BT Reviews

I signed up for BT Infinity around the rush to get it up and running before the Olympics in 2012.

Since then, I have never experienced the true superfast connection due to a number of things. The cab is over 500m from me and there is a lot of aluminium cabling.

I am not sure I will ever be able to get FTTP, FTTrN, G.Fast or stuff like that which is being developed and rolled out. It is a shame that even in the centre of town, one can still be in a similar situation to someone in the countryside and be in a "not spot" for connection to the internet.

Not really had any problems except for a faulty hub which was replaced.

The good:

-The infrastructure and core internet network is actually pretty good, and they fix backhaul capacity issues far quicker than, for example, Virgin Media. If you have a very simple fault (eg cut copper pair) their 24/7 automated fault reporting phone service is surprisingly good.

-Speeds are rock-solid stable (and at the maximum 80/20 cap for me) and pings only around 10ms to London, again totally rock-solid. Just a shame they decide to artificially cap speeds (especially upload), there should be a package with totally uncapped speeds IMO

-The Smart Hub (HH6) has excellent WiFi range for a mainstream-ISP-provided modem/router. I'm a little miffed they wanted £120 for it as I recontracted just before it became available.

The bad:

-Their call centres are useless, like everyone knows. It's not even that they're rude or overseas, they've mostly fixed those problems now. They're just incompetent. Ask their automated menu system to get a new service or upgrade an existing one - i.e. PAY THEM MORE - and you get passed through around 5 or 6 departments before getting through to the right one. Of course, no-one knows what you've just said so you have to explain yourself again every time.

-The fault fixing department is very much script-based. No room for "I'm an advanced user, I know what the problem is, just fix it"

-Unless you're in the first year and you've got a good deal with introductory discounts, prepaid card and cashback, they're extortionately expensive. I'm aware that Ofcom mandates high price minimums, but you're not really getting value for money. There's also no excuse for call costs rising 3 times every 2 years, and certainly not for increases as steep as have happened, considering wholesale costs have plummeted. Ofcom certainly hasn't mandated that. Broadband increases are high, but I can understand a little more, as they sell mostly "unlimited" data and people use more data each year, but it's clear that most of the increases like line rental are simply funding cheap sport for football/rugby fans.

Conclusion:

If you're stuck on a Market A exchange with only 20CN, you don't have much choice if you need hundreds of gigabytes or more for a palatable price. If you're not in that situation, it makes little sense unless you have specific reasons for being with them, eg you're a football/rugby fan (BT Sport is cheap for what you get), or you have to have it because of compatibility or you have a stubborn relative etc. who insists on BT.

If you're with them, haggle all the way once you're outside the minimum term or when there's a price rise.

Rubbish

4mbs ADSL only

£25k required to upgrade to FTTC

Surrounded by FTTC and FTTP but stuck in no mans land!

I got stuck with BT as I was moving city (and house) so got caught in there ever renewing contract (to avoid cancellation charges).

They messed up the connection on every move, in one instance trying to disconnect our new neighbours. The complaints department is beyond a joke, at one point demanding I close the complaint because it had reached their self appointed time to deal with it, which they hadn't done.

Finally they've tried to charge us £80.00 for cancelling the contract after they put their prices up, in direct breach of the ofcom regulation stating otherwise.

I took by broadband when I first moved into my house two years ago. Initial speed for fibre due to location where about 7GB , dont laugh but I am a fair distance from the cab.

Billing ok, suffered several speed issues as router would end up runnning at 1GB download and nothing else connected. Reboot would bring the speed back up but it was a daily issue. Several calls to BT usual, we will charge you £x if its your equipment, despite me having only one socket and their router connected directly to it and no other devices even a phone. So all their equipment, engineers visited and no faults found inside, kept saying its my fault. In the end after a huge email argument and pointing out some of the contractual obligations I left and went to TalkTalk, they got an engineer out and he immediately found the fault with the overhead wires to the post needing replaing. Shame BT could not fix it, even though they send the same Openreach engineers to listen to the customer. This was 12 months ago now but its still a fair review as had three suppliers over 18 months.

Hi everyone, I feel I need to write a review for BT, I have been with BT for 20 years, I was paying £39 a month for telephone, broadband and line rental and thats not including telephone calls, I have had BT broadband for the last 2 years, on November 6th I phoned to cancel my contract as another ISP was offering me £5.00 a month for broadband, BT matched the deal and said I could have broadband for £5 a month for a years contract, so I thought ok i'll take it, the next months bill came through at £39, so I just thought it may be next month it will be cheaper, but no, next month its also going to be £39. I phoned BT and the guy said I can see that you where offered the deal but it hasn't gone through, he said he would get someone to phone me in two days, 3 days later no one phoned so I called them back, this person said the same as the last guy and said someone will phone you back within 2 days, no one phoned again, I phoned again and got put through to a foreign lady who was extremely rude and was adamant I was not getting the deal as it wasn't available anymore, even though I accepted it in November, and she also admitted I accepted the deal. I couldn't believe how rude the girl was. So warning if you are thinking of going through BT for broadband, they will offer any deal to get you to stay and still charge you the wrong price, I have now changed ISP and will have to pay a cancellation fee, but I don't care they should stick to their word, very bad customer service and cannot wait to leave. Avoid.
Sorry this is a long post
Hope this helps others

Thanks

Please avoid at all costs.

I am in an unfortunate situation where due to the technology between my house and the exchange I cannot go with another provider and I am stuck with BT.

Due to this I have now been with BT for 7 years and they just keep getting worse.

I am currently paying £50 a month (All in including line rental) and I am lucky if I get 3Mb. This used to be 7Mb but this has recently dropped, BT insist there are no issues with my line.

They have messed up my billing on numerous occasions, when my BT home hub was faulty I had to fight tooth and nail to get a replacement, and even then it was an old model I was provided. I have since bought another one at my own cost after the replacement one lost power and wouldn't power up again.

Their call centres are infuriating to deal with and you will go through the same process every time you call/live chat. When they do send an engineer to your house they won't book a certain time they just turn up and this is usually through the day mon-fri.

All in I have never dealt with such a frustrating company who provide such an inconsistent service.