BT Engineer failed to turn up twice

Moorst

I recently moved home and decided to get BT Infinity 2 installed. Everything went swimmingly at first - the engineer turned up on time and I was up and running quite quickly. The Internet speed was much slower than it was meant to be, but I read that it can take a few days to establish the correct speed.

After a week or so I noticed no difference to the speed, still getting about 13mb on average, when I was promised a minimum of 70. I phoned up technical support and explained the situation, they then had me go through various tests before establishing an engineer would be required. I wasn't best pleased as they go on to tell me that weekend slots aren't available, meaning I'd need a day off work. I'm self-employed so this has quite an impact on my earnings. Reluctantly, I arranged an afternoon (1-6pm) slot for the upcoming Friday.

5.50pm comes on Friday and I've heard nothing, so I give BT a call. 45 minutes later, after being passed between three agents (and being sent to the back of the queue at one point), I'm told that there's been an "incident" and the engineer won't be turning up. I'm fuming at this point as I've wasted a whole day at home off work. The agent tells me that an engineer can come tomorrow morning, so I was ok with this. I was asked for my phone number (for the third time) and told I'd receive a phone call in the morning.

No one turns up. Around midday, I call BT again. I get through to a lady who tells me that an engineer was never booked and I was due to receive a call in the evening. Ridiculous. She tells me that weekend slots aren't available and whoever told me that gave me wrong information, so I need to arrange another week day appointment. Again, I reluctantly agree to a week day slot the following Tuesday afternoon, but make it very clear I'm not happy at all and want to log a complaint. She arranges for someone to call me on the Monday evening between 6 and 8pm.

Do I get a call Monday evening? Of course not.

I call up BT on Tuesday morning and ask to speak to the complaints department. I get through to an agent who tells me the engineer will be coming between 1 and 6pm and she will be calling me throughout the day to keep me updated, as my case has been highlighted as a priority. At this point I'm not really concerned about the engineer as I'm convinced they would come considering I'm now a priority. I tell her I'm calling to complain, so she puts me through to another agent, to whom I explain the whole situation to. I tell him I want compensation for my loss of earnings and the fact I've not been receiving the broadband service I've been paying for, so he offers me £10. I tell him this isn't good enough and he tells me I'll receive a call within 24 hours once he's spoken to his supervisor.

At 4pm on that same Tuesday I get a call from the agent who had told me that my case is a priority saying the engineer won't be able to make it and I need to arrange another appointment. I hit the roof. I demand to know why and she tells me that there is a glitch in the system and the appointment was never made. That is now two days I've had off work, unpaid, and they expect me to have another. As it stands I've told them that is not possible. I've told them I'm sending an invoice for the two days they've wasted my time and I want my contract terminated.

That brings me to the present. I'm now waiting for the previously mentioned follow up call from the complaints department, who I'm told have been informed of the latest developments, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if they had no idea.

I have never received such poor service in all my life. I accept that the broadband service can be faulty and I accept that errors are easily made. What I cannot accept is the sheer lack of decency and poor customer service that BT have provided. I haven't even mentioned that most of the agents I have spoken to are particularly rude and one even ended a phone call by saying "I'll text you, bye." before hanging up immediately.

I guess the reason for this post is to make other people aware of this before they commit to BT. I've seen several other posts like this so I know I'm not the first person this has happened to, and I won't be the last.

I'd also be interested in anyone else's experience of this scenario. Will I be sufficiently compensated? Am I in my rights to end the contract?

Thanks for reading.
Chris

JJ_Egan

See multiple BT OR no show posts on the forum .
They are unlikely to offer much in the way of compensation .
All the work is passed from the ISP to BT Open Reach unless you are on cable .

BT_company_representative

This doesn't sound good at all Moorst. I'll be happy to take a look at this for you. Drop me an email with the details. You'll get the contact link in my profile.

Cheers

David

atrixblue.-MFR-.

JJ_Egan wrote: »

See multiple BT OR no show posts on the forum .
They are unlikely to offer much in the way of compensation .
All the work is passed from the ISP to BT Open Reach unless you are on cable .

OP would be entitled to claim his loss of earnings for multiple fail to appear due to admin errors.


Op send them a breakdown of your loss of earnings, apply a £15 admin charge on all your letters sent. If BT fails to pay up Then go forward with LBA (letter before action).

C_Mababejive

Probably too few of them and overworked from my experiences of BT visits.

Moorst

atrixblue.-MFR-. wrote: »

OP would be entitled to claim his loss of earnings for multiple fail to appear due to admin errors.


Op send them a breakdown of your loss of earnings, apply a £15 admin charge on all your letters sent. If BT fails to pay up Then go forward with LBA (letter before action).

Sorry, when you say "OP" are you referring to me? Thank you for your advice and I will certainly be following this up until I'm compensated appropriately.

duchy

Glitch in the system so appointments aren't made? Odd how that is only affecting you and not the thousands of other people who have OR appointments every day. I book both Ll1s and LL14s every day and haven't had appointments not happening nor have I seen lots of people complaining here or elsewhere which I'd expect if there was a genuine system problem. Sounds like either your infinity account isn't set up correctly in some way so the engineers can't see where to go or there is a big problem with the OR engineers in your area in general.

(OP stands for original poster btw so yes )

Moorst

BT_company_representative wrote: »

This doesn't sound good at all Moorst. I'll be happy to take a look at this for you. Drop me an email with the details. You'll get the contact link in my profile.

Cheers

David

Hi David, I've dropped you an email via the link in your profile.

Moorst

I know duchy, it's just excuse after excuse, they pluck them out of thin air. After the first engineer didn't turn up, I was told my case was a "priority", and once the second engineer didn't turn up, it was "raised to the highest level". Surely it should have been raised to the highest level after the first missed appointment?

I'm actually intrigued to see what excuse and false promise they could come up with if the engineer didn't show up at the third attempt, which certainly wouldn't surprise me now.

Heinz

Moorst wrote: »

I'm actually intrigued to see what excuse and false promise they could come up with if the engineer didn't show up at the third attempt, which certainly wouldn't surprise me now.

You don't expect that third attempt to happen now, do you?

I've told them I'm sending an invoice for the two days they've wasted my time and I want my contract terminated.

[Deleted User]

Heinz wrote: »

You don't expect that third attempt to happen now, do you?

Clearly that was just an idle threat, the OP has also since availed himself of the forum's BT Representative.