Despite emailing BT and chasing them several times there's no progress on this issue - I actually like BT as an ISP but the fact is their lines department doesn't want to know and the complaints/support simply cannot route a call or case sucessfully and push it up to the department that could resolve my issue.
I'm not sure what to do now - I am likely to have the same issues with any isp as they are line issues and I won't be able to say "it used to run at..". Maybe another ISP can hammer BT to fix this, I don't know. Last time Bt messed me about I dumped their mobile phone service, it may be time to dump some of their services again, not that it'll do much good. I suppose as a business they are relying on this, they are doing what so many companies do, underfund things, display a reluctance to fix anything if it involves spending money and relly on their frontline people calling everyone Sir to paper over the cracks.
I've worked in plenty of computer support companies and one thing is true, whenever someone comes in and says "we're going to focus on the customer" what they mean is that they are cutting the budgets and require individuals to take up the slack, the idea being that if they kiss arse long and hard enough that a customer will forget their printer hasn't been fixed or their parts haven't shown up for a week. It was the case at a large TPM company I worked for - focus o nthe custopmer followed by a 2 million quid cut in the hardware budget, the security company I worked for, maniacal focus on the customer was followed by a major lack of training (even on our own products) , career development and a major head count freeze. My own department went down from 6 people to 2, all the time while someone was telling me to focus on the customer and was cutting the ability to actually do the job.
This seems to me what BT are doing, the outsourced help desk, no one in the UK to escalate to, very slow response from complaints (how long can it take to escalate an issue and the flooding you're blaming it all on was over a month ago) and an outsourced lines team that simply doesn't want to know add up to this in my book. BT are in the MK city centre pushing their video on demand system, which is funny, they have money for that but not to fix their faults.
Like many people in the coming years I will remember their incompetence and reluctance to invest in the infrastructure in the 00's and probably tell them where to stick their future products.
Think about it BT.
Tuesday, 21 August 2007
Monday, 6 August 2007
British Bastard Telecom
Here we go again. On Thursday I was called by BT and promised a call back later on at 7pm. 7 passed and I had other things to do. They called at 9.15 in the end. Good job no woman would let me impregnate her and produce children, good job that I was actually down the gym at the time.
After an email to the complaints and technical teams I was promised a call back on Saturday after 12.30. That didn't happen and a call back eventually occured at 1pm on Sunday5th. Note, the only communication from the complaints team so far has been automated replies and some words about the floods causing a huge backlog of cases - how long ago was that then?
Anyway this callback led to high hilarity. The caller had actually read some of my email which is always dangerous and we had a nice conversation however the call took the usual turn for the worse.
1. The slow down was blamed on a number of reasons none of which were support by any evidence. Contention at the exchange was put forward - well yes but would that result in the line speed fall or just the download rate - the download rate I would suggest. Additionally the line speed falls has been a slowish deteriation over 2-3 months.
2. Then the slower speed was blamed on the contention BUT that BT were limiting the line speed to ensure a better service. How halving my line speed when I only had a paltry amount in the first place and without slowing down my Father in Law who's on the same exchange and still gets 7 meg is a better service is beyond me. This would be funny if it wasn't for the reason that what BT have done is increased the margin to resolve the line drops that were occuring due to the poor quality of their line - we didn't have the issue for 18 months and now we do. So the line is crap and apparently always has been, despite being fine for so many years previously. Now what they've done is increased the margin on the line - it's now 9. This isn't responsible for the line slowing down, that had alrady occured and the margin increase actually occured after a phone call in June - conversation at lunch time, margin set at 9 on my return home.
This of course is the equivalent of a dodgy garage saying your car is ok, it used to do 100 mph but now it's not that good so only do 50 to hide the crappy repairs. Oh and we want the same money despite offering a crumier service. Ultimately if this was the sole reason then I'd have a speed of 928 or so and loads of margin spare - but despite what the Bt man says they don't set the line speed just the margin. My line speed would be faster than now and the margin around 9.0 But it's not, its around 7 and 960 this morning so things are still going down the toilet.
The line team were contacted (no idea if they were as I didn't talk to them) and the usual excuses were offered - the line will only support 512k, blah blah blah. Of course it will - NOW! Now it's degenerated. No comment on how it could have gone from 1600-1800 down to 828/960 as it is now. Apparently I should just continue to cough up my money despite a line running at half the speed and a provider that frankly doesn't give a shit and passes you off to a crumby call centre where they all try hard but work from scripts.
Same old BBT.
After an email to the complaints and technical teams I was promised a call back on Saturday after 12.30. That didn't happen and a call back eventually occured at 1pm on Sunday5th. Note, the only communication from the complaints team so far has been automated replies and some words about the floods causing a huge backlog of cases - how long ago was that then?
Anyway this callback led to high hilarity. The caller had actually read some of my email which is always dangerous and we had a nice conversation however the call took the usual turn for the worse.
1. The slow down was blamed on a number of reasons none of which were support by any evidence. Contention at the exchange was put forward - well yes but would that result in the line speed fall or just the download rate - the download rate I would suggest. Additionally the line speed falls has been a slowish deteriation over 2-3 months.
2. Then the slower speed was blamed on the contention BUT that BT were limiting the line speed to ensure a better service. How halving my line speed when I only had a paltry amount in the first place and without slowing down my Father in Law who's on the same exchange and still gets 7 meg is a better service is beyond me. This would be funny if it wasn't for the reason that what BT have done is increased the margin to resolve the line drops that were occuring due to the poor quality of their line - we didn't have the issue for 18 months and now we do. So the line is crap and apparently always has been, despite being fine for so many years previously. Now what they've done is increased the margin on the line - it's now 9. This isn't responsible for the line slowing down, that had alrady occured and the margin increase actually occured after a phone call in June - conversation at lunch time, margin set at 9 on my return home.
This of course is the equivalent of a dodgy garage saying your car is ok, it used to do 100 mph but now it's not that good so only do 50 to hide the crappy repairs. Oh and we want the same money despite offering a crumier service. Ultimately if this was the sole reason then I'd have a speed of 928 or so and loads of margin spare - but despite what the Bt man says they don't set the line speed just the margin. My line speed would be faster than now and the margin around 9.0 But it's not, its around 7 and 960 this morning so things are still going down the toilet.
The line team were contacted (no idea if they were as I didn't talk to them) and the usual excuses were offered - the line will only support 512k, blah blah blah. Of course it will - NOW! Now it's degenerated. No comment on how it could have gone from 1600-1800 down to 828/960 as it is now. Apparently I should just continue to cough up my money despite a line running at half the speed and a provider that frankly doesn't give a shit and passes you off to a crumby call centre where they all try hard but work from scripts.
Same old BBT.
Friday, 3 August 2007
Bt Get worse
Right, so, the call back from BT was fun - 5 minutes of polite waffle and apologies from some poor harrased bloke in Bangalore and a promise to call me at 7 pm that evening (Thursday) to go through a few things. The call back was at 9, which I missed as I stayed by the phone until 8, anticipating the call and then went down the gym.
I got an email at 9.30 I replied to and then an email this evening (Friday 3rd) suggesting unplugging things, removing face plates etc. This would be funny if I haddn't done it before, if I haddn't been told 4 times already to do it, if I haddn't reported that I'd already done it and if I wasn't copy and pasting the entire history of the case in each email.
It's groundhog day for these guys - what call logging system do they use and do they even bother to check a customers history? Where does the information they gather go? I've given it 5-6 times over the phone and 10 or so times via email. The issue simply goes around in circles as they are unable to T/S anything more than a failure that a reboot or router cycle fixes and when you chase up for more action you get another body working from a script.
I will only perform more TS if BT send me one of their official routers, I've spent so long on this and bought a router last year as part of the effort with similar issues to these (the previous one wasn't crocked) that if BT think it's my equipment then they'd better supply something they can support.
I got an email at 9.30 I replied to and then an email this evening (Friday 3rd) suggesting unplugging things, removing face plates etc. This would be funny if I haddn't done it before, if I haddn't been told 4 times already to do it, if I haddn't reported that I'd already done it and if I wasn't copy and pasting the entire history of the case in each email.
It's groundhog day for these guys - what call logging system do they use and do they even bother to check a customers history? Where does the information they gather go? I've given it 5-6 times over the phone and 10 or so times via email. The issue simply goes around in circles as they are unable to T/S anything more than a failure that a reboot or router cycle fixes and when you chase up for more action you get another body working from a script.
I will only perform more TS if BT send me one of their official routers, I've spent so long on this and bought a router last year as part of the effort with similar issues to these (the previous one wasn't crocked) that if BT think it's my equipment then they'd better supply something they can support.
Monday, 30 July 2007
So, it's whinge time against BT
So, it's whinge time against BT. For the last 6 months I've had some major issues with my internet connection. Thanks to a combination of living a little way from the exchange and BT sending the wiring the tourist route I don't have a very fast connection at home in fact last year with max turned on I used to connect at roughly 1536 to 1792 and with the BRAS rate applied this gave me a 1 meg connection. Happy days! twice as fast as it previously was though so ok for now.
Pre easter the line started to slow down - the usual 1600 or so became 1400, then 1312, then 1180 and then 1024. line drops started and the speed would go utterly apeshit, dropping, speeding up, slowing down. - Synching at 860 or even lower, usually at roughly 2-4 on a Saturday. Contention issues I wondered.... Going away for easter I decided not to raise anything but to see if things improved. On my return things had got worse, a sub 1000 connection now seemed the norm with speeds of 384 being the lowest recorded.
So I raised a technical case with BT. This went round and around, log the case, explain, go through loads of stupid questions, test line, nothing wrong, your line can only do 512k, ignoring that it used to be fine for up to 17/1800. repeate several times, never getting the same person, having to explain the issue repeatedly, again and again and always starting from it seems level zero. No one at BT seems capable of reading up on an open issues previous events and a customers history.
In May I ended up asking for a call back, 2 hours and 30 minutes later I had been passed from the technical support team to the line team, the line team passed me back as the idiot in technical clearly just dropped me into the queue, didn't want to know and basically couldn't answer my questions prefering to patronise me and tell me the line was only ok for 512k - which it is right now as it's got issues , he just ignored what I said. Way to go BT. I was then passed back to Technical support and had to explain everything again. The suggestion here was for me to call up sales and get them to turn max off. This would be funny if it wasn't so sad. It fails to answer why the line has degenrated, it fails to address the issue and Max was placed on the line at the explicit request of a BT openreach engineer as last year we had an issue with the login for my account timeing out. No one was able to tell me how this would affect my line, what has changed that the resolution for last years issue should be removed and once again why a line degeneration of so much is acceptable. I was then bounced to someone else and went through it all again. and still no answers just people reading from a script.
The upshot of this was that the margin on my connection was raised to 9 from 6., not that I was informed of this it just happened once the call had finished. This meant that I now connect even slower - 384 to 860 now. Stopped the line drops but thats like fixing a car by not going over 40 mph rather than lining up the wheels properly.
I finished the call at 8.30 having been on since 6. I then complained to BT via email again and a call back was arranged. I ended up explaining everything again, the agreement was to mionitor the line and then get a call back. Well guess what, no call back. So I logged a formal complaint via BT and pushed the same case back to BT via their email. I included my wite up of the issue in long and tedious detail, despite them both having case numbers that should include my previous history. I received nothing from the offical complaint except the automated replies, despite chasing them up and I received a baffled email on the technical enquiry from someone who clearly cannot read back through an email nor read the write up of what has previously occured on the case. so, we are back to Zero, again.
My advice, if you can, avoid BT, it's great until you have an issue at which point no one frankly cares.
Pre easter the line started to slow down - the usual 1600 or so became 1400, then 1312, then 1180 and then 1024. line drops started and the speed would go utterly apeshit, dropping, speeding up, slowing down. - Synching at 860 or even lower, usually at roughly 2-4 on a Saturday. Contention issues I wondered.... Going away for easter I decided not to raise anything but to see if things improved. On my return things had got worse, a sub 1000 connection now seemed the norm with speeds of 384 being the lowest recorded.
So I raised a technical case with BT. This went round and around, log the case, explain, go through loads of stupid questions, test line, nothing wrong, your line can only do 512k, ignoring that it used to be fine for up to 17/1800. repeate several times, never getting the same person, having to explain the issue repeatedly, again and again and always starting from it seems level zero. No one at BT seems capable of reading up on an open issues previous events and a customers history.
In May I ended up asking for a call back, 2 hours and 30 minutes later I had been passed from the technical support team to the line team, the line team passed me back as the idiot in technical clearly just dropped me into the queue, didn't want to know and basically couldn't answer my questions prefering to patronise me and tell me the line was only ok for 512k - which it is right now as it's got issues , he just ignored what I said. Way to go BT. I was then passed back to Technical support and had to explain everything again. The suggestion here was for me to call up sales and get them to turn max off. This would be funny if it wasn't so sad. It fails to answer why the line has degenrated, it fails to address the issue and Max was placed on the line at the explicit request of a BT openreach engineer as last year we had an issue with the login for my account timeing out. No one was able to tell me how this would affect my line, what has changed that the resolution for last years issue should be removed and once again why a line degeneration of so much is acceptable. I was then bounced to someone else and went through it all again. and still no answers just people reading from a script.
The upshot of this was that the margin on my connection was raised to 9 from 6., not that I was informed of this it just happened once the call had finished. This meant that I now connect even slower - 384 to 860 now. Stopped the line drops but thats like fixing a car by not going over 40 mph rather than lining up the wheels properly.
I finished the call at 8.30 having been on since 6. I then complained to BT via email again and a call back was arranged. I ended up explaining everything again, the agreement was to mionitor the line and then get a call back. Well guess what, no call back. So I logged a formal complaint via BT and pushed the same case back to BT via their email. I included my wite up of the issue in long and tedious detail, despite them both having case numbers that should include my previous history. I received nothing from the offical complaint except the automated replies, despite chasing them up and I received a baffled email on the technical enquiry from someone who clearly cannot read back through an email nor read the write up of what has previously occured on the case. so, we are back to Zero, again.
My advice, if you can, avoid BT, it's great until you have an issue at which point no one frankly cares.
Wednesday, 3 January 2007
Same old Retail then
Retail was up to it's old tricks over the festive period along with MCV containing masses of letters from retails moaning about the likes of Tescos selling games at a low price.
Whilst attempting to purchase a HD-DVD unit for the 360 (E-play) I was asked to purchase £100 of extra items I didn't want - crappy 360 WWE games and the like. I don't think so boys,
A friend had a Wii on preorder through one of the largest specialist chains. They've not received this yet, imagine their surprise to walk in there and find they'd decided to put out 10 of the 20 they'd received that morning in enforced bundles, machine, 3 games and a few other high margin items.
Whilst I appreciate that retailers have to make a profit they are shooting themselves in the foot doing this.
Supermarkets don't gouge in this way, others maybe but not like this. I also expect that all those retailers who expect the public to pay more for their games and shop at a specialist probably don't do the same when it comes to their food shopping.
Xmas stock shortages are here to stay, they've been around since the days of the 2600 and Intellivision but the enforced bundling is fairly new - bundling games were a way to reproduce the packages with pack-in games that used to exist pre-PlayStation (Combat for the VCS, Altered Beast for the Megadrive) but give retailers leeway to make things up as they go.
Pack-in games died when Sony decided to go pretty much bare bones with the PlayStation at £299 and appear cheaper than the £399 Saturn that included 2 pads, scart lead, built in memory and Virtual fighter for £399. Official pack in games tied up stock and the games became old and tired fairly quickly not to mention a £299 looks better than £399 as the general public was unaware that they'd end up lumping out for a memory card, game, 2ND controller and scart lead if they wanted to actually see what was going on.
Console bundles were supposed to allow some margin for retailers but a better deal for customers by allowing the purchase of everything they needed in one go. But the option to just buy the machine and say to little johnny that he could spend his granny money on games or allow Granny to buy him a game or pad still existed.
So who's to blame, well everyone really. From the eBay scalpers exploiting it (that'll be me in years past) to the console makers who rushed their releases out as a preventative measure to stop sales of other consoles or didn't make enough to the gauging retailers who think purchases have a short memory and want to cash in and stop a console hitting eBay, they have all played a part.
I feel really sorry for those who for Xmas bonus or savings reasons had to leave it to the last minute and then were disappointed, you have my sympathy for whatever that's worth.
Whilst attempting to purchase a HD-DVD unit for the 360 (E-play) I was asked to purchase £100 of extra items I didn't want - crappy 360 WWE games and the like. I don't think so boys,
A friend had a Wii on preorder through one of the largest specialist chains. They've not received this yet, imagine their surprise to walk in there and find they'd decided to put out 10 of the 20 they'd received that morning in enforced bundles, machine, 3 games and a few other high margin items.
Whilst I appreciate that retailers have to make a profit they are shooting themselves in the foot doing this.
Supermarkets don't gouge in this way, others maybe but not like this. I also expect that all those retailers who expect the public to pay more for their games and shop at a specialist probably don't do the same when it comes to their food shopping.
Xmas stock shortages are here to stay, they've been around since the days of the 2600 and Intellivision but the enforced bundling is fairly new - bundling games were a way to reproduce the packages with pack-in games that used to exist pre-PlayStation (Combat for the VCS, Altered Beast for the Megadrive) but give retailers leeway to make things up as they go.
Pack-in games died when Sony decided to go pretty much bare bones with the PlayStation at £299 and appear cheaper than the £399 Saturn that included 2 pads, scart lead, built in memory and Virtual fighter for £399. Official pack in games tied up stock and the games became old and tired fairly quickly not to mention a £299 looks better than £399 as the general public was unaware that they'd end up lumping out for a memory card, game, 2ND controller and scart lead if they wanted to actually see what was going on.
Console bundles were supposed to allow some margin for retailers but a better deal for customers by allowing the purchase of everything they needed in one go. But the option to just buy the machine and say to little johnny that he could spend his granny money on games or allow Granny to buy him a game or pad still existed.
So who's to blame, well everyone really. From the eBay scalpers exploiting it (that'll be me in years past) to the console makers who rushed their releases out as a preventative measure to stop sales of other consoles or didn't make enough to the gauging retailers who think purchases have a short memory and want to cash in and stop a console hitting eBay, they have all played a part.
I feel really sorry for those who for Xmas bonus or savings reasons had to leave it to the last minute and then were disappointed, you have my sympathy for whatever that's worth.
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