Details were recently released on who the nation think is the worst broadband supplier.
Guess who managed to be right there at the top of the ‘Most Complaints List’?

TalkTalk tops UK complaints list

Here’s the stats:
TalkTalk – 0.58 (complaints per 1,000 customers)
BT Retail – 0.43
Orange – 0.37
BSkyB – 0.20
Virgin Media – 0.15

Nice!

It’s really sad to see TalkTalk up there again – they’ve consistently been having problems and have been in the news for bad service. Still, they are obviously still running a business that people wish to buy from.

Not surprised to see BT there though…

I call it the ‘British’ syndrome ~ somehow some companies get a reputation that contradicts the truth of the matter, and people trust them despite what the evidence tells them. In the case I usually use, how many older people still use British Gas because they use the word ‘British’? despite usually being more expensive and offering poor service. Royal Mail is another…

Well, I suppose we can only wish that these stats get somewhere toward giving us consumers a better level of service…

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I have recently assisted a long term client with their move from Sky to Virgin boradband – a simple process, thanks to the router which we installed, with added ‘expandability’ – we managed to effect a smooth transfer without re-programming all his equipment.

Happy so far 

This is all well and good ~ however, there was an issue with configuring his new Virgin Media email – all the setting were entered as per the help documentation, but this still seemed to fail. Working on the fact that sometimes email systems take a while to set up, I advised our client to test it again in the morning.

Cometh the morning – not cometh the emails

Call Virgin – who told me that they had neglected to update their own ‘help’ system with the details of the email system they were now using.
Oops…

Enter the amended details and voila – email flood.

For you all with a similar issue – try these settings:

Under the ‘More Settings’ bit on the email configuration choose the ‘Advanced’ tab and set the following

• This server requires an encrypted SSL connection – tick
• Use the following type of encrypted connection list, choose SSL
• Outgoing server (SMTP) – 465

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“And so this is Christmas” ~ or so the song goes…
It’s a time of joy, and peace to all…
A time of happiness and excitement…
Except, it would seem, for postmen!

I visited a client to fix a few minor issues bugging them – the replacement of a failed DVD drive, mainly unused – the installation of a printer, used occasionally by one member of staff etc…
Whilst sitting at the desk of a user – directly in front of the main buildings front door – in walks the postie, carrying the usual business cheer (read bills!).
“Post” – says Mr. Postie
“Not me mate” – says I
Mr. Postie seems to take extreme umbridge at my reply and literally throws the post across the office, onto the floor (raising a few eyebrows I can say!) – Mr Postie walks out…
Just getting to the door (and because he’s SUCH a big man he waited until then) he shouts “Yeah, but you still effin’ work here don’t you”
“No! I don’t work here!” – I replied.
Mr. Postie walks pat the window giving me ‘The Eye’.

Christmas brings out the best in some people…
I guess he just got dumped or something!

Sigh..!

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BTW – it only took BT 10 days to rectify the problem referred to in the previous post – 10 days without Internet or Email, that will have cost my client £££s!
Grr…

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So BT, those lovable rogues, have decided to cut off one of our clients for not paying a bill THAT DIDN’T EXIST!

That’s right – the client cancelled the BT broadband, so BT decided that they would cut the client off after they didn’t get money for a service they were no longer providing.

Not only did they decide that the client could no longer have the cancelled broadband on the line, BT cut the entire line completely – meaning that ANY broadband on the line would no longer work, i.e. the company that was now supplying the broadband on that line.

Now this sounds like a bit of an inconvenience, and may be relatively minor for most companies, in this case though the clients systems are mainly Internet based – no Internet = no business. Also the client has multiple branches connecting to head office over the Internet – no Internet = no branch access to the head office…
You get the picture…

As usual there is no admission from BT, no acceptance of any fault on their part, and no apology coming – why oh why do we have to put up with this???

I’m popping over there tomorrow, though I think there is little I can do.
The ‘earliest’ BT can get an engineer out to “verify if there is an issue”, is THURSDAY!
Like this is any kind of solution – it’s costing the client £000′s

I’ll restrain from venting the true depth of feelings I have toward this once useful company – it’s their complete dominance in the telecommunications market that makes them blasé at best.
Suffice to say that regular readers will note my usual unhappiness with them…

Sigh…

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Now its no secret that I hate post.
The thought of getting something nasty through the post disturbs me immensely.
It’s mainly due to the fact I seldom get anything good through the ‘snail mail’, just the usual junk, bank stuff, and demands for money (bills).
Only within the week of my birthday do I get interested – for obvious reasons…
Yep – I hate the mail.

So I get a letter from BT.

Reading said letter gives me advanced notification of our telephone line rental being increased by 50p per month.

Now some of you reading this might recall a few articles I posted about the proposed ‘Broadband Tax.‘
For those uninitiated, it was a government tax of 50p per month added to fixed phone lines, and paid to BT, ostensibly to pay for getting broadband to the masses. ← For this read “grossly unfair”

This proposal was dropped by the government.

Now is it coincidence that BT have raised the line rental by the exact same amount?
Personally the cynical side of me thinks not – have BT simply decided that this is a good idea and done it anyway, or is something more sinister going on – that the proposal was not dropped by the government at all…

Sadly the masses won’t even blink at this raise, and BT’s profits will once again exceed the GDP of some countries.

All hail capitalism

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