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BT - Who to complain to?
chris73
Posts: 364 Forumite
in Phones & TV
A friend of mine has just moved up from the South to Derbyshire. Wanting to bring his Broadband (BT) with him he simply contacted BT prior to the move in order to seamlessly move his existing packages with him - a process which BT publically state will only take 5 days, and is the easiest method of moving house....well according to them!!!.
Over two weeks later he is still waiting for his phone to be connected, in a house which is already wired for BT and connected (physically) by cable to a pole, and the previous occupants were also BT customers, so it should be a matter of simply connecting something in the exchange...hardly a gigantic task.
They moved in on the 1st November and the connection date was promised as the 11th November (Hardly their 5 day promise), this has been and gone and still no dial tone :rolleyes: . Calls to BT's call centre in the far east have resulted in nothing, and his (polite) request to speak to a team leader in order to lodge a complaint and escalate the issue have resulted in the phone being slammed down...not once but three times.
Since his wife is an area co-ordinator fundraisers for a charity, she needs a phone in order to re-establish her efforts in the area where they have moved, and so far its costing them a fortune in mobile calls. However BT are unsympathetic to the whole thing and seem aloof to anything resulting in a service.
This is the 21st Century, but it appears that when it comes to telecommunications that BT are still running on steam. Does anybody know of a direct email address to a person within BT or have a contact with whom they perhaps have dealt with in the past?. All the website email addresses come back with are robotic auto replies.
Over two weeks later he is still waiting for his phone to be connected, in a house which is already wired for BT and connected (physically) by cable to a pole, and the previous occupants were also BT customers, so it should be a matter of simply connecting something in the exchange...hardly a gigantic task.
They moved in on the 1st November and the connection date was promised as the 11th November (Hardly their 5 day promise), this has been and gone and still no dial tone :rolleyes: . Calls to BT's call centre in the far east have resulted in nothing, and his (polite) request to speak to a team leader in order to lodge a complaint and escalate the issue have resulted in the phone being slammed down...not once but three times.
Since his wife is an area co-ordinator fundraisers for a charity, she needs a phone in order to re-establish her efforts in the area where they have moved, and so far its costing them a fortune in mobile calls. However BT are unsympathetic to the whole thing and seem aloof to anything resulting in a service.
This is the 21st Century, but it appears that when it comes to telecommunications that BT are still running on steam. Does anybody know of a direct email address to a person within BT or have a contact with whom they perhaps have dealt with in the past?. All the website email addresses come back with are robotic auto replies.
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Comments
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Like any Major Company they do have the occasional hiccup.;)
But their CEO does respond to complaints.
ben.verwaayen@bt.com,0 -
chris73 wrote:They moved in on the 1st November and the connection date was promised as the 11th November (Hardly their 5 day promise), this has been and gone and still no dial tone :rolleyes: . Calls to BT's call centre in the far east have resulted in nothing, and his (polite) request to speak to a team leader in order to lodge a complaint and escalate the issue have resulted in the phone being slammed down...not once but three times.
That sounds about right.0 -
chris73 wrote:They moved in on the 1st November and the connection date was promised as the 11th November (Hardly their 5 day promise), this has been and gone and still no dial tone
Acually, to be fair to BT, what they actually say on their website is:The more notice you give us about your move, the more likely it is we can set up your services on a day that suits you.
If you give us at least five working days notice, well aim to activate your BT Broadband connection at the same time as your phone line.
i.e. its a aim not a guarantee and the more notice the better (5 days minimum in other words)
Especially these days, the part of BT that does this sort of work has 'run out' of engineers and are recruiting 400 more + they have only recently got permission from Ofcom to 'borrow' 150 engineers from other parts of BT to help with their workload (and only until the New Year)
If your friend wants to complain to BT, they can contact them using the information here
Also, BT will pay compensation if they have not supplied your friends line by the date they gave.
Regards
Sunil0 -
at least you werent given the BT shuffle. Another route is obviously trying the ofcom route as its clear you cant use the normal route for escalating a complaint.
I had the same problem when logging a complaint with broadband talk about bang ya head against a brick wall!
goodluckIt only seems kinky the first time.. :A0 -
Well given that he contacted them and made the arrangements in the closing weeks of October (from memory around the 20th) they've had more than ten days prior to the actual move and so far 14 days of November in which to enable the line, by my reckoning thats 3 weeks. Besides the promised date of connection has already been and gone and hes still not got a landline and is paying for an internet connection which he cannot possibly use.
The previous owner was a BT customer, the house has BT points wired around it, the line goes to a pole outside it isn't a new installation, it just needs a number assigning to it, and an engineer to connect it at the exchange, a building which you actually pass en route to the estate where he lives and there are always plenty of BT vans parked outside it!. He's not in a remote field in the middle of nowhere or asking them to reinvent the wheel.
How much of an issue is it to add to somebodies job sheet? they've probably visited that exchange a dozen times since the request, but this is where the problem lies, lack of communication between departments and for a Communications company this is not good PR.
Moving house is stressful enough, and when you are looking for work, and attending interviews a landline is vital, the last thing you want is a utility company screwing it up.
Fortunately the email to the CEO actually got a human response, hopefully BT will redeem themselves and live up to the promises of getting him connected 'soon'.
In the meantime, cable can't come to this area soon enough!.0 -
was there a reason why your friend didn't just take over the supposedly existing bt line from the previous occupant? ie they moved out and your friend moved in.0
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hammy_the_hammer wrote:was there a reason why your friend didn't just take over the supposedly existing bt line from the previous occupant? ie they moved out and your friend moved in.
No idea, however it wasn't an option put on the table by BT. He just phoned them to inform them of his approaching move, gave them the information they requested to transfer his Account and BTOPENWORLD ADSL across to the new address and he was essentially led by them. They issued the original connection date of 11th November and that was that....until the date came and went and he still wasn't connected.
One complaint email to the CEO, on the email address given above, and within 30 mins BT had called him on his mobile to apologise and to assure him that he would be connected today. At 8.35 an engineer called and i've just heard from him to say that his ADSL and landline are now working!.
So, the moral of the story is, if you get no joy from the call centre then send a detailed complaint to the CEO!
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i'm sure the matter could have been resolved days ago, but when you're dealing with a bunch of idiots in india, they dont know their !!!! from their elbow.The views expressed on this website, be they in text, pictures or sound, are my own personal views. Not those of my employer, its staff or colleagues.0
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clark1982 wrote:i'm sure the matter could have been resolved days ago, but when you're dealing with a bunch of idiots in india, they dont know their !!!! from their elbow.
Oh, I quite agree, and I'm having the same difficulty of communication with Norwich Union too.
It's a shame that it has to come to complaining direct to the CEO's office just to just get a basic level of service, something which perhaps would rarely have had to happen a decade or so ago0
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