BT Complaints & Escalation

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  • Hi,

    I too have made the mistake of electing to join BT Infinity. I've been a non-BT customer for years and have always had a race to the bottom for the cheapest line rental and broadband package, but the time came when 3mpbs was not enough so I decided to join BT. No 3G at my home address or any other options i.e. virgin.

    What a mistake.

    The order was fine, but as others have mentioned if you are transferring into BT they don't know how to process you as a customer as they don't have the business process in place.

    Are you in a BT Infinity area = yes, accept order
    Are you a non-BT customer = don't ask this question as it's unimportant.

    The order was processed and my phone line transferred but not broadband and no engineer was booked for the infinity install.

    Sledging on twitter gets lies. Sledging the customer advisers more lies.

    I've waited over 18 months to place my infinity order - since the exchange went live. What a stupid mistake.

    Have fun, live long - don't use BT.
  • Browntoa
    Browntoa Posts: 49,281
    Name Dropper Photogenic First Post First Anniversary
    Ambassador
    you need to remove the email address from the post, the forum rules here do not allow it I am afraid
    I'm a Forum Ambassador and I support the Forum Team on the Shopping and Freebies, Phones and TV and Over 50s boards. If you need any help on these boards, do let me know. Please note that Ambassadors are not moderators. Any posts you spot in breach of the Forum Rules should be reported via the report button, or by emailing . All views are my own and not the official line of MoneySavingExpert.
  • I am beyond frustrated with BT’s inability to deal with a problem, keep promises to phone back, and enable me to make a complaint that it will react to.

    We regularly use around 19Gb of data per month, comprising mainly browsing (including watching the odd bit of BBC news video) and an automated backup using Carbonite. We do not use the iPlayer or equivalent, stream/download any films, or do any gaming. Even if we wanted to, broadband is so slow here that it wouldn’t be practical. There are only two of us in the house, we live in the country and no other houses are close enough to camp on our wireless, even if they knew the password. And if someone was sat outside trying to do the same, we’d see them or their car in our empty lane.

    During October we suddenly got an email warning that our broadband usage was approaching the 40Gb limit. We checked, using the BT usage monitor. Usage had been normal for most of the month and then massive ( c16Gb) the previous day.

    Knowing for sure that we were not using this level, we promptly changed he wireless password (anticipating, rightly, that BT would try to explain usage away on the basis of someone using our broadband).

    We called and got the usual ‘you must be using it’, etc. along with another feature that we recognise from previous calls. This is the repeated attempt by the call centre operative to extract your full account password by telling you that various bits of it are wrong, when you have them written down and are reading from them, and then asking for the whole password (which we know they are not allowed to do).

    We stopped using internet beyond absolute necessity, shut the router down at night, and both of us were out for almost 12 hours on the following day. But we still apparently used 16Gb, almost all download, that day.

    And then a day later, our usage magically returned to normal without us doing anything. But we had no idea why it had returned either, and no idea if/when this would happen again.

    More very long phone calls to BT to try to get to the bottom of what had happened. Promises to phone back were made and broken multiple times. We’re now waiting for two calls that we were promised would be made to us over a week ago.

    Eventually, via Billing, we were told that we would not be charged forthe overrun on our 40Gb that month (it had gone up to 55Gb of usage by the end of the month).

    And then yesterday we got an email to say that we would be charged £15.

    It’s not the money that is the main issue, it is the poor service and consistent ducking and diving. We know there must have been some issue over the period of apparent increased usage – and it’s interesting that we have seen Openreach in the Lane several times over the last few weeks. We are on overhead lines, and the increased usage was during a period of heavy rain, so we wonder if that has had an impact.

    Does anyone have any idea of what the issue may have been, or how we get BT to investigate and respond properly, please?

    We have recordings of all the calls we made to BT.
  • BT_company_representative
    BT_company_representative Posts: 1,861 Organisation Representative
    Hi Sue J,

    I can take a look at the details of your complaint. Please could you send me in your details using the link found in my profile?

    Thanks

    Paddy
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of BT. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to [email protected] This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • A cautionary tale for anyone thinking of switching to BT. I switched to BT's phone and broadband package at the end of September. This was after receiving an assurance that I could expect download speeds of between 5-8 Mbps. I paid 12 months line rental up front. I won't go into too much detail but the fact is that over the following 6 weeks, I was on to BT on numerous occasions about the unacceptable download speeds I was experiencing. These ranged from 0.2 Mbps to about 2mbps. On each occasion, I was assured things would improve and that I could expect to get about 3mbps in future. They seemed to doubt that I had been previously advised to expect between 5-8mbps. Fortunately, I had requested a transcript of the email conversation I had had with the customer services department. (It's also worth mentioning that with my previous broadband supplier, TalkTalk I was getting between 8 and 14 Mbps.)

    Finally, I had had enough and when I received notification of a price increase, I decided to cancel my contract. I did so within 10 days and was assured on at least 2 occasions that I would receive a partial refund of the upfront rental charge. Imagine my surprise when I received letters and emails to say that I was liable for all sorts of cancellation charges. When I queried this, I was again assured that these notifications were automatically generated and that a note would be placed on account to confirm that a partial refund was due. A few days later I received a final bill that included a £30 charge for broadband disconnection. All told, I OWED BT another £20+. When I rang to query this, I was told that The information I had been given previously was wrong and that I was not entitled to a refund. The adviser then hung up on me.

    If you are thinking of signing up with BT, my advice to you is to think very carefully before committing to them!

    :(
  • Dear All,

    I got a, long standing, fight with BT I need advice on.

    Back on 2010 I switched from virgin to BT, the new contract was supposed to start in november for landline and internet, and last 18 months (making it MAY 2012).

    However, BT didnt manage to connect the Internet on the day initially indicated due to staffing or technical issues in their center.

    in around february, this finally got sorted and the internet switched over to BT fully. this was after they, internally, started a completely new contract for me - after reassuring me that the initial 18 months still applied for me, and I could leave the contract in may 2012.

    I flagged this up back in 2011 because I was a student and knew I would be graduating at the end of may 2012 and hence need to move.

    come march/april 2012 I handed in the cancellation, just to be told I was still under contract and needed to pay. I tried talking over the phone and, as usual, got promised things would be sorted.

    just to make sure though, I told my bank to not allow BT to take further money out of my bank account after the cancellation date.

    unsurprisingly, BT again failed to sort stuff internally despite promising me they would, and thought I owe them around 20£ back then, which I refuse to pay as a matter of principal.

    this has now escalated to over 160£ with debt collectors involved.

    this still isn more about the fact that I dont want to spend hours phoning people, so am looking for alternative solutions to get stuff done.

    any advice on how to clear this up? back in 2010 I spend 3 months phoning people on a daily basis, was always promised a solution and nothing happened. same in 2012. I dont want to bother with this again ...


    thanks in advance!
  • BT_company_representative
    BT_company_representative Posts: 1,861 Organisation Representative
    Hi CrD,

    I would like to take look at your final bill. Please could you send me in your details using the link found in my profile?

    Thanks

    Paddy
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of BT. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to [email protected] This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • After many happy years with Sky, I have foolishly been sucked in by BT!

    At noon yesterday the Engineer had installed & carried out all the necessary checks on the phone line, broadband showed me how to use bt vision & you view.

    By 4pm the broadband was stalling, hence the tv picture was also hampered constantly 'buffering' & the phone was dead, no dialling tone and when I tried to dial my landline from my mobile, nothing not an engaged or ringing tone.

    So I got onto the the phone about 5pm, was waiting and waiting so thought I'd try again later by 9 pm I got through. By this time I'd had enough and regretted leaving sky.

    Got put through the call centre in India who was of little or no help, she said she'd arrange for someone to call me the next day(today) between 10:30 and 12 - no one rang.

    I phoned at 12pm and was told someone tried to phone my mobile but couldn't get through to me - LIES

    So I went about explaining the situation and demanded to be released from the contract of which commenced approximately 24 hours ago but only had about 4 hours service! I was told he couldn't do anything but would ask someone to phone me between the hours of 5 & 7pm tonight - SURPRISE SURPRISE NO ONE PHONE!!

    At 19:01 I phoned them
    1) spoke with Hayley in the Uk
    2) spoke with Nishchay in India
    3) spoke with another idiot who name I could get because she cut me off
    4) dialled back spoke to Andrew
    5) spoke with Raja in India
    6) spoke Anil in India - who cut me off at 21:02

    During the 2 hours I explained to each one of them the situation, not one of them communicated with the other to explain the situation just handed the issue to the next person without caring about the customer or taking ownership! Also during the 2 hours I was told open the sockets carry out check on the line by 2 different people!!

    Absolute shambles of a company, no way in hell am I paying for a service that's not being provided - have cancelled my DD and surely they are in breach of contract for not providing service?


    :mad::mad::mad:
  • BT_company_representative
    BT_company_representative Posts: 1,861 Organisation Representative
    Hi dizzyduch,

    Sorry to hear you're having problems. I'll be happy to look into this for you. Drop me an email with the details. You'll get the contact details in my profile.

    Cheers

    David
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of BT. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to [email protected] This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
  • Idiophreak
    Idiophreak Posts: 12,024
    Combo Breaker First Post
    Forumite
    So I finally got my act together and ditched BT...but they've even managed to stuff that up:

    I cancelled in October and was given a switchover date of 15th November.

    I got several letters from BT in early November trying to get me to stay etc.

    Then, on the 18th, I got a letter which said "if we don't hear from you by midday on the 15th..." which was funny. It also said "If you've paid £141 in advance"...why was I not surprised BT have no idea how/what I've paid them.

    Then, on the 19th, I got a bill dated the 13th November for the period between 11/11 and 10/12 - totaling £19.01 - which would be taken on the 24th November.

    Then, yesterday, I got a "final" bill, dated 22 November stating "You haven't paid your previous bill", so calculating the remaining payment on that assumption. Another £3.39 owing. Obviously, by the time I got this second bill, they'd taken the payment on the 24th.

    I called them up today and they've assured me that I'll get a "post-termination" bill in another 10-14 days (presumably this is even more final than the "final" bill) which will refund the £19.01.

    So, in summary, knowing that I was leaving in two days they billed me in advance for a whole month, anyway. Then, knowing that I was due to make this overpayment in 2 days, they went ahead and charged me again...and now they're refusing to give the money back for another fortnight.

    They really are the biggest bunch of cowboys going.
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