BT - do you never admit to mistakes

darvik

i have been a customer of BT since 1989, and for the past 3 years had phone and broadband service.

about 18 months ago i was talked into vision, it worked fine for a couple of months and following a power cut never worked again. For months i kept getting a credit balance on my account, when i finally decided enough was enough i was promised a cheque in the post within 10 days, 4 weeks later it didnt arrive, it took several calls to sort the situation out and no real apology.

I was also silly enough to take out the htc phone and again this stopped working, nil balance bills.

in oct this year i got my bill and noticed that i was still paying about £7 a quater line rental, and rung up to try and cancel. (for refereance my bill is paid quarterly direct debit.) I was told that it would be a £5 cancellation charge. I assumed this was in lieu of the advance charges and agreed. at the same time i asked about my broadband contract and was offered a better deal if i agreed to extend my contract, lower charges and a new hub. and she would wave the £5 charge, why not.

last week i got home to find a letter saying that i had failed to pay £12.78 previously referred to in a letter.I was fuming, not expecting a charge, never received the earlier letter and why bill me if everything is direct debit and i would be in credit due to the reduced charges advance billed. The letter also threatened court action and a adverse credit history

rung BT and quess what they have no record of the call or notes relating to the cancelled phone, but because i sound honest they are going to give me the benefit of the doubt and wave the charges..... the benefit of the doubt THANK YOU.

I was told that i was not allowed to have the name of the operator that took the call, there are no notes and the call was not recorded.

so the question is do i accept this kind offer or how do i truely escalate this matter, every time they do something wrong the call is never recorded. How come if i was to pay late they have a pre set fine, but when they mess up there is no compensation figure.

BT rep --- and all those in the know i await your comments

Mark_In_Hampshire

NEVER call BT.

Always write to them at their London address by recorded delivery. Letters sent to Durham seem to disappear.

Pop a letter in the post cancelling and go somewhere else.

BT_company_representative

Hi darvik
I am sorry to hear of the problems that you have recently encountered with BT and the billing of your services. I would be gladly willing to look into this for you and resolve any outstanding issues that you have. If you could please e-mail me your account number and forum username to btcare@bt.com I will gladly look into this for you and contact you to discuss this.

Regards David

spike7451

My phoneline had a fault on it,I done all the troubleshooting ect & called BT Faults.....
"It's on your end,we'll send an engineer out at a cost of £XX..."
"Oh no,it's on your end,not mine!"says I.
Then the person on the BT side starts to get,...shirty.
So I informed him what I did for a living,at the time I was a NTL Service Tech & regulary fixed customers phone,bband & tv faults not only in their home but the NTL network.
BT engineer came out,but not to my home & could'nt find a fault! No suprise there,nor was there when BT found a fault on my line when I got their broadband in....

darvik

email sent, looking forward to your response

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Hi darvik
I am sorry to hear of the problems that you have recently encountered with BT and the billing of your services. I would be gladly willing to look into this for you and resolve any outstanding issues that you have. If you could please e-mail me your account number and forum username to [EMAIL="btcare@bt.com"]btcare@bt.com[/EMAIL] I will gladly look into this for you and contact you to discuss this.

Regards David

greyster

spike7451 wrote: »

My phoneline had a fault on it,I done all the troubleshooting ect & called BT Faults.....
"It's on your end,we'll send an engineer out at a cost of £XX..."
"Oh no,it's on your end,not mine!"says I.
Then the person on the BT side starts to get,...shirty.
So I informed him what I did for a living,at the time I was a NTL Service Tech & regulary fixed customers phone,bband & tv faults not only in their home but the NTL network.
BT engineer came out,but not to my home & could'nt find a fault! No suprise there,nor was there when BT found a fault on my line when I got their broadband in....

My mother is currently having the same problem, she is a pensioner and was getting quite upset after several calls to customer services. Eventually she lost her cool, and was put through to a supervisor who eventually referred her to a manager in the faults department. She couldn't afford the risk of paying out if there was a problem internally. They finally sent an engineer out for free, engineer originally told my mum it was the phone itself. My brave mother who knows little about technology told the engineer the same problem occurs when using another phone. Engineer then says its the wire under her garden and it will have to be digged up... the sarga continues.....

Unlike other companies, zillions of people have decades of trade with this company, customer loyalty must be frighteningly high. My mother has been with BT for decades and she had to fight customer services to the bitter end to get someone to listen... and surprisingly she won't listen to me when I say move to Virgin. I guess its easier to stay with who you know at some stage... BT is lucky to have my mum as a customer!!! If that ever happened to me I would be long gone by now.

If you have a problem with your line and have no idea whether it is an internal or external fault, you can't expect BT to charge you over £100 if the fault ends up being inside the house. How is an elderly person by herself supposed to know. That is damn right outrageous.

darvik

any news yet david, email resent

darvik

2 emails and 7 days later and not a word from BT... thought they were the ones who said it was good to talk

BT_company_representative

Hi Darvik, Thanks for your email. I have sent you a reply.
Regards Rodney