BT's sly and deceitful tactics

hubballi

A week ago we had the copper wire stolen from the box in the street that supplies our phone connections. A few of us in the village had no connection for nearly 2 days. I phoned BT on my mobile ( not free on 0800) and after a long time and many menus I got through to an adviser and reported the fault (that I noticed from early in the morning). I was told I would get a discount if the fault lasted more than 24 hours unrepaired. When I phoned to claim this when reconnected I was fobbed off with the " computers are down that deal with this" story. I phoned back a day or so later to be told that, even though I phoned earlier with the initial fault, it didn't count until midnight that same evening, which technicaly put the repair time within 24 hours (even though the fault was reported much earlier and the repair was well over the limit by nearly a day).

The same theft has happened again only a week later and I have lost nearly 2 days connection. I didn't even bother reporting the fault this time as it would have been too costly on my mobile as well as probably being pointless. Surely if they have the fault reported by other people and know exctly when it occured, it is proof enough for me to claim for time lost with nocconection, not to mention no internet for my buisness and the cost of using my mobile.

Can anyone advise where I can go to take this higher as I have lost nearly 4 days.

Also, why don't BT put measures in place to stop this theft. Surely it is costing them more to keep repairing and replacing the wire?

I am very angry with BT as they went back on their word.

normanmark

Just out of curiosity are you a business or residential tariff for your landline & broadband?

Because if you're on a residential tariff then claiming compensation for loss of business doesn't really fall much on the responsibility for a residential service!

Some useful links can be found here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1107703

http://www.bt.com/customerservices/downloads/OurConsumerService.pdf

With regards to the theft issue, I'm sure BT have measures to stop the theft but if i'm sure there are ways to steal the copper wire, just the same as theres ways to break into a locked car etc!

Hope the above helps...

hammy_the_hammer

i'm assuming from your post that an 'underground' cable had been chopped and stolen. you may be able to claim some line rental back but compensation will be minimal (if any) as what has occurred would constitute matters beyond reasonable control for a telecoms company along with any other utility .
the security required would run into billions and billions and in fact is nigh on impossible.
this kind of incident is treated with the highest priority and you will have been out of service for the minimum possible time.

londondulwich

You can claim compensation for what you have lost. That is 4 days of line rental.

BT charge £11 a month so 11 divided by 31 = £0.35p

So you are entitled to £0.35p x 4 days = £1.40p

hubballi

I contacted Ben Verwaayen who said he would look into it for me. I never heard from him again, even after emailing him a second time.

Drunkstar

londondulwich wrote: »

You can claim compensation for what you have lost. That is 4 days of line rental.

BT charge £11 a month so 11 divided by 31 = £0.35p

So you are entitled to £0.35p x 4 days = £1.40p

The OP only reported only 2 days though, so I cant see her geting more than that.

hubballi

To be fair, I have just had an email from BT informing me that I was not entitled to compensation because it was fixed by the end of the next working day (it wasn't) but as a gesture of goodwill they are refunding me £10.99 plus VAT.

Drunkstar

Well, that shows me. :P

JohalaReewi

hubballi wrote: »

To be fair, I have just had an email from BT informing me that I was not entitled to compensation because it was fixed by the end of the next working day (it wasn't)

BT would seem to have a wonderful system where if an outstanding incident isn't going to be fixed by the deadline, the call gets closed as if it had been fixed. Then when it gets reported as not fixed, a new incident is opened (with a new deadline). This way, BT can be seen to fix all reported faults on time.