BT make a hash of moving house

[loz]

I'm currently on hold (again!) to B(ombay)T(elecom) and thought I'd post here while i'm waiting...

 

I'm due to move house tomorrow - not far, up 2 flights of stairs - so last Friday I called BT (from work) to ask for a move. "Next weekend", I said. The lass suggested doing it on the Friday, to make sure it was done on time, which I said was OK. I later realised that by moving house they tie you in to a minimum further 12 months, and that I would not be able to change provider and get my phone cheaper, so when I got home I decided to call my ISP about their phone service... and found that BT had disconnected me a week early. >

 

I spent an hour on my mobile trying to find out WTF had happened and eventually was given an apology and told that I would be reconnected ASAP. Did it happen? I had to call again on Tuesday and explain the whole thing again, and ask them to reconnect me... and now I am having to call yet again.

 

I told them to cancel the order because they've made such an arse of the whole thing, they can stick it if they try this "12 month" condition. What I now want to do is transfer the phone to my ISP and then get them to move the line to the new flat, same number and all. If BT hadn't been so useless this could be in progress already, it's so annoying!

 

Rant over.

Loz

[buzby]

The line has to be active for the number to port to a new supplier - if it isn't the transfer will not go ahead. Be careful or you can lose it!

[loz]

Aye I realised that, that's why I asked them to cancel the order. They still haven't reconnected me though - 8 days now!! >

[loz]

Sent to BT today:

Thank you for informing me that my account had been closed - I have made at least half a dozen phonecalls to BT over the past 10 days and nobody told me that. This despite me repeatedly explaining that I had been disconnected a week early for a "moving house" order, and asking to be reconnected. On each occasion BT staff have apologised and promised that I would be reconnected within 24/48 hours, but nothing has been done and the line remains disconnected. In the meantime I had reason to cancel the move order but was initially told I could not do this because I had not cancelled before 12th October - ie. before I placed the order in the first place! Furthermore a supervisor promised to listen to a recording of the original call so she could work out what went wrong; again I was promised an update and again I have not been contacted by BT.

 

I am quite dissatisfied with this whole episode and would like to give BT a final chance to resolve it to my satisfaction. Please considercarefully the following two scenarios, either of which being implemented would restore my faith a little:

 

1) BT restores the line (0191xxxxxxx) and account to its exact status before all this happened - ie. connected to xxxxxxxx.

2) BT carries out my original request and connects the line (0191xxxxxxx) to yyyyyyyy.

 

These two alternative outcomes are the only ways that I will be in any way satisfied with what has happened here. In either case let me make it clear that I do not expect to be charged reconnection fees, nor do I expect to be tied to a minimum contract duration. I believe that after the mess BT has made of this I am justified in making these requests.

 

Finally I will require information regarding how to claim compensation for the inconvenience this has caused, plus the money I have spent by having to use a mobile phone to call BT.

 

I hope this is clear and a resolution can be reached as soon as possible.

 

Yours sincerely,

Loz

I am rather annoyed by this. At the risk of sounding xenophobic, I wish BT would employ people who speak English properly, then there might not have been a misunderstanding in the first place...

[buzby]

Nothing to do with Xenophobia. They've gone for bargain-basement customer care. You can complaint about this but only when it affect their bottom line (like RBS/NatWest) who retain UK call centres, will they take notice.

[loz]

One of my calls was put through to somewhere in Ulster by the sound of their accents - they were the ones I got most sense out of. Though sadly no results.

 

Loz

[loz]

Does anyone have any suggestions how I can get BT to do anything at all? In the past three and a half weeks since they closed my account (despite me not asking them to do that), they have firstly not admitted that the account had been closed, until a cheque was in the post to refund the balance; secondly completely ignored my repeated requests to reconnect the line, to either my old address or the new one; thirdly ignored my written complaints regarding their abysmal customer service. How do I get them to do anything when they are ignoring me at every turn? Can the regulator do anything at this stage?

 

I've had no phone for that time, and no internet for two and a half weeks because my ISP don't have a working line to connect me to. I've spent £10-odd on my mobile to their 0800 number trying to sort it out (the rest of the calls were from work) and they won't even tell me how to claim that back from them.

All I want is the line returned to the same status as before they pulled the plug...

 

Increasingly frustrated Loz

[buzby]

A complaint to OTELO won;t really achieve much - but persevering with BT and if the person you cannot speak with assist ask to be transferred to someone who can. No point paying from a mobile, use a payphone for free. You initial issue is the removal of service in advance of the due date - since they are normally pretty good at this, and explanation for this should be forthcoming.

 

There isn't an inside track you can jump to - unless you write to Mr Ben (MD) at BT's Newgate Street HQ - this usually works.

[Wensley]

Try the BBC Watchdog website. There is a section specially for BT problems and a link to a BT complaints email. I used it due to issues i have with having a new service connected and did get a response from someone in Scotland within 24 hours, and a further 2 calls from them over the next 2 days for more information. Have to say i'm still waiting for it to be resolved as 'its now been passed to BT openreach' - engineering company that is now separate to BT.

In the meantime the Indian call centre has rung me twice trying to book in my new service being connected!!! - Very difficult trying to get them to understand NO i dont want to book it in .....so you want to cancel then?.....NOOO I've complained put it on hold arghh!!!

Anyway give it a try you might get somewhere (other than India!!)

[loz]

Thanks for that, though I couldn't find anything on Watchdog's site other than the link to BT.com | Contact BT - will try that.

 

Loz

[loz]

A day short of five weeks after they disconnected my phone, BT have finally responded to my complaints. Just spoke with Neil from the high level complaints team who seemed quite baffled by his colleagues' incompetence and promised to get me connected asap.

 

I'm still intending to switch to a different company once this is sorted - first things first though, I want a working line and I want them to repay me £7-55 for calls I had to make on my mobile and £17-99 for the internet I've been unable to use.

 

With crossed fingers,

Loz

[dave]

BT are a joke. How they are allowed to operate this monopoly in this country is beyond me.

 

Oh, no it isn't - it's 'cos we had a government who loved them, and now we have one with no spine.

 

 

I have recently had similar dealings - count yourself lucky you actually had a reply to your complaint - mine was (and is still is) ignored.

 

I couldn't even get through to give them money - or use their 'on-line payment method' as it was constantly down for 'maintenence'. They cut me off in the end, despite trying for weeks to get through to them to pay - all this after they claimed they sent me a bill that I did not receive.

 

Then the fun and games started, just trying to get reconnected, but then you know the story there as it's pretty much the same as yours.

[loz]

IMHO they are too busy trying to sell everyone broadband and TV, to the detriment of the bread & butter stuff. I may only pay £11 a month line rental and make almost zero calls, but unless they can provide that then I can't get their fancy products can i? :-S

[loz]

Progress! The line was connected on Monday, albeit with a different number. This Neil gadgie is trying to get my old number back... Once that's resolved I can sort my ISP out

 

Loz

[tiglet]

Well done Loz - two months after I made my compalint to BT, i am still waiting for them to reply to my complaint.

 

I've now spent 37 hours trying to get it resolved - that's right, 37 HOURS and still nothing.

 

They really are a joke.

[loz]

I consider myself lucky in that case. Sounds like lots of people have serious issues with BT - hope you get a resolution soon :-/

[loz]

What do we have here from BT..? The first bill for my "new line" - I love the way they make you pay for the service in advance... not. In addition to the line rental there is of course their lovely "payment processing fee" of £4-50 and the new "1571 low use charge" of £3-00 - they are asking me to pay up front and if I use the service enough I get my £3-00 back?!? Get lost BT.

 

I'm not paying the bill (yet) anyway. I'm going to ask my ISP to take over the line, so BT will have to close the account and send me a final bill. They try any of their "12 month minimum contract" stuff and they can swivel on it - it was not mentioned to me when I was reconnected and in any case they made such a balls-up of this whole thing... Then we move on to what I feel they owe me, such as the cost of calls from my mobile, being unable to use the broadband I am paying for... how about the simple inconvenience of having to tell lots of people that I had to change my number..?

 

Still up for an argument,

Loz

[loz]

Hopefully this is the last time I will have to post here...

 

I added up the phonecalls I had made to get reconnected, the amount I had been paying my ISP whilst unable to use their service because of BT, and added £4-50 "payment processing fee" because their refund had been sent by cheque:p - and deducted the total for my bill, paying the remainder and sending a letter explaining exactly why. Letter ignored, threat of disconnection unless I pay. I wrote again, my line was restricted, then the next bill arrives, the cheeky *&%s!

I paid £25 of it to show "good will" and then emailed them again using the same link as last time - got a call from BT the next day apologising for them not responding and furthermore wiping my bill to zero. Result!

 

If anybody is having trouble getting BT to do anything, I recommend sending them a mail via this link, it's got their attention twice for me now:

BT.com | Support & advice | Support and advice section hub page

 

TTFN,

Loz

[TDT]

Email [email protected] or [email protected] (his PA). They tend to get things sorted pretty quickly.......

[loz]

Silly me to think that I'd made my last complaint to BT - the replacement bill arrived and although I had been credited as promised, for some reason they have added a one-off charge of £23-50 apparently for "temporary out of service", dated today (10 days after the bill was issued!) - what on earth does this mean and how can BT look into the future to add a random item to my bill?

 

Awaiting their response. Again.

[buzby]

Last time I had that on a bill it was a credit (not a charge). Are you sure that it isn't?

[loz]

Certain. My bill is larger after my initial complaint than it was before, and that is why. Berks.

[summer30]

I really feel for you, we have moved with BT 6 times and each time they have made a hash of it.

It took us 6 months to get a refund this time and the only thing that worked was a slow letter of complaint

 

Each time we moved they A. set us up as new customers so we had a contract extended etach time and B. didnt cancel the old address and charged us for both.

 

This weeks mess is them setting up a direct debit without our permission, but oh yes we set this up on the 8th feb! oh no we didnt , oh yes you did

So bank charge of £38 will be claimed from BT

 

I got through to direct debits, wrong dept, re rang got billing wrong department who put me back to Direct debit enough said

they are one of the most frustrating companies to deal with

[loz]

Sounds like you have had it far worse than me Summer. BT have to have the worst customer service I have ever come across (apart from the banks), and nothing is being done about them. It's all well and good having "competition" in the market but when the other providers have to rely on BT letting them use their network... it's pretty much still a monopoly IMHO and BT exploit that

[buzby]

when the other providers have to rely on BT letting them use their network... it's pretty much still a monopoly IMHO and BT exploit that

 

Not so - Virgin customers connected to the cable service require no BT infrastructure. So there's a ' duopoly'!