Post Office Home Phone

mackemdave

Moved house 20th Aug,this house has a telephone line through the Post Office...despite TEN,yes TEN requests from the previous owner they still have not disconnected the line...Im tied into BT so cant get the line sorted for 11 working days because of this PO line.....The previous owner has said that the customer service of the Post Officeis offshored in India and they are totally useless when problemms have occurred....he only went with them because his wife works for the Post Office...

dreamypuma

mackemdave wrote: »

Moved house 20th Aug,this house has a telephone line through the Post Office...despite TEN,yes TEN requests from the previous owner they still have not disconnected the line...Im tied into BT so cant get the line sorted for 11 working days because of this PO line.....The previous owner has said that the customer service of the Post Officeis offshored in India and they are totally useless when problemms have occurred....he only went with them because his wife works for the Post Office...

I'm not to sure about the off-shored bit. We joined the PO for Home phone on 27th of August. The customer service seems to be all UK based and is the worst I have experienced of any company (and I have used npower, talktalk and three)

The service is that bad, that today we spent almost two hours on the phone to them trying to resolve an issue.

The staff at PO quite clearly have no motivation or desire to help customers. They seem poorly trained and seem to have little or no knowledge of the product.

They pass you from department to department, and no one seems capable to taking ownership of a problem.

We are looking to serve notice on the line tomorrow, as I would rather stick a fork in my eye than continue with this sub-standard service.

Having had to deal with more than my fair share of CS centres recently (due to marriage) I can honestly say that that British call centres, are nothing to be proud of, and if they were off-shored, I am sure I for one would not notice any significant change in service.

It saddens me to see that in the current financial climate where jobs are so few and far between, we still seem to have a workforce that feels so much contempt for the customer.

The PO should stick to selling stamps and closing shops down, as my recent experience of their service has done nothing but reinforce my view of the them as an outdated bunch of dithering idiots, which only have a place in carry on films.

Lazosh

I agree with the above. I tried to switch from BT to the Post Office for my home phone service recently, mainly due to a better price admittedly. However, the service was utterly incompetent.
Firstly, I was never sent the promised welcome pack. The first thing I received was a letter saying to call urgently about my application as they had been unable to contact me (despite not having received any call or message from them). When I called back, no-one could tell me what was going on with my application. I was told someone would call me back within half an hour. This happened on 3 separate occasions and no-one ever called back. This included asking to speak to a senior manager on 2 occasions. Finally, I was told that my application had been closed but they couldn't tell why on their system (there is no problem with my credit rating). The person suggested that I go through to sales to make another application as it had probably just been entered incorrectly. I politely explained that I was not going to do this as the service had been so poor. This also means that I am now tied into another year's contract with BT as I had been promised that they would contact them and handle the switchover and I didn't need to do anything.
I have since made a complaint but that too seems to have gone into a black hole.
DO NOT TAKE OUT AN ACCOUNT WITH PO even if it is a few quid cheaper than BT. If this is the service you get when you're trying to join up, I can't imagine what it's like when you're stuck with them.

bengalknights

Ive gotta disagree here everytime ive called up Post office they have sorted the problems and now that there automated payment system accepts credit card payments ive found it much better to use.

Heinz

The worrying aspects of that last post are the "every time" and "problems" parts.

Mark_In_Hampshire

You could simply have a new line linstalled. It will cost (circa £100), but you won't have to wait for the existing one to be decommissioned.

This issue comes up from time to time with any/all providers.

bengalknights

Heinz wrote: »

The worrying aspects of that last post are the "every time" and "problems" parts.

Problems always being that there online billing never works for me

Quentin

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

You could simply have a new line linstalled. It will cost (circa £100), but you won't have to wait for the existing one to be decommissioned.

This issue comes up from time to time with any/all providers.

The OP has a PO line in place. That is a BT line, so no need to install any new line!

DVardysShadow

Quentin wrote: »

The OP has a PO line in place. That is a BT line, so no need to install any new line!

Looking at it as a purely electrical problem you are totally correct. But looking at it as a problem of getting the service you want in this privatised world where competition benefits the consumer, it can't be done.

Lazosh

Lazosh wrote: »

I agree with the above. I tried to switch from BT to the Post Office for my home phone service recently, mainly due to a better price admittedly. However, the service was utterly incompetent.
Firstly, I was never sent the promised welcome pack. The first thing I received was a letter saying to call urgently about my application as they had been unable to contact me (despite not having received any call or message from them). When I called back, no-one could tell me what was going on with my application. I was told someone would call me back within half an hour. This happened on 3 separate occasions and no-one ever called back. This included asking to speak to a senior manager on 2 occasions. Finally, I was told that my application had been closed but they couldn't tell why on their system (there is no problem with my credit rating). The person suggested that I go through to sales to make another application as it had probably just been entered incorrectly. I politely explained that I was not going to do this as the service had been so poor. This also means that I am now tied into another year's contract with BT as I had been promised that they would contact them and handle the switchover and I didn't need to do anything.
I have since made a complaint but that too seems to have gone into a black hole.
DO NOT TAKE OUT AN ACCOUNT WITH PO even if it is a few quid cheaper than BT. If this is the service you get when you're trying to join up, I can't imagine what it's like when you're stuck with them.

An update on my previous post, to the credit of Post Office they did send me a cheque in compensation following my complaint, and that is without being their customer.

hpsaucey

I left the post office [homephone and broadband/] for a cheaper deal in april. I phoned up and asked for final bill. Within 2 days they sent me A Bill [not a final bill] with line rental & broadband until JULY. I phoned them up 4 different times to ask for a final bill with reductions for line rental etc., I finally went on hols and forgot about it only to return to 3 automated phonecalls from them asking me to phone them so I did only to be told pay this bill and we will send refund when its sorted out. Tried to tell them "no, please send me a final bill" that is all I want a FINAL BILL. why should I send them 3 months line rental/broadband costs when I am no longer with them. they agree I left them 13/4/11 so why havent they sent me a final bill. I want to pay them but not so i have to wait for refund. Finally emailed them asking them to phone me as I wasnt prepared to phone them anymore and lo and behold they didnt even acknowledge my emails. anyone got any advice???