Help Needed with BT Problem!!!

mickey.p

Hi,

Just wondering if anyone has any advice they could send my way.

I am having a nightmare with BT, the story goes:

July/August 2011; my internet and home phone start playing up - my internet is more of an issue but sporadically people tell me when they try and call my home phone it states there’s an error on the line, dead line or just doesn't ring.
I call BT several times and they check various things at their end on several occasions and get me to do various test at my end, including plugging phone and broadband directly into main sockets - the problems persist. We purchase new extension cables to ensure it's not an issue at our end.

Several phone calls follow and after 4-6 weeks (not sure of exact timings) of complaining they agree to send an Engineer out.

Engineer comes on Saturday 13th August and from the offset he was a miserable moaning !!!!!.
We have 3 phone junctions (all put in by BT) 1 in living room which has main phone plugged into it, 1 in dining room that is never used and I wasn't even aware it was live and then 1 final one upstairs in a bedroom used as an office (I work from home).
The engineer said he could only look at one as that’s all he was paid to do, tried to blame the extensions but on checking the boxes said it wasn't, he refused to do anything about the broadband issue and left saying it wasn't the phone line so the error must have been via the broadband and it was causing issues on the line. He said I'd need to call BT about this as it's not his problem to sort.

I called BT and after them running more tests they said that the BT Broadband Hub was the issue and I'd need a new one. Just one problem - I was out of contract so they wouldn't give me one unless I agreed to sign a new contract - I initially refused and they said I could buy a new one at a cost of £100.00 (or there abouts!). I looked around and found I could get broadband for half the cost elsewhere (I was paying over £20.00per month) so I called BT to cancel. They offered me Broadband for £10.00 per month also so I agreed (reluctantly) to sign up for another year!

Monday 15th August I get the first of several calls from BT telling me that they had actually found a fault in my exchange and asked if it was affecting me. I explained all the issues I'd had and they told me that this was more than likely the original problem - I was less than amused.

I had several calls over the following weeks updating me and asking if we were still having issues (which we were despite having the new BB Hub) and then finally one telling me the issue had been resolved!

I had since had my broadband box (it took over a week to arrive!) so everything was fine and everything has been fine since.
Fast forward to January this year - I get back from a month’s holiday to find a BT bill for £165.00 (my monthly bill is usually £30.00 - £35.00).

I tried to contact them but constantly got stuck in their automated service for long periods of time and then a week later they cut my line off for non payment.

This time I called them and waited the 45 minutes and spoke to various people and eventually I spoke to someone in the Time Related Charges Dept who confirmed that the £165.00 was made up of £35.00 bill and £130.00 Engineer fee from August last year. I wanted to know why I had been charged and was told it was because the engineer had blamed me and an extension cable for the fault. I argued and explained the whole issue of getting ne BB hub as they said this was the issue and also mentioned the calls about an exchange issue but he said there weren't any notes to suggest any of what I was saying was true!

I was livid and told them so and also said they wouldn't get a penny of the £130.00 from me. I did pay the £35.00 however and they agreed to turn me on while they looked into it and they'd get back to me within 15 days (this was 20th January).

About 10 days ago someone from BT called while I wasn't here and tried to talk to my partner (who isn't named on account) and mentioned it being an error with the extension cable - he didn't know details of the argument but he knew it wasn't the extension cables as he replaced them all before engineer came out. He told them it was nothing to do with him and they'd need to speak to me and after a few cross words the woman hung up on him. I was fuming as they didn't even ask who he was!

I have heard nothing since except a bill for £185.00 this time - this was made up of £130.00 Engineer fee, my usual £30.00 bill and then a disconnection charge and reconnection charge for when they had cut me off.

I was waiting to hear from them as they said they would call and then on Saturday morning (25th February) I had a call from their billing department. The guy had bad English and was pretty rude and threatening to cut me off if I didn't at least pay the £55.00 (he could delay the £130.00 as I had to talk to another dept about this!) but I said my bill was only £30.00 - £35.00 and he said about the disconnection reconnection charges and said I wouldn't pay these as it wasn't my fault - he started raising his voice and telling me it was my fault and wouldn't listen to anything I said. I ended up putting the phone down on him.

Today despite them still not contacting me about the £130.00 investigation they cut me off again.

I have a son with special needs (Autistic) and he is distraught at not having internet access as that’s what he spends every night doing and I just don't know who to contact as I'm not listened to or get someone who doesn't understand English when I call BT!

Can anyone give me any pointers as I'm not sure where to start!
:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

inicholson

BT's website suggests the following order of escalating your complaint:

1. Call them on 0800 443311 (handy if they've disconnected your phone)

2. "contact a manager on our customer service team" - same contact details as above! This sounds suspiciously like "contact the people who failed to deal with your problem last time"!

3. "If you're not happy with the way BT has dealt with your complaint... You can find out more about Ombudsman Services from their website or by phoning them on 0330 440 1614 or 01925 430049."

I think you should probably jump straight to the last option. Brilliantly you need a phone or internet access to do this - maybe a mobile/neighbour's phone or use your local library to access the internet?

mickey.p

inicholson wrote: »

BT's website suggests the following order of escalating your complaint:

1. Call them on 0800 443311 (handy if they've disconnected your phone)

2. "contact a manager on our customer service team" - same contact details as above! This sounds suspiciously like "contact the people who failed to deal with your problem last time"!

3. "If you're not happy with the way BT has dealt with your complaint... You can find out more about Ombudsman Services from their website or by phoning them on 0330 440 1614 or 01925 430049."

I think you should probably jump straight to the last option. Brilliantly you need a phone or internet access to do this - maybe a mobile/neighbour's phone or use your local library to access the internet?

Thank you so much!

I will call them now, I do actually have phone access as I work from home so have 2 other lines (non BT!) - so calling isn't an option - I just didn't want to call them again to be passed from pillar to post and get nowhere!

bluenose5_2

Hi Mickey P,my BT landline and Internet is not working,:mad:The number I was told to phone (mobile) was 0330 123 4150 or landline (but I have no phone it's broke :mad:) is 0800 111 4567,hope this helps,

PaulONeill

Hi - I can fully identify with your experiences.

BT killed our line in error back in January - and it took them nearly a month and a half to get it sorted. Any company that has a "Ceased in Error" team cleaning up their mess clearly has some serious problems!

I contacted BT multiple times via contact centre - and they seem incapable of any consistency or memory of what has transpired on previous calls.

From what I have seen, BT just kept adding charges on to the account willy nilly when it suits them - "Charge now, justify later (if challenged)". Equally they kept sending out a stream of paper bills in the post whether correct or not.

I think that you need to put down your experiences in writing, i.e. the chronology of what happened, including the ineffective engineer visit, and the BT problems at the exchange.

I did get them to send material out via email as written evidence of what the state of play was, because we didnt trust what they said on the phone. Don't just take things at face value with them, you will get a different story from each person you speak with which is highly frustrating.

If I was you I would also register a complaint - because you may have to take it to one of the arbitration services to get final resolution on this.

Good luck in your endeavours!