Help - BT have disconnected my line and admitted it's their mistake

annei_2

This is a really long story which I'll try to cut short:

• problems with BT line took over 3 months to fix,
• Aug bill approx £129 with no discount in view of disruption to service,
• Paid £40 to show good faith & wrote complaint letter seeking reduction,
• 20th Sept phone service disrupted & redirected to BT - they said that overseas colleague had called me on 7th September and told me they couldn't give compensation and closed complaint - I explained I had received no such call - they reviewed my letter, apologised, they would remit the remaining £89 - thank you very much, happy with that.
• 12th Nov, phone service disrupted again & redirected to BT, sorry we can see that there was an agreement to remit the bill but it wasn't actioned, we'll action it now.
• 13th Nov, Nov bill received showing £89 remittance,
• 19th Nov phone playing up - thought it was bad weather, phoned faults, no madam - your phone has been restricted for failure to pay. Explained history, sorry madam, our mistake, we'll reconnect you.:eek:. Phone reconnected later that evening,
• 20th Nov - cut off again - phone BT, what's happening - sorry madam, we can see it's our fault but the only way to get you back on is to enter into a new contract - unfortunately we can't guarantee you'll get your old number back (and presumably I'd be tied in for 12 months to the "new contract") - I said "no deal - I don't want a new contract, I want my line reinstated"
• 20th Nov - long complaint letter emailed to [EMAIL="residential.services@bt.com"]residential.services@bt.com[/EMAIL] urgent please reconnect me, nothing back yet and I'm started to panic that I've lost my old number for good.

I'm getting nowhere with customer services and don't trust a word they say. Does anyone have any bright ideas? (suggestions re machine gunning BT's Board are no good - I've already thought of that and whilst it's a satisfying reverie theme, it's just not my style).

Thanks for any help you can give fellow moneysavers

DVardysShadow

Take it to otelo and to Ofcom - useless though ofcom is.

It is a habit of BT's Indian operation to record false information on customer files, to ignore correspondence and generally make a mess of customer accounts while appearing busy.

The only bright idea I have is to follow up everything in writing recording what was agreed, keeping copies. If they phone to tell you something, tell them to confirm in writing - or you will disregard the communication. Follow that up in writing too. And if they have to set you up with a new account, insist that it is for their administrative convenience - as far as you are concerned, you are still under existing contracts.

The overall aim is to make it really expensive for BT to deal with you, so that it is cheaper for them to get it right first time. They got themselves into their current state of total disorganisation by cutting costs, transferring work to India and ignoring the need to control what the staff in India are doing.

annei_2

Thanks, I've told them in my complaint letter that I now only want to deal with them in writing (or by email) and I'm pretty good at making notes of calls, the time of call and who I spoke to which is why I've been able to give them a full chronology to accompany my complaint. If I thought I could keep my number I'd just move providers straight away.

We'll see if I get a response to my complaint which I've also sent to them by recorded delivery and emailed to the MD as well as emailing to the residential services email address.

BT_company_representative

Hi Annei,

I am sorry to hear the problems you have experienced with getting your line disconnected. I can also see from your post that you have sent in a letter and you were advised that a new term would have to be started.

Can I ask you to email me your BT account details and forum username to btcare@bt.com and I will adjust the term for you and discuss your bill in detail.

Thanks
Gail

annei_2

Gail, thanks for picking this up, I have emailed you my letter dated 20th November and look forward to getting your response.

annei_2

Well, nothing back from Gail, the BT representative - 2 days further on and apparantly no movement from BT except that my line now appears to be working but with a different telephone number. I've had no explanation of this and no notification that I've been assigned a new number let alone any explanation as to what happened to my old one (do I go ahead and inform people of my new number or is this number temporary until they can restore my old one - do I get my ISP to link my service up to the new line at a cost of £40 + VAT or is my old line/number going to be restored???). All I've had is a telephone message from the BT Chairman's office (after I emailed Ian Livingston as suggested elsewhere on this forum) to say they'll try and get my line reconnected and will phone me again when they've got any news. I've also had a criptic message from Jim in BT retail to say that in respect of my order for telephone services to my house (What???? I've not placed an order I just want my line reconnected and my old number back that they've disconnected in error) they've been informed by Openreach that they now don't need to visit me as arranged on 7th December a.m. (What??? no-one has been in contact with me to arrange a visit) as they've detected I already have a socket in the house but do give them a ring if I haven't.

Oh, I also received a letter yesterday (24th November), the letter was dated 19th November telling me that if I don't pay my bill by 29th November they'll disconnect me. In fact I was disconnected on 20th September, 12th November, 19th November and finally on 20th November in respect of an amount which is shown as being remitted on my November bill - so the upshot is that on one hand they promise to remit the amount in respect of the disrupted service I received and actually show this remittance on my bill and on the other hand they pursue me for that amount and have disconnected my service on 4 occasions (on each of the first three occasions they did reconnect me with an apology that they can see I shouldn't have been disconnected).


As far as I can see BT internal communications and systems is just a shambles.

The latest is that I telephoned BT for an update on my complaint of 20th November and was told it's being dealt with by a Mr Rogers in complaints but they can't tell me any more than that and they can't put me through to Mr Rogers or anyone in complaints - I just have to wait for them to contact me ...

Another lunch time used up on chasing this up.

Thanks for your support and help fellow moneysavers - I'll keep this thread updated as and when I've got more information just in case it's of help to anyone else.

DVardysShadow

Regrettably I doubt that this is really resolved. The Big morons think that they have resolved it, but I feel fairly certain that the Small morons employed by the Big morons will carry on giving you grief.