BT hub issue BT are so helpful.....

[dieselsamurai]

My friend called she runs a small business and has several laptops running of a BT hub for the last two weeks has been dropping out intermittently to the point she has to hotspot from her Iphone to work . The hub flashes pink when the problem occurs but sometimes purple , she rang BT and there said the would test the line and found 'inconstancies' and that there was broadband issues reported in the area and they would send out an engineer ... great . But in the next breath he said if the engineer turned up and had a look but found no problem there would be a £280 charge !! its an intermittent problem so shes really worried it will fine when he turns up

25 years ago I worked for BT so i got the phone call but i got rid of them about the same time too. A bit of googling points to it being a line issue but cant find anything really useful to move forwards

Has anyone on here had the same problem or similar ? I can understand in some ways a charge for a wasted visit but £280 seems steep and they have almost admitted there is an issue in the area

This is why i dont have anything to do with them anymore except my pension

 

[Endeleus]

There is a world of difference in support between BT Business and residential BT. Anyone who depends on their broadband for work should make sure they're on a business tariff, as the support is much better.

Regarding the signal dropping out, if the link to BT is dropping out (light on the hub changing / reconnecting), then BT should have connection logs showing it disconnecting and reconnecting. Be aware that this might be caused by somethign else connected to the phone outlets in the property (I fixed a similar issue for someone by unplugging their phone handset from another extension.

If it's on the old copper broadband, having a splitter faceplate on the master socket can be more reliable than having plug-in splitters on every extension.

£280 does sound steep, used to be around £160 for a chargeable call, and even then they would only charge if the fault was found to be internal wiring or something caused by the subscriber.

 

[MetalMonkey]

The charge is pretty standard for BT – bur IIRC it used to be only about £100.

I have managed to get them to come out without agreeing to the charge, but it took some convincing and they only relented when they begrudgingly agreed that half the village connected to the same cabinet also having no phone lines is not likely to be a problem inside my property.

The reason they do it, of course, is that a lot of the problem are not down to the line so one needs to make absolutely sure that the issue is their side of the faceplate, all the usual checks, change router, hard wire, plug into socket behind faceplate etc.
A lot also depends on the engineer - most of the guys I've encountered are really good. They've even checked faults without raising a ticket before but it is pot luck really.

You could try laying it on thick about moving to a different provider due to the problems with the service if they can't fix it. Worth a shot.

 

[Gragson]

I ran a support dept which included about 1200 home workers on DSL.
They were business lines.
My guys got the same patter from BT every time our support guys had clearly diagnosed a line fault, I'd say about 50 a year.
Not once did BT even attempt to charge - it's a deterrent.
The BT call out guys are usually very good
These were business lines tho

 

[dieselsamurai]

Im gonna check whether its a business line or not i think that's a key factor, pretty sure from memory they work purely on wifi so shouldnt have any ethernet issues causing the problem. I need to make a visit to see if they are plugged into the master socket im pretty sure it does as was a new build office and there was no one in there before.

I think your right it does depend on the engineer on the day , i used to do this sort of work although for PABXs rather than broadband had similar issues

is there somewhere you can check for broadband issues in the area ? PO6 2QZ

 

[lchris21]

their subsidiary Open-reach are not much use or helpful either.......had several supervisors, and managers come to insect this dogs dinner, so cost them more than £280 to sort this mess out, after they installed fibre through my living room wall

 

[Morrisman]

After 3 separate lengthy, and pointless, phone calls to the help line, resulting in me threatening to cancel the contract, I eventually arranged for a BT tech to come out because my fairly new ‘high speed’ connection was rubbish and very slow.

Technician turned up, has a quick look, told me the problem was in the extension cable I’d run from the socket in the hallway to the office/bedroom.

I pointed out that, A. I had used a brand new extension. It made no difference. B. I had moved my whole PC into the hallway and plugged it in, a few days prior, and it made no difference.

He just repeated, “Yes mate, the problem is the extension cable mate” almost as if I’d not spoken.

I got a bit agitated and raised my voice somewhat “look, mate, I’ve just ******g told you what I’ve done, and it didn’t ******g well make any difference”.

That seemed to wake him from his dozey slumber, and he actually did some tests, did his job, turned out the router/modem thing was faulty. He gave me a new one and all was well with the system.

That was a decade or more ago, they’ve probably improved by now….

 

[Beanwood]

Can your friend take a video shot of the lights where they come in to the building- I.e. where the router plugs in.
If they go out, then as long as the wall box is plugged in (ours came loose in the power socket but not easily spotted) then it shows a problem upstream of the router doesn’t it?
If they don’t go out you may need to look some more.

 

[ajlelectronics]

That was a decade or more ago, they’ve probably improved by now….

Yes, now you need a course in Swahili to even get the complaint logged.

 

[qwakers]

they tell everyone about the potential charge, its to stop vexatious callouts made so they can stand there and yell at the engineer (and yes it does happen.)

generally if you haven't smashed the kit up or done something stupid, you wont be charged.

flashing purple is no line detected. plug it into the test port behind the faceplate of the master, if it still does it its a failing hub or a line fault. if its a residential line and you give me the hub serial number, ill run a few line tests and let you know my thoughts on it.

 

[dieselsamurai]

they tell everyone about the potential charge, its to stop vexatious callouts made so they can stand there and yell at the engineer (and yes it does happen.)

generally if you haven't smashed the kit up or done something stupid, you wont be charged.

flashing purple is no line detected. plug it into the test port behind the faceplate of the master, if it still does it its a failing hub or a line fault. if its a residential line and you give me the hub serial number, ill run a few line tests and let you know my thoughts on it.

Its a business account , im going to try to get there tomorrow , pretty sure its meant to have a sim card backup built in too but I might be wrong but that doesnt work as the only way they can work when it plays up is by hotspotting off a phone

I used to have a few contacts in BT that could help but most have retired now

 

[sickpup]

Yes they threaten everyone with the charge but I would recommend that your friend record on her phone what happens when it fails, its hard to argue with a video and often helps with the diagnosis.

 

[qwakers]

if you where to start recording me on your phone whilst i work then i would leave.

 

[MetalMonkey]

if you where to start recording me on your phone whilst i work then i would leave.

I think he meant the issue with the router....

 

[Ubique]

BT still have a legal obligation to provide a phone service - no so an internet service. Any service interruption should be reported on the phone service, citing dropouts / crackling / intermittent / worse when bad weather. You will not be charged for callouts to a phone service disruption, even an intermittent one.

 

[MetalMonkey]

You will not be charged for callouts to a phone service disruption, even an intermittent one.

You can be, if the issue is found to be with equipment which isn't BT's (i.e. inside the property).
They will clearly state that before they will raise the ticket for the engineers visit and you will have to agree before they will dispatch an engineer. Its been like that for yonks.

As I said chances are you won't be charged, and normally the engineers that come out are pretty decent and will often go above and beyond, but you still have to jump through the admin hoops to get there.

 

[500e]

It is strange how some recorded conversations even ones supposed to be on your account/notes disappear when there is a problem.
Was at a friends who was having on going issues and was told I will put that on your notes, the next week was there for usual chat and coffee and he was talking to them again about the problem.
He said it is in my notes silence, then was told Nothing here about it so he played his recording of the conversation to them embarrassed silence, I will admit he then lost the plot! but this has being a 6 month saga.
This has happened 3 times he thinks it is just to wide a problem on the network to sort out so ignore.

 

[dieselsamurai]

from memory the router is plugged into the master socket and there is literally nothing other than the power supply plugged into it , everything is wireless no extns or network cables.

To me if theres a loss of service even intermittently i dont see how they can charge for a visit but with my engineers head on if I turn up to a job and everything is working its difficult to prove where the issue lies

but I see what you say filming the router playing up would provide some evidence

 

[Red'n'Black]

I think everybody gets threatened with the extortionate call-out charge, I've had Openreach engineers out a dozen times over the years but even when it was an intermittent fault that didn't show up on the day I never got charged.

ADSL was terrible round here on crackly old lines, voice service is still terrible but I rarely use it now. We got upgraded to fibre to the house a few years ago, the speed was a huge improvement but the reliability wasn't. It worked perfectly 99% of the time but when it broke it would stay down for days and as it was so new most of the engineers didn't have a clue how to diagnose it, they were still carrying the kit for the old copper lines.

Eventually after I showed them all my router logs showing every time it dropped out and it tallied with their own records, a guy showed up with the right TDR gear and knew how to use it, he spent an entire afternoon finding and fixing a load of poorly made splices. It's been fine ever since.

I should look into ditching the voice service and porting the number over to one of the VOIP providers (mobile signal very patchy round here). The copper phone lines are all being phased out anyway next year, so I keep being told.

 

[Beanwood]

from memory the router is plugged into the master socket and there is literally nothing other than the power supply plugged into it , everything is wireless no extns or network cables.

To me if theres a loss of service even intermittently i dont see how they can charge for a visit but with my engineers head on if I turn up to a job and everything is working its difficult to prove where the issue lies

but I see what you say filming the router playing up would provide some evidence

I was referring to filming the master socket- if the lights on there go off (and it’s not the power supply to the master socket) then it must be BT side