*edit added on 6th February 2011 – one year later – below*
Dear BT Broadband,
1. When I called you last week and said I wanted to switch from BT to VirginMedia you asked why I was considering this change.
2. I replied that VirginMedia are offering a similar TV package and the same Broadband speed that you say you are delivering, for less money than you are charging me. I went on to say that BT has never come close to achieving the speed you actually say you are giving me.
3. Your customer service operator asked what kind of speed I was getting and when I replied 3Mb on a good day and 500Kb on a bad day, he actually sounded shocked.
4. Your customer service operator gave me a URI for BT’s own speed checker and suggested that I run it once a day for a few days and then call the 24 hour technical department with my results.
5. This evening, after running the speed checker for the fourth time this week I called your 24 hour technical department.
6. The engineer listened to the results, said he would run some tests and would call me back.
7. Within a few minutes he called back to say that he had tested the line, that he found no faults and that I should be getting between 8Mb – 10Mb.
8. I said that there clearly *was* a problem, because not only was I getting significantly less than either of those speeds, on the very best day of the week just elapsed, BT could not deliver even *half* of the lower figure that BT said I should be getting and, on the worst day of the week, BT could only manage a pathetic 518Kb.
9. Your engineer was adamant there was nothing wrong. He then had the sheer effrontery to suggest that the problem lay with my laptop.
10. I questioned this. Your engineer went on to blame my antivirus software.
11. When I replied that the laptop I was using for the speed test was a brand new installation and was only running a browser and had no antivirus software, your engineer then switched to blaming the distance from the WiFi hub.
12. I explained that the WiFi hub is 1.8m away from the laptop and in clear line of sight with no obstructing obstacles.
13. Your engineer then changed course again, but this time to a dead end by saying that as there was no problem he was unable to help further.
14. I explained, as patiently as I could, that there obviously *was* a problem because he had said I should be receiving 8Mb – 10Mb and I was actually getting less than 4Mb. Therefore there was a problem, QED.
15. I also explained that as he – as part of BT – was saying I should be getting 8Mb – 10Mb and yet BT’s own speed test was telling me I was getting less than 4Mb, there was also an internal problem – when two components in BTs technical infrastructure (him and the BT speed test) were reporting such conflicting results.
16. I explained that I wanted to escalate the issue.
17. Your engineer said the only way of escalating the issue was of BT sending an engineer out to test the line, but that would be chargeable to me.
18. I refused to accept that idea and said that I wanted to escalate the issue here and now and wanted to know what your technician was going to do about my request.
19. He said he would have a word with his supervisor and would put me on hold for a couple of minutes.
20. Less than 60 seconds later I was cut off.
21. Given paragraphs 1. 2. 8. 9. 15 and 20, please explain why I should stay with BT and continue to receive a second-rate service which is costing more money than VirginMedia, and why should I accept being treated as if I am either a child or an idiot?
22. So here, below, is a screenshot of just one of the Broadband speedcheckers, the results, I feel, are very clearly displayed:
*edited 6th February 2011 – one year later*
A year on and we have continued to have enormous issues with our BT Broadband and BT Vision.
We have suffered unexplained, unannounced total service outages from a few hours to several days.
We have suffered service drops down from 8Mbs download and 1Mbs upload, to 12Kbs download and nothing on the upload.
BT have done their best to fix these problems.
They’ve told us – three times on different occasions, months apart from each other – that the problem has been fixed.
Last week we had three more drops to download speeds which are measured in double-digit Kbs.
So next week, on 10th February 2011, we are leaving BT – because, you know, a year off piss-poor service is long enough to endure, right?
You should count yourself lucky that you have an alternative provider, they never made it out this way 🙁
There are few things give me rage like inept service, and they always try and blame you. My dad’s clutch on his new Jaguar died on its arse for the 2nd time while we were all in the south of France (the car was on less than 5000 miles). His language to Jaguar Assist when they informed him that the problem couldn’t possibly be that the Jag was shagged, it must be his driving could have peeled paint off a wall. Even the Germans in the next mobile home were wincing and they didn’t speak any English.
Ahaha! What you do is email ian.livingston@bt.com, who happens to be the chief executive of the BT group.
I had a nightmare with our BT internet connection, got passed around the houses for months and eventually ended up having all my passwords and settings for my university network connection deleted by an “IT helpdesk operator” (read glorified monkey) who put me on mute and didn’t hear my cries of “Why are you in that folder, what the hell has that got to do with anything!?!!”. Eventually found Livingstone’s email and wrote a strongly worded missive (I believe I used the phrase “kafkian nightmare” at one point which I thought was rather poetic). Within 2 hours I had a reply from his secretary; within 3 hours I was dealing with a high level complaints lady who bent over backwards to sort everything out and gave me her direct phone number to ring anytime I had the slightest issue 🙂
Hope it helps!