BT Complaints & Escalation

Fortyfoot

A couple of years ago I spoke to a chap at BT to see if my step mothers phone rental could be reduced. He kindly arranged to reduce it to £14 line rental, no broadband or calls.

I have just been checking her bank account and unknown to us they have "Kindly" upped the rental to £23 a month a year ago, she hardly makes a call, uses her mobile for texting her son in New Zealand.

Have they had one of their flash salesmen calling her up and conning her into the high rental? Any ideas, she cannot remember.

We will probably moving her to one of the cheaper suppliers, which one is best to change to?

Very disappointed!

Fortyfoot

Schnippzle

Well, week 2 of problems with BT at yet another property.

Background:
Scheduled to move property on the 24th of January, a month before I asked BT to move my phone and broadband service. Was told "no problem", but I had to sign up for another 12 month contract on the phone line. This was ok because I was also told that infinity was available at the new property but I had to order it when I moved in, fine. Moving day came, no sign of phone line or broadband being installed. Phone line finally came on but no broadband. Chased BT on the 25th and was told there was an issue with the exchange and that the team who deal with moves were not available until Monday so I had to wait. Broadband finally came online on the 27th. As advised I called up BT inquiring about Infinity but was told that this wasn't available to me at all and wouldn't be until later in the year. So that's one phone line contract I've been duped into and a broadband connection that's also been falsified.

It started as a 20mbps line, then gradually dropped until it reached 2mbps on the 2nd of Feb. I called up BT to complain and was told that there was nothing that could be done, nada, zip. Finally after explaining that I am a technical individual, working in enterprise IT, and that I would not accept that as an answer from a technical perspective the issue was escalated.

I then got a call back from a manager who said that a cap had been placed on my connection due to too much noise on the line. This cap had now been removed and that I should expect normal speeds again following an update to my Home Hub 3 and some line training. Well, following the reboot of the HH3 I can now confirm that my download rate from a 1gbps connection is between 20-50kb/s. This is whilst a colleague a block away maxes out his 100mbit virgin connection. I am now left with having to deal with the morons on the support line whilst they try to fob me off again. At least now I can prove that my connection is well bellow the 2mbps minimum speed they consider as "acceptable".

Questions:
1. Why was I lied to about the Infinity when the operator knew very well that the service wasn't available?
2. As a technical individual, why do staff feel the need to try to fob me off irrational and obviously false "issues"?
3. If there was an issue on my line, why wasn't I notified and why wasn't the issue with the line rectified instead of just "capped"?
4. The ADSL line that has been provided started off as 20mbps but dropped to ~2mbps before I ran up to complain, why? Why not just leave it as 20mbps and keep a relatively content customer.

I've said it before and I'll say it again: If there was another service provider, I'd go with them. Unfortunately BT are the only providers where I am.

BT_company_representative

Hi Schnippzle,

This doesn't sound right at all. Is there any noise on the line? I can look into this for you. Drop me an email with the details. Contact form in my profile.

Cheers

David

Schnippzle

BT_company_representative wrote: »

Hi Schnippzle,

This doesn't sound right at all. Is there any noise on the line? I can look into this for you. Drop me an email with the details. Contact form in my profile.

Cheers

David

David,
Thank you very much. I have dropped you an email with the necessary details.

Schnippzle

Schnippzle

I've been in contact with BT today who during the first phone call advised me that they needed to schedule an engineer to come around during the second phone call 15 minutes later they described that the "cap" that had been placed on my account had actually not been removed and that they were "trying to remove it".

How can it be so hard to provide a service to a customer, or even provide clear communications with regards to what's going on? Do BT administrators take courses in aversion?

Jimmy_Bull

My elderly parents of ill health are currently being harassed by BT.

After 30 odd years of loyal custom for the landline they were reluctantly talked into upgrading to switch Broadband and TV over to BT also under false promises of how much they would be charged.

6 months in, they have been charged over £200 more than they were advised but have also been charged an extra £129 for an engineering visit. An engineer did call out as they had been paying for broadband but could not access the Internet. Contractors called out, an apprentice removed the wireless wifi drilled the wall causing damage to the property which they have refused to repair.

After numerous phonecalls several over 1 hour to Bangladesh and Wales they are still no further forward, the experience is having a detrimental effect on there health. They have been unable to pay the charges due to there low pension income and have now been cut off for phone, broadband & BT vision also. They have been laughed at and been cut off on numerous occasions. Even a senior manager Paul Lehanne said he would help but did absolutely nothing.

Even now they have a complaint in the hands of the ombudsman of mis-selling, damage to property and unacceptable engineers charge which they were not fore warned about.
Conveniently the call when they signed up to upgrade is not recorded and the call when the engineers appointment was booked again not recorded. Senior Manager Paul Lehanne is taking the advisors word for it that he specifically said the engineers visit was chargeable even though he did not and even if he did my father could not understand a word the advisor from a Bangladeshi call centre was saying.

They have been cut off for 3 weeks now but still they have been issued with charges up to current date on top of the bill that is currently outstanding as it is under dispute.

As far as I know 6 months ago they signed up to an 18 month contract. Now they have been cut off can they switch to a different provider ??
Will BT charge for the full 18 month of the contract ??

Can the Ombudsman actually do anything to help as so far they have done very little.

I would appreciate any help or advice on this.

Schnippzle

I received another phone call today advising that all should be well. As it happens, it's not. It's exactly as appalling as before. Yesterday I was told that they would send out an engineer for an "evening" slot as I work 9:00-17:00, today I'm told that BTs "evening" slots are 13:00-18:00 and the only available day is Friday. So now I'm supposed to take time off from work to sit at home and wait for a BT engineer and possibly end up with a £99 fine if they find that it's not to do with the external network.

I'll say it again: If Virgin operated in my area, I'd go for their fibreoptics, but unfortunately I have no option but to go for the BT-monopoly.

Jakeysmum

Honestly! How can a company be so frustrating?

Got BT Infinity two years ago, had problems as soon as the hub arrived. Various 'fixes' were applied.....none worked.

After a number of phone calls we were told last month that we would need to renew our contract and they would send out a new - free - hub.

We agreed to be tied in for another year, they said the hub would be posted. Sorted right? Nope.

Hub never came. Another phone call, another order placed. 10 days on, no hub.

ANOTHER phone call to be told the order was cancelled but BT don't know why.

After another long call which consisted of being placed on and off hold we were told we can't renew our contract, as the Infinity network is at capacity, so if we cancel our existing contract we will lose our place.

Only solution offered? Buy a hub for £129. Seriously? After being with BT for more than 11 years, upgrading to the most expensive service in our area and then offering to tie into another 12 month contract the best they can offer is us paying full price to replace a hub which never worked.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to how this can be escalated, because one hand doesn't know what the other's doing over there.

Sandynurse

We have been without phone and broadband for 13 day and been offered as minimal figure as compensation. Anyone now how much the normal should offer?

OldGreyFox

Sandynurse wrote: »

We have been without phone and broadband for 13 day and been offered as minimal figure as compensation. Anyone now how much the normal should offer?

If your with BT see http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/RegulatoryandPublicaffairs/Codeofpractice/Consumercodeofpractice/BTResidentialCodeofPractice-Oct13.pdf if your with someone else look at their T&C.