Schools Broadband Poor Support

[broadld]

Good morning All,

 

I am wondering if anyone else is having similar frustrations with extremely poor support from Schools Broadband. I would be very interested if others are having the same issues we are.

We seem to have to constantly chase tickets we have logged with them for any kind of response. Even tickets that have been escalated through their own escalation paths go unanswered.

I also think they may have outsourced their first line support to a different company. Which may explain the poor levels of support. They can't even seem to transfer calls to other people in support which seems a bit suspect.

[bald_pig]

There are a few other threads on here about them, it doesn't appear to be an isolated case.

[Sonic007]

I've always found it very easy to get through to them and have found their tech support to be good.

[paulkerton]

I've made a few comments about my displeasure with them in the past to find them sniffing around my LinkedIn profile soon after.

 

Make of that what you will.

[SchoolsBroadband]

I've made a few comments about my displeasure with them in the past to find them sniffing around my LinkedIn profile soon after.

 

Make of that what you will.

 

Yes Paul I wanted to say hello to address your concerns as you never answer my pms on here when I try and get in touch to help!

 

Nothing sinister whatsoever....

 

Dave

[Wubbalubbadub]

I've always found it very easy to get through to them and have found their tech support to be good.

Same here.. I have criticised SBB in the past.. can't fault them too much these days.

Can't say many places where the CEO also replies to pretty much any edugeek or email post..

[broadld]

Same here.. I have criticised SBB in the past.. can't fault them too much these days.

Can't say many places where the CEO also replies to pretty much any edugeek or email post..

 

Just because a CEO is active on a forum doesn't mean they provide good support. It probably means they are heading off any customer complaints so they don't get sounded publicly.

Have you logged anything connection related recently? Are you primary school or secondary school based?

I remember the days of good support from Schools Broadband, this was a few years ago. David Tindal has also confirmed via PM to me that they have indeed outsourced some support related to connection issues. I think this is option 2 when you ring them.

The firewalling & filtering support is apparently not outsourced but I'm not convinced.

 

Thanks

David

[SchoolsBroadband]

Hi David,

 

I know you're based just up the road from us. You're more than welcome to come and meet the team that support you. In fact I'd be happy to host you and some other schools for some free Fortigate and Netsweeper training sessions that we've also done in the past.

 

I can assure you all firewall, filtering and VoIP support is done in house at our office in Ilkley.

 

Thanks and chat soon.

 

Dave

[Garacesh]

Yes Paul I wanted to say hello to address your concerns as you never answer my pms on here when I try and get in touch to help!

Bad pitch, hear me out:

Have your support folks do their job, so the CEO doesn't have to hunt for folks across different corners of the internet to chase things up?

Edited June 8, 2022 by Garacesh

[SchoolsBroadband]

It sounds like not if he's unhappy with something but caring about our customers comes all the way to the top and all of my staff should be caring for our customers as best we can. If they're not then that's when I or our team makes changes. You can't beat speaking to your customers (hence why I'm quite vocal on here) to get honest feedback whether good or bad.

 

Thanks for everyone's comments good or bad. I'll leave it at that so I don't hijack the thread any more

 

Dave

[Wubbalubbadub]

Bad pitch, hear me out:

Have your support folks do their job, so the CEO doesn't have to hunt for folks across different corners of the internet to chase things up?

 

We live in such a turmoil world.. things go wrong.. at the end of the day that is why 99% of us have jobs.. because users need supporting and things go wrong.

As a Trust IT Manager.... people in our schools tend to see me.. when things have gone past the normal day to day support/gone wrong!.

 

Someone is unhappy and the CEO himself is making efforts to reach out to follow up with people.. and you're saying that is a bad pitch...?

I'm sure if i did a search.. you would find multiple posts from the early days where people moaned that Schools Broadband didn't communicate.. now you're upset they are!..

 

To be clear.. look at my posts.. I'm the first to moan when Schools Broadband mess up.... but on this occasion I think the fact the CEO is reachable is amazing stuff.. I wish the same could be done for E Safety 4 Schools.. I can't get past the apprentice!

 

TLDR: If you're going to rant about a company on a public forum.. don't then make it sound bad when the CEO is then trying to reach out to follow up and do right by you!

[Wubbalubbadub]

Just because a CEO is active on a forum doesn't mean they provide good support. It probably means they are heading off any customer complaints so they don't get sounded publicly.

Have you logged anything connection related recently? Are you primary school or secondary school based?

I remember the days of good support from Schools Broadband, this was a few years ago. David Tindal has also confirmed via PM to me that they have indeed outsourced some support related to connection issues. I think this is option 2 when you ring them.

The firewalling & filtering support is apparently not outsourced but I'm not convinced.

 

Thanks

David

 

We are a trust of 22 Schools - primary and secondary. We have logged various things.. although it is more my team than myself..

My colleague got a IP unblocked in less than 2 minutes call time though..

Trust me.. i'm the first to moan at these companies.. but I don't think I can fault them currently!

[Garacesh]

To be clear.. look at my posts.. I'm the first to moan when Schools Broadband mess up.... but on this occasion I think the fact the CEO is reachable is amazing stuff..

Don't get me wrong, he could've just ignored it, I can appreciate that.

But it shouldn't ever get that far.

 

In fact, it shouldn't be such a recurring issue that professionals have to blow off steam about how poor the service is.

 

The CEO shouldn't be on damage control.

The CEO especially shouldn't be doing damage control off-platform where it can't be seen by other members. If @paulkerton needs to make several threads about how bad the support is, that's where the damage control should be taking place.

Or you could just, y'know, look up his ticket(s) and get the issue fixed?

But to go hunting for them off platform and message them? Creepy.

 

Maybe I just feel like the service and/or support shouldn't be so bad that the CEO has to get involved in the first place, is that such a crazy idea? Stable door after the horse, and all...

 

I've recently made 2 gripe posts, one about Taremtec and one about Civica for abysmal performance. Do I want their CEO's to start message me? No! If their CEO wants to get involved, they should be giving their support a kick up the rear end and improve their service.

Edited June 8, 2022 by Garacesh

[SchoolsBroadband]

The reason I'm here is because I was when we were a tiny company. We are now the second largest commercial education focused ISP behind only RM.

 

In my opinion you should never abondon your roots and principles which is to help people if they have an issue.

 

I could just get one or numerous of my employees on here instead of me but i dont ever want to forget our roots from where we came from. My customers are not just a number theyre everything to me and it upsets me when they arent 100% happy.

 

I enjoy speaking and listening to people. It also allows me to hear what people really think and is one of my ways to look through and interrogate the stats I am given regarding our support which I have many of.

 

One thing I have learnt is that unfortunately no matter how much you try some people just don't like what you offer or who you are which is a shame but that's life. It won't though stop me from trying to turn them around and help them as they pay good money to use my service.

 

We have a lot more happy customers than unhappy customers that's for sure. Just the happy ones tend not to be as vocal as the unhappy ones and I appreciate all the PMs and emails I get from my customer saying what a great job we've done and thank you all for those of you that do as you know who you are.

 

Maybe we should have a poll and see if people want me to reply and try help my customers or not or if i should just disappear forever !?

 

Dave

 

P.s before I forget we give you all an escalation matrix in your sla document we give to you during onboarding. If you're not happy with something then you can use this and speak to the relevant person for each department who is there to listen to any issue you have and ensure its resolved. If you have lost it, don't have it or it may have been sent to the wrong person then please let me or the team know and we'll send it through to you again and they'll take ownership. We sometimes find people don't escalate things or vent their frustrations at our management because they don't know the correct channels or ask for them. Sure in an ideal world it should never get to that but it sometimes does unfortunately

Edited June 8, 2022 by SchoolsBroadband

[broadld]

Thanks for this Dave @SchoolsBroadband. I do appreciate that you care about your company and customers. I am glad you have seen this and dealt with it to get my tickets progressed. It is a shame it had to get to this stage to vent my frustration on here.

I have an up to date escalation matrix and these tickets have been escalated through it. But then my tickets hang mostly when they get escalated to the NOC team.

We have 7 tickets currently open. One that has been open since November 2021. Other tickets that have also been open for 2/3 months.

I would like to take you up on the offer to visit your offices and meet the team. The last time I visited was probably over 6 years ago, when you were based in the center of Ilkley. I have worked with Schools Broadband for over 14 years.

I think the fortigate & Netsweeper training sessions would be a great idea.