BT awful customer service - switching after engineer visit?

littleboo

AliceBanned wrote: »

I doubt VM lose all the accountability though - they are a more forward-thinking company. I don't hear bad things from anyone about VM but hear loads about BT. They just rely on inertia to keep customers and unfortunately a lot of older people aren't as au fait with switching. BT used to be the only provider - even I remember those times.

They're not, I can vouch for that. I'm not sure what your complaint with BT is, you said you don't know what the issue was, it may have been on your equipment but the technician didn't report it as that, avoiding the charge. If may have been on Openreachs equipment, if you didn't pursue the issue since November, they will assume that your service is working. Unscrewing the faceplate is not complex and the purpose is to help you eliminate your equipment and thereby avoid a charge.

AliceBanned

littleboo wrote: »

They're not, I can vouch for that. I'm not sure what your complaint with BT is, you said you don't know what the issue was, it may have been on your equipment but the technician didn't report it as that, avoiding the charge. If may have been on Openreachs equipment, if you didn't pursue the issue since November, they will assume that your service is working. Unscrewing the faceplate is not complex and the purpose is to help you eliminate your equipment and thereby avoid a charge.

I think I've made my complaint more than clear. They've been overpaying for a service they didn't have (I think there was a degree of misselling here) and of course in your opinion that's my/their fault but having spoken to BT and explained there should be some allowance for some circumstances or at least an offer of a better goodwill gesture than £5.


How do you know it wasn't complex? The faceplate has been there for 50 years so believe me it was almost impossible and didn't feel appropriate that elderly people should be asked to lie on the floor and use all the strength they had to unscrew it. I could only just do one side myself so my Dad had to lie scramble around doing the other one and he is quite frail. They wouldn't have been able to do the troubleshooting themselves and kept putting it off for that reason. I don't live near them so I had to do it when I could.

I've explained why I didn't report it (I tried twice and my Dad tried once) and you couldn't possibly know the full extent of the problems (health) but as mentioned above there are mitigating reasons why we only reported it in September, November and December (surely enough?!!) and i'm not posting on here saying I'm perfect but there is a lot of personal stuff that I'm not going to go into any further than I have already.

I just thought BT could have handled it better and I'm going elsewhere anyway. I am sure the engineer was compassionate but there was no internal fault when I did all the checks and it took several hours on the phone when I tried to get it working. I made it clear to BT in November after the fault finding that it still didn't work but they didn't call out an engineer at that point because my parents were worried about the cost - especially if unnecessary.


Also they were out of contract and not aware of the charges - they were getting online-only bills. It's a bit of a scam as elderly people are much less au-fait with doing stuff online, in general and companies should make allowances instead of charging them for paper copies. There should be exceptions for the vulnerable in society and I'm only trying to fight for them because they aren't in a position to ask for a fairer deal themselves.

[Deleted User]

AliceBanned wrote: »

I think I've made my complaint more than clear. They've been overpaying for a service they didn't have (I think there was a degree of misselling here) and of course in your opinion that's my/their fault but having spoken to BT and explained there should be some allowance for some circumstances or at least an offer of a better goodwill gesture than £5.

They haven't been 'overpaying' (probably paying more than they need maybe) and you said yourself BT weren't initially advised of a problem and then when they offered to send out an engineer you/they refused. If the problem is anywhere outside up to and including the master socket then they wouldn't be charged otherwise (if it's internal) Openreach will bill BT. That's why they have to advise of the possibility of a charge.

Miss-selling? Are you saying they were mis-sold 51 years ago? I think the timelimit has passed on that one.

AliceBanned wrote: »

How do you know it wasn't complex? The faceplate has been there for 50 years so believe me it was almost impossible and didn't feel appropriate that elderly people should be asked to lie on the floor and use all the strength they had to unscrew it. I could only just do one side myself so my Dad had to lie scramble around doing the other one and he is quite frail. They wouldn't have been able to do the troubleshooting themselves and kept putting it off for that reason. I don't live near them so I had to do it when I could.

If it's 50 years old then I don't think it will have the removable plate at the front where a customer can plug the router directly in (therefore bypassing all of the internal wiring) and narrowing down the problem. I would be flabbergasted if anyone advised you to take the faceplate off as that is purely Openreach territory and you would be right to complain if that was the case.

AliceBanned wrote: »

I've explained why I didn't report it (I tried twice and my Dad tried once) and you couldn't possibly know the full extent of the problems (health) but as mentioned above there are mitigating reasons why we only reported it in September, November and December (surely enough?!!) and i'm not posting on here saying I'm perfect but there is a lot of personal stuff that I'm not going to go into any further than I have already.

I'm genuinely sorry to hear of your troubles but I can't see how it's relevant.

AliceBanned wrote: »

I just thought BT could have handled it better and I'm going elsewhere anyway. I am sure the engineer was compassionate but there was no internal fault when I did all the checks and it took several hours on the phone when I tried to get it working. I made it clear to BT in November after the fault finding that it still didn't work but they didn't call out an engineer at that point because my parents were worried about the cost - especially if unnecessary.

Again, BT offered to send out an engineer but you/they refused it since you wouldn't agree that there was the possibility of a charge if it turned out to be internal.

AliceBanned wrote: »

Also they were out of contract and not aware of the charges - they were getting online-only bills. It's a bit of a scam as elderly people are much less au-fait with doing stuff online, in general and companies should make allowances instead of charging them for paper copies. There should be exceptions for the vulnerable in society and I'm only trying to fight for them because they aren't in a position to ask for a fairer deal themselves.

They weren't 'out of contract', they were out of minimum term, that is very different.

Do they not get bank statements that show the charges?

'It's a bit of a scam', no it's really not. It's called saving the environment.

Why do people always seem to think that companies should be responsible for their parents? Isn't that your job?