First Broadband failure in 8 years

[#1]

So, perhaps I've been lucky but I'm used to "always on" meaning just that.
However at exactly 1.00am on Friday morning the ADSL completely disappeared.  Tried several modems and all diagnostics suggest the line has no ADSL at all (normally a solid 8128/448).
Raised the fault by telephone at about 9.00am on Friday and Customer Service was as good as ever - no nonsense - clear questions and having done all the sensible checks already  - straight to a BT referral. 
So how long will this take to fix?  I assume BT have no SLA on this stuff (residential Broadband Pro).  Are we talking days or weeks?  I'm always very underwhelmed by BT's ability to fix stuff.  Hard to surf the answer since now on dialup only (how did we ever manage before :'(?)
Last activity appears to have been at 5:26pm, Friday 12th September 2008.  Will they bother to do anything over the weekend?
Have ADSL with an SLA at work.  Might well need to rethink home arrangements depending on the answer.
BTW, can anyone tell me what "CL fine, no TAM"  and "open with the BOT - DSL Logged Faults - No Syn until this time" means?  These are quotes from the open fault ticket.
Thanks, Andy

[#2]

I agree iwith you about BT
Took them one week to fix a problem that occurred with a line card when I upgraded to ADSL max, what can you expect from a monopoly.
However my ISP did keep on at them to get it sorted and gave me a month free for the inconvenience.

[#3]

Thanks techguy. 
BT not my favourites.  Reported them to Offcom earlier this year for charging me many hundreds of pounds at work for "new" ISDN installations (on lines we have had for over 10 years).  BT billing system was messed up when lines were unilaterally converted after BT stopped providing DASS ISDN.  I then got charged for cancelling the lines recently because I had apparently had them, less than 12 months as a result of the "new" installation.  All this with no new paperwork and entirely at BT's instigation!
Refused to remove any of the charges and kept asking us for the order number (for an order we never placed!).  Eventually  got sorted when I started complaing to Offcom and writing to Directors.  But wasted a huge amount of my staff's time.
The most recent of many problems I've had with BT on other contracts!
As a result, I now work very hard to avoid using BT when I can.  Unfortunately at home, it has to be a BT line although thankfully PlusNet seem to do a  reasonable job of shielding the full horror of BT customer service.
OK Bile release over ::).  Having dial-up can do bad things to your temper!
Anyway, the good(ish) news is that PlusNet called this afternoon and it looks like I'll be getting an engineer visit on Monday or Tuesday.  At least at grass roots, the engineers all seem to be good people so hopefully it will be fixed soon (although your one week sounds scary!).

[#4]

Yeah the engineers seem alright (the one that fitted a second line for me ages ago anyway) but as always its the call centres and the ones you never have contact with that screw things up because they know they'll get away with it.
I did look to try to answer your second question regarding the acronyms but not been able to find anything I'm afraid (lots of organisations also use their own acronyms so it could mean nothing outside of BT)
Does amaze me though how these faults occur just when you request an upgrade (a friend of mine had just moved into a house which already had a BT installation but on the day of activation she was told there had been a problem at the exchange and they were awaiting parts which may take up to a week, meanwhile she has no home phone or internet and she is really fed up)
Her Internet cold turkey is so bad she has been staying late at work just to stay on the net!
Hope nothing happens with my migration to Plusnet on Friday, have taken the day off to give myself a three day weekend and ensure that I can get any issues resolved.
[Moderator's note by Barry Zubel: Removed quote of immediately preceding post as per the Forum Rules]

[#5]

Hi Mitch. you will fall foul of the Mods giving full quotes of the previous message, they have already clipped your ear a couple of times, unfortunately you dont know  as it is on the end of your post and you dont see that when you go to unread mail. 
However the rules on this forum are, only partial quotes of the immediate preceding posting.  A full quote is ok if you post goes to a new page, or if the posting you want to quote is not immediately preceding yours.
Forgive you though as you are not yet a full PN person

[#6]

Well the good news is that ADSL came back at about 16:20 yesterday afternoon - so it was a bit more than three and a half days off including a weekend.  I suppose given the pricing of residential stuff that's not too bad.
Still don't know why.  No engineer visit and no changes at my end.  Hopefully I'll get more info via the support ticket.
Back to a solid 8128/448.  Hope it will stay that way - though my confidence is somewhat dented!
I fully understand the cold-turkey thing.  I thought there'd be a family lynching if I didn't get it fixed.  Even had dark thoughts of getting wireless (3G) broadband (but I hardly get a mobile signal at home) or even Virgin Media cable as a backup.  I had it bad 

[#7]

There's absolutely no information from BT to suggest that anything was actually done.  The latest I can see if that they were requesting an engineer visit if the problem was still apparent.
May just be one of those mysteries of ADSL.

[#8]

Thanks James.  I'll leave my trusty 56k modem plugged in just in case!
It was quite educational using dial-up for the smaller members of the family who treat Internet like running water - made me feel very old.

[#9]

Not that old!
I'm a long way off collecting my pension and have many memories of dialup 😕