bpullen
ISP Rep
pistolpete said:Why should I spend time helping you get it right, you'll pay me? No, I didn't think so. I'll just go to someone who gives me what I pay for with no hassle.
That's fair enough but you cannot fault me for trying to help. It seems to be a common misconception that ISPs can magically resolve faults at the push of a button. Sadly (and much to my dismay at times!) this is not the case. Customer do need to help us from time to time before we are able to help them. In addition to this BTW will often brick-wall any attempt to raise a fault if we provide incomplete test results or missing information. Remember, you have a self-install ADSL package. Given this it's hardly surprising that you may be required to carry out client side diagnostics from time to time is it? BT used to offer engineer installed ADSL services (which we sold) but with a £260 installation fee for the equipment and faceplate install, and £50/mnth thereafter for a 512K connection then I'm sure most would settle for having to do the occasional bout of troubleshooting? @pistolpete, BTW will not accept a speed fault from us without you having run the BT Speedtests. This is no different to how any other ISP operates unless an intrusive woosh test or similar reports an obvious fault on the line. As I'm sure you're aware, if this is a fault with your circuit, a switch of ISP may well leave you experiencing the same problems. If your BT Speedtest results are close to full speed then I would have to admit that it would look like a problem across our network or with your account.
benjak said:Its not just metronet customers that experience slow speeds. I have lost count of the number of times my 2Mb service slows down to below 200kbps even as low as 90kbps.
This morning at 10.47a.m. the BT speed test site registered it at 193Kbps (not unusual)
Just because these speeds are not registered between the hours of 12 midnight and six in the morning, Plusnet say it is a contention issue and do not want to sort the problem.
This isn't neccessarily true. Out of interest what is the status of your exchange? As mentioned above there are set criteria that must be met before BT will accept a speed fault. Once initial diagnostics have been conducted to rule out the most common causes, BTW will normally expect 3 or more BT Speedtests to be conducted throughout the day. It is normally asked that one of these is conducted between the hours of midnight and 6am. This is where the problem lies. If BTW consider you to be receiving above a defined threshold during these hours (which is very low, about 400kbps on a 2MB line), then they have a tendency to reject the fault as being down to contention and this is very difficult for an ISP to overcome.
I think that Bpullen shows a certain amount of arogance when he wrote:
((On the other hand if you're here for the rant then I'll leave you to it)) Of course you are raving because the service is not what you should expect.
Far from being arrogant, if you read the rest of my comments I was trying to offer my assistance. I do not get paid to post here and as such am trying to help. The OP started a thread criticising Metronet with very little justification as to why they were led to think this way or what we had done to create such opnion. IMO such a post helps neither the poster nor the reader as it offers little debate nor serves as a topic of discussion. Resolving service issues is reliant on a customer accepting the assistance offered to them and working with us with regards to obtaining the information required by BTW. If a customer is reluctant to do this then I fail to see how we can attempt to resolve the issue? To chastise the level of a support a company provides whilst portraying a blatant refusal to accept it seems slightly contradictory to me?
When I started using Plusnet there speed was always good and reliable. Sadly that is not the case now. I don't get a lot of time to search out for a better ISP but when I do get it, I will be on the move. I also have had enough. Oh! and by the way Bpullen, I am not ranting and raving
The thought didn't cross my mind!























