Slow Speed - Mis-Selling Story

Question

I join BT recently on Option 3 unlimited.
Bit of a starting fiasco with wrong dates, two hubs arriving etc etc.
Settled down and was getting 3.2Meg download on an 'up to' 8Meg line.
Friend a couple of streets away gets just over 6Meg so called BT, first mistake.
Told I could have my line prated from 8Meg to 20Meg, needed some changes at the exchange and I would get a much better speed.
3weeks and 10 calls later, support established a line fault and engineer visit arranged.
During 3 weeks, told several stories including my ip profile had been set at 14.78Meg.
Engineer came tested my wiring, visited the cabinet in the next street and concluded.
I will never get more then 5Meg
It was 20Meg at the exchange, 7Meg at the cabinet and 5 at the house.
Seems only way to get near 20Meg is move into the exchange.
How far from the exchange am I, just 2km or 1.24miles !!
Angry & Frustrated at BT.
Poor support, mis-leading information from several different support folk.
Over selling broadband services, trying to get you to buy Infinity fibre optic, and get the old copper cables in the street replaced at your cost not BT's.
I understand about distance from the exchange, line quality etc etc.
But if you say' up to' 20Meg then this should be the average most people get, not what it can do theoretically, or at the end of a fibre optic cable in the exchange.
If I buy a 2.0l car that can do up to 80mph but I only get 20mph out of it, I am going to be angry and disappointed.
Mis-sold broadband - you bet
Will it get any better - no, not until the street cabinets or your house is cabled with fibre optics.
Should I have gone to Virgin or Sky - YES

Answer 1

rayr wrote:
Points taken.
BT engineer told me Infinity is fibre optic to the cabinet but copper cable to the house remains so removing some of the signal loss from exchange to cabinet.  CORRECT 
BT technical support told me they put fibre optic to the house.
Usual mis-information from BT.  No BT do offer a fibre to home  in some areas TWO options fttc and fttp 
How are you suposed to make any sense or rational decision based on conflicting information.
All published speeds are estimated, (3 to 7.5 for my area) and according to the BT engineer are not totally reliable as each house can have different cabling issues. Even those next to each other can vary.Yes even internal extentions can be the cause ot that and they are not bt's responsibility 
That's why they say 'you will get the best speed for your line'.  Correct as do other isps 
Using the car analogy you can at least test drive a car and if it does'nt do 80 mph as promised, dont buy it!
With BT they sell 'up to' 20Meg as it is good marketing and looks similar to Virgin/Sky.Sky use the same bt copper pairs as do BT and other isps 
They can clearly tell you the speed at the cabinet, so why not be totally honest and when someone enquires tell them ' the speed at your nearest cabinet, 500yds away, is 7Meg'
We can all guess the reason why they do not do this.
So it is mis-selling, they know the speed at the cabinet but still sell 'up to 20Meg'. CORRECT the statement UP TO  is used  again as all other isps state not just BT
We have cable in the street and Virgin bombard me with offers every month, wish I had taken them now!
Only my loyalty to BT made me stick with them, not any longer.
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