BT Customer Service Complaint

Another major BT customer service complaint is found here. Like so many others I have received, it shows BT total lack of customer service skills and helping customers with their problems.

Dear Sir,
On May 22nd, I rang BT to see if we could have a phone line connected to our new flat. They told me I needed a new phone line installed costing £124.99. At the time I told the lady, I didn't get her name, that I couldn't afford it outright so she gave me the option to pay the £124.99 over 6 months by direct debit.

On this basis I agreed to have the phone line fitted and requested monthly billing, on direct, and for our number to be ex-directory. I then gave them my bank details and told them which day to take the payment. I was expecting a letter of confirmation but it never arrived so I rang them the day before our original installation date (6th June) to which they said they had never received an order from us and had no record of my call.

I was furious as we had already waited 3 weeks for the line to be fitted and they could not tell me why the order had been cancelled even though I had been giving an order number. they also demanded that I pay the £25 deposit again, to which I refused, eventually they agreed to use the £25 from the original order

Anyway, I reordered the phone line provided it was under the same conditions as the previous order, i.e. ex-directory, monthly billing & the £124.99 split over the 6 months. I was promised this would be the case by Richard, we we're also told we could have £30 compensation added to the account due to the inconvenience. I was assured that the engineer would come after 3 pm as I don't finish work until 2pm.

When I arrived home there was a note under the door saying "Your BT engineer came today at 2pm but you were not home". At this point I had given up hope with BT so decided I wouldn't ring them to re-order the line.

Then I received a text with a new date for the installation., the 21st June. I then decided not to cancel the line as they had finally got it together so my partner waited for the engineer who did a brilliant job and fitted the line with me thinking "finally BT standing by their promise" but I was wrong. I have since had a bill for £164.99. I was horrified by this bill, I am 22 and my partner and I have just moved to Torbay so haven't got the funds to pay the bill.

I rang BT immediately to find out if there had been a mistake, suprise suprise, they had no record of my previous conversation with Richard and were no longer offering to split bill over 6 months. Nor were we on monthly billing and we were not ex-directory, so basically, not the product I had ordered at all.

They demanded that I pay £75 over the phone and they would then split the rest of the bill over 3 months by direct debit. I refused to pay the £75 on the basis that I only agreed to the phone line being fitted if I could pay it over 6 months.

After an hour on the phone and arguments about who was in the wrong I eventually got to speak to a manager who agreed to allow me to pay the bill over 6 months and change our account to monthly billing and ex-directory.

1 week later I receive a final notice letter demanding payment within 7 days, so again I called BT to see if there was a mistake, and again, they had no record of any of my conversations, nor had our account been changed to ex-directory or monthly billing. By this point I had really lost my temper and told them to take the phone line out. They then demanded payment of £56 over the phone and then 4 monthly payments of £36, which would have meant me paying them £240 in total, so obviously I refused and asked to speak to the manager again. He then agreed the original terms, AGAIN, and this time promised the following things:

1) a credit of £30 on the account
2) to change our account to ex-directory
3) that no late payment fees would be charged to the account
4) that we would be on a monthly billing plan
and finally 5) that the direct debit team would call me in 3-4 days to set-up our direct debit.

At the time I was also told that only the direct debit team can set up direct debits, which is concerning as on the first phone call to BT I was able to do it with the same person I placed the order with and on the same phone call, without waiting for someone to call me back or being transferred to another department.

At the time I told them, quite clearly, that this would be the last time I would ring them and that if they didn't take note of my phone call this time then I would see them in court. This was 3 weeks ago and I have still had no phone call but I have had a letter notifying me of a late payment fee. I have a complaint number given to me by BT and a reference number to quote my phone call. I am now at the stage where the stress is causing me to not sleep and worry that I'm going to have bailiffs at my door.

I have never had any intention to not pay BT what I owe them but I am only prepared to pay them on the conditions that were offered to me at the time I placed my order, that the bill be split over 6 months. I refuse to ring BT again as I feel i will be wasting my time but don't know what to do next. I'm concerned that I have such a large debt to my name and that the company of whom I owe the debt are completely ignorant to "treating customers fairly" regulation from the FSA. I

really need some advise on what to do next because although I will go to court if it comes to it, I would prefer for this situation to be sorted without that stress too. I understand that they have fitted the line and therefore have supplied me with the product I ordered, but the credit conditions upon which I ordered the line have been completely ignored. If I bought a car on finance I wouldn't expect a bill 2 weeks later for the full amount!!!

The things that worry me most is:

1) they took my bank details over the phone and then have no record of my call, being a victim of card fraud, I go out of my way to prevent my bank details being given unless it's a trusted company, and feel they have let me down, if there is no record of my call, who has my bank details? and

2) that I can't afford to pay this bill outright and it seems to be the only option they are offering to me unless I pay £75 more than what the bill was originally.

Please help me. Add your comments below with any advice you may have.

A Typical BT Complaint

I was so happy to see your BT problems website. I was actually looking to see if I could somehow get the head of customer services of BT to write him/her a letter. I have already contacted BBC watchdog and below is my letter explaining my situation.

I hope you can add this to your BT complaints page and put foward to offtel or whoever can help us out here. Here is my BT Complaint letter:

Hi,

BT sent me a letter saying someone was interested in my phone number and if I haven't contacted them by April 24th they would disconnect me.

I called (in disbelief) saying that I do need it, so they said fine they will cancel the cancellation request. They didn’t and so my line was disconnected.

A lot of expensive calls(was on hold for ages) from my mobile phone were made and eventually I was put onto a woman called Barbara who apologised, organised for the activity of the line the following day and said my old number will be back within the week. All this time my sky broadband was cancelled because of no active line.

It’s the 3rd June and I still don’t have my old phone number back. I do have service but as everyone has the old number they can’t contact me.

To add to insult I received a bill a few days ago for £41.

I was offered 1 months free rental and £10 as a gesture of goodwill for the following:

• disconnecting my phone line without my permission
• A mth of no broadband which they argue isn’t their fault
• massive mobile phone bills calling BT and being put on hold
• constant promises from people in foreign countries that all will be sorted and then nothing ?
• continuously calling BT as in the 1st few weeks no-one bothered to call me to review the situation?
• costs of my visits to the internet cafe as I am in the middle of organising a wedding and have to do it out of office hours
• Over a month of missing calls as everyone has our proper phone number
• The stress I have suffered in the last month because of the incompetence of BT.

If I don’t pay this bill I will receive a CCJ yet nothing happens to BT for the lack of service.

They boast that the last thing they do is disconnect landlines after non payment of bills so there are a lot of unpaid debts with a phone line yet they disconnected a bill paying customer and caused all this bother and stress.

I am looking into other landline providers as we speak but would appreciate your response on this.

Sincerely

Majella Foley

11,000 Visitors to btcomplaints.com

Hello Everyone.
Firstly, I want to say a big thank you for everyone who has contributed to the BT complaints site.

Secondly, the site has received over 11,000 visitors since October 2007 with many of you leaving a complaint about the terrible service you are receiving from BT.

A report will be produced over the coming months which will detail every BT complaint received via the two websites and sent for investigation:
BT Complaints Blog
Send Your BT Complaint

Finally to say you are not alone in your struggle with BT as you can see from the vast amount of complaints varying from customer service to connection speeds.

Below is an example of just one of the many complaints we have received over the past 8 months.

BT Cold Calling Complaint
"I run eight houses which accommodate adults with enduring mental illness. We recently had a cold caller from BT, who spoke to one of our residents to ask if he wanted broadband installed.

He was pressured into saying yes, although the contract is in my name.

When I rang BT to query the broadband charges, I was told it was an 18-month contract and that we would have to pay to cancel.

We then received a bill for £438.48. I am disputing this, but am frustrated at every turn by BT — one of the many people I spoke to denied that a complaint had even been lodged. At one stage our phones were cut off, too. P. J., Birmingham

Margaret Stone, Money Mail's Money Doctor, replies: I think BT's treatment of you and your residents was appalling. Once you had explained to BT that it had made the agreement with a resident who had neither the authority nor the mental capacity to deal with a pushy sales person, the contract should have been cancelled immediately.

But it appears that there was no one in BT prepared or willing to help. It was not until you got in touch with Money Mail that action was taken.

Within days, the matter was resolved. The contract is cancelled. The account balance is now £339.90 and these charges — which I can only describe as spurious — have been cancelled and thus cleared.

In addition, BT has sent a hamper of chocolates to the resident who inadvertently triggered this sorry saga. I think this is a wholly inadequate gesture given the appalling way you have been treated.

Meanwhile, a warning note has been put on all the accounts in your houses, advising that you are the only person who can make a decision about them.

BT Complaints Pirate FM

Hello everyone, this is the web master of this blog.

This morning I heard a the debate on my local radio station Pirate FM in Cornwall. I moved to Ponsanooth in Cornwall last year and tried to get BT to fit a new line to our house. Simple yes? No way was this simple!

I'm not one for complaining but after 6 months of problems including 3 separate bills for £300 for one phone line, total lack of communication with BT customer service reps, the list goes on, I decided to set up a BT complaints blog on the web where people like me could submit there BT Complaint online.

The idea behind this is to put all BT complaints received into a report and send off for investigation from Offcom, Watchdog and such like. So far I have had almost 10,000 people visit this BT Complaints blog in 6 months with hundreds of complaints received.

Join me and together we can get some action to put right this terrible service we are receiving.

Thanks for all your complaints so far - They will all be going into the report so we can get some answers

BT Customer Service - Nightmare still unresolved!

This is a complaint I received about an anonymous person who is obviously very angry and upset with BT Customer Service. Just one of many BT Complaints I have received over the past 6 months. This will go into the report I will send to BT and complaint companies later this year for investigation including Watchdog.

Dear Sir or Madam,
I’m writing to try and clear up an outstanding issue with BT that goes back to 2004.
Despite attempts in the past, I feel as if I’ve been fobbed off and a cursory look at the issue has not resolved it.

I was a BT customer during 2004 and a little before that when I moved back to Edinburgh from the Hebrides. I was waiting to move into a house in April 2004 and knew I would have to have the phone transferred to the new flat across town.

I gave BT several phonecalls, months in advance to make sure that there would be not loss of service. I checked that the new flat had a working BT landline and no fault was detected on it.

I was simply moving area by about two miles. This did mean having a new number but I was assured on several occasions that my new service would go on within an hour of leaving the first flat. Certainly, the same day. I checked to make sure that this would happen as told.

This was vitally important to me as I was having a life threatening operation and living alone, my close family were all living in Australia, and the only one normally resident in England, my mother was also in Australia for several months to help assist my sister with childcare.

The day for the telephone allocation to change to new flat came and there was no service. I was then hospitalised for my operation. When I came out of hospital I was extremely weak and was to rest with lots of bed rest for minimum three months. I could not leave the flat nor walk about in the flat because I had lost several expected pints of blood and would pass out frequently.

I was lucky to have someone – a volunteer to check on me every couple of days during workdays and although not in their remit they brought me in some groceries.
Normally I am a young fit woman. But without the access to the phone I would have starved and possibly died from an accident in the house, without the help of a volunteer charity organisation.

Before they started the few weeks support on my first morning in the new flat I tried to get up to answer an unexpected call from workmen – who should not have been trying to work on my flat at that time. I tried to get out of bed and blacked out fell off the end of the bed – cos I was disorientated and then unconscious and almost broke my collar bone, I gashed my arm, cut and bruised my face and cut and bruised my shoulder landing on a bare floor.

For three months I had no phone service, then someone tried to charge £190 to me for an engineer call that was not needed and never happened.

The distress of these months was so bad that instead of recovering from the operation within three months I did not heal up and was physically unwell for fourteen months and am now need counselling for depression brought on by my experience in 2004.

At first I was unable to talk and was too tired to sit up for long with postoperative pain & fatigue. I did not have the volunteer for long but for the first eight weeks of living in the new flat the volunteer tried to phone using a mobile phone on my behalf. Usually with me next to him.

He would try and get through for the hours allocated to help me (6 per week) without any success. And when he was connected to customer services they refused to deal with anyone other than the “bill payer” – even though he was authorised to do so by me and at one point several weeks in – I said so down the phone. But still my phone was not connected.

I was due to get the phone and broadband – because in the previous flat the BT dial up internet service was appalling and I was constantly cut off by poor signal whilst web browsing. And physically had my service terminated on several occasions EVEN THOUGH I PAID MY BILLS IN ADVANCE BY DIRECT DEBIT AND WAS IN CREDIT. I had to check several times with my bank that the direct debit was operating properly but they checked thoroughly and said EVER TIME the fault was at the recipients end – BT.

I had moved into the new flat that needed many repairs to be carried out and though they were to take place when it was convenient for me – I had no way of phoning and booking the work. So without the phone I had NO GAS SUPPLY for COOKING, HEATING and HOT WATER and as I had lost so much blood I was incapable of maintaining a warm core temperature, it was freezing in the flat even in summer – colder than outside without heating as there is not a lot of direct sunlight. On the property.

My Mother was absolutely frantic in Australia because apart from a brief call to me in the hospital she had heard nothing from me for three months and was starting to think that I might have died.

I was angry, frustrated and very frightened that I had no way to contact anyone – not even a doctor or nurse in case of problems and the stress caused me to be rehospitalised for a few days only a week after the operation. I did know how I would be able to eat.

The water supply to the toilet was faulty so half the water was off until it was repaired meaning I had no flushing loo for 6 weeks (this POST OP from abdominal surgery) a pipe and radiator was also leaking. But I couldn’t chase the repairs up without access to a phone and only having a volunteer by chance, who used his work mobile phone to try and help. But the time he was meant to assist me he had to spend on the mobile phone trying to get through to BT customer care to get my phoneline connected.

To top it all I was billed for three months line rental, without ever being connected. And when I requested that this be reimbursed to me on other occasions I was told that I was “in credit” and so would not pay the next quarter. This is absolute rubbish because my line rental always is deducted from my bank account by direct debit and I have never had the money refunded to me – rather than someone juggling figures and saying I’ve not paid in advance when I have!!

When the phone was eventually put on after dozens and dozens of mobile calls to BT, the line that existed already was perfectly fine and there was no special work needed. The engineer said it could have in fact been connected the day I originally requested it to be live and he couldn’t understand why it was not.

I have never got over the intense fear and isolation and worry about feeding myself and getting help that I went through the first three months of my new flat in 2004 without a phone to reach the outside world. I had indeed worried that my line would not be connected and so had asked for assurances and checked that everything would go ahead as scheduled but this didn’t happen.

My family was also put through an ordeal being 14,000 miles away and not knowing if I was alive or dead. The lack of contact with anyone at this time even emergency services ruined my health and recovery and brought on severe and lasting depression.

I ask again once and for all to take notice of the serious consequences that poor management or whatever cock-up (certainly not technical) caused me to have to go through this ordeal without the support of a voluntary charity (whose remit was just to help me move in! not health related in any way) I would have possibly died from complication, accidental injury or neglect and starvation for want of a phone – that I’d even paid for in advance.

I feel that the result is not just the “missing” first quarter line rental taken under false pretences from my account but the injury and long-term effects of stress and consequences this unnecessary situation had on my health and long term wellbeing. I have never in my life suffered from anxiety. Pre op I was a robust camera woman working in the film industry and Alpine Ski Leader, I made documentaries and films in remote locations such as Ben Nevis and the Mid Atlantic I combined my creative and technical training with outdoor skills self taught and self financed. I was due to go to Antarctica in the last four years but have never regained the confidence I had before this fiasco in 2004.

My mother had a similar operation a few years before me and was sailing in Sydney Harbour three months after her operation. It was expected I would do well after my operation because I was younger and extremely fit and looked 15 years younger than 39. I’m now 43 and live like my late octogenarian grandmother having stopped going out at all and have remained confined to the house. Even though the almost forty years prior to that I was someone who preferred living outdoors, such is now my lack of confidence and outlook from being robbed of communication and help and the knock effect it has had. So much so that it has taken me a long time to face writing this letter, although it is the second I have sent on the matter and made several phonecalls 2005/6.

The tardiness in connecting my line also meant a delay in email for when I was stronger to not only contact family in Australia but restart my search and self promotion/networking for commissioned work self employed to my cost.

From Anonymous

BT Help

Here's two more recent BT Complaints made to BT customer service and there are many more just like this on the send your BT complaint page.

"Why has BT set up a separate payment department for which I am paying for ie £4-50.
I do not trust BT to take the correct variable amount out of my bank account as it is.
It is bad enough that you have to pay £5-00 if they consider your payment to have been late but to have to pay an extra £9-50 for the privilege of paying by check is a B......... Liberty.
I always pay my bill, have never defaulted, have been with BT for..... forever.
Considering leaving now.Very disappointed".
Miss L Callaway

"I've just bought a new second home and need a phone line. My wife called BT and they said we'd need an engineer, even though the previous owners had a BT line. They have now missed four separate confirmed appointments without ever once warning me they would not be attending.
I have wasted so much time waiting for engineers and in BT's endless phone queues (50 minutes was my longest wait).
No-one I've spoken to has any idea what's going wrong and all they do is offer a new appointment which the engineers then miss again. The last manager I spoke to said we didn't even need an engineer and the line would be activated within 48 hours from the exchange.
It wasn't. We've just called BT to confirm the latest appointment to be told it's been concealed for some unknown reason and they won't be coming".
Malcolm Lochhead

Complaint Advice to BT

My advice when complaining is:

a) Contact BT using email rather than over the phone, as this means you have a record of correspondence and also that you don't have to wait on hold.

b) Explain yourself clearly and concisely and be specific about the action you would like BT to take. Always be polite.

c) If your complaint has not been dealt with (and it is reasonable) then begin following BT's complaint escalation guide

Do not keep using their basic complaints service.

BT Call Centre of Death

Today I received an interesting email which I would like to share with everyone regarding BT Complaints:

"I recently visited your very impressive BT complaint website. I thought I would offer you the option of sharing a little gem that I recently came across in the fight against BT and their ‘Call Centre of Death’.

Without going in to massive detail I was the victim of a spectacular and sadly all too common BT cock up. The resultant billing error was so ridiculous that I was barely able to comprehend the stupidity required to make this error in the first instance, let alone comprehend a solution.

It was then that my brainwave struck me…Instead of even picking up the phone I decided to write; not to complain about stupidity but instead to approach the problem from a more interesting angle…Fraud!

I was obviously aware that the origins of my billing error were not related to fraud or criminal activity; naturally it came down to the hopeless attitude that a BT Goblin in the ‘Call Centre of Death’ had demonstrated to me months earlier. However, it was precisely the inefficiency as displayed by the ‘Call Centre of Death’ that made me try my alternative solution.

I sent a letter by recorded mail that simply stated that my account had been fraudulently accessed and my BT account had been amended possibly for a criminal purpose. I further stated that this ‘criminal’ activity had resulted in the compromise of my personal data and that I wanted a full investigation in to the matter. As an add on, I mentioned that my quarterly bill was also incorrect and I trusted once a full investigation in to the suspected fraud was done my bill would be amended accordingly.

The results were interesting, I received a call three days later from a lady stating she was in the presidents office at BT. She informed me that I could sleep easy, it was not fraud, but in fact had been employee error that had caused the problem. (No Sh*t!) She refunded my bill and gave me three months free line rental, also saying that my future bills would reflect my ‘line rental only’ option.

I was delighted by this until last week, when I received a promotional letter that effectively stated my account was still set up on the incorrect price plan …. Another letter complaining of suspected fraud (attached) has now been issued and I await the response with baited breath.

The moral of the story as far as I can see is that if everyone with a billing error wrote and made a complaint of fraud / illegal activity BT have a much greater obligation to investigate and get it right. In my case this has been far more efficient that having to queue on the phone for over two hours to then be frustrated by further call centre incompetence.

I have a small but dedicated Facebook group imaginatively entitled ‘BT Are Rubbish’ where I bitch about these things as they occur. Feel free to look us up / join or use any material you find on there!

Best regards
Richard Burnell

Some BT Complaints

This is an update on BT Complaints in February 2008. Thanks very much for sending all your BT complaints in. The complaint submission page has received 5420 total views so far in 7 months. In February alone there has been 1404 BT Complaint visitors so feel rest assured you are not alone in your plight!

It seems that BT Customer Service is getting worse rather than improving.

View a full list of BT Complaints

Below are just a few of the BT Complaints received so far. All of these complaints will be produced into a report format and sent to the necessary organisations to investigate and also to BT Customer Services.

Follow this link if you wish to send a BT complaint

BT Complaint example 1:
Just wanted to say well done for being pro active. My only complaint about BT are the charges for of £4 50 for those who choose to pay manually and the working days & notice given to pay it! I sent them an email to ask when the next bill would be coming over 2008 to avoid going on holiday!! as then they slap on additional charges for late payment. But then thats been well covered in the Guardian moneys and Ofcom simply aren't interested in the plight of customers. Janice Stanway

BT Complaint example 2:
I have not been able to get anyone at BT who can sort out my billing enquries. I have been charge £456 for line rental and no amount of phone calls has been able to resolve my issues. I have now cancelled my standing order and have informed them that I am willing to pay what I owe but not until this matter has been resolved I have contacted BBC watchdog and raised this with them so i need help as this matter is causing me a lot of stress and this has been going on since last October, BT are the pits as far as I am concerned.
Anonymous

View a full list of BT Complaints

Funny quote from a previous BT employee

I recently had a BT employee contact me with a funny quote i'd like to share with you all. He who shall not be named actually used to work for BT last year.

He told me that an 'in joke' in his office was that BT stood for "Bull***t and Transfer" hence being tranferred to different people

He basically couldn't put up with it and quit as it was all about the figures. Apparently BT employees have 3 minutes per customer or they would be warned about their statistics.

This explains a lot as I am sure you will all agree!!!

167 BT complaints so far!

Thank you to everyone who has submitted a BT complaint

So far I have received 167 complaints and these will all be put into a report and sent to BT for comment later this year (2008). I will publish the response I get back from BT (if I get one!) on this blog.

Please keep your complaints coming!

Here is just one of the recent BT complaints I have had:

"My phone has recently ceased working. I get no incoming calls and even though I can dial out the line is so scratchy I can't hear anything and have to terminate the call. This had gone on over a week

I called the BT fault line and was told by a recording that due to high volume they cannot receive any calls. I emailed them to which I eventually got a reply.

In the reply I was told the fault was raised with engineers but that I better make sure the fault is the line and not my phone because if it IS my phone the engineer will charge me A MINIMUM OF £99 plus VAT.

This is extortion!!!!!!!!!!! I worked at a telecommunications company in another country and as far as I know it is the telecommunications supplier's job to identify why you are not getting a phone service. This is what we pay them for!!!!!!!!!!! You don't get charged for a qualified person to figure out what is wrong!!!!!!!!!! I am completely fed up with the highway robbery that goes on in this country!!!!!!!

Read many more and submit your BT Complaint

Tips for Complaining

For people, particularly those sensitive to certain situations, things to complain about can appear around every corner. From a dirty fork at a restaurant to less than stellar customer service from BT, from late airplane flights to dirty hotel rooms, all kinds of things can warrant complaining. It is, after all, some people's favourite pastime.

Still, there is a right way and a wrong way to mumble and grumble. Criticising things or people too often, or without any tact, may worsen a situation dramatically, giving the complainer something to really complain about.

Keeping the following tips in mind, however, may help you to complain efficiently and, more importantly, effectively.


Don't Go Over Heads, at Least Not Immediately:
"Can I speak to your supervisor?" is often the complainer's personal mantra; after all, summonsing the supervisor is the surest way to get things remedied and get your complaint taken seriously. Occasionally, speaking to a supervisor or manager may be needed, but most of the time, people who are lower on the corporate ladder can help you just the same. Instead of going over their heads, and possibly getting them in trouble or even fired, try going to the person at the source of the problem. If they can't or won't help you, then, and only then, ask for someone else.

Remember that Less is More:
There is nothing that will take away the validity of a complaint faster than a person who complains every chance they get. If you have "the boy who cried wolf" complex - and complain about things that don't warrant criticism - you will never have your complaints taken seriously. Instead, you will simply be written off as a "complainer," a label that labels you worthy of being ignored.

Be Honest:
Sometimes people may look for reasons to complain, hoping that they can use their complaint to get a better hotel room, a complimentary meal, or a free airline ticket. Looking for things to complain about, however, is really just looking for trouble. If you have nothing to justifiably criticize - or need to look through a proverbial microscope to find something - then your complaint may be bordering on dishonesty. Your complaint might also leave you playing with Karma. Instead of filing a non-existent complaint, try something else and offer a compliment. The staff might react just as favorably.

Don't be Unreasonable:
Whenever a person complains, they most likely want their problem fixed, they want to be compensated for their inconvenience, or they simply want to blow off steam. Whatever it is that's being sought, it's important to keep in mind that reason is the key. Not only do you need to be reasonable with what you choose to complain about - complaining about rough weather on an airline flight will get you nowhere - but you also need to be reasonable in what you expect someone to do in return. If you complain about something that is relatively minimal, then assume that the remedy - or the reimbursement - will be relatively minimal as well.

BT Voted Number 1 for customer service

To mine and i'm sure all of you out there who have had to deal with BT and make a BT Complaint in 2007, to my disbelief I have just read that BT has claimed the title of ‘Best Customer Care’ at this year’s World Communication Awards in London!!! What a joke!

In addition to winning ‘Best Customer Care’, BT also won The Convergence Award for 21CN, and was Highly Commended for ‘Best Global Operator’. Is this some kind of Joke?

Just look at all these BT Complaints

Read the full news article on the BT website

BT customer's YouTube complaint

A BT customer had a letter of apology and a refund after he resorted to putting a video of his complaints on YouTube.

This priceless news item was published on the BBC website on Fri 23rd November 2007. This just shows how poor BT have become.

He is not the only one having trouble with BT Complaints

"Warwick resident Patrick Askins' troubles began when an extra £90 was added to his phone bill. After six months of calling the company the problem was not resolved so he decided to give up and pay, but put a video recording his despair on YouTube.

Shortly afterwards the company apologised and refunded his bill. He said: "After six months my son said, 'Dad, you have done everything you can'.

"So I phoned them up and told them I was giving in and paying the money."
But, he told them of a message he was leaving on the YouTube site.

The message said: "I have been a loyal BT customer for over 30 years and I don't find my experience a good example of BT demonstrating they are straightforward, trustworthy and helpful."

That was two weeks ago. Shortly afterwards he got a letter refunding all his costs and offering an apology. He said: "All I wanted was an explanation and, in my case, confirmation I had paid my bill."

A spokesman for BT said the company was in the process of resolving the situation before the YouTube clip was posted. "However, we apologise for not concluding our investigations into Mr Askins' enquiry more quickly."



View the YouTube video here:

BT heads list of most complaints during October 2007

No suprises here as BT beats Virgin Media and British Gas to worst spot for complaints during the month of October 2007. Expect the same results for coming months as well.

Which? Legal Service dealt with more complaints about BT in October than any other company.

Which? lawyers handled 61 calls from people complaining about BT with complaints ranging from collection and billing problems to complaints about customer service. Which? has contacted BT and I will publish its response once they have received it.

BT Contact Details

How to contact us

Our main contact numbers are listed below and are all free to call (unless you call from a mobile phone, when the charges will depend on the terms and conditions of the network you are on). Other services may have their own contact numbers or websites so, where possible, we have shown these throughout this document in the relevant sections.

Residential enquiries

If you have questions about residential sales, bills or general matters, please phone
0800 800 150 between 8am and 8pm, Monday to Saturday. To report a fault on a residential line, phone 0800 800 151. This line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Business enquiries

If you have questions about business sales or services, please phone 0800 400 400 between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday.

If you have a question about your bill, please phone 0800 800 156 between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday. To report a fault on a business line, phone 0800 800 154. This line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

We monitor a percentage of calls made to us to make sure that our customers receive the standard of service they are entitled to expect. As a result, you should know that a supervisor might record or monitor calls you make to us.

You may also contact us through the internet at www.bt.com/feedback/feedback.jsp.

If you are not happy with the service you're getting

We are committed to providing the best communications service in the world. Despite our best efforts, things can go wrong. When they do, we want to know so we can put them right as quickly as possible.

If you are a residential customer and your complaint is about sales, a bill or general matters, please phone 0800 800 150 between 8am and 8pm, Monday to Saturday. If the complaint is about repairing a fault, please phone 0800 800 151. This line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our customer service advisers will try to solve the problem while you are still on the line.

If you are a business customer and your complaint is about sales or services, please phone 0800 400 400 between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday. If your complaint is about a bill, please phone 0800 800 156 between 8am and 6pm, Monday to Saturday. If the complaint is about repairing a fault, please phone 0800 800 154. The line is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Our customer service advisers will try to solve the problem while you are still on the line.

If you would like to make a complaint about a BT payphone, please phone 0800 661 610.
If you prefer to put your complaint in writing, please address it to:

Customer Service Manager
BT Customer Correspondence Centre
Durham
DH98 1BT.

We will normally respond to your letter by phone but will gladly confirm any particular points in writing, if you prefer.

We aim to deal with the problem to your satisfaction, and our customer service advisers will try to do this as quickly as possible, preferably during your phone call. If this is not possible, we will agree a course of action with you. Complaints about a bill may take longer to put right. If you are not happy with how we have handled your complaint, please ask to speak to the manager. He or she will review your complaint and will work with you to try and sort out the problem. If, after contacting the manager, you feel that we have not dealt with your complaint properly, please ask for your case to be reviewed by a more senior manager.
If you are still not satisfied with how we have dealt with your complaint, we offer a Complaint Review Service. You can contact this service on the following numbers.

• Residential customers - 0800 545 458

• Business customers - 0800 555 257

• Payphone customers - 0800 252 745

If you prefer, you can write to our Complaint Review Service. Please phone the appropriate number for the address.