Coventry ain’t that bad

From BBC News:

A council is to remove new road signs that tell drivers they cannot leave a roundabout in Coventry.

Surely Coventry City Council can think of better ways to retain visitors?

Bloomin’ BT broadband

Last Thursday (26th) we moved into our new office. We’d arranged with BT for broadband to be activated on that day; an Internet connection being vital to us in the operation of our business. We were told that activation could happen at any time up to 6pm. So 6pm comes and goes (you can tell where this is heading), a phone call is made to the broadband helpdesk and we find they’ve all gone home for the day. Grrr.

Next morning we’re on the phone again to find out what’s gone wrong. It’s only at this point that we’re made aware of a known issue which has existed for at least 3 weeks that is preventing orders being fulfilled properly. “When will it be activated?”, we ask. “No idea”, is the response. Time and time again, and after repeated calls teasing them for information, we can’t get a better reponse. The order has been cancelled.

What annoys me most is that this was an known issue already affecting thousands of new subscribers when we placed the order. What did they think would happen? We wouldn’t notice. The mind boggles.

Two lessons learnt. BT are crap. (Actually unfair, the business telephony team were very helpful – credit where credit’s due.) Secondly, and this has been borne out in conversations with others, either overlap office moves and ensure you’re fully up and running before moving all operations, or have contingency plans in place for this sort of scenario.

Grrr. Again.