BT FTTP - Any horror stories?

[thetapeworm]

I need to change my broadband provider, I was with Virgin on a 200 Mbps connection but that was horrible, dropped out constantly through the day, went down for days at a time and support was awful. Local issue I believe and people still with them appear to be having the same woes still.

I'm now on a 4G option with Three, it's not working out, speeds were great for a month and around 50Mbps average with decent bandwidth but then once the cooling off period ended my speeds have been measured in Kbps and if more than one person is connected it's unusable.

My house is in a development that's missed out on fibre so only copper options exist with the usual suppliers and 2Mbps seems to be my limit on that, however BT recently put their fibre in locally and I can now go for their FTTP options, expensive as they are.

Whenever they post online to advertise the responses are that the service is awful, I just wondered what the great people of PH thought of them?

Appreciate that, like Virgin, local install / config issues can be factor but just wanted to gauge general opinion. I could take out the business option that promises "always connected" but it's considerably more expensive for a slower service just to add some assurances. I realise all ISPs can't guarantee flawless service 24/7 but I'd like to think I could go through a contract (24 months!) without more than 24 hours downtime in one hit.

Finally - with FTTP why am I forced to have a phone line in the bundles? I get why you would if it was a dial-up modem or conventional internet but surely with full fibre it's unnecessary?

[thetapeworm]

Thanks for your replies, I had wondered if I could look elsewhere for a provider on FTTP but presumed as it was a new roll-out I'd be stuck with BT for now, some more research needed

My speed test results from the ISP Review tester might give you an insight into my desire to end things with Three!



But eventually...

Edited by thetapeworm on Wednesday 8th January 16:18

[thetapeworm]

Thanks again to everyone that's replied. I have a good look around at alternative providers, contract terms, equipment supplied etc and kept coming back to BT.

So I had a quick web chat with them on Friday and they said they could do a deal on the Ultrafast 250 package at £39.99 a month, a significant saving. A number was provided to call to order.

So today I called, spoke to a very abrupt chap who said the web chat deal was impossible and it would cost me £54.99 a month and was adamant I also needed their WiFi guarantee and to spend extra on the mesh repeaters because I live in a 3 storey house.

I got annoyed and said goodbye.

Will retry on Monday in case I just got a dick of representative unhappy with working on a Saturday but a bit disappointed I didn't screenshot or save a copy of the web chat. It did ask for my name, address etc but I presume they don't keep copies.

[thetapeworm]

45Flipper said:

Tapeworm, I’ve recently moved and found BT fttp the best deal, however, don’t purchase it direct from them. I used Quidco with a £110 cash back offer, £90 prepaid card from BT AND free prime for a year. That was for the £39.99 offer too. It works out at ~£28 per month. I’m more than happy with that and doing it online means I didn’t have to talk to any pushy salesperson either. A quick look at Quidco this morning I could see they were offering up to £115 cash back and a prepaid card still.

I did much the same this morning and placed my order so hopefully Quidco will come good - £115 cashback and a £90 prepaid card - no Prime but my wife already has that for a few quid a month anyway.

No doubt the next deals will be for £1,000,000 cashback now that I've committed but hopefully by the end of the month I can be free of 144p YouTube and only having one of us doing anything at a time.


Edit: Quidco just confirmed cashback of £85 rather than the £115 advertised.

Edited by thetapeworm on Monday 13th January 11:46

[thetapeworm]

7w7 said:

Those prices are quite high.

I assume you can't get Hyperoptic? They seem to avoid areas with Virgin.

Currently pay £26 and get 178/150 (much more than I need).

Edited by 7w7 on Monday 13th January 12:36

Sadly no Hyperoptic or and of the other options like them currently but maybe by the time the BT contract ends we'll be in a new world of choices.

[thetapeworm]

Bikerjon said:

Internet providers use poor Wi-Fi as an opportunity to sell their broadband service, but in reality the Wi-Fi part is highly dependent on the building/surroundings. People should regard their internet connection as one thing and the Wi-Fi as another, but they generally don't see it this way!

One of my pet hates is people complaining their "WiFi is down" when it's the Internet that's the issue or, as per a recent article, media outlets reporting things like "Virgin to roll out free WiFi speed update to millions of customers" when in fact they're killing off some of the slower legacy packages and putting people on what was Vivid 100 (I think it's M100 now?) - their WiFi will remain the same at a potential 450Mbps unless they have a really rubbish old router.

[thetapeworm]

OK I think I'm just destined to have a rubbish ISP experience at this house

BT just didn't bother to come and do the preliminary work to the house today as expected, it got to 17:00 and was dark and with the actual engineer appointment to complete the setup tomorrow morning I thought I'd better give them a ring.

So I called, apparently there has been an issue with sorting out the phone line I don't even want and this has delayed the process, it took an hour to find this out and had I not called I presume I'd have just been waiting in all morning expecting the chap to not turn up.

They're now "looking into it" and will call me between 8am and 8pm tomorrow.

A disappointing and avoidable lapse in communication and it worries me this is going to be indicative of how they might be for the next 24 months of the contract, I'm just glad I haven't cancelled my existing provider just yet.

[thetapeworm]

Today was supposed to be my BT FTTP "go live" - it's far from it.

After they didn't turn up on Friday to connect the house up I called and chased as the engineer to complete the setup was booked for this morning, "something" was wrong, the order hadn't completed correctly, they'd call back today between 8am and 8pm.

So at 7pm they called, "something" is wrong, it's a system thing, the order has been rejected due to the phone line part of it, they don't know why (there's a phone line, it was active until last June when I cancelled VIrgin), they've tried twice but "computer says no". It's now escalated to Openreach for further investigation and they say they'll need to "wipe the address clean" of line history.

Apparently this takes 5 days, they'll call me next Saturday, again between 8am and 8pm with an update.

Had I not called yesterday I'd still be here waiting, none the wiser as apparently their "systems" haven't worked properly.

A pretty woeful first impression and now I'm going to have to keep throwing money at Three for their joke of a 4G service until this is sorted out, very disappointed, if I had a viable alternative I'd cancel the order.

[thetapeworm]

My install eventually went ahead and they bunged me some compensation for the delay.

It's been solid as a rock since, very happy with it, albeit at slower speeds than you as I only went for the cheaper package.

I certainly haven't missed my rubbish 4G Internet