BT.....customer service........ well lack of it!

missk249

I am coping and pasting a copy of the letter I have sent to bt (my details removed for obvious reasons). I couldnt go through ranting about it again, so decided a copy of the letter would best detail my frustrations!!!!

Here goes.......


Installation of the landline was meant to take place on 12 November between 8am and 1pm. As I had been informed an engineer would be visiting my home during these hours, and no one had appeared, I tried to call BT to find out what was happening. I had to use my mobile telephone as I had no line, as when I picked up the handset the line was dead. This, I presumed was because the line was due to be transferred to yourselves from my previous telephone provider.
I waited on the line calling your "freephone" number, which clearly is not free when calling from a mobile telephone, for 41 minutes and 22 seconds before being cut off without the oppurtunity of even speaking to someone. I then called back, and after another lengthy wait of 43 minutes and 55 seconds, I spoke to someone who said the line was installed and that it was awaiting "activation" and I would have full service by 5pm. This advisor assured me that someone would call me back to confirm that the line was fully operational before 5pm and to discuss the fact that I was told to wait in my property when no engineer had even made contact. More to the point, it was not a problem waiting to have the engineer round, but the fact that all work was carried out at the exchange and I had been waiting in for the rest of the day without being notified that the work had been carried out without requiring a visit to my home. - I still await that call.
5pm came and went, and no service was available - the line was still dead. I again called for an explanation at around 6pm, and was on hold waiting to speak to an advisor until 8pm when a message advised that the department was now closed and would be available between 8am and 8pm the following day. As you can imagine, I was becoming very angry and upset at the lack of communication and lack of service.
I then called the fault line, as it was obvious that after being informed that the line WAS connected, and I still had no service, there must be a fault. A helpful gentleman informed me that the line was showing a "CE Error" and that this would be rectified by 5pm the following day.
Why, then, was the line registered as active and ready to use on your systems, when it clearly had not been correctly installed in the first place?
Why was I not informed that the work had been carried out early in the morning and that I would not need to stay at home all day as no engineer would be arriving?
Why am I being charged £124.99 for "an engineer to call and install a line at my property" when no engineer called to do this on the installation day?
I am already very unhappy that I have had lack of communication concerning installation, and I am now out of pocket for the numerous telephone calls I had to make from my mobile to your freephone telephone number when I was looking for an explanation into BTs discrepencies. I spent over 4 hours on my mobile calling BT and this cost me around £15. I had no other option than to use my mobile to call, as I am disabled and could not go to a phonebox and stand waiting that length of time to be answered.
As a new customer (and previous customer who came back because service was lacking with other provider) I am very disappointed in the service that I have recieved so far. I have been charged £124.99 for a service that was not required, and as stated above, I am out of pocket for making calls to have BTs mistakes rectified, and not to mention the inconvenience this issue has caused, as I wasted a day waiting on something that did not happen and also had to have other services, namely Sky Installation, delayed because of the improper service from BT.
Further to these complaints, I tried to call today to have BT Answer 1571 and Caller Display added to my service, but after holding on the line for over 2 hours and still not answered I have given up.
I am also disappointed at the fact that I have had no communication in writing confirming details of my order, an account number and details of contract.

missk249

Reply from BT is as follows.........

Thank you for your e-mail .

I would like to begin with an apology for any inconvenience caused.

In response to your email, I can confirm to you that we welcome the feedback you have given about the service you received. This does help us identify ways and means in which we can improve.

BT is very much aware of its commitment to provide first class customer service and I very much regret that we have failed you, a valued customer, on this occasion. I would most certainly agree with you that the service has not been of the standard you would quite rightly expect from BT.

That said, in all organisations things can and do go wrong occasionally ? normally as a result of human error. This was one of those occasions and I am genuinely sorry.

I would like to inform that the cost of provision of a standard line is £124.99 Incl. VAT. Even if BT wiring is intact within your home, full connection charges are applied. This charge is raised to cover the cost of connecting your line.

The policy on charging to connect ceased lines changed from 15 August 2007. Previously, where the customer had confirmed internal wiring was intact, no connection charges were quoted. This policy was often confusing for customers. Connection charges are now raised for all line provisions of ceased lines.

Therefore, I would like to clarify that the connection charge on your current BT bill is correct and unfortunately, as per the system we are not in a position to arrange a refund for these charges and we cant provide you the compensation for the calls you made from your mobile phone.

Regarding your query related to Caller Display and BT 1571 ,we have already activated these calling features and they will get active within 7 days.

If you should have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

**** *******
eContact Customer Service

missk249

And now, my reply to this.....................

Thank you for the reply.

Firstly, I would like to point out that I requested to be called and not e-mailed with regards to my complaint. This is obviously another "human error" which you will have to apologise for!!!!!

Secondly, not all my concerns were dealt with, and I am still awaiting an answer regarding the lack of confirmation sent to me where order and account details are concerned.

Thirdly, why should I be out of pocket for YOUR (BT's) mistakes? Clearly, you have made a very significant blunder, (and have admitted this by way of apology) and I am out of pocket because of this. If your call centre staff had answered calls within a reasonable amount of time, I would have no problem with having had to call for an explanation, but it is the fact that I spent over 4 hours, which is a ridiculous amount of time to have to hold on a call to have a problem sorted. As I said in my original correspondence, had the work been carried out correctly in the first instance, I would not have been required to make these calls. Therfore, this is BT's problem, and I therefore should be compensated in this matter.

Fourthly, I would advise that BT looks into its customer advisors' lack of knowledge where grammar is concerned, as this is a very important part of customer service, and lack of proper wording only reinforces the customers thinking that BT's customer services advisors are clearly incompetent.

And finally, If I do not receive a satisfactory offer of compensation from BT regarding all the originally highlighted errors that they made, I will have no option but to take the matter up with OFCOM and will also seek legal advice regarding the matter.

Vancat

Same scenario happened to my daughter when she moved into her new home recently; no engineer turned up, hours waiting on calls to "customer service". Weeks without a line, then being told there would be a reconnection charge of £124.99, even though no work was required, just that the previous owner of the house had obviously had the phone disconnected on moving out.
One of the helpful posters on here gave the e mail addy of the BT CEO. Ben someone? (Sorry, can't find the thread)
We sent him a mail; the complaint was escalated, and daughter got the line connected, and the charges waived.
VC
Found the [EMAIL="name....ben.verwaayen@bt.com"]name! ....ben.verwaayen@bt.com[/EMAIL]

uktim29

missk249 wrote: »

Fourthly, I would advise that BT looks into its customer advisors' lack of knowledge where grammar is concerned, as this is a very important part of customer service, and lack of proper wording only reinforces the customers thinking that BT's customer services advisors are clearly incompetent.

I think your pushing it with that. Your original email/letter wasn't the best in this respect either. Actually when I saw the reply they sent you I thought grammatically that was an improvement on yours. It was much easier on the eye to read.

You also make an assumption there as you only have a single reply from one BT advisor so claiming "BT's customer services advisors are clearly incompetent." isn't true as you've only spoken to one not all. So should you be correcting grammar in a paragraph where you make an assumption but without saying this?

To be perfectly honest, what in your mind do you think BT should do here regarding grammar? All the people they employ will obviously have any necessary qualifications in English so saying checking they can write when employing them wouldn't be an answer. What extra do you expect them to do?

Wig

I don't know what you mean by the grammar errors, Do you mean the person you first spoke to on the telephone? You don't make that clear in the 2nd letter, so they will also (like me) not have a clue what you are talking about.

It's the same with Ntl, when they ask you to stay in and they don't call to the house, because they assume they have fixed the line fault, at the street level. Common sense would dictate that the engineer calls the number to see if the phone is answered (knowing that the householder has been asked to be at home) and if the phone is not answered common sense would dictate a visit to the property to knock on the door and atleast to call the number again to hear if the phone rings inside the house.


They are mostly all the same.

And at those line install prices from BT, one things certain I won't be going back to BT in a hurry.

codger

missk249 wrote: »

Reply from BT is as follows.........

Thank you for your e-mail .

I would like to begin with an apology for any inconvenience caused.

In response to your email, I can confirm to you that we welcome the feedback you have given about the service you received. This does help us identify ways and means in which we can improve.

BT is very much aware of its commitment to provide first class customer service and I very much regret that we have failed you, a valued customer, on this occasion. I would most certainly agree with you that the service has not been of the standard you would quite rightly expect from BT.

That said, in all organisations things can and do go wrong occasionally ? normally as a result of human error. This was one of those occasions and I am genuinely sorry.

OP: in fact, that wasn't "written" by anyone.

It's Apology Script 3, and was introduced by BT for all services last year (you'll encounter it if, for example, you're a BT Broadband customer fed up with the lousy service.)

It follows Apology Script 2, created by a robot that turned out to be dyslexic, and Apology Script 1, which no-one ever understood because it was a cut-and-paste job nicked from British Gas and which offended many because of its frequent references to old boilers.

Rather than criticising BT for its corporate communications, you might wish to applaud it, because:

The policy on charging to connect ceased lines changed from 15 August 2007. Previously, where the customer had confirmed internal wiring was intact, no connection charges were quoted. This policy was often confusing for customers. Connection charges are now raised for all line provisions of ceased lines.

is as honest and transparent an explanation for sleazy money-grubbing as is likely to be found anywhere. Doubtless it will be copied by other enterprises, and especially, train companies, who having identified customer confusion over ticket pricing will obligingly introduce a flat fare of £220 for every railway journey regardless of distance.

As to your specific complaint though, I fear you're unlikely to get anywhere.

(The above sentence is, I'm told, to be incorporated into BT Apology Script 4, due to be rolled out in January 2008.)

ampersand

Check out The Times and the Guardian for the last couple of Saturdays - people have had similar experiences.
Lo! and Behold! - broadsheet involvement seems to miraculously melt probs away.

gabyjane

Hi i sympathise with you as i repied last night to a similar post at my disgust with BT. The poster who mentioned the email address is right and i got a responce this morning after emailing him last night (ben?) I will await and see what happens! good luck.

A1dan_2

ampersand wrote: »

Check out The Times and the Guardian for the last couple of Saturdays - people have had similar experiences.
Lo! and Behold! - broadsheet involvement seems to miraculously melt probs away.

Do you have any links to the articles you'er referring to? Have they forced som kind of climb-down from BT?

I'm in much the same boat. I moved into my new home, and put in an order which I was originally told would be free of charge, and would go through within a few days. That guy obviously wasn't up to speed on this scam though, so they later cancelled the order and told me I had to pay £125 and wait for an engineer, even though my home patently has a connected line - dialling tone and everything!

A1dan_2

Ah - found one of them... http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2007/nov/10/moneysupplement.internetphonesbroadband

So their spokesman says:

"Where a working line exists, our intention is that reconnection should be free - but a charge of £125 applies where we have to involve an engineer. "Where a customer is returning to join BT from a local loop unbundled competitor, our systems default to charging £125. We do intend to change this as soon as possible. It is one of a number of complex changes arising from BT Retail's adoption of a new IT system to comply with its commitment to the regulator, Ofcom."

What a shame that contradicts the information BT is telling its customers...