BT Broadband help desk

[mave]

Bl**dy waste of space. T'internet stopped working on Wednesday. No warning, no slowing down, no virus symptoms, just stopped working.

Spent 2 hours (after waiting in queue for 30 mins) on the phone to BT on Thursday trying to fix it. At 10:45pm they said they needed to check something and would ring me back, which they still haven't done.

Managed to spend 30 mins trawling the internet in work yesterday, and discovered that since Wednesday, lots of BT broadband accounts have been having conflicts with Zone Alarm due to a microsoft patch - removed patch, and hey presto its working. Some of these posts were from Thursday morning, so it was a well known problem when I rang BT.

How can a "help desk" not be able to fix something which they should know about in 2 hours, when someone IT illiterate like me can fix it in 30 mins????

[Camp Freddie]

I was once without the internet for several months (!) due to the people that I was forced to speak to on a regular basis. Each call I made usually lasted at least 30 minutes, and that was if I didn't lose my rag and end up throwing the phone at the wall after finally getting to speak to a person and then 'put through' to another department and then cut off! And this is a telecommunications company!

With one exception, every single person I spoke to was extremely difficult to understand, most of the time they clearly didn't understand me and the problem went on for MONTHS! It was impossible for me to get any sense out of them despite trying over and over and over and over to explain it to them very politely. The one exception was the last person I spoke to; he was polite, calmly told me in perfectly understandable English that the previous information I had been given by his colleagues was a load of crap, and we had the problem fixed in a jiffy.

Why do BRITISH Telecom employ 'helpdesk' people for whom English is not their first language? It is completely senseless whichever way you look at it, unlesss you happen to be some overly PC d1ckhead which I suspect may well be the problem. That and greed of course.

And just in case anyone decides to incorrectly read into this that I am racist well I'm not so don't bother or you'll get a ********** mouthful as well!

[Camp Freddie]

I was once without the internet for several months (!) due to the people that I was forced to speak to on a regular basis. Each call I made usually lasted at least 30 minutes, and that was if I didn't lose my rag and end up throwing the phone at the wall after finally getting to speak to a person and then 'put through' to another department and then cut off! And this is a telecommunications company!

With one exception, every single person I spoke to was extremely difficult to understand, most of the time they clearly didn't understand me and the problem went on for MONTHS! It was impossible for me to get any sense out of them despite trying over and over and over and over to explain it to them very politely. The one exception was the last person I spoke to; he was polite, calmly told me in perfectly understandable English that the previous information I had been given by his colleagues was a load of crap, and we had the problem fixed in a jiffy.

Why do BRITISH Telecom employ 'helpdesk' people for whom English is not their first language? It is completely senseless whichever way you look at it, unlesss you happen to be some overly PC d1ckhead which I suspect may well be the problem. That and greed of course.

And just in case anyone decides to incorrectly read into this that I am racist well I'm not so don't bother or you'll get a ********** mouthful as well!

[Rayq81]

Good old BT internet, I used to be with them too but had to change because the Helpline was useless, it was so bad that i eventually phoned the BT broadband sales guys who managed to talk me through fixing the problems in about 5 minutes, I am now with Sky broadband and have only had to call them once and got an instant solution to the problem

[alfaholic]

Originally Posted by mave

How can a "help desk" not be able to fix something which they should know about in 2 hours, when someone IT illiterate like me can fix it in 30 mins????

Unfortunately, you've fallen into the trap of believing that EVERY member of BT staff know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING and get stressed when they can't answer your question immediately and accurately....


For everyones information, when you call BT and get an Indian helpdesk, you are fully entitled to ask to be transferred to someone in the UK....do this enough times and maybe the highups will get the message....

Originally Posted by rayq81

Good old BT internet, I used to be with them too but had to change because the Helpline was useless, it was so bad that i eventually phoned the BT broadband sales guys who managed to talk me through fixing the problems in about 5 minutes, I am now with Sky broadband and have only had to call them once and got an instant solution to the problem

Exactly the same here. I opted for the top Sky package but for me there was no advantage so now I have free broadband. Just one thing with Sky though, in the evenings you get the similar far east call centres who use a menu system to solve your problem. If you don't have all sky equipment(eg for wireless) they get stuck and can't help.

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by Camp Freddie

I was once without the internet for several months (!) due to the people that I was forced to speak to on a regular basis. Each call I made usually lasted at least 30 minutes, and that was if I didn't lose my rag and end up throwing the phone at the wall after finally getting to speak to a person and then 'put through' to another department and then cut off! And this is a telecommunications company!

With one exception, every single person I spoke to was extremely difficult to understand, most of the time they clearly didn't understand me and the problem went on for MONTHS! It was impossible for me to get any sense out of them despite trying over and over and over and over to explain it to them very politely. The one exception was the last person I spoke to; he was polite, calmly told me in perfectly understandable English that the previous information I had been given by his colleagues was a load of crap, and we had the problem fixed in a jiffy.

Why do BRITISH Telecom employ 'helpdesk' people for whom English is not their first language? It is completely senseless whichever way you look at it, unlesss you happen to be some overly PC d1ckhead which I suspect may well be the problem. That and greed of course.

And just in case anyone decides to incorrectly read into this that I am racist well I'm not so don't bother or you'll get a ********** mouthful as well!

I would REALLY like to strongly disagree with this - why should it make ANY difference where the person you are speaking to comes from?

Unfortunately, however, I can't because my experience was identical. I spent days (not months fortunately) talking to people who followed scripts and who would not listen to (very calm, reasonable and polite) logic.

On the third day I got through to someone (a Geordie) who started off with the standard spiel but who listened when I interrupted saying "I've done all that three times before" - and said "fair enough we'll dispense with all of that crap then" and then went on to reconnect me (after going backstage for 5 minutes).

Sorry - but true.

Paul.

[vela blue]

Originally Posted by PaulR

On the third day I got through to someone (a Geordie) who started off with the standard spiel but who listened when I interrupted saying "I've done all that three times before" - and said "fair enough we'll dispense with all of that crap then" and then went on to reconnect me (after going backstage for 5 minutes).

Sorry - but true.

Paul.

Hehe good old Geordie's eh! The no nonsense approach...

[mave]

Originally Posted by alfaholic

Unfortunately, you've fallen into the trap of believing that EVERY member of BT staff know EVERYTHING about EVERYTHING and get stressed when they can't answer your question immediately and accurately....

Immediate and accurate? Not necessarily. But when it's a problem affecting a significant number of people across the country, I expect somebody half way competent to be able to come up with the fix in a few hours. And they still haven't rung me back....

[alfaholic]

Originally Posted by mave

Immediate and accurate? Not necessarily. But when it's a problem affecting a significant number of people across the country, I expect somebody half way competent to be able to come up with the fix in a few hours. And they still haven't rung me back....

That's very unfortunate, but as I said, you can speak to UK based staff if you ask, and there are escalation procedures that you can take if still unsatisfied.

[mave]

Originally Posted by alfaholic

That's very unfortunate, but as I said, you can speak to UK based staff if you ask, and there are escalation procedures that you can take if still unsatisfied.

Cheers, think I will

[k3lvc]

Originally Posted by Camp Freddie

I was once without the internet for several months (!) due to the people that I was forced to speak to on a regular basis. Each call I made usually lasted at least 30 minutes, and that was if I didn't lose my rag and end up throwing the phone at the wall after finally getting to speak to a person and then 'put through' to another department and then cut off! And this is a telecommunications company!

With one exception, every single person I spoke to was extremely difficult to understand, most of the time they clearly didn't understand me and the problem went on for MONTHS! It was impossible for me to get any sense out of them despite trying over and over and over and over to explain it to them very politely. The one exception was the last person I spoke to; he was polite, calmly told me in perfectly understandable English that the previous information I had been given by his colleagues was a load of crap, and we had the problem fixed in a jiffy.

Why do BRITISH Telecom employ 'helpdesk' people for whom English is not their first language? It is completely senseless whichever way you look at it, unlesss you happen to be some overly PC d1ckhead which I suspect may well be the problem. That and greed of course.

And just in case anyone decides to incorrectly read into this that I am racist well I'm not so don't bother or you'll get a ********** mouthful as well!

I too suffered this - eventually lost my rag completely and rang every possible number I could find for BT until someone took ownership. In the end I went back to first principles & rang 191 - within 10 mins I had a personal 'issue resolution manager' in the UK who gave me her direct number and whilst it still took 2 weeks to sort the issue she phoned me when she said and kept me updated by email when phoning not possible. After resolution I put in a claim for all phone calls made (inc those received on my mobile when aboad) and was reimbursed in full (some £300+) together with a 'compensation' payment for my time/inconvenience and a years free broadband.

For those of you that do have long problems make sure you get reimbursed.

[Nev]

Originally Posted by Camp Freddie

Why do BRITISH Telecom employ 'helpdesk' people for whom English is not their first language? It is completely senseless whichever way you look at it, unlesss you happen to be some overly PC d1ckhead which I suspect may well be the problem. That and greed of course.

In my experience most Indians I work
with have a better level of English
than most Brits.

Okay, a bit accented but then I don't
judge because I know my French is
thickly accented.


I've recently put up with French colleague
bitching about Indians. Which I find very rich.

Salesguy: "Indians zey are all useless
and I don unnerstanding anyzink zey are sayin two mee! [.....10 minute rant later]"

Nev: "My dad is from India."

[Red faced sales guy, exit stage left. Probably to go on holiday for three weeks.]


The reason companies use Indian staff is
cause they are cheaper.

[HSTDriver]

Originally Posted by Nev

In my experience most Indians I work
with have a better level of English
than most Brits.

I find that too.

Perhaps the problem is not the poor English spoken by Indians, but the poor English understanding of the average modern day Brit

[JimmerUK]

Originally Posted by PaulR

On the third day I got through to someone (a Geordie) who started off with the standard spiel but who listened when I interrupted saying "I've done all that three times before" - and said "fair enough we'll dispense with all of that crap then"

Love it! It's unfortunate that not all the staff are like that, but most of them are robots who are just reading from a script and actually don't have any IT experience.

I used to manage the helpdesk for Philips DAP (shavers, irons, kettles etc) and I made sure that everyone on the desk had actually handled these products so they knew what they were talking about. It's no good repeatedly asking someone for a batch number if you don't know where it is yourself, but if you can say "look by the spindle on the right it begins with a 9, just give the cluster frame a tug, sometimes they can be a pain to get off" it makes everyone's lives easier.

Moral of the story? Employee people who know what they're talking about, or train them up. Obvious? You'd think.

[PaulR]

My grouch with the BT Indian call centre is not with the language - I have no problem at all with that - but their level of training which is far too basic (so not the fault of the staff).

Basically, when all has been said and done, you are asked to reboot the router, reset the router (same as rebooting but using the magic button on the "hub"), reset the password and finally connect after typing in 168.259........ into the search bar. That's it. It is no good tying to save time by saying "Yes I've done all that" - you have to do each 3 more times before they are allowed to escalate it.

It is the system - not the people.

Paul.

[JimmerUK]

Originally Posted by PaulR

and finally connect after typing in 168.259........ into the search bar.

Ah, see there's your problem. The router IP should be 192.168.*.*

[PaulR]

Originally Posted by JimmerUK

Ah, see there's your problem. The router IP should be 192.168.*.*

For that you get a


That's two in a week and there will be no more.


Paul.

[robk147]

Originally Posted by mave

Immediate and accurate? Not necessarily. But when it's a problem affecting a significant number of people across the country, I expect somebody half way competent to be able to come up with the fix in a few hours. And they still haven't rung me back....

Why should BT automatically be able to fix a problem that was in no way caused by them? I agree if it's affecting a lot of their customers you may expect them to pick up on it but it's a bit rich slagging them off when the problem was clearly with your PC. They would've also wasted a lot of time at their end testing your line, checking the account etc.

[zulu ferret]

As I've been 'orf the net' for a few weeks due to a totally messed up system,(couldn't get aol 9vr, or plain ole' aol 9 to operate at all, nor Firefox,)gave up for a while, until we did a full disc re-format, and then the trouble and strife spent ages getting stuff back on this silly machine.:

Everything seemed hunky dory, and there I was happily AO'ing this morning, when the whole system just froze, locked solid so it was just a case of pulling the plug again! Seems ok now though, but for how long? Gets on my pip! So if I disappear you know it's system failure again!!

[mave]

Originally Posted by robk147

Why should BT automatically be able to fix a problem that was in no way caused by them? I agree if it's affecting a lot of their customers you may expect them to pick up on it but it's a bit rich slagging them off when the problem was clearly with your PC. They would've also wasted a lot of time at their end testing your line, checking the account etc.

Well, when I rang them up, I explained that I was having a problem with my broadband connection and I wanted to know if there was a problem with my connection. If they had spent 5 minutes answering that question and said "sorry but there's no fault with your line" then I would have been happy. The fact is that over a 2 hour period they wouldn't / couldn't tell me if there was a fault or not with the line, and ended up promising to investigate further and call back, which they didn't.

[robk147]

Originally Posted by mave

Well, when I rang them up, I explained that I was having a problem with my broadband connection and I wanted to know if there was a problem with my connection. If they had spent 5 minutes answering that question and said "sorry but there's no fault with your line" then I would have been happy. The fact is that over a 2 hour period they wouldn't / couldn't tell me if there was a fault or not with the line, and ended up promising to investigate further and call back, which they didn't.

Fair enough, that is a bit poor!

I've worked in a support role for an ISP in the past and it was very easy to check if a user was connected or not which instantly eliminates a lot of potential causes of the problem. If BT staff can't do this they really need to sort that out.

[JimmerUK]

Originally Posted by zulu ferret

couldn't get aol 9vr, or plain ole' aol 9

There's your problem, AOL is the biggest pile of computer turd since computing began.

[Nige005]

Had a problem with the line speed a week or so ago, was down to 428kbs, not happy.

Having been through the help desk 'phone system decided that this was not the way to go and e mailed them. Had a reply very quickly saying that they were looking into it. Two hours later got a reply saying that they had done line checks etc and found no problem and then went on to teach me to suck eggs, " Is your PC switched on and speed varies throughout the day " and similar rubbish. Spitting teeth I went and did another speed check. Amazing, up to 1.9mbs and has stayed consistently between 1.6 - 1.9 since then, I can only hope it continues.

So was there a fault which they did not admit to but fixed or was it pure coincidence ? I know what I think, what about you ?

[Dibby]

A quick and easy fix I found for slow speeds is to try replacing the master socket in the house. It costs about a fiver off the net and there's 2 wires inside a phone socket. My speed went from 500k to 2meg from lowering the resistance in the corroded connectors in the master socket. Technically, it's BTs property and you should keep the original in case they ask questions.


Best of all, ditch BT internet all together, I don't know why people still use them for their ISP - maybe the nice smiley man and his wife on the advert convinced you. Get shot of them and use a decent ISP like ADSL24, UKFSN, Be*, Zen, Aquiss. Steer well clear of the big McDonalds flavour internet: BT, AOL and Tiscali, they are a nightmare to deal with and charge far too much for what you get