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This is what I can never get my head round with BT - yes, 'cheap' providers like Talk Talk and Primus get bad rep but you pays yer money etc. But BT cannot in any way be classed as 'cheap' (in fact, I would say they are at the expensive end of the telcoms spectrum) but still get an awful rep. Is it the UK's apathy to change that allows these once nationalised industries to still prosper even in an age where there actually IS a choice?

What software?

I have customers still using HH 1.0s with no issues whatsoever. It sounds to me another case of those illtrained morons in India making it up as they go along - again!.

My HH was a 1, possibly a 1.5. The chappie reckoned that it now couldn't cope with the changed software/firm ware. I share your doubts about anything BT india say, but something had been going on for a week with reconnections every couple of days instead of the month plus I had been getting and an hour outage (precisely an hour) that suggested work was going on somewhere locally. He said they were trying to change all the HH1s as they were all going to have difficulties, until they finally stopped connecting. I didn't pick up whether he was saying the exchange equipment changing was the problem, or the new version of the software was killing HH I s. Its not an obvious problem for him to invent himself? If its a local exchange change, it may reach you later?

Luckily, I managed to wade through heaps under the stairs and amidst 3 unused HH1's that i remembered they had sent me unecessarily in the past when they kept on missing a line fault., I found a HH 2A . that seems to work - although its got negatives over the trusty HH 1. The HH1 by then still had DSL connected, but no internet connection . It still wasn't working when I recycled it several times, But the HH2 connected straight away. its now running some modulation called ITU -T which definitely is new.

I am pondering whether to wade through BT treacle and mindfields, to go back in contract to try and get a HH4 and try for a price cut - or to stick with the HH2 till they cut that off too. Their policy of saving money by inspiring a lack of confidence they can do anything right is working well for them.

Problem is there's no knowing whats better till, you sign up for it and see how it does when things go wrong or change. In the rural wilds there's not much choice anyway. The local exchange has no cable and only 1 LLU provider (talk talk) And the horror stories of people changing suppliers, downtime, and hastle if you lose things like email addresses, outweighs the inclination to try for something better. Its like banks. You suspect they are much the same, and the less helpful and incompetent they are, the more you wonder if they could ever transfer an account without enormous hastle.

So people put up with an expensive, rubbish service because of the fear that a new provider may be worse? I accept there are some people who have to go with BT due to not living in areas which have any LLU presence but even those will just talk talk can still choose suppliers that use the talk talk infrastructure but crucially their own in house CS. I believe the Post Office now piggy back onto the talk talk service and my supplier, Utility Warehouse, also do this but provide their own CS, which has always been excellent (and UK based). I chose them basically because they offered no min term contract commitment on their phone/BB deal so if they proved naff I could be out of there quick with no financial penalty. That was about 5 years ago!

If BT customers simply accept rubbish service for fear of moving supplier I just can't see BT even trying to improve their service any time soon.

I've been with BT for quite a few years now since moving away from NTL Freedom/Virgin Media and I've not found the service to be rubbish at all.
I've got no complaints with Infinity so see no reason to change provider at this time.

I wasn't suggesting there won't be satisfied customers, heck even talk talk have those as well. But BT do tend to come out in a pretty bad light in enough customer satisfaction surveys* to suggest they aren't worth the obvious premium they are charging.

* I have the latest Which? mag in front of me now which includes their phone and broadband suppliers customer satisfaction survey. Out of 10 suppliers BT came, yes, 10th!

Here's the list:

1. Plusnet 76% (Recommended Supplier)
=1.Utility Warehouse 76% (Recommended Supplier)
3. Post Office 60%
4. EE 57%
5. Sky 56%
6. TalkTalk 55%
7. Tesco 55%
8. Virgin Media 54%
9. AOL 53%
10. BT 50%

When you consider BT are the most expensive supplier on that list (and by some way compared to some) it's not a great result, is it? And to be beaten by talktalk

This is what I can never get my head round with BT - yes, 'cheap' providers like Talk Talk and Primus get bad rep but you pays yer money etc. But BT cannot in any way be classed as 'cheap' (in fact, I would say they are at the expensive end of the telcoms spectrum) but still get an awful rep. Is it the UK's apathy to change that allows these once nationalised industries to still prosper even in an age where there actually IS a choice?

Fair point made above, and I am someone who frequently changes bank, energy supplier etc, but the problem with moving from BT is that, when something goes wrong, it always ends up back at BT's door. I've tried O2 and TalkTalk in the past who both had to liaise with BT when something went wrong with the hardware. Now, this is just my opinion but, it seems to me that BT prioritise their own customers regarding repairs so if there is a fault and you are with a different supplier....... well, don't hold your breath!

That is because the likes of O2 and Talk Talk lease the lines off BT and then subcontract the work back to BT.

As regards your service if anything goes wrong. BTs agreement is with Talk Talk, O2, etc, and not you and so they will have an agreed SLA, Service Level Agreement with them. If the SLA between BT and your provider is, say, six weeks, then guess how long it will take to fix your problem. All BT will be concerned about is meeting their SLA with your provider, the fact you have no broadband during that time isn't their problem.

As for BT broadband, I've had it for over 10 years now and it has been faultless so I have no reason to change as a new provider isn't going to give me a "better" service than I already have.

I moved to BT about 3 weeks ago now and I have to say that the move was quite faultless plus I received my £40 Sainsburys card within a fortnight.

My one gripe is the internet connection side of things. I have one of the new homehubs and the signal strength is generally great. It shows 4-5 bars and is classed as excellent. But, if I walk away from the laptop and come back to it 30 mins later, it has dropped the internet connection. It still shows signal to the Homehub as 4 bars, but no internet connection. The only way to do it is to restart my laptop and then it fires up again. Very frustrating.