My Xtreme BT Experience ....

thecollecter

BT are incredibly renowned for their atrocious customer service and pernicious greed. I have been with them for over 14 years. Now I am leaving. And the relief is so huge i just had to write. More than relief. Its like I've finally cut ties with a force so relentlessly demanding and utterly sociopathic that its left me many times feeling like smashing the house up. Or something. I don't usually get so worked up about things. (I didn't smash the house up!) Nor do I usually write with so many descriptive terms. I'm usually a bit grumpy and fired up in the mornings, so that is the time I would choose to call BT whenever there was a problem. Fueled by adrenilin I would get the confidence to be firm and to explain myself clearly and stand my ground. Any other time of the day and I would be too tired to plan the call. Imagine having to get up the nerve and the confidence to phone someone up - that you are paying - whenever there is a problem. So many times I wimped out. Or got so far with the advisor(s), after so much time on one call, that I would give up. Or just hang up.

I was with BT for about 11 years until my phone was cut off. I had missed a couple of payments as I had been in rehab. (I'm out now and doing well). When I got out of rehab in Nov 2010, I phoned O2 up to get a package with them. I did not want to go with BT after horrible billing mistakes etc in the past. And many long hours on the phone to them. But O2 would take about a month to put the line in. I was kind of desperate to get a line in so I called BT and they said they could do it sooner (wierd as its BT that does the work either way). Here is my experience that I want to share. I know some people have had WAY worse.

Nov 10 approx - called BT. Line arranged to be installed Nov 26 2010.

Nov 26 - No dial tone. I call BT and they assure me my line is connected. They get me to troubleshoot etc. i phone them on and off for the next few days. Eventually they tell me an engineer will come out in about a week (a couple of delays on this). They don't know what's wrong. Blame my house.

Dec 6 approx - It is found that the line was installed in a place I had lived in 2 years earlier. And I had had a BT line for 2 years at my new place after living there. So the old addresss should have been long gone in their records.

Dec 9 - Line installed.

Then come all the bills. On Dec 12 I recieved a first reminder of a bill for 4.50 after recieving my first bill (line rental and payment processing fee) 14.79. The 4.50 I disputed with them. They couldn't explain it.

16 Dec - I recieve a check for 1 pence. i have it and a picture of it . No explanation. Dear Sir/madam. Please find enclosed cheque as agreed. Yours faithfully. British Telecom PLC. And I was locked in with these guys now for 12 months.

29 December I had a final payment demand for the mysterious 4.50 threatening to limit my service and warning me there would be a charge to get the service back to normal. I disputed it. I had talked to them so much since first ordering. I had used a lot of money to call them on my mobile when all the problems were happening. I thought they owed me something. They offered to pay my mobile calls as long as I got an official itemised list somehow and sent it to them. Oh lordy. I didn't do this. I couldn't imagine what getting something like this may entail.

Jan 12 - I pay the 14.79. i get the 4.50 written off.

31 Jan - I get my bill. 7.50 late fees added for the 14.79

I pay it. Because I am tired.

Feb 6 - One off bill of 127.99 for engineering work carried out between Nov 26th (when the line was put into the wrong house) and Feb 13. Asked to pay by Feb 13th on the bill. They said it was for engineering work carried out on the 10th of December. As I remember, this was when the engineer came out the day after it was connected at the right address, because the line was very crackly and wasn't working well.

Another long couple of phone calls and they say it was written off... I get a letter confirming it a week later.

Since then one call out as the line went dead for a few days.

Upshot : Its not over yet. I have finally switched to O2 and am due to be connected on March 3 2012. I am writing all his mainly to get the BT experience off my chest BUT ALSO because I am quite nervous about what kind of charges they will think up to put on the final bill. I am dreading it. I was on a 12 month contract so they can't really charge me as thats finished. And its the dread of having to talk to them again. And the worry that they may make me pay some extortionate fee in order to switch to O2.

Analysis of what I've actually paid to BT in 14 months. (I've made 4 late payments - late by maximum of 28 days)

387.00 Total payments I've made
122.37 on calls
208.79 on line rental
0 on call package (weekend plan)
30.00 on late fees
26.67 on payment processing fees

British telecom have essentially charged me 56.67 for the inconvenience to them of paying late and not paying by direct debit (even when I changed to paperless billing, printed out my own invoice, went to my local shop to pay it - it was still 1.89 a month!) I do understand these charges were in the contract and I did know about them (didn't realize the late payment fee was so high though at first). But if there are these expectations of me and all other BT customers, why can't we have any expectations from them. Why is it so hard to get anything from them.

And I have recieved in compensation 1p. That I have to go out and cash because its a check. Yay. I read of this happening to someone before as well, a check for 1p. All I can think is that it must be deliberate. A chance to get back at angry demanding customers.

I really wanted to share my experience as its been building up for so long.

On a final note, the whole organization was epitomized to me when, after finally getting them to write off the mysterious 4.50, and asking for some kind of compensation, the operator said to me.

“I just wrote off the 4.50. You have your line now. What more do you expect?” Then he asked me on a scale of 1-10 how happy was I with my call to BT today”. Or something like that.

It makes me think that BT consider the 127.99 and 4.50 that they wrote off (after so many long agonizing phone calls from me) is a big favour to me. As if they were giving me the money by not making me pay it. Something quite twisted going on there to be sure.

Thanks for allowing me to share my experiences. Even if no-one reads it, I’m glad to get it out there.

brewerdave

Good luck with O2 - I've had problems with BT but not to your extent!!!

thecollecter

Thanks. O2 seems to be very good for NOW anyways. Since getting my landline installed, I've had O2 for broadband and had mobile for around 5 years. And it is true that their customer services are brilliant, in my case anyways. And I do understand this is part of their strategy to make money. Just like it is apparently BTs policy to make you run around in circles and get so frustrated that you pay the money. No matter what. I'll make an update to my post when I get the final BT bill. Never know, may be positive. I posted also in the BT community forum.

It makes me really sad for so many people who get really taken advantage of by BT. Imagine all the money they have made because people simply gave up and paid for an easy life. O2 may become like this but at the moment they are good. I sometimes feel emotional after talking to an O2 person because its such a contrast to talking to BT. I feel listened to. I have a feeling O2's policy is to be everything BT isn't. Again a strategy to make money of course, not cause they are necessarily a good caring company. They do come across as caring though and i found a really good deal with them for the whole package that was confirmed today in a letter.