Computer not booting up properly

[Richard]

Hassle them.
Just tell SKY you are leaving them, they will ask why, mention constant router issues and they will probably issue a new one rather than lose your custom.
Also try asking for a discount on your contract and they may offer one.
I tried that with Talk Talk and they looked into my account, said I had not had one before and offered me a better rate.
Worth a go!

[seahermit]

Thanks Richard. I already told Sky that I wanted to end the contract in view of the problems - they were completely disinterested and merely denied that there was a fault anywhere.

Not much I can do for now until I can somehow get specific evidence of a problem. And I am keeping a log of all the outages - that's some kind of a start.

Sky will only do something when they are pushed. Later, if all else fails, I will just stop the Direct Debits whether they like it or not and call it a day.

I'm not bothered about getting a discount - would be quite happy to pay twice as much for a service which actually worked, that's what's important!

[UncleB]

I currently use PlusNet broadband which has been the fastest and easiest to get support for (the first BT Openreach engineer sent out to install a new line made a real hash of it and I had to get another out to fix it) - in contrast I have also used SSE broadband which gives a good service but support is often a long wait.

Both services are fine when running (60Mb/s download speed for Plusnet and around 30Mb/s for SSE) and both used the old phone cables running into 100+ year old houses.

These werent the cheapest but I need a reliable connection for work and they are not much more than the cheapest options out there.

I tend to avoid the big companies for the very reasons you mention. PlusNet advertises as a much more friendly solution and they have proven to be that so far (the BT Openreach issue is something unconnected to them).

I hope that helps when you look for alternative suppliers.

[Richard]

I have heard good things about PlusNet.

Might try it myself.

[seahermit]

Thanks, again that's very valuable. PlusNet seem to have garnered a good reputation for themselves - they are of course part of the BT empire but not closely associated. I think I am moving towards switching suppliers eventually, I can hardly get a worse service!

BT are crooks and BT Openreach not much better. There was a fault on the phone line, even the engineers were quite honest about having to go back to the exchange and renew some old equipment ("we don't replace it until it goes wrong"!). But shortly afterwards PO Phones tried to pass on to me a bill for £130 for faulty equipment at MY address - however, I had done some research into this (common) trick, also made notes of every conversation and phone call, so I was able to quote chapter and verse to them and dare them to take it to formal proceedings if they so wished. After some very blunt letters from me, I was suddenly informed by PO Phones that no charge would be applied - no apology or explanation. Soon afterwards, I changed to Sky Broadband!

I have written to Asda Mobile, they must surely have a way I can register and connect without having to shout down a phone line, so we'll see.

Never had so many computer issues as this time round!

[seahermit]

Had the Samsung tablet almost two weeks now and still cannot get it connected to Mobile Broadband! And WI-fi didn't work the last time I tried (maybe my Sky connection was down again). Asda Mobile have not replied to my message via their website about how to register a debit card online (no phone call).

I also wrote to O2 to tell them that their SIM, which they sent me for the tablet, doesn't work. No reply, of course.

Is it as bad as this in other countries? You would imagine that networks would atleast go to some trouble to help new customers, even if the service afterwards is pretty awful ..

It also irritates me a great deal that the websites hide the phone number away in some obscure corner and usually there is no normal email address displayed (only, if you can eventually find it, the "message us" box or a geographical address). Isn't email nowadays the quickest, easiest way to communicate?! I think it should be a legal requirement to show an email address.

I will keep pestering until someone gets fed up and responds.

[UncleB]

You should be able to have an online chat with O2 using their link:
https://www.o2.co.uk/contactus
In the very bottom right there is an option to chat to us online - hopefully that will get some progress.
I always find it best to create a document with all the info and questions so I can copy/paste into the chat to speed things up as it can get repetetive if they pass you onto another department.

Asda support looks the same:
https://mobile.asda.com/help/getting-st ... r-services
Bottom right is the icon to Message Us.

With the live chat you can leave the window open while you wait for a customer service person (or bot in some cases) to get to you - patience is needed in large amounts.

Not many sites use email addresses any more - that is a technology whose time is limited.

[seahermit]

Thanks for that. I suppose I have been wary of exploring live chat/online chat services because it's new territory and I'm a bit sick of complicated technology! I don't at present have a camera on my PC, so no video calling .. Will have a look at it ..

I have never understood the predictions for the demise of email - it still seems to be ubiquitous and how could anything be more convenient and easier to use on even a cheap smartphone? I suspect that it's the same as with things like CDs - they were supposed to be on the way out years ago, but they are useful in some situations (and more difficult to accidentally erase than memory sticks) and many people still like them. I noticed recently that someone is marketing a little portable tape-recorder! I can't imagine what advantages it might have over other digital recording devices.

[seahermit]

Recently seen ads for small typewriters - electric ones and even a totally manual one with a ribbon! I'm with the dinosaurs - we shouldn't be so fast at ditching old technology, it's simple, so easy to repair. And for many years great novels (and news reports) were bashed out on a manual typewriter, it all worked perfectly well.

[seahermit]

I know I should have given the networks' online chat services a try but I am afraid I chickened out - partly because of poor experiences so far with customer services people, also because the situation was not simple and I foresaw difficulties explaining things properly via messaging.

I don't see what is so terrible about a letter or email for a complex problem and in the end O2 did reply to me - but only after a fortnight and by then I had finally managed to get the tablet connected to EE! (Never got any response from Asda Mobile).

EE are not my favourite network, poor reputation for customer service, but their shop in Hastings was very helpful - still took them ages to get the tablet up and running (why is it so complicated?).

Worth it in the end, .. I think. The tablet (Samsung Galaxy Tab A7) is a beauty, works very smoothly and I can top-up online from anywhere at all.

The desktop PC has calmed down, the Windows 10 updates went on for three weeks and brought everything else to a complete halt. The Sky broadband connection still goes every few days or so, so I still need to get that checked out.