Why don't you just port to someone like Zen Internet like we have done with our remote lines and BB feeds . Much Much less bother and yes whilst Openreach are involved there're like a different outfit freed of the BT "customer services" yoke;!... or should that be Joke?...
The last 20 years suggest that the Germans have got most things right.
since
The only provider of POTS lines here is BT, no LLU. This number move is onto the Residential POTS line that brings in maintained voice services and ADSL. As this is a "single point of failure" and I get serious grief if the internet is down for more than 5 mins I've got Totalcare on that line:
"Totalcare - operates between 7am and 9pm on weekdays and between 8am and 6pm at all other times. We aim to repair a fault within 24 hours of you reporting it to us."
They do as well, within a week or two of getting Totalcare we had a fault. Reported it just before 1700 on a Friday, BT Openreach chap at the door 0900 Saturday fixed before lunchtime. Without Totalcare it would probably have been Wednesday/Thursday before they even looked at it. The downside is that you don't appear able to report faults on a lilne with Totalcare via the website you have to speak to the nice people in "Bangalore".
The really daft thing is I have ported two numbers from the ISDN to a non-BT VOIP provider and that just happened with no fuss or problem.
No, they do provide business and residential lines, they just like others use BT 's cables and use Openreach to maintain them like BT do.
The good thing is they are in Lancashire not in a distant land. Its not LLU as such...
and
There will need to be an Engineer in number 10 before that happens.
Last time, it took a lot of explanation to convince them of teh nature of Totalcare...I had to ask the woman to talk to her supervisor as she was still quoting several days.
*marks for future use*
For the visible bits of cable I used the proper stuff. The BT guy could not see the strip connector that I had used behind the ceiling where I changed to alarm cable. Well, when I say I used strip connector what I meant to say was that I just twisted the wires together and then wrapped some insulation tape around he joints.
Only joking. TBH I could not find any insulation tape so I just used some masking tape.
I remember when BlueYonder existed, phoned them up with a fault at 13:00 on xmas eve and had an engineer fixing it an hour later.
I bet they wouldn't do that now Virgin run it.
Anything with the title of engineer and no formal qualification.
The term has been devalued.
At one time you had programmers, and higher qualifications such as system engineers and integrators.
So the programmers looked at the better jobs and pay and started calling themselves system engineers and integrators.
A bit like New Labour and sending everyone to university so a degree became essentially valueless.
Don't think the BT fault fixers these days are even employed by BT - all been hived off to cut costs.
So they don't have the time, the financial incentive, or the pride in the job to go that extra mile.
Some do, some don't - luck of the draw.
Cheers
Dave R
Sorry. The IET and I cross paths - I'm BCS.
There's a lot to be said for that. Trouble is in computers there are an awful lot of people who are self educated, sometimes because they invented the technologies.
Andy
How long ago?
The other month it slowed the process down as it appeared they had to check with Openreach to make the "appointment" for the next day.
I'm both!
There are ways round that. The institutes were looking (don't know if they ever got there) at admitting people with sufficient proof of experience in lieu of qualifications. That was going on for a long time though - my dad was looking into it about 10 years before he retired, but there was no route in place then (and he's been retired for 10 years). It was rather silly, he couldn't join the institutes, but he chaired BSI committees writing the standards!
SteveW
The IET are a bit tough on that (they're a bit hung up on 'job status' and how many people you manage). But it *is* apparently possible.
The BCS have had that in place for many years. SWMBO applied and was interviewed by a panel. Being the BCS at the time, it was all industrialists (she's in education) and they rejected her! She complained, they apologised for the error, set up a new panel and got MBCS with no trouble at the next monthly membership committee meeting. Strangely, I got my FBCS at the same meeting!
About a year or so.
They got the 'engineer' to phone me and we fixed a mutually convenient time. He was very good, arrived early at 0815 and had it all fixed by
0900.
I thought that when I was looking at moving up a grade in membership - as I 've spent almost all my time in research I've never had loads of people to manage. In the end I decided that since I wasn't looking to move out of res earch it was relatively unimportant to me.
I gave up too.
You had me going for a few seconds ...
I gave up when they insulted me.
I had recommendations from 4 fellows and they then decided I had to answer two (not the usual three) questions off one of their papers. The questions are stuff I could do at A level and I decided they weren't worth the fees.
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