When will this be bloody activated?

First they sent a faulty hub 4 so today they sent a hub 5. Was told I needed to wait until midnight for it to be activated but it hasn't been activated, so rang up and I'm now told to wait 3 business day's for activation. lol

So which one is it? Till midnight or three day's?

Had BT installed last tuesday and the phone line died in half an hour, so had to have an engineer out two day's later to fix it. He said the first tosser had actually cut the phone life off at the exchange.

Anyway, he said we needed a hub 5 because there was a problem with the 4's being faulty. Then the person on the phone however said we needed a hub 4 and not a 5, but the 5 came today.

My BT account is showing that all services are active, even though it say's my first lot of equipment still hasn't been dispatched. lol

What a shower of shat this company is.

A week later and all that works is the fecking phone line.

No internet and can't get BT sports or on demand services through the youview box.

I'm giving them until friday, then cancelling my direct debit and they can fetch all the equipment back.

Worst company I've ever dealt with.

Cancelling the direct debit is never a particularly good idea - it might make you feel good for a while but it won't be much fun if BT starts trying to send debt collectors on you, while you continue not to have a working internet connection in the meantime. There are established processes for ongoing disputes with internet providers and it's better to get a cancellation that way.

You'd be better off emailing the BT CEO. Their executive relations department is very good at sorting out these problems very quickly.

Hi moox, thanks for the reply.

Just after I had it installed the engineer said that there'd been a problem at the local exchange for a couple of weeks, which his mate had pretty much gave up on, so the phone line might not work right away.

However it did work until it was cut off, and over the phone they told me that the problem at the exchange had been fixed.

Tbh with you I'm starting to think that the problem at the exchange hasn't been fixed, and that BT have installed everything knowing that they have problem at the exchange, which could take god knows how long to fix.

I'm wondering where I stand if I have to cancel, because I actually had to have a completely new phone line installed, which is £130 for just a phone but free if you order broadband and TV as well.

I've read something about having to pay for work carried out (new line) if you cancel the service, but don't fancy paying £130 for a telephone line that can't deliver broadband or BT Sports. I only had this line installed for broadband and BT Sports, and have no interest in a landline for calls, as I use a mobile for all calls.

I would strongly suggest emailing BT's CEO - as I said, they are generally very good at sorting out monumental f-ups such as this. You may or may not get a reply from the CEO (past CEOs did reply personally, don't know about the current one) but you will get one from someone in a high-up complaints team.

I had a friend who had a similar problem (though he had no phone or internet, it initially worked but stopped, as if it were disconnected somewhere). He had weeks of getting nowhere with normal customer services, but a week or two after sending in an email it was all working and he had generous credits for his trouble. He got several emails a day from BT telling him exactly what was going on and when it should be fixed

The more formal route is to use http://www.ombudsman-services.org/co...nications.html but they won't act unless BT has had 8 weeks to sort it out

On your hub, what lights are on? There is one for broadband (which I think means that it is connected to the exchange equipment, or the street cabinet for fibre) and one for internet. Is the broadband light on?

OK Moox, thanks mate.

EDIT

Sorry Moox I didn't see the last part of the message. Here's a pic. The lights are solid orange, not flashing.

http://oi59.tinypic.com/15zrz4p.jpg

Have you tried accessing Hub Manager to see what happens when you select connect.
http://192.168.1.254

Hi GONZO,

Yes mate I've done that and just end up being given a number to ring.

Got an engineer coming out on thursday.

According to http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/d...-hub-5-mean%3F, a steady orange light means that the hub is connected to the exchange equipment (there is a broadband signal on the line) but it can't connect to the internet.

Why that needs someone to come to your house, I don't know - it's a problem that isn't in your home, and could probably be fixed remotely by someone competent. The problem is getting someone in BT who actually is competent (they exist, but they're shielded by people who aren't).

I don't know why they say the hub needs to be "activated" as I don't think that is true. The hubs everyone gets are identical, you could plug in someone else's hub or plug in one you got off of eBay, and get onto the internet using your account, as far as I know.

I guess if you don't get any satisfaction on Thursday it would be time to email the CEO

Hi Moox,

Even though it say's on my BT ID account that everythings been activated, it appears to me that it's not, and the HUB just needs activating remotely like you said.

Anyway, I've contacted the CEO already and received a call from one if his top people, who's dealing with everything now, and compensation has been discussed.

Everything should be sorted by thursday, hopefully.

Update.

Engineers been here for about 2 hours, ran tests, spoke to his manager and other people in the UK, spoke to technical support in India and the Philippines and ended up arguing with them.

He say's the hub won't sink (he's tried 4), and that he thinks that someone has entered the wrong IP address or something when trying to activate the broadband and that's why it won't sync.

Communications between the engineer and abroad is a shambles and laughable.

The blokes said I'll just have to cancel because he can't fix it and is at a loss at what to do.

He spoke to someone in the Philippines and immediately told them there was a syncing issue, only to be told, 25 minutes later that there was a syncing issue, then that nothing could be done at there end. lol He ended up asking her why the **** she kept him waiting 25 minutes for something he already knew, and told them immediately about. lol

Ended up rowing with someone in India too.

BT is a bloody ridiculous company to deal with.

I'm in contact with one of the CEO's main people and getting the lot cancelled today

Can't believe they are still in business tbh.

I've never really had issues with other companies I've dealt with before, but BT really are a joke to deal with.

Update

The engineer has just rang up, and said that he's changed something that was faulty in the exchange, and he's coming back to do further tests.

I think this has been the problem all along, that the original problem with the exchange, which the first engineer said his mate had been working in for two weeks and had pretty much given up on, hadn't been fixed.

Apparently now the engineer has been given permission to change faulty equipment in the exchange.

Is the "engineer" going to call up the Phillipines / India again to apologise for messing them around?

lol

It now works, after changing equipment in the exchange.

I guess it might be a dodgy (or more likely misconfigured) line card/port on line card? Any other equipment failure would be affecting a lot more people than just you

As I say, with BT you have to persevere until you find someone competent and who has the authority to actually do things. A lot of the Openreach techs seem to be competent but don't have much freedom to try things

I don't know what he replaced but he had to get permission from BT to do it, so like you said, they don't have much freedom to do things.

I felt a bit sorry for the engineer tbh. He was a decent bloke and BT are a pain to deal with, even for him.

Everythings up and running now anyway and I've been given two months free service.