BT complaints

BT_company_representative

Hi Ukshark,

I would like to take a look at your account to see what is going on with the fault on your line. Please can you fill in your details using http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4950 and make sure to include a link to you post.

Once I have that information I will look into this and reply to you directly.

Thanks

Paddy,

...cherry..._2

I really need some advice...

I was under the impression that BT are responsible for everything up to and including the main socket of the phone line. Several weeks ago I had a BT engineer come to fix my fault, the cause of the fault was wiring which runs along the outside of the house which had been damaged by the bad weather in the winter.

I therefore assumed that I would not have to pay the call out charge as I thought it was BT's responsibility. However I have received a bill including a call out charge of £130 and am shocked! Is this correct? Do I still have to pay this call out charge even though the external wiring was to blame?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Ypaymore

...cherry... wrote: »

I really need some advice...

I was under the impression that BT are responsible for everything up to and including the main socket of the phone line. Several weeks ago I had a BT engineer come to fix my fault, the cause of the fault was wiring which runs along the outside of the house which had been damaged by the bad weather in the winter.

I therefore assumed that I would not have to pay the call out charge as I thought it was BT's responsibility. However I have received a bill including a call out charge of £130 and am shocked! Is this correct? Do I still have to pay this call out charge even though the external wiring was to blame?

Thanks in advance for any help!

If it was an external fault only the charge should not have been raised.Contact BT to complain about the bill http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact/c/2702#h=ImNhdD0yNzAyXzI3MDRfMjcxMnxsdmw9Y29udGFjdCI.
and ask for the charge to be cancelled.

Mikee_Diablo

Another BT horror story - here's what I've just sent to their customer services team to doubtless be ignored or messed up in some manner or another...

I am writing in regards to the terrible service I have received over the past couple of years, no more so since I've chosen to leave BT.

Firstly, having signed up for phone calls and broadband through BT and being billed seperately for them (monthly for calls, quarterly from broadband), I was informed that this would be changed to one monthly bill. I called and specifically asked for this NOT to happen as the current billing situation suited me better and I was assured that this change would not take place. This change DID in fact take place and after I called again to get this changed back to how it was (again, being assured that this was fine), it didn't happen.

So at this point, having already tired of your poor service, I took the descision to leave BT in 2010, only to be told that it would cost me over £60 in cancellation charges, due to a rolling 12 month contract that I had allegedly been written to in regards to this rolling over. I explained that I had received no such corresepondence but apparently I was stuck.

So I finally received notification this year that my contract was coming to an end and I called up to notify BT that I was cancelling my contract and no longer wished to receive any services. This was done and I contacted Sky to arrange my new service.
Subsequently, I received a letter from BT telling me that I was still with them for broadband. I called to question this as I was going with Sky for both broadband and phone line rental and was told by the operator on the phone that "I couldn't have Sky Talk and Broadband without taking their TV package" and was pressured into resigning a new deal with BT.

I phoned Sky and asked them about the broadband issue, who explained that not only was my order perfectly fine, the reason the broadband wasn't showing up as being taken over was due to Sky having their own equipment in the exchange, hence not needing to obtain a MAC code from BT in order for it to work.

So, I call back BT within half an hour of the original call, to ask that my order be cancelled as it was based on a pack of lies. The operator confirmed that this was cancelled and that I would need to cancel the broadband seperately.

Imagine my surprise when I called again and was told (after waiting over 30 mins and being hung up on) that my broadband will cost £30 to cancel (no mention ever previously made of this, despite me asking on every occasion and being assured that this wasn't the case) and also that this new contract wasn't cancelled either - and apparently I now have to pay £130 to cancel it! On top of that, during this time, my service is being taken over on 12th May and I have been billed up until 22nd May.

During this whole process, I have been lied to, hung up on and treated abysmally by your customer service staff - ironically, during every call, my reason for leaving has been poor customer service.


Essentially, the above information is leading to my requesting the following:

* That my broadband be cancelled without charge, as I was promised.

* That the contract that was procured by lies be cancelled without charge, as I was promised.

* That I be sent a correct final bill, detailing any charges up to 12th May only.

Should I not receive a satisfactory conclusion to these requests within 14 days, I will be reporting the matter to the appropriate regulatory bodies

Basically folks - I'd advise strongly against getting into bed with BT unless bad customer service is your reason for living...

BT_company_representative

Hi Mikee Diablo,

Welcome to MSE.

I can look into this further for you if you want. You can get our "Contact Us" web form on my profile page (you can access it by clicking on my username).

Thanks,

Stephanie

Mikee_Diablo

Hi Stephanie,

Thanks for the response - I've already sent in the above via the 'Contact Us' page on the BT website.

I do have a reference number but for obvious reasons, it's probably best not to post it here!

Many thanks

Kevin83

Hi Stephanie,

I have just filled out the form too, please can someone pick this up urgently!

I had spoken to your team end April and had my issue resolved (unfair £130 charge when not agreed to beforehand), but I have received no refund.

Just rang the customer services and they are ignoring the words I am saying and simply saying "the notes say you agreed to the charges, i'm sorry we cannot refund" and other robotic responses regardless of what I say.

I'm now £130 out of pocket, when it was agreed I would not be.

FedupPhil_2

Really at the end of my wits with BT. I've spent well over 20 hours trying to resolve a simple problem and this forum probably is my last hope.

Background - I moved home on the 3rd May 2011. I spoke to BT's Moving Home team at the end of March and informed them that I was moving home from my house with a BT phone to a new house that was also a BT customer. We were keeping our number as the owners of our new house wanted to keep theirs. All very simple. I initially gave them the date of the 28th April for the house/phone move.

Great I thought, a simple process being handled efficiently.

Then in early April I contacted BT again to explain that the house completion date had changed from the 28th April to the 4th May. I was to be disconnected 24 hours before being reconnected at the new house. I also contacted the owners of the new house and explained what I was doing and they duly contacted BT to ensure a smooth changeover.

Still all fine.

Then everything went wrong.

My phone was cut off on the 28th April, a week too early. I lost my home phone line and my broadband connection. Myself and my wife work from home and it's a lifeline for our business - we complained and after numerous different managers looked into it the response came back that there was nothing they could do but don't worry as we would definitely be connected at our new house on the 4th May. My wife and I were very unhappy, this was not the service we expected from BT, but what could we do ? We waited for the house move and the phone issue to be resolved on the 4th May.

We moved house. The 4th May came and passed. No phone connection.

Then the nightmare began.

Since the 4th May I have made at least a dozen phone calls. They explained that the previous owner had not disconnected his phone but the problem was being resolved and I would be back connected within 48 hours.

48 hours passed. Now the delay was that they couldn't get hold of the previous owner and as a result they had cancelled my order for a new line. I contacted the previous owner and he said he'd already contacted BT twice and resolved the matter. In a state of extreme unhappiness I contacted BT again.

OK - said BT, give us the VOL number that confirms an order to disconnect from the previous owner and we will resolve the problem and "you'll be back on within 48 hours".

Today, after harrassing the poor man who used to live in our new house, I called BT with the requested VOL number and was told:

1) We have no record of any request for home change.
2) The address on record for me is one that I haven't lived at in over 6 years.
3) I asked them to look at their notes from the previous dozen plus conversations with me over the last 3 weeks. Response - what phone calls ? There are no notes.

They've basically lost my entire request for a new line. Their advice was to contact the Home Move dept and start the process all over again.

Quite simply my wife and I are lost. Our business is dependent on being contactable - the mobile phone signal in the new area is very poor and barely works, there is no mobile broadband coverage.

On Thursday in a state of genuine upset I requested on two separate occasions to make a complaint about the awful experience this has been. Both times we were promised a call back "within 15 minutes". I spoke to nobody.

The above account is greatly abridged, there have been a catalogue of other stresses with this BT process that I've not bothered in even mentioning (telling me I lived in an address I moved out of many years ago, denying any knowledge of previous conversations, keeping me on hold for 35 minutes whilst they were speaking to "Open Reach" and on and on).

I'm sorry this is so long but quite simply I don't know what to do now.

...cherry..._2

I think I have reach my wits end with BT, having been a loyal customer for some 40 years now I have to say I am disgusted with the standard of customer service I have received and am hoping for some advice as to what action I can take next.

An engineer visited my house to repair the external wiring running along the side of my house, which had been damaged during the period of bad weather. The first visit I had arranged the engineer failed to turn up so I contacted BT who seemed to have no knowledge of this visit but arranged another for me.

So the repair work took place and after looking at the BT website I understood that there would be no charge applicable for the visit as the wiring was external and therefore the responsibility of BT. Several weeks later I received a bill with a £130 call out charge and needless to say I was not impressed.

I phoned up to query that charge and got through to the Indian call centre. I explained the situation and was put on hold. The agent got back to me and said they had spoken to the relevant department and the charge was correct as the fault was with my property. I explained that there was absolutely nothing wrong with my property and that the problem was the wiring which was damaged by snow. The agent then put me on hold again and spoke to someone else, once again she got back to and told me this time that the problem had been with the main socket. Again this is incorrect as there was nothing wrong with my main socket at all. It really felt like they were just trying to shift the blame onto me in every way possible in the hope that I would eventually accept responsibility.

The agent then told me that whenever an engineer visits they charge BT and so BT have paid this charge on behalf and so I must now pay it. I once again explained that the onus was on BT to complete the repair work as the fault was with their wiring rather than my own wiring or equipment. The agent was obviously reading a script and simply kept telling me I had to pay the charge. I explained multiple times the reason why the charge was not payable by myself, the customer, and eventually the agent agreed to raise a query for me. She told me that I would receive a response within 5 days.

Well it is now over a week later and I still haven’t heard from BT. I am loathed to waste another 40 minutes phoning the Indian call centre who are obviously not able to help me at all and have no idea where to turn to next. I fail to see why it is so difficult for BT to fulfill their own promises that they state on their website and am very disappointed at the poor standard of service that exists nowadays.

Can anyone advise what my next course of action should be? Will OFCOM be able to help me?

FedupPhil_2

It's now 39 hours since I wrote my piece on here. I also logged on to their "contact" page, sent over my details with a link to this forum.

Absolutely nothing. No email, no phone call, no contact whatsoever.

I'm beyond angry. We've lost a lot of business already as nobody can get hold of us (mobile connection very weak and mobile broadband non-existent).

Shocking that on this website where most people come as a last resort, nobody from this multi £bn company can be bothered to respond.