Sheer BT incompetence

[Hullabaloo27]

To save time, here is a copy of my emailed complaint to BT -

Dear Sir / Madam,

I'm afraid that recent events have left me with no option but to lodge a formal complaint with regards to my appalling service thus far. At the beginning of July 08, I made a call to you to arrange the installation of a new line at my new apartment. I received a welcome letter and engineer visit date / time within the same for 11 July between 8-1pm. I also received a text confirmation of the same, which was great.

As it was a weekday, I obviously booked the morning off work to attend. On the 11th I waited until 1pm before ringing you to ask where the engineer was. After some time, the operative said that the engineer hadn't needed to visit as it was an external connection, and that the line would go live later that evening. This again was fine. However, when I tried the line, it was clearly dead. I tried several more times over that weekend, all with the same result. I rang you back to find out what the problem was, only to be told that another engineer had to be sent out, this time the date given was 17th July between 1pm and 6pm. A text duly arrived to confirm this. Again, this was important enough to book time off work, so waited until 2pm today before ringing you to make sure the engineer was coming. It was only then was I told that there was yet another problem, and that an engineer had been rebooked for July 22nd???

This is quite frankly not acceptable and am now asking for an emergency engineer visit, plus compensation for 2 half days needlessly booked off work (actually 3 if you count the 22nd July).

Please respond asap. Regards, Hullabaloo27.

[Hullabaloo27]

Their first response (basically offering me a paltry £10 per half day booked off work!!!)



Dear Hullabaloo27,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 17/7/08 about your BT Service.

I am very sorry to know about the difficulties you have experienced. Without doubt, this is not the standard of service BT aims to provide. BT is very much aware of our commitment to provide first class customer service and I very much regret that we have failed you, a valued customer on this occasion.

Following this I feel I must appologise for the poor level of service that you have recently been subjected to through your contact with BT. Please be assured that this is definitely not the level of service that BT as a company aims to provide for our customers.

I have seen that this is an ongoing issue and still it is not resolve. I would like to provide you a detailed information about your complaint:

I have checked your account details and would like to inform you that:

The order is in progress and your line is scheduled to be active on 22/07/2008.

The appointment for an engineer is also booked for the same day. You will also get a confirmation for that same.

I can confirm that there is no problem with the order and would like to confirm the installation address :

************

Now, as you have missed two appointments, I have provided you a credit of £10 for each missed appointment for the inconvenience caused to you as a goodwill gesture. It will be reflected in your future bill.

Once again, I appologise for the inconvenience caused to you and assure you of better service in future. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Ranjeet
eContact Customer Service
Ref: *********

Basically a bog standard generic reply from India, with an awful 'compensation' amount shoved on the bottom

[Hullabaloo27]

My reply (apologies if I've lost anyone already ):

Dear Ranjeet,

Many thanks for your reply, and apologies for having to leave the call earlier as I was in work, and as you're aware, I've missed enough work of late due to this topic. The response you sent below was appreciated, however the top half did indeed seem to be something of a generic customer complaint response.

I find the offer of only £10 per missed appointment to be derogatory, bearing in mind the 3 full half days I have now had to book off work to attend the appointments, 2 of which were not even fulfilled by your engineers. Whilst I do not expect full salary recompense, I'm certainly not aware of any legal jobs that pay just £20 per day!!!

I shall leave it to you to improve this offer, to a far more reasonable sum for my inconvenience and usage of 1.5 days annual leave.

Kind regards

Hullabaloo27

[Hullabaloo27]

Their reply:

Dear Hullabaloo27,

Thank you for your e-mail dated 23/7/08 about the compensation amount.

I am sorry for problem you have been facing regarding the compensation amount for missing appointment.

In response to your E mail, I have checked your account details and found that your line has been activated and you have set up Monthly payment plan for £41.00, however I have seen that your first appointment was booked for 17/07/2008 which engineer did not turned up to your property to install the line.

Furthermore, I would like to inform you that your line activation date was 22/07/2008 and you line is already installed. I understand that you are not satisfied with the BT services and the compensation amount for £10.00 as you have been informed in your previous response, However I would like to inform you that BT cannot give you the compensation amount more then £10.00 because this amount is for one month line rental for your option and we cannot provide more then that amount.

I understand that you have waisted the whole day and the half of the day, however according to the BT policy we cannot give you the more then £10.00 compensation.

Please accept my apologies for any inconvenience you may have been caused and my thanks for your patience and co-operation in this matter.

If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours faithfully,


£10 per half day!!!

[Hullabaloo27]

Dear Miss ******,

I'm afraid to say that your records are clearly incorrect as I have your own letters in front of me (and the two associated texts on mobile phone and emailed to myself for storage) stating that the first appointment was 11th July 2008 between 8am-1pm, and this was the first half day I booked off.

The second was the 17th July 2008 between 1pm and 6pm, and finally the 3rd appointment, which was attended by your engineer, was 22nd July 2008 between 1pm-6pm. The fact that your records do not even reflect the most basic of information does not instill great confidence in me, that you actually know what has happened. You also contradict yourself by stating that the max amount of commission is £10, when you've already offered me a paltry £20. It is with this in mind, that I urge you to reconsider your offer of compensation.

Should this not be acceptable, then I will have no option but to escalate this matter still further to your regulatory body, OFTEL.

Regards

Hulla

[Hullabaloo27]

Dear Hulla,

Thank you for your E-mail dated 24/7/08 about your BT Account.

I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you with BT.

I have checked your account and would like to confirm you that as per our records line has been activated on 17/07/2008. I am sorry if the engineer missed your appointment and connected your lines later.

Furthermore, I would like to confirm you that you have been provided with the compensation of £20 on 21/07/2008 for the inconvenience caused to you. This compensation of £20 is going to reflect in next bill which is going to generate on 22/10/2008.

Once again, I am sorry for the inconvenience caused to you and for the incorrect information given to you in the previous mail regarding the compensation.

If you have further queries please do not hesitate to contact me again via E-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

[Hullabaloo27]

Ok, ok last one for now!!!

Dear ********

I write to you to offer you a final opportunity to reimburse me with an appropriate amount for my 1.5 days of annual leave used to get my BT line connected, despite the first two half days being completely unnecessary as your engineer did not bother to turn up, nor did I receive prior notification of this (as laid out in my previous email correspondence attached below).

I also point your attention to the following BT connection charge offer, which you have not yet applied to my account:

Notices 2008 25/08 Calling Plans - Line Connection Special Offer

Can you please attend to both of the issue above immediately, or I will have no option but to escalate this to OFTEL and a higher level within your own organisation.

Sent yesterday. I'd be happy with the connection charge refunded and a few other titbits if I'm honest. The refund of the connection charge should be ok, as it now forms a part of their new campaign, which was unfortunately not explained to me at the time

[legalpickle]

Well there's at least one mistake in your e-mail! Oftel don't exist! It's been Ofcom for the past several years!

They also don't deal with these sorts of consumer complaints, you have to either go through the relevant company complaints procedure and then complain to their ADR scheme [for BT it's Otelo I believe] or issue court proceedings after sending them a letter as such.

Has the line now been connected? How many half days/days did you miss off work? Can you prove how much you earn per hour [after taxes] and did you lose this when you took off, or did the company waive it?

What I suggest doing is writing a letter both to the BT complaints department and their registered office threatening legal action if they don't satisfactorily settle your complaints within 14 days.

Knowing BT they won't respond at all. Then after 14 days you've got to decide if to wait 12 weeks - yes, 12 weeks - or till they provide a deadlock letter - whichever is sooner, likely to be 12 weeks - and then complain to the ADR scheme or issue court action to recover your lost income and any other claims plus interest.

I personally would take the latter.

What by the way do you work as? You state in your e-mail that it's in the legal field.

I also suggest printing that link now and keeping it. Also if you have a print to PDF program [such as PrimoPDF which is free] print it to a PDF and keep that on your computer, as it is likely it will be gone by the time your claim goes to court.

Always send all letters by special delivery as opposed as to recorded delivery which is not guaranteed.

If you need any help with the letters or court action, I would be happy to try and help you through this forum.

Please keep us posted.

Good Luck

[Hullabaloo27]

Many thanks for a very quick response and your input LP!! Firstly, yes, I have now printed that to Primo pdf.

Secondly, the BT line was operational as of the 22nd July and lastly, my profession is not in the legal field, although I can see from where you might have assumed that. Perhaps it could have been worded slightly better, but i meant that I wasn't aware of a job that could 'legally' pay only £20 per day, assuming an 8 hour day!!

As for OFTEL, I originally typed OFCOM, but saw OFTEL on here somewhere and immediately assumed I must have it wrong!! Don't believe everything you read eh??

[Hullabaloo27]

p.s. This site might be of use to others in BT cases:

BT Price List - Homepage

[legalpickle]

Originally Posted by Hullabaloo27

Secondly, the BT line was operational as of the 22nd July and lastly, my profession is not in the legal field, although I can see from where you might have assumed that. Perhaps it could have been worded slightly better, but i meant that I wasn't aware of a job that could 'legally' pay only £20 per day, assuming an 8 hour day!!

Understood.
How many half days/days did you miss off work?
Can you prove how much you earn per hour [after taxes] and did you lose this when you took off, or did the company waive it?

Originally Posted by Hullabaloo27

As for OFTEL, I originally typed OFCOM, but saw OFTEL on here somewhere and immediately assumed I must have it wrong!! Don't believe everything you read eh??

Always go to the relevant website first, before assuming they exist and you can complain to them. This isn't really relevant because they don't deal with consumer complaints anyway!

So what are you doing next? I think that if you can prove your income and did lose income for taking the days off, you claim that against them. You can only claim for the additional days, as you had agreed to take one half day, so anything above that you can claim, claiming that too will be seen as unreasonable.

Oh, by the way, writing to India that you're unaware of any job that legally pays £10 or £20 for half a day's work, isn't too smart. They get paid that in a month if they're lucky!

[Hullabaloo27]

Originally Posted by legalpickle

Understood.
How many half days/days did you miss off work?
Can you prove how much you earn per hour [after taxes] and did you lose this when you took off, or did the company waive it?

Yes, I can prove this if and when required.

Always go to the relevant website first, before assuming they exist and you can complain to them. This isn't really relevant because they don't deal with consumer complaints anyway!

Agreed. Judging by the grammar and spelling however, I'm not sure they even read the complaints themselves.

So what are you doing next? I think that if you can prove your income and did lose income for taking the days off, you claim that against them. You can only claim for the additional days, as you had agreed to take one half day, so anything above that you can claim, claiming that too will be seen as unreasonable.

I am now awaiting their response to the last email in the thread, which included the new BT pricing structure. As said previously, I'd be happy with the deduction of the connex charge as this should have already been offered, plus say a month 's free line rental / calls as a gesture for the time off.

Oh, by the way, writing to India that you're unaware of any job that legally pays £10 or £20 for half a day's work, isn't too smart. They get paid that in a month if they're lucky!

That was an assumption on my part, based on all of the correspondence via email and phone. It could just as easily be that they were all in London.

[locutus]

Hmmm... Just a thaught, you may wanna hint that you want to know your cancelation rights... that may get things moving a little faster!

[legalpickle]

Hulla: I don't understand you. Why are you willing to go for such a little recompense? You went through 2 wasted days at home! It's people like you that I don't understand - no offence meant. Stand up for your rights! We're meant to be in a democratic country, where you are allowed to do this and not get walked all over!

So, I would recommend not waiting for their response and writing a new letter and sending it by special delivery to them and suing them for your losses! Be strong! Fight British Trouble!

Originally Posted by locutus

Hmmm... Just a thaught, you may wanna hint that you want to know your cancelation rights... that may get things moving a little faster!

Maybe, but my experience with British Trouble tells me they couldn't care less. They lost two business lines with big spends from me and still haven't apologized. I told them if I received an apology within 28 days from the head office after everything was rectified I'd consider going back and? Nada, Nil, Zilch....!

[locutus]

The thing is the line is now installed... the work for the initial set up fee of £124.99 has been done, and the contract is probably still within cancelation period. If hula cancels and sets up with a diferent provider, there is a stopped line there for them to start (with no connection fee)!