Telecoms trauma....Help

queeniedog

Hi Everyone

I am looking for some advise. Absolutley at the end of my steam, nothing left - here is a snap shot:

Last Tuesday recieved a letter from BT to say another provider was taking over our Broadband line. The letter was dated April 3rd and arrived in our office on April 13th - why so long?

The letter said that the current line and Broadband with BT would be discontected on Firday 16th and please can we pay them £700 for coming out of our contract early!!

We have not authorised another provider to take over our service, never spoken to anyone and definately never signed anything.

BT cant tell me who has requested to take over our service - so I can complain to them

BT reassure me that they will put a stop to this request and "don't worry your Broadband and line will remain with BT"

Come into work on Friday 16th April to find NO Broadband :mad: and the line into the Broadband hub with a dead tone :mad:

Call BT and if the Customer service rep was sitting in front of me he would have been shrugging his shoulders. Arrggghhhh. I was so angry. He said his department had cancelled the move however BT Openreach had rejected this at the exchange and cancelled my provision.

My Broadband Number (which we also have a fax running off) has now gone and cannot be retrieved................

We run a Recruitment Agency and our Temps fax their timesheets to us every week so we can process their wage payments - massive issue now.

BT now say what we need to do is order you a new line and broadband service and this will take minimum 5 working days - I am crying by this point

Our whole agency is run via the internet, candidate management system, adverts, email, client base etc etc

Come back into work on Monday the 19th and out of interest tested the fax and surprise - there is a dial tone. I Ring my mobile and a number appears on my phone that is unknown to me??????????

Ring BT and they say it is not their line and they cant tell me who it belongs to but they can attach my broadband to it?

Broadband will be activated next Tuesday apparently.

Surely there is more trouble ahead attaching a service to a line that we have no idea where it is coming from? BT said they should be able to bring back the line to BT 10 days after the Broadband is reactivated, but again cant guarantee it???

1. I find BT beyond frustrating staff tell you all sorts of different things and are so inconsistent and BT in general is not a very nice place to be
2. I did not request someone take over my service ever - how can this be allowed to happen?
3. How do I find out who it is and what the hell they will be charging me
3. BT are offering me no guarantees that this will not happen again - how can I protect me business in the future from this happening, I feel totally violated
4. Can I claim compensation from anyone for all the lost hours, staff downtime and the effect it has had on me and my business partner. Not to mention having to tell all our clients and candidates that our fax number has changed for timesheets and reprinting of headed paper

So so sorry for the War and Peace, I just dont know who to turn to and feel very vulnerable - It feels as a small business owner I have no rights?

Thanks for reading.

Horace

Ask to speak to a business manager at BT - the customer service are not that good generally as you get a different person each time. Send them a bill for loss of earnings etc. Maybe one of your staff unwittingly gave some details to a caller who then contacted BT and said that you were moving to them - it is possible.

Ask BT for the paperwork that states that you will be changing provider.

Thankfully, I am not with BT as I have cable but do know of others who have lost business because BT has cut them off for no reason.

paulwf

I would check for info on Ofcom and ask BT what their process is to escalate a complaint.

Go and buy a PAYG broadband dongle immediately so at least you have some form of emergency backup to at least be able to check incoming email.

As your business is completely reliant on the internet would it be worth getting a second totally independent broadband connection such as using cable rather than a phone line. Think of it as an insurance policy...admittedly an expensive one but if your company is large enough it might be worth considering. If I ran a company reliant on the internet I'd make sure I had a Plan B in place. Not that you should have to but internet disasters are fairly common.

patman99

There is a term for when a provider takes your phoneline without your permission, I can't remember what it is, but do know BT take it seriously.

benchin440

patman99 wrote: »

There is a term for when a provider takes your phoneline without your permission, I can't remember what it is, but do know BT take it seriously.

Slamming. Had a similar problem with my home phone that started last August, still not 100% now :mad:. Ofcom were a help but all takes time.:mad: