BT...a cautionary tale

johannis

DonnySaver wrote: »

I would be contacting CISAS and/or OFCOM by now. They say you normally have to wait 8 weeks but in your case I can't see this getting resolved to your satisfaction very quickly at all. I'd start the process rolling now .. good luck (now I remember why I left BT)

To be honest the 'manager' explained how the process went, how he had to stick by certain rules and indicated how the next two stages would go, but by that point I was somewhat annoyed that they were basically not taking any responsibility for the series of errors they have made. I admit some culpability because you have a responsibility to understand what you are getting into, but at every stage they have made mistakes that have made this whole situation worse.
...I pressed the big red button and emailed both Libby Barr 'head of customer services' (mostly because every stage of this process has been accompanied by an email from her telling me how wonderful everything is) and and email directly to CEO Gavin Patterson.
The latter provoked an immediate response. Two return emails straightaway saying his office was taking over the case and then a direct phone call with a promise to come back to me today with a new offer.
who knows what will happen next, I don't expect to get everything back, but I expect the £95 Sky payment to be honoured and would be happy if they would not charge me for the first two months with them, given that they have failed to provide the service I signed up for...oh and the £13! I'm entitled to that!

zaax

your life is starting to get interesting, I'd tell them to forget it, and move to another supplier.

johannis

zaax wrote: »

your life is starting to get interesting, I'd tell them to forget it, and move to another supplier.

if only, still got 10 months on the contract!
to be fair to BT, the Broadband works fine, the TV service is good enough for what i need, We only receive calls on a land line. The service seems ok, if only it had worked from day one.

johannis

So i've had an offer from the CEO's office. Somewhat meagre really, half the TV portion of the Sky bill on top of the £30 BB part of it, the £13 i'm entitled to and a Goodwill payment of £40.
depressing really, i really want to move on from this now, difficult to see how this compensates for the last 8 weeks and still a long way out of pocket!

Enterprise_1701C

Sounds like a very familiar story. We are IT/telephone engineers. We have heard this story a few times. Also, we go around correcting BT's mistakes, they often sort out the main point in the home if there is a problem, but they do not put the extensions back on, or the home owner will report a problem, will be told there is nothing wrong with their line, they call us out and we find the line is dead.

We have been looking at moving our package lately, although managed to talk a discount off Virgin, we didn't even consider BT.

johannis

So, this particular saga has come to an end.
I eventually came to an agreement over a compensation figure. We have pretty much recovered the direct expenses caused by the series of mistakes BT made, i'm trying not to think about the the collateral costs.
what we have is a decent BB service, not the 52mb i was promised but plenty for what i use it for, a phone service that we'll never use but have to have and an OK TV service for the money we are paying.
...oh and an extra you view box that i'm presuming they'll ask for at some point.
what have i learned. Well, BT's support is at best uneven. i have no problem with basing call centres in a different country but i have to say that every call that went outside this country always had to be (usually unsuccessfully) diverted back to the UK.
When ringing the 150 number you can ask for the easy access service which is based in UK. if they cannot help ask for UK tech team, more experienced staff
The customer care 'handlers' are trained very well in being nice and apologetic but appear to know very little about the service they represent. I'm guessing they are often part time and consistency of care and keeping their promises to call back seems beyond most.
if you are lucky you get an experienced operative who advances you towards a resolution but if you are in the same situation i found myself in, you need to be patient.
If you are thinking of going with BT, read the offer carefully.
read every email they send you carefully, if they give you the chance to track the order, track it.
if any part of your order has been 'cancelled', ring them straightaway. It will add time to your order.
Keep a record of dates and what happened when, they can access records but they will not always admit what they said and when, also you'll have to tell each new person you come across exactly what has happened.
Don't accept the first offer they make by way of compensation, the first people you come across cannot do anything other that offer the minimum.
Don't be afraid to escalate this, the CEO has a whole department sat ready and waiting to pick this kind of thing up...i bet it would be cheaper to have a well trained Customer care team dealing with this kind of thing before it gets to him!

so, will i renew with BT in 10 months...what do you think, charges coming in for sport, BB going up...