Paying for a Service I’m no longer getting! But on a 12 month Contract (HELP)

[malice19]

I have been with O2 home broadband Access 8Meg package for about 6 months now.
Which has been great until recently, as in the last month my good speed which was
5.2Mb Download has dropped to 200-800KB and at one point my upload speed was better than my download speed.

I have called O2 and was told that they had to many O2 customers on my exchange so during busy times i would experience slow speeds. I asked what are they doing about it and was told that they are trying to upgrade the exchange to cope with the traffic but have no ETA on when this will be completed. Also that it is every one on this Home Access package will be having the same problem in the UK.

So im willing to see how it goes for now. To see if it will get better in the next 2-3 weeks but if not
Where do i stand if i am in a contract for 12 months but they are not providing me with any thing near the package i signed up for which is 8meg. Which as you can see is not even getting 1 meg.

Can i change to another ISP if O2 can not provide the package i am paying for?

Cheers for the advise

[malice19]

I got them to e-mail it in writing to me.


----------------------

What has happened?
Customers on our O2 Home Broadband Access package may suffer from
congestion at peak times.


What does this mean for our customers?
You may receive calls from customers who are receiving slower
throughput than they normally have attained when downloading large
files or doing anything time sensitive like online gaming or streaming
video.



We have prepared a statement for our customers;
Over the past couple of months, O2 Home Broadband has become more
popular than ever, with our customer base growing at a rapid rate. As
we get more customers, we’re hitting certain times of the day when
everyone wants to get at information at the same time.


We have noticed that customers that have the O2 Home Broadband Access
package may suffer from congestion at peak times.

This shouldn’t affect normal net surfing or emailing but if you are
downloading large files or doing anything time sensitive like online
gaming or streaming video during peak hours (5.30pm – 11.30pm) you may
find your speed slower and this is due to congestion. Think of this as
a traffic jam, as lots of people are trying to get down the same ‘road’
but the road isn’t wide enough at the moment. We are carrying out work
to make these roads big enough for now and future travellers.


Arif Younis
Broadband Customer Service Advisor
O2 Telefónica
Suite W, Arlington Business Centre,
Millshaw Park Lane,
Leeds, LS11 0NE

[CaptainCrash]

So im willing to see how it goes for now. To see if it will get better in the next 2-3 weeks but if not
Where do i stand if i am in a contract for 12 months but they are not providing me with any thing near the package i signed up for which is 8meg. Which as you can see is not even getting 1 meg.

Can i change to another ISP if O2 can not provide the package i am paying for?

Cheers for the advise

I'd be very surprised if your contract guaranteed you 8 meg, 5 meg, or any specific amount at all... if you want that kind of assurance, you'd need to get a leased line, and pay accordingly for the privilege.

I think if you examine the small print (and probably the large print for that matter), you'll see you signed a contract for "up to 8 meg", which could of course mean much less in practice.

You could of course change to another provider, but I'm afraid as things stand 02 are well within their rights to insist you pay for the full period you signed up for.

[malice19]

I'd be very surprised if your contract guaranteed you 8 meg, 5 meg, or any specific amount at all... if you want that kind of assurance, you'd need to get a leased line, and pay accordingly for the privilege.

I think if you examine the small print (and probably the large print for that matter), you'll see you signed a contract for "up to 8 meg", which could of course mean much less in practice.

You could of course change to another provider, but I'm afraid as things stand 02 are well within their rights to insist you pay for the full period you signed up for.

Ok i see what your saying and i know that even though i have an 8 Meg package i should still be provided with better that what im currently getting (800KB at best).
As before i was getting 5.2meg which they were providing with no problems. So now that O2 can not provided me with any thing near my origanal stable 5 meg they are failing to meet the service im paying for.

Ofcom has published a voluntary Code of Practice for fixed-line ISPs that requires them to provide customers with an accurate estimate of maximum line speed at the point of sale.

My estimate was 5Meg which i was getting before. So would expect 5meg for the service im paying for.

Cheers

[mehmeh]

Ofcom has published a voluntary Code of Practice for fixed-line ISPs that requires them to provide customers with an accurate estimate of maximum line speed at the point of sale.

I am currently looking at going with O2 myself and was going to mention the Ofcom Code of Practice, if you look on O2's website, they're very proud of the fact they've signed upto it. Ultimatly I would suggest having a read up on that and O2's T&C before making any rush demands out of them. End of the day you have to give them time to resolve the issues, I can see your point on not having an ETA, so you have to try and define a reasonable timeframe for them to act within. 2-3 weeks seems reasonable if its a local issue, but if its national, where do you even start?

I guess what I would do in your situation is give it a few weeks and if things havent improved contact customer services again, maybe even put something down in writing. Do it politely and praise them on the service prior to these issues (always good to butter companies up imo ). Doubtfull they'll let you out of contract, but you might find in the interest of customer relations, you'll get a bill credit or some other form of compensation.

If you really really want out, it could get expensive fast with legal advice and court action me thinks and I'm far from an expert, but would imagine they have covered themselves on this with it being an upto 8Mb service as already posted. Weigh that up against how long the contract has left and what it would cost to pay the remaining subs to free yourself and figure most people would go with the latter, no?

Good luck.

[LuckyNV]

That is the problem with O2 Access, it is on the IPStream network from BT meaning just about anyone can get it, and since they have no download limits people are clocking on to that fact and basically overloading the network.

[malice19]

That is the problem with O2 Access, it is on the IPStream network from BT meaning just about anyone can get it, and since they have no download limits people are clocking on to that fact and basically overloading the network.

Im sure your right on this and that this is an O2 Access Problem because my mate who live just 5 streets away and is much further away from the exchange than me is getting 5mb DL 374k upload.

Will see how it goes but hope O2 sort it out soon! I know one thing though, Im not going for a 12month contact again....

[Gooner5]

According to this the upgrades will be done within the next month or so.

[3xH]

If it is the speed at which your router is connecting to the exchange that is low, then this is a clear line fault and you need to report it as such. If you router is still connected at 5meg and you are just complaining about your speed dropping at busier times you need to stop moaning and wise up to how ISP's work. By its very nature ADSL is a contended service, you will not get full speed all the time for the sort of prices you pay for standard home user broadband. I doubt you are prepared to pay the thousands of pounds a year it would cost you for true 1:1 bandwidth.

Yes it would have been better to begin with, but with O2 and Be (The same network) heavily pulling in new customers it was never going to stay that way forever, especially when they offer 'unlimited' broadband.

If O2 say the capacity will be upgraded then it will be upgraded, but as it takes 60 working days or more often to provision leased lines from the time of order this is not just a question of flicking a switch. I'm sure they are working on getting it done asap.

[Rabs]

I got out of my last Virgin contract due to an oversubsribed UBR they just kept putting the date for upgrade back and back. I got a technical support advisor to add these notes to my account then called retentions and used the 'why should I pay for a service you cant provide'.

Its a little different with ADSL but check your speed at multiple times of the day and report a speed issue if its below 30% of your sync rate and try and get a date for an upgrade to the exchange pipes. If they give you a date and stick to it then all is good, if not try retentions then ofcom or complaints 3rd party the ISP uses.

The important part is are they making a reasonable effort to upgrade the exchange pipes? If not then thats what you complain about.

[icanhazburger]

A friend works for support at o2, are you on a BT ipstream exchange? ie one that is not unbundled so o2 cannot put there own equipment in it. Apparently they are having major speed issues at the moment, I can testify to this myself, but it should be sorted pretty quickly as there investing a lot of money in fixing it.

[davidcrofter]

Yeah as has been mentioned here, 02 Access is dependant on BT to do the upgrade on this service. So if 02 *have* ordered upgrades to this service it will take BT 3 months to carry out the upgrades.

As you may have noticed 02 had a major advertising promotion in November-January and have probably taken on far more than they expected (or can realistically cope with) - so my guess is that if they have ordered another Central from BT @ roughly £1 million then Access customers won't see any benefits of it until the end Of March at the earliest.

[malice19]

If it is the speed at which your router is connecting to the exchange that is low, then this is a clear line fault and you need to report it as such. If you router is still connected at 5meg and you are just complaining about your speed dropping at busier times you need to stop moaning and wise up to how ISP's work. By its very nature ADSL is a contended service, you will not get full speed all the time for the sort of prices you pay for standard home user broadband. I doubt you are prepared to pay the thousands of pounds a year it would cost you for true 1:1 bandwidth.

Yes it would have been better to begin with, but with O2 and Be (The same network) heavily pulling in new customers it was never going to stay that way forever, especially when they offer 'unlimited' broadband.

If O2 say the capacity will be upgraded then it will be upgraded, but as it takes 60 working days or more often to provision leased lines from the time of order this is not just a question of flicking a switch. I'm sure they are working on getting it done asap.

I would not mind so much if it was just during busy times but its this speed at any time day or night... 800KB is the best im getting at the moment.... I can basically use it for internet surfing and e-mail.... Downloading or gaming is out of the question.

I am going to see how it goes and hopefully they will fix it soon but im not putting up with it for another 6 months when its not my fault they took on more than they could handle.

Should have done the upgrade when they knew it was getting slow or could see how many people will be using them.

[Antagram]

There was also a Quidco offer for £70 cash back after two months, so that probably pulled in a lot of customers. Combine that with an O2 mobile number and you got a fairly cheap service.

[malice19]

I got out of my last Virgin contract due to an oversubsribed UBR they just kept putting the date for upgrade back and back. I got a technical support advisor to add these notes to my account then called retentions and used the 'why should I pay for a service you cant provide'.

Its a little different with ADSL but check your speed at multiple times of the day and report a speed issue if its below 30% of your sync rate and try and get a date for an upgrade to the exchange pipes. If they give you a date and stick to it then all is good, if not try retentions then ofcom or complaints 3rd party the ISP uses.

The important part is are they making a reasonable effort to upgrade the exchange pipes? If not then that's what you complain about.

Have been monitoring the speeds day and night.... at best 800KB ... normal 200kb.
They say that they are upgrading the exchanges to cope with all the new customers in the UK but they can not give me an ETA which worried me. how long should i wait? Want to give them a chance but dont want to be fobbed off over the phone saying it will be done.... One day?

[malice19]

A friend works for support at o2, are you on a BT ipstream exchange? ie one that is not unbundled so o2 cannot put there own equipment in it. Apparently they are having major speed issues at the moment, I can testify to this myself, but it should be sorted pretty quickly as there investing a lot of money in fixing it.

Cheers for the update, i know im not the only one but i feel like i could be the last one on the list as i live in a little village. Fingers crossed.

Cheers