OT The joys of BT
 

Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away. There is of course, no way to
contact them easily. So I went through the 151 routine again and
explained to them what the problem was. It was a total waste of time, as
the droid had no idea what it was doing, or what had been done and
insisted on sending along yet another OR guy this afternoon who
confirmed the findings of the last one. When I was foolish enough to ask
when the road would be dug up, I was told by OR that that was down to BT
who are the service provider. The engineers concerned confirmed my
suspicions in that India is totally out of touch with on the ground
problems and OR are sent on wild goose chases because of the incompetent
BT fault management system. It would seem that there is no way to get an
answer as to when the service will be provided from BT. Just to add to
the fun, BT India send me text messages and voice mail over the faulty
line! Customer service is not their forte! They are definitely afraid of
email and this also seems to apply to Plusnet.

OT The joys of BT
 

Capitol wrote:
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away.

snip

Paragraphs. Ever heard of them?

Tim

--
Trolls and troll feeders go in my killfile

OT The joys of BT
 

On 18/08/2016 21:09, Capitol wrote:

Customer service is not their forte! They are definitely afraid of
email and this also seems to apply to Plusnet.

Plusnet are owned by BT.


--
Old Codger
e-mail use reply to field

What matters in politics is not what happens, but what you can make
people believe has happened. [Janet Daley 27/8/2003]

OT The joys of BT
 

On 18/08/16 21:09, Capitol wrote:
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away. There is of course, no way to
contact them easily. So I went through the 151 routine again and
explained to them what the problem was. It was a total waste of time ...

In the future try a cheaper telecoms provider like Talk-Talk. This will
reset your expectations and hence be less upsetting when the service
fails like this.

Some time back I visited a friend in Seville, Spain and he had broadband
connected in his villa. The telephone wiring outside was very untidy and
ADSL barely worked. I asked about the service provider, Telefonica, and
got laughed at. Seems not many Spaniards also hold that company's
workers in good stead, so they just "accept it".

Why not? Life is too short.

Mobile phones work, and for limited gigabytes per month, broadband use
of them is acceptable. A wired line is probably of necessary use if into
media streaming in a major way, otherwise not so.

--
Adrian C

OT The joys of BT
 

In article ,
Adrian Caspersz wrote:
In the future try a cheaper telecoms provider like Talk-Talk. This will
reset your expectations and hence be less upsetting when the service
fails like this.

Yup. Of the 5 I'd had over the years (mostly as the result of takeovers)
TalkTalk was the worst by some margin. And you certainly made use of their
help line. Which was also the worst of the bunch.

--
*Middle age is when work is a lot less fun - and fun a lot more work.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Farms (OT)
 

In article ,
Vir Campestris wrote:
On 17/08/2016 10:58, tim... wrote:
1M in MK buys you a bloody nice house

Maybe, but it's still in MK.

Location, location and location are the three most important things
about a house...

I did say MK location. There are plenty of nice locations close by. Same
as virtually anywhere in the UK. Very few towns and areas that don't have
both good and bad not far apart.

--
*If God dropped acid, would he see people?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

OT The joys of BT
 

Since Plusnet is a bt company now I suggest this is quite normal.
Another issue about digging up the road is nowadays they need a permit from
both the local authority and the highways agency to do this, which as you
can imagine is not a peedy process if its a major road particularly. In fact
BT and other phone providors are constantly being fined for digging up
things ehen thy do not have permission or making the work site dangerous, ie
routing pedestrians into the road with no barriers for indicating this to
ocoming traffic etc.

Incidentally what is this Vodafone advert about banishing phone rental
charges, are they saying they are making phones over voip systems. the last
time I tried one of this sort of telephones thae quality was terrible and
dialing often misdialed completely so I'm once bitten etc.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Capitol" wrote in message
o.uk...
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away. There is of course, no way to
contact them easily. So I went through the 151 routine again and explained
to them what the problem was. It was a total waste of time, as the droid
had no idea what it was doing, or what had been done and insisted on
sending along yet another OR guy this afternoon who confirmed the findings
of the last one. When I was foolish enough to ask when the road would be
dug up, I was told by OR that that was down to BT who are the service
provider. The engineers concerned confirmed my suspicions in that India is
totally out of touch with on the ground problems and OR are sent on wild
goose chases because of the incompetent BT fault management system. It
would seem that there is no way to get an answer as to when the service
will be provided from BT. Just to add to the fun, BT India send me text
messages and voice mail over the faulty line! Customer service is not
their forte! They are definitely afraid of email and this also seems to
apply to Plusnet.

OT The joys of BT
 

I have to say myself that I've had nothing but good service from Virgin
media. They come when they say they will and even rewire whole sections of a
street to get the line back up again.
its a little dearer than bt, but in this world i think you get what you pay
for. Companies who are always having offers to get people on their system
obviously compromise on something. People on the ground cost money as
faults cannot be predicted and hence they can be busy one minute and not the
next.
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Adrian Caspersz" wrote in message
...
On 18/08/16 21:09, Capitol wrote:
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away. There is of course, no way to
contact them easily. So I went through the 151 routine again and
explained to them what the problem was. It was a total waste of time ...

In the future try a cheaper telecoms provider like Talk-Talk. This will
reset your expectations and hence be less upsetting when the service fails
like this.

Some time back I visited a friend in Seville, Spain and he had broadband
connected in his villa. The telephone wiring outside was very untidy and
ADSL barely worked. I asked about the service provider, Telefonica, and
got laughed at. Seems not many Spaniards also hold that company's workers
in good stead, so they just "accept it".

Why not? Life is too short.

Mobile phones work, and for limited gigabytes per month, broadband use of
them is acceptable. A wired line is probably of necessary use if into
media streaming in a major way, otherwise not so.

--
Adrian C

OT The joys of BT
 

On 18/08/16 21:24, Tim+ wrote:
Capitol wrote:
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away.

snip

Paragraphs. Ever heard of them?

Didn't the telex, fax machine and then the internet make them obsolete?


Tim



--
"I guess a rattlesnake ain't risponsible fer bein' a rattlesnake, but ah
puts mah heel on um jess the same if'n I catches him around mah chillun".

OT The joys of BT
 

On 18/08/2016 21:59, Old Codger wrote:
On 18/08/2016 21:09, Capitol wrote:

Customer service is not their forte! They are definitely afraid of
email and this also seems to apply to Plusnet.

Plusnet are owned by BT.



Indeed they are. But they operate semi-autonomously, and you can speak
to someone with a Yorkshire accent in Sheffield rather than an Indian
accent in Bangalore!

*And* you can get them to reply in writing if you raise a ticket -
although they do their best to hide that option on their website.
--
Cheers,
Roger
____________
Please reply to Newsgroup. Whilst email address is valid, it is seldom
checked.

OT The joys of BT
 

In article ,
Roger Mills wrote:
Indeed they are. But they operate semi-autonomously, and you can speak
to someone with a Yorkshire accent in Sheffield rather than an Indian
accent in Bangalore!

If you really need a help line that often, find a more reliable service
provider.

BTW, the very best customer service I ever had came from a guy with IIRC a
Dutch accent. I'd rather have someone who can help *me* regardless of
their origin.

--
*Reality is a crutch for people who can't handle drugs.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

OT The joys of BT
 

The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 18/08/16 21:24, Tim+ wrote:
Capitol wrote:
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away.

snip

Paragraphs. Ever heard of them?

Didn't the telex, fax machine and then the internet make them obsolete?

Um, no.

Tim

--
Trolls and troll feeders go in my killfile

OT The joys of BT
 

On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

Incidentally what is this Vodafone advert about banishing phone rental
charges, are they saying they are making phones over voip systems.

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no difference
in the total you pay.

OT The joys of BT
 

Do they think people came up on the down train then? My god that is so
stupid!
Brian

--
----- -
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...

Blind user, so no pictures please!
"Clive George" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

Incidentally what is this Vodafone advert about banishing phone rental
charges, are they saying they are making phones over voip systems.

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no difference
in the total you pay.

OT The joys of BT
 

On Friday, 19 August 2016 14:19:44 UTC+1, Clive George wrote:
On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no difference
in the total you pay.

If you check, you will find Vodafone are actually cheaper £9 per month lower than BT and Sky.

Vodafone are really just starting out on fibre BB, following a £17 Billion upgrade with their "Project Spring".

They are keen to build up a customer case quickly. That's why they are actually cheaper. For existing mobile customers their all-up price is only £22 per month for fibre.

OT The joys of BT
 

In article , Yvonne
wrote:
On Friday, 19 August 2016 14:19:44 UTC+1, Clive George wrote:
On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no
difference in the total you pay.

If you check, you will find Vodafone are actually cheaper £9 per month
lower than BT and Sky.

Vodafone are really just starting out on fibre BB, following a £17
Billion upgrade with their "Project Spring".

They are keen to build up a customer case quickly. That's why they are
actually cheaper. For existing mobile customers their all-up price is
only £22 per month for fibre.

meanwhile they are ****ing off a great many internet customers who are/were
with Demon Internet. Having bought the company they have just announced
the closure of that service.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

OT The joys of BT
 

On 19/08/16 14:07, Tim+ wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 18/08/16 21:24, Tim+ wrote:
Capitol wrote:
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away.

snip

Paragraphs. Ever heard of them?

Didn't the telex, fax machine and then the internet make them obsolete?

Um, no.

Tim

Whoosh......

--
"I am inclined to tell the truth and dislike people who lie consistently.
This makes me unfit for the company of people of a Left persuasion, and
all women"

OT The joys of BT
 

Adrian Caspersz Wrote in message:

Mobile phones work, and for limited gigabytes per month, broadband use
of them is acceptable. A wired line is probably of necessary use if into
media streaming in a major way, otherwise not so.

Mobile phones do not work if there is little or no signal, which
is the case in my house in the suburbs of Norwich and my son's in
suburbs of Derby. Land lines however deliver a reliable 50Mbit/s
plus.

I wouldn't classify occasional use of on demand players on a smart
TV as major media streaming but that would be somewhat awkward
(but not impossible) to achieve via mobile.

--
Biggles


----Android NewsGroup Reader----
http://usenet.sinaapp.com/

OT The joys of BT
 

On Fri, 19 Aug 2016 08:55:32 +0100, Brian Gaff wrote:

I have to say myself that I've had nothing but good service from Virgin
media. They come when they say they will and even rewire whole sections
of a street to get the line back up again.
its a little dearer than bt, but in this world i think you get what you
pay
for. Companies who are always having offers to get people on their
system obviously compromise on something. People on the ground cost
money as faults cannot be predicted and hence they can be busy one
minute and not the next.
Brian

My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's broadband,
aka ADSL, have been extremely rare over the years and more to do with
when NTL merged with Telewest (over a two or three month period afaicr)
and then when NTL/Telewest bought the Virgin Media brand name (and a
whole lot of problems with the ADSL network they'd inherited with that
deal which compromised the reliability of their cable customers for at
least a six month period before it all settled back down to their
previous level of exemplary reliability).

On the very rare occasions when I've had to report loss of service, the
response has also been exemplary so I can't complain about the service or
its customer support staff. However, there have been times where Virgin
Media have behaved like insurance company swine whenever they've embarked
on a campaign to recruit more customers.

It's not the special 6 or 7 quid a month 6 month introductory offers for
a service level being charged (at the time) at the normal rate of 22 quid
a month to their existing loyal customers that annoys me so much as the
fact that these Johnny come lately customers were being offered an
immediate upgrade from the 10Mbps service, not to the promised doubling
for free 20Mbps speed promised at some time during the next 12 months but
an upgrade to 30Mbps for which they'd be charged the full 22 quid a month
at the end of the introductory period, leaving their existing *loyal*
customers to be treated like second rate garbage which really annoyed me.

I've no problem with VM making special introductory loss leader offers
to build up their customer base but I think it's a total disgrace when
they provide an immediate upgrade to a speed that's 50% faster again than
what was vaguely promised to their existing customers already paying the
full wack.

Sadly, it seems the insurance swine started a trend in maltreating
existing loyal customers simply in order to entice new custom. It seems
very few service companies these days attach any value to "Customer
Loyalty". It's almost as if they *want* to generate 'Customer Churn'
contrary to the tried and tested adage that "It's far easier to retain an
existing customer than it is to recruit a new customer".

In VM's case, I suspect they're abusing their high quality of service's
holding power to just short of its breaking point in order to maximise
their return on their investment in such a highly reliable service and
its support infrastructure.

ISTR a year or so back that VM had promised to upgrade the standard
30Mbps service to a 50Mbps service. I'm still patiently waiting but I
have a feeling that VM rescinded this particular promise a while ago.
Does anyone happen to know what the score is on this promised service
upgrade?

--
Johnny B Good

OT The joys of BT
 

In article , Biggles
wrote:
Adrian Caspersz Wrote in message:

Mobile phones work, and for limited gigabytes per month, broadband use
of them is acceptable. A wired line is probably of necessary use if
into media streaming in a major way, otherwise not so.

Mobile phones do not work if there is little or no signal, which is the
case in my house in the suburbs of Norwich and my son's in suburbs of
Derby. Land lines however deliver a reliable 50Mbit/s plus.

or even here, two miles outside the M25! I rely on my landline to keep the
mobile phone working at home.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

OT The joys of BT
 

On 19/08/2016 15:44, Yvonne wrote:
On Friday, 19 August 2016 14:19:44 UTC+1, Clive George wrote:
On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no difference
in the total you pay.

If you check, you will find Vodafone are actually cheaper £9 per month lower than BT and Sky.

Almost everyone is cheaper than BT and Sky.

Vodafone are really just starting out on fibre BB, following a £17 Billion upgrade with their "Project Spring".

They are keen to build up a customer case quickly. That's why they are actually cheaper.

They have a funny way of going about promoting their brand by setting
out to totally annoy their existing customer base of Demon customers to
the point where I will never do business with them again. It all started
going to hell in a handbasket last year when they outsourced their web
hosting without getting the settings right and on April 1st!

For existing mobile customers their all-up price is only £22 per month for fibre.


But for existing Demon ADSL customers their message is "get lost". Their
latest stunt is to withdraw email services with 30 days notice.

There can't be many Demon customers actually with Voodofone any more.

Regards,
Martin Brown

OT The joys of BT
 

In article , Martin Brown
wrote:
On 19/08/2016 15:44, Yvonne wrote:
On Friday, 19 August 2016 14:19:44 UTC+1, Clive George wrote:
On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no
difference in the total you pay.

If you check, you will find Vodafone are actually cheaper £9 per month
lower than BT and Sky.

Almost everyone is cheaper than BT and Sky.

Vodafone are really just starting out on fibre BB, following a £17
Billion upgrade with their "Project Spring".

They are keen to build up a customer case quickly. That's why they are
actually cheaper.

They have a funny way of going about promoting their brand by setting
out to totally annoy their existing customer base of Demon customers to
the point where I will never do business with them again. It all started
going to hell in a handbasket last year when they outsourced their web
hosting without getting the settings right and on April 1st!

For existing mobile customers their all-up price is only £22 per month
for fibre.


But for existing Demon ADSL customers their message is "get lost". Their
latest stunt is to withdraw email services with 30 days notice.

There can't be many Demon customers actually with Voodofone any more.

I left last September when the writing was on the wall.

--
from KT24 in Surrey, England

OT The joys of BT
 

On 19/08/2016 14:07, Tim+ wrote:
The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 18/08/16 21:24, Tim+ wrote:
Capitol wrote:
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages from
BT India asking if my fault has gone away.

snip

Paragraphs. Ever heard of them?

Didn't the telex, fax machine and then the internet make them obsolete?

Um, no.

SMS.

OT The joys of BT
 

On 19/08/2016 13:40, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Roger Mills wrote:
Indeed they are. But they operate semi-autonomously, and you can speak
to someone with a Yorkshire accent in Sheffield rather than an Indian
accent in Bangalore!

If you really need a help line that often, find a more reliable service
provider.

I'm on Sky, the only time I have spoken to CS about the broadband was
when they called me to check it was OK after they had done an upgrade.

If I had to report faults more than once every couple of years I would
be thinking about switching.

As an aside Skys IPv6 appears to be working fine but they don't have an
IPv6 DNS service ATM so you need to use an external one like openDNS.

OT The joys of BT
 

On 19/08/2016 15:44, Yvonne wrote:
On Friday, 19 August 2016 14:19:44 UTC+1, Clive George wrote:
On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no
difference in the total you pay.

If you check, you will find Vodafone are actually cheaper £9 per
month lower than BT and Sky.

Vodafone are really just starting out on fibre BB, following a £17
Billion upgrade with their "Project Spring".

They are keen to build up a customer case quickly. That's why they
are actually cheaper. For existing mobile customers their all-up
price is only £22 per month for fibre.

That's more than Sky then.
Or does that include the mobile costs too?

OT The joys of BT
 

On 20/08/2016 03:00, Johnny B Good wrote:
On Fri, 19 Aug 2016 08:55:32 +0100, Brian Gaff wrote:

I have to say myself that I've had nothing but good service from Virgin
media. They come when they say they will and even rewire whole sections
of a street to get the line back up again.
its a little dearer than bt, but in this world i think you get what you
pay
for. Companies who are always having offers to get people on their
system obviously compromise on something. People on the ground cost
money as faults cannot be predicted and hence they can be busy one
minute and not the next.
Brian

My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's broadband,
aka ADSL, have been extremely rare over the years and more to do with
when NTL merged with Telewest (over a two or three month period afaicr)
and then when NTL/Telewest bought the Virgin Media brand name (and a
whole lot of problems with the ADSL network they'd inherited with that
deal which compromised the reliability of their cable customers for at
least a six month period before it all settled back down to their
previous level of exemplary reliability).

On the very rare occasions when I've had to report loss of service, the
response has also been exemplary so I can't complain about the service or
its customer support staff. However, there have been times where Virgin
Media have behaved like insurance company swine whenever they've embarked
on a campaign to recruit more customers.

It's not the special 6 or 7 quid a month 6 month introductory offers for
a service level being charged (at the time) at the normal rate of 22 quid
a month to their existing loyal customers that annoys me so much as the
fact that these Johnny come lately customers were being offered an
immediate upgrade from the 10Mbps service, not to the promised doubling
for free 20Mbps speed promised at some time during the next 12 months but
an upgrade to 30Mbps for which they'd be charged the full 22 quid a month
at the end of the introductory period, leaving their existing *loyal*
customers to be treated like second rate garbage which really annoyed me.

I've no problem with VM making special introductory loss leader offers
to build up their customer base but I think it's a total disgrace when
they provide an immediate upgrade to a speed that's 50% faster again than
what was vaguely promised to their existing customers already paying the
full wack.

Sadly, it seems the insurance swine started a trend in maltreating
existing loyal customers simply in order to entice new custom. It seems
very few service companies these days attach any value to "Customer
Loyalty". It's almost as if they *want* to generate 'Customer Churn'
contrary to the tried and tested adage that "It's far easier to retain an
existing customer than it is to recruit a new customer".

In VM's case, I suspect they're abusing their high quality of service's
holding power to just short of its breaking point in order to maximise
their return on their investment in such a highly reliable service and
its support infrastructure.

ISTR a year or so back that VM had promised to upgrade the standard
30Mbps service to a 50Mbps service. I'm still patiently waiting but I
have a feeling that VM rescinded this particular promise a while ago.
Does anyone happen to know what the score is on this promised service
upgrade?

Having been with them for many years, we are so pleased to have left
them for good due to moving house.

Their customer support was dire on most of the occasions we needed it.
For the last few months with them we had distinctly poor performance
with obvious slowdowns, almost freezes on broadband. The usual issue of
them telling us to check our own computers, cycle the cable
modem/router, etc., and no resolution.

They then had the gall to apply a charge for leaving them - despite
being in monthly rollover contract - and them not offering any service
in our new location.

I have great objection to them overcharging long-term users to provide
excessively sugared sweeteners to newcomers. Free installation seems OK,
but deals which make ours look incredibly expensive are not.

Currently saving a fortune my using EE home broadband and Freeview. Also
better quality television signal!

--
Rod

OT The joys of BT
 

On 20/08/16 03:00, Johnny B Good wrote:
On Fri, 19 Aug 2016 08:55:32 +0100, Brian Gaff wrote:

I have to say myself that I've had nothing but good service from Virgin
media. They come when they say they will and even rewire whole sections
of a street to get the line back up again.
its a little dearer than bt, but in this world i think you get what you
pay
for. Companies who are always having offers to get people on their
system obviously compromise on something. People on the ground cost
money as faults cannot be predicted and hence they can be busy one
minute and not the next.
Brian

My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's broadband,
aka ADSL,

Depends where you live :-)

Our local cable network, which was originally Videotron (Harrow, NW
London), wasn't designed for data, so here equally as "poor man" as BT
repurposing POTS.

Seems Virgin don't look after customers here, cabinets lie open to the
wind / rain, discarded takeaways and vandals, torn strands of coax lie
on pavements. I'm feel like taking a walk and snapping pictures of their
crippled cabinets.

Many here migrate away to Sky claiming cable overcharging and
reliability issues, so that kind of kills Virgin spending money
overhauling it.

I've got friends elsewhere on Virgin cable. Their broadband is solid,
but not here. My advice to anyone considering cable is to ask their
neighbours first!

--
Adrian C

OT The joys of BT
 

On 8/20/2016 10:03 AM, dennis@home wrote:
On 19/08/2016 13:40, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Roger Mills wrote:
Indeed they are. But they operate semi-autonomously, and you can speak
to someone with a Yorkshire accent in Sheffield rather than an Indian
accent in Bangalore!

If you really need a help line that often, find a more reliable service
provider.

I'm on Sky, the only time I have spoken to CS about the broadband was
when they called me to check it was OK after they had done an upgrade.

If I had to report faults more than once every couple of years I would
be thinking about switching.

As an aside Skys IPv6 appears to be working fine but they don't have an
IPv6 DNS service ATM so you need to use an external one like openDNS.

I get a line fault every couple of years, but that is with the copper.
Perhaps not helped by the fact that the incomer goes through a
neighbour's tree after leaving the pole. It was worse before FFTC,
because the tunnel from the exchange to this side of town used to flood
regularly.

Not really the fault of the ISP. Oh, and another +1 for Plusnet, for
excellent service and responsiveness.

OT The joys of BT
 

In article . com,
dennis@home wrote:
On 19/08/2016 13:40, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Roger Mills wrote:
Indeed they are. But they operate semi-autonomously, and you can speak
to someone with a Yorkshire accent in Sheffield rather than an Indian
accent in Bangalore!

If you really need a help line that often, find a more reliable service
provider.

I'm on Sky, the only time I have spoken to CS about the broadband was
when they called me to check it was OK after they had done an upgrade.

If I had to report faults more than once every couple of years I would
be thinking about switching.

As an aside Skys IPv6 appears to be working fine but they don't have an
IPv6 DNS service ATM so you need to use an external one like openDNS.

Glad you're happy with it. I've got an aversion to paying anything I can
avoid to the dirty digger. Who has caused far more damage to this country
than most realise.

--
* I like you. You remind me of when I was young and stupid

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

OT The joys of BT
 

In article ,
Adrian Caspersz wrote:
My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's
broadband, aka ADSL,

Depends where you live :-)

Our local cable network, which was originally Videotron (Harrow, NW
London), wasn't designed for data, so here equally as "poor man" as BT
repurposing POTS.

Seems Virgin don't look after customers here, cabinets lie open to the
wind / rain, discarded takeaways and vandals, torn strands of coax lie
on pavements. I'm feel like taking a walk and snapping pictures of their
crippled cabinets.

Same round here - this street had Virgin cable quite early on. BT look
after their street furniture rather better. Virgin prefer to spend their
money sending a glossy package to me every month trying to get me to join
them. Which goes in the bin unopened. Must cost them a fortune.

--
*Horn broken. - Watch for finger.

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

OT The joys of BT
 

In article , Capitol
writes
Subsequent to Open Reach last Saturday concluding that I have a
semi shorted intermittent cable fault, I am receiving text messages
from BT India asking if my fault has gone away. There is of course, no
way to contact them easily. So I went through the 151 routine again and
explained to them what the problem was. It was a total waste of time,
as the droid had no idea what it was doing, or what had been done and
insisted on sending along yet another OR guy this afternoon who
confirmed the findings of the last one. When I was foolish enough to
ask when the road would be dug up, I was told by OR that that was down
to BT who are the service provider. The engineers concerned confirmed
my suspicions in that India is totally out of touch with on the ground
problems and OR are sent on wild goose chases because of the
incompetent BT fault management system. It would seem that there is no
way to get an answer as to when the service will be provided from BT.
Just to add to the fun, BT India send me text messages and voice mail
over the faulty line! Customer service is not their forte! They are
definitely afraid of email and this also seems to apply to Plusnet.
I get e-mails from plusnet and in response to a comment in a feedback
survey that I wasn't impressed by the wifi range of their hub not being
any better than BT HH3.
--
bert

OT The joys of BT
 

In article , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article ,
Roger Mills wrote:
Indeed they are. But they operate semi-autonomously, and you can speak
to someone with a Yorkshire accent in Sheffield rather than an Indian
accent in Bangalore!

If you really need a help line that often, find a more reliable service
provider.

With BT you need to use the Help line several times just for one fault.
BTW, the very best customer service I ever had came from a guy with IIRC a
Dutch accent. I'd rather have someone who can help *me* regardless of
their origin.

So would most people but it helps if you can understand what they are
saying over a telephone handset - so yes that's a downside of plusnet.
(For the benefit of thicko that's a joke)
--
bert

OT The joys of BT
 

In article , "Dave Plowman (News)"
writes
In article . com,
dennis@home wrote:
On 19/08/2016 13:40, Dave Plowman (News) wrote:
In article ,
Roger Mills wrote:
Indeed they are. But they operate semi-autonomously, and you can speak
to someone with a Yorkshire accent in Sheffield rather than an Indian
accent in Bangalore!

If you really need a help line that often, find a more reliable service
provider.

I'm on Sky, the only time I have spoken to CS about the broadband was
when they called me to check it was OK after they had done an upgrade.

If I had to report faults more than once every couple of years I would
be thinking about switching.

As an aside Skys IPv6 appears to be working fine but they don't have an
IPv6 DNS service ATM so you need to use an external one like openDNS.

Glad you're happy with it. I've got an aversion to paying anything I can
avoid to the dirty digger.
Bit racist for an international socialist.
Who has caused far more damage to this country
than most realise.


--
bert

OT The joys of BT
 

My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's broadband,
aka ADSL,

Depends where you live :-)

Our local cable network, which was originally Videotron (Harrow, NW
London), wasn't designed for data, so here equally as "poor man" as BT
repurposing POTS.

Seems Virgin don't look after customers here, cabinets lie open to the
wind / rain, discarded takeaways and vandals, torn strands of coax lie
on pavements. I'm feel like taking a walk and snapping pictures of their
crippled cabinets.

Many here migrate away to Sky claiming cable overcharging and
reliability issues, so that kind of kills Virgin spending money
overhauling it.

I've got friends elsewhere on Virgin cable. Their broadband is solid,
but not here. My advice to anyone considering cable is to ask their
neighbours first!


It was said that the build quality of the original cable networks varied
quite a lot due to location. I believe London was one of the worst. Out
here in Cambridge it was Comcast originally who built it and its been
good too.
--
Tony Sayer

OT The joys of BT
 

On 18/08/2016 21:59, Old Codger wrote:
On 18/08/2016 21:09, Capitol wrote:

Customer service is not their forte! They are definitely afraid of
email and this also seems to apply to Plusnet.

Plusnet are owned by BT.


Difference is that Bob Pullen turns up on uk.tech.broadband, and gives
real support.

Andy

OT The joys of BT
 

On 21/08/16 20:19, tony sayer wrote:
My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's broadband,
aka ADSL,

Depends where you live :-)

Our local cable network, which was originally Videotron (Harrow, NW
London), wasn't designed for data, so here equally as "poor man" as BT
repurposing POTS.

Seems Virgin don't look after customers here, cabinets lie open to the
wind / rain, discarded takeaways and vandals, torn strands of coax lie
on pavements. I'm feel like taking a walk and snapping pictures of their
crippled cabinets.

Many here migrate away to Sky claiming cable overcharging and
reliability issues, so that kind of kills Virgin spending money
overhauling it.

I've got friends elsewhere on Virgin cable. Their broadband is solid,
but not here. My advice to anyone considering cable is to ask their
neighbours first!


It was said that the build quality of the original cable networks varied
quite a lot due to location. I believe London was one of the worst. Out
here in Cambridge it was Comcast originally who built it and its been
good too.

Cambridge Cable shirly?


--
Microsoft : the best reason to go to Linux that ever existed.

OT The joys of BT
 

In article , The Natural Philosopher
scribeth thus
On 21/08/16 20:19, tony sayer wrote:
My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's broadband,
aka ADSL,

Depends where you live :-)

Our local cable network, which was originally Videotron (Harrow, NW
London), wasn't designed for data, so here equally as "poor man" as BT
repurposing POTS.

Seems Virgin don't look after customers here, cabinets lie open to the
wind / rain, discarded takeaways and vandals, torn strands of coax lie
on pavements. I'm feel like taking a walk and snapping pictures of their
crippled cabinets.

Many here migrate away to Sky claiming cable overcharging and
reliability issues, so that kind of kills Virgin spending money
overhauling it.

I've got friends elsewhere on Virgin cable. Their broadband is solid,
but not here. My advice to anyone considering cable is to ask their
neighbours first!


It was said that the build quality of the original cable networks varied
quite a lot due to location. I believe London was one of the worst. Out
here in Cambridge it was Comcast originally who built it and its been
good too.

Cambridge Cable shirly?



Well it was called Cambridge Cable but owned by Comcast...
--
Tony Sayer

OT The joys of BT
 

On 21/08/16 22:45, tony sayer wrote:
In article , The Natural Philosopher
scribeth thus
On 21/08/16 20:19, tony sayer wrote:
My experience of Virgin Media has been pretty good right through from
the days when it was NTL. Outages, unlike those on poor man's broadband,
aka ADSL,

Depends where you live :-)

Our local cable network, which was originally Videotron (Harrow, NW
London), wasn't designed for data, so here equally as "poor man" as BT
repurposing POTS.

Seems Virgin don't look after customers here, cabinets lie open to the
wind / rain, discarded takeaways and vandals, torn strands of coax lie
on pavements. I'm feel like taking a walk and snapping pictures of their
crippled cabinets.

Many here migrate away to Sky claiming cable overcharging and
reliability issues, so that kind of kills Virgin spending money
overhauling it.

I've got friends elsewhere on Virgin cable. Their broadband is solid,
but not here. My advice to anyone considering cable is to ask their
neighbours first!


It was said that the build quality of the original cable networks varied
quite a lot due to location. I believe London was one of the worst. Out
here in Cambridge it was Comcast originally who built it and its been
good too.

Cambridge Cable shirly?



Well it was called Cambridge Cable but owned by Comcast...

Not originally it wasn't,


--
All political activity makes complete sense once the proposition that
all government is basically a self-legalising protection racket, is
fully understood.

OT The joys of BT
 

On 19/08/2016 14:19, Clive George wrote:
On 19/08/2016 08:51, Brian Gaff wrote:

Incidentally what is this Vodafone advert about banishing phone rental
charges, are they saying they are making phones over voip systems.

No, they're just including the rental in the base cost. Ie no difference
in the total you pay.

Which will be mandatory for all ISPs come October.

This is to avoid the adverts claiming Free Broadband! then stinging you
for £17.99 (or whatever) line rental.

--
Rod

OT The joys of BT
 

I've got friends elsewhere on Virgin cable. Their broadband is solid,
but not here. My advice to anyone considering cable is to ask their
neighbours first!


It was said that the build quality of the original cable networks varied
quite a lot due to location. I believe London was one of the worst. Out
here in Cambridge it was Comcast originally who built it and its been
good too.

Cambridge Cable shirly?



Well it was called Cambridge Cable but owned by Comcast...

Not originally it wasn't,



As near as dammit it was;!...


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Cable
--
Tony Sayer