Appalling service. No access to online account, buffering and freezing streaming

[Bewdley13]

I foolishly switched from BT to EE last week - the letter I received from BT announcing that Full Fibre was now available to me in my area made no mention of terminating my BT connection and moving to EE. EE wasn't even mentioned. I feel well and truly scammed. Still no access to my online account. Still buffering and freezing while streaming in the evening, rendering it unusable.. Yet I'm sitting here now, 7.40am, 05/03/2025, watching on iplayer with no problems whatsoever. I'm on EE Full Fibre 900, watching via a Firestick into the back of a 16 year old Panasonic plasma tv. I also had no issues, morning, noon, or night, when I was on BT Smart Hub with a far lower speed. 

Can anyone explain this? Why can't I stream in the evening? Why can't I access my online account to see how much I'm paying and what I'm paying for? I have less than a week to terminate the contract after the cooling off period. If I have to terminate I will go to the Ombudsman and the newspapers, as well as Watchdog. This lot need to be exposed. 

[Midnight_Voice]

@Bewdley13 

I understood this was an issue with the Firestick and the plasma.

So when you compared apples with apples this morning, was that Plasma/Firestick versus LG Smart TV, or did you move the Firestick to the LG and try that?

I’m also reminded (rather belatedly, sorry) that Firesticks are provided with a little ‘tail’ that lets you stand off the Firestick from the HDMI socket by a few centimetres; were you using one of these? Were you powering the Firestick from the recommended Amazon power supply, or maybe from a (possibly inadequate) USB port on the plasma?

And re the little tail, I would have been inclined to stand off the Firestick from the Plasma with a 1m or 2m full HDMI cable.

But compatibility checking is for whoever is running the vintage stuff; and I’m not at all sure that you didn’t encounter a Plasma versus Firestick issue, not a full fibre one.

Anyway, enjoy your new smart TV; I’m sure you will find it a revelation after the ageing Plasma, even though these were great in their day.

[JimM11]

@Midnight_Voice Also to addon to your comment, it is worth looking at the Firestick Network adapter also from Amazon, takes away the Wi-Fi issue with direct connection on an RJ45 Ethernet port all be it at 100mb/s speed wise which is more than capable for everything apart from when the TV and Router are not near each other.

[Bewdley13]

@Midnight_Voice  I had absolutely no issues with the Plasma/Firestick using the BT Smart Hub 2.0. It was a little slow loading the apps, but once loaded, it worked fine, with no buffering or freezing. Not even once. The 'fun' began when I converted to EE Full Fibre 900 broadband. So, on that basis, I dismissed the notion that the Firestick might be broken. It had always worked up until full fibre was installed. So surely, I don't need to mess about with the firestick in the smart TV or whatever.  Unless there was a huge coincidence and the firestick stopped working properly the same day Full Fibre took over from the BT Smart Hub 2.0, in my humble opinion, as a non-tech person, full fibre doesn't work with a firestick into a 16 year old Plasma TV on a reliable  basis. Now, this fact may not surprise some people - many people I have discussed this with are amazed that I am still watching TV through a 16 yr old Panasonic plasma tv, nevermind via a firestick! For some, it's the equivalent of attaching a piece of string between two cans and expecting high fidelity phone calls. I do take that point. 

I am grateful for all the suggestions. But I really do think the new TV will solve the issue. If it doesn't, my wife will be rather annoyed with me.  What the test between the LG smart TV and my old Plasma did reveal last night was that the picture on the plasma is pretty dull now. You don't realise it until you stand another tele next to it, just how much things have improved in 16 years 😂. Or how badly the plasma is performing now. By the way, the new router is in exactly the same position as the old one, on a table in the hall, and the TV - both the smart one and the plasma, were in the living room, around 12 feet away from the router.

I swapped my iphone 6s for an iphone 12 only last year and my wife still uses her iphone 6s. Our old tech serves its purpose, as far as we are concerned. We're not luddites at all, just watching the pennies and not throwing out gear that serves its purpose, which the plasma tele did until I stupidly changed the ISP.  My reason for changing the internet package was to save money as I was paying £55pm for the BT Smart Hub 2.0 at 65Mbps, as I hadn't negotiated a new package for many years (precisely because I knew it would be a fiasco) and they offered me Full Fibre 900 for £39.99pm, so it seemed a no-brainer. 

I've spent the whole day looking at OLED tvs, mini LED tvs etc etc. My head is dizzy with it all. It would be nice if the next TV could last 16 years. That should see me out!

Cheers, David

[Bewdley13]

@JimM11  Cheers, I'm just going to buy a new tv. It appears the plasma picture is getting a little dull, as mentioned above (well, very dull) so I'l move it out and get a new Smart TV. 42". But which one! 😂

[JimM11]

@Bewdley13 The question was asked earlier, you upgraded to fttp from and older service, when that happened, was the Old BT Smarthub2 that you had, in the exact same place as the new EE Smarthub+, they are just not the same technology wise, one is an apple and the other is an orange, and sometimes one is better with what you have and sometimes it is not and leads to all kinds off issues, so can be in the same place and work/not work, new place and work/not work, it is just one of those things, some love the new EE router, some hate the new EE router, BT user's majority HATE it, but some do LOVE it!!

[Minkey1]

@Bewdley13 

There’s a few of us here like the LG OLEDs, although opinions vary on their WebOS. I like the PQ and the central stand and cable management. I can connect all my sources via HDMI and Ethernet and don’t see a single wire. Just as well; I have wire OCD 🤦🏼‍♂️

 

[Bewdley13]

Hi, thanks I have been favouring the LG 42” C4 OLED although I would prefer a tv with a central stand, too, and the LG has 2 feet  spread far apart. But it’s £500 cheaper than its Sony equivalent. That’s a lot. I wonder if the Google TV with the Bravia is  £500 better than LG’s webOS, along with the alleged superior sound. Off to Curry’s tomorrow to have a look. Cheers, David 

[Minkey1]

@Bewdley13 

Ours is a C3 55, sub £1100 on a JL deal just before the C4 came out. The C4 was rated as a huge improvement PQ wise compared to the C3, but when it came out it was getting on for £700 more. I couldn’t justify that and tbf the C3 PQ and style was a big improvement on our previous Samsung.

They drop during the yr and are at their cheapest just before/after the new model year comes out. Not sure if there’s a C5 yet 🤷🏼

55” is the biggest we can cater for. As you say, the smaller ones have the feet, which would negate the angle we need. 

I would think around now might be a good time to buy. Ours is a little modern house so TV and internet services are all in a corner, aiding Ethernet connections in the living room rather than WiFi. But a modern smart TV should be a revelation on the WiFi side and its range of smart apps renders chromecasts, fire sticks etc superfluous. That said, I have an Apple TV too, so 🤷🏼

Good luck choosing.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Bewdley13 

Get the biggest TV you can get away with - I would definitely step up to the 48” C4 OLED from LG, and my retailers of choice would be Richer Sounds or John Lewis, for the long guarantee. (Even if I did go ‘showrooming’ in Curry’s first for easy access to a range of different sets. But they are not our friends now they have declined to sell us a £1,000 robot vacuum cleaner on tick 😛)

Sony TVs have a marginally better picture than other makes, which stands them in good stead in showrooms, but some time spent briefly checking the Sony Community may make you reflect that beauty needs to be more than skin deep.

Samsungs are very good, and we have had some good ones in the past, but we went for LG in 2021 and never looked back.

(NB: the LG C4 48” has a centre stand),

[Minkey1]

@Midnight_Voice is yer man on all things telly related.