HI EVERYBODY

Tan Hill is very disappointed to announce that currently we are not able to offer the webcam and Wifi service

If after reading this letter you feel that you would like to assist us in the battle against BT please Click here and fill in the form to show your support.

The Story is long and convoluted but basically we have been let down once again by BT surprise, surprise, this may of course sound familiar to some of you!.

As a bit of background, many of you may not know that like all other services (electricity very expensively via a Generator, kW/hr = 35p, water from a borehole) the telephone has no wires, it arrives over the ‘airwaves’ via what is known as a ‘Microwave link’ this beams the signal from the telephone exchange at Bowes direct to Tan Hill some 7.5 miles (12kM) as the crow flies.

When we first moved in 4 years ago we asked BT can we have Broadband? Please be aware we have a Microwave link, yes of course they say, took 6 months of major grief for BT to finally say ‘we cannot do it as the link you have is analogue, it needs to be digital’ and were not prepared to upgrade the link. Remember the word Analogue!

We were contacted by Mike Fox (now unfortunately deceased) who ran BT satellite service across the world via Goonhillydown, he was so embarrassed on behalf of BT that he arranged for a Free installation (we paid the monthly charges) of a satellite dish, unfortunately BT sold the service to a company called RDS and the service was atrocious, sometimes it worked, other times it did not, unfortunately customers who unwittingly downloaded high volume stuff got us barred (no warning the system just went off) and it was extremely slow due to ‘someone’ I leave to your imagination who that might be, having oversold the service, as we ended up with a 70/1 contention ration. But at least we had something.

Last year we were contacted by RDS to tell us that the service was being terminated at the end of Feb 09 and a new satellite dish would need to be purchased etc, etc. We were so unhappy with the service received from RDS that we did not believe the new offering would be any improvement so we were not prepared to pay….BUT HOLD THE FORT HERE…… BT had some months earlier upgraded our Microwave link from ANALOGUE to DIGITAL, WOW. Our IT guy Mark Byrne (all round good egg) info@purepcs.co.uk checked around the world to see if it was being done elsewhere. Lo and Behold Broadband was available around the world in other remote areas so he arranged a visit from a BT Engineer on the 5th Jan 09 to check it out.

I took a day off work (I have a ‘day job’ in the UK Tunnelling Industry) to meet this character, he did not turn up, but we had telephone communication, it turned out he was not an Engineer as agreed, just a salesman. However, after a long phone discussion on the day during which I re-iterated innumerable times that we have a microwave link, no wires, and being reassured that it was ok we have just checked the line again, we agreed, went ahead, received and signed a contract.

Now the fun begins, we asked for an Engineer install knowing the potential problems, and that the Engineer be conversant with the link, what a waste of breath that was, Engineer?????? turns up, just an ordinary Joe used to installing in ordinary houses! Scratch head briefly, disappear telling us we need ‘kit’ installed in the Telephone exchange, Blah! Blah! Blah! Much toing and froing followed all to no avail, no can do, but they have never properly explained technically why, we do not believe it cannot be done.

But we said we have a contract, please honour it!, after spending much time e-mailing the customer services dept and getting no satisfaction, I wrote to the Chairman and CEO to complain, then we received a letter (at no point did this letter refer to my complaint) from BT legal department writing a complete load of rubbish, answering none of my specific points. He wrote to say that following a survey they can not provide a service due to the length of line to Tan Hill. Good God man we have probably the shortest line possible, from the exchange to a dish outside some 20 metres!! It beggars belief, plus of course they had done a survey several times.

I also quote from their Legal dept letter “our policy is to accept all broadband orders from applicants and we are committed to trying our best to deliver a reliable service. However, all orders for ADSL broadband are dependant on a survey of the applicant line, which has to be of a suitable type and quality and fall within the reach of ADSL coverage.
If the line test and survey show that BT cannot provide the service to the customer, we will notify the customer as soon as possible and the request for service will be cancelled, without liability to either party”

So, when is a contract not a contract? When BT chooses it not to be, it would appear.

Bear in mind all the work we had done to get a line check done prior, trying to get an Engineer, we had an appointment but they did not turn up.

At the end of the day they keep saying they cannot do it, this is not true, they could, but they choose not to, perhaps because it falls into the ‘too difficult box’

We have actually found a piece of equipment that appear to do the job, costs about £150 plus installation, we have offered this to BT plus offered to buy the equipment, quite why they do not know about it already might make you think? We await their response; check the kit on the link below.

Long Range Wireless Outdoor Broadband Data Transmitter

We are currently in communication with the Chairman and CEO office

BT Group Chief Executive Ian Livingston. ian.livingston@bt.com
Assistant to the Chairman and CEO, Martin Jones. martin.2.jones@bt.com
BT customer services Angela Davidson angela.2.davidson@bt.com
Our MP Rt Hon William Hague thaguew@parliament.uk;

And the real ‘Piece de resistance’ is that billing after us early on, we advising their customer services of the situation they sent a mail advising this billing would be cancelled, we are now being threatened with an external debt collection agency as of the 26th April. We had a very similar situation 4 years ago first time around.
Time in court would be interesting to say the least.

I do not know quite how to describe the way that BT has behaved, it appears that here we have perhaps the largest Communication Company in the World and they can not Communicate internally, it appears as though there is no central Database with all the relevant details visible to all the different departments within BT.

If after reading this letter you feel that you would like to assist us in the battle against BT please Click here and fill in the form to show your support.

 

Mike and Tracy
Tan hill Inn