Apologies for lack of posts recently: heres why!

[biff]

and i thought i had something to complain about.,,,,
     we have a reputation of having one of the most backward broadband access in europe but some of the stories on here are just like it used to be here 10yrs ago.kind of weird really in this day and age.
                                                          biff

[M]

Slight digression from BT, but how's about a Virgin Media fault affecting 1,000,000 customers?

I've got a Virgin V+ box so I can record two channels and watch a third. Several years ago I noticed that the very beginning of more and more programs was being missed. Now some of these are due to the strange practice of some channels starting the program up to a minute before the advertised time. The One Show regularly starts about 2mins early, but at least that works with/around the news and weather programs.

Anyway, I noticed that the time on the V+ (and v box upstairs) was 28 seconds slow, so a program set to record at 7pm wouldn't record till 28secs afterwards. Might not sound important, but was having an annoying result.

Checked with 2 neighbours, and they were exactly the same.

Rang Virgin, had to go via international helpdesk telling me to switch the equipment on and off. I pointed out that I didn't have access to Virgin's national switch, but obliged them in this pointless song and dance.

Next the second stage team rang me, and tried to walk me through the settings page to add an extension to the start of the recording. I pointed out that this would create more 'conflicts' where 3 records could overlap, and couldn't they just fix their clock.

Next they sent a lovely engineer out, I explained the problem, showed him it was wrong, and he agreed that there was nothing he could do but would raise it as a Virgin fault.

Next got call from top engineer bod, who tried the extensions argument again, before finally telling me that the system can't be out, the 3 British systems (roughly 1million people each) all have to link, and any difference would be negligible, and I simply wouldn't be able to measure a fault of nanoseconds. I explained I'd measured the fault at 28 secs. He went away for a deep thunk.

30 mins later came back and asked how to get an accurate time signal, I suggested radio pips at 8am or 5pm, or to check a radio tuned home appliance, such as a weather station.

Next came back and told me that the system was 28 secs slow, but they didn't know how, and they couldn't understand how it didn't match the other 2 networks which were correct.

I asked for a free years rental as a thank you for spotting the fault, and saving them further complaints. I was told, no chance, as nobody else was complaining, and that they would now have to replace several hundred thousand quids worth of kit to rectify. So they weren't happy.

For 2 weeks engineers would keep ringing me to ask if 'that has worked' and I would check and say no. kept pointing out that they didn't need to ring me as the whole local network was wrong.

Finally fixed after 2 weeks work, following 2 months of complaining.

With the benefit of hindsight, and the total lack of appreciation, I should have rung Sky, and they could have run an embarrassing advert.

I like the Virgin kit, but wish the company nothing but the worst for their future. Perhaps I should let it go now?

Martyn.

[clockmanFR]

Here in France Orange will not update its exchanges for Broadband, but sold every one the gear, cash on delivery only, signed up everyone local for a year then said No.
Took many folk here to court for not honoring the yearly contract, and threatened us with the bailiffs even though we had no service. (very French)

The village raised a petition that we were 2 hours from Paris and could not get connections, this went to Paris and then to the Regional council who released 2 million for every one here to have free Satelite system Unfortunately we use Secure Proxy servers and the French officialdom do not like that so our send speed is down to 1meg.

[StBarnabas]

Well back on after 11 appointments - a 5 hour slot when someone is meant to be on the premises. An "engineer" turned up who said "I'm not sure if there is much I can do here..." or words to that effect after listening to the line. But he out a pinger at our end of the line and rerouted the cable all the way back to the exchange using  a completely different cable. The exchange is only about 5km away as the crow flies and the connection is now only 7.3km in length rather than the previous 8.3km. BT have offered compensation for one month's lack of line, internet and the 55 hours of our time when someone needed to be in the property of I think £25, though MrsB may have argued them up to £30....

[Ivan]

Sean,

Check out BT's customer charter - they will have a self-inflicted penalty scheme, which could be £10-15 per day. I think they allow themselves a few days to clear up the problem, and you don't get compensated for any days prior to reporting the problem. We received several hundred pounds for a problem on our line a few years ago that lasted for a month or more.

Also, watch out for BT slipping an Engineer's charge into your bill. They slipped £100 into my bill when we reported a similar problem. Luckily I kept the text message saying 'the problem is fixed' - so their argument that they couldn't find any problem didn't hold water. Still took a few weeks and several threats to get them to pay back my £100.

Another incident from about two years ago: My neighbour decided to fell one of his fir trees, and it fell on our telephone line, ripping it in half. When I reported it to BT, they insisted they weren't responsible because it was over private ground. Eventually, they told me that they would only repair the line if I paid (several hundred pounds) and advised me to claim it back off my neighbour! Eventually they backed down after many lengthy (mobile) phonecalls, but only because the operator I spoke to was sympathetic and agreed to make a note that I didn't know what had caused the problem, otherwise I would have had to pay!

Total lack of service from BT - must be second only to ebay's attitude towards customers and customer service.

[StBarnabas]

Ivan
MrsB looks after the phone account and has already agreed a derisory settlement. A bit unlike her but she is often very busy with the day job. For me something like £500 would be reasonable as we had no usable phone for a calendar month (admittedly only 4 weeks from reporting).


Sean
P.S.

EricW is looking at heliostats (http://www.navitron.org.uk/forum/index.php/topic,15629.msg175115.html#msg175115) for boosting solar water output. This could be really interesting as if it looks worthwhile then Eric has the skills to make it work. 

[Baz]

Interested to see that note about BT not being responsible for wires on private ground as I'd like to reroute mine but assumed I couldn't touch it. I wonder what happens about the wire from the street to the property - does it depend how far along the break is? I'd like to play withthe electric route too but I bet there is  a special 'Part QRST' or something you need to do that.

[wesnet]

Ivan
What you where told is rubbish It's their cable and BTs responsibility all the way to the termination point in your property. If it is damaged by a third party that is their problem they will have to claim for the damage, not you. Anyway it is allways up to the engineer on site to decide how the damage was caused and if he thinks its your fault he will tell you; it's nothing to do with the moron in the call centre. Call centre operators are a pain in the rear, thank god when I worked for BT we only had UK based staff.

John