BT- Ultimatum

[Gully]

Last week my home phone line developed a serious crackle on the line, so bad that you couldn't hear a caller clearly and at times my broadband crashed every minute or so. On Thursday evening I phoned BT and reached their call-centre, probably located in India judging by the accent of the gentleman who answered. I told them what the problem was and went through some half-arsed diagnosis which involved removing the cover on the phone socket and connecting the phone to a hidden slot, the problem remained.

An appointment was made for an engineer to attend as soon as possible, I couldn't take time off yesterday so arranged for this afternoon between 1300 and 1800, perfect. Later on Thursday I received a text from BT saying that the problem had been resolved, marvellous I thought as it meant I would be able to use my internet without fear of it cutting out at the most inconvenient moment, the crackle remained on the line. I phoned BT immediately to break the good news and check that the engineer would still be calling round on Tuesday (today), the lady on the other end confirmed this would be the case.

Today on leaving work, having taken an afternoon off, I received a text saying that BT were still working to resolve the problem. I thought that this was pretty efficient as it would probably only be another couple of hours before my phone was back to normal. On the text was a website address where you could check up progress on fault rectification, so out of idle curiousity I called it up. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the engineer appointment was booked for yesterday, not today, even though I had explained that I definitely wouldn't be available on Monday.

I then phoned BT and asked for confirmation that the engineer would be here this afternoon. The bloke on the other end told me that wasn't possible and the earliest appointment available was for tomorrow, which is no good at all as I need to be back in work. I then politely requested that someone from the company in the UK call me by 4pm today to explain why I should not move my phone line to another company, also that if they failed to do so that they had lost a customer.

I am not expecting a call to come, there is about 15 minutes to go before I move elsewhere. Has anyone else been met with such incompetance from BT?

 

[The Large One]

Moved from them yonks ago.

However, even with 10 minutes left, make good on your threat. If they'd valued your custom, they'd have called back pretty quickly - not at a time close to your deadline just to say that they'd done what was asked. That sort of blind incompetence (they'll turn up when they see fit, not when it's convenient to you) does drive you round the twist.

Even more cheekily, Virgin (who I'm with) say that they will charge you if their engineer turns up and you're not available. I wonder if they would take a few quid off the bill when the boot is on the other foot.

 

[Gully]

Even more cheekily, Virgin (who I'm with) say that they will charge you if their engineer turns up and you're not available. I wonder if they would take a few quid off the bill when the boot is on the other foot.

That sounds harsh but relatively fair, if I make an appointment for a certain time then I will turn up for it, alternatively if someone is coming to see me then I will be waiting for them at the appointed hour. I am thinking of combining phone and broadband and moving to Virgin. They have cable in our street, which has to be faster and more reliable than trusting internet to ages old BT phone lines.

 

[wittaz1985]

I have been having the exact same problem with a crackle on the line and the internet dropping out numerous times on a daily basis. It is very frustrating.
We have had 3 engineers out to sort the problem, but it continues still.
The first 'engineer' removed 'cobwebs and dirt' from the grey box on the outside of the house. This seemed to work for a month at least before the interference returned and the internet began dropping out again.
Second engineer came and replaced our phone socket inside the house. This worked for about 2 weeks before the interference returned.
Third engineer came out, inspected the line at the bottom of the road, as well as connections about 300 metres away! But he couldn't fix it, so the problem persists.

We also received numerous text messages that the fault had been repaired. When clearly it hadn't.

As of today we have cancelled BT and gone with Southern Electric. We'll be phoning them very soon to see what they can do!

 

[The Large One]

That sounds harsh but relatively fair, if I make an appointment for a certain time then I will turn up for it, alternatively if someone is coming to see me then I will be waiting for them at the appointed hour. I am thinking of combining phone and broadband and moving to Virgin. They have cable in our street, which has to be faster and more reliable than trusting internet to ages old BT phone lines.

I have Virgin broadband, TV and phone.

I don't actually want the phone because their deal is more expensive than using my mobile phone, so I rarely use it. However, I can 'broadband' or 'phone' or 'broadband & phone', or 'broadband, phone & TV' - but NOT 'broadband & TV' only.

The TV service is pretty reliable. The broadband is usually OK. Can sometimes be excellent, but occasionally kicks out completely. Cue 15 minutes phone-call only to receive the message 'there is a technical fault in your area, and we are working on it...'

 

[beorhthelm]

move away from BT if it makes you feel better. you'll still have to wait for a BT engineer to fix any line problems/

 

[Manx Shearwater]

As of today we have cancelled BT and gone with Southern Electric. We'll be phoning them very soon to see what they can do!

Use the same incompetent BT Openreach engineers and appointments system as BT Retail use.

The only genuine alternative which does not rely on the awful BT Openreach (as the nation's guardians of the old BT local access network infrastructure) is Virgin, who operate their own local access network.

 

[wehatepalace]

Don't talk to me about BT, a week a go Friday BT dug a hole just down the road from my house, on arriving home that evening I found myself with no phonelines and thus no internet.

So I phoned the call centre in India and told them about the hole etc and the chap tests our line and confirmed that there was indeed a fault, he then in formed me that no engineers work at the weekend and it would be the following week before someone could repair the line.

On Tuesday my wife got home to find a card through the door from BT saying that we had missed our appointment & to phone and re-book. (we had never made an appointment !)

So I duly phoned the call centre in India who then said that the earliest an Engineer could visit was Friday, I then told them about the hole again but the chap insisted that the fault was inside my premises.

Friday came around, the engineer arrived, tested the line and said the fault was in the hole that had now been filled in !!!!! He made a call and said that it would be 4-5 days before they could dig it up again !

I told the engineer all about my phone calls and to be fair to the guy he called someone & had a massive shouting match with whoever he was talking to and managed to get them to dig up the hole again within the hour and now is all fixed.
I am now waiting to hear about a refund on my bill for the week that I have been without my service.

I just cannot believe the sheer incompetence from BT although the engineer was 1st class, and frustratingly, I think if I had been able to speak to someone in England this saga would have been rectified a lot quicker, but it is made impossibe to do so !

All this due to a fault THEY had caused whilst digging said hole !
In other words BT utter tosh !

 

[Gully]

Don't talk to me about BT, a week a go Friday BT dug a hole just down the road from my house, on arriving home that evening I found myself with no phonelines and thus no internet.
hole that had week that I have been without my service.

A large part of the original text has been removed, however the context and meaning remain unaffected.

In other words BT utter tosh !

A couple of weeks ago someone digging a hole on the outskirts of the city cut through a BT cable with a mole, this resulted in most of the BT customers losing their phone lines and broadband for about ten days. Somewhat surprisingly, considering my neighbours had been cut off, my phone remained working...at least until the crackle developed. I am beginning to think it was some sort of pay-back, at least until reading some of your comments.

I am now trying to decide whether to go for the grand-slam with Virgin (phone+broadband+tv)...then I can also tell Sky to do one, citing their involvement with the Murdoch clan as the reason for losing my custom!

 

[The Antikythera Mechanism]

I decided to move from Sky Broadband to BT Infinity as all Sky could provide was 1.5mb. The BT Infinity "Engineer" arrived and did all sorts of rewiring, but couldn't install the Broadband as he said there was an earth contact on the line somewhere between the house and the exchange 5 miles away. A BT Openspace "Engineer" was booked in for an 8am - 1pm slot the following week, turned up at 2pm and took 4 hours to find the earth contact in a manhole outside our property. Another appointment was made for BT Infinity for 8am - 1am the following week. At 2pm I phoned them up and was told that there was a fault at the exchange and that was why no one had turned up. To add insult to injury they said that they knew of the fault at 6.30pm the previous day, but nobody had bothered to contact us. They then promised to phone back with a guaranteed 8am appointment. That was two weeks ago. I won't be phoning them again.

 

[Amahwrang]

I left BT for pretty much the same reason we were left without phone and internet for nearly 3 months. Kept booking appointments and either the engineer would not show up, I'd get a text sayin engineer had called and we were out when we had not got an appointment and text's saying prblem had been fixed when it had not. I'm currently counter claiming in the Sheriffs court against the £123 bill outstanding.

 

[bhaexpress]

Last week my home phone line developed a serious crackle on the line, so bad that you couldn't hear a caller clearly and at times my broadband crashed every minute or so. On Thursday evening I phoned BT and reached their call-centre, probably located in India judging by the accent of the gentleman who answered. I told them what the problem was and went through some half-arsed diagnosis which involved removing the cover on the phone socket and connecting the phone to a hidden slot, the problem remained.

An appointment was made for an engineer to attend as soon as possible, I couldn't take time off yesterday so arranged for this afternoon between 1300 and 1800, perfect. Later on Thursday I received a text from BT saying that the problem had been resolved, marvellous I thought as it meant I would be able to use my internet without fear of it cutting out at the most inconvenient moment, the crackle remained on the line. I phoned BT immediately to break the good news and check that the engineer would still be calling round on Tuesday (today), the lady on the other end confirmed this would be the case.

Today on leaving work, having taken an afternoon off, I received a text saying that BT were still working to resolve the problem. I thought that this was pretty efficient as it would probably only be another couple of hours before my phone was back to normal. On the text was a website address where you could check up progress on fault rectification, so out of idle curiousity I called it up. Imagine my surprise when I saw that the engineer appointment was booked for yesterday, not today, even though I had explained that I definitely wouldn't be available on Monday.

I then phoned BT and asked for confirmation that the engineer would be here this afternoon. The bloke on the other end told me that wasn't possible and the earliest appointment available was for tomorrow, which is no good at all as I need to be back in work. I then politely requested that someone from the company in the UK call me by 4pm today to explain why I should not move my phone line to another company, also that if they failed to do so that they had lost a customer.

I am not expecting a call to come, there is about 15 minutes to go before I move elsewhere. Has anyone else been met with such incompetance from BT?

Repeatedly, I have done a lot of network support. I could list umpteen examples but take my word for it, they are shite. However, whoever you use at some point BT have a hand in your communication. Still vote with your feet and go elsewhere anyway.

 

[bhaexpress]

Moved from them yonks ago.

However, even with 10 minutes left, make good on your threat. If they'd valued your custom, they'd have called back pretty quickly - not at a time close to your deadline just to say that they'd done what was asked. That sort of blind incompetence (they'll turn up when they see fit, not when it's convenient to you) does drive you round the twist.

Even more cheekily, Virgin (who I'm with) say that they will charge you if their engineer turns up and you're not available. I wonder if they would take a few quid off the bill when the boot is on the other foot.

I've just gone to Virgin, initially their engineer couldn't get my broadband working, he was quite embarrassed when I did. Having said that he was an installation engineer and not the most experienced IT person I have ever met. It's fine now BTW.

 

[willyfantastic]

we had the same problem with a crackling line and intermittant disconnects during phone calls. turned out it was due to phone cables touching down the road. although the fault was, to an extent, fixed, line quality improved and no more disconnects. the phone line is still woeful, and hard to hear people at the best of times. BT wont accept it as their problem, nightmare.

 

[Lincoln Imp]

I was with 02 because of its BT heritage for years and years. The tale of my mobile phone disaster is too boring to inflict on others but can I just say that my MP was incredibly helpful and the thieves at phone company backed off the instant he became involved. It was almost disappointingly easy.

I have never voted for him and I don't suppose I ever will, but take a bow Nick Herbert, Tory member for Arundel.

 

[Shirty]

Had massive problems with BT Broadband a few years back which resulted in numerous phonecalls to India (and them never having a record of previous phone calls). Eventually I got them to cancel my 12 month contract after about 5 months and moved to PlusNet, who had an excellent customer service reputation at the time. Unfortuantely they were subsequently bought by BT, and when the broadband went tits again earlier this year I was back to square one (albeit talking to Yorkshire instead of India)...

Not sure there is really a right answer, as with most companies nowadays, once they've got your money they loose interest in customer service...

 

[element]

BT will charge you £30 if you stop their BB service, and go to Virgin. It's in the small print, and is to do with a MAC code. Pissed me off no end when it happened to me...

 

[Mileoakman]

BT will charge you £30 if you stop their BB service, and go to Virgin. It's in the small print, and is to do with a MAC code. Pissed me off no end when it happened to me...

Didn't think you needed a MAC code if you go to Virgin as its a completely different system and doesn't use BT exchanges.

 

[element]

Didn't think you needed a MAC code if you go to Virgin as its a completely different system and doesn't use BT exchanges.

That is exactly the point. If you use a MAC code when you go to another ISP, you are still using BT's line, and therefore they get a cut of the line fee. When you go to Virgin, you don't use BT's line, therefore they don't make any money out of the deal and charge you the £30

 

[Manx Shearwater]

Didn't think you needed a MAC code if you go to Virgin as its a completely different system and doesn't use BT exchanges.

I agree. You only need a MAC code if you are switching ADSL providers in the local BT exchange. The local Virgin network (certainly in Brighton) is totally separate from the BT network.