BT - Bleeding Terrible?

arfabrane

I decided to go onto fibre optic, as it has just come to my area, and thought that the safest option was to go with BT - after all, it is their lines. Well, if I ever have such a stupid idea again, someone shoot me in the head!

I ordered BT Infinity 2 unlimited internet package, with phone (weekend and evening) and Line Saver (discounted line rental) on 10th November. I also contacted my current provider for both (O2) for the MAC so things could go as smoothly as possible.

All seemed to be going swimmingly until 29th November, when I gave them my MAC (after the phone had been switched over), only to be told it was rejected. I went back to O2, who sent a "new" MAC (which was identical to the first!), and phoned BT on 30th November.

At this point, I was told that they only had an order for the phone line from me, and that I had cancelled the order for BT Infinity or Line Saver (oh no I didn't!) So, once again, I ordered them both, and gave BT my card details so they could process the BT Line Saver. I was assured that the BT engineer would be round on 27th December to convert my line to fibre optic, and all would be right with the world.

The confirmation email came, with the engineer coming on 3rd January - did I miss something there? I logged onto their website, only to find there was no details of the Line Saver deal, however, I did have my first bill online, including an admin charge. I phoned them back, only to be told once again that I had never ordered Line Saver, and the only record of ordering BT Infinity had happened the previous night (though she did acknowledge they had contacted me for my MAC code prior - so I asked her why on earth they would need to do that if they were not switching internet too!) She assured me that the date the engineer was coming was 3rd January, and explained that the admin charge applied to people who don't pay by direct debit. After a few seconds, the penny dropped, and she agreed to credit that back to next months bill. She also explained that she couldn't take an order for Line Saver until after this order had completed, so would contact me again in January.

Today the engineering side has contacted me and can move my engineer's appointment up to 19th December. However, the BT Home Hub is still due for delivery on 30th December, and a switch on date of 3rd January. So I'll be on a fibre optic line, which I have no idea whether O2 will still work with, 2 weeks before the switchover. However, I have been told tonight, upon querying this, that the BT engineer should have home hubs on his van, so they will cancel the order (we shall see....) I do hope that is the case - let's see BT try to charge me the £6.95 delivery charge for a hub that is coming with the engineer!

Funnily enough, I have had a text message today explaining that they have been unsuccessful in taking funds to pay for the Line Saver (the thing that I have never ordered according to them, despite ordering it TWICE, and am now waiting until the new year to order it again!)

So, to date, BT have managed to:-

1) Cancel perfectly valid orders
2) Reject valid MAC keys
3) Give 2 separate dates for engineering visits
4) Lose another order (2nd time for line rental)
5) Mess up my bill (charging me for non direct-debit)
6) Report inability to take funds for something according to them I haven't ordered in the first place
7) Manage to bring the date of the engineer forward (the only positive thing so far) but can't manage to deliver the home hub any earlier so it can be set up, and if the engineer doesn't have one on his van.....

and that is all when I am still weeks from getting their fibre optic connection!

Anyone still considering switching to BT for fibre optic? All it is going to take is a mess up with the switchover, and I shall be telling them to stick their internet, their 18 month line contract (I think they have given me plenty of grounds to get out without penalty by now) and I'll get my new fibre optic connection from a company that does stand a chance of organising a pee up in a brewery....

flexrider

arfabrane wrote: »

I decided to go onto fibre optic, as it has just come to my area, and thought that the safest option was to go with BT - after all, it is their lines. Well, if I ever have such a stupid idea again, someone shoot me in the head!

I ordered BT Infinity 2 unlimited internet package, with phone (weekend and evening) and Line Saver (discounted line rental) on 10th November. I also contacted my current provider for both (O2) for the MAC so things could go as smoothly as possible.

All seemed to be going swimmingly until 29th November, when I gave them my MAC (after the phone had been switched over), only to be told it was rejected. I went back to O2, who sent a "new" MAC (which was identical to the first!), and phoned BT on 30th November.

At this point, I was told that they only had an order for the phone line from me, and that I had cancelled the order for BT Infinity or Line Saver (oh no I didn't!) So, once again, I ordered them both, and gave BT my card details so they could process the BT Line Saver. I was assured that the BT engineer would be round on 27th December to convert my line to fibre optic, and all would be right with the world.

The confirmation email came, with the engineer coming on 3rd January - did I miss something there? I logged onto their website, only to find there was no details of the Line Saver deal, however, I did have my first bill online, including an admin charge. I phoned them back, only to be told once again that I had never ordered Line Saver, and the only record of ordering BT Infinity had happened the previous night (though she did acknowledge they had contacted me for my MAC code prior - so I asked her why on earth they would need to do that if they were not switching internet too!) She assured me that the date the engineer was coming was 3rd January, and explained that the admin charge applied to people who don't pay by direct debit. After a few seconds, the penny dropped, and she agreed to credit that back to next months bill. She also explained that she couldn't take an order for Line Saver until after this order had completed, so would contact me again in January.

Today the engineering side has contacted me and can move my engineer's appointment up to 19th December. However, the BT Home Hub is still due for delivery on 30th December, and a switch on date of 3rd January. So I'll be on a fibre optic line, which I have no idea whether O2 will still work with, 2 weeks before the switchover. However, I have been told tonight, upon querying this, that the BT engineer should have home hubs on his van, so they will cancel the order (we shall see....) I do hope that is the case - let's see BT try to charge me the £6.95 delivery charge for a hub that is coming with the engineer!

Funnily enough, I have had a text message today explaining that they have been unsuccessful in taking funds to pay for the Line Saver (the thing that I have never ordered according to them, despite ordering it TWICE, and am now waiting until the new year to order it again!)

So, to date, BT have managed to:-

1) Cancel perfectly valid orders
2) Reject valid MAC keys
3) Give 2 separate dates for engineering visits
4) Lose another order (2nd time for line rental)
5) Mess up my bill (charging me for non direct-debit)
6) Report inability to take funds for something according to them I haven't ordered in the first place
7) Manage to bring the date of the engineer forward (the only positive thing so far) but can't manage to deliver the home hub any earlier so it can be set up, and if the engineer doesn't have one on his van.....

and that is all when I am still weeks from getting their fibre optic connection!

Anyone still considering switching to BT for fibre optic? All it is going to take is a mess up with the switchover, and I shall be telling them to stick their internet, their 18 month line contract (I think they have given me plenty of grounds to get out without penalty by now) and I'll get my new fibre optic connection from a company that does stand a chance of organising a pee up in a brewery....

Intresting post

I was offered it a month ago but i just changed to 02 Broadband From Sky/Bt landlines and i had no problems so far with them(02 I mean) ,

I believe depending you have a 14 day cut out opt out to cancel before the engineering fits the equipment after that it is airtight and your locked for 18months i think....could be wrong

johnsons_baby

My ex was thinking of taking this up...I will point him in the direction of this thread. I do believe he had an almost identical issue with talk talk and thrum cancelling/amending orders to suit them and various erroneous dates being given for connection.

somethingcorporate

I am sure it's no comfort to the OP but you'll find similar issues with every company - I've had problems with a lot of BB providers but have had BT for the last few years and they have been great - not a single issue.

With millions of customers some are bound to have poor experiences.

kernewek

I've recently ordered BT infinity. Everything delivered on time, engineer turned up as promised, and now we have around 50meg broadband. Bit better than the 0.5 we were on before.
Sorry to hear you had a bad experience but so far I've been very impressed.