Horrible,slow and a rip off - Telewest sounds better (BT Openworld ADSL)

Member Name: Dazz

Product:	BT Openworld ADSL
Date:	29/06/02 (135 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: Cant get through to technical team, Can't use the service, Not helpful in the slightest

Having been using BT to connect for years I was always partial when deciding to connect to broadband with BT. To add icing to the cake, they offered me a free modem and filter pack, and charged just (sarcasm) £85 to activate a line, which took them very little time or effort (thats what the technical basically told me), and £30 a month, well, £29.99.

Well, I encountered my first problem when one of the filters didn't work, after finally getting through they sent me a new filted six days later, not three as promised.

Next up on the agenda...The corrupt disc, having been dialing for 36 hours (not constantrly, but a few times an hour, started off constantly but I got fed up) I got through to someone, who asked me what number disc I had received, he told me that the disc I had was faulty and they had found that out 3 or 4 days earlier, I staright away asked him to repeat my email address to me, he told me it, so I asked him why they hadn't emailed me (and all people who recently ordered broadband) aking to check we had the right disc, he told me that it was a good idea, it took me 5 seconds to think of and they hadn't thought of it in 3/4 days!

This happened Monday the 24th of June, its now Saturday the 29th and I am awaiting my disc, which although promised next day delivery, when I phoned and asked about this, they told me that it was due to be delivered on July 3rd...But they couldn't explain why when I asked them, I was hardly suprised...after all, my activation date was origanlly July 2003.

So you would think that I would have no more problems, no!, but you'd think so wouldn't you. When out at my local shopping centre on Friday (28th June) they phoned me and asked me to connect to Btopenworld, I asked them why they phoned my mobile to ask me, and they said that no one had answered my home phone! how stupid of them, if I'm not at home I cannot connect, I then told the lovely lady that even when I got h
ome I couldn't connect as I had a faulty disc, and then she apoligised and told me she didn't know, fair enough (although she should have known).
So am I done, you'd think so wouldn't you, today (June 29th) I recieved yet another phone call on my mobile, from the same department as the day before, they asked me to connect, I explained about the day before, he then told me he knew nothing about that, so why don't they speak to each other, and why after many phone calls have they still not given me my disc.

Just an update my disc has now arrived (Tuesday) but it still doesn't work, unfortunatly everyone in the technical team tells me to uninstall and then reinstall it, as if thats going to help doing it again and again. After I do as they say they all then gave me a different ending, if it's not 'the filter doesn't work;, its 'the disc is faulty', or 'you are red flagged' or 'your pc needs formatting', or leave your pc on for 48 hours and it will be sorted out from our end.

Saturday 6th July:I received a phone call from the technical team and they infomred me that they found an error, they had my activation date as being the 1st January 3000! Don't ask why, and now I need to phone the billing team on a weekday when they are open and hopefully it should work.

Monday 8th July:I phoned the office and they told me that the line would be reactivated in the next 24 hours

Tuesday 9th July 5.45pm: I phoned the technical team 31 hours later (the billing team were shut) and I couldn't get throught and I still can't, after speaking to someone else who agreed with me that the service was toilet and that Telewest would be a better option (and never even tried to make me reconsider switching) and as soon as I can I am getting a refund, its been 3 weeks to the day it was meant to be activated and they have no intention of doing anything, the complaints team havent emailed
me back in the last 3 1/2 days.

Tuesday 9th July 8.15 pm: After phoning their technical team and being engaged and waiting for 60 minutes, I gave up with them and I decided to phone againt but select a different and the bloke who ansered the phone agreed about it was ridiculous how long I was on the phone for and then when I asked him why I should stay with BT Aand not switch to Telewest he never gave m a reply but told me to speak to product sales who were just as unhelpful. As soon as I can get through to them tommorow I will get a full refund and then most probably change my ISP connection to Freeserve as I can no longer stand BT, they are pathetic.

Sunday July 21st:
My new ADSL modem arrives and as soon as i put it in I'm connected to broadband, so it turns out all along that the only problem was my alcatel modem...and a faulty filter...and a faulty disc...and my activation date, but its all solved a month after I wanted the service and apart from the slow dial up as it take ages to verify my username and password its very good.

The worst thing is that I am still paying for this service. I would never reccomend that anyone orders this broadband from BT.

Summary: