I've been getting cheap phone calls, gas and electric with The Utility Warehouse for a long time and have been happy with the service. I also had their 512k broadband at my previous address for a year or so and it was good, if not the fastest broadband service ever. Really, this company is good for cheap services - for the most part I'm happy.
However, had a nightmare Internet experience came when I moved house. Bear in mind that I had only moved half a mile to a newer, larger place and was on the same exchange!
The process went like this:
1) Before the move, I rang TUW and asked them to move my broadband service with me
2) A few after the move, my PC now unpacked, I found I had no broadband, so I called TUW and asked what was going on... "you've moved you say.... no we were never told about that, we'll have to cancel your subscription and start up again from scratch". So, mildly miffed, I arranged that.
3) Phoned again a week or so later. "It should be working now - it's been activated" - but it wasn't. I'm fairly laid back, so I tested the line for a day or three, as maybe they were just being a little optimistic about the activation date.
4) Three days later, I spoke to another person with a different view of what was going on "I'm afraid it is not yet LIVE as far as BT are concerned, they need to get an engineer out to the local exchange". This person sounded a little unsure, so I rang straight back and got the same story as in part 3). I mentioned the comments from the other person I'd spoken to, but was told that they were mistaken. So who do I trust? Note also that every time I call TUW, I have to wait for 20 minutes listening to musak before I am connected to someone who can "help".
5) Called BT anyway.... "The line is active, best you speak to your ISP"
6) Called TUW and went through a whole load of technical adjustments to my internet connection setup (this is one the that was working fine at my previous address and had not been interfered with since). No luck.
7) Repeated step 6 multiple times over the next few days to appease verious different members of TUWs inept technical support staff, whom I was interrogating to find out the route cause of the problem (was it a TUW prob or a BT prob). After several attempts to "correctly configure" my internet setup (I spoke to various levels of support staff over a period of a week or so), they came to the conclusion that it was definitely a BT fault and that I would have to sort it out with BT.
8) Called BT... they checked the line... "line is active and working fine"
9) Called TUW, "line is not working... call BT"
10) Played piggy in the middle for a few more phone calls. BT were eventually persuaded to come in and check the line, but only 'cos I insisted, TUW weren't prepared to talk to BT wholesale directly - the ball was firmly in MY court.
11) BT tested the line, sent an engineer out to replace various phone sockets, they cut me off three times in the process over the course of a week or so. Getting pretty fed up of project managing the whole thing now - all I wanted was a broadband connection in my new home - I didn't want a second IT related job!
12) After repeating steps 8 - 10 many times and not being helped much by either party, I gave up and got online with Demon. I relate this experience below.
1) Apply online to Demon and get a welcome pack the next day
2) Can't connect, so phone Demon, they talk me through my Internet setup and quickly conclude that a) it is correctly set up already and b) accept that I know what I'm doing
3) Demon liaises with BT and insist that they fix my line.
4) BT comes, fixes the dodgy connection in the local exchange and I'm online instantly.
A somewhat shorter process I'm sure you agree. All it took was a support engineer who knew his stuff, was prepared to listen and had the backbone to press BT for a solution!
To cap it all, two weeks after getting online with Demon, I receive a letter from TUW... "Sorry, I'm afraid broadband is not available in your area"!!!!!!! Nice. |
