BT Rant.

sparkychris

Hi team...
In a nutshell....

Moved into my home a while ago and thought i'd treat myself to broadband as i have previously used a dongle in my old flat.

Went through BT and had to wait almost six weeks to get connected. On connection day, engineer (I use that term loosely) turned up to stick a socket on the wall. He said the router should have been previously delivered...

Go through our first stressful phone call to bt who assured us from the other side of the planet that despite the fact that we are actually in the house in question and had been in all day, the router had definately been delivered. computer said so.

our neighbour came round later in the day to give us our router which had been delivered to them. strangely, it even had the neighbours house name on it. we have a number.

router didnt work.

had to go to argos and buy a phone to try out the phone line (Didnt actually want a landline but it came with the broadband)

Phone didnt work,

another stressful phonecall to god knows where and we had to then take time off work again for more engineers, but we had to wait almost a week because of the change of address?!!!?! Phone operator told me there would be a £130 charge as they could tell from the other side of the planet that the line was working perfectly and the problem was definately within our boundary.

'Engineer' turns up. Could barely work out which end of the screwdriver to hold so phones another 'engineer'. both 'engineers' then play with my dog before telling me they haven't got a clue about anything- although, between them, they manage to work out which end of the screwdriver they have to hold, take the front off the socket and use the 'test socket'. despite the fact that i had already done this, following bt instructions. in total... 2.5hours.

ironically, they both insist first 'engineer' clearly didnt know what he was doing.

they somehow get the phoneline to work, but no broadband.

They then make an appointment for someone to phone us between 6 and 8 last night. at half eight somebody phoned us from the other side of the planet to suggest we take the front off the socket and try the 'test socket'. Phone operator will not progress any further until we have done this and she promises to phone us back in ten minutes.

we do as we are told.

40 minutes later she phones back and says that the isnt a problem with the broadband line, it must be within our boundary and she will arrange to send an 'engineer' round.

i tell her this is fine but it must be at a time convenient to myself, which is after 6 pm. she says this is impossible. it must be between 8 and 1, or 1 and 6 (Or something)

I am simply not prepared to take any time off work, just to have an 'engineer' to come round again, and tell me to phone the other side of the planet so that i can take some time off work for an 'engineer' to come round again and tell me to phone the other side of the planet so that i can take some time off work for an 'engineer' to come round again and tell me to phone the other side of the planet so that i can take some time off work for an 'engineer' to come round again.

All i want to do is phone the other side of the planet and cancel everything, have no phone line and no broadband..... how likely is this?!!!

Older_But_Not_Wiser

Ah, the joys of BT, and then they have the cheek to charge you £129.99 for the Engineer call-out! Sorry I can't suggest anything that would help, but if you read the BT complaints & escalations thread elsewhere on the forum (up with the phones & broadband section) you'll at least have the satisfaction of knowing you are far from being alone...

sparky0138

I sympathise with you, OP. Every dealing I've had with BT has been incredibly difficult due to the simple fact that I can't understand the person on the other end of the line and they can't understand me. Thank God I left BT several months ago.

I saw on the news this morning that they're creating over a thousand new jobs to try to improve their customer service. I think if they employed British people instead of employing cheap labour in India, they wouldn't need extra people. Let's hope their plan doesn't involve employing more of the same.

hollydays

I have experienced the very very worst customer service from them in the past- indescribably bad- they let me down once when a young family member was dying and we had arranged to have a phone installed - they never turned up on the agreed day- never let us know- and I was on the phone for 2.5 hours- being passed from dept to department damn them! When I emailed the CEO I got no reply.:mad:

dodger1

I've just joined BT from TalkTalk and have had no problems. Router turned up on the day it was supposed to and engineer was here two days later as arranged. Fitted new faceplate and connected everything up, all done and working in about 20 minutes. No complaints.

sparkychris

dodger1 wrote: »

I've just joined BT from TalkTalk and have had no problems. Router turned up on the day it was supposed to and engineer was here two days later as arranged. Fitted new faceplate and connected everything up, all done and working in about 20 minutes. No complaints.

Lucky you.... I sincerely hope everything carries on tickety boo for you and you have no problems.

Update...

Spent (and i dont exaggerate here) 2 hours and ten minutes on the phone last night and spoke to eight different people. One person i just couldnt understand- literally- couldnt understand.

eventually spoke to someone who was well trained to give the impression that she gave a toss and gave it to me straight...

I am not a valued customer- i am locked into a contract and am now a cash cow. it will cost me £430 to be released from the contract. On my file, i was told, it says i have refused the offer of an 'engineer' to come round and sort my problems... it didnt say how having three 'engineers' round amounted to a refusal.... and she said that the ONLY way i could be released from the contract was to have a broadband 'engineer' round to either fix the broadband or confirm to them that it can't be fixed.

The previous 'engineers' were not, it seems, broadband 'engineers' but linesmen who don't deal in broadband.

So i have no option but to take time off work and wait for another 'engineer' to come round.

I am going to make some very expensive coffee and not offer him any.

i can play hardball too.

incidentally, i have been given the phone number and 'pin' of the office in devon who have taken over my case so i don't have to deal with people who speak as much english as i speak urdu.

which is nice....

ps... i cant be bothered to use capitals.

because i'm grumpy.

MuffinTops

I was considering moving to the BT infinity package. I was going through the booking process but decided to search for online reviews first. Having looked online I think it would be more trouble than it's worth and I'm not dissatisfied enough yet with my current provider to risk it.

Thank you for posting this.

sparkychris

MuffinTops wrote: »

I was considering moving to the BT infinity package. I was going through the booking process but decided to search for online reviews first. Having looked online I think it would be more trouble than it's worth and I'm not dissatisfied enough yet with my current provider to risk it.

Thank you for posting this.

you're welcome!

i am sure there are many satisfied customers around- but the last bt operator gave it to me straight. once you are locked into a contract they instantly stop caring and you are screwed. as the above poster pointed out, if you have no problems, you'll be fine. if you have problems, however, you have to deal with an international collective of completely indifferent wage earners who absolutely couldnt care less about you, how long you have been on hold for, or how many people you have explained your situation to.

Morglin

We've got BT Infinity, and it's brilliant.

If I ever have to phone them, and cannot understand them (rare) I just ask for the call to be transferred to a British office, and then I get someone I can understand.

Sky are the worse for customer service - a nightmare!

Lin

aileth

The joys of BT. At our last two houses it has taken over a month to get internet and phone.

At our current house, we waited a month, you don't need to be in for the engineer, you do need to be in at the engineer, need to do something at the exchange, bla bla bla, told them to stick it up their @rse, they tried to charge us £80 to cancel despite not having had a connection, called up Sky, had TV within three days and then a week later internet, but even they had to get on BT's case for the exchange-end.

warehouse

dodger1 wrote: »

I've just joined BT from TalkTalk and have had no problems. Router turned up on the day it was supposed to and engineer was here two days later as arranged. Fitted new faceplate and connected everything up, all done and working in about 20 minutes. No complaints.

Well done. BT are great when everything works, but pray to high heaven you don't ever get a problem with your line because then you will understand, because anyone who has can sympathise totally with the OP.

My own simple fault, (a tree rubbing the cable which I pointed out to the first engineer), took 4 visits and literally 8 hours of phone time. The moment they fixed it I cancelled my line and broadband, (luckily contract had ended), and went with Virgin. BT customer service for problems is appalling, utterly appalling and they simply don't give a ****.

Good luck OP.