Router problems

[Donnywolf]

Was with BT till 2015 .. Unknown to me my Contract was up but I thought it was still running as they took the same payment monthly

My Router played up and eventually they sent an Engineer to confirm it was not my "equipment" If they found it was I would have to pay £140 as the Router had become mine

Engineer arrived and assured me it would be the Router. He proved it was .... went to the Van got a new one and I was up and running. No charge will follow he said. Next Bill was duly 140 quid higher.

I battled BT for weeks but the best I did was get them down tp 70 quid ...Then I left and told them why

I moved to Plusnet (yes I know) and my second Contract has just expired and you guessed it the Router seems to have gone pop. They insist on sending openreach tpmorrow to check my equipment and if its my fault will charge me £65.

The guy on the phone said it is a sync problem and wont be the Router so my question is .....

is this a routine scam. Has it happened to others.

Any advice apart from watching and acting before my Contract expires ?

[albie]

I don't know about the scam potential, but if the router is playing up just reset it.

If you turn it off at the plug, leave it 30 secs then turn it back on, it resets. It has this ability because it needs to cope with power cuts.

You can also do a factory reset.
At the back of the router there is a small pinhole, usually next to the on/off button.
Put a pin in, press and hold it for a few seconds, the router will go off and then reboot itself.

Give it 5 minutes to settle before trying your internet again.

[Muttley]

Isn’t Plusnet part of BT anyway?

[RedJ]

I don't know about the scam potential, but if the router is playing up just reset it.

If you turn it off at the plug, leave it 30 secs then turn it back on, it resets. It has this ability because it needs to cope with power cuts.

You can also do a factory reset.
At the back of the router there is a small pinhole, usually next to the on/off button.
Put a pin in, press and hold it for a few seconds, the router will go off and then reboot itself.

Give it 5 minutes to settle before trying your internet again.

This is a good shout. Most users won't ever need to have changed any settings either so the only thing it's realistically wiping is your login if you wanted to dial into the router's web UI, which again a lot of people never alter from the default.

[ravenrover]

My daughter has just had a similar problem with BT the connection on the box broke when she reported it £140 for a new box or we can send an engineer out £70, put me through to the cancellation department was her next comment.

[albie]

Here is a link with a bit more detail than my post above;
https://www.lifewire.com/resetting-a-home-network-router-818061

Worth a go as it costs nowt!

[Donnywolf]

Hi Albie .. Thanks for both suggestions .I kept turning it off and on for longer and longer periods until I kept it off for 8 hours overnight

It still did not work and i did Factory reset using top button and the paper clip button at back

It lights blue for maybe 10 seconds each time then back to flashing Amber. Time for a move or a better Contract

I need to but a Router off ebay but suspect Engineer will conveniently have on tomorrow !

[i_ateallthepies]

I've had an Elu router for last 25 years without a minute's trouble.

[Donnywolf]

Problem solved - so to answer my OP it appears this was not a "scam" with the Router developing a fault just when it became mine

Problem was the Green Cabinet about a mile away where they were some wiring issues - and though BB is working again it is only pumping 3.4 Line Speed instead of my "average" 17. Needs some more attention in a day or two.

Till then will have to struggle on !

[silent majority]

Problem solved - so to answer my OP it appears this was not a "scam" with the Router developing a fault just when it became mine

Problem was the Green Cabinet about a mile away where they were some wiring issues - and though BB is working again it is only pumping 3.4 Line Speed instead of my "average" 17. Needs some more attention in a day or two.

Till then will have to struggle on !

I have a spare router (brand new) if you would like it Wolfy!

[Donnywolf]

Many thanks SM but they have fixed my problem - "exonerating" my suspect the Router

I am now going to source a new Supplier for Broadband and that will give me a new Router and other hardware but many thanks again for the offer !

Cheers DW

[Filo]

Many thanks SM but they have fixed my problem - "exonerating" my suspect the Router

I am now going to source a new Supplier for Broadband and that will give me a new Router and other hardware but many thanks again for the offer !

Cheers DW

The broadband will come down the same cable and same green cabinet no matter who the supplier is

[RedJ]

Unless it's Virgin who have their own don't they?

[Donnywolf]

Many thanks SM but they have fixed my problem - "exonerating" my suspect the Router

I am now going to source a new Supplier for Broadband and that will give me a new Router and other hardware but many thanks again for the offer !

Cheers DW

The broadband will come down the same cable and same green cabinet no matter who the supplier is

Agreed - and the problem - the loose Fibre Cables in Green Cabinet will still need to be fixed !

Im ready to move on though - to Virgin or Sky who will maybe give me a "get a better deal" directly or indirectly when I tell Plusnet I'm off

[Filo]

Many thanks SM but they have fixed my problem - "exonerating" my suspect the Router

I am now going to source a new Supplier for Broadband and that will give me a new Router and other hardware but many thanks again for the offer !

Cheers DW

The broadband will come down the same cable and same green cabinet no matter who the supplier is

Agreed - and the problem - the loose Fibre Cables in Green Cabinet will still need to be fixed !

Im ready to move on though - to Virgin or Sky who will maybe give me a "get a better deal" directly or indirectly when I tell Plusnet I'm off

I was on sky but when I hit problems they refused point blank to get Openreach out, insisting it was a problem with my equipment, it turned out in the end, when I’d moved to bt that my cable was old aluminium wire and it was corroded, they swapped me onto a spare wire, but won’t replace the cable with copper, most people on normal broadband are getting much faster speeds than I do on fibre

[Donnywolf]

Unless it's Virgin who have their own don't they?

I was just looking them up and they must have their own sytem totally because they say so

Also in Q&A there are Qs like "will you have to dig my driveway up " and "will you have to drill holes in my Walls" etc and the answers both said yes - unless you have been a Virgin Customer in the past

It has put me off them ! Sure its great if they are totally independent but the potential disruption has done for me !

[Rios]

This is something I deal with everyday and it's definitely not a scam.  The Openreach penalty call out charge (ie if the issue is within your building rather than outside) is now £400+ for businesses.  It's to try and make the ISP's do their diagnosis properly.  You'll find at the bigger ISP's like Sky that they now have their own team of engineers, who generally are no more competant than PC World employees, but who come out and replace routers, cables, etc.

The big names are all pretty much the same especially when it comes to customer service as you've found out to your cost.  There are a number of smaller players out there though who do things better.  Zen have placed top of the PC Pro ISP awards for 14 consecutive years beating all the big players on everything (including customer satisfaction) except cost... and that's the kicker as they are a couple of quid more expensive a month and there's no TV package, mobile, etc.  But if you're at the end of your tether with being treated badly then I can wholly recommend them (note I don't work for them, we use them extensively at work and the customer service is impeccable).

As Filo has pointed out above it all comes down the same copper for standard DSL and FTTC, so moving ISP's is purely a choice now on cost, router abilities and customer service.  Moving to increase your speed or reliability among the big players doesn't work if your connection is already slow and/or unreliable.  That's a problem only Openreach can fix... and good luck getting them to do that as that generally involves having to spend a lot of money that they can't recoup from the customer...

Oh and unless you're in a Virgin cabled area (there's a checker on their site) then you'll get the same bog standard DSL/FTTC that the rest of the ISP's provide.  Virgin have neglected to expand their network in the way they should have since they bought it from NTL/Telewest due to the high cost of having to dig up roads and driveways.

[Donnywolf]

Hi Rios

Thanks for that - a really comprehensive description of the market complete with Pros and Cons

I thought the Router was a scam as my BT Contract ran out - and they made no attempt to tell me (why should they - my responsibility) and so when the Router went and it had been struggling for Months they would not replace it as they said it belonged to me as I was not on a Contract !

When I left I went to Plusnet (allied with BT) and I have done the same "trick" in going out of Contract. So when the Router went "down" in a 24 hour spell I suspected a rat - but as reported above the fault has been found in the Green Cabinet

Was now reviewing my options (asap) to see if I can get a better deal by adding Speed if possible. Considering Sky because I pay them for Sports and Entertainment anyway via NowTV App but (heres a techno dunce question) if I get the SkyBox it will preumably be hard wired as is my Youview Box now but will there be a Wifi signal so I can pick up Sky Sport on my second TV as I do now or is it a case of doing something else

Cheers again DW

[Filo]

This is something I deal with everyday and it's definitely not a scam.  The Openreach penalty call out charge (ie if the issue is within your building rather than outside) is now £400+ for businesses.  It's to try and make the ISP's do their diagnosis properly.  You'll find at the bigger ISP's like Sky that they now have their own team of engineers, who generally are no more competant than PC World employees, but who come out and replace routers, cables, etc.

The big names are all pretty much the same especially when it comes to customer service as you've found out to your cost.  There are a number of smaller players out there though who do things better.  Zen have placed top of the PC Pro ISP awards for 14 consecutive years beating all the big players on everything (including customer satisfaction) except cost... and that's the kicker as they are a couple of quid more expensive a month and there's no TV package, mobile, etc.  But if you're at the end of your tether with being treated badly then I can wholly recommend them (note I don't work for them, we use them extensively at work and the customer service is impeccable).

As Filo has pointed out above it all comes down the same copperfor standard DSL and FTTC, so moving ISP's is purely a choice now on cost, router abilities and customer service.  Moving to increase your speed or reliability among the big players doesn't work if your connection is already slow and/or unreliable.  That's a problem only Openreach can fix... and good luck getting them to do that as that generally involves having to spend a lot of money that they can't recoup from the customer...

Oh and unless you're in a Virgin cabled area (there's a checker on their site) then you'll get the same bog standard DSL/FTTC that the rest of the ISP's provide.  Virgin have neglected to expand their network in the way they should have since they bought it from NTL/Telewest due to the high cost of having to dig up roads and driveways.

Or aluminium in my case, and it’s the cost they say that stops them replacing with copper

[silent majority]

Wolfy,

The black Sky boxes that everybody has been used to are now obsolete and Sky Q is the standard for all new customers and replacement business. Its still hard wired but is much smaller and needs changes to the dish set up. However any other tv's in the house are now networked wirelessly to the main box, its just a smaller version. They operate on some type of wireless mesh network which doesn't appear to be particularly robust. It does work though.

[Donnywolf]

Saga over. Thanks all

I called Plusnet up (via Live Chat) and told them I was leaving. They asked why - and where was I going

I said Sky and they came back immediately with a 12 Month Contract for almost exactly what I have had for the last 3 years but for £10 a Month less.

Only change is I added Anytime Landline / Mobile Phone instead of Anytime Landline a difference of an extra quid a Month - so I am happy and glorious (oh no thats Rovers !)

Thanks again for all the advice everyone