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BT Issues & Taken Advantage Of

Girlfriend told me about this site, she been a longtime member.

Seen a lot of write ups online of BT having the worst customer service in the uk, i would agree with everyone of them.

Being as my mother is ill & can't deal with these issues her self i have to do all her calls. Back June the 20th last year, i made my first complaint about no internet & crackling. First there was a few service checks & I was told that the phone was fine, and closed the complaint.

I rang back week later with the same problem, still no internet & house phone was still crackling they said it could be the router so i went through the resetting options & through few settings.... but Nothing. They said the cordless phone need changing, again closed the complaint & put my grandfathers phone in....still No change. Rang back mid july, i was told to try and change all the filters in the house. Sent out new filters, told it would take 3 days to come. It took a week & a half. They finally came, changed them. but still the problem persisted!!

I rang start of august complaining about the same problem. I was told that a BT station had broken down & had been having work done. Had enough of demanding an engineer & just been filled with excuses & different troubleshooting rubbish. I went away end of august. And when i came back in september, i rang back & asked me to reset the router and go through setting some settings that i done the first time round. At this time frustrated, i demanded an engineer or Im taking the matter further.

Finally on september the 10th they decided to send out an engineer, the engineer came and said that a box outside with wires had burned out & causes the broadbanned to disconnect & phone to crackle. He then went on to say that this had probably been 20 years old & should be changed after 10 years. I made the phonecall & they said they would compensate me.

The second bill came two weeks ago since this problem, and my mother informed me that she had not seen no compensation. Yesterday due to me being busy i started to look into this....

I was on the phone for 4 hours 20 minutes, spoken to 8 different people & every time i spoke to someone different they would say let me see if i can help you...and had to go through the process again & again.

3 of these calls, i got impatient and asked to speak to them manager because i was offered a compensation of £8.06. Paying £78 a quarter for broadband & calls, this was disgusting for having no service for nearly three months. They kept asking on what reason to see the manager & they had to inform a reason. After giving the reason of being not happy with customer service & the compensation, id be put on hold for a while & then be cut off. I found this a bit of coincidence that every time i was cut off, i was on hold to a manager or someone in authority.

My 7th call, was the first time i reached a call centre in the UK. He could see how many people I had spoken to & the duration. He was the only one who showed sympathy & could understand how stressed i was & that £8.06 was not quite acceptable. He then said, that something like this needs to be dealt within the UK to be fully understood & compensated fairly. He then said, that it shouldn't take more of my time & it would get me to the right department in the UK. Relieved & thankful that i was getting somewhere, i patiently waited while put on hold.

After being on hold for 34minutes, i was unfortunately put through to someone in Malta, who started the conversation with... "Hi, how may help you today...." knowing that this woman had no clue what I was phoning about & quickly losing my patience, i refused to go back to square one & explain last summer again. I demanded to be put through to UK call centre with no offence given, she replied that it be unlikely because I'd be put to the back of the que & its a lottery who I'd be put through to all over the world. I refused to take this as an answer & demanded to speak to a manager. She then replied, lets see if i can help you first (which the last 8 BT advisors have said). I refused her help & demanded to speak to someone in authority, she then said she will request a call back from a UK advisor instead. I was put on hold & was told the name of the advisor that be phoning & id have a call that night or morning after.

Surprise, surprise no call!

I would like advice on where to take things from here & is there any point in taking things further. Is £8.06 all i will get? Surely thats not acceptable after paying £78 for 3 months that the service was not working.

Would appreciate all your views....

Comments

  • analyst_2
    analyst_2 Posts: 296 Forumite
    edited 29 January 2013 pm31 9:08PM
    The first thing you must do is to stop phoning them.
    I know it is tempting to phone up because that seems to be the quickest way to get a resolution. But as you can see from the catalogue of events you have listed, it just does not work.

    Furthermore, you have absolutely no record of what was said, or promised, or refuted during all those calls. So, if or when it comes to formalising the complaint, say to the ombudsman, or a court, or a scummy debt collection agency, you have nothing to fall back on.

    First and foremost, put it in writing, so you have your copies, and insist that they only deal with you in writing. If they do phone you, resist the temptation, and just tell them to put it in writing as you don't accept phone calls.

    This is stage one, everything you have done up to this point can be considered void. I wish you well from here on ;)

    EDIT:
    This page is their procedure, use it. Write to that Durham address, and you may wish to use recorded delivery so they can't claim they never received it.
    http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/RegulatoryandPublicaffairs/Codeofpractice/Consumercodeofpractice/ConsumerCodeofPractice.htm
    The bankers stole my pension (and everyone else's). It should have earned a lot of money, but they took their bonus pot first.
  • macman
    macman Posts: 53,128 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    So how much compensation are you actually seeking? There is no SLR on a residential service, all you will get is a credit for the downtime.
    As above, you need to make a complaint in writing. Phoning CS is futile in such cases.
    No free lunch, and no free laptop ;)
  • BT_company_representative
    BT_company_representative Posts: 1,861 Organisation Representative
    1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    Hi Nick_griff187,

    Reading you post I am sorry to hear about all the problems you have had in getting your Mother's Broadband repaired. It does sound like you have been through a bit of a nightmare. I would like to take a look at the details of your complaint. Please could you send me in your details using the link found in my profile?

    Thanks

    Paddy,
    Official Company Representative
    I am the official company representative of BT. MSE has given permission for me to post in response to queries about the company, so that I can help solve issues. You can see my name on the companies with permission to post list. I am not allowed to tout for business at all. If you believe I am please report it to forumteam@moneysavingexpert.com This does NOT imply any form of approval of my company or its products by MSE"
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