To BangorBen's question of whether anyone has complained directly to BT (and apologies for what is a summary of another posting/rant of mine).
I spoke initially to BT's Indian call-centre last August. As a result of escalation I finished up speaking to a BT Customer Team in N Ireland who were fairly switched on and were initially very productive in solving how the benefits an upgrade that was to elevate Forest Hill into the upto 20Mbps range could be delivered to me.
They upgraded my package and then lowered my annual charges. However, the promised doubling of the data throughput rate as tested on BT's own software was inexplicably halved by BT to the utter frustration of the NI team. The NI team confirmed what the planned improved speed benefits should have been. Surprisingly they then complained strenuously that they could not get the BT Openreach team in London to explain why this reduction happened.
By December it was suggested by BT that I wait until the rollout of the FTTC phase (which should deliver upto 40Mbps) took place before pursuing matters once more.
The planned FTTC phase was pushed back some 3 to 6 months. It was interesting to see that Forest Hill was also added to the pilot rollout list for FTTP (ie fibre optic cable to the premises with speeds of upto 100Mbps) at the same time.
I hold the view that this is not Customer Care; it is not good project management; it fails to deliver promised service and speed improvements and that it is bumbling of the worst kind.
When it is evident that BT Teams within the UK cannot communicate with themselves, there is little hope that they will communicate effectively with their customers.
Having a third BT component that resides half-a-world away heaps ridicule on the ordure that is deemed by BT to be an acceptable level of service.
On the upside after a 25% reduction in speed throughput in January from December's "high", the month of February has seen a recovery of about half of that loss.
I have also become aware that TalkTalk and other ISP customers have been enduring poor levels of service too.