BT - where to begin?

[tiglet]

Hi all

 

I am having major issues with BT at the moment. Although I think I'm handling it right, I wouldn't mind some imput/suggestions as I really feel as though I'm banging my head up against a brick wall at the moment.

 

This isn't brief, so thanks in advance for your patience:

I have been having ongoing issues with my BT account since August/September last year. It all started when I requested a fax line be removed. It turns out the engineer had put my broadband on my fax line rather than my phone line. After twelve hours of trying to get this reconciled, a manager suggested, and I duly agreed, that the line would remain for sake of simplicity and I would not be charged for it as long as I didn’t use it.

Next bill comes in December – I’m being charged for the fax line. I spoke to someone who advised as I had one number split over two lines (I often work from home), this would have to be reduced to one line only and the fax line disconnected. Although this was not what I wanted to happen, I agreed. I also changed the level of my broadband service as this had not happened when requested again in August/September. I expected a new bill to be sent.

Christmas comes and goes – to be honest, I forgot I had not received a bill and no reminder was sent. On February 21st, my phone was completely disconnected without any warning. I spent over an hour (and £15 on my mobile phone) to speak to someone who duly got a manager to call me back. She agreed I had not been sent a revised bill and said the credit would be applied to my next bill. I requested a bill be sent out so that I could pay the bill. No bill arrived. I telephoned again and was told a counterfoil would be sent. No counterfoil arrived. I telephoned again and counterfoil duly arrived. As this was mid-week, I intended to pay at the weekend.

Saturday arrives and so a new phone bill. Shock – this bill is also wrong. Wrong to the amount of approximately £450. I had been billed twice for broadband, my call package had been reduced from option 3 to option 2 and when I went to phone – my phone had been disconnected again (bear in mind, this was approximately three days after finally receiving my counterfoil). Another long wait on the phone and the manager I spoke to agreed to get the bill reviewed and a new bill sent out. I agreed to pay what was on my current bill in the meantime (which I did) and thought that would be the end of it.

I was disconnected again the next day. I duly telephoned and this was sorted out.

On 3rd April I was called on my mobile by BT to apologise and say the bill had been sorted out and a new one sent to me (I was on holiday at the time). Upon my return, there is simply a copy of the previous bill waiting for me. I again telephoned, again waited in a queue, and again was promised a new bill. This duly arrived on the 12th of April – when again, my phone was cut off. Again, running up my mobile phone bill, I telephoned and phone was reconnected.

In May, after I had paid this bill, my phone was disconnected again. I spoke to a manager (again, running up my mobile phone bill) who stated there was an error on my account which showed a part-payment received for an old fully paid bill and she would rectify this for me.

In June, I received a bill. It was wrong – again. I spoke to a manager who offered to reduce by £5! I advised this was not acceptable, I wanted a correct bill and I wanted this made into an official complaint. A new bill arrived (reduced by approx. £45) but no-one contacted me again about my complaint.

Three weeks ago, I received a red bill for an alleged bounced DD in November last year. No-one seems to know where this has come from, and I have never been billed for this, and the person I spoke to stated she would investigate and call me back. No phone call has been received.

I have received my next phone bill a week later which, to my horror, showed a charge for a replacement bill (it was not a replacement, it was a revised bill) and a late payment charge (it was late by BT's standards as I had to wait for a replacement bill).

I immediately phoned and spent another frustrating 45 minutes on hold waiting to speak to someone at the complaints review service and then had the phone put down before I spoke to anyone, so I decided to give sending an email a try, clearly stating I wanted a response in writing.

On 5th october I received this email

"Dear Mrs Tiglet,

 

Thank you for your email dated 26/9/07 regarding the charges on the billl.

 

I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties you have experienced.

 

Please accept my apologies for the delay in replying to you and for any inconvenience this may have caused.

 

To discuss the matter, I attempted to ring you today at 11:07 hrs on the contact telephone number xxx that you have kindly provided (I asked for a response in writing only!), unfortunately there was no response. I could only hear a beep tone (that's because it was engaged - and you work for a phone company???).

 

I request you to provide the day time contact number, so that the issue can be resolved without further delay.

 

Alternatively you can call us at 0800 800 150. Our timings are 7.30 AM to 10.00 PM, Monday to Saturday and 9.00 AM to 6.00 PM on Sunday.

 

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

 

Thank you for contacting BT.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Gorika Khera

eContact Customer Service

To which I duly replied

"Dear Gorika

 

Thank you for calling - I was unfortunately on the phone and as for some

reason I do not have the 1571 facility, you were unable to leave a message.

 

I would prefer all correspondence in writing, however. This is because I

have been told so many different things by your colleagues on the phone in the past that if this matter needs to come to the attention of the

ombudsman, I would like a clear record of communication.

 

I am aware there is a postal strike at the moment and so am happy to accept correspondence by email.

Mrs Tiglet"

Yesterday, I received an automated call stating that if I did not pay my bill within 7 days, my service would be restricted and I had already been charged a late payment fee. Against my better judgement, I telephoned 150 where I spoke to someone who informed me he had only just started but would put me through to someone who could resolve the situation once and for all - he put me through to broadband billing.

So I fired off this email yesterday:

"Dear Sir/Madam

 

I have had a telephone call from your automatic dialler service stating that my line may be restricted and I have already been charged a late fee for this bill.

 

MY ACCOUNT IS IN DISPUTE!!!!!

 

I have telephoned 150 and a very helpful young man put me through to

broadband billing. How this was supposed to help, I am not sure. No-one

appears to be able to tell me anything.

 

I expect a full written response to my request by Friday 12th October 2007 or I will take this matter directly to OTELO. I find BT's customer service disgraceful and the fact that action has not even been held on a disputed bill until I have had a response breaches OFT guidelines, which I also intend to report.

Yours Faithfully

Mrs Tiglet"

 

 

There has been no response other than their standard "we're very busy right now" email.

I am extremely unhappy and prepared to leave BT now, although I've been a customer for 9 years. I have calculated that I have spent over 32 hours trying to resolve all of these issues. I have also run up my mobile phone bill for what appears to be no result.

Any suggestions on anything else I can do to get these muppets to sort this out, I would be extremely grateful.

[Cattolica]

I have sent you a PM, hope it helps.

[buzby]

You can save a great deal of money by NOT calling them from your mobile. Unless you are on an Orange contract (various tariffs) 0800 calls are free. Calling BT from a payphone is also free, so because of the problems you are having paying out more to other carriers to make contact will be an expensive business that they will not recompense you.

 

As to your problem, it is a complex one and I've seen it before when line numbers (if they are shared/split) services go on the wrong one in error - being handled by CS in Bombay doesn't help either, as I have yet to have a satisfactory response, you need 2nd level UK support to intervene and resolve the issue, it's just getting hold of them!

[tiglet]

I know - that's the issue - I acn't get hold of anyone and when I do, no-one is able to tell me anything.

 

I think I'll just wait until tomorrow and if I have no joy, report them to the regulator.

 

Very interesting bit on Watchdog last night about BT too!

[tiglet]

You'll never believe it - they restricted my service this morning!!!

 

Young gentleman in Indian call-centre got a very long rant, including me advising I would be contacting oFT, OFCOM, BBC Watchdog - just about everyone including his mother!

 

They're reconnecting the phone and have put collection activity on hold for one month. Bear in mind, I ahven't even had a red bill for this AND the bill is wrong AND I've told them this on the phone twice and in writing within the last 3 weeks.

 

If no response by Monday, I'm firing off emails to all of the above.

 

AAAAARGH!!!! Can anyone recommend a phone/broadband company who is actually competent?

[buzby]

AAAAARGH!!!! Can anyone recommend a phone/broadband company who is actually competent?

 

That's not fair. It's a question I can't answer!

[tiglet]

LOL.

 

Well, phone still not reconnected and when i phoned last night, was told there is no record of my dispute (glad I've got everything in writing) and I would ahve to pay my bill before they will resolve my complaint!

 

Hmm - lots of calls to OFCOM tomorrow. They've said they won't resolve the dispute now, so I've got no choice but to take it higher.

[buzby]

Unfortunately OFCOM don;t care about individual consumer complaints now, they simply refer you back to the network. They wanted to be an 'industry watchdog' and not get involved in 'petty squabbles', hence the other industry funded complaints bodies.

[tiglet]

Ok, I'll try OTELLO.

 

However, I do have a friend who works in OFCOM - perhaps a bit of nepotism wouldn't go amiss!

[aik6980]

Hi,

 

I'm really sorry to hear that, and I hope you're going to have any good solutions very soon.

I've also had the problem with BT when I's trying install the new phone line as well. Only thing I can say, since I'm working as the software engineer, is BT service policies is so unprofessional and lack of consistencies in especially, their (look like) free callcenter.

 

45~ min on the phone is the totally waste of time, and it even worse whenthey picked you up then said they don't know or they cannot do anything with your problem.

My opinion to BT is, BT need to setup more local branch offices which can provide the billing service and engineering service, so they can reduce load of the call center. I still don't understand why they need to centralize everything like crazy, since they already knew they have more than 4M people as customers!!

 

I hope in the near future we will have more choices on the telecom service. Now, even they're not but I still feel of monopolizing.

 

We could be able to do something, couldn't we?

[tiglet]

Well, BT have not responded to my complaint other than to put my bill on hold for 30 days.

 

However, someone called my husband today from a company called FTS who said they were conducting Market research on behalf of BT to customers who had recently complained!

 

Husband gave them very short shift - however, as we have TPS and did not give BT permission to pass our details onto a third party, aren't they in breach of the DPA?

 

Opinions would be welcome.

[buzby]

It wasn't market research - it was quality assurance for BT, and an independent evaluation on how good (or BAD BT are/were in resolving your complaint. Normally this would have been handled in-house, but with do few staff now in the UK, they have to turn to outside agencies.

 

Your details weren't sold on to a third party, and there is no DPA breach. You are/were a customer of BT and had a fast-track to have your issues resolved by their QA folk. A shame hubby gave then short shrift, as this was his ideal opportunity to tell BT how bad - in his view - they were.

[tiglet]

Thanks Buzby - they did defintely say market research, which is where the confusion comes in.

 

Hubby did tell tehm to email BT and ask them to deal with the complaint rather than getting someone else to phone up, so i guess we'll ahve to see what the response is to that.