Broadband Slow. BT are even Slower!

Yet another complaint here about slow broadband speeds from BT and even slower response from BT to resolve it.

To btcomplaint.com please help me!

I'm very annoyed with the way I have been treated by BT. I reported a slow speed with my internet. I have had so far 1 engineer that did not turn up and 6 engineers that came out and the problem is still not fixed, one of the engineers was the manager from openreach I have his number if you want it and the other engineers that came out the manager has these engineers names.

1st engineer here for 5 hours said there was a earthling fault with the external wiring, he run out of time to completely fix the issue but arranged for another engineer to call couple of days later to fix the earthling problem.

2nd engineer was here for 10 to 20 mines and said it was my internal wiring I tried to explain to him the first engineer tested my internal wiring and found no fault, it was an earthling problem externally. The 2nd engineer would not listen and left.

3rd engineer did not turn up

4th engineer came out tested my system then changed the internal wiring found out still had no fault with internal wiring which I tried to explain to the 2nd engineer, this engineer said it may be my router. I ordered a replacement but it did not get sent out phoned again and I finally received it and all seemed to be ok.

Manager and 5th engineer, In the meantime I made a complaint about the second engineer and was told I would get an answer back within 3 days it took over a week when an openreach manager came out with one of his engineers case number is 4016891, he was very nice and tried to sort the problem. I said the 4rd engineer said it may be the router, I did not have the new router at this time to try, it arrived a day later, this router seemed ok for a week approx.

6th engineer came out tested the lines and found out, what a surprise an earthling problem. He said I needed a BT exchange operator engineer to go to the exchange and change the concentrator equipment.

Re booked for exchange engineer to come out but had the engineer that came out previously 7th engineer, he again put on his report BT exchange engineer needed not openreach engineer.

This BT engineer is supposed to come out today 18th August but still have not heard anything from him.
I would like to know if this has finally been changed as last night I had no broadband what’s so ever as my speed according to the girl on the phone was to slow.

All the engineers say I am getting a download speed of 5200, 5.2 meg with all their equipment.

While all of this was going on I spoke to loads of departments and not getting anywhere, they kept diverting me to other departments but I always ended up back at technical faults in the end these could not help me any further so put me in contact with the engineers department which gave me a pin number, again not all these people were helpful, on the 17th August I was told that a specialist team was looking into this now and again I would get a phone call within 12 hrs it now been 24 hrs and still have not heard a thing!!!!.

I have been on the phone up to 4 to 5 hrs being transferred from one team to another and when I get told this is the correct person to talk to they cut me off!!!.
If you look at all my phone calls that I have done its ridiculers. I have spoken to so many supervisors not even they can sort this out, why have supervisors that cannot help I requested a manager on loads of phone calls and a far as I could get was a supervisor.

My wife is disabled and I have to rearrange care for when I’m here, this had to be arranged at least 8 times as I had to be here to see the engineer as my wife also has memory problems

I would like to know has this special engineer changed the concentrator equipment at the exchange?
What happened to my updates?
I would also like some compensation for all the hassle that I have had and still having trying to sort this out, phone calls hrs, changing dates for care for my wife, which I had to rearrange as this has been going on so I could be here when the engineer was to turn up and the length of time this is taking to sort out, this has been going on since the beginning of July.

Lack of broadband speed up and down always varied and finally no broadband as speed was too low.
If I could get fibre I would have changed to this weeks ago, could you please tell me when I can get this as Hemel is live!!!

Once all this has been sorted can you please get in contact with me before go to Ortelo/ofcom I have run out of patients and cannot wait another couple of more weeks so please get in contact to let me know what’s happening ASAP!!!!.

Regards

John O'Mahoney

Its good to talk - well it would be if we could get a landline!

This BT Complaint is a series of problems getting a landline setup which after all is BT 's main business and they should be pretty good at it by now! But no, by the sound of it, things are quite the opposite. 

Dear btcomplaint.com

My friend and I moved into a new house on June 1st 2010. We had 6 months left on a BT phone and broadband contract and so we transferred that to the new address to save us having to pay cancellation charges. Simple right?.... BIG mistake. Today our phone line is still not active.

The situation so far:

26th May 2010: Contacted BT to advise change of address on 1st June and request line and broadband transfer to new address.  Advised it will take up to 10 days to be active.  No problems.

10th June 2010: No line so contact BT to chase up.  The original request to transfer address had been ‘lost’ in the system and so nothing ever initiated.  Promised to start process and advised another 10 days.

21st June 2010: No line, contact BT.  Line test done remotely, agree an engineer will need to come out.  Charge of £127.99 which will be added to monthly bill.  Date booked for: 23 June 2010 between 8am and 1pm.

23rd June 2010: 9am Engineer arrives, does some work down at switch, comes back to flat, tests line on handheld device and confirms it is working and should all be live within 24 hours.  Go back to work at 1pm.

23rd June 2010: 2pm BT ring to say they have done post-engineer check on line and there is a fault.  They ask if I can go back home.  Explain have taken half day holiday and just arrived back to work and  cannot just leave again.  BT say they will investigate the fault fully and contact us back. (customer away for a week on work conference but no messages or contact from BT during this time)

15th July 2010: Still nothing received from BT at all in writing, phone or text.  Contact them to complain formally both via email and phone.  They apologise and say they will look into it and after quickly checking confirm the landline is still faulty.

20th July 2010: Contact BT who decide the problem might be a faulty home hub.  They advise to switch it off and then back on again and wait 24 hours.  Unsurprisingly this does not work (since they have already confirmed there is a physical problem on the phone line).  (customer away for week at work conference but no messages and no working line on return)

2nd August 2010: Bill received, increasing monthly direct debit due to increased charges and engineer bill.  No mention of fact we don’t have a working phone line to bill us for!!!

3th August 2010: Contact BT via their website making full formal complaint: Complaint ref: 100803-002256.  No response.

5th August 2010: Contact BT again via website making another full complaint about lack of any response to previous one.  Complaint ref: 100805-000830

6th August 2010: Voicemail from BT to say complaint made to wrong department via web form and to contact another department with complaint.  No number to call back and no offer in message of them passing the complaint to the right department for me.

7th August 2010:  Amusingly BT email a ‘customer service feedback questionnaire’ across to monitor how well they dealt with our problem.  A full form was immediately completed and returned to them to explain nothing was resolved and service was appalling..

10th August 2010: BT complaints customer services contact us and apologise acutely for the (in their own words) “complete lack of service received” and promise to get an engineer out and get this sorted within 10 days.

16th August 2010: Another dept from BT contact us to arrange an engineer to come out but will only do so and escalate the problem and solution if we agree to pay another charge of £127.99.  The caller from BT refuses to allow access to manager and explains complaints is another department and if unhappy we would need to speak to them but it would move our engineer visit back to bottom of pile.  He will not progress anything on phone until we agree to the charge.  He explains we may be able to claim this back through complaints after the fact.  Eventually we agree to this as hands seem tied and we need the phone line working for family living abroad to contact us.  Book in for Weds 18th August between 8am and 1pm.  Confirmation text received for that appointment.

18th August 2010 (today): I have just spent 5 hours (again taken off work during a very busy time) sat in my house staring out of the window awaiting BT engineer.  Text is received at 11.45am from BT to say they are not able to solve the query today and will rebook for Sat 21st August.  No number to call back about this and no question as to whether this date is suitable or explanation or apology for another wasted half day at home.

18th August 2010: 1pm: Phone BT fault line and speak to a ‘customer service’ representative who  looks at the ‘engineer log’ and says the comment reads ‘engineer tried to call but no one in and no answer on contact number’.  I burst into tears and explain I have sat there all morning, not taken any calls so as to be free and waited for them.  He then looks back at the log and says there is another comment saying ‘loop check, cannot do work today – will reschedule visit for 21st August’.  I explain I have not been asked if this is ok and what are they going to do about the second half day I have had to take off work?  Ask to speak to manager, which he cannot do as manager refuses to come on line.  But does understand my frustration and will escalate it with manager and complaints and I will receive a call back within 2 hours.

18th August 2010: 1.54pm: Paul the supervisor called back providing the following info. SR Case number: VOL011-37335545391. Supplier ref number: 5-1-9248041791.  He confirmed that the engineer is booked Sat 21st August between 8am and 1pm.  Paul also confirms that he can understand why we are so upset and that from the information he can see on the system BT has totally failed to deliver any service.  He apologises (to be fair he was very good on phone and did ring back within the time window he had promised to – I appreciate this failure in service is not down to the person on the end of the complaints phone line – it is a catalogue of failed service from multiple arms of a business that seems to have become too big to orchestrate the most simple of processes).

18th August 2010: to double up on complaints side have done another web complaint: reference 100818-005053

Summary: Long and short of the entire saga is that, on week 11 since moving into the new address, we still have NO active phone line (the most basic of BT elements surely??) and have paid out 2 x £127.99 for engineer visits, receiving only 1 of those visits so far and still having a faulty line.  I now have to stay home again on Saturday for an engineer who may or may not turn up and may or may not fix the line so we are no further forward than we were on 23rd June and out of pocket 3 months bills and 2 engineer charges!

Requested Resolution:
1.       A working phone line
2.       A full refund of 3 month’s worth of our contract with BT since we have not had a working service for this time (not refunded as discount across future bills – directly back to bank account)
3.       A full refund of the 2 x payments for engineer visits since they haven’t actually fixed/installed/repaired anything. (not refunded as discount across future bills – directly back to bank account)
4.       £75 compensation for my work time taken off to be home for visiting engineers who either came and did not sort out the problem or simply did not turn up.
5.       Payment to cover the use of mobile phones to sit on hold to BT complaints/customer services/fault line because we don’t have a working landline to use to do this.
6.       Compensatory gesture for the grief, frustration and downright aggravation this whole debacle has caused.  My parents live abroad and hence the absolute necessity for a landline for them to access me – the stress this has placed on myself, my housemate and our families and work place relationships (taking time off to be home for engineer and also making endless calls to complaints) has been ridiculous and as soon as we are able to end our contract we BT we fully intend to find another provider unless BT can do something to save this.

I have copied this to OFCOM and anyone else who will listen!

I would also like to say that in my work place we currently use BT business.  It is my research and decision as to which communications provider we use at our company.  Please be assured that my experiences with BT on the home side have absolutely affected my opinion of renewing any contract with BT business for the future.  I would be extremely surprised, but pleasantly so, if you could do something to alter my opinion at this point.  But please feel free to have a go!

Sincerely

Rebekkah Louise Holmes  & Clare Atkinson
Office Manager                      Customer Services Manager

BT Infinity setup and OpenReach

This BT complaint regards problems setting up BT Infinity setup and OpenReach.

Dear btcomplaint.com

When I moved into a new property on the 1st of July I discovered the previous tenants had disconnected the line, so far from the swift set up I was hoping for, I found the industry makes you wait 14 days. Fair enough, that's acceptable, however at the time I did not want to be tied into a 12 month BT contract so instead went with a rolling 1 month post office contract (far cheaper for some reason), but eventually found out the fastest internet I could get at the property was from BT under the Infinity package. So I set out to purchase this service on the 14th of July, and found to my dismay I would had to wait another 14 days, it's how the industry works. 8 days after placing this order, I received a letter written on the day I placed the order stating they had been unable to contact me regarding aspects of my order, however I had no missed calls or emails from BT.I called them up.

When I phoned in later that day I discovered I had failed a credit check because the person who placed my order had not taken a previous address, and that the order had been cancelled without my knowledge. So I placed another order on that day (21st at the point) and was told I'd have to wait another 14 days due to the line transfer (again) and that my order would be completed on the 4th of August with the engineer coming out between 8AM and 1PM.

The 4th rolled around and I waited and waited and no engineer turned up and I received no phone call saying they were delayed etc. I phoned the call centre on 0800 800 150 at 1PM asking what was going on, and I was swiftly told that they'd get back to me within the hour regarding the order. After 1 hour 30 minutes I called them back saying I had not been contacted and could we talk about the order, I get told the same again, and once again I called them back 1 hour 30 minutes later, the person I spoke to said that they were told there had been a problem with the OpenReach engineer diary system and that an engineer had simply not been assigned to my order. Then I was then told I would be called back within 48 hours, by 8PM on the Friday 6th once they had sorted things out with OpenReach. I waited until 8PM on Friday the 6th and received no phone call from BT. I then called them up again and was told I would be contacted by 8PM on Saturday the 7th. I waited until 8PM on the Saturday and attempted to call back, only to find they close at 8PM.

On Sunday the 8th I called again and got through and was told I'd receive a call from the offline team (who were supposed to be calling me back all the previous times) by Monday, to which I said that it was simply not acceptable for this to be left with the offline team to call me when they got an email from OpenReach as they had failed to contact me on numerous previous occasions, so a nice operator personally took on my case, informing me she'd finish her shift at 2PM on Monday, and that she'd contact me before then to update me.

She called me at 11AM on Monday to say that OpenReach had still not emailed her back. This was the last I heard until I called again later on Monday and was told that I would be contacted soon when they knew what was going on. I received a call back later on Monday and was told that OpenReach had informed them that there was "a problem with the system", to which I could only reply, well yes, I knew that on Wednesday. I asked if we could place a new order and escalate it to get it all sorted out. I was told that this was not possible as any order they placed would encounter to the same issue, so I asked if that meant that they were therefore unable to place any orders currently, and that this must be affecting business greatly. But the operator would not confirm or deny that this was the case.

By this point I simply gave up and resigned myself to waiting for a call from them and went on my postponed Holiday that they had forced me to move.

While I was away I was contacted by a very nonchalant operator who said something to the effect of "Yeah we have an appointment for you now, the earliest is the 18th, do you want morning or afternoon" I opted for the 8AM to 1PM appointment again.

On Wednesday the 18th, after not having received an engineer for the 2nd time I called them up and was told I would get a call back within 24 hours from the offline team. It had turned out that an employee had booked an appointment for the 25th and another was then escalated to the 18th. Apparently in the eyes of OpenReach, such a double booking means they remain silent, do not try to resolve the issue and instead do nothing, despite me receiving a letter saying my appointment is booked, I'll take receipt of my home hub etc etc.

On Friday the 20th I tried to give BT a call again quickly before closing time to find out if there was any updates for the order. When I dialled 150 then pressed 1, 1, 1 specifiying I'm calling from the numnber I want to talk about, about broadband, and about that specific order, the automated message told me it could not find an order for my number.

On the 21st (Saturday) I called up again and was told that while I was waiting for a Senior Manager (the particular one I would like to make a personal complaint about) to call me back, OpenReach had cancelled the order "due to an open phone line installation request being on the line also", this would be the phone line that has been installed since the 4th when my first engineer appointment was supposed to occur. So I went through to the order department, who pulled up my details and put me through to BT Total Broadband to make the new order, sending my details through to save me the hassle of doing everything again, who then bounced me through to the Infinity department without sending my details. So I had to go through the entire order process for a 3rd time. I was told that they were unable to perform an engineer appointment escalation before I had placed the order, so we placed it, and then I went back through to the order department to try and get the escalation sorted out. They then sent an email somewhere to try and get it sorted for me and assured me that I'd get a call back within 24 hours about the escalation.

I called back on the Sunday 22nd just over 24 hours later, to the same number I had used every time previously, 150, and went through to an operator who told me that they could not deal with infinity orders and bounced me through to the infinity department (who the previous night had told me they could not deal with escalations and had bounced me to the orders department). The infinity department then told me that they were still waiting for a reply from whoever the email was sent to, and that I was unlikely to get a reply before Monday because the weekend is not "working hours" so it was unlikely that anyone was checking the emails.

I would like to know how such ineptitude can be allowed to continue. How is it I am sending this from a USB 3g dongle and not from my BT Infinity connection?

Conrad

Unfair BT Cancellation Charges

I've just been told I have to pay £77 to cancel my BT contract. I've just moved to a new area due to an unplanned change of job after nearly 5 years with BT at my previous address. Because I'm moving into a shared house where I am not responsible for the phoneline I have no choice but to cancel.

It's not like I'm a few months into a brand new contract where BT have incurred set-up costs and I've just decided to go with a different supplier. I've also had to cancel my broadband, gas and electricity none of whom made any cancellation charges. Like many others I was a victim of one of BT's auto-renewing contracts that may well be technically legal but is clearly a cynical ploy to allow them to levy grossly disproportionate penalties for anyone who quite reasonably wants to leave or, as in my case, has to leave their service.

I will be in my current property for 6-12 months before I go back to my own place and my own phone line. If I'm lucky enough to live for the average male lifespan in this country I have 42 years ahead of me to enjoy not being a BT customer again. Allowing for 4% inflation per year BT could have conservatively earned around £21,000 from my custom during that time.

I hope they buy something nice with my £77.

It's good to talk!!!

Phone and Broadband Cut Off

Dear BTcomplaint.com

I've a fairly urgent issue and complaining to you because it has become clear to me that BT cannot deal with me in a fair and reasonable fashion.

In May 2010 we contacted BT regarding moving home. BT cut off the broadband and phone at our old address (1 Brougham place) and took the details of our new address (5 Northcote street) and told us a BT engineer would be sent due to the line having been set up for another company by the previous tenant, he was due on the 17th of June. The engineer arrived at the address he was given and called us, he said he was at "5 brougham place".

When he was told he was at the wrong address he informed us that due to this he couldn't perform the work that day and we would have to rebook. We rebooked for the 28th of June (the earliest BT could give us), but we were called back by BT to say they had gotten the order wrong again and had to rebook again for the 5th of July. We were annoyed at this but just wanted our phone and broadband back, we were told at the time we would not be charged for the previous month but we would be charged for the engineer.

Because we wanted our phone and internet back we agreed to add the engineer bill onto our monthly bill in instalments (we have a 7 month old child and can't afford to pay over £100 in one instalment for one guy to perform 15 minutes worth of work) and we asked for our phone to be capped so we didn't over spend for this month we also asked regarding the "temporary technical fault" on our account online but we were told this would correct itself, we were set for paper free bills so this was important.

So it was all agreed and everything was up and running after the 5th of July, but our account still showed that it had a technical fault. We thought it was perhaps due to BT not charging for the lost month. Today I woke to find no Internet connection, there appeared to be a problem with all telephone communications in our area (including mobiles) we assumed it would be corrected but the mobiles started working again and not the broadband. We had to use a pay phone (free number) due to the home phone not working to find out what the problem was and we were told we had been cut off! No warning whatsoever!

We are now being told we must pay £200+ in one lump sum or cancel. After arguing on the phone we were told we would not be charged a cancelations fee but BT would not accept paying the amount in instalments. We don't understand why we have been cut off and we have been unable to access our bill due to the problems on our account. We don't even know if BT were trying to charge us for the month where we had no phone and broadband. BT seem to be unable to maintain a simple agreement with me. I would he more than happy to continue my broadband and phone, we were already happy to pay the amount but in instalments where we are not put in a difficult position.

We need our account working so we can see our bill, we need to pay in instalments as was agreed last month and we need our broadband and phone back. I get paid this Friday and the Monday following we have money put into the account for bills including BT, I would be more than happy to contact and discuss this further with BT but we have no home phone, we would need at least the phone working so we could call the 0800 number if BT do wish to help us. I'm sure BT can sort that so we can't use the phone for anything else, or BT can call me (I'm sure BT have my number!).

I have looked at moving to another company but 4 weeks is the normal time taken to get set up and I simply cannot wait another month to have my phone and broadband back.

I also hope that BT can realise that they have mistreated me and broken our agreement, I do not believe that we broke our end of the agreement but we had no access to our bill and therefore no idea what amount was to come off, if there had been a problem we would have contacted BT to arrange something, we also believe that BT should have contacted us to resolve any problem first instead of cutting us off.

Thank you for taking the time to read my message, I hope you can help us. I would also like to inform you that a similar message has been sent to OTELO (The Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman) and they may contact you to try and help resolve this matter, I would not have taken this matter any further had we been treated fairly over the phone earlier when trying to resolve the matter but BT operator(s) response was unhelpful and gave the impression that they were unwilling to do anything for us.

Regards,

Paul Brisbane

BT Vison service complaint

I'm writing to complain about your BT Vison service. We first decided to go ahead with BT Vision when we took out our boardband and phone line with yourselfs and you can see from your records that this was early last year (2009) we then received the box but no connection was set up even after many of phone calls with yourself!

We then eventually after two different phone calls in one week as we spoke to an adviser set out the plan we were going to have which took 30 mins then he told us we would have the box in the within the next week after 10 days the box did not arrive to be told when we rang once again that the order had not been placed once again!!!!

We were eventually sent out a different box we were then connected after waiting all this time. We have now had BT vision just over "months and i have had to ring the help line 5 different times (including last night when I was on hold for 35 minutes) to get reconnected not the mention the amount of times the system has gone down that I havent rang and just left it as I didn't have the time to sit on hold of 30 odd minutes.

This is not good enough in the time we have had BT vision it has gone down more than 12 times this is not good service and is completely unexetable as I pay for a service and I am not receiving this service. I sit down on a saturday night to watch a film with my family...a service that I pay for. I would like to know what is going to be done about it.

Yours Sincerly

Charlotte Maunder

BT Broadband Package Option 2 Complaint

My recent BT complaint : I dont suppose I will get a response from them! I ordered your Broadband Package (Option 2, with free Home Hub 2.0) on July 5th 2010. I included the MAC code of my existing provider and contact details. That very afternoon, I received an email cunningly entitled "Your BT.com order confirmation", which included all of the details I had just entered, gave me an Order reference number and advised me that my equipment and broadband service would start on July 20th 2010. I naturally assumed, that this meant my order had been confirmed. How wrong I was!

On the afternoon of 20th July, I contacted BT to enquire as to the location of my Home Hub that had not been delivered, as promised, by 2pm on 20th July 2010. I was put through to the BT.com team, gave them my order number and was advised that my order looked fine, and that maybe there was a
problem with the delivery of the Hub package. "Would you mind if I put you on hold for 2 mins, whilst I contact our delivery team and find out where it is ?" "No problem" I said. 5 minutes later, I was suddenly put through to another adviser, who made me repeat my problem. Amazingly, this time
they couldnt find my order. It didnt exist. "Are you sure you placed an order ?" I was asked.

After 20 minutes of 'investigation' they told me that I should have received an email confirming the confirmation email and that I would need to place another order online. If only I had known that my confirmation email was merely a ruse to confuse me, I would have been better prepared. As it was, the first I realised there was a problem (and dont forget they have my phone number, email address etc) was when my equipment didnt turn up. So 3 weeks after placing my order, I now have no Broadband, as my existing provider has now cancelled my subscription.

All of your agents that I spoke to were apologetic and polite, but no-one was prepared to explain to me how this situation has arisen. It may come as a surprise to you, to know that I certainly WONT be
replacing my order on line. How you have the nerve to charge me line rental for such a laughable service is beyond me.

yours

David Airey

BT Customer Services Phone Number

So you are having trouble finding out what the BT customer services phone number is? Here are the elusive phone numbers to get hold of BT customer services. Word of warning, you might be on the phone for quite sometime! Good luck!

Residential Customers
Call 150 from a BT landline
From non BT lines or mobiles call 0800 800 150

Business Customers
Call 152 from a BT landline
From non BT lines or mobiles call 0800 800 152

General Enquiries
Call 020 7356 5000

Text phone users can contact BT by prefixing the number with 18001 e.g. 18001 020 7356 5000


Corporate Enquiries
For corporate enquiries only write to BT at our registered office:
BT Group plc,
BT Centre,
81 Newgate Street,
London EC1A 7AJ

Pensioner quoted £150,000 for BT broadband!!!

A pensioner who wants to switch to broadband was quoted £150,000 by BT. Silver surfer Beverley McCartney, 71, hoped to get a high-speed connection to view her favourite websites. But she thought again when BT said it would cost her £129,613.54 plus VAT.

Beverley, of Salem, near Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, fumed: "It's outrageous. I'm not on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere - it's rural but not a wilderness."

BT said the cost reflected the extra equipment needed to supply one individual.

BT responded to a broadband line activation request made by Beverly McCartney with a quote for over £150,000. BT, clearly realising that a pensioner might find this figure hard to bear, decided, through the goodness of its heart, to foot £8,000 of the total bill.

Unsurprisingly, Mrs McCartney initially thought the quote was a typing error, however after talking to a BT employee, was told that it was indeed the current amount. To top things off the employee lectured the pensioner saying that "other people have had bills for more".

According to BT spokesperson Chris Orum, BT is making a "multi-billion pound" investment in its UK network and presumably the firm wanted Mrs McCartney to help out in no small part with this charge. While it is true that there can be occasions when, due to geographical location, utility companies charge the customer to install infrastructure, that usually pertains to commercial facilities, such as in the case of BT, laying fibre-optic cables into datacenters and large office blocks, not "up-to 24Mb" broadband.

The pensioner admits that her abode is located in a rural part of the country, but that it isn't "on top of a mountain in the middle of nowhere". A claim that is confirmed, to some degree by BT. Orum said that the Mrs McCartney's home village of Salem, near Llandeilo, is not a "broadband not-spot". This begs the question, why quote such a ridiculous amount for broadband activation?

As for Mrs McCartney, who is seeing the funny side to the whole palaver, BT's quote should mean that she, and her town of 50 houses, will either have to pony up the 150 grand or live without BT high-speed Internet.

O2 Home Phone now available

O2 has introduced home phone packages for its broadband customers. New customers are also able to take advantage of its broadband and home phone bundles. (Subject to having O2 Broadband and BT line) £9.50 including line rental

For £9.50 a month you can get free evening and weekend calls to landlines. And £12.50 a month will get you unlimited calls to landlines both in the UK and 20 international countries including the US, Australia, France and, er, the Cocos Islands. As with O2's mobile packages you can also add bolt-ons such as call barring and caller display for a small charge.

Sally Cowdry, O2 managing director said customers will get "truly transparent and flexible pricing plans and convenient consolidated billing".

TechWatch is reporting that O2 subsidiary BE will also be adding a home phone service to its broadband packages later this year.

Considering that a lot of people now rely on their mobile phones for phone calls and only have a landline to make broadband possible, we think it makes sense to have these two services under one banner.

Evening & Weekend package:

• £9.50 per month
• Includes line rental
• Unlimited evening and weekend calls to UK landline

Anytime package:

• £12.50 per month
• Includes line rental
• Unlimited anytime calls to UK landlines, 0845 and 0870 numbers
• Unlimited landline calls to over 20 international destinations

12 month minimum term contract.

To take O2 Home Phone you'll need to have a BT landline already installed at your property, so that we can switch you over. You'll also need to pick one of O2 home broadband packages - we don't offer O2 Home Phone on its own.

Unlimited broadband complaint from a gamer / designer

Dear BT Complaints

Please share this complaint about unlimited broadband on your website and include it in your report you are compiling for investigation by Ofcom, Watchdog and BT themselves.

I've been a Loyal BT Broadband customer for more than 3 Years now. And I am informing you of a situation that I am not happy about. For the month of May between 5pm and midnight my broadband is being restricted to 1mb speed because I went over 100GB. Know I understand that you have a fair usage policy in place. But I would like to point out a few areas of concern regarding this and also using the term Unlimited.

1. What you call a fair policy is in fact not a fair policy at all.

Why? My reason as follows. There are 4 family members that use the Internet in this house. 3 of us have a PC myself my sons aged 18 and 14 and my wife has her own laptop. My wife uses the Internet for work and for online shopping.

Myself I am a part time web designer, Gamer and the head of a UK gaming clan. My sons are also members of various gaming clans as well. Now my point is this, being a web designer I have to look after several websites from my home which involves uploading webpages images, video etc. Etc. To my various clients’ sites. Also as a head of a UK gaming clan I have to daily check and download maps and demos for various types of games that we play upload them to our server and check that they run ok I have to do this for 2 servers that we have . Also being a gamer I also buy games that I can download mainly from valve Steam. I have to update them on a regular basis with updates and game patches. I own over 75 games at this time.

My sons also have between them over 40 game titles for their pc’s and Xboxes. Which also need to be updated and they also buy games online. So you can see that this can indeed lead us from time to time using more of our download allowance.

For instance this weekend valve steam have a code master bundle of 5 racing games which I have purchased for myself for£12:50 Saving over £56:00 and my sons want the game pack as well now this offer is only on this weekend so if we all want this pack we need to all be able to download it Because you can’t transfer the games to another PC.

You have to download to each PC. But wait if we to this then we will be restricted again next month. Why because the game pack is around the 40gig size and if we did download the pack for each of us it would take us over the 100GB limit. And this is only the 2nd day of the month. So as you can see how fair is this. So because we update our games buy games online and also look after websites and gaming clans we are be restricted. Mmmm seems pretty fair to me..NOT. In this age of the Internet while more and more option are becoming available for home users to download items like films in SD and HD music, games and software.

I think its time you lot get real and think about the future. And not put restriction on persons who have done nothing but what to enjoy this technology and the ABILITY to use it to its full potential. No wonder the UK is lagging far behind the world in this field.

2. You advertise your option 3 pack as being an UNLIMITED PACK

(no its not it’s a 100 gig PACK) Advertise it as that then and not as an unlimited service.

Unlimited means no restrictions, English dictionary definition of unlimited = (outright: without reservation or exception)".

And this might be a good idea. Since you can tell how much usage the line is using why not make this service available to you customers so they can see how much they are using by just typing in their telephone number and you get the total you have used so far very handy. That way you don’t need to install software onto each PC and laptop.

Also in the e-mail you send that you get to inform you that you may get restriction put in place because you are over 80 GB over 80GB can mean anything how are you meant to restrict your downloads if you don’t know your true download use. If you went to your bank and they told you that you had over £80 in the bank and then you asked for £120 then they said sorry you have only 100 that you can use. How would that make you feel? Anyway that’s my letter finished hope you can see my points. And hope you actually do something about it.

Change Business Address - Watch out for BT mess around!

Dear BTComplaint.com

Please help and share this complaint about BT on your website and include in your report to Ofcom, Watchdog and BT themselves.

I am writing to complain about how appalled I am with your customer services. My business has recently changed address and I rang enquiring about changing address and installation from yourselves about 1 month before I was due to move. At the time I agreed with one of your sales team that I would keep the same number and that on my last day at my old address on Saturday 13th March I would put call divert on to my mobile. (This would still enable me to help my clients and keep my business).

We agreed that on Monday 15th March one of your engineers would contact me with a date to complete my order and put me a new phone line in.

I was told this date would probably be the Monday 15th or Tuesday 16th March. This would enable me to open my business in my new premises on Wednesday 17th successfully.

No-one contacted myself so I rang your order team. At which firstly I was on hold for approx 15-20 mins from my mobile, then I was told it would be Wednesday 17th when a engineer would be coming. You could imagine how frustrated I was, as I business my clients pay with cards, but my terminal would not be working! At this point I was upset, and asked to speak to a supervisor and guess what I was put on hold again. My mobile phone is not with yourselves and as I was ringing 0845 its expensive!!!

When the engineer came I was told that to enable him to put a line in he needed written permission from my landlord. Why was I not told of this when I placed my order! Because of this I was told it would be Thursday 18th for my line. This caused my business lots of problems and I had loss of earnings as clients could not pay with their cards. I did ring to complain again but was on hold yet again.

Thursday morning the engineer came and told me ‘the job’ had been took off him and someone else would be coming tomorrow! I was very frustrated by this and thought you were having a laugh. But no, you were not so that was yet another 30-45 mines I was on hold trying to get this joke sorted. Eventually I managed to get the line in and working on the Thursday afternoon but unfortunally a lost business in the morning as clients could not pay!

You can imagine the relief when everything was eventually working. But I had lost my energy to ring again to complain and be put on hold!!!

Then two weeks ago I received my BT phone bill. Firstly it WAS sent to the wrong address (27 Chapel st). Then as I rang yet again to complain I was put on hold AGAIN. My bill was over £200.00 it which is a lot of money for a service which is a joke. I can’t believe how difficult it has been just to change address with you. I will NOT be renewing my contract again with you, and my home landline will also be moving.

As a business person I always do my very best to help clients feel welcome and stay with myself. You have done your very best to make sure I had a awful experience, I will not recommend you to anyone and will be telling them about my experience and that it actually cost me a lot of money!

If complaining by phone is anything to go by I will be very shocked if you responded to this e-mail. But that would seem to be typical as my whole experience as one of your customers is a joke!

Thank you
Karen Battersby

Cheap Broadband and Phone

A list of the best cheap broadband and phone alternatives for those fed up with BT and want to change to a cheaper provider.

We all want to pay less for our broadband and phone services and using this list should help you get the best deal.   


Sky Broadband and Phone

Free Broadband and phone calls if you sign up with Sky TV. You also get a Sky HD box for free (a year ago this box would have cost you £300!) It's a great deal...Sky HD is well worth the money, you just have to see the picture quality. It is worth it just for the HD National Geographic channel.

 
Talk Talk - Cheap Home Broadband and Phone
This is a very popular choice for customers changing from BT to a new provider who can supply both broadband and phone at a cheaper price.

O2 Broadband and Phone
Another great alternative to BT. Offering a great deal at £9.50 for broadband and phone for the first 3 months. Then £17 per month.

AOL Broadband and Free Unlimited UK Calls

If you are fed up with usual poor BT customer service then this option could be for you. AOL customer service wins awards year after year.

BT Bill Problems

Dear BTComplaint.com

I wish to make a serious complaint against BT and the way I have been treated when I called them today 29.04.10 on 0800 800 800 I could not understand the names of the 2 people I spoke to. I rang to enquire why it is that every time BT take my money from the direct debit they can never take the right amount, I am told, and have it on my direct debit instruction dated 3 April 2010 that my direct debit should be £12.79 per month, they sent another one saying £19.50 it should be £12.79 for line rental.

Last month they took £32 from my account and when I rang to enquire why I was told it was a mistake and that the money would be credited back to my account (minus £12.79 so I should have received £19.21 back) I never received this money back.

I am absolutely furious as every month I have ring up and query the amount been taken out and I have never encountered such imcompetence.

I have now had to cancel my direct debit with them and they will have to send me a bill and I will query that when I receive it. Also I was cut off twice on the phone today by people who just can not do the job properly. The company is quite frankly a disgrace.

I also want a copy of signed written proof sent to me showing whether or not I am under contract with them. They are never able explain how the billing works in a way you can understand and it causes great frustration it would appear to anyone as if it is being made up as they go along. Is the line rental £12.79 per month or not? Can they set up a monthy direct debit for this amount or not? I would have thought that was simple enough.

I am sending this in the hope that I can get through to someone with some sense and that they will get back to me but I am not confident that will happen at all.

Ann Foster

BT Engineer didn't turn up 3 times!

A BT engineer was supposed to install a phone line and broadband 3 times and never turned up. This is totally unacceptable and is by no means a one off.

Dear BTComplaint.com

I've been having a lot of trouble with BT business for my phone and broadband service to our new office. I can't seem to find a recommended procedure to follow in order to complain to BT, and also to seek compensation, I wonder if you could point me in the right direction?

We ordered an existing line to be moved from a residential property (with Virgin) over to BT so we could transfer this number to our new office in early March. We had to use BT as unfortunately our office is in a non Virgin area.

We have now had 3 appointments for a BT engineer to install our line and broadband. Firstly, they went to the wrong address, secondly they didn't turn up, and the third time (which was 22nd April), they canceled the appointment without informing us. I am now waiting for a call back with a new appointment.

So now, I have been running a lettings agency for 2 months with no phone line or broadband and I have reached the end of my strength with this.

I would greatly appreciate any advice you could give me with where to take this complaint.

Thanks in advance.

Kind regards,

Jess Stephenson