A woeful tale about trying to order BT Infinity

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Hey guys, just need some advice but first the backstory.

I ordered BT infinity last year in August 2011 in my own house. There was an initial problem ordering as BT sales team stated that I was on an old type of account called a SMART account and that they needed to migrate me over to the new system before they could place the infinity order. After 10 days I got a phonecall saying that I could place the order and so I did. Infinity has been running for a year now with no problems.

Fast forward to June 2012. My dad, who lives in a separate building, roughly 5 miles away has Infinity available to him. Now my dad runs a business that has a lot of BT lines. The business is paying for my current BT infinity install.

On trying to order Bt infinity at his house, Bt sales team stated that he already has infinity on that line. My dad and then myself assured them that this wasn't the case. It seems somehow the Bt systems have become confused between my line and my dad's line.

Eventually we get hold of someone who is able to recognise the error and that these 2 lines are in separate buildings but that they are on the same account. This person then stated to me that my dad's line was on the old SMART system and needed to be transferred and that this would take 10 days and I would get a call back. 10 day later and no call back I decided to ring. They said that the request did not go through for whatever reason.

By now it was August 2012 and we were at our wits end. It was purely luck on getting through to a BT member of staff who wouldn't say "You already have Infinity on that line."

In a last ditch act of desperation my dad decided to cancel his line completely and reorder a new line. Start afresh and then order Infinity in other words. He then gets an email stating that BT equipment needs to be returned and that there is a £202 cancellation fee. He forwards the email to me and I instantly know that BT are trying to cancel MY line with infinity on it.

I ring up the support staff and cancel the cancellation order that was supposed to be going through on the 31st August.

Today i just rang up and tried to order BT infinity on my dad's line only to hear "That line already has Infinity." I asked for the name and address of someone that I could complain to and the lady stated she was not authorised to give that information out.

Any advice. I wish to complain to BT but it is very difficult to get an email of someone higher up. I know that on these forums people have emailed direct to the CEO and that he/she has his own support team to deal with these complaints.

Thanks in advance.

tldr: need the contact details to complaing to BT about terrible service in simply trying to order BT Infinity.
 
This is hilarious. Obviously not for you but from an outside point of view. Surely they can see what services you have on the other line just by taking down the telephone number??

Bunch of retards :)
 
heh you would think wouldn't you. The best exchanges are with BT India. Sir you already have BT Infinity. No i don't thats on another line. Yes you do, our systems show it was installed last year.

Let me talk to someone higher up please.

Hello sir (english accent)..... You already have Infinity installed on that line.

It's awesome :P. Once in a while u will get someone who realises wtf is going on but sadly she never rings back to book an engineer visit etc. Then the whole "you already have infinity installed" starts all over again!!!!
 
Just curious, do you think you have ever spoken to anyone based in the UK?

I had similar problems wayyyyyy back in the initial ADSL era and never got anywhere until I got UK support on the phone.

You may have to escalate this as a fault until you can get to that stage
 
Yea i have managed to speak to support staff who are uk based. Apparently they can see more information than their Indian colleagues. However it does take the same explanation for them to realise that these lines are in 2 separate buildings. Today was a bit of bad luck, girl called Laura was adamant that we had Infinity on a line that didn't have it.
 
If your dad has a lot of BT business lines, does he have an account manager?

If so, I'd make it their problem to sort out.
 
If your dad has a lot of BT business lines, does he have an account manager?

If so, I'd make it their problem to sort out.

I was thinking this too.

Also, do you KNOW that that line doesn't have FTTC on it already (as well as yours) - plug a VDSL modem in and see what happens.
 
Ah good old BT - your ONLY chance of getting this sorted unfortunatly is to go straight to the CEO and get his executive level complaints dept. onto it (who are really good) - shame really but first line support is an utter joke and you will be extremely lucky if they get you sorted.

Been through this twice before myself.
 
definately no VDSL installed on his line, no engineer ever came round to change the faceplate and no gear was sent. when he tried to cancel his line, they were gonna cancel my line and charge £200+.

I really think he should have an accounts manager at bt, ill look into that tomorrow.
 
BT Business is often dealt with through local resellers - this isn't a bad thing though as they take on the job of phoning BT and hasseling them to get stuff fixed meaning that you only have to call once and if the local reseller is any good they actually listen and understand the problem and have a better list of numbers (e.g. they can actually call openreach which us mere mortal home users aren't allowed to do)
 
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