Every few years since I moved in (1985) the line went faulty during really windy weather. I would report it to BT who would argue it was my phone that was faulty. I would have to go out and buy a new phone just to prove them wrong, then they would argue it was the internal wiring that was at fault not the external line. I would then have to remove all the extensions to prove them wrong. A couple of years ago after some high winds I attempted to report the same old problem yet again but got the same old spiel..’your phone is faulty, your internal wiring is faulty’ anything but accepting their line was faulty, as it had been on every occasion since 1985.

On this occasion I got so incensed at the attitude of the person I was speaking to I told them to stick their land line and went fully mobile.

Best thing I ever did. I advise everyone with a BT land line to do the same. I even use 3G mobile for my broadband needs and a couple of cheap mobiles for phone calls. There is an alterative to crap service…take your custom elsewhere.

All my problems have now been resolved – I can't say speedily or without stress. I can't say that as a customer I was 100% satisfied with their customer service.

What I can say is that after a lot of trouble and inconvenience I did manage to speak to a couple of people who did offer genuine customer assistance and one in particular was able to resolve my issues and provide me with a bill-free period in compensation.

WISH WE COULD GET BT CLOSED DOWN!

I called Ofcom and made an official complaint against BT. They gave me a special ‘Ofcom dedicated complaints referral number’ – 0800 7312762. It got answered immediately by someone in the UK who had more than two braincells and, after giving my Ofcom complaint reference number, he sorted the problem within 24hours.

Why does it take these lengths to get half decent customer service??? I urge people to official complain to Ofcom (BT get a slapped wrist if too many people complain) and vote with their feet by leaving BT (if you can as they have a bit of a monopoly).

Luckily i am emigrating, and will hopefully never have to be a BT customer again. A truly dreadful company.

The BT complaints blog is http://www.btcomplaint.com so those of you who wish to submit their complaint can and I will include it in a report that will be sent not only to BT but to Offcom, Watchdog and other authorities. Together, I would like to think we can change things.

BT in their wisdom cut her phone line in the old property off on 27th July, since then I have been on the phone to their useless customer service department for over 4.5 hours and basically achieved sod all! I have spoken to at least 9 different people in the last 2 days, most of them indian and obviously unable to make any form of decision. Can anybody please tell me why in the current economic climate BT has to hive off their call centre to India – don’t they make enouogh money off us to offer the unemployed in the UK work?

BT have admitted that it was their “error” that caused my mum’s phone line to be cut off early, but it will take them three working days to reinstall it. They cannot explain exactly what is involved that takes that length of time, they will not give me an address to write to in order to complain, and when I asked to speak to somebody in the UK I was informed that if I kept ringing the customer service number eventually somebody in the UK might pick it up.

I own a business and all I can say if I treated my customers in the arbitory fashion that BT do, well I guess I would not have a business. I am really angry and upset how can they leave somebody who is so vulnerable in this position?

How can a company like this continue to operate? Apparently they “aim to give excellent service”… but I’ve never met anyone who’s received it from them. Any comments?

So what is BT’s response to this threat? Make members of this already under-staffed department redundant – that is the level of service you can expect. This demonstrates that any bull fed to you is purely lip service.

Anyone reading this should make their views know to the chairman’s office as they are the only people who can stop this!

I have complained to BT, because thanks to them there is a possibility of him knowing where I am again, so I have no choice but to move my girls and I once again, someone at BT is accountable for this.

Upon contacting them they would tell us they are going to do some tests and call us back only to leave us waiting for day on end for the callback. They would take our details every time we called but when they tried to call us back they would call on a random number each time, almost like they had pulled it out of the air and being a communications company just assumed that it would connect to us.

We have had engneers sent out to us only to then go home after spending 30 seconds looking for us and failing, not calling so pissing off.

We are currently having internet problems now and we are all stressing as we have upcomming deadlines and are unable to work – I am working till 5AM most nights from home as it is the only way I can meet the deadline.

BT are the worst company I have ever had the displeasure of working with and i urge EVERYONE to stay away if at all possible.

All complaints have gone ignorred and they have offered us £180 compensation for the thousands lost.

My blood boils!

All my problems have now been resolved – I can’t say speedily or without stress. I can’t say that as a customer I was 100% satisfied with their customer service.

What I can say is that after a lot of trouble and inconvenience I did manage to speak to a couple of people who did offer genuine customer assistance and one in particular was able to resolve my issues and provide me with a bill-free period in compensation.

It worked for me.

James

————————————————————

Firstly, I ask you to please respond ASAP.

I would like to tell you my story of joining BT. I cannot remember all of the exact dates but they are roughly correct.

I signed up to BT over the telephone in April 2008. I did not have a phone line installed at my new address so this was the first thing which I needed to arrange. I booked an install date for the line and it was arranged for over three weeks later. I was given the option of the engineer to arrive in the morning or the afternoon. I had meetings in the afternoon so I agreed for the engineer to arrive in the morning.

On the day of the install I was up at 8 and awaiting the engineer. He was due to come between 8am -1pm so I waited until 12.30pm before contacting BT. After speaking to several different people at customer services (CS) I was told that no-one knew where the engineer was and someone would call me back. I waited until 2 o’clock but hadn’t heard anything, so again contacted BT. Again, after waiting over half an hour to speak to the right person, I was told someone would call me back. This went on for the rest of day until 6.30pm when finally I was told the engineer was not coming. It was arranged he would come first thing in the morning and that I needed to be in.

I woke the following day and awaited the engineers arrival. I rung customer services in the morning to find out if he was definitely going to be coming and I was told he was. Again I waited until lunchtime and no one arrived. After attempting to contact CS and being transfered, cut off and generally waiting a long time, I was told no one could get hold of the engineer.
After three days of this an engineer finally fitted the line,to the incorrect address.
After long arguments with your CS team an engineer finally came out 1 week later to install to the correct address.

I moved house 24th Sept and informed BT 3 weeks before so that all my services could be moved to my new address.
BT cut off all my services early (2 weeks early.)

Then it took 1 month for the services to be up and running at my new address(which i had to pay £120 installation charge)

I was also charged a cancelation fee of £96 when i didn’t cancel my account i simply moved house.

BT also placed me on an new 18 month contract when i moved without consulting me. Scraping my old account which was a 12 month term 6 months served.

I have been having issues with my account for over 9 months now and no one had been able to assist me. It was even a problem for over 6 months that my name couldn’t even be spelt correctly on the database, even though informing over 20 different people at BT.

I have also sent three recorded delivery letters to the Correspondence Centre to which I have had no reply.

Finally, after speaking with Mohan, some of my issues appeared to be resolved.

I had recently received a letter from credit solutions asking for an outstanding balance of £72. This was from an account which had been closed over 3 months previously and also, over the phone, I had made the final bill pament. I had made a final payment and closed the account back in October so this was ridiculous.

My girlfriend spoke to Mohan (India Billing Services) 2 days ago, he agreed to pay back a credit that was outstanding to me and also a disconnection charge you should not have charged me when I MOVED MY SERVICES FROM MY OLD ADDRESS TO THE NEW ONE.

I have this morning received a phone call from Credit Solutions asking why the payment hasn’t been made. After contact BT, the customer services advisor told me that I still had to pay the amount and it was outstanding for a final Bill. Apparently there was no note on the computer, it was only after I repeatedly asked to speak to a manager that she came back with the response that it would be paid by BT.

My main issues of concern were from when I moved address. I had agreed to the new installation charge of £120 for the new phone line. After that

For these inconveniences I am to bill BT for my time on the phone, days off work and loss of services.

On the 7th January 2009 my partner managed to speak to one of your managers, Mohan from the India customer services who was very helpful. I would like to thank him for doing all in his power to resolve some of my issues but even his attempts have done very little.

13.01.2009 A further £123.50 was taken from my bank account, no bill! After i had instructed BT to cancel all direct payments until all the matters were resolved. I have occurred further bank charges! £38.

Also on the 13.01.09 your agent would not put me through to a manager, when i finally got through after requesting so 18 times your manager hung up on me!

Please also note that several letters have been sent to BT with no response.
I have also sent a copy of this letter to the ombudsmen for which I am awaiting a reply. As you can see, I have very much been inconvenienced by BT.

I await your response.

The website states the following

How much does it cost?
If there’s a working BT line in your new property connection should be free of charge, but if the line needs to be reconnected to BT or a new line is required a connection charge of £122.33 will apply. Our advisors will confirm this when you call.

We were not told about this

I’m glad to hear that you’ve got a good result. I must say that that tactic is generally very effective – I had similar results when I e-mailed the CEO of Virgin. The trick is to be polite and concise, these people are very busy and important and care not for whining.

I agree though it is a shame that not everybody experiences their better end of customer service.