Phone and Broadband Cut Off

Dear BTcomplaint.com

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Regards,

Paul Brisbane