"Lastly, if you are stuck in First Line support"

Perhaps there should be highly qualified network engineers sitting there giving out passwords and helping people configure the most basic of email clients? 1st line are there to fence the people who do things from needlessly wasting their time answering trivial questions.

"ask to speak to a "Product Specialist"

Why? If the 1st line tech you speak to can't deal with the issue they will pass you on to the appropriate people who can just as well as the PS can!

If you phone and you know what you are talking about and have done your homework 95% of the time you will get a resolution of your fault fast, especially if you are using BT supplied hardware which techs are trained on.

If you are rude, arrogant or clueless you will get passed around, that's human nature and unfortunately true to some extent in all big companies. Be knowledgeable, be polite and if you don't like the agent you get hang up on them and redial to get someone else.

In our experience (where we are very pleasant to the people on the other end of the phone, after all they field calls just like us and we also understand it gets the job done) it can be very difficult in some instances to further a call.
In the last two months we've had two instances where the technical support persons on the other end of the phone has not accepted there is a fault after doing their tests (this is ringing up on each case many times).
An issue we are dealing with right now was closed 3 times saying there was no fault or it had been resolved. On the 4th when I asked on behalf of the customer to migrate and leave BT I got passed to BT Wholesale that did a test and the tech said "Oh there's a fault on your line!" The customer was left without broadband for over 2 weeks (and it is still at time of writing not resolved)

"95% of the time you will get a resolution of your fault fast"

I think this is the crux of it, and 5% of the time it can be very difficult to get anything done no matter how nice and how knowledgeable you are. We've dealt with a lot of ADSL faults over the last few years and while a good portion are solved very quickly, there are others (and this is the same with any large institution) that leave you banging your head against the wall as you get passed from pillar to post.

So when I rang up BT after these experiences and asked how we can ask to move a call to the next level if we believe that First Line cannot help us any further, we were told to "ask for a Product Specialist". I am simply sharing this information given to me by BT personnel.

Something BT will send you to in most ADSL quality issues is this site:

• http://speedtester.bt.com/

This site will measure the speed of your line (downlink only I believe) and will then store the results in a database for BT. It is typical they will ask you to perform this test once every 2 hours for a period of at least 8 hours. Obviously you need to ensure nothing other than the speed test is attempting to access the Internet for the test to be accurate.

They recommend you plug in your ADSL modem directly into your master phone socket to remove the possibility of bad wiring within the house or building from degrading the line quality. (Your telephone master socket will typically have a plate at the front you can remove which will then disconnect every phone in the building. You then insert your ADSL filter into the newly available port and connect it to your ADSL modem.)

Once you have performed this test BT engineers will be much happier to look into your problem.

I've been on btinternet for 2 months and the norton security has ran out, i was told i had it as long as i am with bt so dont know what to do. Please help.

Sandra

Hi Sandra,

Without knowing your system in detail it is difficult for me to give you an accurate solution.

However, if I remember correctly, BT sell a rebadged security product based on Symantec/Norton which costs a few pounds a month. If you are using the stand alone product then this can run out and you will need to renew the license.

Personally, we do not recommend Symantec/Norton products. Your choice is to either renew Norton or uninstall it and purchase a better solution. We recommend NOD32 from Eset.

Sorry to say that I upgraded my 2MB ADSL line to the "option 3" up to 8MB link speed. This was done after about 5 sales calls from some-one in India on behalf of BT (might be BT itself). So I gave in over a month ago after a spam mail from BT. But this is where my nightmare started.
1) My new connection speed is a whopping 160Kbs downstream and 60Kbs upstream.
2) My line connection drops out more than 20 times per day, irritating when you are talking on Broadband phone or Skype.

I used the online post a question option to the helpdesk (also somewhere in India) Although the support staff were very OVER apologetic, they could not solve my problem, even deleted tmp files from pc.

The more I ask them what does my pc,or any pc for that matter have to do with my BT HOME hub acting like a YOYO, the less an answer I get.

THEY quickly spin me off to the line (fault department who runs a test and tells me there is no fault on my line, and then I go back to BT Broadband support and go through the whole process again.

This has happened 3 times now and I just do not know who to speak to or what to do, it seems there is no escalation effort from BT,

I am not sure what to do, but will leave BT as soon as I can, that I promised myself.

can any one out there help me i have a hub and a phone and i can.t get the phone to work it dosn,t ring when people are calling me on my home numder i have spend about three week talking to people in india couldn,t resolve my problem got a new hub and i just would likethe phone to ring when i get calls on my home number and to be able to make calls when the computer is shut down
martha lavery

In this kind of case I have a very simple answer for you. BT Broadband are cheap for what they do, I have no hestiation in saying this. And if you have no problems they are good value for money. However the old adage of "you get what you pay for" comes into effect here, and so for our business customers we recommend Andrews and Arnold and they are also happy for you to migrate the line with an existing problem for them to help sort out for you as we've done this a few times.

We are using Eclipse for our Broadband service for our small business. The lines are all BT, and the modem shares with a modern fax machine. We 'lose' the internet connection every morning - from approx 6.30 am until after 10 am. It then settles down and stays connected for the rest of the day. When the problem is evident our Netgear router (running two ports) shows first - flickering green, then flickering orange, then nothing. It then comes and goes - often several times a minute. The computer reports 'unable to access server'. This is very frustrating. Eclipse say not them, BT say nothing wrong with line, all hunky dory (but we suspect they only look in the afternoon). Is this happening anywhere else? Is it weather, temperature, power or loading linked??

Very tricky to give you an answer without knowing more about your situation, but I personally would try these in the following order.

1. Replace (or borrow a friends) your router to rule out your Netgear router, for cover everything replace the filter and RJ11 cable too (I doubt this will help but it covers everything)
2. Ask Eclipse exactly what they mean by "not them", what do they see from their side when the line is down?
3. Specifically request a line check from BT in the morning.
4. If nothing else works, what we do is migrate the line to Andrews and Arnold as this highly service orientated ISP will take on lines with existing problems and are very effective at sorting them out.

I have also had endless problems with BT since 10th january 2006. (now june 2007)
i have the same problem as you only when mine goes off its for a week to 10 days at a time. Ive been told to pay an extra £10 per month (bt home technical advisor desk???)and these ar as useful as chocolate fireguards. so basically my broadband is costing just short of £30 per month for very little usage. I have tried absolutely everything and im at my wits end. If you get your sorted please let me know??

If you are not getting the service you are paying for, I'd suggest you cancel your contract as BT are not supplying their end of the contract.

Then migrate to another ISP, one that is more pro-active in dealing with issues.

of course it makes sense to do that, i was going to months ago but have been told that if i do, i am still going to have problems with the new isp as bt provide my line and apparently its the line from mine to the exchange that needs sorting due to living 3 or 4 miles away from it. although i dont know how true this is as i know nothing about computers. i was told to stick with them and hopefully they will have to do something and re-imburse me some money (which i will lose if i move companies.) so basically i dont know what to do and who to believe. all i know is that i have a very sore forehead from headbutting the wall for so long. :-)

"of course it makes sense to do that, i was going to months ago but have been told that if i do, i am still going to have problems with the new isp as bt provide my line and apparently its the line from mine to the exchange that needs sorting due to living 3 or 4 miles away from it."

Yes, BT as a group do have responsibility for the line. And maybe the problem is with the line. BUT BT broadband's lines are maintained by a separate company, BT OpenReach, not by BT Broadband themselves. And every ISP will have their own contact with BT OpenReach

"i was told to stick with them and hopefully they will have to do something and re-imburse me some money (which i will lose if i move companies.)"

Who told you to stick with them? BT Broadband? And is that "hopefully they'll do something about it" or "hopefully they'll reimburse you for the bad service"? :)

so basically i dont know what to do and who to believe. all i know is that i have a very sore forehead from headbutting the wall for so long. :-)

What to do is obviously your choice. As on who to believe, I suggest you also investigate any of the Top 10 reviewed ISP's and read the reader reviews of some of them.

Hi, this has nothing to do with the Internet connection, line or anything. It's a simple compatibility problem between BT internet signal and the Netgear router.

I suffered the same for months and opted for using the BT router which gave me connection for only one PC at a time until I read a blog suggesting I download the latest upgrades for my router from the Netgear support website.

10 min on the net (you can connect with any other router you have to avoid drop-outs) and then install the upgrade in your router. Problem solved, now I have my router and network backup without any interruptions 24/7!!

This sounds very similar to my problems, It took a while to eventually get my broadband hub up and running following many calls to the technical help line but it has been relativley fine since despite the odd time I lost the signal which has been ok. However over the last fortnight I have had no broadband/internet signal on my hub even though the phone lines work ok and the line tested to the house by BT. I have called BT india on many occasions and they have gone through their remit on changing filters, going direct into main BT point, turning off the hub power, etc but still nothing, then next minute it will work for an hour then drop out again! Any ideas where I go next? BT have instructed me to do an internal line check tonight then they are due to call between 6 and 8. How much are the call outs if someone needs pay me a visit?

Gary.

i still had the same problem with the wired 205 bt voyager router before switching to a netgear wireless 3 months ago...

After 18 months of pretty uninterupted service my BT Broadband service has started dropping out suddenly and not recovering for hours/days.

So far I've gone through the same things with the tech specs over and over again, culimating last night with me taking the front off the master phone socket and connecting the router (voyager 2091) directly into there to test the connection - still disappeared.

I've swapped out all microfilters and also installed a brand new router. I use the connection wired rather than wireless as my master socket is on floor 2 of my house and pc is on floor 1 and couldnt pick up the signal wirelessly.

If I swap providers as recommended above could I still be left with the same problem?

It sounds like you have a problem with your line to me. If you've gone to the length of taking off the front of the master phone socket and connecting the router, as well as replacing all the filters and your router, then your broadband supplier (BT Broadband in this case) should do the decent thing and get the line checked by a BT OpenReach engineer.

If you swap providers, you definitely could be left with the same problem. However if you explain this to your new ISP before changing and ask if they will take ownership of the problem as well as what they will be doing to move it's resolution forward, you may be able to get yourself out of this hole. I know Andrews and Arnold will take ownership of problems as mentioned above, but there are plenty of other good providers out there too (check out Top 10 reviewed ISP's that should be able to help you choose someone too)

I've always said this to customers that have BT Broadband. BT are a great, cheap provider as long as you have no problems. The moment you do you have problems however you can enter into a whole world of pain. The BT business package is better than the residential. But even then we've sometimes had to battle for days or even weeks to get a problem even recognised (like yourself).

Another lesson in not using BT.

Ordered BT broadband, I had just moved house and was eager to get connected as soon as possible. The possibility of getting it faster while I was on the line ordering the standard phone line while I was ordering was too tempting and swerved my judgement badly.
So when I was ordering the phone the lady said "If you're unsure whether you want our broadband, you can order it and then cancel it within 7 days if you really don't want it" so after looking at it sensibly and realising my mistake, I then cancelled it 3 days later.

Seems that it takes weeks for this sort of thing to go through the system so the line is clear for another provider.

I wouldn't mind so much, but in the process of doing this I made numerous calls to cancel and then ensure it was cancelled when I found out I couldn't get broadband on it again.
One of the first people I dealt with was angry and abusive at me for no good reason. One of the other calls I got transferred 5 times in and out of the department I was supposed to be talking to... Quite often without even being told I was being transferred! As mentioned, I work on a helpdesk phone myself, so I am always,always polite and calm to the other person at the end of the phone.

It's taken me over an hour of phone calls and a whole lot of other wasted time, just because I was impatient and said "OK" to BT Broadband after moving house. My own fault though - I should have known better!!! :)

[post removed after legal threats by BT]

Thats all well and good if you are prepared to sit for another 50mins in the queue.
And to tbe bargain get the old, "have you reset your router" and "have you tried the bt router instead".
No, if a service is not working, and its clear the agent is talking to someone who's extremely in the know, they should be trained to pass it up.
Better still BT should have a commercial line or technical line for people who know what they are doing.
I wince when a customer or employee of a company says we are with BT, because I know I will hang on the line for hours to get pushed back by 1st line support.

J.