Tuesday 25th May 2010, 7pm
For the second time in the last couple of weeks, our BT Broadband and BT Vision services have dropped out.
We are able to connect – by WiFi or cable – to our router, and when we do connect with it, the router indicates that we are ‘connected’ to the internet.
But we are not connected to the internet, because we are unable to load any web-pages, can not run FTP services and can’t access BT’s own NNTP server.
I call the BT Broadband hell-desk.
After validating my security details, I am asked what the problem is; I give a detailed and thorough response and underline the message by saying I have tried a variety of browsers and tried to access a range of websites.
The Broadband hell-desk operator responds by ignoring everything I’ve just told them. I am asked to sit at the laptop and look at the network connection details.
I can see where this is going, so I try to head off the meaningless exercise by reiterating that yes, I am connected to the router and that yes, the router is behaving normally and that no, I am unable to launch any web-page and that yes, I strongly believe there is a problem with BT’s wide area network.
But the call-centre operator tells me that while we have been speaking he has run a diagnostic on my telephone line and there are no BT problems, so he continues to direct me down a fruitless path.
We break the connection with the WiFi router, establish a new one and that tests fine. We use the WiFi link to log on to the router and examine the router setup and that works fine.
Because I am able to access the router and it tells me that I am connected to Broadband, the call-centre operator is adamant that there is no BT problem.
I ask him why I am unable to load any web-pages, why does my BT Vision not work and why am I unable to use FTP and NNTP services.
He puts me on hold for less than 60 seconds.
When he returns, it is to contradict his earlier statement; he tells me that there is a major outage on our exchange and that’s why I am having these difficulties.
I summarise that he and I have spent 14 fruitless minutes wasting each other’s time, performing a series of meaningless functions, all to validate my initial diagnosis, which I put to him when we began the conversation.
His response is to say that the tests he ran to my telephone number didn’t show the problem that he has since been made aware of.
*Pauses for breath*
Where, in this scenario, is anyone’s definition of quality?
Where is the quality in the tests that the call-centre operator ran?
Where is the quality in the call-centre’s ability to *listen and respond correctly to* a detailed explanation of symptoms?
In fact, where is there any degree of quality to be found anywhere in this horrible scenario?
A good night’s sleep passes
It’s really quite simple. It wasn’t in the script.