Smart Wifi Pro range is awful - BT/EE refusing to pay for ONT Move

[dliskevich]

Been having issues with connection and speeds upstairs since I moved into a new home, started with BT 500mb FTTP with a Smart Wifi Discs, got upsold to an EE Wifi Pro  500mb and told it would solve all my problems

But it hasn't. I live in an old terraced home, where the ONT has just been put on the front corner of the house, the router has awful range and my Smart Wifi Pro Disc upstairs neither keeps a consistent connection or gets remotely the speed I'm paying for. I get a max of 70mb upstairs, and the disc always has an orange light.

I've called them so many times explaining the issue and they keep refusing to do anything useful, and keep offering new discs which won't do anything

Had one advise finally say they'd credit me £130 to cover the ONT move charge, when she called back later to confirm said I had to get an engineer visit first to confirm there wasn't another way to help me.

Played their game - engineer came and agreed with everything I'd been saying, even put down "ONT Move Suggested" as part of his notes.  He said the disc upstairs was getting around 15mb when he measured

When I called back today, they're acting like there's been no notes left whatsoever that they would cover it, tried to get me to pay it or offered me another disc, which won't help.

I brought up their Smart Wifi Pro Guarantee  (100mb in every corner of the house) and the advisor said "I can't even see you've got Smart Wifi Pro on your account" - They're lying to me at every single turn. So even won't give me the £100 credit in this scenario, that would at least cover most of the cost.

Has anyone ever managed to get something like this accomplished? THey're treating me with utter disdain and don't care remotely about my experience as a customer or their own obligations

[x91]

Just to clarify...have you considered using powerline adapters to link the ONT to the router, rather than using them to connect your devices instead of Wi-Fi?

[dliskevich]

@x91 I haven't tried that no - as feels like it shouldn't be my responsbility when they've limited where I can actually place/install my router. But it's really good suggestion, that I am going to order a pair now and try it out, the fight with EE is just getting more and more drawn out and taking it out of me - Just concerned about any potential latency issues but shall see how they perform once I have them

[dliskevich]

@JimM11 Yeah for sure - I'm just planning to use the £100 credit towards paying for the ONT move, shouldn't have to but i'm already so tired and stressed out from calling them

[JimM11]

@dliskevich And you can return them if you watch were you get them from, pushing the limits to get 500Mb/s out of a powerline device, i know because use for the Ring Doorbell and Camera but speed is not a major requirement for the Powerline devices, that's for sure.

No ISP limits where the router goes, it's ALWAYS a major problem where the ONT get's sited which is the main major issue....

[dliskevich]

@JimM11 Ordered just now from Amazon so generally easy on returns in my experience.

Will do a test of performance downstairs (where i'm getting fine speeds/connectivity) before i try the powerlines when they arrive, so will be able to see what hit (if any) I take with that approach

[x91]

Just keep in mind that powerline are a half-duplex system, so to get 500 up and 500 down will need 1000 rated units!  Avoid the cheap ones.

[Mustrum]

@x91  @dliskevich   yje link between the ONT and router is 2.5Gb, so you will not get that speed over powerlines.

Not sure how moving the ONT is going to be any different than you moving the router. Openreach will have the same limitations as you are with an ethernet cable, and are not going to do much to get a fibre closer to the centre of the house. Or why this was not considered and asked for when the fibre was initially installed.

I am unsure why another WiFi Pro extender has not been considered, to help "extend" the WiFi signal around the house. Sticking the one as far away from the router does not compute!

[Chris_B]

@dliskevich     I’ve been reading this thread with interest.  The one thing that hasn’t been asked is

 Whats going to happen if the ONT got moved and it still doesn’t help with the signal ?  Is to be moved again and again until you get what you want ?    

What is next to the router by the way ? and other electrical devices? 

[JimM11]

@Chris_B @Mustrum It's all heading down the rabbit hole at present, got the feeling powerline hopes are going to be way to high, no way i would be putting one between a ONT and a Pro router, bad enough for a ring doorbell an camera setup, we can only see the response with interest for sure.

[dliskevich]

@Mustrum @x91 Yeah sadly the powerline made too much of a hit on speeds+latency in all parts of the house, including those that already had good speeds (un surprising really) - worth a try but didn't pan out.

@Mustrum The difference is they can do it far cleaner than me (along skirting board,around door frame) and drill it through a wall , to a far more central location, without the cable being anywhere loose on the floor (This is where Virgin have previously drilled through - I'm aware it's an entirely different type of cable that is more flexible than cables used in FTTP, so it may not be feasible - i'm at least expecting a survey to tell me if it's possible/not possible). If they offered to instead wire me an ethernet cable to that more central location (rather than moving the ONT) I would take that , but they haven't offered anything of the sort.

Why it wasn't considered on install? I can only speculate , as I'm a new tenant at this property, but my understanding is open reach installation is purely a "get the job done" objective , install as many ONT's as possible, never mind if it is actually a suitable location on the house or what it means for wireless performance. 

I already have 3 Wifi Pro extenders, the whole issue is Pro extenders do not connect to each other (based on my experience and EE have at no point told me that's wrong/explained how to do it)  in a cascade/daisy-chaining fashion so it's entirely based on the distance of each extender from the router (which I currently can only have right next to the ONT). My extender upstairs just cannot get a decent connection with the router, and I have no where else upstairs closer to the router , that would still cover this back part of the house, for me to move the extender to.