BT -All your base are belong to us

Jemma-T

Reps on this forum...can of worms or what?

This forum section has quickly turned into an unofficial BT section.

I'm not complaining -a rep sorted my problem quickly, thanks- but I wonder if BT UK have completely lost it for over the phone customer service. Everyone I speak to seems to have had a problem and it's usually down to the fact the people answering the phones are idiots as they are not British based and used to British people. Just because you speak English doesn't mean you can help. That makes you an idiot in my mind. You might be nice person etc etc but no better than an idot when it comes to helping someone.

I'm not having a go at people in India or wherever but these people shouldn't be answering phones to us. They usualyl have no idea or even concept of the complaint and problem. That's nothing to do with speaking English or translation it's called understanding. You'll not the BT staff who post here do a very good job and that's because they understand because they are UK based.

BT's not the only culprit of course but I do wonder if the head honchos running these companies realise how much this is affecting their image?

denboy1

+1 on that

baldelectrician

I had a braodband problem where the BT box was damaged at the end of the road (vandalism) and my speed dropped by 90%.

Took 5 weeks or repeated calls to get someone from Orange broadband to call BT Openreach

They just don't understand a lot. If it is not in their 'box' of training they just grasp at the wrong straws.

Zazen999

Jemma-T wrote: »

Just because you speak English doesn't mean you can help. That makes you an idiot in my mind.

Not speaking English does not make you an idiot.

Like many many threads on here; you are directing your anger at the wrong people.

DVardysShadow

Jemma-T wrote: »

Reps on this forum...can of worms or what?

This forum section has quickly turned into an unofficial BT section.

I'm not complaining -a rep sorted my problem quickly, thanks- but I wonder if BT UK have completely lost it for over the phone customer service. Everyone I speak to seems to have had a problem and it's usually down to the fact the people answering the phones are idiots as they are not British based and used to British people. Just because you speak English doesn't mean you can help. That makes you an idiot in my mind. You might be nice person etc etc but no better than an idot when it comes to helping someone.

I'm not having a go at people in India or wherever but these people shouldn't be answering phones to us. They usualyl have no idea or even concept of the complaint and problem. That's nothing to do with speaking English or translation it's called understanding. You'll not the BT staff who post here do a very good job and that's because they understand because they are UK based.

BT's not the only culprit of course but I do wonder if the head honchos running these companies realise how much this is affecting their image?

Groan. The problem is not the Indians. Other companies use them and they can do a good job consistently for some companies.

The problem is that the company which employs them does not give them the tools, information, training, support and empowerment they need to do a good job. Blame BT. Many of their problems centre on the Indian call centres. There is truth in that, but the real failings lie in BT's head office for their management of their incompetent call centres.

I think if you look closely at the BT reps threads, there is an undertone of the reps delivering a fix which is acceptable to the customer - and then the rest of the organisation carrying on regardless and undermining the reps - regardless of whether they are UK or India based.

Make no mistake, BT is only just about an organisation these days. It is beyond crisis, it is chaos. It might be easier to solve if they brought the Indian operation back to the UK, but the problems would still remain to be resolved.

Heinz

It could have been me starting this post - until a few days ago when Sky's Indian call centre came up trumps when their UK version(s) hadn't.

Unfortunately, that sort of thing doesn't ever seem to happen with BT.

iniltous

Its us the consumer thats responsible for offshore customer service, much like if asked 'would you pay more tax to fund better public services ?' most say yes but then would vote for the party who would claim not to raise tax, lots of people would claim to be happy to pay a bit more for UK based customer service, but would still shop around for the best value ( cheapest ) provider, the first service provider to move its CS offshore has an advantage over the competition, the competition moves its CS offshore to compete, and as a CS rep in India probably earns £3k a year 5 to 6 times less than a UK based CS rep its easy from a commercial point of view to see why companys do this.
Unlike cars where people are happy to pay more for a BMW than say a Ford or a Vauxhall of similar performance/specification, there is no 'snob value' in telecoms, cheapest will always 'win', crap customer service is the price to be paid for cheap telecoms

Inactive

iniltous wrote: »

Unlike cars where people are happy to pay more for a BMW than say a Ford or a Vauxhall of similar performance/specification, there is no 'snob value' in telecoms, cheapest will always 'win', crap customer service is the price to be paid for cheap telecoms

I agree, however BT are not " cheap ".

cattie

Surely a company known by the name of British Telecom should at least have phone staff that are based in Britain? Sadly, there's not much British about BT any longer, which is probably why they chose to use initials for the company instead of the name it was long known by.

gt94sss2

iniltous wrote: »

a CS rep in India probably earns £3k a year 5 to 6 times less than a UK based CS rep its easy from a commercial point of view to see why companys do this.

Some years ago, BT quoted a saving of 40-60% as a result of having overseas call centres.

Recently, BT decided to return some of those outsourced jobs to the UK so they could limit the impact of job losses on permanent UK BT staff by getting rid of 3rd party contract staff abroad - only to find that UK workers were not willing to work the shifts they needed.

Regards
Sunil

Heinz

gt94sss2 wrote: »

UK workers were not willing to work the shifts they needed.

Having worked full 24 hour (3 x 8) shifts for most of my working life, I find that sort of attitude incredible in the current economic and employment environment.