Normal Service

Well, that was fun. Late on Wednesday 18 July, or early on Thursday 19 July, my broadband gave out, and when I picked up the phone to inquire there was no dialling tone. On Thursday at work I logged onto BT's website, registered the fault and my preference for email communication, and was informed of BT's pious hope to get back to me within twenty-four hours. Twenty-five hours later, having received no email, I telephoned BT from work and asked what was being done. Someone in a call centre said they would find out. A few minutes after hanging up, I received an email to the effect that BT had glanced over the problem and thought something might be done about it by close of business on Wednesday 25 July. They also apologised if this was more than the three days which constitute BT's ideal of telecommunicative promptitude. The email also said that BT would continue to update me by email. On Monday, having received no updates by email, I logged onto the website again and discovered that the cheery "we think we can fix it" had been another pious hope: BT now intended to send an engineer to my home on Thursday 26 July. They also apologised if this was more than the three days which constitute BT's ideal of telecommunicative promptitude. Thursday was a work day, so I used the website to reschedule the appointment to this morning, which in BT Standard Time means anything between 8:00am and 1:00pm. Rather to my surprise, the engineer did arrive, and had to ring all the bells at the front door because BT had failed to supply him with the flat number, despite the fact that they require that very same flat number as part of the identification process when I telephone them. The telephone fault has now been fixed (naturally, it was in the exchange, not in my home at all), but my broadband service remains intermittent and unpredictable; although, predictably enough, my ISP says it is BT's problem. BT, I am told, are working on it.