Timo Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Don't go near BT. They are a bunch of lying b***tards. I signed up for broadband in June last year. They sent me an email to tell me that the line test had been approved, then deducted the cost of the modem and first months rental from my credit card. Equipment arrived and didn't work. Rang BT who say that broadband is not available in my area. Rang BT Openworld who agreed but said that that was BTs fault and that since I had signed up for twelve months I was obliged to pay the £29.99 per month and then make a claim against BT. Made deductions against my credit card for five months before agreeing as a "gesture of goodwill" to give me a refund but not for the modem as I couldn't return it in the original packaging. We meet in court on the 4th April. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minghis Posted February 11, 2003 Author Share Posted February 11, 2003 Sounds to me like BT is not the one I'll be going for.... There are stunning similarities between BT and Adrian Flux ! Thanks all for your help, Minghis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
furtive Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 My BT ADSL seems to get slower and slower every week as well. I guess that's the downside of getting so many people to subscribe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ricdiggle Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 NTL is very cheap and mostly reliable. I get phone and 128k connection for £25 a month. The connection and modem are free but they will not instal it on your PC. The disc that came with the package didn't work on my PC (which was brand new at the time) and I had to set the connection up myself. This was not easy and I'm fairly computer literate. It took me days to get it right and they never, ever answered the phone to help. There customer services are absolutely terrible. On the other hand, it mostly always works and it's very quick. I believe that they work it like a network. Therefore, you are connected along with everyone else in your area. This makes the use of a firewall very important if you have something you want to keep private on your PC as it's apparently very easy for locals to look in on each other's hard drives. (Don't know how much of that is just rumour! ) They recently gave us all a 600k connection for couple of weeks free of charge. I honestly couldn't tell the difference in general use. 128k loads most pages instantly. If you download a lot of mpegs (ie. porn) then the extra connection speed will obviously be more valuable to you. As for a new PC. I'd get a laptop. I have one of each now and my desktop very rarely gets used now. The laptop does everything you could want. Hope that's of some use. Richard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve_m Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 I tend to find the credit card companies are better at extracting refunds than I am, just write to them asking for a redund under section 75 of the consumer credit act. They're obliged to investigate and as long as you've got a genuine grievence you get your money back. I also would rather be without a telephone than voluntarily become a BT customer again. In fact I'd rather loose a finger than deal with BT again. NTL also have crap customer services but at least their products tend to work the majority of the time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC_772 Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Maybe it depends on what you pay? My company pays for me to have BT's Business 500 Plus service, which gives an Ethernet connection for £80/mo, and a 512kbps link. It's pretty reliable, and when it breaks I do usually get to talk to someone who sounds like they have a clue. It's fast too - 20:1 contention ratio, but I really don't think there are that many other people on the line. Usually I get the whole lot to myself. Sadly I'm about to quit that job, and don't fancy paying £80/mo when £20 would do. Maybe I should get two ADSL lines from different providers (total £40/mo), and a router to make use of both? A. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BobM Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 I use Nildram. Less users than BT so less congestion. Also been very reliable. Regular ticketing keeps you informed when there are problems (which are usually down to BT!. Only rung tech support once in 2 years but it's an 0870 number and the staff are in a different league to BT/NTL's. 30 quid a month and well worth it IMHO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Timo Posted February 12, 2003 Share Posted February 12, 2003 Thanks for the reply "youmustbejoking" I thought the courts were my only option. I have faxed the BT Complaints department on three occassions (they dont have a phone line you see) and have received the standard automated email reply. I have made 44 phone calls to BT Openworld over the five month period, all of which I have timed and documented. I called on one occassion at 3:55pm to speak to a particular supervisor. The receptionist kept telling me he was busy but I insisted on holding. At 5:35pm she came back to tell me he finished at 5:30 and had gone home! BT Openworld have contacted me to say that I wasting my time in court as their conditions of engagement say that they are not liable for any personal loss. These conditions of engagement, which I have never received, apparently also say that I will not be charged until my broadband connection is activated. My credit card was debited before the equipment arrived. The sickening thing was that after five months and 44 telephone calls a very polite supervisor advised me that "as a gesture of goodwill" they would refund the 5 x £29.99 credit card payments but not the modem cost and that I was fortunate not to be held to the terms of the twelve month credit agreement,even though I have not and have never had a broadband connection, because BT cannnot provide one. Ther must be a law against this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Williamson Posted February 15, 2003 Share Posted February 15, 2003 I have the exact experience as 'Ric' with NTL. My 128K broadband is connected via a USB port and I get full speed and is very reliable. The only difference I found when trying 600K speed was that downloading large files was 20% faster rather than the 300% that you might expect? Cheers Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennedyj Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Hmmm... I don't know what you are all going on about - I have BT Openworld/Broadband (512Kb), and over the last year the service has been fine. I am supposed to have a 50:1 contention ratio on my service, but to be honest you would never know - I seem to get >500Kb download and >200Kb upload almost all the time. I did have one problem with FTP, and the muppet the other end changed my password incorrectly but it was put right quickly. For newbies I would advise a good firewall is a necessity (along with a virus checker for mail virusses etc.) because if you are connected a long time (like me, when working from home I connect at about 0700 AM and and leave it on 'till bedtime) you will be targetted. Right - I'll go and get me tin hat and box now before you give it to me big-time -JohnK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minghis Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 Does this mean that you can connect/disconnect the same as dial-up - I didn't think you could with broadband? Minghis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blatman Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 With Broadband through a phone line, you can connect/disconnect just like a dial up, it's just a lot faster. With broadband through a cable modem, if the modem is powered (ie, switched on), and connected to the cable socket, it's on.......... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kennedyj Posted February 17, 2003 Share Posted February 17, 2003 Yup, just line a dial up line. In fact some ICS-like/Proxy... products will even drop a broadband line if you do nothing for a fixed period (say five minutes) and automatically reconnect when you need internet access. It normally only takes a couple of seconds to re-authenicate. -JohnK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minghis Posted February 17, 2003 Author Share Posted February 17, 2003 This negates one of the main fears I had with getting it, I didn't realise you could be 'off line', or 'safe'. I think I'll be speaking with PIPEX very shortly....... Thanks everyone for your help and comments. Minghis. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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