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Post Office HomePhone - STAGGERINGLY Bad Service...
Lips
Posts: 78 Forumite
in Phones & TV
I wanted to let Readers know about my experience with the Post Office...
I've been a BT customer for over 10 years. I sold my house recently and, in the short-term, took a 6-month rental to give me time to scout around and find a property I want to buy.
BT advised me that I'd have to pay £125 to get the phone switched on at the exchange in the rental property (it had been another supplier, previously.) This was annoying, then they also advised that I'd have to take a minimum 12 month line rental, even though I'm only going to be here for 6 months. The thing that annoyed me most was that I could apparently have 'ported' my existing rental contract, which would have removed this issue, but nobody had advised me of this when I called to cancel my contract. In a fit of pique, I contacted the Post Office and asked then to provide my line. They said they'd only charge £110 to set up the line, and a month-to-month line rental was a-okay. Result, I thought...
I placed the order for my line on 23rd November, and was told that line would be live by 6th December - they would contact me in advance to let me know when exactly an engineer would visit. I didn't hear anything from Post Office, and then on 4th December, I received a call from a BT Openreach engineer, advising me that he'd be at my address in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I was 30 miles away.... The BT guy said he'd cancel the job and I should contact Post Office to reschedule - he also said this happens a lot with the Post Office.
I called Post Office (with 25 minutes of holding before I got to speak to a person), and they apologised for failing to give me advance notice of the engineer's visit. Worryingly, they also said this 'happens all the time'. Given that this was their error, not mine, I requested that my re-scheduled engineer's visit be given priority. I was promised a call the next day with a new date.
The next day, no-one called.
I eventually phoned Post Office at 7 in the evening, and after over 30 minutes of holding, I got to speak to an Advisor. I was transferred to three different people, each time telling my story, and each time getting a bit more hacked off. By the time I reached Advisor number 3, I was borderline livid - I'd been on the (mobile) phone for over 45 minutes and still hadn't spoken to anyone who was showing any signs of being able to help. I strongly suggested to Advisor 3 that he take ownership of the issue and find a way to help me out. He disappeared off the line for a while and then came back to tell me that, according to his records, there was no need for me to have an engineer's visit. He promised that the line would be connected the next day, with no engineer's visit and no £110 charge. Hurrah!
The next day, though, Advisor 3 called to say that there had been a 'resource issue', and the line would not be going live as promised. The job had been re-allocated for four days later, the 10th at 6pm. Advisor 3 said that, if the line was not live at this time, he'd immediately be on the phone to me to sort things out.
The 10th came, and at 6pm I waited with bated breath for the line to go live. I tried it at 6pm, again at 6:10pm, then 6:30pm etc etc. I phoned Post Office at 7pm. After a 40 minute hold, I eventually spoke to an Advisor, telling her the full story AGAIN, only to be told that she couldn't help me and would have to transfer me. She had no knowledge of who Advisor 3 was, saying that there are three sites that the helpline connects to and it's pot-luck which one you connect to. She transferred me and I then had to tell the full story YET AGAIN to another Advisor, who, unsurprisingly, wasn't able to help me. After a bit of a rant at him, he transferred me back to the original Advisor. I pointed out to this young lady that I was extremely unimpressed by the Post Office, and wanted to speak to a supervisor. I was told that there were no supervisory staff available. I requested that she leave a message for someone senior to call me as soon as possible. She apologised, but said that there was absolutely no point in her doing this, as she could guarantee that no-one would bother to call me back. I was astonished, and pushed the issue. Again, she said that she could seldom get supervisors to accept customer calls when they were in, and she didn't want to make a promise to me that someone would call me back, when she was certain that this wouldn't happen.
She told me that the only thing for me to do was phone again in the morning, again enduring the half-hour hold. Instead, I told her to cancel my order. She apologised but said that she couldn't do that, and, sheepishly, she couldn't transfer me to the relevent department who could cancel my order. Nor could she ask them to call me back. I would have to call them direct, waiting 30 mintes on hold again.
I hung up and then called back. The Advisor I eventually reached encouraged me not to cancel yet and said that they would try and get everything sorted out for me. He also said that, contrary to good old Advisor 3's advice, an engineer's visit would be required in order to activate the line. He promised to arrange this and contact me the next day.
Needless to say, it didn't happen. Nor did it happen the next time they promised me they would sort things.
In the meantime, I tried to get back with BT, but they said that they wouldn't be any quicker, so I decided to take my medicine and wait for Post Office. To be perfectly honest, my spirit was broken by this time. The whole sorry debacle had left me completely and utterly deflated. I wasn't even angry any more.
My phone was eventually connected on 17th December.
In a nutshell then, the Post Office HomePhone service has been, thus far, a staggeringly poor experience :-
Every time you call, you will have a minimum of a 20 minute hold before you get to speak to an Advisor. I have spent over 180 minutes calling them from my mobile phone just to try and get a basic service from them.
Their own staff embarrassingly admit that their customer service is rubbish.
Their database appears to have no capacity for recording notes, therefore you will have to re-state your enquiry/issue/complaint every single time you call or are transferred, and each time it will be like starting from scratch.
When they screw up, the customer suffers and has no apparent route to any form of enhanced attention/remedy. Asking to be put through to a Supervisor to make a complaint will be denied.
This has been a hard lesson for me, and I will take my suffer the Post Office HomePhone for the next 6 months, until, hopefully, I move into a cabled area. But I will never, never choose to deal with them again.
Be warned.
- Lips
I've been a BT customer for over 10 years. I sold my house recently and, in the short-term, took a 6-month rental to give me time to scout around and find a property I want to buy.
BT advised me that I'd have to pay £125 to get the phone switched on at the exchange in the rental property (it had been another supplier, previously.) This was annoying, then they also advised that I'd have to take a minimum 12 month line rental, even though I'm only going to be here for 6 months. The thing that annoyed me most was that I could apparently have 'ported' my existing rental contract, which would have removed this issue, but nobody had advised me of this when I called to cancel my contract. In a fit of pique, I contacted the Post Office and asked then to provide my line. They said they'd only charge £110 to set up the line, and a month-to-month line rental was a-okay. Result, I thought...
I placed the order for my line on 23rd November, and was told that line would be live by 6th December - they would contact me in advance to let me know when exactly an engineer would visit. I didn't hear anything from Post Office, and then on 4th December, I received a call from a BT Openreach engineer, advising me that he'd be at my address in 10 minutes. Unfortunately, I was 30 miles away.... The BT guy said he'd cancel the job and I should contact Post Office to reschedule - he also said this happens a lot with the Post Office.
I called Post Office (with 25 minutes of holding before I got to speak to a person), and they apologised for failing to give me advance notice of the engineer's visit. Worryingly, they also said this 'happens all the time'. Given that this was their error, not mine, I requested that my re-scheduled engineer's visit be given priority. I was promised a call the next day with a new date.
The next day, no-one called.
I eventually phoned Post Office at 7 in the evening, and after over 30 minutes of holding, I got to speak to an Advisor. I was transferred to three different people, each time telling my story, and each time getting a bit more hacked off. By the time I reached Advisor number 3, I was borderline livid - I'd been on the (mobile) phone for over 45 minutes and still hadn't spoken to anyone who was showing any signs of being able to help. I strongly suggested to Advisor 3 that he take ownership of the issue and find a way to help me out. He disappeared off the line for a while and then came back to tell me that, according to his records, there was no need for me to have an engineer's visit. He promised that the line would be connected the next day, with no engineer's visit and no £110 charge. Hurrah!
The next day, though, Advisor 3 called to say that there had been a 'resource issue', and the line would not be going live as promised. The job had been re-allocated for four days later, the 10th at 6pm. Advisor 3 said that, if the line was not live at this time, he'd immediately be on the phone to me to sort things out.
The 10th came, and at 6pm I waited with bated breath for the line to go live. I tried it at 6pm, again at 6:10pm, then 6:30pm etc etc. I phoned Post Office at 7pm. After a 40 minute hold, I eventually spoke to an Advisor, telling her the full story AGAIN, only to be told that she couldn't help me and would have to transfer me. She had no knowledge of who Advisor 3 was, saying that there are three sites that the helpline connects to and it's pot-luck which one you connect to. She transferred me and I then had to tell the full story YET AGAIN to another Advisor, who, unsurprisingly, wasn't able to help me. After a bit of a rant at him, he transferred me back to the original Advisor. I pointed out to this young lady that I was extremely unimpressed by the Post Office, and wanted to speak to a supervisor. I was told that there were no supervisory staff available. I requested that she leave a message for someone senior to call me as soon as possible. She apologised, but said that there was absolutely no point in her doing this, as she could guarantee that no-one would bother to call me back. I was astonished, and pushed the issue. Again, she said that she could seldom get supervisors to accept customer calls when they were in, and she didn't want to make a promise to me that someone would call me back, when she was certain that this wouldn't happen.
She told me that the only thing for me to do was phone again in the morning, again enduring the half-hour hold. Instead, I told her to cancel my order. She apologised but said that she couldn't do that, and, sheepishly, she couldn't transfer me to the relevent department who could cancel my order. Nor could she ask them to call me back. I would have to call them direct, waiting 30 mintes on hold again.
I hung up and then called back. The Advisor I eventually reached encouraged me not to cancel yet and said that they would try and get everything sorted out for me. He also said that, contrary to good old Advisor 3's advice, an engineer's visit would be required in order to activate the line. He promised to arrange this and contact me the next day.
Needless to say, it didn't happen. Nor did it happen the next time they promised me they would sort things.
In the meantime, I tried to get back with BT, but they said that they wouldn't be any quicker, so I decided to take my medicine and wait for Post Office. To be perfectly honest, my spirit was broken by this time. The whole sorry debacle had left me completely and utterly deflated. I wasn't even angry any more.
My phone was eventually connected on 17th December.
In a nutshell then, the Post Office HomePhone service has been, thus far, a staggeringly poor experience :-
Every time you call, you will have a minimum of a 20 minute hold before you get to speak to an Advisor. I have spent over 180 minutes calling them from my mobile phone just to try and get a basic service from them.
Their own staff embarrassingly admit that their customer service is rubbish.
Their database appears to have no capacity for recording notes, therefore you will have to re-state your enquiry/issue/complaint every single time you call or are transferred, and each time it will be like starting from scratch.
When they screw up, the customer suffers and has no apparent route to any form of enhanced attention/remedy. Asking to be put through to a Supervisor to make a complaint will be denied.
This has been a hard lesson for me, and I will take my suffer the Post Office HomePhone for the next 6 months, until, hopefully, I move into a cabled area. But I will never, never choose to deal with them again.
Be warned.
- Lips
0
Comments
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cheers for that.
I was considering the Post Office in Feb when i can ditch Virgin Media.0 -
walt for the non turn up of bills then you get a letter saying you are late and they are going to turn of your phone0
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kkpolobear wrote: »walt for the non turn up of bills then you get a letter saying you are late and they are going to turn of your phone
Are they still having billing problems. I recall them having major billing problems in 2006. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bbphone/article.html?in_article_id=413962&in_page_id=182&ct=5
In most cases (apart from cable phones ) where a line exists and the wiring and main socket etc still work, they can connect customers by taking over the line from the existing provider. If they do this they should not be charging a connection charge.But they tend to forget this.0 -
yes they are still my mum as been with them for about 7 months now and as only just got a bill yesterday after all the calls to them to get it sorted.Are they still having billing problems. I recall them having major billing problems in 2006. http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/bbphone/article.html?in_article_id=413962&in_page_id=182&ct=5
In most cases (apart from cable phones ) where a line exists and the wiring and main socket etc still work, they can connect customers by taking over the line from the existing provider. If they do this they should not be charging a connection charge.But they tend to forget this.
and her line is dead today now for non payment and they want an reconnection fee for not paying her bill on time. its a joke with these cow boys0 -
Just wondering if anyine can give me any help.
My elderly Father was persuaded by the post office to change from Bt for his homephone line only.
He has broadband provided by Aol.
The switchover date was December 14th & on this date the internet also stopped working -now the nightmare...
The post office say that as they are only providing the home phone & not the internet that it is impossible that the internet stopped working because of them & it must be another fault & and just a coincidence that it happened on the same day of the switchover.
Bt say "it is nothing do with us" (rightly I suppose)
When I spoke to Aol they said its nothing to with them & the router must have broken & its a coincidence that it happened on switchover day.
We tried a new router & it still does not work.
Now I am tearing my hair out,I have spent hours speaking to all three companies(mostly on hold!!)& I have no idea what to do next.:mad:
I am hoping that someone can give me some advice -I am finding it hard to swallow that it is just a coincidence that the internet stopped working the same day as the phone line switched over,but everyone is denying that it may be there problem.
Also my Father is happy to change back to BT,but I wonder if this will solve the problem
Any help would be very gratefully received
Thank you0 -
0
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utilitybroker wrote: »
Thanks for that,it does seem they have a lot of problems -do you think it is a coincidence that the broadband stopped working on the same day as the phone switchover?0 -
I've actually abandoned the idea of saving a few pennies in return for poor customer service, an inferior product and loads of hassle.
I moved the the Phone Co-op a year ago and have not regretted it. They are small, but actually answer the phone when you call, and as a consumer co-operative actually show an interest in looking after their members.
Might be worth a try??
http://www.phone.coop/residential/testimonials.html0 -
We was left in the lurch after our last phone provider said they was having problems and leaving the home phone buisness and we should find a new provider straight away.Soon after we was cut off.
We decided to go to the Post Office ( was tempted with there broadband as well but to be honest we are very happy with NewNet so stayed with them ).
The Post office said our line would change over on January the 3rd ( yesterday ),which it did.Will keep you informed about our experience with them.0 -
Royal Mail Group PLC can't even deliver non-business mail in good time (I'm forever phoning to complain and then it appears within hours).
Anything they sell/do at their Post Office Counters ltd business is bound to be poor because they are just reselling what seems to be rubbish products in the main from people who are already reselling.
The RM is dead as a public service so I certainly wouldn't trust them with my phone or broadband.0
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