Luke Redpath
Ruby, Rails and other Musings

1. Comment by Johnny Hall on 29 Sep 2006 at 12:09

I had a similar problem which has left me without broadband until next week (I hope).

I had Telewest BB for years and never had a problem. Great service. Then I moved to a non-cable area and had to pick a provider. I picked Orange which was a big mistake. It was incredibly unreliable, it went down several times a day, sometimes for days at a time, and since I was using my own router, and not the p-o-s they sent me, they refused to check the line.

Eventually I gave up and cancelled the account. I’m hoping a vanilla BT account will be more reliable. I’m not hopeful. I also had to wait 10 days for the line become available again and another week or so to get BT to connect me again.

The ADSL system in this country is appalling. Markers, LLU, blah, blah. Rubbish.

Good luck.

2. Comment by Luke Redpath on 29 Sep 2006 at 16:09

Well, after talking to a nice woman at BT Wholesale today who informed me that the Sky order was still on my line, I got back in touch with Sky. After speaking to somebody who didn’t know what they were talking about I finally got through to customer services and was told that the cancellation was put through on Tuesday but can take up to 5 working days to complete. And after that, it could be another 10 working days whilst the line is “reprovisioned” whatever that means. Grrr!

3. Comment by Neko on 07 Oct 2006 at 15:10

I’m in exactly the same position – from Zen to Sky – I never managed to get connected to Sky (absolutely useless). Cancelled on the 20th by letter and email and despite numerous chases since then, including a conversation with a manager, the marker is still on my line.

Sky customer services are currently telling people it will take 30 days to remove a marker, which is nothing short of corporate sabotage and fraud.

BOO! Steer well clear of SKY BROADBAND.

4. Comment by Luke Redpath on 07 Oct 2006 at 19:10

Neko – do not give up – I suggest speaking to technical support instead of customer services as they seem to know what they are talking about a bit more. They can also put you through to provisioning who are the team who deal with BT. After several phone calls and emails including threats of legal action this week, my outstanding, incomplete LLU PROVIDE order has finally been cancelled and is indicated as such on BT’s online order tracker.

I still have a marker on my line but now the order has been cancelled I can ring the BT Wholesale marker helpdesk on Monday and they should be able to remove the marker completely.

If your Sky BB was never activated then you too probably have an outstanding incomplete order that needs cancelling before you can start worrying about markers.

5. Comment by barry on 13 Oct 2006 at 08:10

i have been without broadband since 14th aug thanks to sky..avoid at all costs.have a marker on the line which has been put on by a company sky has set up called easynet..now trying to get them to remove the marker ..i wont hold my breath..ofcom are useless .i think my next step is court action

6. Comment by Luke Redpath on 13 Oct 2006 at 09:10

Barry, as long as Sky have put through a cancel order, it is BT Wholesale who can remove markers. Ring 0800 169 0934, option 2, option 2. Easynet have been around for a while, Sky bought them out.

7. Comment by barry hambling on 01 Nov 2006 at 18:11

sky have told me they have removed the markers from my line ..checked with bt -wholesale ..guess what they are still there. bt have had no order from sky to remove the markers-after nearly 3 months i give up ..well done sky you win

8. Comment by Suzie on 03 Nov 2006 at 20:11

Oh my god, do I have sympathy or what! I moved in to a new property in July. I tried to get Homechoice installed but was told I had an incompatible product on my line. It took me four weeks to work out who the owner of this product was (PlusNet). But they wouldn’t talk to me as I didn’t have an account with them. BT wouldn’t remove it, as the marker/tag was owned by PlusNet and they needed an order from them, Ofcom’s very helpful answer was to get a new line installed (small £100 cost for that!). Finally I thought I’d got the marker removed for Homechoice to turn up this evening to install only to find there is still a fault on my line! And how long has this whole process taken – only 3.5 months!! This system is clearly ridiculous and somebody somewhere needs to take some responsiblity – which I believe should probably be BT Wholesale!

9. Comment by barry on 09 Nov 2006 at 08:11

finally got a date for the markers to be removed 16th november ..only after canceling my sky tv and threatening to have my phone cut off—sky have now given me 2 -£20 goodwill payments and canceled £58 i was refusing to pay-i have now lost watching all my football ..but its a price worth paying to rid myself of sky

10. Comment by Mark on 12 Dec 2006 at 16:12

Had EXACTLY the same problem going from pipex to sky. Eventually, despite the fuck ups at Sky’s end (and it is Sky, don’t let them kid you into thinking it’s BT at all) I got them to admit there was a problem and that BT THEMSEVLES confirmed a marker from Easynet (which is who supplies Sky broadband) on my line and eventually I got a MAC transfer code from them to go to another provider. (they couldn’t just clear the line).

So, with that MAC code I’ve gone back to Pipex who say my broadband should be back this week (the whole process has taken me nearly six weeks btw).

I’m still waiting to be connected.

11. Comment by barry hambling on 13 Dec 2006 at 13:12

after 4 months sky have removed the markers -i am now with orange ..connected in less than 2 weeks £5 a month 8mb with free landline calls from my livebox ..running like a dream at full 8.1mb speed-i think sky done me a favour by fucking up

12. Comment by Tony on 24 Dec 2006 at 10:12

Well guys I too and having a similar problem.. Ordered SKyBB and all seemed well but could not get online, after calling “technical support” on numerous occasions and getting absolutely nowhere I gave up and cancelled. I then placed an order with BT. However Sky have left a marker on my line! Still there after 2 weeks.. I have called them several times and keep getting fobbed off. I have since contacted BT to see if they can help, including Wholesale but they are now teling me that they have cancelled my order!!! I now have to fight with SKy to get the marker taken off and then recontact BT to re-order once this is done! 2 months in total now without BB. very frustrating!! I am now thinking about using Telewest’s Cable BB. More expensive but at this point I dont really care. Does anybody know if the marker on my line will afffect using this service or will it go to a different exchange ?? thanks for any advice. Simmo

13. Comment by SHIRLEY ROSS on 08 Jan 2007 at 15:01

according to bt they can not remove the marker it has to be sky

14. Comment by simioliolio on 08 Jan 2007 at 15:01

sounds like the same story for me. wanted orange broadband. rang em’, “you have a marker on your line, get BT to take it off”, ring BT “only orange can remove this marker before they begin your broadband, ‘we’re 200% sure its orange’s problem’ ” ring orange, ring BT, ring orange, ring BT, get refered to Ofcom, ofcom refer me to BT Wholesale, BT wholesale say they can remove it in 10 working days. 10 working days later, marker still there, new BT wholesale worker says request wasn’t put in, so puts request in, 10 working days later, still there, request put in again and is sure it will be removed, 10 working days later, marker still there, ring again and get told the marker has been put there by tiscali and that only they can remove it. Ring tiscali and complain to them for putting a marker there, they say “oh yes, ok mate we’ll remove it for you”, marker still there. Ring BT wholesale, have a good shout at them and eventually speak to the site supervisor/manager, informed me that I “havn’t been forgotten about” and that they will ring me about the situation. was forgotten about. rang BT wholesale again, and they suddenly turn round and say “oh, we cant remove that, only plusnet can. I’m like “plusnet?” there was a plusnet account in my new house before I moved in. Ring plusnet, they wont deal with anyone without a customer number. Got in contact with previous plusnet broadband customer who used to live in my house, got him to ring plusnet, he asks for marker to be removed, they say “yeah, 7 days mate”, 7 days later, marker still there. funny thing is, the only service that i can ring to voice my problem is ofcom, but they refer me to BT wholesale, and BT wholesale refer me to Ofcom to complain. There is somthing seriously wrong about all this, this process has so far taken me 5 months. 5 months of my life struggling without net! grrrrrrr. and theres still no hope over the horizon. any help or advice would be most appreciated!

15. Comment by alex on 13 Jan 2007 at 19:01

i have sky broadband and had no problems at all everything went through sweet as a pea. only a few percent of you have problems and i believe it is the extremely inpatiant sad people who live their life on the net. get a life why not go out or spend time with family then when sky does come on you can benefit like me with a 15.2 meg conection and for only 10 quid . god its great

16. Comment by barry on 13 Jan 2007 at 23:01

TO ALEX YOU MUST LIVE IN COOKOO LAND IF YOU THINK IT IS ONLY A SMALL PECENTAGE WHO HAVE HAD TROUBLE WITH SKY—MUST HAVE YOUR HEAD UP YOUR ARSE

17. Comment by Luke Redpath on 14 Jan 2007 at 00:01

Alex – perhaps it had not occurred to you but an ever-increasing number of peoples’ livelihoods depend on the net. Don’t be so naîve – the fact that some people have had no problems does not excuse the ridiculous mess this system is and the sheer incompetence of those involved.

18. Comment by Simon on 14 Jan 2007 at 18:01

I persoally think Alex works for Sky as i have only heard bad things about there service, besides i suppose if you pay peanuts you get monkey’s so i am not at all suprised.

19. Comment by Mike on 18 Jan 2007 at 16:01

I am with Tiscali and I’ve been trying to get broadband transferred to my new home since early december. There’s a BT marker on my line and I have now been waiting for a month to have it removed. Every week I was told at the BT tag helpline that it would be done the following monday. Finally last friday I talked to a friendly guy who said he prefered to tell me the truth: apparently something crashed at BT and there is now a queue of 7000 broadband customers awaiting for their BT marker to be pulled out. Was told not to expect anything in the near future but on the plus side I was already one month in the queue, so not right at the bottom. Oh, alright then, you had mean fall of my chair for a minute. In the mean time I am using dialup. Good thing is I have given up all hopes and feel far better now that I don’t have to worry about sorting things out.

20. Comment by Roush on 19 Jan 2007 at 01:01

Have been trying to switch to sky from tiscali for the past month now but after reading the posts blasting skys service am starting to reconsider. Have been trying to get a Tiscali marker removed from my line which is blocking me from signing up to another provider. Tiscali are completely useless, I was told that I would have to wait 10-15 days from the cancellation date for the marker to be removed but guess what? The 15 days were up and stlll the marker remained on the line! I only realised that it was still there when i was in the middle of signing up to sky when they did a line test and told me there was a tag on the line and that i would have to get Tiscali to sort it out. Called Tiscali about it who told me there was an error on BT’s part (a load of crap probably) and that I would have to wait a further 15 days! Was flabbergasted! My university work had to be handed in around this time and I had exams coming up so was mortified at being without the Internet for such a long time. So I called Ofcom who fobbed me off to BT wholesale who said that Tiscali hadn’t put through a cease order and there was nothing they could do to help me except tell me to lodge a complaint with ofcom. But the thing is that ofcom fobs you off to BT so there is this never ending cycle of uselessness- you go to BT expecting help- they can’t help! You go to Ofcom- and they can’t help either! So at the moment am completely stuck and am in the hands of Tiscali- God only knows when I will connect to the Internet from home again.

21. Comment by Rob on 19 Jan 2007 at 20:01

Arrived at this thread through Google …

I have a similar problem except that being in a new house I have no idea who originally placed the ADSL Marker on my line…

Does anyone know who I can go to to find out who owns the marker, so I can at least start the process of getting it removed…?

Help!

22. Comment by Tom Read on 02 Feb 2007 at 17:02

I have been waiting since November 2006 to have a Tag, placed by Tiscali, from my line.

BT Wholesale tell me that they can do nothing and it is upto Tiscali to remove the tag. Every time I ring Tiscali they tell me a differnt set of lies to the last lot.

I would strongly advise that you should never even think of going to Tiscali. I know a few people who are already with them and paying for an 8 Meg connection but can barely get dialup type speeds.

After reading some of the forums around the internet I have come to the conclusion that Tiscali are are bunch of Robbing Twats that would do anything to stop you from leaving them…

23. Comment by chandan on 07 Feb 2007 at 21:02

I must say .. it’s the Govt in this country who is to be blamed. They have let these so called broadband scavangers$ roam freely doing what ever they want with no place for poor customers like us to go. I have been waiting to get my connection back since 12 th September 2006. Tiscali is the most rubbish company with idiots sitting at their technical support as well as customer care department. AOL is equally big cheater… who took less than hours 7 to put a tag on the line but has given me time of 7 working day to get it removed (if they ever intend to). It’s a mess. I have gone mad. BT, Tiscali, AOL, Ofcom they all are culprit. this country is in a mess. I hate any word which starts with LL because of LLU.

24. Comment by Steve Carter on 09 Feb 2007 at 12:02

Being in the middle of a similar experience, I can sympathise with many of you.

To cut a very long and excruciating story short, after moving home on 26th Jan we’ll be without broadband until 20th Feb at the earliest. This has come about due to the incompetence of TalkTalk in not releasing the line when they were instructed by the previous occupant, the cluelessness of BT Retail in being any to do anything whatsoever to help speed up the process and the ‘Computer Says No’ mentality of BT Wholesale.

During the process of trying to get this issue resolved (or any kind of straight answers out of any of them) I must have made about 40 or so phone calls to TalkTalk, BT Retail and BT Wholesale. I must have spent about 6-8 hours on-hold to the various departments that I have been passed between within these companies. I been given promises that have not been kept, I have been lied to or given misinformation on numerous occasions and even had the phone put down on me twice by operators who, for whatever reason, refused to let me speak to their supervisor.

So, not only do we have to endure almost a month without any sort of broadband service I will have a huge mobile phone bill to pay at the end of the month. This is most positively unacceptable as any kind of level of service or customer care.

The whole system of transferring the lease of the line between service providers needs a radical shake-up. Systems need to be put in place to uncomplicate the process of the transfer and to ensure that consumers face as little outage of service as possible.

I understand some new guidelines from Ofcom are to be released next week which puts pressure on ISP’s to speed the process up but I have serious doubts as to exactly what effect these guidelines will have on the ISP’s and BT Wholesale.

The whole situation is a farce and until Ofcom grow some teeth I doubt we’ll see any improvement.

25. Comment by Andy Murray on 14 Feb 2007 at 12:02

I have the solution….

I was with tiscali and wanted to change ISP to Sky. Tiscali are useless and won’t remove their tags for at least 3 months – meaning you can’t switch providers.

I called, Tiscali, BT, Ofcom, Sky several times and always got nowhere.

So, the solution…

Switch to a cable provider, I now use Virgin. I am still awating for my line marker to be removed, but at least I have broadband.

I’m currently waiting for the Milton Keynes HQ of tiscali to reply to my complaints (their code of conduct says 7 days for a reply – bollocks!) I’m not holding my breath. And as for compensation for denying me my right to have broadband by the ISP of my choice – don’t hold your breath on this count either.

What needs to be done is a petition to Ofcom about this totally useless system of tags and who can authorise their removals.

So, if anyone out there want to set up a web site where people can put their names to I’ll gladly sign.

Contrary to what BT say, I think the person who’s line it is should be the one to authorise what equipment is put on it or taken off it, not the equipment owners.

just my 2 cents…

26. Comment by Paul Clowes on 15 Feb 2007 at 14:02

Steer clear of Sky, I’ve expeirenced the same problem as everyone else, disconnected from Tesco and no internet for 8 days, so I cancelled and go the tag story. I don’t believe that it is unreasonable to expect the new service provider to be ready to provide service prior to ceasing your exsiting. Broadband is no longer a luxury, it’s a utility along with water gas and electricity

27. Comment by Justin on 20 Mar 2007 at 00:03

I honestly feel like shooting somebody. Who on Earth decided that it should be the consumer’s responsibility to obtain these MAC codes?

With gas and electricity supply, each home has its own unique (and unchanging) supply numbers – an MPAN for electricity and an MPR for gas. I had assumed that the actual phone number on the line I was calling BT Wholesale from, would be identification enough.

A previous occupant used Wannadoo (now Orange) in my parents’ home, over five years ago. My parents actually WANT the free broadband service from Sky. The customer advisor at Sky gleefully took the order and £40.00 from a debit card before pointing out there was a “tag” on the line which needed removing.

BT Wholesale were disingenuous beyond belief. They told me to call Orange’s Moving Home department… I phoned Orange three time and may as well have attempted to use telepathy. I was told repeatedly that they could find no active account on their accounts database. Similarly, I repeatedly pointed out that this was because there was no account!!! On my last attempt, I asked to speak with a supervisor but was told that the department’s “Team Manager” had resigned last Friday and they were yet to be given a replacement!!!

I phoned back BT Wholesale whom unbelievably told me to complain to Ofcom!!! I phoned back Sky and asked for the debit card to be re-credited and some Glaswegian fem-bot called Ellen started her sales spiel before I threatened to cancel the Sky TV subscription and transfer to Virgin Media (an empty threat as I hate Richard Branson nearly as much as Rupert Murdoch).

I just don’t know what the answer is.

28. Comment by Josh on 14 Apr 2007 at 18:04

I have a similar sort of problem to you guys. I signed up to Tiscali and was told that my line was ready to go. But unkown to me there was a tag on the line. After being unable to connect and countless phone calls to BT and Tiscali I rang BT Wholesale to find out that Tiscali themselves had signed me up twice and so issuing this TAG on the line that was stopping me from receiving my broadband!!

Could it be that Tiscali are that scandolous that they would create a marker on my line purely to stop me from ever leaving them…..even if it means I can’t recieve there own services?!!

Of course Tiscali don’t recognize this 2nd account because it doesn’t exist – they told me to ring BT.

Really had enough now and I think I’ll probably just end up cancelling it unless they offer me a quick fix and some decent discount. Might drop in some legal chatter to shake things up at the Call Centre – those mannikins answering the phones tend to get a bit afraid when you do that!

Good luck to everyone out there and who knows, one day we may all be able to check eBay once in a while!

29. Comment by Mick on 26 Apr 2007 at 20:04

All of you stuck in this mess, please persevere as there is light at the end of the tunnel. It took me 4 months but I did manage to swap from Tiscali to sky. After being told 8 times by Tiscali that they would remove marker, I wrote to their MD. Heard nothing. I then rang Ofcom(don’t key the broadband option take the option on telephone companies as this sends you through to a human being and you can complain. I also complained to the Internet Service Providers Association www.ISPA.co.uk. Within 2 hours I received to separate calls from Tiscali High level complaints department. Within a day BT wholesale received the cease order and within a week it was removed. Setting up with Sky after this was very smooth. I also set one up for a realative and this went without a hitch. So at the moment am quite pleased with the SKY side of things. Keep trying and COMPLAIN COMPLAIN COMPLAIN!!!

30. Comment by David on 13 Jun 2007 at 08:06

How do these companies get away with the blatent lies they call sales pitch ?

I tried Orange’s aleged free offer last year and ended up paying them £150 for nothing or they were going to take me to court for non payment?? April this year TalkTalk told me they were taking over OneTel’s customers in the UK…....

and yes I fell for the blatent lies again.

So no answering service , no caller ID and certainly no adequate broadband( very slow and very intermittant with no support at all to set up a 3rd party router (ORIGO 4 port, used with onetel for 3 years!!)

Yes Mr TalkCrap weve had enough of your lies and aggressive sales pitch!

Onetel customers can stay with onetel and Im sure lying to extract money thru an aleged service contract is illegal in every country in the world but seemingly not in the UK! But hey I’ll laugh when they reposess your company cars and you are all made to face the music. YOU ARE ALL DRIVELLING LYING METHS.

TRY THIS AGAIN AND … ( OOPS YOU CANT… WE KNOW YOUR NAMES AND YOUR SICK SALES METHODS)

31. Comment by Bill on 21 Jun 2007 at 13:06

I saw Mick’s comment of 26th April so I also complained to the Internet Service Providers Association www.ISPA.co.uk…

Bingo. Virgin Hotshot telephoned me next day. Got it removed within the week. I then cancelled the Tiscali Circus I was trying to sign up with. Entire process 4 months and 1 week – What a Government.

PlusNet just got me rigged up OK. Wish me luck and Thank’s Mick – couldn’t have done it without you

32. Comment by barry on 28 Jun 2007 at 07:06

as you can see from my previous comments the trouble i had with sky . i went to orange started off great then cut off for 2 weeks with no reconnection date .. i think these isps are all the same so i thought i would give sky another go after a year they seem to have sorted out the problems..wireless router arrived next day to ordering it and was connected 7 days later..just one problem no email address

33. Comment by Dan on 14 Jul 2007 at 13:07

there is no such thing as capples(unlimited broadband). it only goes up as far as something like 40GB cap

34. Comment by Stephanie on 22 Jul 2007 at 18:07

We had sky BB and Talk coming through on schedule – then BT cancelled our order?

I feel an OFTEL moment coming on!

35. Comment by Shaun Thomas on 22 Aug 2007 at 08:08

I’ve had so many problems with Virgin Media, ongoing since I first joined them in September 2006.

My problems go on so long with them I ended up being so frustrated that I set up a website for other people to make there complaints about Virgin Media.

The website address is www.myvirginmediahell.co.uk come along and tell us your stroies as well.

I email Virgin Media on a regular basis to show them new stories and complaints that have been posted on the website.

36. Comment by Roger on 27 Sep 2007 at 14:09

Unfortunately Zen Internet have terrible support, their staff are rude and they rip you off with £24.99. I would prefer to use 2 yogurt pots and a piece of string than go with the idiots at Zen.