AndyC Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 Hey folks Right, as some of you may or may not be aware I've had no internet connection at home since January. I'll tell my tale of woe for anyone thats interested below, but to cut to the chase, if you are considering switching ISP or need broadband for the first time or whatever get these guys onto it: www.bethere.co.uk They are absolutely awesome . I don't say that lightly, but far too often people are quick to criticise and far too slow to praise. Be really are first rate, customer service they way it should be. So, to give you some background to how I've ended up with them and the problems I've had, also it may mean that someone can avoid dealing with the numpties that I've had to. It all started in January, I was with Orange as my broadband supplier. When I first moved to my flat over a year ago I signed up to (what was) freeserve as I'd had them in previous places for years. Freeserve then changed name to Wanadoo but that was still all ok. Then they chaged to Orange - what a joke. It was all absolutely fine until it had been Orange for about a month, then the connection started being very slow and then it started dropping the connection more and more frequently until it just stopped working altogether. So I rang up Customer Services (thats a misnomer if ever there was). I explained my problem and ran through all sorts of tests with them none of which sorted the issue. Orange continually tried to blame BT but I just wasn't buying that - particularly as I'd had absolutely no issues with my landline - bear in mind its all operated on the same piece of copper coming into your home. After 4 weeks of countless phone calls, complaints, moaning and me generally getting very angry and annoyed at their never ending layers of admin I got them to cancel the service - I'd just had enough and they were getting nowhere. Around that time I was gettng bombarded by Sky's broadband offering - no doubt you are too. So I checked out some customer reviews, which, to be fair were very mixed. But the offer of broadband at £5 per month was too good to resist, so I placed my order at the end of Feb. All of the equipment landed a few days later and I was due to go live on 5th March. That date came and I installed everything according to their instructions, it all connected fine except the internet light wasn't lit on the modem. So I rang Customer Services - here we go!!! I spoke to quite a helpful guy in their Scottish callcentre who did all the usual line checks and everything else and confirmed that he couldn't see what the problem was so he passed me through to Tech Support. Which is based in India I think, now please don't take this the wrong way - I am in no way whatsoever racist (if you know me you'll know nothing is further from the truth) - but I don't think it is much to ask that I am able to understand everyone they put on the phone, some were absolutely fine but a couple you just couldn't understand a word no matter how closely you listened. Again, I had countless coversations with this team, every one of them was nothing short of an hour. Each and every time I called they ran the same checks, asked me the same questions and filled in the same forms on their computers all of which when you answer a yes or no gives another set of questions. I can't stand these people (tick box people - I encounter them all the time in my work), as they have absolutely no common sense at all, also I don't think it is much to expect that a "Technical Team" has some form of technical knowledge. Eventually I lost my rag and was told not to worry as I would now be passed to "Tech Level 3" - well woopty bloody do, what the hell does that mean? Well, what it means in reality is that you get to deal with another bunch of numpties that have no idea what they are doing and can't resolve your issues. Even within their "3 day service standard". Nor do they ring you back, even when they have promised to. On more than 1 occasion. Well, on more than 10 occasions if you want to really get into it. All along Sky's system was showing that my internet was connected and there was no problem. Even though that little light never lit up. And they were sending me all this bumph through the post telling me about all the wonderful things I could now experience with their wonderful broadband service, boy did that get me Cutting a long story short, again I gave up. And really kicked off. And got a MAC code, even though they'd never got me connected. And got all the money back from them that they'd taken even though they never provided me with a service or connected me. So, I was beginning to think there was a common denominator in all of this - me or my place or my line. Anyway, then I was put onto Be (link above) by an IT mate. So I placed an order not expecting to get anywhere at all. But first impressions were better than before - they've got a great website, nice & simple and kinda catchy and on my level (not dead techy). Which you can track the progress of your order each & every step. Added to that they give you some dial up details while you're waiting to get connected so you can get some form of internet (albeit very slow!). They also text you to let you know what is going on (for example your modem has now been dispatched and will be with you on .......) All of the stuff arrived as promised and on the date I installed it all and then the little internet light wasn't lit AGAIN!! Here we go again were my thoughts, or words to that effect. But in fairness I did try to get it working after I'd staggered in from a Friday night out so I figured I may have done something wrong. So the next day, I checked through everything and it still wasn't working. So I rang their customer services which is also a foreign call centre (this time in France I think) but their English is all fantasic and they really know what they are doing. But more than anything else their customer service is absolutely first rate, completely refreshing. The agent i dealt with asked me to hold for a few minutes while they ran a line check with BT. Within a couple of minutes they came back to me to confirm that there had been an issue with the internet connection by BT at the exchange but they had raised it with BT and it would be resolved in 3 working days. This was 2.30pm on a Saturday afternoon. Fine I thought, at least I know whats going on. Just before 3.30pm that same day I got a text from Be confirming that my problem was sorted and I could connect, yeah right i thought! More crap where they don't know what they're doing. But how wrong can you be, it worked!!!! Within an hour of me reporting it. And having to get a 3rd party involved btw (and that being BT as well!!!). I then got a phone call the next day from another agent at Be just to check that I had been able to get on ok and that there were no other problems. They then texted the day after to confirm all still ok. Absolutely stunning service and a total change from virtually any other company (be it internet or not) I've dealt with for a long time. Other great customer features are: - you can raise tickets (issues) online and also check on their status - the agents there update it all the time - if you have got an issue that you can't get sorted or are struggling to follow what they want you to do they will remotely access your modem or computer and put it all right for you - they speak to you in normal English without all this techy jargon - they've got a update on the phone system saying how many people are in front of you in the queue All in all I can't get over just how good they are and have been for me, absolutely incredible and I can't recommend them highly enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 currently with sky. Can't complain about the deal. £5 per month with a free wireless router and 8meg line and 40G usage per month. You have to be a sky subscriber. Unfortunately the call centre is in India so not totally the best if any problems but I have got them sorted if anything happens. Happy with it all so far. I know orange are having problems. My mate could get online but it was very slow. Customer service was terrible and he couldn't get the problem rectified. In the end he found out of a forum that his router had downloaded new settings and that was the cause of the problem. Orange were unable to help him or find the problem. He sorted it out himself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyC Posted May 3, 2007 Author Share Posted May 3, 2007 Have had the download thing with Belkin products before - they don't tell you anything about it. Like I said I have heard mixed reviews of Sky - the people that have got connected say its a great service and have been connected with no problems at all. The issues are for people that can't get connected - Sky appear to have absolutely no ability to rectify the problems and their Customer Services leave a lot to be desired. I guess its like any new service - there are bound to be teething problems. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 agree on the customer service. The thing is they themselves know that the indian call centre is causing them more problems Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest prescience Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 Agree with the above about Sky - neighbour had terrible problems getting going but service is now fine (as I noted before, I use it myself wireless ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M13KYF Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 what the neighbours Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest prescience Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 what the neighbours Yup - but to be fair with their knowledge, I have lent him my XP desktop PC cos he bought a new one with Vista and can't get hardly any of his old peripherals going - but that's another story And yes, that means I have his Network key Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarnie Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 Can you access the hosts computer?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest prescience Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 Can you access the hosts computer?? Don't know - would have no idea how to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sarnie Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 Can you access the hosts computer?? Don't know - would have no idea how to Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sl114 Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 Can you access the hosts computer?? Don't know - would have no idea how to So you dont either! Do not go with Virgin Media, its awful in the evenings as its very very slow! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jim Posted May 3, 2007 Share Posted May 3, 2007 I'm still with BT, despite having been through all of the Indian call centre problems to try and get my line speed up to what I am paying for (8mb) without any real permanent success. I just can't be bothered going to the hassle of changing so I'm stuck with a download speed of around 1mb. So in the end I gave up. They constantly blamed the internal wiring in the house, even though a BT engineer came out and got around 4mb at both the master socket and the extension I use! The other thing that puts me off is having to change my email address again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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