Many complaints received on this site concern BT customer services and calling a call center in India, not UK. In the insurance sector, almost one in five consumers shopping around for the best insurance deals would pay more to know that their chosen cover provider`s call centre was based in the UK, according to a new study.
When choosing an insurer, 78% of those surveyed by YouGov said that UK-based call centres influenced their choice, with consumers preferring to speak to someone in this country rather than someone abroad.
And the preference is not a passive one, with almost a quarter (23%) of respondents revealing that they actively look for insurers with UK-based call centres.
Of the 2,229 adults surveyed, 18% said that they would be happy to pay a higher premium if they could be assured that a company`s call centre representatives were all based in the UK.
Meanwhile, where there was no difference in premiums, 38% said that they would choose the provider with a UK-based call centre. Just 13% said the location of the insurer's call centre was irrelevant.
Richard Widdas, an insurance partner at Deloitte who commissioned the poll, said: "Consumers clearly feel strongly that they prefer dealing with UK-based call centres and insurers need to take this on board."
ISPs BT and Sky offer the best customer service and technical support, according to a study by Broadband Genie.
Researchers at the broadband comparison site posed as customers looking to switch from another provider in a bid to rate the customer service levels provided by by the six biggest UK ISPs.
Broadband Genie looked at a number of factors such as cost, information available, call centre opening times and technical support.
Broadband Genie said it was impressed with BT's free support - which was available all day every day - as well as the friendliness and speed with which Sky handled customer service calls.
I'm sure many of you visiting this BT complaints site will have something to say about this!
"There were marked differences between all the providers that could make all the difference to a consumer. It just goes to show how important it is to do some research before committing to a potentially lengthy contract," said Broadband Genie editor Chris Marling.
Marling also revealed the comparison site was disappointed with the customer service provided by Orange and TalkTalk - in particular the cost of technical support calls.
"Some people are very lucky with their fixed-line broadband connection, going for years without experiencing a problem. However, when things do take a turn for the worst, it can be devastating: people don't realise how much they take the web for granted and how they have come to rely on a good internet connection. So, when things do go wrong, it is vital the correct support is ready and waiting."
BT is offering a free BT Synergy 4500 Digital Cordless Telephone Answering Machine worth £58.70 to the first 10,000 new eligible residential customers who sign up for 12 months to Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan.
There's a monthly cost of £11.25 with Direct Debit and paper-free billing to cover the cost of the line rental and the only catch is that at the end of each 12-month minimum period the contract will be automatically renewed for a further 12-month minimum period unless the customer explicitly leaves them.
The company has also announced that it will 0845 and 0870 calls of up to 60 minutes duration - excluding indirect access numbers and dial-up Internet access - will be free for an undetermined period within a fair usage range (up to 1000 minutes or 150 calls).
BT's free phone offer is valid till the 31st of March 2009. Shifting to the unlimited anytime plan will cost you an additional £4.85 per month. You will also be able to send 200 text messages a month for free and make calls to mobile phones for 7.34p per minute.
Unfortunately, BT has not yet waived the £122.33 cost of connecting a new BT line. You can find out more about the free phone offer here.
As British Telecom receives confirmation that it can proceed with its fibre-optic network in the UK there are strong concerns that the UK broadband market could be about to change forever.
Telecom regulator Ofcom has given BT a free hand with regards to placing for competitors with suggestions that the wholesale price of broadband connections could increase by £30 a year. This would place more pressure on the sector and could spell the end of super cheap broadband offers.
Many experts are surprised that British Telecom has been given a free hand with regards to future pricing but when you consider the company is investing billions of pounds in the venture there needs to be a decent return on capital for BT as a company and shareholders. While the rumoured £30 per connection increase will take some time to creep in, we could see a general increase in front end prices charged to consumers in the short, medium and longer term.
The broadband market in UK is one of the most competitive in the world and after initially falling behind many leading countries the UK has, and continues to, keep pace with many overseas competitors.
BT in the news again with another disgruntled customer! BT charged a disabled pensioner 100 pounds for an engineer to replace two AA batteries in his telephone. Bed-bound Alf Clarkson, 81, discovered a problem with his phone so asked daughter Susan to report it to the communication giants.
The next day an engineer fixed the glitch in under three minutes by two replacing batteries in the phone which Alf didn't know were there. Alf, from Huyton, Merseyside, is blind in one eye and suffers from diabetes and arthritis in his hands and relies on the phone to keep in touch with the outside world.
It wasn't until some weeks later that the retired welder received a bill for 99 pounds and 99 pence for the call out.
Daughter Susan Blackman, who reported the fault, is disgusted with BT and is demanding they give her father some of his money back.
View BT Complaint here
Susan said: "The phone was bought for my dad as it had bigger numbers and an easy to read screen.
"We didn't know the phone required batteries or we would have checked them before calling BT in the first place.
"My mum, Teresa, died some years ago so dad needs a phone as he is bedridden. It is there to keep him in contact with us and for him to use in an emergency.
"We thought there may be a charge of 30 pounds or so but when the bill came we were shocked.
"How can they charge an old man this sort of money for changing two batteries?
"The engineer wasn't in the house longer than a few minutes.
"When I complained to BT they told me, 'Think yourself lucky. The call out should have been about #136.'
"It is disgusting and BT should be ashamed. They ought to refund some of the money as it is way over the top for replacing worn batteries.
"If they have done this to my dad then I'm sure they are doing it to others. People need to be wary about calling them out.
"If I'd known what they charged I'd have just bought him a new phone."
Alf, a father-of-five, who has 12 grandchildren and one great-grandchild, thinks BT are thieves and he will be changing his provider.
Alf said: "I was very shocked when I read the bill.
"It is certainly a lot of money for a pensioner to fork out just for a change of batteries.
"I am bed-bound and need the phone, so I panicked a bit when it was faulty and asked Susan to call BT.
"I won't be staying with BT any longer. I not sure BT stands for British Telecom, its more like Blatant Theft."
BT have defended their actions by claiming the charge covered the cost of calling out an engineer and the cost of running all the necessary checks on the phone. A spokeswoman said: "A member of the customer services team advised Mrs Blackman to try plugging in a different phone, as remote tests indicated the fault was due to the set itself.
"We are satisfied from our customer service records the customer was properly advised about the possible charges ahead of the engineer's visit."
British Telecom's lengthy sabbatical from these pages must have perplexed many of you, but the company has been busy consolidating its profits in its usual inimitable way ...
All Monica Prys-Davies required was a final telephone bill before she moved house. Instead, she claims, BT wrested the phone line in her new home from her chosen supplier and gave her a new, unwanted phone number for it. It also made off with the number that Janet Lee has had for 30 years and gave it to her neighbours who had requested a new line.
She was told she would have to borrow the new number originally destined for said neighbours until the two could be swapped, but she wasn't allowed to know what that temporary number was because her neighbours had asked to be ex-directory.
Adam Kimmel rang BT to ask that his parents' account be transferred to his mother's name because his father had died. Instead, it cut off her telephone and broadband service and suggested when she complained that she too had died. Susan Coates wanted the 1571 answer service removed from her line but BT cancelled the entire phone line and told her she would have to accept a new phone number if she wanted it back.
All of the above had battled vainly to prise some sense out of BT's customer service operators who declared themselves impotent in the face of The System.
Happily, BT's press office has magical powers: it declares that Prys-Davies's case is too complicated to apportion blame, but has released her and given her £25. Lee was given a year's free line rental, but was accidentally deprived of her broadband. Kimmel's mother, after being sent an illiterate internal memo instead of an apology, has been given compensation and condolences. Coates regained her old number and related expenses and, most precious of all, a direct line to someone who can help in future.
All BT customer service complaints that are emailed to us are not only shared on this website but included in a report that's sent for investigation to Offcom and Watchdog along with BT on a quarterly basis.
Why we setup this website?
We setup this BT complaints website because we were an extremely frustrated and angry BT customer who was fed up with the lack of customer service received with regards to a simple phoneline installation and broadband setup...enough was enough!
Submit Your BT Complaint
Email us your BT complaint and we will feature it on this website if it's relevant and also include in the report which is sent for investigation to the bodies named above.
Many complaints received on this site concern BT customer services and calling a call center in India, not UK. In the insurance sector, almost one in five consumers shopping around for the best insurance deals would pay more to know that their chosen cover provider`s call centre was based in the UK, according to a new study.
