BT HELP with customer services!!

dj_gee_funk

my wife is going mad because of BT.. ive had no phone line because of a fault outside in our area.. within a day or two we started to receive phone calls in the house (24 hours a day) but they werent for us. (we had someone elses line attached to our house) this went on for 9 days in total. due to me and my wife having full time jobs we have now called BT more or less everday since 21/8/2011 after 6pm.. we are trying to complain but seem to be getting nowhere! We were offered £5 compensation from one BT representative from which we said we werent happy with. she then then put us on hold for about 30 mins without coming back to us and so we gave up on that phonecall and decided to call back the following day. Upon phoning back, again after 6pm, my wife spoke to a male representative of BT who confirmed there was a note on the account stating £5 had been offered, we again said we were not happy with this and we were then offered £10 in compensation, which again given the problems we had been going through we said we were not happy with, this representative put us through to a "Supervisor" who after going through the entire story again with my wife offered us 3 months free line rental as it was clear to him that we were not happy and had been trying to sort this out, we accepted this as being a good response and agreed requesting that this be sent to us in writing along with confirmation on a few other points we were not happy with (requesting compensation for not being able to use our other services ie broadband for this period and the fact that even though our phone plan was with a different provider we were still being charged for a call plan with BT instead of just line rental for a period of 10 months amounting to £30) "Supervisor" told my wife that this would be done and the telephone call ended on a happy note for a change!
Upon receiving our BT bill we realised that what we were promised had not been followed through as a £5.07 discount had been applied to the account even though we had not agreed this and agreed upon a totally different outcome. So more phone calls to BT were made. The first on the 13/09/11 again after 6pm where my wife explained the whole story to a different representative who took the attitude that we could not expect to receive 3 months free line rental for just 9 days of being without our line and all they would offer is £5 which had been applied. My wife requested to speak to a manager and a male came onto the line confirming our telephone number and stating he would call back within 10 minutes (we are still waiting and its now the 15th Sept). As no call back was made, my wife again called on the 15/09/11, again after 6pm and spoke to yet another representative and again went through the entire story. This representative again took the attitue that we could not expect to receive 3 months free line rental for being without our landline for 9 days and the most they could offer was £10 refund on our bill (even though we had only received £5 which we were not happy with and have never agreed to). Again my wife requested to speak to a manager and this time was told there was no-one to take her call as the representative's manager was on another call. My wife then took the "complaints" email address down and stated that she would email BT along with Offcom and the Communications Ombudsman to which the representative advised we should just email BT as our complaint would be dealt with quickly.

hajane

I had several nightmares on the phone with BT. I was in tears at one stage.

I managed to solve my problem by taking my complaint about BT to Twitter. Within the hour @BTCare got back to me, then rang me and gave me a solution that I was happy with. It might not work for you but it is worth a try. Companies like BT don't like negative feedback on social networking websites and are keen to be seen as resolving problems when they do arise.

BT_company_representative

Hi Dj gee funk,

Did you get any reply from BT regarding you complaint email? If you like I can look into this for you?

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

Thanks

Paddy

leekirk007

Well, as the people on this forum are probably already aware, BT’s sales team are getting customers to sign up for TV packages by lying and manipulating the truth. When the service teams are contacted, they do not return calls and the complaints team is not fit for purpose.


Please let me elaborate.


My tale starts around the end of May 2011. We were looking for a service to rival or possibly improve on our sky package (first mistake I hear you say).
My wife decided that she liked the idea of BT. We looked into the package and liked the idea of the “On Demand” services. She contacted a sales adviser to quell my criticisms. The adviser offered us a package that would have the first 3 months at half price. The adviser also stated that it would feature all the top titles from Sky after a few months after them being on Sky.
We signed up and the devices were delivered. I plugged the Vision box in and initially I was impressed. It was only when we started to look for our favourite TV programmes, we noticed that the content was at best dated, but the kids liked it so we didn’t cancel even though we were getting an intermittent service.
After the 3 months, we noticed that we were not receiving the package at half price as promised. My wife phoned up BT and the representative advised that this would be looked into and that a recording would be ordered. A further call at this time was not received.
On the 10th September, I came to move the BT vision box and noticed that the RF connector had become detached from the box. I contacted BT customer services and spent the next 2 ½ hours trying to explain about this and the problems that we had experienced to date. I also explained that although we didn’t feel that we were using the broadband excessively, we had received a charge.
I was told at this time that this would be looked into and that an engineer would be booked for the following Tuesday (13/9) for the princely sum of £60. Eventually I spoke to someone who advised that this charge would be waived and that they would remove the £20 charge and credit £20 to my account. The engineer was due between 08:00 and 13:00 on 13th September with a call being lodge 30 minutes before.
By 12:50 on 13th September, as no engineer had contacted, I phoned to ask the whereabouts of the engineer only to be told that he wasn’t coming as he was not ordered correctly.
After further telephone calls lasting about half an hour, I was advised that a manager would contact me before 14:30. During this call I advised the representative that I wanted to leave BT and just leave my landline with them. I was advised that the BT Vision element would be cancelled and that a manager would need to talk to me with regards to the rest.
At 14:35, I was advised that a manager would be in touch at 15:00
At 15:30, I managed to get in touch with the manager that was due to call and was advised by him that he was in a meeting until 15:15, so he could not have called anyway. He advised that he would look into the matter and call back between 08:00 and 18:00 on 14th September.
On 15th September, as I had still received no call back, I attempted to reach the manager. He was unavailable, but I managed to speak to his colleague. She stressed that the broadband could not be cancelled as there was no problem with it. I stated that the only reason that I took out the broadband was I was forced to take it as part of the BT Vision package (I had been happy with our previous broadband supplier who charged a third of the price of BT and now find that I am left with and inferior product that I neither want nor need). As we no longer had BT Vision, we had no requirement for BT Broadband. I also stated again that I was concerned about the fluctuating amount of use.
I was then advised if I cancelled the broadband, I would incur a charge, but if I remained with BT, I would receive a further £50 goodwill gesture.
As I was (and still am) dissatisfied with BT, I declined this offer and so the only alternative was to escalate to a formal complaint which I lodged at approximately 13:00 15/9/11. I was advised that a member of the complaints team would call in 5 days. I agreed with the manager that this would be on 20th September. I advised that I would cancel my direct debit until such time as this matter was resolved.
On 17th September I received a bill from BT which did not show the amendments and was considerably more than we anticipated, but as I was expecting a call from the complaints team, I would put this to them. At this point I cancelled my direct debit
On 20th September I attempted to call the complaints team to talk to them about the bill and to advise that I had cancelled my direct debit. I was advised by a BT representative that he would not put me through to the complaints team. He also refused to contact the team and when I asked to escalate this, he abruptly advised me that he would nothing else he could do.
As this was the case, I had no recourse but to terminate the call and re-try.
At 13:45, I was able to lodge a call and a team manager advised that my details have been passed to the complaints team and I would receive a call back in 1-2 hours. She also stated that the complaint had not been looked at yet. The time is now 17:00 and I am still waiting for a the promised call from the complaints team.
In conclusion, I have spent:
5 ½ hours on the phone on numerous telephone calls with numerous promises of call back - so far, I have received none.
5 hours waiting for an engineer who was incorrectly booked and didn’t turn up.
Been offered £90 of waived fees and goodwill gestures which have not been paid (and works out less than the charges to cancel which I have been asking to do).
I now have a service that I was miss-sold and over charged for, that I no longer want or need, which is over 3 times more expensive than its competitors and all I want to do is cancel the service without incurring any charges.
I have all the relevant reference numbers and a list of names of the team members and managers that I have spoken to.


Please can someone help and advise what course of action to take next - maybe OFCOM or Watchdog?

BT_company_representative

Hi leekirk007

I can help with your issue, just checkout my profile section were you will find my contact info.

Regards David