BT Complaints & Escalation

lizzy_shi

[FONT=&quot]Usually I do not spend too much time in posting my experience in public but for BT since I experienced the worst and coldest customer service. I think it is worth warning people who is thinking to be BT customer. In a simple word, BT does not care about their customers.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]I experienced an issue last week after porting my number to BT. I can see signal bar but I cannot make phone calls, send test and use data. I was told that the issue was impacting 19000 customers and they cannot provide a timeline to fix it. When you are experiencing such a major issue, the answer that we do not know when to fix it is simply not good enough. So I asked to escalate the complaint and of course they refused to let me escalate. In a few bullet point, the whole conversation is:
1. I asked for a target date for the issue to be resolved. The answer is there is no target date. Technical team did not provide one.

2. I asked to speak to a manager. The answer is sorry the manager is not available.

3. After I insisted I was finally put through to a manager. The manager's answer is no different that they don't know a date to fix the issue. They are working on it. BT does not own the network. It was EE's fault that they cannot connect the customer. The engineer is working on it and there is no update on when it will be resolved.

4. I asked to speak to technical team who can give me a target date. The manager said there is no internal contact they can reach to the tech team. The tech will contact them to give an update.

5. I asked to escalate to a higher level. The answer is we cannot reach to the manager as she is out on training. We can arrange her to phone you back within 48 hours. If you want to escalate the complaint, you can follow the procedure and if you are still not happy you can complain to ombudsman and it will take 8 weeks to resolve it.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]So after wasted 2 hours on the phone call with their customer service team, I used a bit intelligent to search for their director’s contact. Luckily I found it so I wrote a letter to Gavin Patterson asked for a target date, improvement of their customer service and compensation for the inconvenience. There is no surprise that he replied very politically that they will investigate and get back to me. But again there is no date to fix the issue.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]Two days after I received a call from their executive complain director. She gave me the same reply with no difference. She asked if I continue experience the issue, I said it seems to be fixed after 2 days. So she said “Oh, so there is no issue then we can close the complaint”. Ho[FONT=&quot]wever, I even do not know [FONT=&quot]conclusion of my complain. [FONT=&quot]Did they [FONT=&quot]ever [FONT=&quot]give [FONT=&quot]me a target date? No, they put m[FONT=&quot]e to wait for 2 days. Did they ever [FONT=&quot]improve their service? No, they defend themse[FONT=&quot]lves. Did they ever give me a compensation? No, they [FONT=&quot]never mentioned it. [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot][FONT=&quot]Then why they close my complain? [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]Can you not see a problem there? There is no heart, no empathy for the customer’s pain in the last few days. T[FONT=&quot]hey [FONT=&quot]seem to [FONT=&quot]get back[/FONT] to you care about you but t[FONT=&quot]h[FONT=&quot]ey are actually ignoring you. [/FONT][/FONT][/FONT][/FONT]They simply do not care. The problem is fixed after 2 days but it doesn’t mean that they can ignore customer’s pain in the past and that’s the reason I am not happy with. I am not happy that I was ignored for 2 days and left desperately want to make a phone call.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]They are indifferent to customers and this culture is from the top down to the bottom. They can ignore you because they know after 8 weeks you probably will forget to complain to ombudsman. And even you complaint to ombudsman, what ombudsman can do to them? Nothing! The worst is they type in an apology template and send it to you and compensate you few bloody money as a good will. The compensation comparing their profit is nothing.

[/FONT] [FONT=&quot]There is really not much you can do to complain their terrible service, but at least there is one little thing you can do is do not use them, do not let them fool you.[/FONT]

pdhethers

We put official complaints to BT on thier website regarding our situation as below
"We have been BT customers for over 12yrs and have had our BT email addresses for all this period. Although we have not been broadband customers for the last 18 months until we returned to BT for our broadband recently but kept our email on BT premium mail. On Monday 21.11.16 I rang to transfer our Premium emails to the Broadband account. This was duly done but during the process one of your employees completely deleted my wife’s sub email address as we found out later. After numerous calls I was informed that the email address could not be restored.
We are very unhappy with this situation because during all these years many important things have been linked to this email address:
-Online banking in UK
-Online banking with foreign bank
-Over 25 accounts with trading companies including travel agencies, airlines, railways and bus companies
-Software and upgrades
-Not to mention several social networks and hundreds of contacts worldwide.
This email address is very essential for our needs so we are strenuously asking you to retrieve our email.
If we suffer any financial loss due to this matter we will be looking for compensation."



We put our complaint to BT on 24.11.2016 but nothing happened since apart of several calls which got nowhere.Is anybody else has the same experience please advise.

MindsEye

Well, this is all too frustratingly familiar.

I had my services shutdown a week after renewing my contract for 24mo. This happened whilst I was on holiday so couldn't respond to the letter but only found out as I received an email saying the services had been cut. Now, over 10 days of trying to get services connected still without broadband or TV. Every time I call and arrange an appointment I get a follow up changing the date or contradicting what was agreed. No one seems capable of taking ownership and so passes onto another team who either don't give a flying eff and seem to do as they please.

So now there is a hefty bill on my mobile as I don't have broadband have gone over my data allowance and all I want to do is leave. How the hell do I rid myself of these criminals? Any advice? I'm so stressed as I work from home and now can't do that and have had to arrange to work from friends. I'm in the edge and just losing the will! Not sure what to do!not sure what I'll do! I feel trapped!

JJ_Egan

Work from home then if its a business account contact your business account team leader .

Nickaylar

Any one else had this problem?

I've just moved into a new build property and having such great difficulties getting TV services, Broadband and telephone.
Now apparently BT have claimed the rights to my house which means Broadband has to be done with them.
I placed an order which meant a engineer coming on 20th December to activate my line, this then got canceled, ive been told im at 'silver status' and cannot get any services until im at 'gold status' which means BT/openreach have to come and install a modem.
They are saying its down to the developer to organised but the developer has shown me emails to BT/openreach handing over the property to them to come and install the modem.
I've made so many calls to BT and every time im on hold for over an hour and passed from person to person as no one seems to know what needs to be done.
Im about to loose my patients .........HELP!!!

tpenswick

I have set out below my recent experience with BT:
- Broadband Problem - original order went through and I paid for my phone line rental up front for 1 year. I then received an email from them saying that the engineer's appointment had been cancelled. I checked my account and the broadband order had been cancelled. I contacted BT by instant messenger and telephone over three days and spent more than 2.5 hours on the phone holding and speaking to people to try and resolve the problem The problem was then only partially sorted out and I then had to spent another hour on the phone trying to get the broadband order sorted. The equipment turned up but was told did not need an engineer both the phone and the broadband did not work. I then spent a further 1.5 hours on the telephone on a Saturday afternoon with somebody who tried to resolve the problem over the phone - it actually took me being transferred four times before I was even connected to the correct person. It was then agreed that an engineer would visit my property to resolve the issues which did take place the following week.
- BT Television Problem - the BT television box was delivered one week later than it should have been due to problem outlined above with order being cancelled. Once the BT TV box arrived I connected it up and this did not work, I would not get any of the extra channels that I had paid for as the box would not connect to the internet. This then took a further two calls - approximately 2 hours before they agreed to send out an engineer. The person I spoke to said that they could not arrange an engineer for when I could have somebody available in the property and said they would ring me back on the Sunday which of course they did not. I then had to spend another 50 minutes on the phone on Monday morning to try and get an appointment booked in. I had arranged for somebody to sit in my property whilst I was at work and the morning they should have been at my property I received a call to say the engineer had phoned in sick and would not be coming out. When I told them this was not acceptable the engineer who had apparently phoned in sick turned up at my property two hours later. He was going to leave the problem unsolved as he was unsure how to fix it but then did decide to telephone a colleague to ask them if they had any ideas and he fixed it. This problem took from 27 October to 9 December to get sorted.
- Over charging. As mentioned above I paid for my BT phone line up front for 1 year. I then received a bill from BT which said on one line that I had paid up front for the BT phone line rental and then the next line they charged me for one months rental. When I telephoned them they said that I would still have to pay and they would reimburse me the following month. They said that they could not reimburse me on that bill as it had already been issued. I then received the next bill the following month and I had been charged line rental yet again, so overcharged for two months. I had to telephone BT yet again and they said that they would reimburse me as it was now possible to reimburse when a bill had been issued - someone was clearly telling lies here.
- MasterCard new customer offer - as part of the package BT were offering new customers a MasterCard Voucher for £100. They cancelled this so that I could not have the offer that was part of the deal. This took three phone calls to sort out amounting to approximately 2 hours and I did eventually get the MasterCard which was received on 8 December.
- Complaints Procedure - I raised a complaint with BT and received a telephone call to say that once the TV problem had been fixed they would telephone me to discuss compensation. Once the problem had been fixed a representative called Neil telephoned my home number on Friday 9 December and left a message that he would be telephoning at 9am on Saturday morning to discuss compensation. He did not telephone and I received a call when I had guests on Saturday evening whereby the person said that I would be refunded for monies paid for the TV service that I had not received because it was not working but they could not pay compensation for the amount of time and trouble I had gone to, to try and get a service that works. They then reluctantly said they would pay £10 to say sorry but would not offer any more than that. I requested they speak to a manager and they came back to me on Sunday morning saying that that is all that they would pay compensation.

Pete1972lfc

I have just had the worst experience with BT. I have just moved home into a new build. Back in August I arranged a home move with BT. While the house was getting completed I lived in rented property and was advised by BT to not get my line set up there as it would delay getting my line installed in my new home. For this period I kept BT sports on as I have sky and I'm a big sports fan. For the past few months I was getting charged £25? Come the big day of the move. I contacted BT and told them I was moving in. I received an email and text to say an engineer would be out on Wednesday between 1 and 6. This did not happen. I called BT the following day. I was told they did not know why he had not turned up and that I would get a call back. This again did not happen. Decided to call this morning and was told there was a computer error and that they would have to rearrange the engineer. I asked could they get a manager to call me back. I was told I would have to wait till Monday at the earliest as it was Christmas. Is there anything I can do to end my contract early as I feel BT have not full filled there part of the contract.

Judge001

BT have proven a poor choice from the very beginning, they have proven themselves incredibly incompetent and arrogant.

September last year I moved to a new build estate, and found BT had installed FTTP (fibre to the premises) - a fast reliable internet connection I foresaw, cutting-edge technology implemented reputable company. Oh how very wrong I was with this assumption!!

Problems presented themselves right out of the gate with my innicial order, as equipment was not delivered to my address and an Engineer will come and install my equipment at a pre-arranged time. Before I could make the appointment, the sales lady must of realised she'd made an error with processing my order as she hung up!! I then received emails from BT saying my services were up and running and other contradicting emails stating I require an engineer to come to the property and install equipment. No appointment was arranged, and I could not arrange an appointment as no one on the call lines would accept responsibility for my order. A week later the router arrived - I installed it but the modem wasn't connecting to the router (orange light). After spending fifteen hours on hold being thrown from department to department (some U.K. based, others abroad) I eventually managed to speak to someone in BT's order management department who took time to look at my order, and an Engineer visit was arranged:
The Engineer visit proved productive as the Engineer was able to identify a fault reguarding the registration serial numbers not matching their assigned properties. The Engineer had to spend over two hours on hold (to his own company BT!!) while at my property trying to resolve this. Eventiallly he succeeded in getting the internet working.

After this my youview box finally arrived, so I could enjoy the luxury of cable television!

At this point all was well as the internet seemed to be in working order and fit for purpose, although I never got anything like the speeds I was paying for.

My perseverance seemed to have paid dividends in that I now had working internet and tv. However I found myself reminiscing on those long strenuous evenings being kept on hold getting nowhare, so I wright to BT over five letters of complaint, and receive a generic and unsympathetic letter of apology from BT, refunding the cost of the engineer visit, but no compensation for being on hold and their incompetence. I cast it to one side and was thankful that I actiually had a connection.. for now at least.

As the months elapsed I grew content with the service BT were providing, happily getting on with stuff variably more important than an internet connection.

Of times recent I speak again of my contempt for BT, as the connection proves volatile and inconsistent, turning orange often, and interrupting my work. I've grown wise to the trap of calling customer services now, and instead just wright letters of complaint to BT in the vein hope of a productive response. Needless to say, I've little faith in BT now, and will be buying out my contract, water under the bridge, I think it's time to move on. I'll be using a 4g modem until the day Virgin Media brings fibre to my door.

ic

I've had a close call. Basically my first year was coming to an end - I accepted an offer to extend my existing package at the same price for two years, extended my mobile for another year and added another SIM. A week into the cooling off period on all that the broadband stopped working. After bouncing back and forth with the foreign faults department arguing over the £130 repair fee I cancelled everything and went to Virgin. I've managed to complain and get my final months' service charges refunded after another argument, and threatening to take my complaint to ofcom.

With Virgin I'm now paying half what I was as I've decided to give up on the phone and TV and take only internet. Given the ransom demand on the line fault which BT acknowledged was on their network, I've learned my lesson and won't be going with BT again. Virgin are bad, but at least they'll repair problems inclusive in the price!

I complained via email to both Libby Barr and Gavin Paterson, with the addresses found on the ceo email site.

SearcerOfPeace

Hello I have been very interested to learn of so many difficulties with BT affecting other people.
We are trying to tackle a change of address problem for my Ma in Law who is too elderly to deal with it herself. We have phoned umpteen times, waited in for return calls which didn't come and have been paying for a 1571 service BT have never provided. I have contacted the ombudsman but they need proof of POA. HOW can this be made so difficult? Surely BT ought to be brought to account?