BT longstanding complaint - what on earth do I have to do to sort this out?

mercurius_2

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]I am totally frustrated at the inability of BT to resolve a problem with my home phone line (poor, crackly reception and very slow broadband signal) which I first reported on 5 June this year. Over the course of about 3 weeks, there were a series of BT engineer visits to try and resolve the problem. Matters improved for a period of days before they got as bad as ever. Each seemingly unaware of what the problem was, so we had to start from scratch everytim.

In early July we tried to resolve the problem via our ISP who liaised with the BT Openreach team. The ISP reported that for a significant period of time the broadband speed had been reduced by BT to 135 kb / sec! Again a succession of engineers appeared and disappeared, all agreeing that there is a network problem somewhere, but none of them actually resolving the problem. The most helpful engineer who came out identified the problem as a ‘T-off’ in the road outside our property, an issue which is apparently one of the things for which our road is well-known amongst BT engineers. We therefore expected BT to dig up the road to sort this out, but this did not happened.

I will spare you the blow by blow account of appointments made and engineers failing to turn up; of BT assurances that no property access was required only to find engineers turning up on the doorstep requesting access; and of the cast of (in the main, but with a couple of notable exceptions) surly, unhelpful engineers who are poor ambassadors for the organisation (BT Marketing Director - please take note: there's no point spending millions on advertising if the company cannot deliver the basics).

On 12 August I emailed Ian Livingston (BT CEO) with the complaint which is still being handled by the Executive Complaints Team in the Chairman`s office. Despite many calls to them and their attempts to get BT Openreach to sort this matter, and despite further visits by engineers this problem is still not resolved. Oh, and for one of the week`s when this complaint has been at this top organisational level, we have had no phone or internet at all.

The Executive Complaints Team have been lied to by BT OpenReach who have promised action and dates by which it would be taken with no ability to follow through on their promises or manage customer expectations. For reasons I fail to understand, they seem to have no more control over Openreach or ability to bring it to account than I do.

At end August we had got to the point where they had identified that they needed to replace the cable from our house to the BT cable in the road. We were told that this would happen before we went away on two weeks holiday[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1](which I notified the Exec Complaints Team about)[/SIZE][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif][SIZE=-1]. Needless to say that never happened.

We are now back from hols and nothing has changed. No messages from BT to tell us when they are going to come out and do the work. Just a couple of messages on my mobile from an Indian call centre asking if my problem has now been sorted out(!!!)

All I want is for the problem to be resolved so that I can access the service for which I am paying... but it seems even the chairman is powerless to control what his own company does.

I have previously spoken to Ofcom, but they don't deal with individual complaints. I have also spoken to the Ombudsman's office who were less than helpful and told me that if I proceeeded with a complaint, it would take themn 6-8 weeks to investigate and produce a report.

What on earth do you need to do to make this completely un-customer focused company, and the supposed regulatory structure around it, actually sort a problem out?


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BT_company_representative

Hi Mercurius,

I am sorry to hear about the difficulties you have had in getting the problem with your telephone and Broadband sorted. I would like to take a look at this for you to see what is going on.

Please can you send me in your details using http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4950

Thanks

Paddy