EE Broadband have left us high and dry

[CallmeFP]

On Friday afternoon just before an important Zoom call, the broadband stopped working. Tried everything to no avail.

DC had important hefty a-level research projects to finish by Tuesday so we could go and spend some time in a cottage over half term on Wednesday, everyone has worked so hard and is exhausted.

Call up EE and am told cheerily that as it’s Friday night and it’s an external it’ll be fixed by TUESDAY (if I’m lucky).

This has ruined all our plans and really upset the DC who won’t be able to relax on our getaway and will have to study instead but won’t have access to a printer etc whilst away.

Is this acceptable for broadband companies to take so long to fix a fault or can I take this further?

Sorry about the rant.

Op have you given consideration to using your mobile data as a hot spot? It works pretty well

@AlwaysCheddar

Just use mobile data and tether.

Am I the only person who wouldn't have anywhere near enough data to use my phone as a hotspot for very long?

@PleasantVille - some people won’t have much data and others will.

I have 100gb, a friend of mine has unlimited but on the flip side another friend only has 2gb a month as she’s a stay at home mum and uses her WiFi.

one of DC can hotspot but other child hasn’t been able to.

They can both use the same hotspot. They don't need one each.

These things happen. You seem a tad (very) dramatic. I can Quickly think of many other solutions so that your plans won’t be “ruined”.

Am I the only person who wouldn't have anywhere near enough data to use my
phone as a hotspot for very long?

You could always call your provider and buy some more? It’s not difficult / expensive!

[quote Halliehallie9828]@PleasantVille - some people won’t have much data and others will.

I have 100gb, a friend of mine has unlimited but on the flip side another friend only has 2gb a month as she’s a stay at home mum and uses her WiFi.[/quote]
I'm in between I guess but surprised by the automatic assumption that everyone has unlimited.

I think this is the reality of a consumer broadband service. If you're prepared to pay significantly more per month you can get a business line with a proper service level agreement, though I suspect even that is not disaster proof. Then you get into the realm of business continuity type plans! What's your independent network service for events like this etc. Having a spare 4G dongle or tethering a phone tends to be the unofficial consumer fallback.

They do this all the time, my NHS job requires me to have the internet at all times and it drives me potty to have to call my boss and say sorry I'm offline for a week when it;s a condition of my contract that I have to be online and have a car available at all times.
trying to get round it at my age - not particularly computer literate - is a nightmare.

Am I the only person who wouldn't have anywhere near enough data to use my phone as a hotspot for very long?

You can buy more data though. Also between 2 teens and at least one adult it would be quite normal for a reasonable amount of combined data so one of the D.C. could do their research.

I find it odd nowadays when people have minimal data and switch it in and off as needed when they are out and about. Using phones for things has become such a general occurrence it's seems strange to scrimp on the one thing that makes the phone work

Had a problem with our WiFi two years ago that left us almost two months without it. We had to wait almost a week for the initial repair man and then he had to order some parts and then he had to come out on two more separate occasions. It was an absolute nightmare especially as I was in my final year of my law degree. We spent a lot on mobile data and hotspotting it to our laptops.

They gave us the next three months free on our WiFi contract after it was fixed.

@CallmeFP

Yes I’m a key worker and wouldn’t be able to zoom calls/meetings in public.

Could try a friends garden!

You are using mumsnet- why cant you zoom from phone or tether? lots of people manage very well without broadband. Go and but a 5g dongle?

This happened to us in summer we were out for over a week and have no mobile reception (use Wi-Fi calling all the the time) at home. With 2 of us wfh on calls a lot and and 2 teens it was very frustrating and I feel your pain.

We he to use coffee shops, the local sports club and anywhere we could find Wi-Fi. Lots of pubs near us are now running offers for working including lunch tea, coffee and Wi-Fi for £10. Is there something like that near you?

In the west of Ireland we build broadband downtime into meeting our project deadlines😄 We all have at least one tethering alternative and know the cafe and hotspots like the back of our hands. But there is no doubt it adds stress to meeting the deadlines if you are not used to it.

At the very beginning of lockdown, as I grappled with teaching online for the first time, internet went down and it was a 3 week wait to be fixed. Lovely neighbour lent me their wifi. Ask neighbours or dongle. Neighbours cheaper - bottle of wine a week.

Am I the only person who wouldn't have anywhere near enough data to use my phone as a hotspot for very long?

I don't have a limit but am on PAYG at 1p a Mb. A 50 minute Teams meeting (with the camera turned off) used 600 Mb.

We have loads of data but our mobile network is too poor/nonexistent at home! If the WiFi goes down we have to walk away from the house to be able to make or receive calls.

The one time I tried to use mobile data (ignoring the condition in my mobile contract that said I wasn't allowed to) the extra data allowance I bought was used up within an hour and I got a polite automated email telling me not to use my connection in this way. (I think there was some technical issue that caused huge amounts of data to be consumed because I was using my phone as a hotspot for my work laptop. I didn't actually consume data in a way that served any useful purpose.)

I resorted to using one of my neighbours wifi by paying BT for a day pass. This worked well as I'm in a flat and can see lots of neighbours signals, but I've noticed the number who are with BT has fallen since and I'm not sure if there are any left, if I were to have another problem now.

@Yesmate

If it is going to take that long it is going to take that long. Why don’t you use your data from your phone plan and hotspot it to your DC laptop. It won’t affect the speed. Info it when I’m working in my car at DC activities. If you don’t have enough data then you can get a temporary increase phone your provider.

Great idea but i live in a big City and have so little reception in my house i can't do this.

I have tried when out internet when down and just ended up having to go back to the office

@PleasantVille I work in finance and I had two days without internet, so hotspotting from my phone. Numerous emails, working on lots of excel spreadsheets and heavy software, a few teams calls - over two days I only used about 2GB.

If your work involves downloading films or lots of music then yes you'll run through data pretty quickly, but for emails and work it's fine as long as it's not something you have to do all the time.