BT- PhoneLine activation Complaint

richardb85

After reading these forums I thought id post up my recent complaint to BT. I was just wondering if anyone else is having a similar experience?

Thx- Rich


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]11th December 2007[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Dear BT,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Over the past 3 Months I have been trying to get my phone Line enabled. [/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I have been constantly in contact with you to try to progress my order, but to no avail. I first contacted you at the end of September, 2007 when I placed my order and was told I should expect a BT engineer to contact me to arrange a visit within 1 week. After waiting 2 weeks for the call I decided to contact you again and was told that my order, for some unknown reason my order had been cancelled. I was advised to replace my order. After doing so I was then confident that my order would be completed. Again I never received a call (from an engineer) and was forced to contact you once more, only to be told that for unknown reasons my order had been cancelled again. This situation has occurred on 4 separate occasions now, over the course of 3 months and I have totally lost faith in the service (or lack of service) you provide. There was 1 occasion recently when to my shock, I received a phone call from a BT number. I answered my phone (expecting it to be an engineer) and there was nobody on the other end of the line. Puzzled I decided to wait a few more days as I was sure the person who rang me would try again. After a few more days, I eventually decided to contact you only to again discover that my order had been cancelled. What's going on BT!?!?[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]It is incredibly frustrating when your staff ask me to replace my order again and again, with no understanding of what went wrong last time, and I am given assurances (that I cannot take seriously) that this time will be a success. I am then forced to wait (supposedly 7 days) for a phone call from you your non existent engineer. I have never been contacted once to inform me there is a problem with my order, or that it has been cancelled. It has always been up to me phone you up and again be given more bad news concerning my order.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]As a 5th year architecture student writing a very important dissertation, not being able to access the internet for research is a huge disadvantage and inconvenience. Throughout the process it has always been up to me to contact you to find out what has been going on. I am never given an explanation as to what the problem may be and I now feel helpless that I am reliant on a company that simply does not have the capability to fulfil my order. Without a working phone line I have been forced to use my PayAsYouGo mobile phone to contact you on what must be more than a dozen occasions. This wouldn't usually be a problem, but seeing as on average I am on hold 50 minutes, before can speak to anyone, contacting you has been a very expensive, frustrating and incredibly time consuming. For example on the 10th December I rang you on two separate occasions. The first I was on hold for 43 minutes (7.11pm) and the second I was on hold for 1 hour and 4 minutes (8.13pm) before finally getting through and been told my order had once again been cancelled. In total close to 2 hours of my evening for nothing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I am utterly dismayed by what has happened over the past 3 months. I have totally lost respect and confidence in BT and if a competitor were available I would gladly seek other options. As there are no alternatives available I would like you to investigate my order immediately and find out what the problem is, and what you will be doing to resolve it.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I can be contacted on
[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]XXXXXXXXXXXXXand the information regarding my order is as follows.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Order Number: bla[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]my address
[/FONT]

[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]I am desperate to get my phone line connected. I have been a loyal BT customer for the past 5 years and I am disappointed that your standards seem to have dropped. As it stands am no closer to getting my phone line than I was 3 months ago. I expect you to do your utmost to fix this problem as quickly as possible and to suitably compensate me for the time and expense wasted contacting you.[/FONT]


[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Regards,[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, sans-serif]Richard Brown[/FONT]

Mike_by_the_Sea

Hi Richard

Check out watchdog - they did a recent updated report on the issues with BT connections and there is an e-mail address included to use.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/insurance_and_finance/insurance_20071212.shtml

All the best

Mike

impy78

Send a copy of your letter to Ben Verwaayen, Chief Executive ben.verwaayen@bt.com

I did this after 5 months of dealing with customer services about a different issue, and it was resolved within 15 minutes.

richardb85

Thanks for the comments guys.

Just an update. Last night i sent an email to the CEO [EMAIL="ben.verwaayen@bt.com"]ben.verwaayen@bt.com[/EMAIL]. To my shock ( as it was quite late) within 15 mintues I had a reply saying that he was sorry for the problem and he would get one of his team to sort the problem for me. This morning I got a call from a very helpful lady who said she was on the CEO staff. Within half an hour I had an appointment arranged and finally it looks like im going to get an engineer to sort out my phoneline. She also gave me her name and direct line number if I wanted to contact her again. :T

Its just a shame the other 15 BT staff i spoke to over 3 months werent half as nice or competant as this lady.

I'll let you know if the engineer shows up!

aiminghigh

Its amazing what Bad Press can achieve.

I also watched the Watchdog programme and the complaints of people waiting months for phone connections were unbelievable.

BT are probably trying to get their act together now in response to these complaints.
I think BT engineers are probably overworked.

Why don`t people just try other phone number providers/activators instead?

richardb85

I dont think poeple realise other companies exist. I thought BT was my only option until I discovered this forum yesterday.

Drunkstar

aiminghigh wrote: »

BT are probably trying to get their act together now in response to these complaints.
I think BT engineers are probably overworked.

Why don`t people just try other phone number providers/activators instead?

They almost all use the same engineers.

satinkitten

richardb85 wrote: »

I dont think poeple realise other companies exist. I thought BT was my only option until I discovered this forum yesterday.

i was quoted a 50.00 up from fee with bt and a 128.00 connection fee. eventually faound The Phone co-op, a small compny based in oxfordshire. got my landline connected for just £5.88 and there line rental is cheaper than bt. plus you dont get red reminders if you forget to pay, they just add it to next bill.