Need advice on reporting / claiming from BT Infinity - 40 days still no internet!

IndieDevM

Hello,

I'm hoping someone could help advise me on what / if there is anything I can do about this situation or if there are certain places I should try to report BT to or try to claim anything back from them for terrible install service and lack of internet. This explanation might be a bit long, so sorry in advance.

On 15th May I ordered BT Infinity & line rental with a second phone line from them as well, I was given a date of 6th June that it would all be up and running. Had email confirmations of the booking / date etc.

On 4th of June I got an email which simply said the installation would now be the 17th June, with no explanation offered as to why.

On 5th of June (day before original promised install date) I then receive the router / broadband kit in the post in the morning, then shortly after have a lady from BT phone telling me the install would now be 24th June!! Asking what the hell was going on she said it's because the order didn't process and was failed, I asked if it was failed then how did I still end up with the router but she just kept repeating that it failed and didn't go through. She also then stated I would have to wait for a call back in two days to find out what was happening!

On 6th June I phoned BT to chase them up, the guy I spoke to said the order didn't fail, it was that they got confused not realising a second line was due to be installed for it, even though it was clearly on the order and even in the email confirmation! He said I'd have to wait for the call tomorrow but was confident it would be a lot sooner than 24th.

On 7th June the lady that told me 24th phoned back and told me I would now have to wait for a survey to be done on the 13th before a date could be confirmed, telling me it might even be later than 24th!

At this stage I then outright asked to cancel the order completely and I would get someone else to do it, she then told me that there is no way the order can be cancelled as the work is now being done. Obviously I pointed out that actually no work is being or has been done as she just told me no engineers were even doing anything till 13th. She though went in a loop about how the order had failed and reiterated that the order could not be cancelled!

On 13th June I get the call in the evening, same lady again telling me it would be 24th probably, but she couldn't guarantee it still. So I'd waited another week just for BT to tell me they didn't really know when it was going to happen still!

I then complain on Twitter and got linked into an online chat with BT support, they then claimed it was that they still didn't realise the line was to be installed, and that it would likely be 24th. I then asked about cancelling and was told that I could cancel anytime up till the line was connected, so the lady on the phone either had no idea what she was on about, or just outright lied to me about the fact I couldn't cancel!! At that stage had I known, then I would have cancelled and gone with someone else, but with about 10 days to go I decided it would be quicker to wait for BT, so I left it booked.

A few days later I contact BT again still trying to find out what exactly went wrong and is happening, I'm now given a story that they had to wait for a planning team to tell a survey team to tell them when an engineer could do the work, finally they confirm that the 24th is guaranteed and it will all be up and running 100%.

On 20th June an OpenReach engineer turns up at my flat first thing in the morning unannounced, had I not been in then this would have caused further delay. This engineer turns out he was here to connect the cabinet and connect the socket ready. His attitude was pretty poor, he was constantly moaning about doing the job and that he didn't know where the wiring in the cabinet was. Eventually after a few hours popping between the house and cabinet he proclaimed everything connected and done.

Today, 24th June, the booked engineer comes out to activate the socket, he gets it all activated and tests it, works fine. Actually also said that he was surprised he had the job as when the guy who came on the 20th could have actually done what he was here to do today, and that there wasn't really any reason why he couldn't have done! Being that it took him only a few minutes.

Once he left confirming the socket worked, I then connected the BT hub in, only to find that it had an orange error light which it says wait 24 hours and phone as it means my account hasn't been activated. Not being happy with that I phoned straight away, was then eventually told it's because they had a connection issue three days ago, which they were aware of but didn't tell me!

I'm then told that I have to wait till tomorrow for a phone call to tell me when they can sort the issue out, which will be sometime next week! I've been all morning talking to BT on the phone, Twitter and online chat. Basically no support channel is bothered, I just have to wait till tomorrow to find out when next week I'll have internet!

I tried to dig on what the problem was, I was first told it was that the cabinet hadn't been connected, to which I then asked as they knew days ago why didn't they get the engineer today to do it. Their response to that was actually it's not the cabinet, the phone number and broadband don't match, we have to change something. I asked why this couldn't be done now and it's because they decided actually someone does need to go to the cabinet! They can't decide!

In the chat (which I have a log of), I even specifically asked why I wasn't told about this delay when they knew of it three days ago, and could it be done over the weekend. The agent then just responded with a complaints been logged, to which I said thanks, but that doesn't answer either question. After 10 minutes with them not typing anything, I then said so those questions are clearly being dodged and won't get answered then, to which the agent then actually said thank you for understanding! They actually acknowledged they had dodged the questions and thanked me for realising they wouldn't be answered!

Now this afternoon I get 5 emails and 5 texts from BT saying you're BT Infinity is ready and connected, you will receive your router before 6pm today for the install!! Shocking as the router appeared on the 5th June the day before it was due to be done! And after double checking incase, no the internet still isn't connected! I've asked them on Twitter about why the hell they've sent these through knowing full well about the issues and having spoke to them multiple times this morning, still haven't had a response!

Needless to say I'm quite !!!!ed off and stressed out over all this, being that it's likely to be mid next week at the earliest till this is sorted (assuming they don't screw up again!), and I'm just at a loss! Since ordering it's currently 40 days! 40 days that I've had no internet! It'll be pushing at least 43-45 by the time they sort this, if they do get it right for once!

I've have an ongoing complaint with them about being compensated, which they have said I will be, but won't confirm how much till it's active and running. One person in an online chat implied about £20! Because of them not delivering on the original install date of 6th June I've had to use a pocket WiFi for internet, spending around £75 on mobile data!

In addition I'm a self employed game developer and work from home, the internet is an essential resource in what I need, for downloading various models, sound effects etc for use in my project, that £75 of data has all been work related only as I've been trying to keep the data use down, so I've not used Spotify, Netflix of entertainment things!

Obviously trying to keep data usage down to reduce cost on the WiFi while they keep messing me about, has seriously hampered productivity on my project as well. There are many big (5-30GB) resources I haven't been able to access as it would cost a fortune more, also I've not been able to stream various lectures or training modules to help with certain things either! Essentially I've fallen at least a month behind schedule due to BT's constant screw ups!

The main things I'd like to do first is get the word out how abysmal their service is and has been, and find out as many relevant places to report them to in order to try to make them improve in the future. Then if there is any advice on what I can do, if it's likely I could claim any cost losses back, and who I might contact if there is.

Thanks for taking the time to read through, I'd appreciate any help on the matter of what I can do, who I can report to, and if it's likely I could claim anything back / who to contact.

Thank you

[Deleted User]

Just complain in writing to BT detailing any actual losses. Try to be brief.

JJ_Egan

As above unless you are on a business contract as a business user .

firefox1956

Brief being the operative word............
I never read to the end of the post.........

onomatopoeia99

As your self-employed and use the connection for work, you took out a business contract with a guaranteed SLA and robust compensation scheme for consequential losses arising from non-performance (because why would you not do this if the connection is crucial to your work?) So make a claim under this.

If you're using a domestic internet connection for your business, good luck with claiming for consequential losses.

[Deleted User]

onomatopoeia99 wrote: »

If you're using a domestic internet connection for your business, good luck with claiming for consequential losses.

Could cause lots of other problems if he tries to claim business losses as part of his complaint about a domestic line...

iniltous

Just to clarify, you orderd two lines, 1 with 'infinity' FTTC broadband ?
Were the two phone numbers allocated similar ? (Allocated from the same exchange ?)
It's unusual these days to have 2 lines in a residential property, in the past, with dial up internet making the phone line 'busy' when in use people may have had 2 lines , 1 for internet only, but these days 'always on' ADSL type broadband doesn't have this problem , that's not an excuse for poor delivery, but you asked for something out of the ordinary, so more likely to go wrong, plus these days 1connection per residential property is planned, asking for more than 1 could cause capacity problems
If you were allocated a phone number, the FTTC service has to be allocated from the correct FTTC cabinet, associated with the copper cabinet, that is associated with the exchange that provides your phone number, if there was some issue with the address, serving exchange etc it's possible that a port in the wrong FTTC cab was allocated, this isn't normally quick to resolve, the guy installing the phone line may only be interested in the phone line, the FTTC order could be separate ,
As others have said, if you ordered a residential service, then you would be entitled to residential compensation, which may not amount to very much money, your line rental probably costs about £50p a day, to expect anything more than a refund of more than that (per day of no service) would be unrealistic, plus the £10 for a missed appointment if they did not turn up on a day they said they would, if they call and say were not coming, then you don't get that

IndieDevM

Thanks all for the replies, I'll go through and see what I can get done then. Also yes, sorry about the long, long post! Was one of those things were I didn't know weather to give as much info as possible or cut it back and keep having to provide more.

As it happens BT didn't phone me back yesterday and now saying I have to wait till next week to even find out a date again!

IndieDevM

iniltous wrote: »

Just to clarify, you orderd two lines, 1 with 'infinity' FTTC broadband ?
Were the two phone numbers allocated similar ? (Allocated from the same exchange ?)
It's unusual these days to have 2 lines in a residential property, in the past, with dial up internet making the phone line 'busy' when in use people may have had 2 lines , 1 for internet only, but these days 'always on' ADSL type broadband doesn't have this problem , that's not an excuse for poor delivery, but you asked for something out of the ordinary, so more likely to go wrong, plus these days 1connection per residential property is planned, asking for more than 1 could cause capacity problems
If you were allocated a phone number, the FTTC service has to be allocated from the correct FTTC cabinet, associated with the copper cabinet, that is associated with the exchange that provides your phone number, if there was some issue with the address, serving exchange etc it's possible that a port in the wrong FTTC cab was allocated, this isn't normally quick to resolve, the guy installing the phone line may only be interested in the phone line, the FTTC order could be separate ,
As others have said, if you ordered a residential service, then you would be entitled to residential compensation, which may not amount to very much money, your line rental probably costs about £50p a day, to expect anything more than a refund of more than that (per day of no service) would be unrealistic, plus the £10 for a missed appointment if they did not turn up on a day they said they would, if they call and say were not coming, then you don't get that

Thanks for the info. The address previously had two lines (both via BT), it's just one was no longer connected, so it needed reconnection at the cabinet. Which is the part they did earlier in the week.

kwikbreaks

IndieDevM wrote: »

sorry about the long, long post

At least you warned about it up front and unlike many spit it into reasonable chunks making it readable. Despite that I must admit to ot reading very far as I didn't need to. With a domestic contract they won't offer anything much in the way of any compenastion beyond maybe £10 if you stayed in for a no-show. If you had a business contract I doubt you'd be asking here as it would already be spelled out (and probably still wouldn't amount to much).