Losing patience with BT

Scuzi

Scuzi

Scuzi

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Today I sat in waiting for the third time, for an Openreach engineer to come to my house to install a phone line. For the second time, nobody turned up. I'm really fed up now and was wondering if I could get some suggestions on how to proceed.

Here's a timeline:

03 Dec - place order with BT for phone line and broadband at a new property. They schedule installation for 24th December.

24 Dec - Nobody turns up. I call and get given the run around. After the best part of an hour on the phone, the best answer I get is that they don't know why the engineer didn't turn up. New installation date scheduled for 30th January.

30 Jan - Openreach engineer turns up, has a fiddle with the wires outside, installs a faceplate then tells me he shouldn't have been sent as the cabling work on the street hasn't been completed. This is the first time I am made aware. I call India, get an escalation number and reassured the cabling outside will be complete mid February. New installation date scheduled for 3rd March.

03 Mar - Nobody turns up. Again. I call And manage to get through to a team in Scotland who take all my details then forward me to India. The Indian call taker assures me that the computer cancelled this appointment. I ask why and the best I can get out of her is "The robots in the computer do it automatically". WTF? The nearest date she can give me is 23rd March. I'm livid.

So 3 months after ordering I still don't have a phone line or internet access. My neighbours either side of me do and they placed orders after me. I have used 3 days of leave and will now need to use another.

Any suggestions? I've tried being nice, I've tried being uppity. They have assured me that the problem has been "escalated" and they have assured me of compensation for wasted time, however I don't believe any of it. I get the impression the Indian call centre workers will say whatever they need to get you off the phone.


And another thing, since all these calls to BT, I have been getting a lot of scam calls from India from people who know my name and address. BT also have my wife's mobile number as an alternative contact and her number gets the same calls asking for me. Is it possible my data has been leaked?
 
Information gets leaked from India call centers in huge volumes :S

This is the point with BT I usually email either the head of openreach (recently changed) or the BT CEO its about the only way to get things resolved :| (They will normally give you an executive level complaints contact who are usually pretty good).
 
BT are pathetically appaulling at customer service.
I've just told them where to stick their fibre broadband after 3 weeks of downtime. 2 engineers, 6 phonecalls later and I've had enough tbh. Just can't deal with them numpties at their indian call centre anymore - its disgraceful.
 
Scuzi I had similar problems where I must have had 6 difference activation dates of my broadband. I was sent around India more times then Michael Palin.

I sorted it by posting on their forum, I suggest you do the same. After a week of posting everything was all up and running.

They are a UK BASED TEAM :)
 
Getting your local MP involved, along with their regulator (Ofcom) and, if they have one, their ombusdman usually lights massive bonfires under their backsides... heck, even telling them you're doing this (especially if you're speaking to the call centre managers) can be enough.
 
I've had loads of hassle with them recently.

One thing I did which did help a bit was have a rant at BTCare on Twitter. I'm not a twitter user but had heard examples of companies who seem to monitor their twitter feeds better than they would deal with you over the phone so gave it a try.

They then contacted me with an online form to fill in and they assigned a uk based person to manage the case/issues I was having.

They helped get our line install sorted that ended up being 2 or 3 months past the original date.
 
Thanks for the suggestions. I think I'll give them all a try. I'll report back if I make any progress.
 
I'm in the same boat having been messed around for three months. I've no solution but can give you a tip. When you call BT and the automated telephone system says, "Say what your call is about" say the word "Cancellation" as it puts you through to an English based customer retention team who make a little more sense than most. Do it in normal hours when managers are working and continue to ask to speak to a manager. Get everybody's name you speak to as well as it seems to focus their minds a little bit in case you're going to complain.

If I, and most of the people who rely on BT's infrastructure, had any choice in their provider of wires to their premises the company would be out of business because everyone would leave. They are truly shocking.
 
Getting an email to the CEO is a good way to go, I have had to do the same on a couple of occasions and also got a prompt reply and my issues dealt with by someone in Executive Complaints who are excellent and do get stuff done.

Appears Gavin Patterson is the current CEO (I've dealt with Ian Livingston and Ben Verwaayen previously) his details can be found here http://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=9591
 
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