i agree with you snarty, for the sake of your sanity stay away from BT! i've never know anything quite so shambolic when it comes to customer service. if you're unfortunate enough to have to endure the call centre staff you'll notice they are all programmed so say exactly the same thing, presumably reading from a script from which the are unable to deviate to answer a question. 

Yeah, nice call on that. Unfortunately that was something I tried years ago when I first had issues, have not plugged the sky box back in since :)

You know whats really funny, over the past 2-3 years I've had BT, I had regular disconnects, no dial tones from the phone and numerous hours clocked up on the tech support!

However the problem was entirely my fault and I noticed it by complete accident.

Sky box.. if you have one, and its plugged into your phone line, you'll need to either replace the cable (from the telephone socket to the box) and put an ADSL filter on it. Since that.. never had a problem!

Yes it's mighty frustrating and I do know becasue I must have had the same amount of engineers looking into my problems.Eventually it was resolved,but these things do take a lot of diagnosis and trial and error sometimes.To be fair,I think BT will continually try to resolve it,whereas just speaking to some of the companies has proved impossible for many.

However,you must speak as you find,and at this moment,you are right to vent your frustrations.

Thanks backfoot, I'll probably need all the luck I can get.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part of my contract's with BT they have offered a stable and reliable service. But four engineers down the line and I'm still suffering the same line issues 6 weeks in. I guess you never really understand until you have to go through it yourself.

After weeks of research I was suprised at how many others are suffering from poor customer support.

I have found them sympathetic to compensation in the past. Good luck. I have also posted on the other BT thread.

Thanks for your reply Cat, and I will certainly keep you updated.

The worse thing is, I feel cheeky for pressuring them, and then pressing them for some sort of compensation. But, it has cost me more than the line rental, I won't go in to details but it's just a few hurdles too many for a freelance developer.

Paul

Sorry to hear about that Snarty.

Are you going to try and get some of your 'misappropriated' money back? Let us know how you get on.

Cat

And for that matter any ISP using BT's network.. yeah I know, cable need to start rolling out in more area's like mine for instance. Anyway, spreading the word on all DSL forums, I'm tired of people being bullied by BT.

My "normal" phone line is losing dial-tone and broadband connects when it feels like it. This has been an ongoing issue with both BT and BT Broadband, both tending to pass the buck to each other. At first I thought it was the 6.2.2.6 firmware update, but I'm now beginning to think that BT's line network is falling apart.

I've tried everything, 3 routers, different phones, connecting direct to the test socket with and without filters.. and still, randomly (but oddly mainly on a Sunday?!) the dial tone goes.

It gets worse, sometimes you need to have the phone off the hook to even get the hub to establish a broadband connection, even before you ever get around to then establishing an Internet connection. Then, when it finally does connect I'm presented with speeds as fast as 66 kbps, yes, that fast!

Considering all this, and the fact for 4 years I was on a stable 2.2Mb connection with matching throughput speeds, and when Up-to 8Mb arrived I was happy with my 5Mb throughput, I now have to endure this. What? my money not good enough?

So, on the touchy subject of money, they have the audacity to still be changing me for a random phone line and random Internet connection that has failed to connect, and when it does, fails to break past 1.8Mb throughput (that was the record and lasted a pathetic 3 hours, at the end of which is disconnected). Then I'm back to sub 200kbps throughput.

Anyway, needed to rant, because BT are seriously taking me to the cleaners.