h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

My broadband signal has gone. Five separate calls to BT's technical broadband help, most ending in a promise to call me back, which never materialises, hasn't resulted in any restoration of service. I'm at my brother's, to print out instructions on how to use my blackberry as a modem. I would dump BT in a moment if all their competitors weren't also so useless. Dammit! I may be gone some time...

Home again home again...

And the broadband signal's back! So as I suspected, the first so-and-so I spoke to at British Telecom, who tried to get me to buy a new router, was just towing the usual BT line of "it's nothing to do with us guv, it must be your equipment [a BT router by the way, which is 2 whole years old and which they say the no longer support] and we can sell you the very latest piece of equipment for which we'll try to convince you your 'old' one is failing".

Anyway. What a relief. Got the May/June newsletter coming up. That would've been 3 or 4 times as much work without the internet.

Thank you for your "glum" of sympathy Happy Nerd.

Glad you are sorted. I am with a subsidiary of BT and I have to say, to date, they are excellent, but I won't crow too much because you never know!!!!

I would be devastated if I lost mine.

Websailor

I spoke too soon, Websailor. The BT Broadband signal disappeared again by the next time I switched on a computer. It's back now - but who knows for how long. I live in dread of anything ever going wrong with my telephone or internet connection. The thought of having to deal with those useless half-wits at BT fills me with horror. Like this time... it's pretty well ruined my bank holiday. I was going to get a load of stuff sorted out for the newsletter - but had to knock that on the head. I seem to have spent most of it trying to squeeze some sense out of the hated BT - a company that no sense can be wrung from because they have no sense, no organisation, no sensible systems, no communication with their various, useless departments. The broadband signal disappears and they try to persuade you to buy a new router. They tell you to poke a pen or something into the back of your router to reset it - because that's what it says on the page of instructions that they're reading from. When you ask, "do you know the information to put back in, to replace the data you're asking me to delete?", they have to go and ask someone, because they don't have a clue. They're a nightmare! And they've just started following me on Twitter