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forza_125
Mentor

Appalling connectivity and upload speed - and appalling customer service from NowTV

What a terrible experience joining NowTV for broadband has been.

Fine for a couple of months, then I started to have issues connecting to my work VPN, and these have now spread to everything I try to do on the internet. 

Frequently fails to connect to well-known internet sites - including this community!

Upload speed is non-existent - send a document attachment via gmail? Upload an image to Whatsapp? Nah, that's going to time out.

The work VPN by now is completely unusable and I have to hotspot via 4G if I need to connect for anything serious.

This happens with every device in my household - work laptop, personal laptop and phone. They all have bad connectivity and bad upload speed.

Even if I only have one device connected via Ethernet and everything else switched off - terrible connectivity and upload speed.

NowTV's attitude? "oh we've run a line test and there isn't a problem".

I spoke to someone helpful earlier last week and she arranged for an engineer call out. The engineer was due to come today and didn't. I called NowTV again. The rude and arrogant man on the end of the line told me that the engineer request was overruled because my line test is OK. And proceeded to tell me how it was a problem with how many devices I had connected

So I explained for the umpteenth time that I have the exact same issues when there is only one device connected via ethernet.

And of course they refuse to terminate my contract because the line is OK. Even though they refuse to send an engineer out to independently verify the issues I'm having.

Worst service ever.

This is my second formal complaint with them (first one was brushed away). Next step Ofcom!

 

8 REPLIES 8
forza_125
Mentor

I've now discovered that two other people on my street have the the same issues with upload speeds.

They're with different providers.

This coincides with recent work that Openreach have done to provide faster fibre to the street.

So what I expect has happened (and what I've suspected for a while) is that the Openreach engineers have messed up the configuration of the existing lines.

I just need NowTV to send an engineer to either fix this or acknowledge that they can't fix it so I can try a new provider without paying them for a substandard service.

gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@forza_125 

You need to call the broadband team for NOW to arrange an engineer to be sent out.

https://help.nowtv.com/article/how-to-submit-a-broadband-complaint1

 

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
forza_125
Mentor
Trust me, I have done this many, many times.

But Now's attitude is that if they can't see a problem in their remote
tools, they won't send an engineer. Even though I have changed everything
in the setup as they requested and still don't have the performance they
claim to provide.
gavs82008
Legend 5
Legend 5

@forza_125 

You have two options, keep calling the broadband team or switch provider. 
Nothing broadband related gets sorted on the forum I’m afraid. Any staff that would post will point you in the direction of calling the team.

FYI that I do not work for NOW, just a NOW customer trying to help
forza_125
Mentor
I'm flagging that Now have no interest in solving customer problems and
would rather keep taking your money than send an engineer.

So that any potential customers reading this forum realise how poor the
service will be.

Any company that hides it's phone number the way that now does can't be
trusted to give good service if things go wrong.

More fool me for signing up.
RoyB
Legend

@forza_125 

I take it you are getting the download speed that Now promised you?

If not, you give them the opportunity to rectify this, and if they can’t, you can leave.

At the moment though, your best bet is to get one of your neighbours with the same issue on a different provider, to contact that provider and ask for things to be fixed.

If that customer’s provider is a bit more responsive than Now have been, and if you are right that this is generic Openreach issue in your street, then your broadband will get fixed along with everybody else’s.

After which, you can ask Now how come, if there was a real issue there requiring Openreach to attend, they couldn’t see anything wrong from their end, and what are they going to do about this for the future, as it is clear that their checks, if not actually faulty, are at the very least insufficient?

Set a Payment PIN on your account so that no-one but you can buy memberships on it. Check your bank accounts monthly for any other unexpected payments to Now. That way you can at least nip them in the bud, while you and Now figure out whose fault they are.
forza_125
Mentor

So to update on this for anyone else that ends up in a similar situation...

I had no luck getting NowTV to send an engineer to look at the issue with upload speed and connectivity. 

Because I had spent so long getting no resolution from NowTV, I was approaching the 2-month window after which I could raise a complaint through CISAS (the Ofcom appointed ombudsman).

Surprise, surprise - as soon as I mentioned that I would be raising with CISAS, it got escalated to a level where they actually knew what they were doing.

They told me that they didn't guarantee upload speed (nobody had told me that beforehand), but immediately agreed to my request to leave the contract without penalty. Obviously the last thing they want is a case to go in front of CISAS.

The penalty was only £13.50 anyway - I had assumed it would be a lot more, I should have just broken the contract on day one instead of suffering for nearly two months!

Solution was to get a "new" fibre line installed - the type that goes direct to my house. They just upgraded my street to this system (which coincided with the drop in performance on the old lines).

When I called Now to ask if they would get the new line fitted for me they didn't have a clue what I was talking about.

So I now have perfect broadband again with Vodafone.

Jayach
Elite 3

Now don't use Full Fibre (no idea why not) but they should have known what you were talking about.

The ETF would have been higher 2 months ago, it depends on the time remaining.

Early termination charges for NOW Broadband (nowtv.com)

How did the move to Vodafone go? I've been with them for over 2 years now, but still on FTTC (Fibre to the cabinet) no Full Fibre here yet.

Their built in price rises (CPI+3.9%) every April on 2 year contracts is sneaky.

You do have to wonder if the degradation to the FTTC service in your area was a ploy to drive people to take up FTTP?