Why I set up this site?
I created this BT complaints site as an angry BT Customer who was so fed up with the lack of customer service I received with regards to my phoneline and Broadband services that enough was enough.
How can you contribute?
Email in your BT complaint and we will include it in the report. If we feel it is suitable we will also publish your complaint on this site for others to comment and help. Email BT Complaints to btcomplaint@gmail.com
91 comments:
I have had numerous BT Service problems - ie I can't access my mail remotely or from home. I have written to BT accordingly but all I get is a call from India? by which time BT have sorted the problem. One idiot from 'India' said I had changed my preferences ( what are they....?).
September 30, 2009I have written to the Chairman of BT but never received any written response back - nor any compensation.
Malcolm Edwards
BT just sent a debt recovery bill to recover a bill that has already been paid for a previous address. The final bill was included on the bill to the new address which then had 2 separate itemized bills. Calls have been made to rectify the situation but it seems they are incapable of understanding or ignorant and will not listen.
October 02, 2009As it costs time (time is money which is non-refundable) to make the calls and this has already been tried we await the court date in the hope that we are invited and judgment is not passed in our absence.
Does anybody know if we can counter-sue for wasting our time already?
I have had BT services since February of this year. Problems well today 6th October 2009 I went to make a call and guess what I could not make that call due to BT cutting me off.I called them from my mobile to discover that they have cut me off due to not paying my bill.I explained to the Indian call centre that I pay Direct debit each month and I always have problems with my services,to be honest I have spent more time calling BT than any one else.after 20 mins explaining the situation they told me that there has been a mistake and your services will be connected within 24 hours.Me being on option 3 call any UK or 0845 anytime well thats not the case for me.
October 06, 2009BT is just greedy about money and never looks after its customers, about 4 months ago for some stupid reason i went to town and eneded up chating with BT agents in arndale centre. beleiving in what the agents said to me, i signed up for a BT broadband and landline offer which was supposed to be £17 pcm for both landline and broadband for the first 6 months and £27pcm after. after a week of signing up one day my line was activated and the BT hub which was supposed to be free with the service was posted to me. so i started using the serivace for one day and it cutted off the next day i used my mobile and called BT helpline and after waiting for a while i finally got hold of a so-called advisor. after an hour of changing different settings on my computer and settings from his side on BT service,my service was connected. after an hour of using the service it got disconnected again. i rang back and again they connected it for that night and got disconnected the next day. i had to call BT about 3/4 times everyday from my mobile to get my service going. anyways after a week of hustle and fight with connecting the services i received a bill of £140.00. i realised tht i had been charged £31.00pcm which was double the amount of the offer of £17.00pcm that i was told. on top of that i was charged £44.00 for the BT hub which was supposed to be free. i rang BT customer service and they were all making different excuses.finally they agreed with me that their agent had lied to me about the offer but she was right about the free home hub so they will deduct that 44.00 frm my next bill.. today after 2 months of using bt service i have received another bill of £109.00. they did not deduct that 44.00 for bt home hub instead they added that to this bill too which means that i hav to pay another £44;00 which means that i pay £90.00 just for the home hub,,which doesnt even work and which was supposed to be free. and they have charged me £17.50 because they themselves disconnected my line and connected back. so basically what BT wants from me is to pay them around £130.00 every 3 months but dont use the service because everytime i ring up to connect my service again i will be charged £17.50 each time.i soo much regret singing up for BT my advice to those people who have not signed up for BT yet is to think about it carefully.
October 08, 20099th October 2009
October 09, 2009For the URGENT ATTENTION of Ian Livingston (Chief Executive of British Telecom)
CANCELLATION CHARGES COMPLAINT – POST 14TH JULY 2009 / BT account number: *********
There are two main issues that I wish to bring to your urgent attention to be dealt with immediately:
The first issue is that my one year contract with your company ended on 14th July 2009; and despite the fact your company knew I had “planned to move home after 14th July 2009”, you appear to have tied me into another yearly contract, which was against all my instructions, and without my consent.
The second issue is that I told your company on several occasions that “I never wanted free evening and weekend calls”, yet you appear to have tied me into a contract, to extract money for this as well.
I do not owe your company any money, and in fact your company should reimburse me; for charging me for another yearly contract that you knew I did not want. Why on earth would I want another yearly contract when I had already planned to move home? And why on earth would I want evening and weekend calls when I never even used this service throughout a whole year up to 14th July 2009?
In addition to the above, your company wrongfully took £144.05 from my bank account 18th August 2008 and told me you would “reimburse me all my money back to my bank account straight away”: Your company failed to ever reimburse my money straight away, and your company profited from all the interest you earned by “extracting and then withholding” this overpayment without my consent.
Your company also emailed me 30th July 2009 stating my “new broadband was now up and running”; when in fact this was yet another mistake on your company’s behalf, as I already had broadband! Your company telephoned me to explain that my telephone number had been used by mistake to “set up broadband for a totally different customer”, and promised me that this would be rectified.
Your staff member Richard left voicemails on my machine, his telephone number was 01324457704. He assured me all issues above would be rectified; but his number is since now constantly engaged.
Finally, when I telephoned your company at the end of August 2009 to explain all of the above, your automated system asked me to enter my phone number using the buttons on my phone, and the automated message then stated “there is no BT account linked to this actual telephone number”! When I questioned a member of your staff about this, I was told that it was “a glitch on our system”.
I am perturbed by the fact that your company is threatening to blacklist my name with bad credit, and threatening me with bailiffs and possible court action, when you have failed to rectify any of my previous endless complaints (as above) which I have had to state to your company numerous times.
Please stop threatening me: I will NOT be BULLIED into paying any money that has arisen as a direct result of your company “Neglectfully tying me into a brand new yearly contract after 14th July 2009”; when you were FULLY AWARE I had “Planned to move; and wanted my service to cease thereafter”.
Thank you for your time and attention of the above: I await your apology and your refund in full. Please respond within the next 14 days, and do not continue to harass me with unjustified threats.
Yours Sincerely
*****
I tried to cancel my arrangement, and was quoted a price to come out early, of £64.00, then they charged me £90.00 plus another months rental. When I complained they said there was nothing they could do.
October 16, 2009My broadband started off Ok but now has continual low signal strength or complete loss of signal and my email (btinternet.com)routinely fails to deliver mail to my MacBook. Would not recommend their service and will remove my custom once my 18 month contract is up.
October 25, 2009i was a BT customer for a duration of about 5 yrs,and BT have well and truely done a total error with no explination to myself,this is my story on how BT disconnected me with someone else account information,as it goes;a person was on my account:which may i add should not have been on it,as i don't and have ever known them.so every time i phoned,BT asked me for additional detail to do with this secondary person.i first have no idea what was going on ,untill 6 months ago,i had to disconnect my service for a duration of 3 wks for BT to resolve this issue;at which time i was guarenteed was done,until the 15th of Dec 2009.i had a letter of comfirmation for disconnection of services.i phoned BT which sent my call all the way around the world to be dealt with, but nothing was done;even though i was guaranteed again my service would not be disconnected,but on the 29th Dec 2009,my connection was discontinued.i phoned sales to find out what was going on,
December 30, 2009Tel No:0800 800 150,
go to option 2,then option 2 again.
they couldn't tell me what had happened and any explination in this matter.so i was forwarded to a department in which i could get my migration code to maybe get another service provider,the gentleman on the phone just said to me;i quote,"one my god,your connection is active,but with no migration code".
that was the last strew,and not i've gone to Sky.com,as they are doing the best deal at the moment.
so me advise to anyone reading this is to discontinue they're connection to the back bone of britain;BT and to go with either http://Sky.com ,or
http://Talktalk.com.
and get a better deal that what BT can ever offer.
so in conclusion:BT SUCK,and are a joke in being the backbone on our nation.there should be a ofcom to conplain to.
many thanks for reading my post.
and act now if you are in a contract with BT,either get out of it or don't re-new as they are completely useless as a service provider.
Pease be assured that BT take go responablity for this total cock up.
ME ADVISE TOWARDS THIS COMPANY IS BEWARE.they don't furfill they're commitment to there customers,and just SCREW YOU OVER.
also i'll be making a yearly saving of about £300.00 a yr,which is GREAT.
BT Charges me 80 pounds a moths for braodband and internet
January 07, 2010BT's Internet is very slow. I cant watch any videos, it keeps on buffering
what kind of service is this
Dear Sir's,
January 30, 2010I wish to make a formal complaint and would be grateful if you could forward this to the CEO of BT.COM.
I placed an order online for a phone line and Broadband Package on Thursday 28th January 2010 while speaking via CHAT Line and placed the order and the person on the chat line acknowledge that the order was being processed but when I tried to track the order I could not find it and so I phoned BT to find and then the trouble started . Am I allowed to name all the people I wish to complain about ??
Regards,
Clyde
REGARDING THE COMPLAINT PROCEEDURE.
February 13, 2010if you have a complaint towards BT,then you can forward every prerson's name regarding the complaint.
unforuinately,BT have an intenal complaints committing,so you may have joy or now.
please forward your complaint in a professional manner;as for it to be taken seriously.
you must remember that the complaint isn't usually to the person on the phone.
be patient and someone will return a call to yourself's and also e-mail you.
all the best with the so called backbone infrastructure of our communications network.
I LIVE IN LOWESTOFT SUFFOLK AND I HAVE BROADBAND WITH A POST OFFICE ACCOUNT.
February 23, 2010THEY SAID IT WILL STILL BE A BT LINE, THAT MENT OBVIOUSLY THE POST OFFICE RENT FROM BT!!
SO ,FINE NO PROBLEM .
FOR THE LAST THREE MONTHS OF ALMOST BEING EPILEPTIC FROM TRYNG TO WATCH YOU TUBE
COMPLAINED TO THE POST OFFICE ABOUT MY BROADBAND RUNNING ON LESS THAN 1MEG AS APPOSSED TO THE 8 I WAS TOLD I WOULD HAVE
THEN WAS TOLD THAT IT WAS BECAUSE BT HAVE NOT UPDATED THE LINES !!!
SO STINGY!! BT WILL NOT UPDATE WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED? FAT CATS ON THE RUN .THATS ALL I CAN SEE BT STANDS FOR BRITISH TELECOM? YEH RIGHT, MORE LIKE B.T. BLOODY TROUBLE!!!!.
In all honesty dealing with BT to resolve a problem is nothing short of a nightmare!
February 25, 2010For over three months now i've had a problem with a phone line that rings between once or twice and hour every hour 24 hours a day. I've lost track of how many times i've phoned BT, but it's been hours of my time wasted. And to add insult to injury they still bill me for the calls!
The customer service advisor you speak to is a complete waste of time, they either don't listen or don't care.I've asked to speak a supervisor and they either say NO your speak to me and no one else, or they try and tell me they are the supervisor and carry on with the silly scrip you've been through more times than you can remember.
I've tried to leave BT before and they caused me so many problems at the exchange giving me a crossed line with other partys that i feel trapped in this nightmare as i need my phone for business.
so angry!!!!!!!!!
Late last year I left BT after no end of problems with their service. On August 09th, I got disconnected. No notification by post, email or phone. I telephoned in and was told this was either an error or maybe a letter was posted out to me on the 08th. Now the 08th is a Saturday, no post on a Sunday (the 09th) so no time would have been given to react or respond. Now in March 2010 that letter has never arrived.
March 03, 2010Anyway, the line supervisor at the time said it was an error, there was no problem and she would reconnect the line - in 5 days. So they can cut you off almost immediately but 5 days to switch back on. Back to the matter. I was informed that there would be no charge for the reconnection and everything was fine.
So I get a final bill after deciding to leave to find a charge on there for leaving BT. After numerous calls today that took forever - would have been faster to walk to Delhi or wherever - it turns out that either a) when I got reconnected I entered into, without my knowledge, into a new account with BT OR I am having to pay to leave and go with someone else. WTF! Neither of these are washing with me.. It is daylight robbery - legal mugging.
I have the number now for Oteleo and will be contacting them tomorrow. This cannot be legal. I got told that if you have been with BT for 1 or 50 years it makes no difference, you will get charged nearly £70 for leaving. I called my new provider. They dont charge to leave. I was also informed that this is not made public and you are expected to phone in.
Needless to say that this matter will be taken as far as it can go. I had customer service agents who were rude, constantly interuped and actually hung up on me
BT is a disgraceful company and they should be ashamed. I will never EVER go back to them. Everything is lousy and I just hope I can make some headway into getting this policy looked into
For many months I have been trying to establish the true costs of the 1471 service that BT supply.
March 04, 2010The service is free as long as you don't press "3" to automatically call the number back. However we have numerous 1471 fees on our bills which are charged at .122p each. Neither my husband nor myself (and no children in the house) use the "3" service but still have these charges. The only explanation from BT is that we must have accidentally pressed the 3 when putting the phone down each time.
I have categorically told BT that we do not make a mistake when putting the handset down and they are categorically saying that their system cannot be at fault.
As we are at an impasse we have had the 1471 removed from our phone service.
for the attention of SUE:
March 05, 2010tell B.T that you do not wish for the answer service and buy a digital answerphone.
We left BT a few years ago due to a vevry poor phone service, and an almost non-existant broadband service.
March 08, 2010Ever since we joined Virgin, we have been plagued with calls and mail shots from BT asking us if we would like to come back to them.
We have rang and sent countless letters to BT asking to be taking off their databases permanently as we have no intention of ever going back to their sub-standard service, yet every time they say we will be, u can guarentee within two or three days we will get a phone call or a mail shot. What dont these people understand about "WE WILL NEVER USE BT AGAIN"?
I dont to know or recieve anything from BT at all. no calls, no mail shots, nothing. BT in my eyes is nothing. a non-entity.
As a comparison our BT used to consist of a phone line and a (very unstable) 2meg broadband. With Virgin, we have a perfect phone line(even though we prefere our mobiles), and a constantly fast 20meg broadband connection, which hasnt failed in the last 3 years. BT's used to be down every day with an "a" in it.
We had a 2nd line installed last September 09 after 4weeks and the 4th engineer sent could finally do the line but it had to be connected with a Dax box so both lines were conected to this, the engineer said if we did get a fault we would lose both lines, but until we had the new underground cable installed it would happen a lot by 4th October we lost both lines due to a fault.
March 09, 2010To cut a long story short as it is a long story we finally had our 1 line reinstalled after 3 weeks but had to lose the 2nd line, I then started receiving the bills for the 2nd line we had only had for a week I rang every time I got a bill and even cancelled my direct debit but they still managed to re install the D/D and take it again.
How come they can say they will take £7.50 for late payment when I do not keep to my terms of agreement with them, but they can take money from my account when they do NOT keep to their contract - we are the customer yet we are treated like we are pests when we complain.
The last straw was on 02.01.2010 I had another bill rang them and said I have not got the phone line to be told it was fixed on 30.12.2009. impossible as the enginner would have to had come into the house to re connect the line but I had had no contact from them as all. I was then informed I would have to report it as a new fault as as far as they were aware it was fixed and I sould pay.
04.01.2010 antoher engineer arrives re connects the Dax box I said it would go into fault again he said it would not.
The line's worked until the 07.01.2010 and then went into fault again.
Had to wait until the 11th for an engineer again 1 line fixed other line still faulty. 15th jan 2 engineers arrive and contect the 2nd line told will not have a problem now.
It has now worked ok, but received more bills.
Now had the line disconnected on 4th March after a conversation with them on the 1st March saying we don't owe anything. had to have a new number and they would give me back my old one by today the 9th march rang today no record of it !! GUESS WHAT have got to wait 3 days again
I am really fed up nothing happens with BT. The only thing the do is take your money.
Have got OTHELO dealing with it but BT come back with smug answers and when the can not answer it just say BT and I quote BT HAS NOT COMMENTED ON THIS. or I CONSIDER THIS TO BE A SHORTFALL IN CUSTOMER SERVICE WHICH WILL BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION.This was on my review from BT from OTHELO which I have to now reply to.
How can this be resolved no one will help.
Today I learnt that an elderly friend of my parents had been treated appallingly by BT. The lady who is in her eighties with mobility problems has a emergency call for help alarm which works in conjunction to her BT Landline. Users are advised to test the alarm on a weekly basis. The lady tested the alarm but did not get the usual response. She then picked up her phone to call the company but found she couldnt get through. The automated response informed her that her call was being transfered to BT of course no one from BT responded to her.
March 16, 2010Now faced with no other alternative she had to struggle to a neigbours house and ask to use the phone to call BT.
After the usual BT saga of being passed around the houses she was eventually put through to an indian call centre. What the customer advisor told her is quite alarming! Your phone has been cut off because you have not paid your bill. The lady responded by informing her that she had not only paid her bill, but that she required her phone to summon help as lived alone and had disabilites. The advisor then informed her that as she had only sent £59.00 and should have sent £89.00 so her phone would not be reconnected until this £30.00 was settled. Despite her telling BT that this was not the case BT was adament that her line would not be reconnected until a payment was recieved.
The quesstions are. Firstly, Did BT ever write and inform her that her account was in Debit NO they did not. Had she ever owed BT money in the past: NO she and her late husband have been loyal BT customer for the best part of 60 years ALWAYS paying what they owed on time! Finally, should BT as a company be able to disconect a vunerable, elderly lady with poor mobility from a device that gives her secruity and her only contact with the outside world? What about the disability dicrimination act are they in breech?
Shame on BT a heartless money grabbing insitution that cares for no one except themselves. This needs to put on the front page of all news papers or along side all BT adverts.
I except the next saga in this story will be a reconnection fee of £120.
On 21st March i received my bill which was rather high i phoned bt and spoke to Amed explained the situation and he agreed to give me time to pay(30 days).On Friday 26th my phone was cut off. Iphoned and spoke to Ulam who appologised and said yes i did have time to pay and assured me i would be reconected within 24hrs. Saturday no phone called and spoke to castian who again appologised and said ther had been tech difficulties and that it would be back on in 1 to 2hrs i waited and left it till Sunday to give them benefit of the doupt. Still nothing called again spoke to Sumid who could not understand why it was not on went off to speak to his manager who came on the phone and assured me that it would be on by 11am Monday they could not do it now as Openreach did not work on Sundays i excepted this. Monday13.00hrs still nothing called and spoke to Pasca Who also could not give a reason why went to speak to supervisor he returned said hello and cut me off.Called again and spoke this time to Vaibhav who again appologised and said he would sort it out right away he also said because of the problem being b.ts he would stop reconection cost also line rental charge for time was off. He again also assured me the line would be back on within 4hrs nothing.Tuesdaycalled and spoke to a lady in this country Angela told her the whole saga she relyed that they had no right to make those promises as bt does not operate a extension scheme.I must pay whole bill before reconection.Does B.T not give any training to our freinds in India or do they just tell you what you want to hear to get you off the line.B.T TAKE TAKE TAKE NO HELP WHATSOEVER JUST ANOTHER NUMBER. moving shortly no use for B.T phone or broadband.BYE BYE BLOODY TROUBLE.
March 30, 2010everytime you call bt you are still transferred through to indian call centres you are paying them in sterling and getting short changed by going through to indian call centres who have not got the foggiest when will this company learn ..all other companys have taken note and bringing back their call centres to the uk
May 08, 2010I discovered by a friend trying call that my landline was down from around 11.00AM on Friday 7th May 2010. They had reported the fault and were told it was at the exchange and repair was in hand. On Sat. 8th, still without a line, I called from a neighbours phone (I have no mobile coverage where I live, hence the importance of a landline) I was told again it was in hand. On Monday 10th - no line again - so called cust. services to be told that nothing would have happened from Friday AM as the engineers do not currently work at weekends! Also told that there was a 3 day target period to complete the repair so don't expect anything until then although it will probably be completed by Tuesday PM!!! BT service has declined miserably over the last few years but who else provides anything better? It seems all the other providers use the same wires & the customer then gets stuck between two unwilling providers - I know - I've been there too! RBP
May 10, 2010If you ever have the misfortune to deal with BT you have my sincere best wishes. I complained about the pathetic service which a certain individual took as a personal attack and proceeded to further antagonise the situation. With no apology and an extremely superior tone the situation has been further exacerbated and my experience has been made even worse.
May 10, 2010cant wait for my contract to come to an end....WHAT A FIASCO!!!! ALL I REQUESTED WAS THE DIVERSION OF MY 1571 MESSAGES TO MY MOBILE NUMBER...I COULD HAVE PEDDLED TO THE CALL CENTER IN INDIA, IN THE TIME IT TOOK TRYING TO EXPLAIN THIS VERY SIMPLE REQUEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!AFTER A VERY FRUSTRATING 15...20 MINUTES,I ADMITTED DEFEAT AND HUNG UP!!!!!!!!!!!TAKE NOTE B.T.WE WILL NOT!I REPEAT,NOT!PUT UP WITH SUCH INCOMPITENCE...WE WILL WALK WITH OUR DIRECT DEBITS!!!!!!!!!!!
May 11, 2010I have been waiting two months for a new order / line to be installed!
May 11, 2010NO NEWS
NO COMMUNICATION
NO HELP
NO RESPONSE
NO ANSWER
BT even put an incorrect phone number for themselves on a letter they sent out!
Utterley usless
After having had my services restricted because of a bill that was allowed to accumilate over a period of 12 months. (even after i have made payments over the phone and repeatadly asked if there was any outstanding balance only to be told that no my account was fully uptodate) i have been led a merry dance over the reconnection of my BT Broadband and BT Vision. After a second phone call on the 5th of may i was told by BT that i did not have and had never had BT Broadband, to which i replyed that i had in fact had this service for over 18 months along with BT vision. The member of staff that i spoke to said that she would look into this and phone me back at some point in the day... surprise surprise no call back but BT Broadband was restored. However BT Vision was still not working so i waited untill the following day for the full 24 hours to elapse, still no BT Vision. Once again i phoned the service phone number only to be told that a patch was needed after aproximatly an hour and a half on the phone, and that this could take untill monday as it had to passed to a different department. Come Monday 10th May Still no BT Broad Band, so i phone again, only to be told that they have now sorted the problem and to give it 24 hours, Tuesday 11th May still no BT Vision, so once again i phone and again i am told that problem has now been sorted and yes you got it to wait upto 24 hours... Ok so now its Wed 12th of may and still no BT Vision, only now i am being told, that as i dont have broad band and it is not due to be activated untill May 13th i cant expect to get BT Vision untill Mondy 17th May... So please what is going on, i have BT Broadband and have been using for the past week, i have even recieved e mails from BT in the past week. Ater speaking to a manager she informed me that each department is not aware of what is happening within the other... this i find very very hard to belilve in this day and age of technology, so is it a training issue or a departmental information sharing issue, both of which should be very very easy to solve.
May 12, 2010I would appreciate a response to this complaint within the next 5 working days, along with an amendment to my bill for the amount of time i have been unable to use my services and some compensation for the stress that this has caused and the amount of time taken for what should have been a simple reconnection to take place after a restriction that should not have taken place.
a very very angry and confused BT customer
Tracy Clarke
Dont go with BT!!!!! I signed up to BT Vision about 4 weeks ago and have had nothing but problems. I phoned to report the fault and was told it was the speed line and would improve within 48 hours, 4 days later nothing had changed. many phone calls later, mostly with people who barely speak english and I am still paying for something i am not getting. I am being told that my problem is being worked on and despite being promised phonecalls from technicians at set times which havent occurred nothing has changed. I feel really frustrated because I cannot end my contract until the problem is resolved but am totally fed up of dealing with incompetence with no willing to take responsibility!!! Poor service!!! I should have stayed with SKY!!!!!
May 13, 2010I rely on broadband for work (medical research) but made the mistake of moving house recently. I have been trying for over a month now to get myself connected at my new house but I am repeatedly told that a new order takes 5 days and the problem is that my previous order was cancelled. I have no idea why previous orders were cancelled. One group was helpful and tried to 'fast track' a new order but this appears to have failed and whenever I speak to a new person they have no idea what this means. I have been unable to do any meaningful work for over a month now. Had I any idea of the length of time it would actually take there is no chance I would have stayed with BT.
May 14, 2010Been with BT business for many years with numerous problems. Finally decided to leave when calls were billed to one of our VOIP lines that were not made from our premises. In trying to discuss my issues with BT I have had to call them more than 20 times, subjected to call waits of more than 30 minutes during the day, and had 3 calls disconnected mid-conversation with overseas agents before I finally managed to reach somebody who would address my issues. I was then told that BT would maintain the charges. I decided to finally leave BT for another company. When the new company tried to transfer the line they were unable to as the feature line service with BT was preventing the transfer. I then called BT to cancel the feature line and was told that there would be a fee of £30 for this and I would also have to take up a new 12 month contract which I would then have to buy out of. An unscrupulous and contemptuous practice by anyone’s definition. It has been made clear to me that BT has lost its reputation as a good service provider and can no longer provide good customer support.
May 18, 2010I have written a letter to the CEO for a bill received in march since i have paid BT all that i owe them and not been a customer since 2008, i was more than surprised to get a debt recovery letter.
May 19, 2010Dear Mr Livingston,
I apologise for contacting you directly, but after contacting customer services I feel that nobody will listen to me.
The problem is that I have received a letter from BT Debt recovery Unit, letter dated 14th March 2010. The letter stated that I owed £132.24.
I was very surprised to receive the letter as I have not been a BT customer since November 2008.
I contacted BT Customer services and was told it was out of their hands and I should telephone 0870 270 0021 to resolve the problem. I promptly did this and found the number just to be an employee mail box.
I phoned again and was given the number again and I still had the same result.
I phoned for a final time and finally spoke to somebody willing to listen, they said the bill was a final bill, I explained that I had already had a final bill from BT and paid in full back in 2008.
I asked why it had taken over a year to send a debt recovery letter and was given no explanation.
I have not received any previous correspondence in relation to this.
I have since received a letter from Collect Direct UK a debt recovery agency saying that I now owe £165.40 this letter was dated 22nd March 2010. I have contacted them and they said they would contact BT on my behalf. They telephoned me back today and said that I still owed the money but would be willing to accept 50% of the outstanding amount, but I said as I didn’t owe them anything I wouldn’t pay them. I was also told that BT had sent me a bill on 23rd March 2010 which I have not yet received.
I have also had a telephone call from BT stating that I owed over £600 when I said I already had a ongoing dispute the apologised and said they had the wrong person.
I would like this matter resolved promptly, as I have paid my BT bill in full back in 2008.
I thank you for taking time to read this letter and hope to hear from you soon.
Shocking for such a large company , staff make promises they just cant keep , Plain to see overcharging , renewal of contracts without consent , direct debit changing without prior concent , poor service
May 20, 2010unusable services , u really could go on
When did you forget that it is the customers that grow your business
Well we're not even with BT but they've caused us problems!
May 21, 2010My daughter's away at Uni and like us is with Talktalk (gave up on BT ages ago). She was on her computer doing coursework when it crashed. She noticed a BT engineer up a pole right outside her house so went and asked (cables go from the pole to the neighbours and hers). He replied yea sorry for that, am doing some work for a neighbour and it will be back on again within the hour. It wasn't.
She phoned BT who said she's not a customer and it's not their problem and contact her own internet/phone provider. She has to use her mobile (no phone remember) to contact Mumbai? and spent many calls talking to Talktalk, and doesn't really understand the accent. She calls me.
I phone BT and the lady was very unhelpful and said it's not their problem. I said a BT ENGINEER was up the pole and my daughters phone/internet connection was disconnected. Not their problem. I phone Talktalk who were immediately on the case (really nice people) and they'd phone back tomorrow.
Today Talktalk phone my daughter and she has to disconnect all sockets in the house. She does and they report there's still something connected. It's not.
Mmm - BT, can you just shimmy back up that pole and reverse whatever it was that you did? It is YOUR problem, you caused it and now expect Talktalk to put it right. We've spent hours on the phone costing money, and time is important to us all. Will you compensate my daughters mobile phone bill? Probably not.
And why is there nobody to speak to/email on the BT website if you're not a customer? Who do we call - Ghostbusters?
Oh..... and she's still without a connection.....
i have been a BT customer since 1977 naver had 1 complaint
May 22, 2010however i have transferred to virgin purley on grounds of cost
I have spent to days speaking to Customer Services regarding loss of service on my phone and have to say have been shocked by the way staff talk to customers.
May 22, 2010I have tried to follow BTs published complaint procedure and escalate via team leader,manager etc but each agent I speak to refuses to let you speak to a manager. This morning I have finally spoken to a team supervisor who was rude and agressive, as he was unwilling to even look into the complaint I asked for the complaint to be escalated to the complaints review team only to be told they didnt exist and he was the most senior manager in BT. I didnt know the MD took calls in a call centre?
I have now logged a third complaint online but if like the previous two will just get sent an automated response thanking me for my time.
I was disconected by a 3rd party no falt of mine have been on to bt for reconection should have been conected on the 19th 5th 2010 was put back on but not told of new number change i then phoned them to ask wye i was not on my old number were my alarm for my school goes to also my internet they told me it will take another 3 days to do should have been done on the 22nd still not got a phone call or a phone i need to have this resolved bye friday the 28th or i am going to get offcom involved im not going to pay for this new number regards mr
May 26, 2010BT cut off ,ie closed as they later called it, my Home Hub Broadband Service on Friday 21st May this year. They did this in error as they have freely acknowledged both to me and my husband on the phone on numerous occasions since. This is apparently on record in our notes with BT. They did it for no good reason despite having done exactly the same thing three weeks before ,when after being 3 hours on the 'phone to BT getting nowhere trying to persuade them to restoree the servive and stop telling me my 9 month old laptop had suddenly broken down, I finally lost patience and threatened to go to Money Mail, they switched it on again from the exchange within a minute of the words coming out of my mouth.
May 29, 2010This time however they say we have to wait till 7th June to have the bb go active again, something to do with Outreach not being able to do it any quicker.
My husband was so incensed by this as he needs the internet professionally, and we have three professional lodgers living in the house, all also dependent on bb, that he asked for it to be put back at once or there would be serious repercussions. He was told someone from Outreach would telephone him back on Monday morning 24th May to confirm acceleration of the reconnection. This never happened, and on telephoning BT again on Monday morning in an attempt to recapture the thread, we got precisely no where. Now we have gone abroad away from our house and telephone line leaving the lodgers high and dry.
Phone No, A/c No and names of various BT assistants, floor Managers and Department Supervisors we spoke to can all be supplied. PH
When BT hold the monopoly it is these times that make things very difficult. Unforunately WE HAVE to be provided by them yet often they fail to provide a service. Surely in this day and age it is a fundemental breach of human rights when people are denied access to such a simple and universal device, the telephone.The country depends on telecoms yet they continue to fleece people out of money and if they don't pay they get cut off. I would ask the coalition government to open up channels of fairer trading and allow others to install lines.
June 02, 2010Speed issues part 1
June 03, 2010Until about 8 weeks ago I was enjoying a 4.5meg connection. Overnight this dropped to half a meg. I left it for a week thinking it would rectify itself considering the BT cab at the end of the street had been vandalised. After a week there was no improvement and so complained to BT. They sent and engineer around a week later (as they didn’t want to send one over the Easter holiday). He found a fault on the line…. 5 engineers later the fault has been found and fixed only my speed has not improved.
The problem that remains is that the line says I am connected at 4.5 meg, however, when I perform a speed test I get under 1 meg and about 423kbs upload. There was some discussion as to BT throttling my connection as they claim I am “a heavy user”. My partner threatened to sue them and since then they have assured us we have not been capped or throttled in any way. This problem has been dragging on forever with no real end in sight as they are unable to solve the speed issue. I am usually fobbed off with some reason as to why the problem is either: MY FAULT as I have viruses or my computer is set up wrong (we have 3 machines and 1 was formatted and fresh install of vista to prove this theory incorrect), I don’t know how to down load a file, I use peer to peer (torrent) downloading (no one in this household uses peer to peer/torrents) I won’t give the technical support team access to my computer (we have sensitive work files, so no one is gaining access to any computer) my cookies are full (don’t be stupid) my equipment is broken (we have access to more than one router, filter, computer etc etc they all must be broken in that case) I have not given enough time for the connection to speed up (each kb is arriving via a snail which has taken a detour in that case). This list is endless as each phone call a new reason why it is not working is given. They claim they are “still working on the issue” but there has been no moving forward aver the past 3 weeks.
I have had to call the technical support every day and the process remains the same: they ask me the same stupid questions like “have you changed the filters, what colour are the lights on the hub, let me show you how to download a file”. I am insulted by the last question as I am 35 yrs old and have been using computers since I was 16!
I have been told to wait 14 days for “stabilisation period” even though after 10 I called to say the problem had not improved they would not do anything until the 14 days were up. They call me every day to perform speed tests which show no improvement but tell me I have a good connection.
The technical support team do not understand the problem and tell me I can only get 1.5 meg download. So why am I paying for option 3 the most expensive of all BT services when the best I can hope for is equivalent to option 1? This will be interesting when the bill arrives.
BT customer service sucks and the complaints procedure is worse. Despite writing a complaint online I have only received an automated response. There is no telephone number, technical support staff in India have extremely poor English and at the best of times there are communication issues because of this.
Next step is BT’s reconciliation service then ofcom will be hearing from me.
Trying to get a pole moved so that we can gain access to our land.BT Openreach more concerned about problems they have encountered rather than resolve them and let customers have their rights to the land.Paid in Feb.2010 nothing happened for 8 weeks and ENORMOUS problems since. Logical solution involves talking to other depts. within organisation. If only we understood the rules we could play their game. Anxiety and huge personal costs are causing too many sleepless nights.
June 03, 2010Totally agree that fair trading needs to be implemented. Whilst BT have monopoly they can do as they please. Someone should have their policies and procedures investigated from the customers point of view and not BT's
June 03, 2010I let BT know that I was moving and would like to cancel my contrat with BT at the end of the quarterly bill which was four weeks away 2 days later they cut me off when I desperately needed a phone. After four phonecall nothing has been sorted and now instead of reinstating my phone to the end of the four weeks they now say I have asked for a new contract which I have not. God knows whats going to happen when I finally move in two weeks.
June 04, 2010J Clark
Dear bt complaint.com
June 05, 2010I had BT installed in my new house in January 2010. I ordered it online after doing a speed check on my line and found out that my line could get 3.2Mbps. so i took out the BT Total Broadband Option 3 with promise of upto 20Mbps and free evening and weekend calls. what i actually received was about 2.5Mbps so i thought ok i can deal with that because I had to allow for upload speeds. that was for the first 14 days after that i started to get fluctuating speeds that ranged from 4Mbps to 0.2Mbps I rang BT and was told the line needed to settle, they also told me it might be due to the exchange getting upgraded so as a result I should get faster speeds within the next 10-14 days. I thought wow I might even get over the 5Mbps barrier.
that wasnt the case my actual speed after 10-14 working days 0.8Mbps
never anymore often alot less.
over the next few weeks i started to get calls from my previous isp provider who's calls i kept missing and when i rang back i got an automated message saying dont worry we will call again. when i finally got the call they told me that BT hadn't took my phone line with them and would i still want them to provide it, I said that BT should provide it as i get free evening and weekend calls. i rang BT and was greeted by somebody who i couldn't understand and they couldn't understand me after being on the phone for 30minutes and not getting anywhere i asked to speak with somebody else. he said yes i'll put you through. I WAS CUT OFF.
so i called again and was told that my £25.00 a month package did not include a phone line the calls are over broadband calls. which means i have to pay another £13.99 for the phone line i told them i cant afford that and the guy i spoke to said he would check my useage and see if i could go on a lower tarrif and not go over the max usage for that tarrif. he said he would call me back within 48 hours. I'm still waiting. After waiting for a week without internet i still hadnt heard anything so i called again, this time i was told that i couldnt change my tarrif because i was still in contract. My options were to pay £38.99 a month for 0.8Mbps or pay £25.00 a month for no sevice at all i decided to pay the £38.99 which wasnt really affordable for me. She told me that i would be connected within 48 hours. Ater a few minutes of silence she came back and said it would be 21 days before i would be reconnected because i waas with a different provider before. So i would be without internet for a total of 30 days. I would still have to pay the bill though. After a few days someone suggested to see how much it was for virgin as they had recently turn on the fibre optical system in leicester. So i decided theat itf i was going to pay £38.99 for bt at 0.8Mbps i may as well pay virgin £20.00 for 10Mbps actual speed is 9.2Mbps. i thought this was thew best option so i cancelled the phone line and decided to keep paying BT for broadband that i couldnt use. Making my bill £45.00 still cant afford it but at least i can stream videos and download music without leaving my computer on all night.
Then i realised after a couple of weeks that bt had two direct debits setup in my account so i cancelled them both hoping BT would tell me i need to setup a new direct debit they didnt do this they just sent me a bill for £149 then two days later they sent me a bill for £201.81 this icludes the cost for the equipment that i can’t use.
I have now had a letter saying that they will refer the bill to a debt collecting agent . ive tried calling to tell them i havent receiced a service and i’m not going to pay and i was cut off after arguing for 20 minutes. I am now going to go through the complaints procedure to get the account cancelled
Fingers crossed
Hi All whatever you do dont subscribe to BT, Nothing but problems since the so called installation three weeks ago, we pulled away from virgin as they were crap to go to BT, Whatever you do stay with the crap as BT are nothing but robbing sharks and complete assholes on the phone.
June 06, 20103 weeks on the phone complaining and still ongoing saga with no return calls.
Bob Levey, Bristol
We also had problems when my 80 year old mother moved house at the end of March. BT created a problem resulting in a connection charge appearing on the next bill, which they subsequently agreed was not required, and we were told a revised bill would be sent. Three phone calls later and still no revised bill. In the meantime my disabled, visually impaired has had automated phone calls telling her she hasn't paid the bill. Finally, we were told to just pay the call charges element of the bill, which we did, and included a letter quoting the reference number we were given to authorise this action, and three days later my mother was unable to make outgoing calls!!! Another automated message gave her the opportunity to speak to someone at BT to whom she explained the situatuon and the only redeeming factor for BT is that the line was restored in a couple of hours.
June 07, 2010SINCE I ORDERED AND PAID FOR BT VISION IN FEBRUARY
June 08, 20102010 , NOBODY HAS CARE TO KNOW FROM BT WHETHER OR NOT THE PRODUCT HAS BEEN DELIVERED TO MY PLACE OF ABODE
I can not tell you have crap BT Are!! - I am trying to run a business but I understand that it is not company policy to return customers calls!! - what a crock!!
June 09, 2010I also belive that they employ every village idoit in not only this Country but also in India!!
If you are going to lodge complaints to bt, especially if they relate to alleged debts, do this
June 09, 20101 write, don't phone.
2 keep copies of ALL
correspondence
3 it is a good idea to keep all bills even long after you have paid them
4 provided your evidence is good and clearly contradicts the assertions made by BT put them on notice that if, after a reasonable period, the issue at hand is not satisfactorily resolved YOU will be issuing proceedings against them.
The complaints procedure has been designed to prevent or at least discourage you from issuing proceedings againts then because they do not want their practices scrutinized by a competent legal authority.
one word of caution though, they have a very expensive legal team who will use every obstructive device to wear you down.so, make sure your evidence is SOLID. if you have to talk to representatives by phone get their name and log the date and time of each call.( calls are monitored and most likely recorded). keep all emails relating to your complaint, and put your documentation in date order, that will impress a court judge if you have to take the matter to court.
I live in a small town away from the bigger towns, i know that the broadband connection speeds in the smaller places are alot slower that the bigger towns, but when are BT going to actually do something about it. I was with Tiscali and had a much quicker connection speed. I should be getting about 8mb download speeds and if i get 2mb download speeds im lucky. WHAT ARE WE PAYING FOR????
June 10, 2010Small business starting new shop. Minimum time to get a phone line 14 days!! Pathetically slow. Now Day 17 and BT Openreach have failed to install still. There is no choice of provider. BT monopoly lives on and is strangling new businesses. Nobody is interested enough to sort out the shambles that is BT Openreach.
June 11, 2010BT RIPPED ME OFF
June 11, 2010BT never had any problems internet all good. BUT the recent TV advert is rather annoying mother and father seperated why? this should not be accepted as normal.what happended to love we should not accept this so easily responsable people do not have children and then split up, claiming everthing for free. Get a job buy a house and stop stealing my ****ing money.
June 12, 2010Why cant I find a proper complain postal address to send a letter in so you have to reply with an answer?
June 14, 2010All you do here is post comments and dont even read them yourselfs.
This is not a complaint proceedure I have ever come across before in my life!
After being with BT for 9 months, and after paying my latest bill (£14.52), I found my line had been disconnected. Then that week BT sent me a cheque for £125, then a late payment notice(for the £125) followed by a termination notice, all arriving in the space of a few days! I have called BT 4 times now, and despite their apologies, I am still awaiting a line (apparently they cannot give me my old number back as it has been reassigned!). I have no idea what is going on with BT!
June 15, 2010it seems it is IMPOSSIBLE to cancel an order - even if I didn't make one - and was MIS-SOLD by sales team after BT made yet another MISTAKE and cancelled my account as they had LOST my direct debit. AND WHY IS IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SPEAK TO A HUMAN BEING - I WILL NOT BE PUT ON HOLD FOR 2 HOURS AT MY EXPENSE - I figure that cancelling direct debit is the only way to get these people to CALL ME BACK.
June 17, 2010I have discovered today that due to a slighly late payment my Call Divert (from my 0800 No) has been suspended (Line restricted) and may of been for several days?. The cost to my mobile services business each day is staggering as when I am out of the Office I am not receiving calls. The Bill payer is away for a week so I am stuck. Spoke to BT today, they are not interested. I currently spend a fortune with BT advertising my business each year and always pay my bills. Estimate this could of set me back £1000 or more, so far in lost business. I can't wait to find an alternative phone supplier BT are corparate idiots ..
June 21, 2010BT are a joke. 3 months with broadband that for 95% of that period has not worked, but which they will not compensate for until resolved, but which despite 3 engineers unable to sort out. Call centre in India that continually goes through the same process at each call. Lack of consideration for their customers - do they not realise their customers work and therefore to ask them to stay at home between 8 and 1 or 1 and 6 means taking holidays unless they come on a Saturday, or in my case this week, although they should have done so, ignored the instruction I gave which was I would not be in until after 2.00pm and they had phoned at 12.30!
June 21, 2010I have been a BT customer for 30 years, but no more I am taking my broadband and landlines to a company who hopefully cares.
I want to send a letter to BT and receive a written reply. It is difficult to find an address to write to. I have two letters from BT but neither letter quotes an address!
June 23, 2010"I want to send a letter to BT and receive a written reply. It is difficult to find an address to write to. I have two letters from BT but neither letter quotes an address!"
June 24, 2010That was exactly my problem this morning. My complaint was first made in writing in February 2010 and so far I have received the odd call from people giving only their first name (should I ask for EIN numbers?), none of whom had actually read my letter. The last call, a couple of days ago, was from someone in the 'Broadband Digital Care team'. After almost 6 months of complaining I decided I wanted their response in writing, but there is no way of contacting them. I rang BT Broadband, ended up in India; was given two phone numbers. The first is no longer in use. The second is no longer a BT call centre. Complaints procedure? They don't have one... try and find details on the internet.
BT have to be the biggest disgrace of a company i have ever encountered in all my days in business. I ordered phone, fax & broadband for a new business on May 26th, the phone was done on the 8th June and i have been waiting for the rest ever since and they have cancelled the job once again yesterday giving me no explanation as to why only to tell me for the 3rd time in a month that it will be rescheduled on July 2nd. I cannot operate a business like this when i rely on fax & emailed orders from customers. If businesses in Ireland were to operate in this fashion i would be out of business long ago. What a disgrace! I am getting the run around every single day i call, and wait for a call back until 5pm and never get it. For the love of god join talk talk or any other provider. Biggest mistake ive ever made in business!!
June 25, 2010I built a new house next to the house I lived in with my ex husband 2 years after we had moved out, during this time I rented 2 different properties and each time the tried to set the account up in my ex husbands name. When I arranged a totally new line in a totally new house his name appeared yet again. I thought I had sorted it as since then my name has been on the bill. Now my latest bill is in his name. He hs recently moved back to the area and when he tried to set up an acount they put it in my name. i have just spent 2 hours on the phone to people in India~who have been polite mostly but turns out I have nothing to do with this account even though I created it and pay for it, I can not even cancel it. My only option is to set up new account in my name but that is what i did in the first place, I can not even complain because the account is not in my name~~~~they will not give me a contact in this country ~~~I expect someone is earning a lot of money to cause such stress
June 25, 2010Deciding to move away from BT seems to present as many problems as staying with them. I decided to stop using their overpriced line rental and broadband due to frequent service disruptions. This involved a contract 'break' fee of £100. Considering the reason for this was dissatisfaction with the service, it's not exactly what you would expect in terms of compensation.
July 02, 2010I then used a separate provider's broadband on a BT line. Now I'm moving, I have decided not to use BT in any form at my new address. However in moving my separate broadband account to my new address, BT have again made this difficult and delayed the transfer for no good reason other than 'lead time'. I work from home and this means that I will now be without broadband for up to 2 weeks at my new home.
When I rang to speak to BT Customer Services I was met with absolutely no consideration or empathy for my situation and told there was no-one I could discuss this with. I wonder how many other people who work from home will have had their working life and businesses affected in this way.
I find,when online, that any further link I try (from any website)results in my computer freezing and I have to use the task manager to get out of this frozen position. This then takes me offline. Very frustrating and time-cosuming. I am seriously thinking of opting out of btinternet.com Incidently, how do you get through to anyone at btinternet.com to complain. None of their sites offer this facility
July 02, 2010I have been very upset and my family have been on numerous occasions disturbed by BT work men parking there vans outside my house, they have installed a big green box right outside my front door, and i feel we have lost all our privacy, we recently had a hold up and with four guys rushing into our house and they hid behind this box.... also 2 days ago after midnight i have lights flashing right through my house fromBt guys doing some work, do you people every think about others... there is lots of other space outside and it was unthoughtful of how they planned to stick that box there,and nearly everyday something is going on...
July 05, 2010BT have given nothing but appalling service and condescending attitude. I decided in the end to take my business to a provider who was keen to give me a good quality service... so I went to Continental Telecom. London based, everytime I call customer service I get through to a British person. My bills have never been high compared to BT's ninja extras. I'd recommend to anyone looking for an alternative.
July 05, 2010Please don't trust some of Bt staff becouse they are carrying 'master keys'. I was terrified of losing all my staff.
July 07, 2010Where do I start!!!!! It started with overcharge problem, been charged twice as I phoned India to get my money back I've heard :"No Maam we can't do anyhing about it". After being hung up twice, eventually I was told that I will have refund within three working days and as an inconvinience 2 months free line rental. Stupid me I was happy, instead I was charged twice for line rental this month. It is ridiculous that BT doesn't have UK based customer service instead you have to battle through arrogant lack of customer service.
July 10, 2010I joined BT: not long ago and my first impersiion of them was possibly the worst!
July 12, 2010I had the most annoying month of my life with their awful service.
They said one thing and did another thing. they did not do anything with my consent and I had to find out for my self by calling them. It was very maddening, I wasted a lot of my time! I had to call them everyday: LIIIIIITERALLLLLY, even when I had no phone line and I had to pay loads from my mobile just to ask what was up with it.
I feel lyk suing them and beiing a BT customer is pretty wasteful of time, money, breath and effort!
I lookz lyk we all hav nearly the same problem!!!!!!!!!
I have to say I am bitterly disappointed with BT. The saga goes something like this, I order a TV, Broadband and phone package to be delivered and enabled on 22 June 2010. I get no paperwork to confirm and so have someone take a day off work to await delivery and set up everything ready for broadband enablement. 16:00 still no sign of BT, so decide to call. It appears that BT have cancelled my order as they went to wrong address, they went to number 79 not 97. The fact they had my mobile number went over their heads, they did not call me and just cancelled the order. So, no alternative but to set up a new order with confirmation that the address is correct by SMS. Date set for 29th June.
July 14, 2010On 30th June still no broadband, so at 17:30 call customer service and advised order has been completed, but appears to be a problem at the wholesale end. Naturally anoid as this means they sold me a package that they could not support. As I do day trading in my spare time I emphasised the importance of the connection and was advised to cancel the order and get connectivity to the old exchange as the new one won't be ready until 20th July. You can imagine my disappointment with the rep who told me this. They cancel my order but can not place a new order as this has to be done from the UK during the normal working hours. They take my details and advise I will get a call from sales.
Afternoon on the 1st and still no call. I decide to call them. I explain the problem and make it very clear I do not want connection to the new exchange, I want connection to the old exchange and will upgrade in the future. They take my order and advise the 8th July. I question why it will take so long if I have the equipment and it is just a connectivity issue. Apparently the system defaults the timeframe and they can't change it. Being such a large company they probably have never heard of resource management.
6th July get a call from BT saying that due to technical difficulties they can't connect me until the 12th. I again question what the real issue is and they advise the new exchange is not complete. I go balistic as I had been given every indication that I was not going onto the new exchange. Total silence from the rep at the other end of the line and advised that BT do not go out of their way to give bad service.
13th July, you can guess, no broadband. I phone customer service and am advised that there is a technical problem and I will have to speak to a different management team. They give me the number and I call them. They may as well have said tough luck son. I will get a call within 48hrs reagrding my problem. This for a failed service delivery. Absolutely amazing.
14th July, you know what I am going to say now. Mr Warren Buckley kindly sends me a 'no-reply' email confirming the cancellation of my order as discussed in a telephone call. I think the people on the 12th floor heard me and I am on the ground floor. The telephone call never happended. I call customer service who advise me the engineers have had a look at the order and decided to close my order and generate a new order, wait for it, .... for the 21st July.
Absolutely gob smacked. I moved to these jerks as the cable service from Virgin was dreadful.
So we are at the point where I may, or may not, get service to the new exchange on the 21st, a point I and BT knew about at the end of June, yet they still deceived me.
If I could get a guaranteed connection of phone, tv and broadband before 21st, I would cancel BT order.
After trying to find someone useful to talk to at BT customer services I have actually concluded that I'm more likely to see pigs fly than have a problem resolved.
July 19, 2010I called BT a few weeks ago to set up a direct debit to pay my line rental. I made it clear that I just wanted to set up a direct debit and nothing else. Last week however I received a letter from Tesco my call provider to say they were sorry I had left them. I assumed BT must be behind it and I called them to ask why they had terminated my contract with tesco without my authorisation. During this call I discovered that my telephone number had been changed. I am so angry!! My internet has now stopped working because of the number change and I use this for work - meaning I now cannot work at home. This service from BT has cost me so much money and I have spent hours with Tesco and my ISP trying to undo all the hassle BT have caused. The only correspondence BT have sent me is a letter confirming the direct debit - nothing about a telephone number change or about them taking over my call charges. To top this off the staff on the phone can barely speak English and they make you wait ages in an automatic queuing system.
July 20, 2010Just updating from my above post. I've finally managed to get my original number back from BT but last night I had an SMS from BT saying as of Jul 28 "my request to change my number" would be activated and apparently I'm moving to yet another number!!! This is just so farcical. My internet could take up to 10 days to get back on as it is.
July 23, 2010Very frustrated with BT Vision. Cuts out intermittently (eg. during world cup !). After waiting 25 minutes to talk to a useless call centre god knows where, finally spoke to a tech guy who sent through some new "plugs". Everything seemedm to work well, but now in the middle of a video on demand it has cut out again. Trying the old faithful switch off the on again seems to have completely killed it...
July 24, 2010i was told by bt sales that option one was what i needed for the usage in my household. i told them 4 people live in the house and 3 computers in heavy use as 3 teenagers like to watch tv online surf etc. i was told opt one was plenty i would never use it all. i signed up for option one. 4 days into my monthly usage i got an email saying i had used 7 GB of my 10 GB allowance and would need to go for unlimited option. i have complained constantly and tried to get bt to end the contract. i called to cancel within the 10 day cooling off period. i was told the 10 day cooling off period did not apply to my contract only to the free hub that had been sent out. i could send it back but still had to keep and pay for my contract.
July 25, 2010i never wanted to pay for option 3 with bt as it was more expensive then the isp i was already with. i said this to the sales person when i was shopping for a deal for isp. i am sure they told me option one was enough knowing it was not but also knowing once i had option one i could not get out of it. i am now in a position where i can keep option one and pay £1 for each GB i go over or move up to opt 3. also op 1 is free for 3 months op 3 is not. bt have told me i can now cancel the contract but i will have to pay for the usage over 10GB but they are not able to say how much over 10 GB i have gone. i have been lied to by bt to get me into a contract i can not get out of. had they said i could leave bt when i first asked within the 10 day period i would have been very little over my usage. now i think it will cost a fortune to pay for it. also now my phone line will have a fee to disconnect from. my previous isp had agreed to pay my disconnection fee of £80 but not now as i left them. they were to pay £80 if i stayed so that is costing as well. i think i have to stay with bt until my contract ends as i cant afford to leave. bt is a liar. the sales people are laughing at customers once they are signed up. if bt are reading this contact me i an looking for ofcom to complain to and i will publish this as much as possible to warn others. bt is a disgrace. getting people to sign up then laughing at them when their product is useless and the customers have to pay a lot more for the correct service.
what was amusing bt staff so much when i complained? the member of staff gave his best information it is not an exact science guessing how much GB my family would use. my telling him there were 4 people and 3 computers added up to him believing 10 GB would be more then we could use. they found that hysterical but correct not his fault but his best informed guess. so that is bt training.
i want to be contacted about this issue but i cant put my contact details out in public any ideas? copy sent to bt via their contact us form on their website which they never reply to.
Following a referral by my local job centre plus team, I contacted your BT Websites to enquire about setting up a website and domain. The initial telephone discussion resulted in me agreeing to talk to an expert to see if the BT Website would meet my needs. The next day I emailed BT Websites with a concern of how much capacity the website would hold (I had no reply).
July 28, 2010The next day BT webites called me and we had a short 2 minute call where I questioned if the site would meet my needs, we agreed I would send a powerpoint of my needs to see if it would be covered I the £149 offered, it did not.
The next day I received a bill for £149!!
I have spent in excess of 3 hrs trying to resolve this without any success. I am unemployed and being taken advantage of, I have bought NOTHING, received NOTHING and had NO service.
I will also discuss the behavior of your company with the Job Centre Plus team to insure others are not abused as I have.
I have since called them, written to them and approched Otelo (no reply). I find BT to have no integrity what so ever and will now be a life long BT protester.... perhaps a club can be organised?
BT line fault reported on 17/7. Lady in Call Centre in India said it would be dealt with on 19/7. Stayed in for engineer. Engineer only arrived on 21/7 and said he needed access. Main socket was available OUTSIDE premises! He wrote 'please make an appointment'. Later found an undated BT card saying 'cable and pole fault. I cannnot climb the pole and fault job is passed to 'asset assurance who will change pole and replace span'. On line appointments made for 8am - 1pm on 26, 27 & 28/7. No engineer ever appeared as we stayed in. The website says - 'unable to gain access to premises' - make new appointment. Unfortunately that is untrue as we were in all of those entire mornings! Latest call to 151 advises that fault is not near premises but in the BT network so no one needs to call or have access to premises. No pole or span yet renewed. There is actually a new pole already erected some years ago nearer which could be used! As a BT customer of 36 years and reading this website and my experiences of the Indian call centre are making me consider ceasing to be a BT customer - but I also read of the problems that can arise on changing. It appears the problems with the fault would be the same whoever was out telecoms provider. I post this as I await a call back from india within an hour with any explanation or undertakiong as regards a repair of the line fault.
July 28, 2010Good Morning BT (B= BAD SERVICE T= TERRIBLE ATTITUDE)
July 29, 2010I am a new customer to BT had there Service installed April 2010.
I went for the Broad Package: BT Talk and Surf Unlimited @ a cost of £27.99 per month
I also went for the BT Vision Bronze Pack: @ a cost of £14.99 per month
I was asked for an Installation date for there engineer to visit my property & install the line, he came and everything went smoothly, he explained give it a couple of hours and I would be surfing wireless from any room in the house, I thought fantastic!
I was then asked for a day and a date for them to courier my BT Vision Bronze Package, I told them not to send this between certain dates as I would be on holiday for 2 weeks. As it happens on the Monday I went on holiday my BT Vision Bronze Package arrived at my door, I was on holiday so postman took it back to Post Office, they tried to deliver a second time but I was still on holiday 20/04/10 again it went back to post office because I never came to collect within the 14 days the Post Office keep undelivered items the package was returned to BT.
When I came back from holiday I found the two 'Sorry, you were out cards' in my hallway from the Post Office, I was livid, I remembered telling BT not to deliver between these dates as I was on 2 weeks holiday and no one would be at home, I thought a simple phone call to BT would solve the matter and they would re-send my BT Vision Bronze Package, I got through to a Indian BT call centre, the chap was very helpful and understanding and I spent 30 mins explaining the above to him, he said he needed to speak to his Line Manager and would I mind if he put me on hold, I said no problem, 25 mins of being put on hold a girl came back to me who I assumed was the Line Manager but no it was another Customers Services Advisor, who said how may I help you sir, it seems because I was so long on hold I my call went back into the telephone system, anyway once again I found myself explaining the whole thing over again, she also said she would like to speak to her Supervisor and asked me for my telephone number should we get cut off, I was put on hold once again for a further 20 mins but this time she came back to me and said she was transferring my call to the UK as there was nothing she could do from her end. I was put back on hold, 10 mins went by and a woman answered who was English and who explained she was based in the UK and could help me with my issue. Once again I went through why I was calling in the first place, got that out of the way and she said, no problem Mr Armstrong I will send your BT Vision Bronze Pack out to you today by the Post Office, confirmed a time and day I could be there to receive my package from the Post Office. I thanked her for her help and that was that. That day came and went and nothing was received no package no nothing I went to the Post Office Depot just in case I missed the package but no nothing had been sent out. I have been paying for this Package since April and it's now July and I am still paying £14.99 direct debit but still I haven't received the package, I have made numerous calls to everyone in the BT Indian Call Centre but no one can seem to take onboard what it is I am looking for, I threatened to cancel my Direct Debit with BT but only to be told I am in a Contract with BT for the BT Vision Bronze Pack and this would be a breech of that contract that I have with BT, apparently I was told failure to pay for this sevice could result in BT taking court action against me but I have never received the BT Vision Bronze Pack it was returned back to BT because the Post Office couldn't deliver it to my address because I was on holiday for 2 weeks which I made BT aware of at the time I placed my Order with them and I asked them not to deliver the package between these dates as I would be on holiday and no one would be at my house. I guess I got no rights I must keeping paying for my BT Vision Bronze Pack I have never received and I have been waiting since April for delivery from BT.
When my contract was up for renewal I was quoted by phone a price of £12.99 for Broadband plus £9.54 for line rental including free evening and weekend calls. I was also given the overall total price of £22.53 as well as the breakdown above. I wrote down both figures, confirmed them twice with the advisor and agreed to both 12 month contracts. I was advised I would receive confirmation in writing.
July 30, 2010When this never arrived I called to query the contracts that were in place and was told I was paying £12.99 broadband plus £11.54 line rental (£12.79 minus a discount of £1.25), bringing the total to £24.53.
When I argued this was not what I had agreed to I was told I had been quoted a net figure for line rental. So they would quote someone a net figure for line rental and a gross figure for broadband as part of the same lump sum? Hardly likely, and misleading to say the least. Furthermore, £9.54 plus VAT does not add up to £11.54.
The first 'gesture of goodwill' they offered me was to reduce my monthly DD payment for a couple of months. Just the DD payment, not the charges. I pointed out this did not benefit me in any way.
Then they offered a reduction of £2 per month for the last 2 months, but not for the remainder of the contract.
I said I wanted the contract I had agreed to (which I would never have agreed to if I had known its true cost as I was considering switching to Virgin). I was advised they were sorry for the mistake but could not reduce the payments.
I asked them to pull the recording of the call and listen to it. Again I was told that even if the price was wrong, they couldn't change it now!
When I asked about the complaints procedure I was advised that if I sent an email the response would be the same, so I asked for a supervisor and was put on hold for some time, only for them to say the supervisor was busy and would call me back. No-one called me back so I will be speaking to them again tomorrow and if necessary referring this to OFCOM and Trading Standards.
Let me tell you my nightmare...
July 31, 2010£124.00 paid for 3 months of next to nothing on broadband... I've witheld my payment this quarter because I don't understand why I am paying for a service that is unusable.
First of all there was the speed issues that a converged engineer fixed, By telling BT wholesale to stop playing with my IP profile. Speed and connection was great until about 5 weeks ago...Then it rained...Broadband dropped out.... I phoned them they sent out another converged engineer who couldn't find the fault because.....The weather had dried up, so he re-terminated a load of cables and left the fault open. I phone them today because once again my broadband failed they say the wont send an engineer out till Monday because there are no slots available. They also tell me that EMERGENCY SERVICES would have to wait till Monday!!!.... (Don't have a car crash or a heart attack on a weekend folks....cos if the broadband ain't working at your local hospital....You be screwed)
I have been accused of shouting simply because I am glaswiegian
The phone has been put down on me at least 8 times
I've been called sir because I have a deep gravely voice caused by a thyroid problem.
They told me 35 {yes I said 35) times that the fault was in the house... Im 140.3 metres from the exchange and they cant tell the difference because their testing equipment is way out of date.
Opal telecoms know more about what is going on BT's network than BT do, They pinpointed the fault to the main line into the exchange, so far BT haven't even managed that far.
So round four begins first thing monday morning.
I am furious with BT.
August 02, 2010I have a BT Vision package and apparently, according to the customer services in India, this guarantees minimum broadband speeds per area. As it happens, my area's speed is supposed never to drop below 1.3 MB/sec - my broadband (as confirmed by BT themselves) is currently running at 250 KB/sec. This has been going on since I moved in over a year ago. Initially I had no idea about the contractual guarantees by BT (i.e. that my broadband should never be below 1.3 MB given my postcode). However, in April this year BT finally sent round an engineer to check all my sockets etc and confirmed that the issue was not inside the house but rather an external fault on their lines. We called BT together who told me that my 250 KB/sec was impossible given the minimum guarantees for my area. Since their engineer was with me at the tim, he spoke to them directly and they realised that indeed I was running well below my contractual minimum. Consequently, they assured me that they would have the Exchange (I think this is what they called it) check the lines in my area and report back. They also assured me that they would get back in touch to let me know once it had all been sorted. I never heard back. I chased again and again and was assured that someone would be sent out to check the lines outside the house. At the end of June I was even given a date (9th July) for the line to be fixed. They also said they'd let me know once it had been fixed. Obviously, since it is BT, they didn't call and so, on the 11th I chased to find out what had happened. Again no news. Finally last week (30th July) I spoke to a charming but useless gentleman (in India of course) who explained that they are completely powerless as they have to follow procedures and that it seems that for some unfathomable reason my case kept being closed so that each time I called it was being logged as a 'new' incident EVEN though they had clear records (as this gentleman assured me since he could see logs dating back to April!) to show otherwise. Given that the procedure had to be started all over again, this meant sending out yet another engineer to our home, which unfortunately he could not book in as their system was down. Their system is STILL down apparently 4 days later and the lady I have just spoken to said their system has been down for an entire week so that they can't book any appointments. I asked to be put through to their Customer Options Team as I was so furious about the terrible service that I want a refund for all my line rental charges since April. I was put through, this time to a woman in the UK who was rude and literally hung up mid call. Quite astounding really.
We have been SO appalled at BT's customer service as well as their provision of broadband in our area that we will definitely be leaving BT as soon as I have sorted out an alternative.
Not sure whether or not this is of any help to you but if you can get Ofcom to investigate them I wish you all the best. It is theft to charge for a service that is not provided and for which no attempts are made to try to provide it. BT is absolutely rubbish.
I am so glad I came across this site because I was toying with the idea of returning to BT having transferred my calls to Onetel some years ago. I did this as part of promotion on behalf of Onetel - swap your calls to them and get a set of digital cordless phones free. All was great for a while and then the call prices started rising. As I still have my landline with BT I thought why not swap back again.
August 04, 2010Having read some of the complaints and after wasting my time phoning customer service this morning to complain about a BT phone the Verve 450 twin that I purchased it appears that the BT customer service is just as bad as it always was, unhelpful and uninterested unless you want to buy something and then they are all over you like a rash.
Not for me thanks....I'll shop around.
Seriously lacking in the care department.
bt opened a new account for me that i didnt ask for but they kept my old account opened with £136 and refuse to transfer it to the new account. They have disconnected me twice saying that i owe then £58.02 when in actual fact they owe me money. I have phoned them at least 20 times, e-mailed them with complaints and written letters and the problem still isnt resolved.
August 05, 2010bt vison service and call center staff just a joke i went back to sky learned my les also cancelled vison other services not far behind
August 07, 2010Over the years I have had many problems with the service provided from BT, too many to mention. I dread phoning them to ask for a simple job to be done, as it always ends in frustration, stress and higher mobile phone bills trying to sort the problem out with BT.
August 12, 2010My latest nightmare was trying to reduce the number of lines that I had. I run my business from home, and no longer needed all the lines. A fairly simple task you would think. Just cancel the lines that I no longer need, and keep my main number. I had put off doing this for sometime, as I couldn't face the problems that it would inevitably cause.
I wasn't let down!
BT disconnect all lines, even my main number. I was told that it would be reconnected in 5 days. After, understandably, throwing my toys out of the pram, I was told it could be connected in 24 hours with a charge of £84. Tactfully I suggested that it was a little unfair to have to pay for my line to be reconnected when BT had disconnected it it error.
I was then told it would be reconnected within the hour. . . 3 hours later I called to find out what was happening. I was then told the line would be back up and running within one to one and a half hours.
16 hours later I called once again to be told that the fault was outside of the property, and would be visited by an engineer by the end of the next day.
I currently have no phone line, have made countless calls on my mobile to BT – all to no avail.
I have sent an email to the Chief Executive of BT, describing the event, and suprisingly received a reply stating that a senior member of the team would look into the problem. To date I have heard nothing from them. Too be honest, I do not really expect to.
I expect my line will be reconnected within the next 5 days, and I will then receive a bill for all three lines that I no longer have, along with a connection charge to connect the line that BT disconnected in error. At which point I will have to phone BT to try to arrange a credit etc etc, and the whole thing will start again . . .
I could tell you how I really feel about BT as a company and how they treat their customers, but do not want to offend any readers with bad language. But I guess you know how I feel!
APPALLING.
August 12, 2010I kept a record of the amount of times my BT broadband failed, it was a complete joke.
I was told upon installation, that the telephony cabling on my street was a little old and 2mb would really be my maximum. It worked satisfactory for a couple of days then around 7pm the router started flashing 'Amber' and the connection was lost.
The connection would resume around 2am. I assume this was because the evenings were peak usage and i was being 'bumped' off the system.
Their engineer came out and declared it was 'The ionosphere' that was causing it to fail LOL !
That airbourne signals and radio waves were tripping it out and the remedy would be "Downgrade it 1mb".
I said how's about you connect in a new pair from the BT multicore that terminates from the street box, to the junction box at the top of the telephone column outside my house ?
"Errr i dont have access equipment." and i said are you joking ?
I informed him i was an electrical engineer by trade and his diagnosis was bullpoo. He said "he would return later, but wouldnt knock" to "fix the street box".
It was a pack of lies. The problem persisted for another week until it was cured. When i ran a speed test, they had simply dropped me down to 1mb and the engineer didnt do a damn thing in reality.
Cue numerous other faults and intermittent service - resulting in many long mind numbing conversations to f****** stupid Indian call centres with their "Unplug de router sir" response to every problem.
In the end I got through to a British department, and they refunded my previous six months of debits as she agreed it had been ridiculous and she wouldnt have put up with it.
I literally had about 5 post-it notes, full of fault codes from the call centre.
After about 9 months of the same bull poo, I switched to Virgin and their fibre optic service.
I get 20mb per month and only had one problem. It packed up at 5pm and was back on at 8.30pm and the service centre told me an engineer was due there about 8pm when i called them up at about half hour after it failed.
Virgin are daft at times, but good grief - i honestly DO NOT KNOW why anyone would stand for the absolutely appalling BT services not to mention how expensive they are !!
They are fine for telephones, but not got a clue for domestic broadband.
I havbe just discoverd that I have a recurrent contract with BT. I am a pensionser and have been with BT for 29 years. I have looked at the terms and see that they are supposed to have written to me in mrach to tell me this (thee year was up in March). I have not received a letter andd theyy want a fee for cancelling the contract. They can go to hell, I will cancel the standing order, send a letter to their head office and only pay for charges up to that point. I suspect they will then refer the matter to a debt collection agency and cut off the connection. They will then get at me twice. their attitude is dishonest and morally repugnant. Look how clever BT. They deserve to go out of business.
August 21, 2010My Broadband stopped working, ie unable to access any web page or emails. Contacted BT, and yes it was India. Took me through a flowchart, then told me it was my PC that was faulty. I am now fed up with them saying"sorry to keep you waiting".
August 22, 2010Rang again later, this time I got through to 151 fault reporting, a girl in the UK. She didn't know either, then she tells me it is a network fault in my area and will be cleared in 4 hours. It basically was a lie to get rid of me. She even suggested I needed a new Hub at my expense.
Tried again later( India), she tried again to go through those ridiculous flowcharts, but I stopped her. She agreed the previous person in India got it wrong, and that it was a fault with BT.
Next day it was working, but no-one has told me what the fault was.
I used to be a BT exchange engineer, and I know how it used to be done. BT now treat maintenance as a dirty word and along with faults it costs them money, so do it as cheaply as possible. There are very few experienced exchange engineers left. Have retired/taken redundancy, and BT are not replacing them.
BT cut off landline/broadband access a day after they recieved late payment of bill. No warning given. New order put on for 'new' line but would take 5 working days. After repeated pleas to get line re instated, as it is a church office line used by the community, we were given a new number. Useless, as no one knows the number to ring it, and the broadband doesn't work on it. Promises of call backs to update us on the current situation, did not happen. Reply to email (4 days later) were useless Indian chatter, as they were totally unaware of the current situation that had moved the situation on since email sent. Person in Blackburn complaint office gave number to call if needed...this is an ORANGE ansaphone and currently it is 'full'!!!!! 01254 694351
August 23, 2010As with all other people on here, we agree, BT is useless and we will be moving.
Can someone please inform BT that I dont have BT vision!! I have been trying since feb to explain this and every month I keep getting billed for vision and films ive never watched. I have now drawn a line in the sand and I am refusing to pay the latest bill, I have been cut off every single time that ive tried explaining their error resulting in financial loss to myself. Where do we go for compensation? They are simply unfit for purpose. Talk Talk have just gained another account
August 25, 2010Hi
August 27, 2010This is the email I have sent to BT to which I have had no reply. I am not going to chase them when I have contacted them on several occasions. My request to leave them still hasn't been sorted but I've made it clear to BT I am leaving and the date on which I want to cancel.
Hi
I originally called on the 14th August to cancel my broadband and line rental. I requested my broadband to be cut off on the 7th September which was the contract end date as well as my line rental.
However, on the 16th August I was then cut off early by BT which prompted me to make another phone call to BT to get re-activated and to complain about the guy who didnt listen to my request. After placing a new order (which I wasn't happy about) I was then put through to this guys manager and I was on hold for at least 10 mins before being cut off.
I then called Saturday 21st August, only to get through to a customer adviser and once saying 'I wish to cancel' I was cut off. I then tried calling back and was put on hold for 35 mins when I finally gave up.
So i attempted a call again on the 22nd August only to get through to someone and be told that my request can not be done on a non-working day and also be advised that there was £49.99 cancellation fee on my line rental.
I then attempted another call today to be told this fee was infact £74 and as I was disputing this I was put through to customer services to once again be cut off.
I think its disgusting how BT are making it so difficult for me to leave when it should be a simple process. This has indeed rest assured me that I will never go with BT again.
Therefore from the 27th August 2010 I would like my broaband and line rental cut off.
I am being told that my line rental is what the £74 charge is for which I am disputing and I am not willing to pay. Since having my BT line put in, I have not been able to call out but I have been able to receive calls. I have made several complaints about this but not once did BT solve this. Therefore I am not paying this charge when BT did not provide the original service I was on!!!
If this does not get resolved I will be report this to trading standards as this is completely unacceptable in the time it is taken to get sorted.
Yours Sincerely
Charlene Busby
On Friday 20 August a company working for BT dug a hole in the our road (Brincliffe Close, Chesterfield) and cut through the cable. Why they were digging a hole on a Friday afternoon is beyond me.
August 31, 2010Some of the houses on the road were reconnected on the following Monday, and the hole was filled in. Since then most people have had intermittent service, some hardly any service at all. Even those who have a service are losing incoming calls or have no broadband.
The last few times that we rang BT they said that someone would be dealing with it on 8 September.
Today BT turned up, dug out the hole again, reconnected one house and filled it in again. The man doing the work knew nothing about the problems on the rest of the road and didn't seem to care either.
Someone else turned up and checked the INTERNAL wiring of one house, again he knew nothing of any other problems.
I have tried several of times to solve a slow and no connection with BT. They keep you on the phone for hours and then solve the problem TEMPORARILY. A few hours later the problem is still there. I have been promised a new HUb but nothing has arrived. The service from BT is worse than I have ever experienced from anywhere else. If you are considering joining BT then I HIGHLY recommend that you don't. You can get a better service for free from other providers instead of paying lots for really bad service.
September 02, 2010Post a Comment
Please join me and submit your BT complaints so I can send to necessary bodies to investigate the awful BT Service.