I had no idea BT could be so incompetent

bargainbetty

My first proper rant....

At the beginning of February I signed up with BT. They cancelled one installation date, failed to turn up for a second, refused a third and finally offered me a date so far in the future that I would have been without any service at all for two weeks. I told them to cancel it all on 27th Feb, which they did confirming that I wouldn't incur any penalties.

Scroll forward to early March, when I realise that I haven't been contacted about the funds I paid upfront (line rental etc). I call, to be told that my order has no payments. I escalate the complaint, and finally reach someone who finds the money is there after half an hour on the phone. He agrees to refund it within five days.

Five days later, 11th March and I'm on the phone again. I go through the 'can't find it, oh look there it is' game again, including sending a snippet of my bank statement to show it was taken. I am told that the 'assets' weren't removed from my account, which has to be done before the refund is triggered. These have now been removed and the money will come back. However, a letter has to be produced first (?) which will be done on the 19th March, and the money will take up to ten days more to arrive. I am also told that I cannot ask for any form of compensation for the time I have spent getting this sorted, because I have, and I quote 'called at my own convenience'.

Today, I get the 'letter' from BT. It is a bill, doubling charging me for everything, crediting the money back that they owe me, leaving me with an outstanding balance of £127 which they are going to take by direct debit on the 27th. I'd like to see them try. The dd has been cancelled with the bank, I've written to them formally withdrawing their implied right to represent it and also re-opening the complaint about the failure to properly refund me in the first place. BT have been nothing but a pain in the backside and continue to be so until the money is returned and I receive a formal notice closing the account at a zero balance.

Virgin Media welcomed me back, gave me a much better deal, all new kit and even did the install on a weekend, first time of asking. If you are thinking about changing provider, I would recommend Virgin over BT any day of the week.

hollydays

Ha ha ha they are IMHO the most incompetent company

zaax

Yes BT retail are a joke

aileth

What a farce.

We were without internet or phone for a month thanks to their !!!!-up, and in three house moves we've had exactly the same thing. "You already have a line", "You don't have a line", "You don't need an engineer", "You do need an engineer", whilst charging you for the pleasure.

The best bit is when they tried to charge us £80 to cancel with them after a month without any service whatsoever and being told a different date every single phone call, lies and lies and lies.

We then went with Sky and we were connected within the week. BT are a shambles.

Pennywise

zaax wrote: »

Yes BT retail are a joke

If you think BT retail are a joke, you should try BT Broadband. They're a whole different dimension of incompetence and stupidity.

Bollotom

I too went through the three appointment cancellations. One the engineer said he forgot to bring a key to open the cabinet. They also offered an appointment three weeks later. I told them to take a hike. My property has never had a BT line and the £130 installation fee would be waived. Anyway no financial problems but I get an online bill every month from BT claiming 0.00, VAT 0.00 Total 0.00. Now there is incompetence personified. They actually go full steam ahead to prove they are simply fools struggling in the business world. :cool:

enkoda

It's taken just over a year to get back money owed to me from BT when they failed to transfer my phone line to a new property.

The incompetence of some of their customer service agents is beyond description.:mad:

xamberangel

I am fed up with BT.
They start up with great sounding offers, then you find you have to pay more as you are over your usage allowance. You up the payment , then find you will soon be going over your usage allowance again and will be charged accordingly.
Any contact by live chat gets you nowhere. Repetition by the book.


All their offers should be examined carefully for the loopholes.
I have switched, but they will not refund any part of the upfront Line Rental I paid well into next year and insist they will charge me penalty fees to September.


It will be worth it to get rid of them!


New customers get the benefit of wonderful sounding offers...take heed.

kaflinkle

They are the worst company I have ever dealt with (and there is stiff competition). A mate who works for BT blames a lot of it on BT Openreach but I don't know how true this is and quite frankly that wasn't my issue.

It took 2 years (I kid you not) for them to get my billing right and they blamed it on faulty computers, new systems, lack of staff, new billing processes that staff aren't familiar with, my bank, their bank...the excuses were endless.

I cancelled in the end. I stayed so long because the broadband connection was rock solid and quick.

I'm now with Sky and although the billing is correct, the broadband, especially that joke of a router/hub isn't as good.

My father has it right...'they're all !!!!, you just have to pick the one less !!!! than the others'.

tomtontom

xamberangel wrote: »

I am fed up with BT.
They start up with great sounding offers, then you find you have to pay more as you are over your usage allowance. You up the payment , then find you will soon be going over your usage allowance again and will be charged accordingly.
Any contact by live chat gets you nowhere. Repetition by the book.


All their offers should be examined carefully for the loopholes.
I have switched, but they will not refund any part of the upfront Line Rental I paid well into next year and insist they will charge me penalty fees to September.


It will be worth it to get rid of them!


New customers get the benefit of wonderful sounding offers...take heed.

Any usage limits are clearly stated for each package. BT are far from perfect but in this case it does not appear to be their fault.

abacab

I still judder when I think back to our time with BT broadband.
Speed would constantly grind to a halt.
The "customer service"team could just about read an eye chart.
When finally breaking free from them,a further "representative " thought he would play a fun game ringing me back constantly after shouting at me when I queried a £50 charge for equipment out of contract.
May they rot in hell.