BT Complaints & Escalation

Islay_sunset

We have a BT phone line and Broadband (with the phone line rental paid for a full year in advance) - or at least we did have a BT connection until last Thursday, when BT cut us off without notice. It has since transpired that there is a fault in the exchange, seemingly a crossed line, and our line was incorrectly transferred to another customer who had requested a transfer to the Post Office. While I can understand that mistakes like this can happen, the way we are being treated by BT is absolutely appalling. One week later, and after countless hours of phone calls to BT, we have managed to regain a BT line, but not (yet at least) our original BT number. More worryingly, we still have no internet connection, and we have been given so many reasons/excuses for BT not resolving the problem (and, on several cases, been told that it was our fault for requesting a transfer - something that we had not done). Despite the hours of phone calls and the loss of service, caused entirely by BT, we seem no closer to either getting the line fault rectified or to regaining our internet connection. BT has at best been incompetent and at worst obstructive, and nobody we have spoken with has a solution to restore our service. This is despite BT being in breach of our contract when it comes to disconnection without notification. Does anybody have any recomemendations as to how to get through to someone who can take charge of the situation and resolve it? Surely the company has a duty to resolve such a problem, ideally without the customer having to phone several times per day. It seems that staff are trained to pass customers to another division as soon as possible, rather than actually deal with the problem.

Thanks in advance

Allan

Idiophreak

Islay_sunset wrote: »

Does anybody have any recomemendations as to how to get through to someone who can take charge of the situation and resolve it?

Change providers.

You're *never* going to get the above with BT.

BT_company_representative

Hi Islay_sunset,

I am sorry to hear about the problems you have had with your BT service recently. I would like to look into this for you. Please could you send me in your details, using the link found in my profile?

Paddy,

Islay_sunset

Idiophreak wrote: »

Change providers.

You're *never* going to get the above with BT.

Sadly it looks like you are right - either they don't care or they do not treat even their own mistakes as a priority, as I have heard nothing in response to following the link requested by Paddy. This is despite BT giving up our line on the instructions of someone totally unconnected with the property served and terminating our service without any notice (in breach of the contract). Ten days on, and we are still no clearer on whether BT is actually going to reverse its mistake and give us an assurance it will not be repeated.

bwillia

Any BT representitive here now that can help me with an urgent line installation issue? Have just had 30 minutes on the phone to New Delhi, getting nowhere.

BT_company_representative

Hi bwillia

Yes I'll be happy to have a look into this for you.

Could you send me an email please via the link in my profile?

Cheers

Craig

PAK

Hi,

I moved from Skt to BT (silly me) in January to go with Anytime Calls, Infinity and Vision(YouView). Everything was going fine, until the broadband was delayed, which resulted in no broadband for two weeks.

Finally around the 12th March we finally got up and running, which was great. On the 22nd, I had an email saying thanks for your order, which turned out to be a disconnection for my broadband which also meant the end of Vison. On rining BT they said that an automated process had caused this and because it was Easter I had to wait till after Easter to discuss this.

After Easter, They initiated a dummy Broadband order to reinstate both services. This never happened, despite many promises. Apparently I was between providers, so OpenReach were called in to resolve. I never got an update and am still unsure what happened. I then got billed for the equipment and cancellation charges which I'm still trying to resolve, but because my issue is unique, I just get passed from department to department.

I have finally only last week got connected to infinity again only to find that my phone has been cut off because I won't pay the £494 pounds worth of cancellation & equipment charges.

I have had enough of BT and their promises and their failures. Surely all this should be written off??

Any suggestions here before I scream!!

Thanks

Paul

Lolli101

Yep me too with nightmare BT dealings.

Moved house 4th Mar and had no choice to cancel servuces with BT as I had nowhere to move into and had to go into a hotel.

Cancelled services and told them I'd be cancelling the direct debit for March 10th as I'd pay it with the final bill and gave a forwarding address.

Got email from them 1st March confirming services would stop on 11th March and I'd get bill within 14 days. I got it 25th March.

I called 03301234150 on Tues 26th March, spoke to Mark. Told him I did not agree with paying charges of £7.09 for broadband and calls in advance for 23 Mar to4 April 2013 as I left the property on 4th March and their BT email confirmed services were stopping on 11th March so why should I pay upto 4 April?

Told him I was not willing to pay £2.00 payment processing fee for March bill because I had spoken to them and told them I was cancelling Marchs direct debit so this charge is unfair.

Told him I did not agree with £30.00 broadband access service 4 April for the cessation of broadband. He said everyone has to pay that fee for closing the network.

He told me to ignore the bill and to wait for the final bill as these items would be adjusted. I said I was happy to pay £53.24 which was due on 10th March and he said not to and just wait for the final bill.

Final bill arrived 16th April and there were no reductiond for the services I didn't have even after speaking with Mark and payment had to be paid by 19th April?

17th April another letter stating BT were going to pass my details to a debt collection agency. I was absolutely livid to get this threat 1 day after receiving the final bill.

17th April I called 03301234150 as this was the number I'd spoken to Mark on. This number costs me a fortune to call from my mobile so when I got through I asked if the woman would please call me back. She made me hold and came back saying they are not allowed to call people back?! That fuelled my anger.

I said I needed to explain as quickly as possible as I couldn't afford to be on the line too long. I went into the entire history and repeated it all exact probably 4 timesin total, maybe more.

Her name was Maria and she hardly made a sound to acknowledge she was listening to me so I kept saying hello, are you there? She'd mutter. Several times I said 'I do hope you're recording this as your customer service is appalling'.

I asked to speak to a manager to which she said the manager was busy on another line. I told her I'd pay £88.03, she said the bills been made up you have to pay £112.12.

Raging I told her I wanted to submit a complaint and after spending 28 minutes talking to her and getting nowhere I demanded her manager call me back and that I was not going to pay anything until I'd spoken to the manager. Her attitude sucked and in a non commital way said she'd pass on my number and details and get the manager to call me.

No one called me.

Wed 8th May I get a BT letter dated 1st May saying the bill has to be paid by 10 days and its my final warning before they contact the collection agency.

After being with BT since the 1970's I am appalled at the lack of customer care and lack of interest to resolve problems.
I can not afford to call again from my mobile so looks like today I've got to put pen to paper, old fashion style complaint letter.

I can't understand why no one has called especially as I stated I wanted to complain on their automated customer satisfaction survey? Grrr...

BT_company_representative

Hi Pak and Lolli101

Sorry to read of the experiences you have had.

Please fill out the contact us form in my profile and we can help sort this out for you.

Thanks

Stuart

unhappy_bt_customer

I have had a similar experience with BT which has cost me a around £300. I responded to BT’s broadband advert. I requested the unlimited broadband package, free for 6 months and then £13 per month. I was persuaded by their sales team to agree to a BT Vision package. I only agreed to this service because watching catch up tv on the television would be more convenient than using the internet. However, BT falsely described this service. In order to watch catch up tv for ITV, Channel 4, and Channel 5, I was expected to pay additional rental fees, and take out additional subscriptions. Even though this was all legally free over the internet. This was contrary to the information in BT’s advert, BT’s contract, and BT’s website. I telephoned BT. They offered to do nothing to rectify the position. So I cancelled the BT Vision service as this was useless. I did keep the broadband service. I made a formal complaint in writing with appropriate evidence (as per BT‘s complaint procedure). I have proof of delivery, but BT claim to have lost this letter and they never replied. I have used BT’s email system to try and resolve the matter, but without success. The last communication with BT was by telephone. This conversation ended with the BT advisor saying that I had agreed to BT’s terms and conditions, and she then put the phone down on me. I was forced by BT to pay for items in dispute because BT disconnected my phone service for non payment. I will now end up paying 114% of the total advertised price of broadband and BT Vision. This was despite the BT Vision service was only provided for a couple of days and did not perform to contract. In addition, BT put me on a limited broadband package, To get unlimited broadband as per their advert and my request, BT wants to charge me another £5 per month.
Dealing with BT has been extremely stressful and has been a complete waste of my time. Fortunately, I have documented everything, and can prove what I claim. I have recently made formal complaints to Ofcom and the OFT. I hope to give a copy of everything to the BBC Watchdog and/or press soon. Hopefully this will persuade BT to reconsider it’s position. Otherwise, I guess I will need to take BT to court for misrepresentation and seek damages accordingly.