I retorted… and I'm paying more than
you!"
"I'll ring BT and ask them why".
Later that evening I looked up the number for Broadband Help. It was an 0870 number so I first logged onto the website "saynoto0870.com". Here you get FREE numbers instead of the type you have to pay for while you wait in a queue.
The last time I tried one of these free numbers, the chap was really friendly till he realised I wasn't a member of the BT pension fund enquiring about benefits.
The website gave me about 20 different
free and lower cost numbers and I started with the first. The
usual numeric options were paraded before me, but after ages,
pushing buttons and waiting, nothing really fitted my enquiry.
I was advised to try a second number by the recording.
This went on until all 20 or so numbers were exhausted and I hadn't
managed to actually get to speak with anyone.
I called the operator and explained my
predicament. She was very nice and said of course she could help.
I heard some key clicks and familiar recorded voices in the background…
"That's all I got", I said. "There seems to be
no evidence of human habitation at any of the numbers".
After some initially reassuring and sceptical words and then ten
minutes she gave up too.
I decided to try a number I knew would be manned. I tried the one about opening an account, ie, or one from which BT could expect to take money from me.
I was answered very quickly but all my questions were blocked and I could get no answer except that I should try their website. I said I was fed up and really annoyed that I couldn't find anyone to listen to my complaint.
I had in fact, already tried the website, but because of a cookie placed on my computer by BT, presumably, all the BT web addresses I tried were magically converted to Yahoo Premium Mail.
I gave up and decided that it was not on the cards for me to get 3Meg broadband.
About a week later I got a phone call from a nice lady in Gateshead. I said Gateshead was a pretty grotty place when I last visited it, but as that was about 45 years ago maybe it had improved?
"Do you mind answering some questions about a complaint you made to BT she asked?"
"Who are you exactly", I enquired? She told me her name and said she was calling on behalf of BT from a company called FDS Market Research.
"What does FDS stand for?", I asked.
"Nothing", she said. "Maybe
it used to but it doesn't stand for anything now.
Do you mind answering some questions about your complaint to BT?"
"Go ahead", I said.
I explained all about my fruitless attempt to find out why my 1Meg broadband was dearer than my neighbours new 3Meg.
One question was, "Have you told anybody about your dissatisfaction with BT?"
"Well I do write up my moans and groans like this on my website so people can read them".
"How many people have read about this complaint she asked?"
"I don't know", I said, "but I can tell you how many people have visited the site".
"How many?"
"Hang on",…. I looked at the record on the home page… "44,530", I said.
"The box only has up to ten in it", she said. "I'll put ten".
The next question was, "Out of 1 to 10 did you eventually sort out your problem?"
"I should say zero as I didn't find anyone that would listen. Apart from the operator and the lady looking for new customers, all I could find was recordings".
"What have you done since you made the complaint?"
"Well, nothing really… except a nice man in the Post Office said he'd take over our phone line and charge us less than BT, so I agreed.
And finally, she said, "do you mind if someone from BT calls you and can I pass the recording I just made to BT?"
"You mean I can actually ask a real person in BT why my broadband is only 1Meg and why it costs more than my neighbour's 3Meg?"
As I never did get the promised telephone call I sent an email to the address on the letter. After all, two to three weeks is long enough to cover the expression "in the very near future".
The next morning, 16th October.. I got a phone call from a charming young lady from the Wirral working for BT in Newcastle that apologised profusely and said she would arrange for my broadband speed to be increased to 5Megs, AND my bill to be reduced by a fiver a quarter. Not only that but she'd send me a nice new modem/router with all the bells and whistles free of charge.
If all goes well my speed will be up from 1 Meg to 5 Meg with a 6Gig download limit by next Monday and I'll have a router with a dongle (whatever that is) in place of my simple modem...
Well, it's 23rd October 2006 and on Saturday I received a nice new wireless router with an integral ethernet hub... gratis.. and when I checked my broadband speed today it was 5.7Megs... later it dropped to 5.2Megs before a quick burst at 6Megs. It is now very smooth and sticking at 5.2Megs. It was worth all the hassle of trying to get as good a service as new customers wasn't it?
Interesting, after a week of using the new BT service I find it usually logs on in the morning at 6.1Meg, dropping sometimes after disconnecting, to 5.7Meg and then after 6pm it goes down to 4.5Meg. Presumably this is due to changing local exchange capacity? I'm still using the old ADSL Voyager 100 USB modem as I haven't sorted out my new 100M twisted pair network. I currently use an old 10Meg coax system which is not compatible with the new modem. The new modem comes with a wireless output and 2-port ethernet hub and may make the service dropouts, at speed change steps, more or less transparent.
The second week was eventful. After running at around 5 Meg all day, suddenly at about 6pm, the line connection dropped out. The ADSL lamp was still on, showing that the modem was sychronising, but try as I might I couldn't log onto the network. I even rebooted, unplugged and replugged the modem, but either got error this or error that... I tried calling BT by phone but clearly the system was in dire straits. Even dialling 100 was terminated with a curt announcement to try again later. I eventually found a recording telling me that "some broadband customers in the Orkneys", were having difficulty logging on. This went on until 00.45am, at which point I gave up. Next day all was well except the line dropped frequently. Now it's working reasonably well but I notice that there is often a delay before some websites respond and, every so often the line drops and comes back at a slower speed, usually dropping step by step throughout the evening to 4Meg. Maybe it's teething troubles?
The third week brought a rebuilt computer. I decided to use a RAID 1 system in order to provide a method of keeping my data on the loss of a hard drive. Why was this? The answer is partly to do with the experiences of my customers. Although loss of data is more often associated with software problems, failure of the hard drive is not unknown. I've supplied a few RAID1 computers now and I thought that I'd better practice as I preach. Unfortunately my motherboard would not let me switch to a RAID 1 system so I purchased a new one that did. At the same time I upgraded to a dual-core 3.4G Pentium 4 from my old 2.8G version. To see how I organised this look here.
At the same time as updating to RAID 1 I fitted my new BT router/modem. I found that the new modem seems more robust than the original. Maybe this is because the Hub Manager tells lies, but maybe the firmware is better at handling the line? Each time I've checked I'm told that the downlink speed is around 5.3Meg and the uplink around 450K, and of coures, because the router is accessed via the Ethernet, dropouts are invisible to me adn i no longer have an annoying redial message flashing up..
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