BT Complaints & Escalation

sammy1234567

Hi, sorry to hear about your complaint.

I'm having a bad experience with BT too.

My mother is a pensioner aged 84 and has disabilities including mental health problems which made it impossible for her to make a complaint to BT, so she authorised me to make a complaint on her behalf.

My mother does not operate a computer or use the internet (she doesn't know how to). She does not know what broadband is, and would not have been able to sign up for this herself as she doesn't know what the service is or what to ask for. I recently discovered that my mother was paying, monthly, £16.90 for a 'Broadband and calls' package, plus £3.49 for 'BT Net Protect Plus'. The charges for Broadband and Net Protect Plus have been applied since Dec 2012.

I emailed BT to complain and ask for a refund.

BT's response to the complaint is :
"Thank you for your e-mail regarding your mum's account . Broadband was connected on 31 December 2012 , and the charges have been shown on all bills since then. It's the account holders responsibility to check the bill before any payment is made ,therefore all charges are correct and no refunds are due."

Best wishes ..."

It seems wrong of BT. My mother didn't ask for Broadband and is too ill to manage her account. Their behaviour seems immoral.

This company sucks.

BT_company_representative

Hi RYVBAR and sammy1234567,

I'm really sorry to hear about the problems experienced with your BT service recently, please use the contact details found in my profile to send over your details and we'll be happy to help you get this sorted.

Thanks

Neil

Ecuador2

In March, I paid BT £129 for annual line rental. In May I established DD for my Broadband. In June, BT started using the DD to take monthly line rental payments from my account - a service I had already paid for in full.

Countless phonecalls later (most taking around an hour and involving being passed from one person to another until getting cut off), they haven't repaid a penny and are still taking monthly line rental payments.

In September I seemed to be getting somewhere. They agreed to the refund, agreed that I was on the annual plan, and sent several emails confirming refunds for each monthly payment. No money was received.

Yesterday I spent 45 minutes online trying to get it sorted. As ever, the first response was that I'm not on the annual plan. When I provided the ref number, it was conceded I was. 20 minutes of silence ensued while the agent went off to discuss it with the manager. When he/she returned, the page went blank and I found myself 're-queued', 34th in the queue. After 30 minutes in line, a message appeared to say no agents were available and I'd been disconnected.

I contacted them online again today and have been assured that the matter will be fixed, and a refund will be issued, in 24 hours. Do I believe them?

teddysmum

Online chat is useless. I'd phone and keep on trying until I got a UK call centre.

It may be worth using the intention to leave option and pleading that you are using them in frustration and asking them to transfer your call to the appropriate department.

BT_company_representative

Hi Ecuador2,

I'm really sorry about that, if you need any help getting this sorted use the contact details in my profile to send over your details.

Thanks

Neil

Ecuador2

Well, the 24 hours went by and I heard nothing back from BT. I also made use of the contact details on Neil's profile on the 12th - two days later, no response to that approach either.

Complicating the matter, I now discover that three monthly payments were, in fact, refunded in my bill for Oct, though I didn't notice because they were offset by two additional monthly line rental charges.

This problem ought to be simple. In March I PAID in advance for 12 months line rental. Since June, BT has been charging me for monthly line rental. Unrectified, I could end up paying £154.50 over and above the fee I've already paid for the service.

All they have to do is acknowledge that I did in fact pay the Annual Line Rental Saver (there's a clear paper trail proving it), block all future monthly payments, and refund the monthly payments they've taken. Three months since I first contacted BT, it still hasn't been sorted. Why is it proving so difficult?

ni73

I am also have a disgusting time with BT.Engineers came to our village and istalled the new infinity,since then everyone in the village has has broadband and phone problems (SINCE OCT) im now getting under half a meg broadband and because i refuse to pay for the time that the fault started which is still not fixed,they restricted my services and will not reconnect me,after speaking to various people at bt i get one person telling me they have re-instated my services,then when i phone back they tell me they havent because of this bill,i spend hours daily on the phone to them,i have been lied to,told their is no complaints department,cant get to speak to anyone in the uk,given an extension till the end of nov to pay the bill and that my services have been put back on.i phone back because they havent and i get told its because of the bill...i have been in tears over this...my house and my son have been neglected because im spending so much time on the phone to them,they wont give ma my mac code because of the bill which is £45,they say their is no fault one min then they say their is then theirs not...cant these people just get it right,i want to leave and i dont see why i should have to pay for something that they clearly broke,they cant understand why im not getting good speeds,and i can get incoming calls but they have restricted my outgoing....totally outragous...they dont care about their customers all they want is money...well they aint getting another penny from me...i am soo mad with them and the treatment they have given me...they should change the name to IT (india telecom) coz thats the only people your gonna get to speak too...idiots!

BT_company_representative

Hi ni73,

Sorry for the problems you're having. You can get in touch with us using contact details in my profile and we'll help sort everything out from here.

Thanks a million,

Robbie

Ecuador2

UPDATE: Yesterday I had a call from the support centre. I now have a case number which will remain open until the issue is resolved. My annual plan has been reinstated and I've been assured that there will be no more monthly payments and a full refund will appear in my next bill.

That's more like it. It's the kind of customer support we should get straight up, not after three months of being passed from pillar to post by apparently unqualified - and often very unhelphful - call centre staff in India.

What's BT's business again? Oh yes....telecommunications.

TIMBO

BT fault e-mail reference number VOL012-84358338581.
Post 11th November 2013, emails from my BT email account to an ntlworld account have failed to arrive. They were working fine up till then. No error message is received from the BT servers advising of a failed attempt.
I was promised a call back (that I sat in and waited for), but never happened, and since then I have had two emails that are just simply nonsense. The "support staff" so far have shown no understanding of the fault. Despite twice asking for the call to be escalated to someone with the skill set necessary to understand and investigate they will not do so,
How on earth does one get through to a someone with the ability to understand and resolve.
P.S. I understand BT are in the process of porting their email service from one supplier to another at present. Bearing in mind the fault did not exist before the 12th November it would seem rather obvious to check what was done after the 11th November during this porting process. Unfortunately BT support don't do obvious
Any help gratefully received.