Help - how do I complain to BT?

artdoc

Hello,
Please can someone from BT help me with the following issue?

I have notified BT about the house move on 17 March 2010.
BT has confirmed a new line will be active on April 1st (day of the move) and provided me with the order number.
The old line indeed was disconnected on April 1st.
New line has not been activated.

After calling Customer Services I have been told that 'my order did not go through'.
They informed me that the existing line in my house is with some other provider and BT should serve them a 14 days notice which for some reason has not been done.
BT has placed a new order and confirmed that my line will be active soon.
In the meantime I have found out that that line was with Unicom (for some reason BT could not find this out themselves) and informed BT about this. I was reassured that now everything is under control and my line will be activated before the end of April.

Just to confirm, I called BT on April 19th just to find out that the second order also 'did not go through'. They were unable to provide a reason and to confirm whether the new order will be successful as they 'can not take over the line for some reason'.

I have been offered an option to get a brand new landline installed instead. As I work from home most of the time I use the line just for broadband (not BT). So it was essential for me to get online as soon as possible. So I agreed to that option providing that the new line will be active on Apr 23rd. I have spent about 2 hours on the phone and that was confirmed to me by phone by a person who told me she is a Line Manager in customer services (I have got the name as well).

Today Apr 20th I received an e-mail from BT stating that my engineer visit is booked for May 11th!
I called BT just to find out that details of my previous conversation are not on file and there is no capability of fulfilling a committment they have made (for the third time!).

In the meantime my broadband provider will disconnect my service completely on May 5th, and I will also be liable for disconnection charges. However as this is not my fault and BT has been notified well in advance about my house move, I am going to file a complaint with regards to BT services and for all associated financial losses.

I would appreciate if someone from BT can help to resolve this issue ASAP to prevent further complications.
Thank you.

BT_company_representative

Hi Artdoc

Send us an email to the address in my profile, we can look into this issue for you please include all relevant information and if you have the details of the people you have spoken to please include this as well.

We will work to get back to you ASAP with regards this.

Thanks

Stuart

artdoc

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Artdoc

Send us an email to the address in my profile, we can look into this issue for you please include all relevant information and if you have the details of the people you have spoken to please include this as well.

We will work to get back to you ASAP with regards this.

Thanks

Stuart

Hi Stuart,

Thank you for your reply.
I have just sent an e-mail with a summary of the issue to the address in your profile.

wombat1810

BT have taken it upon themselves to mess up my new contract with them by changing my broadband from Option 3 to Option 1 cos they can't work out which box has got a tick in it!

After numerous phone calls and the false promise of call backs, I'm cutting out 'customer services' and going straight to their CEO.

I've always acknowledged that I pay over the odds for my broadband service, compared to many other providers, as I've always sat there smugly and said, 'yep, BT might be more expensive, but you can always rely on them'. Just goes to show what I know.

Reached the end of my tether tonight when 'Alex' told me she couldn't see what the problem was but she'd put me through to the right team. And she did, she put me through to 'John' in Cancellations!!!

I'm not prepared to give up quite just yet, but maybe I should take the hint :mad:


Edit: Just emailed my version of 'war & peace' to [EMAIL="Btcare@bt.com"]Btcare@bt.com[/EMAIL], and cc'd Ian Livingston and Gavin Patterson, 2 od BT's CEOs'. Hopefully that should help get, what seems to me to be a simple mistake, (theirs), corrected.

Laplizard

Hi,

I have been trying for ages to get BT to do something that I am sure must be straight forward.

[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]Very short summary - I would like to swap over the phone numbers for my two landlines, retaining the broadband service on the same line (not number!) that it is currently on. I want to end up with the voice line number (that is already known to my family and friends) on the same line as my broadband service. The two lines arrive at my house using different pole routes back to the exchange. One route is too long for a satisfactory broadband connection. Hence the need to swap the numbers. Were it not for one line not being broadband suitable, I could simply order broadband on this one (my existing voice line).

Or to put it another way:
I would like a re-number line A, using the number that I have on my line B (which will then be discontinued). I want to keep all of the services (inc. my existing BT Broadband service) that are currently on line A. I have been advised that this is best achieved by "raising a modify order to renumber the line", rather than stopping and then starting the service. Apparently, this is referred to as a "soft renumber" and I should not experience any loss of broadband. [/FONT]

Anyway, despite multiple emails, phone calls etc with BT Customer Services, I can't get anyone to understand the nature of the request, let alone implement the change (!).

I've had responses from Customer Services that show a complete lack of technical understanding. For example:
"They (both lines) are both using the same exchange so it would not improve your speed." I didn't say anything about improving my broadband speed!

I have today sent a registered letter of complaint to BT's Chairman.
In my letter, I also pointed out four things that have particularly frustrated me during this exchange with BT:
[FONT=Tahoma, sans-serif]
1. Each email to BT is treated as a separate incident, with a new number. If I email from the web site contact form, I receive an email response, that cannot be replied to. If I am unhappy with the response, I have to return to the contact, thereby initiating a new incident number. Each time I use the web contact form, I have to re-enter my details: account number etc. This does not seem like an efficient way to conduct an online discussion. Surely, each issue should be treated like an email 'thread', with the same reference number applying to all emails on the this subject. Obviously, BT need to be able to terminate an incident if no reply from the customer has been received within a set period of time, but the current system actively discourages responses from the customer.

2. Customer services (in India?) are very polite, but they don't seem to understand the same technical language used by UK-based staff. During several phone conversations, I found that they didn't understand what a 'renumber' was, even when I gave the example of a customer requesting a change of number following nuisance calls. They also didn't seem to understand that performing a renumber on a line, without affecting the broadband service (I am a BT Broadband customer) is a BT Residential responsibility, rather than BT Broadband.

3. Every time that I completed the web contact page, I requested contact by email. On at least two occasions, I received a phone call, rather than (or before) an email. One one of these occasions, no voice mail message was left. It is very annoying for a customer to be given contact options and then for his or her preferences to be ignored.

4. On several occasions, I have requested that my complaint should be escalated to second tier support, a technical engineer, a specialist team etc. This has not happened and I was told by one customer services employee that she had no idea who to refer me to. Eventually, BT Broadband or Openreach were her suggestions. Openreach do not accept calls directly from customers.
[/FONT]

We'll have to see if I get a response...

wombat1810

Hi Laplizard,

Good luck with BT. Now you've gone to the top you should get somewhere. When I emailed the CEO he replied within 10 minutes. the next morning I had a phone call from a very helpful chap in the Chairman's office who sorted out the problems I was having and kept me updated every step of the way.

I was issued with a questionnaire at the end of this 'experience'and my honesty was encouraged.

So I told them straight. BT Customer Services is appalling. They are (the ones I dealt with) incompetent, badly trained, don't listen, tell lies and have no authority to do anything apart from promise a 'call-back' which will be non-existant.

It shouldn't have taken me emailing the CEO's office to resolve my problem. A problem that was caused by them and their lack of attention to detail.

The laughable part of this entire episode is that at no point did I want to leave BT, I am and always have been the perfect customer. Paying my bills by DD, never missing a payment, and until this issue, never having a reason to complain.

The best thing to come out of this sorry saga, is that I now have a contact in the Chairman's office, and his assurance that I can contact him at any point in the future if I need to. So, no more Customer Services queues and nonsense for me! :j

dj_gee_funk

my wife is going mad because of BT.. ive had no phone line because of a fault outside in our area.. within a day or two we started to receive phone calls in the house (24 hours a day) but they werent for us. (we had someone elses line attached to our house) this went on for 9 days in total. due to me and my wife having full time jobs we have now called BT more or less everday since 21/8/2011 after 6pm.. we are trying to complain but seem to be getting nowhere! We were offered £5 compensation from one BT representative from which we said we werent happy with. she then then put us on hold for about 30 mins without coming back to us and so we gave up on that phonecall and decided to call back the following day. Upon phoning back, again after 6pm, my wife spoke to a male representative of BT who confirmed there was a note on the account stating £5 had been offered, we again said we were not happy with this and we were then offered £10 in compensation, which again given the problems we had been going through we said we were not happy with, this representative put us through to a "Supervisor" who after going through the entire story again with my wife offered us 3 months free line rental as it was clear to him that we were not happy and had been trying to sort this out, we accepted this as being a good response and agreed requesting that this be sent to us in writing along with confirmation on a few other points we were not happy with (requesting compensation for not being able to use our other services ie broadband for this period and the fact that even though our phone plan was with a different provider we were still being charged for a call plan with BT instead of just line rental for a period of 10 months amounting to £30) "Supervisor" told my wife that this would be done and the telephone call ended on a happy note for a change!
Upon receiving our BT bill we realised that what we were promised had not been followed through as a £5.07 discount had been applied to the account even though we had not agreed this and agreed upon a totally different outcome. So more phone calls to BT were made. The first on the 13/09/11 again after 6pm where my wife explained the whole story to a different representative who took the attitude that we could not expect to receive 3 months free line rental for just 9 days of being without our line and all they would offer is £5 which had been applied. My wife requested to speak to a manager and a male came onto the line confirming our telephone number and stating he would call back within 10 minutes (we are still waiting and its now the 15th Sept). As no call back was made, my wife again called on the 15/09/11, again after 6pm and spoke to yet another representative and again went through the entire story. This representative again took the attitue that we could not expect to receive 3 months free line rental for being without our landline for 9 days and the most they could offer was £10 refund on our bill (even though we had only received £5 which we were not happy with and have never agreed to). Again my wife requested to speak to a manager and this time was told there was no-one to take her call as the representative's manager was on another call. My wife then took the "complaints" email address down and stated that she would email BT along with Offcom and the Communications Ombudsman to which the representative advised we should just email BT as our complaint would be dealt with quickly.

Rex_Ham

Hi

I have completed the online from at but given the nature of this escalation I’m keen to ensure I get the right level of involvement from BT to resolve this issue quickly.

The number in the subject line belongs (or used to until last week) to my grandfather. He is 90 yrs old, lives by himself and has had this number ever since BT lines were the norm. The line was disconnected last week on the basis that the bill wasn’t paid – it was in fact paid, which we can prove with receipts, so the discrepancy appears to have been on BT’s part. As a result of this disconnection and many, many calls in a BT service desk he has been issued a temporary number

This isnt ideal clearly as he has had the same number for years and his only link with his support network is his BT telephone line. He has been told his original number will be-reinstated although this is now at least two days overdue.

Could you please, as a matter of urgency, let me know: -

a) Why his line was disconnected originally (happy to provide copies of receipts proving the bill was paid)
b) When the original number will be-reinstated
c) Provide an escalation management resource in order that I can discuss his case and outstanding billing \ compensation request




Be grateful if you could contact me asap to discuss, details below.

steveE2

REX
Edit out all personal details
BT rep may or may not see this post this is not official BT Support forum

JR87

back in July my phone line went off, had to call up 2 or 3 times to get report the issues, each time the phone line started working for about an hour befor it went off again, sent a complaint via the website which i never received any responce to. due to this i stopped making payments as dont see why i should pay for a service i am not receiving.

yesterday i received a legal notice so decided to call up. the advised said the line had been cut off and that i owe outstanding monies, i asked for an update on the complaint and was advised he would speak to his manager and call back within the hour.

today i had to call back as that callback never come through. according to this advisor the line was only off for 17 days, bit of a difference from the 6 months its actually been of. i finally managed to get to speak to a manager who then proceeded to tell that they responded to my written complaint. this is the best 'they called us on the home number (the one that was not and still not working), we answered the phone (the one that was not and still not working) and told them the issue was resolved'.

how do i proceed with this, the manager told me they have a complaints department but its not customer facing. how they managed to develope a complaints team that is not customer facing is completely beyond me.

PLEASE HELP!!!