BT RIP OFF

32matwjw

we had the same problem; crackling on the line. I unplugged everything and tried two phones in the first socket to the house. No difference whatsoever. Asked them to come and fix it. The day they arrived there was no crackling on the line. He detected a faint hum. Said it was the sky box and unplugged it. Be clear on this. There is no problem with our sky box. It's been there years no problem the crackling is new and when it's there it's there whether the sky box is connected or not. We were told that we'd be charged if it was a fault in the house but not if it was their equipment. I got charged £99 plus vat for not repairing a fault. That is daylight robbery. These people should be on rogue traders. I complained but nothing came of it. I asked them for a quote to repair the line assuming it might be quite high and not repairing it cost me a hundred. No answer to that. The full amount was taken from my account. I'm assuming it's gone. I'm assuming I can maybe get the vat back as I don't think you have to pay vat on money stolen from you. Now I have to change to another company as our phone line is now useless for 90% of the time. Don't make excuses for these people they don't deserve it.

Vici

I'm an engineer for Openreach and your service provider should always tell you there there may be a charge if the fault is proved into your own equipment or wiring. This is not just from BT, but from ALL service providers. Faults are quite often proved into SKY boxes (which incidentally, could be working with no problems) along with modems, telephones etc etc.

If you have a noise on the line which has not been rectified (whether it be a crap engineer or whether it is an intermitent noise that is not noisy when an engineer calls - this does happen a lot) then you should contact your provider and explain this. They can and more often than not do, retract the charge for a "fault not found" report from an engineer.

Also, whether or not you change companies, in 9 out of 10 cases, Openreach will still own and maintain your line and a different provider will make no difference

Poppy9

For 5 years BT told me there was no problem with my line at the exchange and it was my equipment (at the time just 2 phones) despite me telling them that the phone could work one day but not the next (my phone would appear to be ringing to the caller but no noise in my house). Eventually I complained to the CEX of BT and an engineer came out. The first thing he said to me was if there was a fault with my phones I would have to pay BT for the call out. He found no fault. Rang BT back and was casually told there was a fault at the exchange which they were rectifiying. I had 3 years line rental refunded.

6 years on and my phone line still plays up. It just stops working. I report a fault, they tell me there is no fault at the exchange, it's my equipment etc. and so we go around in loops. They send me a "tinkle muffler" because my phone tinkles every night about 1am. The tinkle muffler did nothing.

Now my BB is playing up. Everytime the phone rings or I make a call I lose my internet connection if online. Only started a few weeks ago.

I'm now so fed up considering switching to Virgin.

lemontart

pingu wrote: »

hi
i checked the main socket as told by the advisor unscrew the socket with two screws in it and it didnt solve the problem so they sent the engineer.

advisor told me the reason why i had to do the checks ie to avoid being charged(and to repeat myself i did do what i was told) the engineer said nothing to me as i said before he was here for only 5 minutes.

AND there is no problem with the sky its working fine.

are we supposed to be all technical minded to check all houshold equipment ???

i have sent them an email waiting for them to call till tomorrow if they dont then i will try to call them.

I was old to unscrew a socket by an advisor when sorting out my mothers broadband - she did not seem to comprehend that in doing so I would be tampering with bt property and if I did any damage I would be liable as well as giving bt an excuse to blame me for any problems. - I refused to do it as it would break terms of contract and eventually they admitted fault was at there end (she had not checked line when she asked me to do this)

Having sky pluged into telephone line can cause problemsm it does not indicate faulty sky just a conflict between the technology - I had this for ages and when I called engineer out it took him couple mins to sort out and he did not log a chargeable call out for me ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,nice man

Liz

RadoJo

shlitz wrote: »

i had a bad line too. engineers came round not to the house as was "a general fault in the area" did not seem to help so 10 days later they came around again. this time i got no call so i called them to say it was not fixed, they said sorry and 10 days later someone else came round. this time they needed access to the house yet they did not inform me of this so i was of course at work.

we resceduled (yes another 8 days later) i took the day off work (unpaid) was told it was my equipment.

i bought a new extention broadband filter and 2 in 1 spliter (£30)

no luck

6 days later they came again and fixed whatever problem it was. (not my equipment another day unpaid)

7 weeks!!!!

i run a small business no emails or fax for 7 weeks and i pay all staff through internet banking, ( not easy with no internet banking)

talked about compensation havn't heard back but in the mean time i have recieved my bt bill. I was charged full line rental for the time my line was down.

is there any other providers out there???

i do not use the phone line for calls just recieve send fax and internet sky etc.

wish i could run my business like this and still turn a profit. (customer service is so inconveiniant.... kidding of course)

If it's a business line, they should have a service level agreement to ensur that you are covered for business expenses when the fault is with their service. I'm pretty sure there's a sliding scale of compensation depending on how long you were without a useable service.

pulliptears

We have had this problem with my Mums phone, but luckily we twigged that it may be the sky affecting it and we were right.

As for BT, well, sorting out there !!!! ups isnt something they are good at. 2 years ago we had a thunderstorm here that knocked out the phone line. When it came back the next day we were a little surprised that the phone wasn't ringing, despite family saying they had called and we hadnt answerd.... To test the phone I called OH's mobile and he was amazed when another number came up. BT had managed to cross our lines at the exchange with someone else, and that someone else who now had my phone number was apparently on their holidays...

The whole saga went on for almost a fortnight with nobody being able to grasp what we were telling them. BT were useless. We spent hours on the phone with no success and in desperation I went down to the local exchange and collared an engineer, explaining the problem. He made a note of it and within the day it was fixed.

We demanded 6 months line rental from them for their complete lack of service and they agreed, also cancelling any calls made from wither number during the time the fault was present.