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On Sat, 2009-02-14 at 19:29 +0000, Shaun Orchard wrote: > > > BT only make a charge if there is a fault that is caused by a > customers equipment and the customer insists on a callout. > As pipex asked BT to provide the engineer visit and no fault > was found in any case there is no reason to charge the > customer, i.e. you. > > Or indeed occasionally when it's not the customers fault. > > When my exchange finally got ADSL, I was itching to get connected. So > I went with Zen, and was paying for 2Mbit. Eventually I was connected > and my modem connected at 2272/288 with lots of SNR and not much > attenuation (great). Except for when I actually tried to download > anything, or run a speedtest, where the maximum I would ever get is > 1Mbit (almost dead-on 1024k). I would get this at 10am. 6pm, 3am, it > was completely consistent. With multiple computers, multiple OSes and > multiple modems. > > After prodding Zen, who couldn't see any fault on their end (which is > correct, since the BT speedtest login and the BT speedtester did the > same thing), they eventually got BTwholesale to ring me. Many times I > asked whether it was an exchange fault or whether it was contention, > where I was told "no". They couldn't find anything wrong either so > they wanted a technician to come out and I agreed. > > He came out, plugged in his modem and laptop, waited 15 minutes to > boot, and he only checked to see if I was syncing at the right speed > (yes) and that the BT test username worked (yes) and that he could > stream a video using his test application (yes but that's not a > scientific test). I got my laptop and modem out, logged in with the BT > speedtest username, ran a BT speedtest, and got the blisteringly fast > speed of 700Kbit. He didn't know what to say and left. > > When the next phone bill came, I was charged the standard BT call out > fee as if the fault was my own. And as if by magic, a month or so > later, I was able to download at 2Mbit. > > So sometimes it's not a customer fault, but the customer is still > charged for it. > > Shaun > > You were able to demonstrate to the engineer that there was a problem with the download speed despite the test results. Tests are an indication of what might or might not be wrong. A line testing ok when you know there is a problem,as appears to be in your experience, doesn't meen no fault existed. I can't remember how long a time scale BT give customers to challenge a charge,even after it has been paid, but it is possible. I have been having similar problems with Sky recently where my line speed consistently dropped to half of what I had been getting. All their tests indicated no problems but it turned out to be a setting at the exchange. Ray -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html