I would advise anyone that has had these problems to: - Contact the BT Chairman's Office and make a formal complaint - Contact BT Wholesale, inform them of your problems, and ask them to investigate - Get a Director's home address from Companies House - write to them at their home address - Contact Ofcom - Write to your MP, and ask them to contact BT and the new BT Chairman on your behalf - Contact Watchdog - If you use broadband for work, contact the BBC's Working Lunch - Contact the media and newspapers - there is a public interest factor to this I have been in touch with BBC Look North, and they are interested in possibly doing a story but would want to interview and identify people in the story. This is not particularly good for me, as I work as a software and web developer; the last thing I want to do is advertise the fact that I have broadband problems! If you're willing to be interviewed, contact the BBC and local BBC news. However, there are clearly many people being affected, and many being fobbed-off by BT. We should not have to pay for broadband when we do not get that service. I specifically upgraded to 8Mb. I knew that I would not get 8Mb, but on average it has been 2Mb. Since July, it has been less than 500kbps. I know a person who has lost her business because of these problems. 15 years gone in a matter of weeks, thanks to BT. In my case, in addition to all the problems, BT lied to me. I know it is time consuming and a hassle but things will not change until BT hear enough people complaining and it hits the media. If BT carry out work and upgrades that disrupt our lives, we should not be charged for that and we should be compensated for any losses. Please, if you make the time, write and complain to these people; as citizens, we do have the power to make things change and improve. Thanks Darren

There are a number of exchanges and areas of the UK where customers and businesses are experiencing serious disruption to their broadband service as a result of BT problems at exchanges or on the BT network, and due to work being carried out by BT. I have experienced slow broadband, no broadband, slow latency, DNS failure, websites not loading, intermittent connections and extremely poor service from my ISP, BT Yahoo, and BT. The bulk of these problems have been caused by problems and work being carried out by BT at the Goole Exchange. My problems started in July, two days after some scheduled update work was started to try to resolve on-going congestion problems. It started with very slow, unusable speeds. My download speed fluctuated between 6kbps and around 30kbps. I could not upload at all. I could not retrieve my emails into my mail client. My broadband was completely unusable. What have I been paying BT for? This has been a big problem, and especially so for me as I work from home. I am also reliant on the Internet in other ways too, as I am disabled. So having fast, reliable broadband is vital for me. The problem went on for weeks. I was calling "technical" support every day, and they were just sending me around in circles. I am pretty sure that this is done by design to some degree, a sort of management technique. However, from my perspective at the time, I needed to be sure that there was no problem my end. So, I turned off my firewall and anti-virus software. The problem still remained. I uninstalled my firewall and a/v software; still no change. I then replaced the router and all cabling with new equipment - still no change. Then, I tested with two other computers, one of them new. And guess what – I still had the same problem. I decided to take my PC to someone else I know in a different city and when I tried connecting to his broadband, there was no problem. So, I was 100% sure that there were no problems my end. Several weeks had now passed and I had lost a lot of income and business. I had also lost a client because there was end in sight to this problem; I had no way of knowing when the problem would be fixed. Throughout all this time, "technical" support just kept saying the same things over and over again. They simply ignored the evidence that clearly pointed to a problem either at the exchange, or with BT's servers, or somewhere on the BT network. There had been a reports on local radio from people in my area, who had called them as they were having problems and getting no response from BT. There are also forums on the Internet where people have detailed their own similar experiences. BT staff also lied to both myself and my wife about work that was being carried out at the exchange. This happened on more than one occasion. It is simply not acceptable for this to happen. We were also given incorrect and conflicting information from different members of staff. If I documented all the problems we have had with BT during the past 8 weeks, I’d need several more pages; this is just a snapshot. Nine weeks on, and there are still problems. I have been in touch with other people in the area that are having the same problem – though not everyone is affected. You can see evidence of the work and problems via these links: BT Major Service Outages Exchange Status Checker Exchange Status Checker Please Note: the ETA fix time on the last link just gets updated and goes on and on and on. If you have experienced slow broadband, websites not loading, inability to retrieve emails, slow latency, DNS failure, gateway failure, then do not assume the problem is on your PC. The problem could be at the exchange or on the BT network, or as a result of work at the exchange. I would advise anyone who has had problems like this in the Goole area or elsewhere to formally complain about their problems and the service they have received. The same applies if you think you have been mis-sold a broadband package. I would advise that you write to the Chairman’s Office. Please contact me if you would like a name and address to write to. Do not be fobbed-off by technical support; if you are sure or confident that any problems you might be having are down to BT, complain about it to the Chairman’s Office and BT Wholesale. If you would like me to do this on your behalf or would be interested in a collective complaint, then please feel free to contact me. I would advise that you write to the regulator; write to your MP (he can write to the new BT Chairman on your behalf); contact your solicitor; contact your local radio station and news channels. If you have lost any business or money as a result of such problems, I would like to hear from you. I have ended up losing thousands, as well as clients. If anyone is planning legal action, I would be interested to hear from you. From people I have spoken to already, I think there would be enough people to form a collective or class action. I would also welcome any constructive advice on this.