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“Poor Customer Service, Expensive”

written by markgl on 07/03/2012

I had been with Fast for almost 5 years. With increasing demands for bandwidth, I found that I was occasionally exceeding my download limit, with the result that speeds were strangled by them to slower than dial up. I decided to leave them but was offered their LLU broadband, which was a little bit cheaper and had a higher download limit. I decided to go ahead and sign up to the 3 month contract. However, I had nothing but trouble with their LLU service. The download speeds I experienced fluctuated wildly. The highest it ever managed was about 4MB, but most of the time it was so slow (average 0.13mbps) that it was practically unusable. I got nowhere with their customer services. At best they were disinterested, at worst rude and sarcastic. I actually work in IT but, as I am a woman they were patronising and presumed I didn't know what I was talking about. Their 'Helpline' shuts at 8 o'clock and on one occasion I rang at half past seven and it was very clear the guy who answered had no intention of doing anything because it was close to home time. I pointed out over and over again that my problems had a definite pattern to them - the internet was faster during non peak times but slowed to a crawl during peak times. Their reply was that 'there was something very strange going on here' and the fault must be on my premises. I tried two different routers, but the problem remained. They offered to send out an engineer, but I would be charged if no fault could be found. I was convinced the problem wasn't with my equipment, so I decided to leave Fast. I requested a MAC over the phone. I was told to email, which I did and received an email asking why I was leaving - no mention of the MAC. I eventually had to threaten OFCOM regulations (that MACs should be received in 5 working days), was told that the problem was BT Wholesale weren't providing the MAC to them (which I don't believe.)I requested the MAC on 27th January and, after several emails, received it on 9th February.
I migrated to SKY broadband and I have had no trouble with their service whatsoever - my download speeds have been much faster than they ever were with Fast.co.uk,(consistently 9MB+) and I am paying considerably less (presumably I was right and there was no fault with my equipment.)