BT Infiniti debacle

[Dispater]

We ordered a BT Infiniti package giving fibre, by sport and line rental on December 20th and paid £169 up front.

We were given a fibre connection date of 12th January.

BT Sport was available immediately.

 

Took the day off on the 12th and had an email at 6:30 am reminding me to be available between 8 & 1.

 

 

At 1:39 got a call to say an engineer was unavailable and they had rescheduled to 26th Jan.

 

In the meantime, because we had given permission for BT to deal with Talk talk (our present provider)

they had cancelled our broadband connection at midnight.

 

Thus, we were left with no internet connection at all for over 2 weeks.

 

Got no help with BT online during the day with expediting connection

so called Talk talk this evening who said they could reconnect our internet as our account was still live,

although they would need BT to cancel their contract and inform them first.

 

Easy I though, and moved unwittingly into a 45 minute deadlock with BT

who said that our 14 day cooling off period ended on 3rd January and a cancellation would now result in a £300 cancellation fee!

 

 

Can they do this when they have failed to meet their own delivery date and deprived us of internet access?

 

 

They then said that the delay was due to a problem at the exchange (previously it was due to a shortage of engineers to perform the connection)

but work should be finished on Friday and to call them then to arrange a possible expedite on the work.

 

To be honest,

I lost faith in them to deliver either the repair, the engineer or the expedite.

In fact, I'm seriously doubting their ability to meet the 26th Jan date.

 

Told them to cancel as Talk talk could connect me and I would fight them in court for the cancellation fee.

 

 

Was then told they would keep the £169 already paid as this was for line rental (phone line was transferred to BT yesterday without problem),

even though it was part of a package including Infiniti.

 

There's more to the story, but my question at the moment is

 

A. Can they really charge a cancellation fee when they have failed to deliver and left me without any internet access.

 

B. Can they keep the money we paid up front for the full service?

 

To my mind they have failed to honour the contract and left me one days leave short.

 

Thanks.

[BankFodder]

No and no.

Check back tomorrow for a fuller answer

.

[Dispater]

Will do. Thanks Bankfodder.

[BankFodder]

Welcome to the world of British Telecom. I imagine that there are hundreds maybe thousands of other people in similar positions to yourself you can't get the attention that they need. Just imagine what is going to happen when British Telecom finally takes over EE. It's clear that they simply aren't up to running a large organisation in a customer facing way and I expect it's going to be disaster for everyone.

 

I think that the first thing you need to do is to decide who you going to go with. Are you going to go with Talk Talk? Are you going to go to British Telecom?

 

Once you have decided this, we can then set about examining exactly what your losses are including inconvenience, expenses, loss of service, loss of one days holiday – etc. and then decide what action to take.

 

I should warn you now that I am always in favour of direct action in the Small Claims Court. It is quick and effective. However, if you wanted you could go to the communications ombudsman but you will get a half-hearted and lukewarm response, a very niggardly settlement – and also you will not really know what's going on because the communications between British Telecom and the ombudsman will not be revealed to you.

 

Decide what you want to do first

 

If you decide to talk to their customer services then the customer services guide which is in our library

[Dispater]

Thanks BF. Will go back to Talktalk as we had no problems with them - only went to BT as they were offering Fibre Seems the reason for this is that it is not yet working at our exchange. We will hopefully reinstate our ADSL line with Talktalk and then upgrade to fibre with them once the exchange gets sorted.

 

Not interested in going to the Ombudsman for pretty much the reasons you mentioned and I think anything in that direction would be a long, drawn out process.

 

Will take a read of the Customer services guide and then proceed along the cancellation path.

I take it my argument is along the lines of although the cooling off period of 14 days has passed, I am not looking at that but the fact that they haven't provided what they promised at the time agreed and cannot guarantee when they will be able to provide it. In short, they have sold me something which they do not have.

Added to that, they have also managed to remove my previous access to the internet.

 

Incidentally, we paid £176.85 up front fee which they say they will retain as it was for an advance payment of line rental only and our phone line started working as agreed on 12th January. However, the contract shows that the package is for "Broadband and calls" starting on 12th January.

 

 

The £176.85 is for £169.90 Line Rental Saver, £6.95 Delivery Charge (for the Fibre router - which someboady had to be at home to sign for). Again, my assumption is that although they have satisfied the line rental side of the deal, they should not be allowed to keep the money other than for the time the line has been used as they were provided as part of a package which has not been provided as a whole?

Edited January 14, 2015 by Conniff

[BankFodder]

I would suggest that you write them formally – today and tell them that as they have failed to supply you with the service as required by the contract and despite your efforts to work it out with them, you are now terminating the agreement with immediate effect.

 

Tell them that you want your money back and also to be compensated for your losses which include – XXX phone calls XXX – XXX time spent trying to deal with it XXX – loss of one day holiday waiting for their failed appointment.

 

Remind them that they only informed you about the failure of the appointment halfway through the day in question.

 

You will also need to make a decision as to whether or not you're prepared to begin a small claim against them or you simply want to go to the communication ombudsman if they then refuse your request or try to make any trouble for you.

 

Get the letter off now. It is important that you put this in writing – also tell them by telephone but please make sure that you follow the rules in our customer services guidance. If you don't, – you will regret it

[Conniff]

I would suggest the letter is sent using recorded delivery.