Should i cancel bt dd to get them to fix my line?

mikeopvc

I'm having problems with my phone & broadband but bt won't fix it.

Ever since I went back to bt I've had nothing but trouble, firstly I have a crossed line, I run a business from home and the phone is quite busy throughout the day. When I pick up the handset I can hear 2 ladies talking in the background, this happens about 50% of the time and is really off-putting when I'm talking to customers or suppliers. The 2 ladies can't hear my as I have tried shouting hello a thousand times but they just carry on talking.
The second fault is my broadband connection keeps dropping, connection to the server is lost regularly.
I have obviously called bt and they go through the motions of checking my line and telling me it's fine, then they tell me they could book an engineer but if it's my internal wiring I will be charged.
I have had 4 openreach engineers out so far and I still have the same faults.
The final straw is the 4th / last engineer came this morning, left a card through the letterbox and left, I waited in all morning and he didn't even knock or ring the bell. On the card he wrote "NO FAULT FOUND TRIED YOUR MOBILE TO CONTACT YOU"
I do have a voicemail on my mobile saying he'll be at mine for about 11 but that's no good to me now, and in any case I was in at about 11 as I waited in all morning.
I assume he checked the line outside from the pole to the property which is brand new due to engineer No.3 on Monday, found no fault there so just pushed the card through and slipped away quietly.

I found the card at 11.15 and was fuming:mad: so rang bt again, on hold for 44 minutes then cut off:mad::mad::mad:
Rang again and just got off the phone to a very apologetic "Richard at the lincoln office" who very kindly booked a 5th openreach engineer for tomorrow morning.

Sorry for the rant but I really am fed up with this and can't think of anything else to do but cancel my contract or direct debit, I suppose deep down I know this would be a rash thing to do but it's the only way I can think of getting them to act.
I'm signed up for 2 years but do I have a right to cancel now due to poor service?

Not sure if it's relevant but it's bt business!

Any thoughts / suggestions would be great.

Heinz

I am sure BT company representative will be along shortly to take personal ownership of your problems and ensure they are resolved quickly.

Alternatively, don't wait, just email them at [EMAIL="btcare@bt.com"]btcare@bt.com[/EMAIL] enclosing in the text a link to this thread.

Do not cancel your DD, that'll cause you no end of problems.

mikeopvc

update!

The 5th engineer came, first thing I did was pick up the phone and hand it to him, he acknowledged that he could hear the 2 ladies talking and therefore it was a crossed line.
long story short he renewed the line from the green box up the road to the exchange, hey presto!! problem solved (or so I thought)

I now have issues with the billing dept. I got a bill through last week and on it was a one-off charge of £149. I assumed this was for the engineer No.3 visit on Monday 8th November to put a new line from the pole to my property, I rang and said I didn't agree with the charge as I still had a crossed line after that visit and therefore still had a faulty line.
The bt lady said she would raise a query and place the direct debit on hold until it was resolved. I check the bank online this morning and bt have taken the money from my account:mad: I had no call to say they would be doing this and it's actually a day early:mad::mad:
It clearly says on the bill that the amount of £205.61 will be debited from my bank on or after 24 Novenber 2010. How are they allowed to take it a day early? Never mind the fact it was supposed to be on hold.
I rang up straight away and spoke to a lady in billing, she wasn't very helpful. She told me the charge was for a visit on October 25th (engineer No.2) and that I would actually be getting another charge for the other visits on my next bill. I can't believe I'm being charged for engineer visits when they didn't even fix the fault. It was after engineer No.2's visit that a bt person admitted he could hear the crossed line so why did they still charge me knowing there was still a fault?
The lady I just spoke to has raised another query whatever that means in there world, I should expect a call within 14 days from the offline team and I should discuss the matter with them! (great!)
I'm fuming with bt right now and can't wait to leave them, I just need to get my money back first and then I will cancel my direct debit.

Again, apologies for the rant!

comments welcomed

Mark_In_Hampshire

Are you in contract with them? As this could get messy, it might be a good idea to move somewhere else sharpish. Then cancel your DD mandate. Then you can pay what you owe and dispute the rest.

BT Openreach are responsible for the line up to and including the master socket in your building, so no charges for e.g. replacing poles and overhead wires should apply unless, for instance, a tree that you own rubbed against the lines and damaged them, or you plugged 2000v of electricity into the master socket, which you probably feel like doing now.

As far as the payment being taken early is concerned - no, they should not do that, and in theory you should have the bank void the DD and put the money back in your account. But then by the time the money is re-taken, you'll be in arrears, so you just have to accept this with that payment mechanism. There aren't any useful safeguards for the customer, in effect the supplier can do what they like.

I believe BT's Ts & Cs have a "gotcha" which says something along the lines of "If you cancel your DD we reserve the right to terminate your service" so the answer is not to pay by DD in the first place and fall into that trap - once you're in it, you have already surrendered your negotiating position which utility companies love.

I'd email or write to them explaining the sorry saga of events in date order, the length of time it took to resolve it, and the incorrect billing, explain what you want done and when you want it done.

And if you can move supplier, you might like to do that in the meantime - early termination fees for consumer contracts have gone down now, I think, though that might not apply to business contracts.

spike7451

mikeopvc wrote: »

update!

The 5th engineer came, first thing I did was pick up the phone and hand it to him, he acknowledged that he could hear the 2 ladies talking and therefore it was a crossed line.
long story short he renewed the line from the green box up the road to the exchange, hey presto!! problem solved (or so I thought)

I now have issues with the billing dept. I got a bill through last week and on it was a one-off charge of £149. I assumed this was for the engineer No.3 visit on Monday 8th November to put a new line from the pole to my property, I rang and said I didn't agree with the charge as I still had a crossed line after that visit and therefore still had a faulty line.
The bt lady said she would raise a query and place the direct debit on hold until it was resolved. I check the bank online this morning and bt have taken the money from my account:mad: I had no call to say they would be doing this and it's actually a day early:mad::mad:
It clearly says on the bill that the amount of £205.61 will be debited from my bank on or after 24 Novenber 2010. How are they allowed to take it a day early? Never mind the fact it was supposed to be on hold.
I rang up straight away and spoke to a lady in billing, she wasn't very helpful. She told me the charge was for a visit on October 25th (engineer No.2) and that I would actually be getting another charge for the other visits on my next bill. I can't believe I'm being charged for engineer visits when they didn't even fix the fault. It was after engineer No.2's visit that a bt person admitted he could hear the crossed line so why did they still charge me knowing there was still a fault?
The lady I just spoke to has raised another query whatever that means in there world, I should expect a call within 14 days from the offline team and I should discuss the matter with them! (great!)
I'm fuming with bt right now and can't wait to leave them, I just need to get my money back first and then I will cancel my direct debit.

Again, apologies for the rant!

comments welcomed

Clearly this shows that the problem is on BT's network & therefore beyond your control.
Another forum member,skintlass,was able to get the charge reversed after I did some digging for her so you might find her thread useful.It contains information FROM BT that you can use to defeat their srguments.

skintlass's thread;
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2855286

What I posted;

Do I have to pay for a fault repair?

We can repair many line faults at the exchange or on the network. Others require a visit by a BT engineer. There is no charge for these repairs. We will only charge you when one of our engineers visits your property and finds that the fault could have been fixed by you. For example, if your phone is broken or has been left unplugged.

https://www2.bt.com/static/i/microsite/help_and_tips/faults/faq/faults_faq2.html

Hope this helps,good luck.

Spike

iniltous

IF earlier visits were 'cleared' as right when tested or fault not found then that could result in charges, but as the fault returned and was obvious eventually fixed you shouldnt be charged at all, you sould email the CEO [EMAIL="I.Livingstone@BT.com"]I.Livingstone@BT.com[/EMAIL] or do a search for high level complaints at BT, dont bother with the call centre reps go straight to the top, that seems to get people satisfaction

BT_company_representative

Hi mikeopvc

I have just seen your posts in relation to the problems you have had getting a fault sorted out and subsequently the charges that have been raised, I will gladly loo into this for you and check any charges that have been raised on your account to make sure they are correct. If you would like me to look into this check out my profile section were you will find my contact details, if you send me your account information and a link to this thread I will gladly look into it.

Regards David

mikeopvc

Is this the link I'm supposed to be contacting you through?
If so it's not working!

http://www.beta.bt.com/bta/forums

mikeopvc

to the BT company rep

I try the link in your contact info section and get the following:


Error 404--Not Found

From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1:

10.4.5 404 Not Found

The server has not found anything matching the Request-URI. No indication is given of whether the condition is temporary or permanent.
If the server does not wish to make this information available to the client, the status code 403 (Forbidden) can be used instead. The 410 (Gone) status code SHOULD be used if the server knows, through some internally configurable mechanism, that an old resource is permanently unavailable and has no forwarding address.


I would like you to look into this matter as nobody else at bt seems to be interested.

mikeopvc

I have had the invoice from openreach for the new line fitted by engineer No.3
It's £157.45 inc VAT

So I am expected to now pay this as well as the £149 I already had taken out of my bank by BT

Also I was told I would get a call in 14 days about this matter, I'm still waiting:p

Heinz

email BT Company Representative at [EMAIL="btcare@bt.com"]btcare@bt.com[/EMAIL].

Include a link to this thread in the text ( https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/38334032#Comment_38334032 ) and your BT A/C number.