BT Broadband Nightmare

lokiman

Sigh....................Right, here we go..............after dealing with BT this morning, I truly feel like I've woken up as a stranger in a strange land that is beyond the comprehension of mere mortals.

A bit of necessary backstory: I've just moved back to the country after spending 15+ years abroad, and my wife and I have been living with the in-laws since September of last year. When we first moved in, I wanted a broadband connection, and chose BT Broadband Option 3. Because the phone line at the premises was at the time in the sole name of my mother in law, BT said that it couldn't create a Broadband account in my name - it had to be in the name of my mother in law (who wouldn't know a computer, even if one smacked her across her face). My mother in law had her phone service via Post Office Phone, but this didn't matter: a BT Broadband account could only be set up in the name of the phone service account holder. So my mother in law graciously set up the broadband account in her sole name.

Fast forward to today, then: my wife and I are due to complete on the purchase of a house of Friday, so we're in the process of making final arrangements for utilities, etc. So, I call BT about creating a new phone account for our new premises, and to move the existing Broadband service to the new premises, too. Well, they said, they'd be happy to have me as a new phone customer, but they couldn't move the broadband service to the new premises, because the phone account would be in my name, and the existing broadband account was in my mother in law's name. No problem, I say, just add my name to the broadband account and transfer the service in the same way that you'd transfer the service of anybody that moved house. Not so fast: they refuse to subtract or add any names to and from accounts (despite the fact that I am now named as a co-account holder on my mother in law's phone). They will set up a brand new BT Broadband account in my sole name for the new premises but, get this, they won't discontinue the BT Broadband account for the old premises because there's an 18 month minimum contract period, so I'm expected to pay for two completely separate accounts, only one of which is needed, simply because BT won't add my name to an existing account, and won't move the account to my new premises.

I have to say, it's quite surreal to start out the day in trying to become a new BT phone customer, and to transfer an existing broadband service, only to end up doing neither.........................

peter_the_piper

The easy answer is to ditch BT, if you are out of contract, and go to a good ISP.One who's idea of customer service is to actually help their customer. I'm sorry this would not be of much help if you are still under contract.

milla

lokiman hi !

It is possible because I'm doing it!
I live with my father ...the bt phone bill is in his name .
I have a BT BB account in my name at this address .

lokiman

peter_the_piper wrote: »

The easy answer is to ditch BT, if you are out of contract, and go to a good ISP.One who's idea of customer service is to actually help their customer. I'm sorry this would not be of much help if you are still under contract.

Well, I think that's good advice. The fact that they won't even add me as an additional named account holder is particularly infuriating. None of the other utility providers had a problem with this, just BT. When we first moved back, in order to have utility bills, etc to show when opening a bank account, my wife and I had our names added to the existing electricity, gas and sky tv accounts. None of those service providers had any problem in adding our names (why would they? It's in their interests to have as many named account holders as possible, after all). I'm just disgusted by BT's tactics: we won't put you on the existing account, we won't move the account to your new address and you can't terminate the account that we're refusing to move. !!!!!!!s.................

lokiman

milla wrote: »

lokiman hi !

It is possible because I'm doing it!
I live with my father ...the phone bill is in his name .
I have a BB account in my name at this address .

Ah, the problem is that BT refused to set up the broadband account in my name in the first place (something that they seem to have let you do). Having refused to set the account up in my name from the outset, they won't add my name at this stage. I've been on the phone for about three hours this morning to BT, to about eight different people in various departments, and they are all telling me exactly the same thing (with varying degrees of sympathy for what is a screwed-up scenario).

milla

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
now where's that number for Watchdog !!

kr15snw

Now thats unusual. One of my friends has just moved back to Plymouth from Bristol. Due to not having his own place yet his living with his parents until he buys somewhere.

He has BT broadband and has it in HIS name on his PARENTS phoneline. They said to do this so that he could take it with him as his parents also have no idea about computers etc.

Think your being had...

lokiman

kr15snw wrote: »

Now thats unusual. One of my friends has just moved back to Plymouth from Bristol. Due to not having his own place yet his living with his parents until he buys somewhere.

He has BT broadband and has it in HIS name on his PARENTS phoneline. They said to do this so that he could take it with him as his parents also have no idea about computers etc.

Think your being had...

Well, there are two aspects to it, I suppose:

1. Is it correct that the broadband account must be in the name of the phone account holder? From the above responses, it would seem not, which begs the question as to why I was misled by the customer service agent that opened the account in the first place. I asked for the account to be in my name, and was emphatically told that it could not.

2. Why will BT not allow me to be put onto the account as an additional named account holder? I would never have agreed to an account to being opened in my mother in law's name, if there was no way of adding me to the account at a later date, and no way to move the account to my new address at a later date.

knightstyle

Ring 02073565000 and ask to speak to a COT team manager or for one to ring you back.
I did and he sorted out my problem.
Oh, and insist he Emails you to confirm your conversation/result.
Good luck.

milla

"1. Is it correct that the broadband account must be in the name of the phone account holder? From the above responses, it would seem not, which begs the question as to why I was misled by the customer service agent that opened the account in the first place. I asked for the account to be in my name, and was emphatically told that it could not."


No ...my BT BB account is in my name .The phone bill is in Dad's name

lokiman

Well, it *seems* to have been resolved, after spending an afternoon on the phone being passed around various BT departments. As advised, I went to COT first, who passed me to customer service, who passed me to home movers (no, I'm not exaggerating, I swear), who passed me to broadband, who passed me back to customer service, who passed me back to COT, who passed me back to customer service, who passed me back again to COT. Luckily, I got passed back to the same guy in COT, who realized how ridiculous the situation was, and he seems to have been able to sort it out. Basically, it would appear that we were misold the original broadband contract, in that the customer service agent who set up the account should never have insisted that it had to go in my my mother in law's name. There are, apparently, circumstances where the broadband account has to be in the name of the account holder for the phone service, but these didn't apply in my case. The account should never have been in my name, so they've agreed to terminate the existing 18 month contract, waive the cancellation fee and set up a new account in my name at my new address.

I still don't logically understand why BT doesn't allow third parties to be added as named account holders on existing accounts, as every other utility provider that I've come across does, but at least the problem has been solved now, albeit in a roundabout way.

Cheers for the info, guys.