- Quite used to sorting out other peoples messes
- Quietly confident that we would have working phone and broadband in a matter of hours
Imagine my surprise when a mere hour later, he knocked on the door (actually, it was the builder's fencing) and announced that we should now have a phone and basic broadband. Guess what? He was right, and all of a sudden we hobbled back into the 21st century. This meant that we could actually pick up a phone, dial someone, and walk around anywhere in the house without losing the connection. Even the BT router worked and allowed me to do a speed test on the broadband which although not fast, it is usable.
 |
| Speed test result |
So, the next stage in getting fast broadband was to contact BT and request a 'Black Tech Check' and then they would tell me how fast the super-fast service would be. It was a luxury to dial 150 on the landline and not 0800 800 150 on the mobile. It also meant that whilst I was waiting to speak to a human, I could move around and do things, rather than remaining rooted to the spot, hardly daring to turn my head for fear of losing the signal.
Surprisingly, when I did get through to the right people, they did the Black Tech Check there and then and informed me that my line was able to operate at super-fast speeds. So far, it had been a day of surprises and good news from BT and Openreach, but it turned out that I was just being lulled into a false sense of security before the bad news was delivered. I was then informed that there was 'no capacity in the cabinet' for me to have superfast broadband and that I should try again in a few weeks or months. This is extremely frustrating as we are finding ourselves in the same position we were in 18 months ago with an unreliable basic broadband and BT unable to find any capacity. At that time, enquiries around the village came up with a suggestion that I try another provider. This seemed a little strange, as they would be using the same 'cabinet', but other providers claimed that there was capacity, so I switched to one of them and enjoyed many months of high-speed reliable broadband. The downside was that I had to pay BT more money to cancel my contract with them early.
 |
| Screenshot of a rather premature email |
Whilst, I was on the (land-line) phone, my mobile suddenly decided that it had a signal and it rang. Lesley answered as I was stilloccupied in a rant with BT. It turned out to be my 'Complaint Manager' (who prefers to be known as a 'Case Manager') informing me that my phone and internet woes are over! Lesley kept him talking whilst I finished with the BT call centre, and then I spoke to him. He was very sorry (sound familiar?) that we had had so much inconvenience. I only agreed to switch if they could give me super-fast broadband, and when I mentioned the fact that I believe that we had been mis-sold a service his level of apologies jumped up several notches. He even gave me his name and direct line so that I did not have to go through 20 minutes of questions and answers before I actually spoke to someone.
If it turns out that there really is no capacity in the cabinet (at least for BT), then the contract will be cancelled with no penalty, and I'll be free to switch to any provider I want. If fact he cancelled the contract there and then, and said that the service would remain in place until the whole sorry sage is resolved.
We have left it that he will investigate the cabinet capacity issue and get back to me in a few days to let me know his findings.
Watch this space.....!
No comments:
Post a Comment