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Pouring oil on troubled waters....

You may recall (Oh no not again I hear you say)...
I have had a small spat with BT over the speeds I'm currently enjoying(?) and the fact that their help desk personnel are as useful as a one legged man in an ass kicking contest.....

Well, after a few well placed e-mails (Thanks Kits) I finally got a human response via land line.
Not that it did any good or solved my problem in the slightest, but I actually spoke to someone on THIS island rather than someone on another continent! Even though the spiel I was treated to sounded well rehearsed and amost as if it was being read from a crib sheet.

Basically I was told abso- bluddy- lutely nothing new and the entire call only confirmed what I had learned from my own investigations..the exchange is oversubscribed and is scheduled for an upgrade....the congestion is the root cause of the downturn in speeds I have been experiencing....When I interrupted him to tell HIM when the work in the exchange was scheduled for It seemed to throw him off balance and he stumbled along for a while until he had re-jigged the rest of his crib sheet to suit the information I had interrupted him with!

As far as I'm concerned it was just a courtesy PR call with the usual apologetic undertones.

The best bit was to almost feel the guy begin to squirm when I said I had joined BT from another supplier who charged me £16.99 for a 512kbps connection and I was now paying almost £8 more for the same speeds...but he recovered his composure well and the guard sprang up with the response that if I couldn't use the connection at all then I would be entitled to some reduction in subs!
Cheeky beggar!
If I couldn't use it at all I wouldn't be paying them anything as they would have frustrated their contract with me by not providing the broadband connection I had signed up for....but they are providing a broadband service although not a very fast one.

Unfortunately I am between a rock and a hard place...leaving BT won't solve anything ....unless some other ISP decides to unbundle my exchange I must just wait for BT to get the exchange upgraded...and so far (AFAICT) no such ISP has come along. Such is the dilemma faced when you live in a small one-horse town .:hrmph:
 
when is the exchange due for the upgrade?
 
It WAS MAY now its been put back until July but reading between the lines of what 'chummy' spoke about...it will be September at the latest before things return to some measure of normality...so any time between July and September is my 'guesstimate'
 
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Are you sure it is just down to the exchange, I thought you were getting maximum speed on the BT speedtester. There seem to be quite a few BT Broadband customers complaining on adslguide, have you seen this post http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=bt&Number=3035267&page=&view=&sb=&o=

Just got off the phone from a guy in a Newcastle Support Center. He has been extremely helpful, give me an honest answer and managed to get more information than anyone else has (including the CEO office).

My usage over the last 3 months was around 14Gb, 10Gb, 15Gb and the reason why I am restricted at Peak hours :

"the majority of this usage has been during the peak times"

Personally, I contest this as I work from home doing web development so on the computer nearly all day and on a night I am either watching TV or playing World Of Warcraft (supposedly WoW is not that much of a bandwidth hog). Seems like I made the right choice moving away from BT if this is how they treat their users - especially when so many people download huge amounts every single day!

Here's hoping my new ISP performs as well as people are reporting (and I love the 1 month contract because if they don't I can move on!)

And this http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Board=unhappiness&Number=3029055
 
Considering when I signed up to BT the exchange was green and I couldn't have been happier with the speeds I was getting then when I experienced the fall off it was red... and co-incidentally they announced the package was to be 'unlimited' it would be a fair assumption to say that the exchange is a contributory factor (if not the root cause) wouldn't you say?

To be fair, if /when the exchange is upgraded and once again shown as 'green' AND if my speeds do not improve at that time, there would be further cause for concern...until then....I would prefer to reserve judgement until I have a sound basis to suspect that the exchange IS NOT the problem any more.
:)
 
Hi Mel /Tracker


I am major problems with BT at this moment of time too & on going as I write this posting.

would suggest that you look in on DSL Zone.uk as there are quite a few posting on there regarding BT's slow speeds + many other comments and not forgetting

BT Broadband faults [www.flowsnake.co.uk] :nod:

BT are a nightmare. I jumped from biscit in to the fire?:eek:
 
Hi Mel /Tracker


I am major problems with BT at this moment of time too & on going as I write this posting.

would suggest that you look in on DSL Zone.uk as there are quite a few posting on there regarding BT's slow speeds + many other comments and not forgetting

BT Broadband faults [www.flowsnake.co.uk] :nod:

BT are a nightmare. I jumped from biscit in to the fire?:eek:
Was that a feeble attempt at advertising your webspace?
Or have you provided a 'duff' hyperlink?

<meta name="description" content="Flowsnake Home Page. Nothing Usefull Here. Good job 'cause it probably wont last long.">:laugh::laugh:
 
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