BE Internet - A warning.

Soldato
Joined
18 Oct 2002
Posts
4,618
I'll start straight away by warning people away from this ISP. They really do suck.

I was with (and technically still am - heh) BE for 12 months on their unlimited usage plan. Getting connected was an absolute pain. They gave a connection date of around 1 month after I'd ordered it. This date came and no connection was made.

Speaking to their call centre staff is like speaking to corpses - Very scripted and completely unable/ unwilling to help, probably due to every other customer phoning up with the same queries. I was hung up on several times when they could not answer questions. This is something they regularly seemed to do (and I am not an angry man on the phone). They really are a cut above in giving a good insight into how to be extremely rude.

We were finally connected 6 weeks AFTER the date they'd given us. They still charged us for usage, though were gracious enough to give a discount (Thanks - how kind!). The speeds advertised were nowhere near what was actually received - "Up to 24 meg" sounds peachy. Anyone in the real world knows you'll never get near this, but when speeds are below 8meg you know something is not right. Responses from Be - "tough." I'd have expected at least 12- 15meg minimum, especially for a city centre location. The router provided by Be was also shoddy and faulty from the start. This was never rectified and no replacement was offered.

The service also went down more times than a hooker at an army base. It was dreadful. Granted, you would receive an e-mail apologising for the "unplanned outage" but that was as far as you got. Calls to ask for refunds for those times were met with "use the 56k dial up service from Be in the meantime".... firstly I no longer own a dial up modem, secondly it was not free dial up - yup they charge you to use an outdated connection when they've messed up the main connection! Great customer service.

Cancelation - I leave the UK in the next two weeks for the next few years. Be require three months notice to cancel a connection or you can pay a £50 fee to have the little switch turned off instantly. I am no longer at the property in question and have not been since July. I tried to cancel the connection a few months prior to July. The operator promptly hung up on me. Funnily enough they have no record of this call. I then phoned in July and was told I would have to give another three months notice or pay the £50. They have this on record. I got angry at this point and yet again they hung up. They did not cancel the connection. I've since had two further e-bills. They now are refusing point blank to cancel the connection until these two bills are paid (for times I have not even been at the property).

I've politely told them to go **** themselves, wished them all the best and good luck tracking me down in an undisclosed foreign country.

Take this as a warning - they are one big joke.
 
Strange how they are consistently near the top of satisfaction polls for such a "bad" ISP.

Granted you may have had a very bad experience but Be are by far the best ISP I've dealt with since my first ISP in 1999.

Edit - Regarding the delayed connection was it another Hellsmk2 that posted this -

Thanks for the response again. I'll update the ticket with details once we're finally connected.

I know it's BT's fault, but it's nice to have a more full response from BE
 
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I've been with them for 2 months. ~14Mb connection speed, never been down. Supplied router is **** though, needs a reboot every 1-2 days.

Language!
Tolien
 
I've been with them for 2 months. ~14Mb connection speed, never been down. Supplied router is **** though, needs a reboot every 1-2 days.


Agreed. Router sucks. Crashes frequently and doesn't even come with Firewall on as standard. When you do turn the firewall on, it's not secure and you have to alter it through Telnet.

Watch what you quote!
Tolien
 
I cannot fault be, i get 24.5mbs sync'd some home, tests show i get 1.3mb up and 23.3mb down.

Have had an excellent service from them.
 
hmmm frst bad report I've seen for them, I want to switch over to them from NDO in Nov when my contract runs out.
 
Is it possible to use your own router? Seems like every isp these days gives you some crappy router with a built in modem. They should at least give you an option between a standard modem or a router.
 
I must be lucky then as my Bebox (780) has been fine since day one. I did toy with a DG834GT but it was crap in comparison.
 
Strange how they are consistently near the top of satisfaction polls for such a "bad" ISP.

Granted you may have had a very bad experience but Be are by far the best ISP I've dealt with since my first ISP in 1999.

Edit - Regarding the delayed connection was it another Hellsmk2 that posted this -


Yes it was BT's fault - BE couldn't tell me that though. I had to find that out myself by phoning BT up. Everyone at BE had no idea at all and refused to even discuss it (because their phone staff had no idea). 'Blood from a stone' really is an appropriate phrase.

I recommend phoning their support line and witnessing first hand just how hopeless they are. They have literally failed to provide any answers at all over the phone. Not once. The online form was slightly more successful at getting answers, though frequently beyond the "24 hours for a reply" that they advertise.
 
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Quite the post. Yes it was BT's fault - BE couldn't tell me that though. I had to find that out myself by phoning BT up. Everyone at BE had no idea at all and refused to even discuss it (because their phone staff had no idea).

I recommend phoning their support and witnessing first hand just how hopeless they are. They have literally failed to provide any answers at all over the phone. Not once. The online form was slightly more successful at getting answers.

I agree that the call centre in Sofia isn't the best but I have found that their forum is an excellent way of gaining assistance and Brett/Louise have always been extremely helpful to me even calling/txting me with updates when needed.
 
WWS why do you have BE unlimited user in your profile... its like you work for them or somthing. Well your like adverting them lol.

Are you advertising Abit, Antec and Crucial?

Due to OCUK's limited sig size I simply opted for a Be userbar.
 
Is it possible to use your own router? Seems like every isp these days gives you some crappy router with a built in modem. They should at least give you an option between a standard modem or a router.


It is possible, the unoffical Be forums seem to have a lot of advice on this, although the general impression I got was that it needed to have a Broadcom chipset for the best chances of working.

I'm not actually connected with Be yet, although ordered my connection a couple of days ago and the person I talked to on the phone was pretty good. Slightly zombie-like but certainly willing to help me, she even waived the connection fee and the setup on my new line :)
 
i have been with them for ages, and they are excellent. good customer service, good modem (doesn't need reboots - works 24/7) unlimited downloads. what more could you want?
 
whats the fuss about

you had a BT problem that you ISP refused to deal with, or had little knowledge about (do ISP staff ever know about this stuff ? trying to get an ISP to admit a problem with a line is hard, no matter what ADSL)

most of your problems relate to this BT line fault. Line drops etc.. will have been down to the poor line, not your modem.

and quoting speeds you wont receive is common to the whole ADSL industry, not just Be.

same with a contract cancellation notice period, with a charge if you want it quicker. THis is normal something everyone does

yes they were late in connecting you, but i cant really see anything other than that wrong ? i'd be a rich man if i had £1 for every thread on here where ISP staff couldnt diagnose Line problems it is afterall a BT fault, something they wouldnt have known anything about....
 
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