Britain's favourite....BT!
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I won't use any expletives, but sometime on Sunday my ADSL connection started going up down like [insert lewd analogy] nobody's business :mad:. At about 6pm it totally died :omg:. This coincided with installing Nortel's Contivity VPN software (you don't even want to ask about that). After (trying to) uninstall that I ended up doing a system restore (thank you Microsoft), and finally got rid of it :-D To say that it was 'stubborn' is being polite. Spyware manufacturers could do well taking note of that. So anyway, back to BT. I phone them up (151 for domestic faults), after being bounced about through the automated menu system (that sounded like a cross between Stephen Hawking with asthma, and Ozzy Osbourne with a megaphone), I finally get through to a h-u-m-a-n b-e-i-n-g. :-D Amazing. The guy to his credit was really helpful. "I'm trying you, as it's a fault on my domestic line" "ok, what seems to be the problem" "it's my adsl" "oh dear, that's not our problem" "wait! can you do a line test?" "yeah, but you need to remove all your line filters as the test can damage them, i'll do it in 10 minutes" "ok, bye!" And lo! The BT Engineer did indeed do the line test, and it was a good line test. Apparently there really was something wrong with my line. Fast forward 24hrs, I'm online, no sign of the problem having even been investigated. The likely problem? Probably some upgrade work at my exchange. My conversation from a few months ago: "Can you tell me where my nearest exchange is?" "No, it's a security risk" (see http://www.bt.com [^]for that gem) "Can you tell me if there is any scheduled work on that exchange as my connection has been a bit flaky at weekends?" "No sir, we don't have access to that information" Of course not, you're customer services, and you don't share it with my ISP either. I think that's called 'passing on costs'. I'm sure Pipex are delighted with all the extra calls from customers asking why they're ADSL doesn't work. Guess who I was about to call today? :-D Roll on NTL getting their finger out and giving me 2Mb/512k Cable. :-D But that's another rant altogether.....:mad: Cheers, Barry
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I won't use any expletives, but sometime on Sunday my ADSL connection started going up down like [insert lewd analogy] nobody's business :mad:. At about 6pm it totally died :omg:. This coincided with installing Nortel's Contivity VPN software (you don't even want to ask about that). After (trying to) uninstall that I ended up doing a system restore (thank you Microsoft), and finally got rid of it :-D To say that it was 'stubborn' is being polite. Spyware manufacturers could do well taking note of that. So anyway, back to BT. I phone them up (151 for domestic faults), after being bounced about through the automated menu system (that sounded like a cross between Stephen Hawking with asthma, and Ozzy Osbourne with a megaphone), I finally get through to a h-u-m-a-n b-e-i-n-g. :-D Amazing. The guy to his credit was really helpful. "I'm trying you, as it's a fault on my domestic line" "ok, what seems to be the problem" "it's my adsl" "oh dear, that's not our problem" "wait! can you do a line test?" "yeah, but you need to remove all your line filters as the test can damage them, i'll do it in 10 minutes" "ok, bye!" And lo! The BT Engineer did indeed do the line test, and it was a good line test. Apparently there really was something wrong with my line. Fast forward 24hrs, I'm online, no sign of the problem having even been investigated. The likely problem? Probably some upgrade work at my exchange. My conversation from a few months ago: "Can you tell me where my nearest exchange is?" "No, it's a security risk" (see http://www.bt.com [^]for that gem) "Can you tell me if there is any scheduled work on that exchange as my connection has been a bit flaky at weekends?" "No sir, we don't have access to that information" Of course not, you're customer services, and you don't share it with my ISP either. I think that's called 'passing on costs'. I'm sure Pipex are delighted with all the extra calls from customers asking why they're ADSL doesn't work. Guess who I was about to call today? :-D Roll on NTL getting their finger out and giving me 2Mb/512k Cable. :-D But that's another rant altogether.....:mad: Cheers, Barry
Barry Lapthorn wrote: 2Mb/512k Cable If only :-D I was tempted to upgrade to the 1meg connection when I was back at home, but I'm now on the University network so its pretty speedy. Last time I tried to organise an upgrade the connection died for a few days whilst they figured out why we'd never been registered on the system (but still been correctly billed). -- Paul "If you can keep your head when all around you have lost theirs, then you probably haven't understood the seriousness of the situation." - David Brent, from "The Office" MS Messenger: paul@oobaloo.co.uk Sonork: 100.22446
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I won't use any expletives, but sometime on Sunday my ADSL connection started going up down like [insert lewd analogy] nobody's business :mad:. At about 6pm it totally died :omg:. This coincided with installing Nortel's Contivity VPN software (you don't even want to ask about that). After (trying to) uninstall that I ended up doing a system restore (thank you Microsoft), and finally got rid of it :-D To say that it was 'stubborn' is being polite. Spyware manufacturers could do well taking note of that. So anyway, back to BT. I phone them up (151 for domestic faults), after being bounced about through the automated menu system (that sounded like a cross between Stephen Hawking with asthma, and Ozzy Osbourne with a megaphone), I finally get through to a h-u-m-a-n b-e-i-n-g. :-D Amazing. The guy to his credit was really helpful. "I'm trying you, as it's a fault on my domestic line" "ok, what seems to be the problem" "it's my adsl" "oh dear, that's not our problem" "wait! can you do a line test?" "yeah, but you need to remove all your line filters as the test can damage them, i'll do it in 10 minutes" "ok, bye!" And lo! The BT Engineer did indeed do the line test, and it was a good line test. Apparently there really was something wrong with my line. Fast forward 24hrs, I'm online, no sign of the problem having even been investigated. The likely problem? Probably some upgrade work at my exchange. My conversation from a few months ago: "Can you tell me where my nearest exchange is?" "No, it's a security risk" (see http://www.bt.com [^]for that gem) "Can you tell me if there is any scheduled work on that exchange as my connection has been a bit flaky at weekends?" "No sir, we don't have access to that information" Of course not, you're customer services, and you don't share it with my ISP either. I think that's called 'passing on costs'. I'm sure Pipex are delighted with all the extra calls from customers asking why they're ADSL doesn't work. Guess who I was about to call today? :-D Roll on NTL getting their finger out and giving me 2Mb/512k Cable. :-D But that's another rant altogether.....:mad: Cheers, Barry
Barry Lapthorn wrote: 2Mb/512k Cable. That's a nice speed, my ADSL is 2048/512 :) - Anders Money talks, but all mine ever says is "Goodbye!"
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I won't use any expletives, but sometime on Sunday my ADSL connection started going up down like [insert lewd analogy] nobody's business :mad:. At about 6pm it totally died :omg:. This coincided with installing Nortel's Contivity VPN software (you don't even want to ask about that). After (trying to) uninstall that I ended up doing a system restore (thank you Microsoft), and finally got rid of it :-D To say that it was 'stubborn' is being polite. Spyware manufacturers could do well taking note of that. So anyway, back to BT. I phone them up (151 for domestic faults), after being bounced about through the automated menu system (that sounded like a cross between Stephen Hawking with asthma, and Ozzy Osbourne with a megaphone), I finally get through to a h-u-m-a-n b-e-i-n-g. :-D Amazing. The guy to his credit was really helpful. "I'm trying you, as it's a fault on my domestic line" "ok, what seems to be the problem" "it's my adsl" "oh dear, that's not our problem" "wait! can you do a line test?" "yeah, but you need to remove all your line filters as the test can damage them, i'll do it in 10 minutes" "ok, bye!" And lo! The BT Engineer did indeed do the line test, and it was a good line test. Apparently there really was something wrong with my line. Fast forward 24hrs, I'm online, no sign of the problem having even been investigated. The likely problem? Probably some upgrade work at my exchange. My conversation from a few months ago: "Can you tell me where my nearest exchange is?" "No, it's a security risk" (see http://www.bt.com [^]for that gem) "Can you tell me if there is any scheduled work on that exchange as my connection has been a bit flaky at weekends?" "No sir, we don't have access to that information" Of course not, you're customer services, and you don't share it with my ISP either. I think that's called 'passing on costs'. I'm sure Pipex are delighted with all the extra calls from customers asking why they're ADSL doesn't work. Guess who I was about to call today? :-D Roll on NTL getting their finger out and giving me 2Mb/512k Cable. :-D But that's another rant altogether.....:mad: Cheers, Barry
NTL apears to be like the parsons egg, I have friends who rave about it others think it is a pile of *(*&&%^^! I hope you are will be one of the lucky ones!
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. - Isaac Newton 1676
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NTL apears to be like the parsons egg, I have friends who rave about it others think it is a pile of *(*&&%^^! I hope you are will be one of the lucky ones!
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. - Isaac Newton 1676
NTL are great when it's working, but the moment you get a fault, you'll have an uphill struggle trying to get through their customer service departments -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit!
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NTL are great when it's working, but the moment you get a fault, you'll have an uphill struggle trying to get through their customer service departments -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit!
They are all great until something goes wrong! But if the management are not interested in properly training, funding and organising support, what do you expect? As software guys we know the best way to solve a customer problem, is not to "create" it in the first place, but that takes time, effort and the will to want to do it.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. - Isaac Newton 1676
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They are all great until something goes wrong! But if the management are not interested in properly training, funding and organising support, what do you expect? As software guys we know the best way to solve a customer problem, is not to "create" it in the first place, but that takes time, effort and the will to want to do it.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. - Isaac Newton 1676
Hmm, true. I guess I could've worded that better What I mean is that the NTL service seems to be very reliable (I've been using NTL's cable internet service for almost 2 years now, and have only had a handful of outages) but when it does go wrong, it goes wrong badly, and nobody seems remotely interested in helping you out (this is in contrast with BT, where I hear people complaining about it continually) -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit!
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Hmm, true. I guess I could've worded that better What I mean is that the NTL service seems to be very reliable (I've been using NTL's cable internet service for almost 2 years now, and have only had a handful of outages) but when it does go wrong, it goes wrong badly, and nobody seems remotely interested in helping you out (this is in contrast with BT, where I hear people complaining about it continually) -- Help me! I'm turning into a grapefruit!
I assumed you meant that, but you only know how good an ISP is, is when something goes wrong, as it is bound to.
If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. - Isaac Newton 1676