HELP! Complaining to BT.. STILL no response!

immoral_angeluk

We've complained over the phone, sent a long winded letter to their customer service manager, and even sent an email to their CEO and STILL we have not had any response from BT or even a letter, call or email to say that they're dealing with it!
what's the next step? Should we just look to switch and deal with them being arsey about it because we're in an 18 month contract? Surely they've not kept to their side of the contract by completely ignoring our complaints!!!

1mmaker

Hi have a few questions.

Do you have an ongoing fault?
Is it Business or residential broadband.

How long has the complaint been outstanding.

Might be able to help you out.

Gav

1mmaker

If you PM your line number and any reference you have, Ill see what i can do ( Well Find )

Gav

immoral_angeluk

We've been having problems fairly constantly since we upgraded from Bt Yahoo broadband in around july/august. It's residential and we have BT total broadband. Made and official complaint in writing about 2 weeks ago (I put on the letter that I required a response within 7 days or we'd be switching), complained over the phone the week before that, and forwarded the letter to their CEO on the 17th.

Here's the letter I sent to their ceo (With the written letter included).

Dear Mr Verwaayen,

Re Bt Together option 1 and BT total broadband option 3 accounts.
Account name: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Account ref: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I apologise for having to complain to you, but my numerous attempts at trying to make sense of your customer service agents have left me with frequent headaches and frustration. I recently sent a complaint letter to you customer service manager in Dublin but unsuprisingly have had no response.

For convinience, below is a copy of the letter I sent to your customer services manager, which has so far gone unanswered (It was over a week ago now that they would've recieved it.). This isn't an exact copy of the letter as I forgot to take a proper copy, but this is the draft version of what I sent to your company so is essentially exactly the same except for altered wording here and there.



''Dear Sir/Madam,

Re Bt home phone and BT total broadband accounts
Account name : xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Phone number xxxxxxxx
Account ref: xxxxxxxxx

I am writing yo complain about a number of problems we have been experiencing recently, both technical and account based. We recently upgraded to BT total broadband Option 3, and have had problems ever since.
Firstly we began experiencing technical problems including our BT hub phone not recieving incoming calls which I was assured by your technical support would be rectified within a month. It has been nearly 3 months and it is STILL not accepting incoming calls.
The internet connection itself is unpredictable at best. We frequent experience drop outs in connection, which as you can imagine is incredibly irritating when you use the internet as much as we do.
We were told when we upgraded that we would be able to recieve 6.5mb, on a good day we achieve 4.5 and have known only one occasion where we have shown a connection speed of 6.5mb.

As well as the technical problems we have also had issues with our account and it's getting beyond a joke.
When we upgraded to Total broadband we requested Option 3 (With 40gb usage limit.). We have since recieved a 'Fair Usage' Email stating that we had exceeded our 2GB limit for the Option 1 package we were actually on. Having called your customer services I have been assured this will be corrected within 3 days and that we will now have to pay more for a package we presumed we were already on, which we are not impressed with considering the amount of problems and hassle we have experienced, and when you compare the cost of equivalent broadband/phone packages on the market.

However, our problems do not end there, as we have also had issues with our direct debit. We wished to pay the bill in full every month via Direct debit. We noticed our direct debit date was becoming earlier and earlier with our last bill due to be taken on the 30th October, when we don't get paid until the 31st. Your customer services informed us that the only way we could pay on a set day each month would be either a fixed rate payment plan of £45 a month (£15 more than we were currently paying each month.) or if we wanted to pay the whole bill by direct debit we had no other choice than to have a quarterly bill. Neither of which we wanted to do but we were forced to cancel our current direct debit arrangement. On complaining to another customer service advisor they agreed to set up a fixed rate monthly plan at £30 a month, as we had no other way of paying monthly by direct debit, which would begin the 5th December. I fail to understand why every other company is able to take direct debit on a set day every month to pay the whole bill, and yet BT choose to have such an awkward system in place with regards to taking direct debit payments.

Before upgrading to Bt total broadband we had no problems whatsoever and were perfectly happy. But since switching we have had nothing but problems and have never had such appalling service from BT. Also considering the equivalent package with Tiscali for 8mb connection, unlimited cap, free equipment and free evening/weekend calls is £17.99 per month with no minimum contract, we are seriously considering leaving BT and switching to another provider as BT have not been delivering the basic level of service we expect as customers. I want all of these issues addressed and dealt with promptly, as I am fed up of being fobbed off continously and require a response within 7 days or we shall be switching provider, as BT have not kept to the terms of good service or their side of the contract, making the minimum 18 month contract null and void.

Regards,

xxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Please note: I have sent a copy of my marriage certificate to you to have my surname on the account changed, and as far as I am aware this has still not been processed. So the account name may show as Miss xxxxxxxxxx''


Since sending this letter we have also had MORE problems rear their ugly heads, with our phone choosing to not make ANY incoming or outgoing calls at random times. We have both the hub phone and a normal BT landline phone connected to the hub because of the issues regarding the hub phone not accepting incoming calls (We were told to do this by your technical support) and NEITHER would recieve any incoming or outgoing calls for the duration of the problem which lasts roughly 10 minutes each time. This has happened quite a few times, with 2 of those times being in the past couple of days which doesn't supply us with confidence that our issues are being addressed. Also today I recieved our online bill and nearly went into premature labour when I saw our bill was a whopping £204. ANOTHER phone call to BT and half an hour later it was discovered that we had been charged twice for our broadband (Or so it seems, I can't make heads nor tails of the bills myself as there's all kinds of charges and refunds on there for various different time periods.) and our bill has now changed to quarterly with the payment plan, even though your customer services advisor told me the change would not be going through until the 5th December, and to pay via another method until then?? I have been assured now that the charges have been corrected, but won't show until our next quarterly bill, and that in the meantime our bill will still show as £204 so needless to say I'm expecting a call from one of your debt collectors in a months time wondering where their £204 is.. even though we have set up a payment plan. Like I said, my confidence in Bt and their customer services is completely in tatters, so nothing suprises me anymore.

We do not want to have the hassle of changing phone/broadband supplier, but feel that our needs and issues are not being addressed, we are continually being passed form pillar to post and I have spent so much time on the phone to various customer service advisors/technical advisors and have gotten nowhere. Even writing a formal complaint to your so called customer services manager has yeilded nothing and my last resort before leaving Bt is to contact yourself. Again I apologise if this has been rather longwinded, but as you can see, we've had more than our fair share of problems in the short amount of time we have been with BT.

I look forward to your reply.

immoral_angeluk

1mmaker wrote:

If you PM your line number and any reference you have, Ill see what i can do ( Well Find )

Gav

I'm sure you can understand that I don't want to give personal details out but am just after general help really with what I should do next...

1mmaker

Yeah thats fine i do understand, Im in work at the moment and have access to all bt busniess and residential systems. That is the only reason i asked.

I might have been able to see what has been said in your notes on all calls.

What your best option probably is,

Contact The Chairmans Office on: 0207 356 5000

Advise them of the situation and that you have sent letters to various departments and of course Mr Verwaayen

Chairmans office number is not meant to be given unless a customer specifical asks for it but you are fine to call and speak to somsone who will definitly deal with this case for you.

If you change your mind about your line number just give me a shout and ill have a peek around for you.

As you probably have guessed who i work

Gav

1mmaker

This might help too,

BT Total Broadband Complaints Contact Points
Postal address for any BTbroadband correspondence:

CSU,
BT,
St Thomas Street,
Sunderland,
SR1 1BN
Fax Number: 01324 458940
Helpdesk Number: 0800 800060

immoral_angeluk

thanks very much. I feel like I've spent the last few months just contstantly on the phone to customer services being fobbed off by idiots who couldn't care less whether someone's happy or not!
Would I be within my rights to just switch to a different supplier? I'm in an 18 month contract but from what I can see BT haven't kept to their side of the contract but I could do without a long drawn out battle for them to let me switch hassle free and not get a massive bill drop on our mat for the remaining months!

UKTigerlily

o0o Immaker I supposedly get a 6 month 50% discount on BT broadband through work but it looks like it's the 2GB option, any chance of it being the 6BG lol

OP I understand your frustrations I had numerous problems with AOHell & changed over to BT where hopefully i'll be changing to bb next month, let us know how you get on so's I know whether to change to it! The work offer was a good incentive but it looks like 2GB only & that's not enough for me!

immoral_angeluk

ARGH!!! Just trying to call those numbers but GUESS what... the phone has decided it doesn't want to dial out now.. all I get is silence...!!! I've about 10 seconds away from grabbing something very heavy and smashing the bt hub to pieces.... :mad: :mad:

1mmaker

immoral_angeluk wrote:

Would I be within my rights to just switch to a different supplier? I'm in an 18 month contract but from what I can see BT haven't kept to their side of the contract but I could do without a long drawn out battle for them to let me switch hassle free and not get a massive bill drop on our mat for the remaining months!

I dont think they will let you out of the contract that easy.

The best ways to get out of a contract is either:

If you have had an ongoing fault over the last 14 days which has been booked to BT WS (Wholesale)

as it then comes under the technical cease clause where you can cancel without being held to term so i think you could push for this.


Or:

1 more question lol, How long have you been in the contract for, also keep in mind if that you have upgraded recentley this also gives you a brand new 12 or 18 month contract.

maybe be another way out this way too.

Gav