The on-going issue with BT. Can I do anything?

JDMYOFAN · 15 February 2008 at 10:26AM

Howdy

I've had several issues with BT, so I'll summarise whilst limiting my personal feelings (this makes it much much much shorter)

A month ago I contact BT to see if the apartment we moved into had a line. I was told 'no'.

A week after that I receive a letter saying 'come back to BT', with our phone number. I contact BT explaining this, I was told that another company took over the line, they did not know who.

I rung the next day, and that operator told me 'TalkTalk' took over the line, an engineer needed to go out to reconnect this line, fair enough. For £135 woah

I was then told signing up to 18months will be half price connection blahblah so I agreed. I was then told an engineer needed to visit my HOME? I argued this a little as I know this wasn't required, but had to agree to take time off work for the engineer to visit me on the 11th.

I took an unpaid day off work (I work quite far from home so a half day wasn't possible). Waited the whole day and no engineer visited, no phone call, nothing.

Sent a 'check order progress' email on tuesday, nothing.

Sent another chase email yesterday, and received the response today:

Dear Mr xxx,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 14/2/08 about the status of your order.

I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
I would like to inform you that I have checked your order and can confirm you that your order has been cancelled due to some technical error. If you wish to place a fresh order you can file a new application online at www. bt.com or you can contact our sales team at 0800 800 150.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Gautam xxx

I really don't know what to do. I'm fuming with the fact I had to take an unessasary unpaid day off work (noone likes to do this) though the internet is a source of Income for me so it made sense to do so. I can't believe I wasn't contacted.

If anyone works for BT, can you please advise. I cannot afford to take another day off work. I also can't afford to sit on hold for 15/20 mins on my mobile as it's costing a substantial amount of money, all I get given is re-directions, other numbers to ring, none of their operators seem to be able to do anything.

Thanks

Browntoa · 16 February 2008 at 9:45AM

I know they have had ongoing problems with a systems upgrade since BT formed openreach (who do the installation) . Yours seems to have the classic signs of that problem , the missed appointment , the unexplained cancellation

The number for BT'S High Level Escalation team is 0808 100 4488 (freephone) or fax 01332 577488.Or you can email

[EMAIL="hleteam@bt.com"]hleteam@bt.com[/EMAIL]

suzyp1982 · 16 February 2008 at 8:33PM

Hi, please coud you tell me what the high excalation team does?

Im having a few problems myself, BT are charging me for some work on a line without telling me they were going to charge me (i rang them to say the line to our house was loose but didnt think id get charged for it, so im in dispute, they advised me to contact ofcom on Fri eve)

chugalongzoe · 17 February 2008 at 10:41PM

I understand how u both feel about bt i had serious problems with them. To put it short they changed my phone no. with out tellin me apparently i enquired about a new line which i didnt & there was a order still outstanding on their system & without checking if i wanted to go ahead they went and done it anyway. Also cos they changed my no. i lost the internet. one day i spent 6hrs ones phone tryin to get it sorted but couldnt so i wrote to the bt chief excecutive & got it sorted in 1 hr. so if i was u send a complaint email to: ben.verwaayen@bt.com good luck its the only way to get it resolved and if i was u ask for combinsation for ur loses. Let me know how u get on.

Symbeaux1 · 17 February 2008 at 10:56PM

Personally, would't touch BT with a bargepole !! having not received a bill for a while I phoned them to enquire where they were... to be told that I had instructed them to send them to an address, which, as it turned out did not even exist...they were most insistant that I had instructed them, and when I requested copy bills I was told that I would have to pay for them. Strangely, when I wanted to complain I had to speak with someone who only had the vaguest idea of how to use the English language and when I was contacted about returning to them, it could have been the queen herself calling!! the retentions team, I suspect, work from a different location than the customer service team ?? I was threatened by letter over the final bill, which I contested as I wasn't even sure it was mine. In the end, I settled, closed the account and warned everybody and anyone who would listen to steer clear if possible. I did receive an acceptance of blame (a computer error) and apology, but that would never be enough to persuade me to use them again.

borders · 19 February 2008 at 7:42AM

Unfortunately nowadays it isn't the main BT company that physically install the line to your house. BT Openreach are an installation company for several telephone providers including BT Wholesale. This was brought in by Ofcom to level out the standard of service for wholly provided BT lines and other companies local loop lines. It has levelled out the service by making the BT service much much worse. BT Openreach no longer know who your provider is. Could be BT, Royal Mail, Talk Talk, Tesco etc. They don't see the details so that they can't give preferential treatment. They also can't contact sales, billing etc if there are problems, as they don't know what provider to contact! And they're not allowed to anyway.

The whole thing is a complete farce. Openreach engineers can be sacked if they overstep their boundaries to try and give the end customer service. You also have the problem where your provider will give you an appointment date without confirming that Openreach have engineers available to meet the appointment.

There is absolutely no benefit to yourself as the end user but Ofcom are happy because BT and Openreach are now compliant.

And don't even start me on the use of Indian call centres that can't deviate from their step by step by step by step scripts.

joebo · 26 February 2008 at 3:51PM

****QUOTE*****
I took an unpaid day off work (I work quite far from home so a half day wasn't possible). Waited the whole day and no engineer visited, no phone call, nothing.

I really don't know what to do. I'm fuming with the fact I had to take an unessasary unpaid day off work (noone likes to do this) though the internet is a source of Income for me so it made sense to do so. I can't believe I wasn't contacted.
*****QUOTE*****

I had a similar issue myself that is just getting resolved now.
7 weeks ago i got slammed by talktalk, in the process of re-signing up to bt I had an appointment booked for an engineer. So i took a paid day off work to wait for mr engineer. They missed the appointment time so i called bt and they said no appointment had been made despite my conformation letter. Total farce from there on in, a few days later i came home from work to find a missed appointment card from a bt engineer saying no-one was in to let them in, i called bt in a rage because no-one had told me about the appointment! they apologized but unbelievably they repeated they're error and sent another engineer without my knowledge, i was at work but by luck someone else was in and they completed the work (with the wrong phone number but thats another issue!). Anywho the way i have got round this is by raising the issue with ofcom and they put me through to the right office. i said i took the day of work blah blah and there compensation offer was 10 pounds. i said that was unacceptable, they then came back with a months free line rental. a whopping 11.50 for me! i laughed at there 1 .50 rise! basically they put me on to someone more senior who then offered me 30 quid. i said no and he asked me what i thought was acceptable and i said 60 quid. he bit my hand off at that offer so maybe i should have asked for more!:embarasse
anyway the moral of the story is to contact ofcom to get though to the right office and laugh at there first three offers and dont give up because i had to hassle the office for 3 days. get names of the people dealing with your case and there working hours!

best of luck!

Heinz · 26 February 2008 at 3:58PM

Despite the mess-ups with appointments, how nice of BT to pay you £60 because of Talk Talk slamming your line.

joebo · 26 February 2008 at 5:32PM

ahhh the 60 quid was because bt engineers decided not to show up at the appointed time then show up when they feel like it. talktalk are going to get their comeuppance as well!!!

ORE · 31 March 2008 at 9:08PM

borders wrote: »

Unfortunately nowadays it isn't the main BT company that physically install the line to your house. BT Openreach are an installation company for several telephone providers including BT Wholesale. This was brought in by Ofcom to level out the standard of service for wholly provided BT lines and other companies local loop lines. It has levelled out the service by making the BT service much much worse. BT Openreach no longer know who your provider is. Could be BT, Royal Mail, Talk Talk, Tesco etc. They don't see the details so that they can't give preferential treatment. They also can't contact sales, billing etc if there are problems, as they don't know what provider to contact! And they're not allowed to anyway.

The whole thing is a complete farce. Openreach engineers can be sacked if they overstep their boundaries to try and give the end customer service. You also have the problem where your provider will give you an appointment date without confirming that Openreach have engineers available to meet the appointment.

There is absolutely no benefit to yourself as the end user but Ofcom are happy because BT and Openreach are now compliant.

And don't even start me on the use of Indian call centres that can't deviate from their step by step by step by step scripts.

we do get details of your provider but are not allowed to show bias to any service provider as we work for the majority of them.

GustyGardenGalaxy · 9 June 2008 at 5:42PM

Browntoa wrote: »

I know they have had ongoing problems with a systems upgrade since BT formed openreach (who do the installation) . Yours seems to have the classic signs of that problem , the missed appointment , the unexplained cancellation

The number for BT'S High Level Escalation team is 0808 100 4488 (freephone) or fax 01332 577488.Or you can email

[EMAIL="hleteam@bt.com"]hleteam@bt.com[/EMAIL]

That email address and phone number no longer works - is there an alternative please?

Thanks

The on-going issue with BT. Can I do anything?

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