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Struggling with BT and Openreach !

roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Hi,
I've been with Force9 then Plusnet for many, many years.  Must be 10+ I think.  Always been very happy, still am!
I upgraded to PlusnetFibre in early 2010 as soon as I could, and it was amazing.  I upgraded again to the 76mb faster service when it became available, and  was happily getting over 70megs downloads consistently.
Recently, my phone line developed a fault.  I'm still with BT for it.  I've had 3 engineer visits so far, and I'm still not sure if its right or not (it gets worse in bad weather, but the weather's been OK this week!).  The line was crackly and the internet was dropping.  As of yesterday, BT say its fixed and OK.
Now I'm down at 14 megs down and 4 up (instead of 70+ and 40).
Its been an incredibly frustrating, lengthy process to try to get this resolved.  Plusnet, understandably, can't do anything if my phone line has an obvious fault.  The BT engineer yesterday told me to contact Plusnet.  My biggest frustration, I think, is the competence of the Openreach engineers, and how long they take to come out.  Plus they say that some of them are "phone people" and some are "broadband people" - surely in the fibre-optic world of 2014, they should all be knowledgable in both...
Question - If I had my phone line account with Plusnet rather than BT, would this all be easier to get to the bottom of?
I live in a 120 year old flat in Glasgow, where the wiring leaves my flat to a junction box on the back wall of the building, then goes across to a telegraph pole, before going underground to head to the nearby street cabinet. 
Any advice or thoughts appreciated.
33 REPLIES 33
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
Thanks: 787
Fixes: 63
Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Quote from: roblightbody
Question - If I had my phone line account with Plusnet rather than BT, would this all be easier to get to the bottom of?

From personal experience - Yes - as that was the main reason I moved my phone to Plusnet many years ago
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
Fixes: 158
Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Without doubt - one supplier = one responsible party!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Terranova667
Pro
Posts: 1,511
Thanks: 125
Fixes: 5
Registered: ‎19-02-2014

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

|I have plusnet for both phone and fibre broadband and yes it's much easier to deal with just one supplier, but at the end of the day your still having BTO fixing the issues and that sadly can still be a lottery on what type of result you get.
roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Going a bit better now...

... and in the progress of moving my phone over to PlusNet to make it easier next time.
Thanks for the advice Smiley
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Rob,
Now that your voice line has been sorted, you should find that your BB speed (profile) will creep up over the coming days,  Unlike ADLS, PN cannot remotely reset the profile on fibre, it needs a BTOR engineer visit.
I understand your expectations on the cross skilling, but one might argue that would be like expecting all GP's to be capable of doing brain surgeries and all brain surgeons to be expected to run GP clinics.

Glasgow - love that city - visiting it tomorrow for a day out!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

It was 15 or so after they fixed the line, but then 2 nights ago they reset it, and it leapt up to 70, like it used to be.
Continuing to monitor it, and still think I may have a phone fault, but I need some bad weather to find out for sure !!
roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Spoke too soon.
Internet has dropped 3 times tonight already, phone is crackling again.
Its raining....
Sigh.
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Rob,
Rain + noise = POTS issue, I'm afraid that it is back to your phone provider again! Sorry!

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Quote from: Townman
Rob,
Rain + noise = POTS issue, I'm afraid that it is back to your phone provider again! Sorry!

I know.  They're utterly, utterly, utterly, utterly useless. 

drunkenmonkey
Grafter
Posts: 1,661
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎13-06-2007

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Hi weegie here too, my old tenement flat had big issues with noisy linewhen it rained. Openreach ended up rewriting from the pole to the house to sort it Sad hope you get sorted soon!
roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Quote from: buntrob
Hi weegie here too, my old tenement flat had big issues with noisy linewhen it rained. Openreach ended up rewriting from the pole to the house to sort it Sad hope you get sorted soon!

I'm sure that's what it is, but they just keep going on and on and on about my fecking test socket and unplugging my equipment, even though "engineers" have been in my Flat twice over the past few weeks, and say everything's fine.
It worked perfectly for years from when I first got FTTC until the 28th of March, and has been terrible ever since.
My phone line joins PlusNet on the 7th of May... does that mean I can stop talking to the truly awful Indian call centre that BT uses?!?!
roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

Here's my evening so far.
I think red is bad...
Townman
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 22,922
Thanks: 9,538
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Registered: ‎22-08-2007

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

It is bad!
Yes, you'll never have to speak with India again.
The problem with intermittent wet weather faults is that they are hard to find.  Sometimes putting a test or ring voltage on the line can "fix" them for a short time.  Indeed, try ringing your own phone, let it keep ringing and then see if the bb works better!
Yes, I know its a mad idea!   Crazy

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

roblightbody
Dabbler
Posts: 24
Registered: ‎15-03-2013

Re: Struggling with BT and Openreach !

I really feel like crying.  Cry
BT says they've fixed the fault - again - and have closed the latest call (I don't even know what they did, they never called me).
The internet is slow and failing this morning.
With the call closed by BT, and the phone not currently crackling, I have no option but to log a new fault with PlusNet, which I've just done.
Caught between a rock and a hard place, and its been very painful indeed.