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My BT Horror Diary
Rosey321
Posts: 184 Forumite
in Phones & TV
Hi
I’m just writing to share my BT horror story! In addition, I thought this thread might double up as a diary of events in case I did need to write any formal letter of complaint to the appropriate bodies at some point in the very near future.
I know there is a helpful BT customer rep on this forum – and if you can please do anything to help unravel this mess, I would really appreciate it!!
My problems have been fourfold: home line (sorted problem), online accounting (ongoing problem but not priority), broadband (very big problem) and bt vision (very big problem!)
It started about two weeks ago when I moved house a couple of miles up the road. I phoned five working days in advance to arrange transfer. It was explained to me that despite my short moving distance, I would be moving onto a different exchange and would therefore need a new phone number. Fair enough I thought. I was given an order number and a transfer date of Friday 22nd May. There was a bit of confusion with the new address originally because the BT system brought up an additional line on the new address that was unfamiliar to me. However, the number that my landlord gave me matched that address on their system so we were happy all was OK.
A couple of days later, I thought I’d try and track my order online. Nothing appeared so I telephoned. It was explained to me that there was no order showing. I re-placed the order which would be activated on Tuesday 26th May. However, nothing happened on that day either!!
Phoned a third time, this time spoke to someone who really seemed to know her stuff. She decided for whatever reason to set an order up on a totally different phone number to the one that the landlord had given. She had a few problems ‘getting an exchange’ but persevered and guaranteed me it would be activated by 8pm on Monday 1st June and I would get a text message of confirmation.
I was impressed enough with this lady that I also ordered Broadband and BT Vision with her. I’d had terrible times with AOL before so I thought it was a good time to ditch them bearing in mind a whole new phone number was being set up. She did a line test which came back with a good speed of 6MB per second, which was going up to 9MB per second in Autumn. She set up a direct debit and gave me an activation date of Wednesday 3rd June by 8PM – the day my equipment would also arrive.
So, I left it until Monday 1st June. I was fearing the worst as I had not had said text message but thankfully the telephone worked with the new phone number as promised!!
The next bit of good news arrived on Wednesday 3rd June – one nice new home hub as expected on ‘activation’ day. All seemed like it was going to plan.
That’s where the good fortune ended though - all was to turn sour. You ain’t heard nothing yet!
I tried to activate the broadband, got the blue lights on the hub – however got a message on my screen informing me ‘computer to hub’ connection is connected, broadband connection ‘not connected’.
I waited until midnight and then I telephoned technical services. Was told that there was actually no broadband on the line, and that I should telephone the order department today (4th June) to check on the order.
Phoned this morning, spoke to some right dopey assistant who sounded like she had just got up. She told me that the broadband had been activated as planned. When I disagreed with this, I told her the story of the previous week or so. “Oh you need the house move department” she said. Before I’d had a chance to protest that the order for broadband had been made since the house move, I was being transferred. The house move dept were very confused with why I was speaking with them, and I was equally bemused. We agreed to go our separate ways with them suggesting I try the order dept later.
I thought I’d wait until I was home from work in case dopey drawers was right and it had been magically activated. Still nothing though.
Phoned the order dept back, told them story. This time they confirmed that there had been no broadband order placed on my line at all and I should start a new order with Sales. When I told her that I had already had a letter of confirmation, an activation date and a nice new shiny home hub, she said “I don’t know how that could have happened, there’s definitely no order” –and with that off I went to Sales department.
Explained everything yet again and he agreed that he could see no order and that he would set me up again. I have now been given another activation date of Thursday 11th June. He asked me if I wanted another home hub. I reiterated that I already had one but asked if the new one would be specific to my new order and he said yes. Therefore, I am now receiving a second home hub in the post on activation day! (?). Another direct debit was also set up.
I then thought I would double check how my Vision order was doing. “There is no Vision order on your line” came the reply. Once again, I had to start a new order from scratch, give direct debit details. I was a bit confused when he said my normal DD (including phone bill) would increase from £22 to £56 as that was much more than any Vision package! However, he did tell me that my original DD was a bit low and I had built up arrears of £99 on my account (I might have noticed that sooner if ANY of my billing facilities on my paper-less online account would actually work!!)
Anyway, he finally came to submitting the order which would be active on 18th June. No joy!! “Apparently, your line has been activated for Vision already sir” he said, “but I can’t see any order at all” he added in a very bemused manner.
He then put me on hold so he could phone the Vision department. He came back explaining “The Vision Dept were no help at all!” and then he and his colleague huddled round the computer searching for a fix.
Eventually he said the only way to get the order through would be to stop the current Vision that is showing on the line and then re-process the order. This would take 24 hours and he isn’t working tomorrow! He has promised to ring me at 4pm on Saturday.
I was on the phone 1 hour 20 minutes. To be fair to the last guy, he was about the only one willing to try and help, and he remained very apologetic throughout. I still don’t feel any nearer a solution though as such a mess has been created.
An interesting point was that halfway through the call, he got confused saying that there were two phone numbers showing against my address. I asked if either of the ‘lost’ orders might have been set up against the other mystery phone number (which is presumably the one the landlord gave originally) but he said no. I’m not so sure though, might be a logical explanation although I do know the old number has been disconnected.
As it is though, I can turn a blind eye to the problems I have had with the home line and the online accounting, however it is the Broadband and Vision lines which concern me.
I get so much conflicting advice that I don’t know what is going on any more and it is very frustrating having to wait another five or ten days for a new activation date all the time!
I’ve got one hub already and another on the way for broadband (plus two separate e-mail addresses registered!) – and also what appears to be a fully functioning and enabled Vision phone line being stopped in place of another order. I’ll go mad if a V Box turns up in the next couple of days after being told ‘there’s definitely no order currently set up’. I could be surrounded by Hubs and V-Boxes before I know it!!!
As for the orders, I feel like I’ve given my direct debit details so many times that I have no idea what is going to come out anymore! The first ‘lost’ broadband order was set up as quarterly, while the second was monthly. The first Vision order was set up independently, while the second was merged with my home phone bill.
There’s still the worry that despite these ‘lost’ orders, they do in fact still exist, and BT will try and charge me for them and charge me to cancel them in spite of their own errors. The first broadband order in particular must exist as I got the equipment and a Broadband account number (which incidentally none of today’s telephonists were interested in taking!)
So there it is, a nightmare in every way – home phone, online accounting, broadband, Vision.
It will be interesting to see what else I may add to my diary in future (and future entries will be a lot shorter I promise!!) I wanted to explain the full picture though.
I’m just writing to share my BT horror story! In addition, I thought this thread might double up as a diary of events in case I did need to write any formal letter of complaint to the appropriate bodies at some point in the very near future.
I know there is a helpful BT customer rep on this forum – and if you can please do anything to help unravel this mess, I would really appreciate it!!
My problems have been fourfold: home line (sorted problem), online accounting (ongoing problem but not priority), broadband (very big problem) and bt vision (very big problem!)
It started about two weeks ago when I moved house a couple of miles up the road. I phoned five working days in advance to arrange transfer. It was explained to me that despite my short moving distance, I would be moving onto a different exchange and would therefore need a new phone number. Fair enough I thought. I was given an order number and a transfer date of Friday 22nd May. There was a bit of confusion with the new address originally because the BT system brought up an additional line on the new address that was unfamiliar to me. However, the number that my landlord gave me matched that address on their system so we were happy all was OK.
A couple of days later, I thought I’d try and track my order online. Nothing appeared so I telephoned. It was explained to me that there was no order showing. I re-placed the order which would be activated on Tuesday 26th May. However, nothing happened on that day either!!
Phoned a third time, this time spoke to someone who really seemed to know her stuff. She decided for whatever reason to set an order up on a totally different phone number to the one that the landlord had given. She had a few problems ‘getting an exchange’ but persevered and guaranteed me it would be activated by 8pm on Monday 1st June and I would get a text message of confirmation.
I was impressed enough with this lady that I also ordered Broadband and BT Vision with her. I’d had terrible times with AOL before so I thought it was a good time to ditch them bearing in mind a whole new phone number was being set up. She did a line test which came back with a good speed of 6MB per second, which was going up to 9MB per second in Autumn. She set up a direct debit and gave me an activation date of Wednesday 3rd June by 8PM – the day my equipment would also arrive.
So, I left it until Monday 1st June. I was fearing the worst as I had not had said text message but thankfully the telephone worked with the new phone number as promised!!
The next bit of good news arrived on Wednesday 3rd June – one nice new home hub as expected on ‘activation’ day. All seemed like it was going to plan.
That’s where the good fortune ended though - all was to turn sour. You ain’t heard nothing yet!
I tried to activate the broadband, got the blue lights on the hub – however got a message on my screen informing me ‘computer to hub’ connection is connected, broadband connection ‘not connected’.
I waited until midnight and then I telephoned technical services. Was told that there was actually no broadband on the line, and that I should telephone the order department today (4th June) to check on the order.
Phoned this morning, spoke to some right dopey assistant who sounded like she had just got up. She told me that the broadband had been activated as planned. When I disagreed with this, I told her the story of the previous week or so. “Oh you need the house move department” she said. Before I’d had a chance to protest that the order for broadband had been made since the house move, I was being transferred. The house move dept were very confused with why I was speaking with them, and I was equally bemused. We agreed to go our separate ways with them suggesting I try the order dept later.
I thought I’d wait until I was home from work in case dopey drawers was right and it had been magically activated. Still nothing though.
Phoned the order dept back, told them story. This time they confirmed that there had been no broadband order placed on my line at all and I should start a new order with Sales. When I told her that I had already had a letter of confirmation, an activation date and a nice new shiny home hub, she said “I don’t know how that could have happened, there’s definitely no order” –and with that off I went to Sales department.
Explained everything yet again and he agreed that he could see no order and that he would set me up again. I have now been given another activation date of Thursday 11th June. He asked me if I wanted another home hub. I reiterated that I already had one but asked if the new one would be specific to my new order and he said yes. Therefore, I am now receiving a second home hub in the post on activation day! (?). Another direct debit was also set up.
I then thought I would double check how my Vision order was doing. “There is no Vision order on your line” came the reply. Once again, I had to start a new order from scratch, give direct debit details. I was a bit confused when he said my normal DD (including phone bill) would increase from £22 to £56 as that was much more than any Vision package! However, he did tell me that my original DD was a bit low and I had built up arrears of £99 on my account (I might have noticed that sooner if ANY of my billing facilities on my paper-less online account would actually work!!)
Anyway, he finally came to submitting the order which would be active on 18th June. No joy!! “Apparently, your line has been activated for Vision already sir” he said, “but I can’t see any order at all” he added in a very bemused manner.
He then put me on hold so he could phone the Vision department. He came back explaining “The Vision Dept were no help at all!” and then he and his colleague huddled round the computer searching for a fix.
Eventually he said the only way to get the order through would be to stop the current Vision that is showing on the line and then re-process the order. This would take 24 hours and he isn’t working tomorrow! He has promised to ring me at 4pm on Saturday.
I was on the phone 1 hour 20 minutes. To be fair to the last guy, he was about the only one willing to try and help, and he remained very apologetic throughout. I still don’t feel any nearer a solution though as such a mess has been created.
An interesting point was that halfway through the call, he got confused saying that there were two phone numbers showing against my address. I asked if either of the ‘lost’ orders might have been set up against the other mystery phone number (which is presumably the one the landlord gave originally) but he said no. I’m not so sure though, might be a logical explanation although I do know the old number has been disconnected.
As it is though, I can turn a blind eye to the problems I have had with the home line and the online accounting, however it is the Broadband and Vision lines which concern me.
I get so much conflicting advice that I don’t know what is going on any more and it is very frustrating having to wait another five or ten days for a new activation date all the time!
I’ve got one hub already and another on the way for broadband (plus two separate e-mail addresses registered!) – and also what appears to be a fully functioning and enabled Vision phone line being stopped in place of another order. I’ll go mad if a V Box turns up in the next couple of days after being told ‘there’s definitely no order currently set up’. I could be surrounded by Hubs and V-Boxes before I know it!!!
As for the orders, I feel like I’ve given my direct debit details so many times that I have no idea what is going to come out anymore! The first ‘lost’ broadband order was set up as quarterly, while the second was monthly. The first Vision order was set up independently, while the second was merged with my home phone bill.
There’s still the worry that despite these ‘lost’ orders, they do in fact still exist, and BT will try and charge me for them and charge me to cancel them in spite of their own errors. The first broadband order in particular must exist as I got the equipment and a Broadband account number (which incidentally none of today’s telephonists were interested in taking!)
So there it is, a nightmare in every way – home phone, online accounting, broadband, Vision.
It will be interesting to see what else I may add to my diary in future (and future entries will be a lot shorter I promise!!) I wanted to explain the full picture though.
0
Comments
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Very quick update:
Received a text message today stating that my broadband will be activated on 11th June 09. At least it looks like a step in the right direction (didn't get a text last time). Will be interesting to see if I get another activation letter with a different broadband account number to one given to me initially.0 -
....and now I have just checked my on-line banking facility and a direct debit has indeed been set up against the supposed broadband order which 'never existed'!!!
Therefore, as it stands, it seems BT have every intention of trying to bill me for two broadband accounts at one address. I dare say they will try the same with BT Vision.
I reckon the people I spoke to could have investigated better but I'm sure they were too intent getting another 'sale' and a bit more commission.
I'm going to cancel the direct debit and inform the bloke who is meant to be phoning me back tomorrow.
If he so much as dares mention cancellation charges......
Talk about can't organise a p- up in a brewery!!0 -
Bt use two systems for broadband orders. not all advisors have access to the new system which may be why they cant see your order and say no order has been placed.
If the broadband is on the new system the account number will start GBxxxx xxxx. and is usually different from your telephone account number if on a separate bill.. the account number appears at the side of your direct debit with your bank so you can check this.
you may have 2 broadband orders going on so my advice is to call 01793591155 which is BT cs that has access to both systems. if you quote you may have a "swordfish account" they will know what to do.
good luck0 -
Hi Rosey321,
I will be happy to check your details and get an idea of what is happening and help if i can, PM me with your details.
All the best,
Stephanie
BT Support“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 forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"0 -
Hi Stephanie
Thanks for your offer of help. I've just got to work so I'll send you a PM at lunchtime.
The guy from sales phoned me back as promised on Saturday and put through the Vision order successfully. He wasn't interested in taking the broadband account number and checking the 'lost order' because he said the billing dept would have to check that out.
If I can PM you later though Stephanie, I would appreciate you checking for me.
Thanks.0 -
Hi
PM now sent. I gather it might be picked up by any of you BT guys. If anyone can help and look at my PM I would be most appreciative.
Thanks.0 -
Online bank this morning shows the second DD has also been set up now.0
-
Things now looking up.
Got another text message reminding me that broadband is going to be activated on Thursday.
Had a chat with Craig from BT who is being a fantastic help. He has looked into everything and has begun the job of untangling the web and is going to get in touch again with the definitive results and DD cancellation confirmations etc.
It seems the majority of the problems are based around yet another telephone number that has been associated with the address.
All is on the way to be sorted however therefore thanks for all your help Craig - very, very much appreciated!!0 -
Just a final note to my thread now - all is now sorted nicely. After my earlier moans, I thought a 'credit where it's due' post was needed too!!
The Broadband worked perfectly on the Thursday as promised. It was a bit slow on day 1 which is to be expected but within a couple of days was going at the speeds I had been promised.
The DDs have been sorted too as well, as there were some duplicate accounts set up.
My Vision box arrived Friday and although I tried to install that evening, I had no joy. Spoke to the technical team the next day and they said there was a problem with the account and I should try it after 48 hrs.
However, that same afternoon, had a call from the Vision team who had been looking into it for me and they had found and removed a duplicate account (basically the Vision box didn't know what account to talk to!). I went home and tried it and it worked like a dream. The technical and Vision team were really helpful.
What can I say about Vision? I think it is absolutely brilliant - can recommend the product to all. There can seriously be no more occasions when there is 'nothing to watch on the telly'. Shame about Setanta, I got my viewing card the day the premier league tore up the contract. I quickly got my card registered and up and running though in case some alternate arrangements are made in future.
My final problem was my online account and that too seems OK and I can now view my bills and analyse the calls etc etc.
All in all, BT have shown their really good side. I think that there is often problems with these changeovers with any company, but a sign of a decent provider is how quickly they can sort it (I know I would still be waiting if I was with AOL).
In particular, I must thank the BT customer reps on this site (in particular Craig who has been nothing short of brilliant in helping me). I would not have got this sorted so quickly without his help and the help of his colleagues. It just goes to show that dealing with one person is better than going through five different departments!!
Thanks anyway, and I look forward to continuing to receive a great service!0
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