BT Missed Engineer Visits

henrygregory

Hi there,

I really am fuming about the way I have been treated by BT.
On Friday 18th, our telephone line went dead in the morning.
I got straight on to BT who promised to send out an engineer the following Saturday 21st. They said he would come between 8 and 1pm.

I called my customers and told them that unfortunately, I was going to need to change my day to an alternative time as I needed to get phone sorted (I am self-employed).
I heard nothing from BT all day and when it got to 3pm, I called to find out if the man was lost. I was then told he was not coming and I would need to re-book again. (Whole days earnings gone).

I re-booked for Monday 21st and surprise surprise, no one came again.

I have sent BT a formal complaint along with an invoice for 1.5 days lost earnings. They got back to me within the day offering £20.00 - I have never been so insulted.

Does anyone know what legal standing I have regarding this? I am fully prepared to take them to small claims court.
If they had contacted me, (seems so difficult for a telecommunications company), I would have known they were not going to come and could have got back to work.

Any advice or experiences on this would be wonderful.
:money:

:mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad::mad:

gik

Is it a Business contract you have with BT?

Country_Cousin

I don't think they are claiming lost business because the phone line is down, but because they were unable to go to work on the days the engineer was booked and so lost earnings that way ? But correct me if I am reading this wrong.

mynameisdave

I'm confused. Your phone line went down on the 18th and they said they would come out the following Saturday 21st? Surely the following would be 25th (assuming you would say tomorrow for the 19th). If he missed the appointment presumably it was 19th. And then never turned up on 21st either.

Having worked for BT in the past I am sure this will be a BTB contract. No way they'd be sending someone out so quickly for an ordinary customer with SLA's being what they are.

agrinnall

mynameisdave wrote: »

I'm confused. Your phone line went down on the 18th and they said they would come out the following Saturday 21st? Surely the following would be 25th (assuming you would say tomorrow for the 19th). If he missed the appointment presumably it was 19th. And then never turned up on 21st either.

Having worked for BT in the past I am sure this will be a BTB contract. No way they'd be sending someone out so quickly for an ordinary customer with SLA's being what they are.

Exactly, there is no way at all that BT would say that they are sending an engineer out the next day (especially when the next day is a Saturday), and it's highly unlikely that one would come next business day, if it's a residential contract. So as it must be B2B then the ability to recoup consequential loss should be specified in the contract.

henrygregory

Hi, to clarify, no this is a residential line and yes i called on Friday and they said the next slot was Saturday, the next day so I took the morning slot. After patiently waiting into the afternoon, I contacted my customer to say really sorry but can't even do half day as they have still not come, then called BT who first told me I was not in when engineer came and then said he was busy fixing a bigger job and I would have to re-book. I explained how I had lost a days pay (and I had certainly been in all day) and was told he had called and left a message on my mobile answer phone - I have no answer phone on my mobile so this was absolute cobblers.


I was promised a visit on Monday afternoon and again no one came. Verified they had correct contact details for me, I am absolutely shocked by the way they treat their customers business, residential, whatever - absolutely appalling.

Next quarter, they are going to be whistling for their bill money.

Helix

All phone providers other than Virgin Media are likely to have had the same issue as they all have to rely on BT Openreach for repairs which is separate from BT Retail who you pay line rental to.

Stoke

They were !!!! when we had problems at work. Took them a month to sort our lines out. We sent them an invoice for over a thousand pounds. Don't know if they paid or not.

halibut2209

EDIT: No matter. I misunderstood

henrygregory

Update: They have offered me £40 credit. Still very unhappy about all of this.

agrinnall

I'd be quite surprised if you get any more than £40 out of them. However, if you're not happy then go through their complaints process before filing a complaint with Ombudsman Services: Communications, who provide the dispute resolution service for BT customers.

http://www.ombudsman-services.org/communications.html