British Telecom

MRSPOON_2

I could not believe what happened last week. About a month ago I get an odd letter from them stating they had information that someone required my phone number and unless I contacted them before a date they would assume it was okay to give this number to this person.. The letter also seemed to suggest that they had information that I would be moving and would not be wanting this phone number? This was all news to me....

Somewhat mystified and thinking the letter must be some kind of prank I called BT and it was confirmed the letter was legit , but as I had called them within the deadline they would find another number for this person and I could keep my phone number. Glad this was all cleared up I forgot about it.


Last saturday I get a phonecall from someone from BT who stated he did not understand why I was using this phoneline as it was 'given' to someone else. And he had had complaints from this person who now had my phone number that they had interference or something. I explained everything to him and then he told me the person who wanted that phone number lived down my road! Even gave me their surname. Anyway he said everything would be sorted out and then checking the line five minutes later I had been cut off. No dial tone nothing....

I then phoned BT with my mobile and spoke to this very unhelpful customer service rep who acknowledged there had been a 'clerical error' but I had lost the phone number now and they could not get me back online (ie a dial tone) till wednesday.There was nothing she could do as it was the weekend. Now I exploded at this point, as that phone number, well not only is it my broadband connection but all my friends and family know it , but also I would not have a landline till wednesday. She said we can't get an engineer as it's the weekend.

She then said 'well look we aren't going to charge anything for your last week' , but I was having none of it and actually threatened 'legal action' (I had no clue what the law is) but said 'once I was done someone was losing their job' and 'id make it my mission to ruin this company and you' She then accused me of threats and said she would get her manager. I said get the manager then I'd like to speak to them too. She then said she would get them.

I wait about five minutes and she then said brightly (same woman) 'I have good news,Mr x we can restore your phone number ,I have spoken to the engineers and it will be done within half an hour' .

What the hell was going on? I know my end response was a bit over the top but still, do the staff in fact communicate with each other?

mrcol1000

So you bullied some poor woman doing her job into getting immediate action. Well done you must be proud of yourself.

MRSPOON_2

mrcol1000 wrote: »

So you bullied some poor woman doing her job into getting immediate action. Well done you must be proud of yourself.

I shouldn't have to bully anyone , they sent the letter, they made the mistakes, they cut me off, then refused to do anything till I lost my temper.Then suddenly it can be rectfied extremely quickly. I was extremely polite to them which seemed to be where I went wrong initally.

I reckon they were on the wind up to be honest, must have been a boring saturday.

Remember that this 'clerical error' happened over a period of nearly a month and I was also accused of accessing someone elses phoneline when it was they who had not bothered to check.

My legal threats were pretty laughable but if they had fobbed me off I would have been a right pain for them , put it that way.

charlesworth82

mrcol1000 wrote: »

So you bullied some poor woman doing her job into getting immediate action. Well done you must be proud of yourself.

wow - you actually are a complete prat

pulliptears

A few years ago there were some problems at the local exchange, engineers managed to swap my phone number with that of a couple a few miles away. We couldn't understand why we couldn't use the internet etc but all became clear when I called OH and the other number appeared on the caller display. I had to contact all the family and give them this "other" number as we were unreachable.

It took over a week of badgering to get it sorted, I even went down to the exchange myself and collared an engineer. The elderly couple who had our number were away on holiday which just compounded matters.

Eventually we had an apology and 6 months free line rental, but the whole thing was a farce from start to finish.

williham

mrcol1000 wrote: »

So you bullied some poor woman doing her job into getting immediate action. Well done you must be proud of yourself.

Do you not see the point... They should have done it in the first place!

mrcol1000

williham wrote: »

Do you not see the point... They should have done it in the first place!

Did you ever think that maybe someone elses engineer appointment had been cancelled so that the engineer could go to this bullies house?

mrcol1000

charlesworth82 wrote: »

wow - you actually are a complete prat

What for thinking that laying into a woman from the safety of the end of a phone line who probably had nothing to do with the problem is a bad thing. Well if that makes me a prat then I am proud of it.

ahrimaniac

'She then said 'well look we aren't going to charge anything for your last week' , but I was having none of it and actually threatened 'legal action' (I had no clue what the law is) but said 'once I was done someone was losing their job' and 'id make it my mission to ruin this company and you' She then accused me of threats and said she would get her manager. I said get the manager then I'd like to speak to them too. She then said she would get them.'

We used to laugh ourselves witless at 'threats' like this.

MothballsWallet

mrcol1000 wrote: »

Did you ever think that maybe someone elses engineer appointment had been cancelled so that the engineer could go to this bullies house?

Phone numbers are allocated via the line interface card in the exchange - not at your house - phone numbers are actually "addresses" that conform to the ITU-T E.164 standard, and identify a particular town, exchange and building.

It's only a piece of copper wire between your house and the exchange, there's no phone number allocation-related equipment at your house.

KILL_BILL

my number that i got from Bt which i have had for abiyt 4 years, a couple of times a year i would get a calll for Mr kellett. I told the company that they had the worng number

i then got a call from BT in india stating that Mr kellett wanted the phone number that i currently have even though i am with another provider

I told them no - they then asked for my name for their record purposes and i told them no and never to call again.

i though it was a bit scammy at first even when they say BT you never know who they are at the end of the phone