BT Complaints - Submit Your's!

Rachel Castle 4 years ago

I recently moved and had the same problem as you. Lack of customer service at the heart of it and no idea of how to resolve the problem. I also has to wait up to 1 hour to get through to speak to someone. Totally unacceptable.

Karen 4 years ago

I cancelled the installation of a BT line on 3rd September & was told there would be no charge, then received a bill and on phoning again was told to disregard it as the line was never installed. Three weeks later my bank statement revealed they had charged me £135.99 for installation and line rental.

I have now spent approximately 15 hours on the phone trying to sort this out. I have been on hold for most of that time, been transferred between departments more times than I can keep count of, been promised calls back which never materialised 4 times and even been cut off 3 times! I have had BT confirm several times that the line was not installed, but no-one will give me back my money & I have just received a bill for the second months line rental for the line that never existed!!

Incidentally, the call centre service is so abominable that I tried e-mails and a recorded delivery letter. I have yet to receive any responses to them though.

Mary Berridge 4 years ago

What a hollow reassurance to read all these complaints about BT - my nightmare has just begun I have been trying to get a line to my new address and have spent a total of 5 hours (logged) trying to get through to someone, I am either cut off or put back in the loop - their customer service is APPALLING. I have to plug Virgin Media here who i have been with for two years and would love them to supply my new address as they are helpful, efficient, and when i ring up i always get my problem solved. I am slowly going insane how dare BT treat its customers like this?

David Taylor 4 years ago

Its nice to know I am not alone in my sheer frustration with BT. I had been a BT customer at my house for 3 years before being moved with work to london. I cancelled my line as I was keeping the house but didnt want to pay line rental when i was not there.

I recently moved back in and asked to be re-connected. After about 6 hours waiting on hold I finally got through to a human being on 29th June 2007.

I explained I wanted my existing line re-connecting, and was told that they had no records of my line ever being connected, so i would be charged £124.99 to install a new line. This was ludicrous as I could see the BT box on my window sill and followed the wire back to the telegraph pole in the street.

After much debate, the BT woman put me on hold and came back after 20 minutes to say they had found the details on an old record. The computer didnt have the details so I would have to order a new line.

After further debate, we agreed that this was ludicrous, and the engineer would determine if the line was serviceable. If it was, and no new wiring was required, i wouldnt be charged. A date was set for connection 16th July, and the engineer would call my mobile before attending the property. I told the BT woman that this was the only day convenient as I was going on 2 weeks holiday on 18th July.

16th July - Engineer didnt phone my mobile, but came to the property puzzled as to why i wanted an "additional line" - I said I didnt, i just wanted the old one re-connecting. - "No problem" he said, and disappeared off to the exchange. I was re-connected in minutes, and I asked "will I be charged?" - "NO" the engineer said "reconnections are free".

I went on holiday on 18th July, returning on 2nd August to find a bill from BT dated 17th July for the connection fee £124.99 + line rental. I also had a red bill dated 25th July (only 7 days after the initial bill) - I Tried to call BT and was left on hold for 2 hours, before getting put through to BT Broadband who promptly said "Wrong department" and cut me off. This happened 3 times.

I paid the bill first thing on 3rd August to avoid the threatened disconnection but also raised a dispute in writing with BT in Durham on the same day.

On 10th August I received a final demand threatening disconnection, late payment fees and even court action despite the fact I had already paid on 3rd August. I tried to call BT to tell them I had paid, but again was left on hold.

I have had numerous other issues with BT over Extra services which have taken 2 month to provide, Their website with on-line acount management is a joke, it doesnt work most of the time, has numerous errors, and is frequently just wrong.

I have still not had my disputed connection charge complaint resolved after nearly 3 months.

The final nail in the coffin is that I have now received my next bill. A £7.50 Late payment fee" has been applied despite me having told BT that I would be on holiday for 2 weeks following the original connection - Is 2 weeks really a warrant for charging a £7.50 late payment fee???? I think not.

And absolutely finally I get charged £4.50 payment processing fee because I dont pay by direct debit - This is absolutely the last straw, as I DO pay by Direct Debit.

Trying to log any sort of complaint with BT just gets an automated acknowledgement, but the complaints are never addressed, If you get any response it is clear they havent even read or understood the question.

I cannot see how BT claim "every day hundreds of people come back to BT" - They must all want their heads reading if they think BT is a communications company. They dont even communicate with themselves let alone their customers!!

David Thompson 4 years ago

In some ways it is reassuring to see how many others there are seemingly at the point of despair with BT!!

I am the son of an 85 year old lady who has received a penalty demand for £253 out of the blue from BT for the temerity of changing to an alternative telecom provider. Having power of attorney over her affairs, I have tried always to communicate with this most useless organisation.

Recorded delivery letters to Providence Row, Durham address produce no response, dialling the automated Complaint Review Service 0800 545 458 is an absolute waste of time. I have tried on 2 separate occasions today to make contact using this number and so far have spent well over 20 minutes waiting for an operator to answer.

And yet still, the BT computer continues to churn out further demands for payment which become really harrowing for an old lady who just wants now to pay the unsupported and unrealistic demand to make them go away!

They are an absolute disgrace. I only wish I was a farmer with the wherewithal to direct a large quantity of farm manure at their building in Durham in a similar way to a farmer in Northumberland who's bank would not take his complaints seriously. Not the right solution, but at least you might feel better!!

I don't know where I go from here, but good luck with your blog!!

Elizabeth Hojlund 4 years ago

I have owned aproperty, which is a holiday bungalow, since 2001. In the autumn of 2002 a telephone line was installed in the property. In September 2005 the phone line was de-activated at my request. In July 2006 the line was re-activated free of charge by BT. In December 2006 the line was again, at my request, de-activated. I was told that I could have the line re-activated at any time FREE OF CHARGE. No changes have been made to the phone connection by me or any one else at the property. The telephone was simply unplugged and removed, when the line was de-activated by BT less than a year ago. All bills have been paid promptly. I wished to have the phone line re-activated for the new tenant who was moving into the property for 8 months on 29/9/07. She suffers from a chronic disease and will be living alone in the bungalow, so she needs to have a reliable telephone connection.

I have now been told that I will be charged £130 to have the line re-connected! I consider it completely unreasonable to suddenly decide to charge an exorbitant fee to reconnect the line. I have received no explanation at all as to why it should be necessary to charge me for this. If the line had been in use when the fault on the line occurred I would not have been charged for the engineer to restore the connection, so why should I be charged for this just because I was not using the line at the time?

I wrote a letter of complaint on 24/9/07, but have not received any reply.

Jackie van Eeden 4 years ago

As with many of the people above BT promised to have our line activated when we move in. When we moved in a line was active but we found it to be a differend number than that given to us by BT. Bt called after ours of waiting and was told that the first number was just a temperarely number and that the number we now have is our new number. Two days later the line was dead and after another couple of hours on the phone with BT we were told the new number belongs to somebody else and that the origanal number was correct but was not activated as promised but will be within 24 hours. This has come and gone. Still no line. After another 3 to 4 hours on the line we were told that they cannot help but will transfer me to the right appartment and then you hold on the whole day without somebody awnsering thephone. In the meantime I have recieved a Bill from BT but have no phone. I am also paying sky for broadband which I do not have because of the line not working. Can we not all get together on this and complain somewhere. I am new in England and dont know all the steps. I have been cut off, refered to a different department,held on for hours, taken two days off work ,been given lots of different numbers to call and the list goes on. I realy do not know what other steps I could take to sort this out. Any help and advise appreciated--PLEASE. 3 November 2007

Luke Alexander 4 years ago

I have been waiting seven weeks for a BT Direct Connect service at my business. Now I have been waiting two weeks for a phone line that was promised to be activated within 48 hours at my home. Not a single person has has been able to help me in any way. These guys are as bad as anyone could possibly imagine.

Linda 4 years ago

After a complete and utter nightmare changing over from Virgin Media to a BT line and Broadband I finally have service. However I now have 2 bills for 2 separate accounts, with no explaination of charges for either. I have tried countless times to get through on the phone (having learnt that complaining by email the BT site a a complete waste of time) and have held on average for 75 minutes before either a)giving up in frustations or b)the phone running out of charge. I am beginning to think that there is actually NO ONE at BT at all and you are just kept in a loop until you finally give up and pay without resolving your query. Does anyone have any tips for getting through to someone???

Mark 4 years ago

I have a horrible feeling my nightmare has only just started. Moved house at weekend and had ordered new line 10 days before and now being told (after spending £20 on a prepay mobile) that I have to now wait another 11 working days before being connected. There is a dial tone so it only needs somebody to press a button on a computer somewhere.

josh j 4 years ago

they really are a bunch of total and effing wankers.

having been told it would take 6 working days to reconnect, i ring up on the day it was supposed to be reconnected. dialled the number i was given and waited 30min. was told it was business and i 'need residential' back on hold. 30mins later was told by someone else i needed the 'service dept'. back on hold and 30mins got through and then was told 'openreach' has a 'committed date' 14 working days after the order.

can i speak to openreach? can i heck? they are 'internal' and not 'customer facing' not hard to see why - probably terrified of the consequences of being 'customer facing' i personally would like to cut an engineer's dick off to stop him playing with it when he is supposed to be working

i wont be surprised if im calling again in '14 working days' time.........

Richard George 4 years ago

I had a BT line connected; at the time I was told the number - so I pass the info round our contacts. On connecting the first phone, it looked like I had a line fault(!) ... turned out it was the phone, BUT - on getting through (a novelty for BT) to the fault centre, I'm told 'mmm. That's not the number on the account! - and as you're ex-directory, we can't tell you what it is!!

Can't -ever- get through to cust.serv. (joke), but cancelled DD so they haven't been paid. Got through a couple of times, only to be redirected ... to reception - where the occupants of the offices dealing with new accounts don't take incoming calls!!! Registered a complaint with one cs rep (helpful!) and notified she that my DD had been cancelled and would not be reinstated until I spoken to someone. Found out the number allocated using 1471 from a mobile, and received a bill with said number on thanking me for paying by DD.

*What* a company! How are they still in business?

jackie van eeden 4 years ago

As with many of the people above BT promised to have our line activated when we move in. When we moved in a line was active but we found it to be a differend number than that given to us by BT. Bt called after ours of waiting and was told that the first number was just a temperarely number and that the number we now have is our new number. Two days later the line was dead and after another couple of hours on the phone with BT we were told the new number belongs to somebody else and that the origanal number was correct but was not activated as promised but will be within 24 hours. This has come and gone. Still no line. After another 3 to 4 hours on the line we were told that they cannot help but will transfer me to the right appartment and then you hold on the whole day without somebody awnsering thephone. In the meantime I have recieved a Bill from BT but have no phone. I am also paying sky for broadband which I do not have because of the line not working. Can we not all get together on this and complain somewhere. I am new in England and dont know all the steps.Don 7 November 2007

Damon McLeod-Castles 4 years ago

BT are the worst 'company' EVER! They are that bad I think the government should intervene and take out that stupid BT tower! Bring on Virgin....or anyone!!!

R A Evans 4 years ago

For 2 months I have been trying to transfer my business broadband from one telephone number to another and get it changed to residential. After spending upto 4 hours on this I was informed on the 5 of November It would be done and I would recieve a telephone call within 48 hours to confirm this.it is now Friday the 9th and am no further on!! BT must be the WORST seervice provider in the world and I would NOT recommend them to empty anyones bin let alone provide them with a broadband service

P****d off customer

H & O Stubbs 4 years ago

We recently moved abroad and left our daughter living in our house. About 6 weeks ago she phoned BT to change the entry in the next phone book - same surname but different initial. She made sure that she told BT tha she didn't want the number changed. We've had the same number for 25 years!!!!! For some reason, only known to BT, the number was changed, but my daughter wasn't infomed. She only found out by accident. She's spent over 15 hours on the phone to Customer Services (what a joke) most of that time was either spent on hold, being redirected or, surprise, cut-off!!!! We have also sent several e-mails. In one reply BT actually specified a solution to the problem within approximately 2 working days - it's now been 8 and still no sloution in sight. The problem we have is that all our legal contacts etc have our original number. We've lost phone calls, costing us money, and our son also uses the number as a back-up number for his business. How difficut can it be to just give back the number we had. And just for luck, when we phone BT they tell us that our new number doesn't even exist. Now that is strang considering that we've already had a bill for it!!!!! We're totally p****d off with the whole situation.

David Taylor 4 years ago

Well...... after my total and utter nightmare with BT (detailed some posts above) I have finally got a result. I was so annoyed with receiving the second incorrect bill and charges for late payments that werent, and a processing fee FOR paying by DIRECT DEBIT!!! and the reconnection charge that i was told would be free.

I emailed the chairman of BT at 9.55pm at night saying that if my complaint was not resolved within 1 month, i would refer the case to the ombudsman OTELLO. T

To my surprise he responded with a read receipt at 9.57pm and I had a very polite personal and apologetic email from him at 9.59pm promising this would be resolved the next day. To my amazement, I got a phone call from his assistant at 10am the next day and all my money has been credited to my account.

I would reccomend you contact the chairman direct at: ben.verwaayen@bt.com

Carol Seabrook 4 years ago

I contacted BT in Sept 07 advising i am moving to a temporary address whilst my home was modenised and that i required to move my land line to, no problem as the home i was going to had a line etc and would be active the day i moved in. Moved in no dial tone, after several phone calls and spekaing to an enginner it was a fault in the house, So i had my land line diverted to my mobile so i could pick up any calls. I sat and thought well i dont need it and could save the line rental i will cancel and reconnect when i move back to my previous address. I cancelled my BT account ( Been with BT 8 Years ) and sat waiting for my final bill. It came today and i was shocked to see a one off charge of £70 for stopping BT service before minimum term expired? How can they do this all i did was move my line/number to another address temporary! I am fuming, spoke to customer services who's system was down they made notes and i got a call back 2 hours later, The lady who sounded so miserable advised that if i go back to BT they will refund the charge! I didnt let her explain fully i was fuming. So i have written a letter to Durham,doubtful now reading above i will get a reply. But i have also complained to Oftel too. There is no way i am paying for a charge for wanting my land line at temporary address! Sorry to ramble on but i am so mad.

beryl allen 4 years ago

bt sent me a bill for £237.46 but i am with virgin but i have sent 4 letters 3 e mail numerous phone calls leaving you waiting for hours they finally say it is for a contact but i was never connected so how can i have a contract the last phone call i was on for one hour and they said they where cancelling the bill that was last thursday november 8th and today wednesday november 14th i received another bill will you please sort it out.

Darren Harris 4 years ago

I ordered a new line from BT over the email beginning of October and after not receiving any notification I rang them. After 2 hours holding I got through to a

person who asked me the a phone number and as I havn't got one they could help me

Finally found a VOL order number but gave them all the correct details ie mobile number. Engineer would arrive 9 November p.m.

I phoned on 9.11.07 am to ensure engineer was coming as I took the day off at my expense and the answer they gave me what order the engineer had tried to call but not to the number i gave them. I complained and spoke to BT oFcom

who told me the re schedule engineer was on 14.11.07 pm. Today I again called

at 9.00 hrs to be told what order. In fact I ring everyday and get different answers

I called this morning and spoke to Aileen McCormack at BT Ofcom who informed me that her staff had the incorrect training and should not have told me 14.11.07

Is this my problem. I should have got a call from a manager about my complaint

who rang me Monday to say that he will call be back MONDAY evening. No chance

In fact his phone line has been engaged for the last 48 Hours. I have now lodged more complaints to BT but no one actually listens to what I am saying.

If I ran a group of people like that I would sack them . Thier office must be like

a battery chicken shed. Waste of taxpayers money. My order is now the 20th

and I bet you !!!!

person who

Stacey 4 years ago

I have ongoing problems with BT, as I have gone through it a million times with BT over the phone and in emails so many times I can not be bothered to type it all out so I have cut and paste this from one of my many emails to them to give you an idea of the trouble I have had.

1. Received email from BT inviting me to upgrade to Option 3 with free laptop.2. Telephone BT and advised by female advisor that I do not qualify as still in contract.3. Query why still in contract when been with them for years.4. Told contract only started in October 2006.5. Explained that in October 2006 only called to swap existing account from maiden to married name.6. It transpires BT incorrectly open a new account in married name and leave existing account running.7. I continue to pay for BT TWICE!!!!!!8. A few months later I query why paying two separate payments and am told by BT that it is normal to pay for broadband separately.9. Another few months later, I am concerned about the level of my bills and check my bills. It transpires that I am paying twice for broadband, with one account opened in maiden name and one account opened in married name.10 BT apologise profusely for their mistake and issue a significant refund and closed down the original account in my maiden name.WHEN I LET BT KNOW I HAD GOT MARRIED THERE WAS SOME KIND OF MISUNDERSTANDING AND NEW ACCOUNT WAS OPENED, I WAS PAYING FOR BT TWICE!!!!!!!! IT TOOK ALMOST A YEAR BEFORE THIS WAS SORTED OUT, TRYING TO EXPLAIN THIS TO A DIFFERENT CUSTOMER SERVICE ADVISOR EVERY TIME I WAS PUT THROUGH WAS INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING!!!Now, as BT have opened a new account and closed my old account, which I can provide details for if necessary. I am told I am in a new contract and stuck there for another 6 months!!!Furthermore, when I explained all this to the Second Customer Service representative I spoke to on Monday 12th November between 1.45pm and 2.45pm (I was on the phone for an hour!) He said he understood and as I was only upgrading I definately did qualify for the upgrade and that I would get a free laptop.I was then transferred to a third Customer Service Advisor who told me I didnt qualify, I was still in contract and nothing they could do.I told him that the previous advisor told me I did qualify and he said, "these calls are being recorded", insuating, I believe that I was lying!!! He then told me that if the advisor had said this to me then he would be dealt with by disciplinary action. I said that was a shame because he was nice and helpful and this Advisor said "yes but he is probably not as qualified as me".I am very angry with the amount of time and money I have wasted on BT over the last 12 months.

DIANE DORAN 4 years ago

WAITED 3 MONTHS+ FOR A CONNECTION. MADE AROUND 4 ORDERS - ALL GET PUT INTO A PENDING FILE THEN ARE CANCELLED BECAUSE THE POST CODER THAT BT USES IS INACCURATE AND CANNOT FIND MY ADDRESS. MY SISTER IN LAW HAS A HOUSE IN MY GROUNDS AND HAS BEEN ABLE TO GET CONNECTED. SHE HAS WORKED ON THIS FULL TIME - WE HAVE COLLECTIVELY SPENT AROUND 65 HOURS ON HOLD AND STILL HAVE NO PHONE LINE. WHEN YOU DO GET THROUGH THEY INSIST ON TRANSFERRING YOU TO ANOTHER DEPARTMENT WHO TELL YOU THAT THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT DEPARTMENT. I HAVE COMPLAINED BY EMAIL AND HAD SOMEONE CONTACT ME FROM INDIA. THEY WERE TO CALL BACK, DIDN'T AND WHEN I TOLD THE NEXT BT OPERATOR SHE SAID THAT THERE AREN'T ANY INDIAN CALL CENTRES. I HAVE GIVEN UP AND WE HAVE ALL GOT NEW MOBILE PHONES. THE BIG PROBLEM IS THAT THERE IS NO ALTERNATIVE - THIS IS A POLITICAL ISSUE SURELY - A MONOPOLY THAT IS TAKING THE MICKEY OUT OF CUSTOMERS WHO ARE POWERLESS TO AFFECT CHANGE?

DIANE DORAN

Mr Clarke 4 years ago

BT help are a bunch of monkeys. I have been trying to phone for a few months to fix a problem and just get passed from one person to the next - no one can help, they can just (barely) read the list of instructions in front of them. AT least 10 calls involving being passed from dept to dept, 2 emails and complaints and I am still getting nowhere. "supervisors" are equlally useless, as are "managers". What am I supposed to do? I am being charged for a service that I am not receiving. All the problems are "my fault" as only I can instruct services on my account. "I cannot help sir, I can only pas you to another f'ing useless colleague" AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHH !

Jade 4 years ago

I am glad to see that it isnt just me who has experienced absolutley apalling service from BT!!! Not only am I on hold for a min of 60 min per call but once my call is answered I get passed around to incompetant people who have no idea what is going on! Also while trying to get a BT line installed the day they were supposed to show up they didnt and didnt bother to call! after 2.5 hours of calls we got hung up on!! and now I have recieved my bill for the connection fee! I have refused to pay it as I am now out of pocket 2 days work due the there mess up. I wrote to this Gillian it has been 2 months and still no reply. I am on hold as I write this and if i head "we are very busy your call is very important to us we will be with you as soon as possible" I am going to through my phone through the window! your so busy GET MORE STAFF there is no was a business should be allowed to keep customers on hold for that amount of time AND charge them a premium call! Anyone knows anyhting I can do about this please email me I have had enough... Ps have been on hold 35min and counting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gabriel Keen 4 years ago

About three months ago I telephoned BT asking to have my phone line taken over from Bulldog, who took over the line from BT about two years ago, when I took their broadband service.

The customer service has been shockingly bad. I have spent literally hours waiting in phone queues, only to be passed to another department, which has meant waiting in another queue - and this has often continued until the line goes dead or goes to an engaged tone.

When I have managed to speak to someone who could help at all, I have been told the line would be connected on a certain date, which didn't happen, then after further phone calls having heard nothing from BT, being told that an engineer would have to call to reconnect the service. The engineer never came and again I was told nothing.

Then all of a sudden I was able to make outgoing calls, but nobody could phone me and when I tried to phone my mobile phone the number came up as unknown.( Before this I had been able to make free calls and receive calls through Bulldog who had suspended outgoing calls, because for some they thought I hadn't paid a bill, which I had - their lousy customer service was the reason I decided to return to BT. I expected much better but have been very disappointed)

I have received some messages on my mobile phone from BT - the calls have come at times when I was unable to take them - telling me that they need more information before completing my order and to phone back on the 0800 800 150 number. Of course this has involved another hour or so of my time waiting to speak to someone, but I was finally able to explain the situation to somebody who of course tried to transfer me to another department.

She said she would put a high priority on the order and book another engineer's visit.

The next thing I hear is a message on my mobile, telling me that the order has been cancelled, because they have not been able to speak to me.

I have persisted this far because I would like to be able to keep my existing phone number which I won't be able to do with another provider. However having been without a service for so long and people being unable to contact me on that number, I think I would be better off going to another provider.

This experience has made me very angry and I find it extraordinary that such a big company can operate like this.

And now – the final insult – I have just received a bill for £162.24 for cancellation of the service – a service I have not received, and have spent the last three months trying to get, and have not asked to be cancelled – with advice that this amount will be debited from my bank on or after 26 Nov 07. (Curiously enough, there was no delay or difficulty setting up the direct debit.) Naturally, I have instructed my bank not to pay this and to cancel the direct debit.

Obviously, this has settled the matter, and I do not wish to have any further dealings with BT (although I feel a grovelling apology, and perhaps some compensation for my wasted time and inconvenience would be in order.)

alan bailey 4 years ago

Dear Sir I have been trying to contact someone at BT to deal with my problem for several days.I have spent a total of five hours listening to a telephone ring been subjected to the BT shuffle between various call centres and continents been promised return calls which dont happen have been told one thing by one person which is then denied by another. The sad thing is I wanted a BT line and this whole thing could have been sorted if someone had said sorry that shouldnt have happened.Am posting a copy of this to BT CEO Ben Verwaayen at email address ben.verwaayen@bt.com

alan bailey 4 years ago

Gabriel I have posted BTs CEOs email in my letter why not send an email to him what can they shoot us?

Jane Barff 4 years ago

Thank goodness I'm not alone!!!

After spending hours trying to sort out my broadband, I come off the phone and just want to hit someone - preferably the BT CEO. Does anyone know where he lives???

How can a huge company like BT just cut people off? Do they think we are stupid and treat us accordingly?

Can we sue them? Has anyone done this and how did they do it?

Help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jade 4 years ago

I would like to thank David for his VERY helpfull info after I emailed the chairman of BT not 30min later I got a reply saying he will send it to the "high level of complaints department to get it sorted" Then another 20 min later I got an another email from the chairmans office saying he is sorting it out and will contact me soon. but it gets better!! 30 min after that he calls me to say hes sorry about the service blah blah blah and refunded my whole bill! I was only upset about the instalation fee but he cancelled the whole lot. I cant believe after 5 months of messing about and one email to someone high up and its cleared up within an hour! what a joke. Anyone in the same boat as me (see my comment above) email me and ill give you the emails!

Holly 4 years ago

Well after moving into our new home we have had disaster after disaster, after receiving a call from Virgin to say they were unable to provide our broadband due to BT having the postcode wrong i rung them, this took over half an hour to get someone to ammend the 1 letter needed after arguing it was done due to him being lazy and saying it would be done in due course etc i wasn't having any of it. Then our line died, after paying the £126-99 connection fee i wasn't impressed and spent my week off ringing them off my mobile to a cost of over £100 with no one but 1 person willing to ring me back (after id'e ended up in tears!) the line beign cut happened twice and 2 engineers came out after threatning me that id'e have to pay £150 if it was my phone that was wrong? err yeah didnt think to check that out..the last straw was when the second engineer came out and was due between say 12 and 4 (can't remember now) and turned up at 11, by luck my partner was at home ill and answered the door but the man said he wouldnt have come back? the cheek when he was an hour early! i wish i could get my line rental from somone else, they are dire really dire!

OfcomRuseless 4 years ago

The problem is we have no regulators who will stand up for the rights of the consumer.

Ofcom is too busy representing the interests of the telecoms' industry.

VICKI 4 years ago

To my shame, BT has actually reduced this strong, independent woman to tears. Underneath all the hassles and sheer open mouthed amazement that any company could behave like this, is a very unsettling feeling that we are charging towards some sort of horrible 1984 scenario where everything starts to collapse and there is no where to turn...and no one to talk to...

Of the many attempts I have made to get a response (or even an answer) - most memorably this includes a 3 hour epic on hold (ever tried cradling a phone handset while having a bath?) - this is my latest, a letter to the Sunday Times Question of Money dispute section - which has been inundated with similar letters, but I am running out of options. (The oct 28th edition had a complaint from a poor soul who had spent 13 hours on hold and experienced all kinds of misery. The Times got him £200 compensation and...a bunch of flowers from BT!! Yes, it's getting surreal...

If someone can post up the current address of someone who can help - please please do.

As we all know, letters to BT don't work, phone calls as you all know, require a week off work and round the clock waiting on hold (if I just wait a few more seconds I am sure someone will answer!!) until you collapse in a jibbering heap and meanwhile...the big brother computers clock up day after day of extra charges for late payments of wildly inaccurate bills you have no intention of paying... So this is the letter I wrote and yes, I have told BT I have written to the Sunday Times and no, it hasn't been of any interest to them. As I am a freelance writer myself, I will have to do something more direct I think. If anyone has a human interest kind of angle (someone disabled who has been tortured by the system, or someone who has really suffered or something) let me know and I will try to get it in print. I can't see any other way but still have some fighting spirit left...

Anyway: The latest letter:

Dear Diana

I am SURE you won't be able to get involved in yet another BT horror story but since I actually burst in tears when trying to get help from a rather stunned young man in a BT call centre in India yesterday, I think I need to get it off my chest if I am to remain sane. And if only we could get something done about these ..well let's just say the letter B and T appear in the word I am aiming for... It's a long read - but bear with it! I had the usual several hours worth of being on hold before getting a phone line transferred to me at the place I live, at the end of August. The lady told me that they had a very good deal called Option 2 which was a special offer right now that everyone was taking up because it meant free evening and weekend calls. Please note that is all she said. so of course I said that was the option I would go for.I then explained that I would need broadband as well. She said not to worry too much about the cost of using dial up for the internet for now as with this special deal I would only be paying very little and the internet connection would be free in the evening and at weekends....in the meantime I could think about it and ring back later. How I wished I had insisted she sign me up there and then. After a day researching other phone and broadband providers I found that a: Yippee they answer the phone within a few minutes and b: they actually offer a cheaper deal on line rental and broadband than BT. However, transferring the line can be lengthy and I needed broadband a s a p. (I have just started working from home). And it would surely be easier to stay with just one provider? Surely? So back to the BT phone line to try anD BUY THEIR BROADBAND PACKAGE. I rang and I rang. I tried first thing when the lines have been open for seconds, I tried last thing at night, I tried Sundays (amazing that they can be "VERY busy with other callers") one second after opening the lines up! I probably went way over the time spent in pursuit by your reader in the Oct 28 edition of Question of Money - most memorably a 3 hour epic in which I was determined not to give in - having a bath (not easy, phone gets slippery) cooking lunch (nearly dropped the phone in the saucepan) and trying to talk to a visitor with the hynotic drone of "We are VERY busy at the moment" drilling away in my ear. I gave up on that one eventually in a fit of rage with bad stabbing pains in my neck. After a week of this I had no option but to sign up with another company. It took time, but it was sorted. The new company, Tiscali told me to ignore anything from BT as they would handle the changeover for me and all I had to to was wait for a final bill. Oct 15th was the date the transfer was due to take place. By last Thursday ( Nov 8) all I had received was a bill for £64.16 for JUST 6 days of use (Aug 30 to Sep 5)- £40 of which was advance charges for the option 1/2 thing until December. I also noted that the internet dial up charges were ferocious (sometimes £3 an hour) and clearly not covered by the free calls bonus I had been told about. I wrote to BT with my own calculations, explaining I would pay service charges up to Oct 15th and the calls. I sent a cheque for £34.69. On Saturday I got the long awaited final bill. Only dated from Sep 7 to Oct 15. (JUST FIVE WEEKS!) It was for £434.97. I felt seriously sick Diana. £261 was as "one off charge" for cancelling the option 2 package "before term of expiry" which terms I can assure you, I was never told about, received nothing in the post, was told nothing about when they signed me up and was not even aware was a contract. The call charges just made me stare in disbelief. Far from being charged at normal rates, the internet dial up was nearly at £100 with wildly varying rates - one connection of 50 minutes was 80p while one of 29 minutes was £1.25. After an hour on hold on Saturrday in which I just gave in and started crying, I got up early on Sunday to make sure I was first in line to call. After a mere 45 minutes wait I got through to a sweet voiced person in India who agreed to pass me on to his manager. This manager listened patiently and just repeated that I had to pay the charges as I had cancelled my term early. I explained that as someone on a perilously low income, just starting up work from home, I would certainly not have cancelled had I known there was any charge involved - (not would I have agreed to this option in the first place) and also that we would not be having this conversation (and I presumably, would not be facing more than £125 worth of call charges as I would have been on broadband) had I ever been able to get BT on the phone. He finally agreed to fill in a request for the "Dispute Team" to call me, but did not hold out much hope. As he typed in the request he asked me "And if we sort this out will you come back to BT!" What a hideous dilemma! If I answer no, will they punish me further? I told him I had never wanted to leave BT in the first place (though I will move heaven and earth to avoid anything to do with them ever again now) but I don't think he understood. The last question I croaked out before finally dissolving into tears was whether BT had received my cheque for £34.69. They had he told me, and my bill was now £428 instead of £434. How can a cheque for more than £34 pounds have resulted in them taking off just £6 I bleated. He said he didn't know but "The Team" would tell me. With images of my poor self huddled over the phone for weeks on end flashing through my brain, I asked him when the "Team" would be calling. He assured me it would be sometime in the next 24 hours. Diana - why I am so surprised that I have not heard from them yet? (Update..I ha

R. SINGH 4 years ago

Have complained over number of times ( sent emails and received complaint ref. ) and also sent complain thru recorded delivery a month ago ( initial complaint done over two months ago ),still till date NO RESPONSE from BT.

The despute is about a bill charge ( charged in excess for the bill ) received in Sep 07.

Also, applied for ebill in Sep and got ebill in Oct and says period 08 Sep - 07 Oct 07 whereas I already received paper bill and paid for it in Sep for the same period. How can I pay twice ( line rental ) for the same billing period ? Also ebill received in Nov says billing period 08 Oct - 07 Nov 07, same problem repeated. When it is very clear that line rental is always paid in advance and it should have instead said billing period as 08 Nov - 07 Dec 07.

I have complained repeatedly but till date NO RESPONSE and I am completely fed up of this. Do not know what to do next.

Gary 4 years ago

Here is a copy of a letter recently sent to BT Complaints after the appalling service we have received in trying to secure a new phone line. Needless to say the complaint has not been answered and all we received back was an automated email stating that due to high number of emails received it may take some time - A high number of complaint emails, I can't possibly think why!

I now intend to take up my threat of writing directly to the BT MD.

Dear Sir / Madam,

We have tried to place a new order for the connection of a BT phone line at a new address.

The address is a new build on a new build estate.

The order was placed on the 24th October at which time a price and approx. connection date of 2 weeks was given. To place this order i had to wait a total of 1 and 1/2 hours on the phone for a customer advisor to answer and then passing between 3 separate personnel. This call was made at 6:30pm.

On the 1st November I made a follow up call to check progress. Realising the long wait times in the evenings to your Customer Service, I made the call from my work at 2pm on 0800 800 150. I waited 58 minutes listening to how important my call was to you before be being answered. Giving a brief summary of the details, your colleague informed me that the call was 'on hold' with no obvious reason. I was put on hold again whilst enquiries were made. Unfortunately between your system crashing, and various back room enquiries a total of 1 hour and 45 minutes had elapsed since initial dial. I was told an email had been sent to another department to chase - the reason given was that our new address could not be found on the system and therefore they could not find an exchange to connect us to. This is despite the fact that Houses 1, 2 and 3 in the Road were on your system and happen to be the houses directly in front of ours, some 40 feet door to door. When this was raised it didn't seem to help and I was told 6 to 12 working days for installation. We were promised a call back again on a contact mobile held by you on the order, to advise of progress.

On the 9th November having received no return call as to progress I made another call on 0800 800 150 at approx. 5pm. After 45 minutes the phone was answered and I was asked for account details and existing number. It transpired I was in ‘Billing’, the advisor put me on hold for another department - 20 minutes later this was answered. Further conversation took place and I went on hold again, eventually ending up back at ‘Billing’ After complaining how poor your customer service was to the advisor I suddenly found myself in a department where the advisor could help. In fact it turned out to be deja vu because I then had exactly the same conversation as at the 1st November. I was promised a further email had immediately been sent to engineering and that a call would be returned to our recorded mobile number as soon as the order was taken off ‘pending’

On the 10th November we did receive a call from BT to ask if this was a new housing development? We had told you on the 24th October at initial placement, and on the 1st Nov, and 9th Nov and your excuse had been that as it was a new development it was pending processing. Please explain then why the call on the 10th asked this question again as if you didn’t know? Either the previous statements you were making were false or your advisors are totally incompetent. We advised you again that it was a new development and the advisor stated that a ‘survey’ would have to be undertaken. Were the emails sent to the engineers on both the 1st and 9th not to request a survey for a new property as advised? Let alone the original order on the 24th October. This advisor promised a return call yet again and also gave us a new number to use, 0800 022 3089.

Today, the 13th November I made another call to BT on 0800 022 3089, because again we have not received an update call as promised. This time the call was answered in only 5 minutes - this has to be a record for your Customer Services. I soon found out why. The first question I was asked was for my Account number. ‘No I don’t have one this is a new order.’ ‘Ok sir can we have your telephone number.’ ‘No, I don’t have one, this call is about an order trying to obtain one.’ ‘Well sorry sir I need these details so an advisor can phone you back.’ ‘Are you not going to deal with this query?’ ‘Oh no sir, we are a front office reception. We take down some details and then pass to the back office to call you back.’ At this point I was somewhat frustrated as your company hasn’t once made good it’s promise to phone us back. I asked to speak to a manager, this was denied on the grounds that it wouldn’t help. A further conversation ensued and then I asked to speak to a manager again, the manager was now suddenly in a meeting. I hung up. Why give us this new number to call?

I telephoned again on the 0800 800 150 number and 15 minutes later an advisor answered. A summary of the details took place and this time the advisor stated that the order was going ahead and the connection would take place on the 28th November. I asked why a return call hadn’t been made to inform us of this. An apology was all I received. Probably the apologies now run into double figures over this order.

You would not process our order before we took possession of the house which is fair enough. But the debacle that has taken place since and the unkept promises, poor customer service and what at times appear misleading statements makes the 28th November a totally unacceptable date for connection.

Whilst not your direct concern we have no Television service we currently pay for because we are a Sky customer moving from rented accommodation, and Sky will not process our move without a BT telephone number. We also have no Broadband because we have no BT telephone for the ADSL connection. I would happily go with a cable competitor for all our services at this point. Unfortunately BT has the monopoly in our area. Perhaps this accounts for your poor service? - no competition.

We were even offered BT Home Hub / Vision at the time of order placement. I am so glad we did not give you this business, and at this rate BT Broadband is looking decidedly shaky.

So this is our complaint. We are disappointed that we have had to keep a record of this poor service.

What I expect from BT now, is not more platitudes and excuses, but to say you are bringing forward the installation date to take place by the 18th November. Since you already have 3 customers in our road and the delays your poor service has introduced into this order, I think this is a reasonable request. Alternatively I will be forwarding this complaint directly to your Managing Director.

Jackie van Eeden 4 years ago

Update. I have again tried my luck with BT. Every time I speak to someone at BT I get different answers. I was told the line is working. I was told that it was never activated. I was given a new number and told this would now be activated(this did not happen). I was told by another person that the previous owner of the line owed money and that is why it was not activated(Previous owner has nothing to do with me). I asked to cancel all orders and applied again for a new line. I was told they would cancel and gave me a new order number and was told the line would be active in two weeks time. This time I was also told to pay a 50 pound deposit. I was also given a new number (3rd one). I was put on hold to speak to somebody at accounts to lodge a complaint about the money they took out my account for a line that was never activated as well as calls supposedly made on this first number. Was given a complaint ref. Phoned again two day later about my money and was told there was no record of my complaint. I again lodged a complaint. Still no phone, Waiting for a refund and paying for Sky Internet which i cant use. I am a single mother with a young child who needs to do Internet research. I have never felt so helpless in my life. Parents would assist me if i go to a lawyer but who and why should this be necessary.

James Bayliss 4 years ago

I ordered BT, cancelled it before it was installed. I keep being charged every month. The problem is still not resolved after about 7 phone conversation and 5 emails. I’m trying to ring them now.

The hole thing is a joke!

AndyF 4 years ago

I emailed the CEO tonight after 3 days of 2 hours a night on hold trying to get thorugh to 150 with my complaint about service and mistake on bill, i got a reply from the director BT Billing within 30mins and he has promised someone will investigate and get back to me tomorrow. Seems to work emailing these people and best of all they understand what you are saying unlike the poor fellas stuck on the other end of the phone

Paul 4 years ago

I asked BT to cancel a transfer back to them the day after I requested it so that I would not incur a £70 TalkTalk disconnection fee. BT assured me the order had been cancelled. However, 2 weeks later, my line was slammed over regardless. I have since spent hours in their queues trying to get things resolved and also sent a letter to their complaints department (Mrs. Lewis). All the agents I spoke to insisted that I was now in a twelve month contract (which I hadn't agreed to) and not just any tarrif either - Option 3 - the most expensive.

Four months on and nothing was resolved. I must have spent about 24 hours in call queues being passed from pillar to post. I decided that I'd had enough and would take the £70 it if need be to get away. I duly initiated a move to another provider. At the same time I sent an e-mail to Ben Verwaayen (the CEO) who passed my complaint on to the "High Level Complaints Team". Amazingly they called me within an hour an have waived my termination fees and offered compensation.

However, coincidentaly on the same day as I got things sorted, the complaints department finally responded to my complaint - thier resolution: to arrange immediate (the next day) termination of my phone line. I had to call back the CEOs office to get the termination stopped. At the time of writing I'm still hoping my line won't be cut off in the morning and that my move to another provider will take place next week as planned.

BT really do need to get their act together in terms of Custome Service. Two hour waits in call centre queues is just not acceptable and neither is the level of support you get when you finally get through. They also should avise of the time you're going to wait and not accept calls when they know your wait will take you passed "closing time" when (at the stroke of 8pm or 10pm dependent on department) they cut you off.

Michael 4 years ago

I have recently moved in the new flat and asked BT to re-connect my landline. My new flat has a landline socket and phone wiring, the previous tenant of this flat had a landline (apparently other than BT). Nevertheless, BT informed me that they will charge me £124.99 for re-connection!!! What a dishonest business they are making robbing every new tenant of £125 for "re-connection", BT abuses its monopoly on landline connection! What does antimonopoly law says about this shit?!

paul ashton 4 years ago

moved to a new house 100yds from my old got a BT phone line for broadband only to find they set up a fibre optic been trying to get the issue resolved for over 3 months, completly useless, oftel /ofcom or whatever they are are no good either they just note you had a problem then give you a nw BT queue number once you egt thtu then its someone will call you back (never happened in 3 months) they need to remove the monoploy BT have and then sack all the staff as they are totally useless

Faye Chandler 4 years ago

I moved into a new build propery in September this year. I called BT to find out what a connection charge would be to the exchange and was informed that their current fee is £124.00. By ordering this service I would automatically be contracted into and an account with BT for 12 months before I could change provider. Having dealt with BT both through business and personnally over the years, the last thing I wanted was to enter any agreement with them but it seems that there would be no choice. At the time, I couldn't set up an account anyway because the new build property I had moved into didn't have a post code and this is a requirement when setting up an account. I decided that I would make do with my mobile seeing as I was only renting and therefore didn't contact BT again. A week later, I received a call froma BT engineer asking me when he could come and set up the connection. I obvioulsy told him that I hadn't placed an order for any service from BT and he apologised and hung up. I subsequently have received 5 other calls from engineers requesting the same appointment to which I gave the same reply!! 2 weeks ago I received a bill from BT for £172.52 which is a cancellation fee???? I have spent about 4 hours on the phone trying to sort this out, typically being put through to the wrong department time and time again. I could cry with frustration! I decided that the only thing to do would be to write a letter. I posted and e-mailed the letter and had a call from someone who I could not understand and who could not understand me regarding, I think, my letter.....we got nowhere.. This morning I received a reminder bill! I am not sure what I should do now but I am absolutely certain that I won't be paying this bill. I HOPE THAT SOMEONE FROM BT IS READING THIS AND ALL THE OTHER RIDICULOUS SITUATIONS THAT HAVE COME ABOUT BY BT'S TOTAL INCOMPETANCE! WHAT ARE WE SUPPOSED TO DO???????

Geoff 4 years ago

When I moved into my present address in September 2007 the line had previously been disconnected. I arranged for connection to supply both phone and broadband. After a considerable amount of hassle, missed appointments by BT, long hours on the telephone (at a friend’s house because I did not have a line!!) a line was eventually installed. I was given a new phone number and an account number. I subsequently received email notice that my broadband was activated on the same phone number but with a different account number. To be fair, both phone and broadband are working well on this number. Direct Debits were set up on both accounts but so far I have only been billed for the land line number not for broadband. One payment was taken today by Direct Debit. So far so good!!! However, annoyingly, I have also been billed for installing and using another BT land line with a different phone number and account number. Clearly this is incorrect since I only have one line. When I try to ring the new phone number, it rings away but not in my house!!! No-one ever answers it. Worse still, it is this incorrect number that BT has chosen to put on its Directory Enquiries, not my correct number. I had a long phone conversation with BT some 2 weeks ago about this – the operator could not resolve the problem but promised to forward it to someone else in BT. This seems not to have been done since I have now received a reminder for the bill and an updated bill dated 12th November. I have tried repeatedly to get through by phone but the line is always busy – what are they all doing???? I have emailed the “Contact BT” complaints service but they have not done anything either. After reading the above postings, I think I will try to email Ben Verwaayen.

Tracy Davies 4 years ago

BT have just sent me a bill for £245.85 for moving to a new supplier. i only called bt to activate the exsisiting line in my new house. the guy on the phone was as much help as a chocolate fire guard. he said i would have to have the lowest package of £12 a month which i paid for the first month then i changed supplier because bt broadband is not only really expensive but slow. then i recieve this bill i think i must have sobbed for an hour i just couldnt believe it i tried to call them numerous times all i got was the ringing tone nobody ever awnsered. i have never recieved any paperwork from bt other than the bill to say they were direct debiting my account of the £12. i never agreed to or signed any contract to bt ,, so how the hell can they charge me this ... does anyone know what i can do or are they in the right to charge me ,, i just dont know ....

dondilly 4 years ago

What is at the heart of my problem with BT is their failure to invest in and maintain the cabling out of the local exchange. It is only a small exchange of a few thousand customers but that is no consolation if you happen to be one of them.Lack of investment has resulted in no spare capacity in their local loop cabling out to my side of the exchange. All pairs are either in use or already marked as faulty and as commented by numerous BT engineers I have spoken too is breaking down and getting worse.This rsults in new customers like me being given faulty lines and people who report faults either being given a less faulty line or of they get a good line it is guarenteed to be at another user's expense, ie they appear to be rotating faults around the system rather than laying new cable.this was my experience from last January, pops and various line noise and periodically the line dying completely for hours at a time, but as an intermittent fault never getting an engineer to do anything. This came to a head last July when after the line dying, it returned hours later with interolerable levels of white noise making voice calls intolerable having to shout over the noise. However while not speedy, my dsl connection was still working.While BT came out the next day, while the engineer highlighted the no free lines, all in use or faulty problem, he swapped my line with another (faulty) line but found later that he had knocked out my DSL. What should have just been a simple matter of getting the engineer back to try another line (as it was a line fault that triggered this), they washed their hands of it, refering me to Demon, my ISP.I was without DSL for 6 weeks. BT DSL engineers came and went, highlighting the same cabling problems and refering the fault back to the telephone guys for new cable to be laid. Mysteriously my DSL returned after 6 weeks. A DSL engineer who called a few days later claimed they [the dsl engineers] had done nothing so I can only assume that the telephone engineers swapped my line (potentially rotating the fault to another user) as he confirmed no new cable had been laid.During that 6 weeks I had to resort to dialup. When my phone bill arrived I was horrified to find it in excess of £400 and on investigation found that demon had been charging out the dialup number at 4p a minute OFF PEAK.As this cost was incurred because of a fault, obviously I wanted it refunded.This is where I get caught in the middle between demon and BT. While my DSL is with Demon, itsprovision is via BT. The exchange is not unbundled, BT are contracted via demon. Ultimately, the fault lay in BTs cabling and the telephone side of the company failing to maintain redundant capacity or install new cables even though the capacity issue has existed for at least 12 months.demon couldnt care two hoots as the see the fault being with BT and afterall it is BT who are billing me for the calls. While BT disengenuously point the finger at demon even though both the phone line and DSL provision is provided directly or indirectly by BT and while they hide behind the artificial divisions within the company, it is still the same PLC and no matter how hard the phone side may wriggle demon has emailed me copies of the DSL engineers status reports identifying the cable and passing the problem back to the phone engineers.I have so far gone round the loop with BT twice, 3 times if you include the partially unread email where they failed to grasp the issue and just confirmed the calls were made and also by phone and letter all of which were brushed aside while they hide behind demon.In my book, it doesnt matter who provides my DSL. My DSL was fine until the actions of a telephone engineer killed it. If that telephone engineer had not swapped my line, I would of had no need to call demon or get ripped off by their dialup costs.One of BTs indians tried getting the money out of me by assuring me the problems had been resolved yet within a couple of days of that statement I caught a BT phone engineer red handed swapping my line out (rotating faults around the system again). He was caught as I was at my PC when my dsl died. I picked up the phone and the line was dead. Within 30 secs I got a phantom call with no one at the other end. I picked up again and the tone was back however It resulted in another 5 day DSL outage and another line swap.I am disabled, I have mobility problems, I live on benefits and while a phone and net access are essential for me as the net not only saves my sanity stuck at home, I also rely on it for shopping but can ill afford the money they are demanding under threat of disconnection. Also paying it resolves nothing as BT will see it as business as usual rotating faults meaning it will only be a question of time until I get a fault back. If they disconnect me, While the line is essential. with the current capacity issues it is a certainty that the current line would be robbed out and reused in days and I cant face another year opf phone woes.

Frances Smith 4 years ago

I have been trying since getting my online bill last week to sort it out. I have spent hours on the phone to the Broadband call centre, they keep promising to sort it out but do not ring back.Basically my problem is I signed up to reduce my broadband from 17.99 per month to 14.99 a saving of £3.00 per month, I was so shocked when I opened my bill and found it was for over £304.75 - I only usually pay a very small amount for calls (in this bill they totalled £3.69), my line rental and my broadband. When I looked at the service charges I could not believe it, there is another order number there BNV608 with all sorts of astronomical charges added. I only wanted to save money, by my calculation I shoud be billed this quarter for around £73.00 as I am due a reduction for part of the last quarter because of the cheaper broadband. I have since spent hours on the phone with umpteen promises to get this sorted and am getting no where.

T Golding 4 years ago

I have switched service from BT in August 2007 and i have asked for what i thought would be a simple ask, a final Bill but now end of November only bill i have is one with a huge cancellation charge attached to it. and no one will answer the phone to me. Its a discrace.

. 4 years ago

I have, of course, not received any response to the following letter.

BT Correspondence CentreDurhamDH98 1BTDear Sir or Madam,I moved into the above address (I sent this on headed notepaper) on 1st July. As there is already a BT line installed, but not activated, I attempted to contact BT with regards to activation. Thus began a sorry week of spending all my free time in phone boxes, calling BT customer disservice. Most calls involved listening to music which I did not fancy until I ran out of time, occasionally speaking to an agent who would offer to put me through to the relevant department, only to resume the onslaught of unending hold music. On one occasion, even your busker gave up, and my call was abruptly disconnected. On another occasion, the agent asked what is was that I wanted, and when I requested line activation, he hung up. Perhaps he wished to spare me the futile agony of BT's hold service.On 5th July, your system was considerate enough to offer a call back. The agent who called took my details, requested permission for a credit check, and promised a call back within five working days from the relevant department. I have not heard from you since, despite the agreed period having elapsed three days ago. I cannot say that I am surprised.On 15th July, I resumed my regular pilgrimage to the phone box. Following a mostly irrelevant dialogue in some vaguely incomprehensible blend of English, and a language native to the Indian subcontinent, he routed my call through to the relevant department. After a few minutes on hold, your busker tired of tormenting me and dropped the line.I immediately called back and asked for the complaints department. Your operator routed me through to the faults department; perhaps BT's policy is that anyone complaining about their service must be faulty. The fault operator, like his colleague earlier, was not familiar with the English language (what does the B in BT stand for?), and I had immense difficulties explaining to him that I do not have a phone line to report as faulty. Having surmounted the formidable language barrier, he explained to me that BT's complaints department cannot be contacted by telephone (perhaps they couldn't get a line installed), and that I must write to your correspondence address. Thus, I obediently made a written complaint to this address.Not having received any acknowledgement of my complaint (or a phone line), I again trespassed upon the inner sanctum of a phone box on 31st July. I explained my predicament to the operator; after several minutes on hold, he put me through to the broadband department. After several further minutes on hold, the broadband department put me through to the foreign languages department; not sharing a common dialect, and communicating through a medium which does not support gesticulation, he was able to convey nothing more informative than that I was through to the wrong department. After several more minutes on hold, the music stopped with the out-of hours department, who told me to call back during normal business hours (which it was when the game started). He also told me that there is no direct number for the in-hours department; pass-the-customer-parcel is BT's favourite game, and I have no right to deprive them of their only joy in life. It may be noted that callers are greeted with a recorded message advising them to call between 8pm and 10pm, when lines are less busy.On 1st August, I dutifully called back during business hours. Again, after requesting that the line in my new address be activated, I was inexplicably routed to the broadband department. The agent who (eventually) answered the call offered to put me through to the sales department; after a minute's subsequent silence, I got the wrong number tone.I immediately called back, went through the same automated menu choices as before, and amazingly, was answered by the sales department. Your agent took the same details as the agent who called me on 5th July, and made the same promise about a call back within five working days.Despite changes in Government regulation, BT still has a monopoly over the provision of new domestic telephone lines, except in a small minority of areas served by cable. Knowing this, you tie new customers into a full year's contract. In common with other abusive monopolies, you also treat (prospective) customers like dirt, knowing that despite your appalling service, they have no one else to go. What do you further require before condescending to grant me a phone line, which I cannot obtain elsewhere? A sacrifice of lambs? My blood on the cross?I look forward to a prompt resolution.Yours Sincerely,

Philipn McLeod 4 years ago

BT Broadband - complaint

I have BT broadband and am forced to sign up to the so-called "up to 8Mbps" service despite the fact that seemingly as the quality of my line is rubbish I can only get 1Mbps.

I have tried to find someway of complaining or even asking what is being done to improve the lines. I cannot find anyone as if you speak to BT broadband or email them they do not even understand the issue, let alone have an answer. Understandable as no doubt none of the responses even come from UK, let alone my area.

I have tried asking if my line can be transferred to a small exchange closer to where I live, from where (for those luckily already connected to that sub-exchange) I know they get at least 7Mbps.

I also thought I read that the OFT had recently ruled that BT "up to 8Mbps" was acceptable so lon as the speed was close to that.

In short, I cannot even find anybody or any method of complaining where I can discuss the issue.

Also, whilst I am using a Voyager router supplied a year or two ago that works generally OK, I understand fromeveryone that has one, and from web forums, that the BT Home hub and the software that drives it is toally unreliable and the biggest load of rubbish going. BT appently do not address complaints on this either.

Further, apparently it does not matter which Broadband suppllier you use (except cable) as BT control all the Broadband speeds anyway as everything gets routed through the software at the BT exchanges

How are they allowed to get away with such poor products, poor service and seemingly be a privatised monopoly and totally unaccountable.

Frazer Jarvis 4 years ago

I live and work (usually) in Sheffield, but am spending some time in Bristol on secondment this year. My wife is mostly remaining in Sheffield.

I moved into a new rented flat in Bristol and had a working phone line. I called Customer Services to register my details, and was told that they had been about to cut it off, but we agreed this was no longer necessary. A few days later, the line was disconnected, and I discovered later that the order had not been correctly placed.

After several abortive attempts and several hours in queues to get through to the Customer "Services" team, I finally got through, and placed an order for a new line in Bristol. I was told that my new number would be "0114...", before I cut in, and pointed out that was the Sheffield code. She apologised, having entered the wrong details in the wrong place. She deleted that order and got the order placed for the Bristol line, saying that it would be activated two days later. It wasn't. I placed a formal complaint on the website, as well as a second fault report. Neither received a non-automated response. But sometime at the start of November, the line started working.

However, I returned to Sheffield last week from a two week stay working in Bristol to find a letter from Jillian Lewis, Customer "Service" Director, starting "We understand that you no longer live at the above address and so I'm writing to let you know that we will be disconnecting the telephone service..."; I found this letter the evening before my home phone was cut off.

After making another formal complaint, and another hour spent in queues and on the telephone with a Customer "Service" representative, I was told that there was a problem with the line and that they couldn't just turn the number back on - there was an order on the line (yes, the order from late October - it hadn't been deleted, just ignored!), and so I would have to have a new number. I'm wondering whether it will be easier to try to get my number back, or whether it would be easier to contact everyone on our contact lists to let them know that we have a new number. One good thing has come out of this - I have discovered mobile broadband. It does't use landlines, and therefore bypasses BT!

Peter Stephens 4 years ago

This is text of msg to the top man, sent earlier today.I have heard nothing as yet.A complaint was submitted on 16th Nov (nothing other than automated response. From reading other posts, I'm probably getting an easy time ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ne This (automated response) followed a complaint about shocking service. I have heard nothing (other than this automated response) since. The complaint arose after an agreed installation on November 13th was cancelled by BT, with no notice and no call to inform. Calls duration before this point added up to 3 hours. Calls after the appointment was not kept, added up to 5 hours and despite promises of action, we are still in limbo. This is a simple service request. Install a 2nd BT line in private premises and then transfer an existing telephone number (currently NTL) to the new line. As informed at the initial call (Oct 26th), we gave NTL 30 days notice on their installation. This notice runs out on Friday this week and we will no longer have telephone access to our charity. On Thursday of a last week (following 2 hours of calls) I was again promised that someone would call and arrange the installation. Still nothing! I have tried to keep most of the frustration out of this e-mail but need some help, please.======================================================= end of e-mail to Ben

alan staniland 4 years ago

I too have had a nightmare experience of getting BT to move a phone line when I moved house at the end of July. Spent hours on the phone and lots of money on mobiles ((0800 are not free from mobile) Wasted 2 working days for engineers who did not turn up and then subjected to incredible harrassment from BT's third party debt collecting thugs -SCS. Eventually got a line and transferred everything to Talk Talk. BT are now trying to bill me for advance services that I won't be taking from them. They owe me substantial compensation for lost wages whilst awaiting their engineers (I did have order numbers). The company is just totally incapable of answering a telehone in a reasonable time and they are totally inept at responding to the written word. They are a total commercial disgrace and are totally corrupt with incompetence yet enjoy a legalised monoply situation in a so called free trade environment. Ofcom and Oftel are another set of useless toothless tigers - a complete waste of public money because they have no powers at all that helps the consumer.

Good luck with your quest

Ginny Howden 4 years ago

I have also had an appalling service from BT when we simply wanted to transfer our BT line and broadband service to our new address. BT treated it as though we had cancelled our agreement which resulted in billing us for broadband services until Sept 2008! Luckily we had just cancelled our agreement to pay by monthly payment plan so we are not out of pocket. We are just refusing to pay the bill at the moment until it is sorted. I have spent at least 6 hours on the phone to BT if not a lot more and have been transferred from one department to another, been held in queues for very extensive periods of time, been cut off after having been on the phone for almost an hour, I have sent a letter to BT querying the bill and had no response, sent an e-mail to the complaints department with only a standard response saying it had been received and I have accepted to take part in a feedback survey which I was asked whilst I was held in a queue. This esrvice was supposed to call me back 10 minutes after putting the phone down. I never received this call!! I will definitely be moving our services away from BT as soon as we come out of the contract period.

Nicola Roberts 4 years ago

I recently decided (and wish that I hadn't bothered!) to change phone and broadband service from Virgin to BT. Placing the initial order was easy, I was told that I could not transfer my virgin number until the BT line had been installed and the virgin line had been terminated. As this could not take place on the same day I was given a temporay number from BT and was told that when the Virgin line was switched off I could apply for the number to moved, and that this would take 48 hours. I contacted them as requested but nothing happened. It took almost 2 weeks to contact BT to find out what had gone wrong, after being placed on hold more times than I care to remember, I was told that my original order had not been placed properly and no-one had requested for my original number to be transferred over, the result of this was that the temporay line I had to be cancelled and a new order would be placed. I was then given a date on which the line would be reactived and the number transferred over. The activation date was 2 weeks ago and everytime I contact BT for an update I get either transferred or told that "I do not have access to that part of the system". This episode has not been ongoing for over 3 months and I have been without a telephone line at home for almost a month. I now wish that I had remained with Virgin ! I have registered two complaints on the web site but too date have only received automated responses.

Matt Saunders 4 years ago

BT started off on the wrong foot anyway by giving us the previous owner's telephone number after they promised a new number. Countless pointless calls to India and hours of being on hold, being told eventually by 2 different people almost a week apart that our number would be changed the following day, then nothing! Eventually got thru to someone who could identify my frustration and she 'waived' the number change fee and it was sorted the following day.

After that, I decided to go ahead with BT broadband Option 3, god knows why! First 2 weeks were fantastic, living 200m away from the exchange, we were seeing speeds nearing the 8mb quoted, fantastic! Then, suddenly over the last couple of days, we're getting speeds as low as 0.27mb! 7am this morning saw 1.8mb connection, so it cannot be down to the peak times rubbish.

I also cannot open any ports for P2P software or anything other than internet browsing. I even turned all the firewalls (BT hub and Zonealarm) off to see if it wasn't set to forward the port correctly. Nadda.

I don't mind writing an email and having to wait a couple of days for a response, what i do begrudge is spending hours on hold to only be cut off or put thru to someone who clearly has no idea.

dondilly 4 years ago

I sent an email yesterday to BTs CEO regarding my complaint posted earlier here, still waiting for a reply.

One tactic I am considering, rather than esculting the complaint via Itello is to safeguard my line by writing a letter to BT with a cheque for the disputed amount. However the letter would ive notice that while the cheque if an offer of payment, were the cheque to be cashed I would recover the money via the small claims court.

One other thing I am sorely tempted to do regarding BT charging £4.50 for bill processing and £7.50 late payment penalties. If anyone is up for a fight and is witholding a disputed payment from BT.

First, deduct the £4.50 and any subsequent penalty charges from future payments.

Not only that but turn the figures they consider fair and reasonable against them

All the time you withhold payment due to an unresolved complaint charge them £4.50 for processing their bill and having to recalculate and keep doing so while the matter remains unresolved Then on subsequent bills charge them a further £7.50 for late resolution of your complaint.

Then send your payment, cheque and a letter Itemising the deductions by post to BT Billing.

Caroline Hooper 4 years ago

I can't bring myself to begin to go into the time frustration and tears of anger brought about by simply wanting to give BT some money. If we the consumer can't get anywhere with this company - maybe companies like Sky will HAVE to step up to the plate and call emergency talks with them as they lost my business because of BT. If I moved tomorrow I would not get sky which is dependant upon BT - so no one wins - what a ludicrous situation all because of a "new system" !!?? Shocking !!!

Jacky Lawrence 4 years ago

I felt so much better after reading everyone else's complaints. I'm at the end of my tether with BT and have emailed Mr V in the hope of some sort of positive response. Who knows but if it evokes a response, then great. My story has gone on for about 2 years and compares to everybody's on this site. You poor things! I only wish there was a way to get rid, or split them into manageable sections, or convince them to re-construct what they have into a well-oiled machine with a conscientious and organised staff base. Please. Don't they care? I suppose when you have a fair sized customer base who're reasonably satisfied, the rest of us can go spin...... Good luck to everyone who's still waiting for a solution!

Gaz Baker 4 years ago

On the 15th of November I spoke to a customer service rep who advised me that my line was cut off. I asked why and she said I had not paid the bill I explained that I never had a bill to pay. She asked me my address and I said it is 112 Inglewhite, she told me BT had 110-11 Inglewhite which is next door and mainly un-occupied. And she admitted it was BT’s fault and that I would have a line setup ASAP. An engineer then rang me up and wanted £130 for a connection; I explained that it was BT’s fault for sending the bills to the incorrect address. He agreed with me and told me to ring customer services, which I did. I was told that the engineer shouldn’t have asked for the £130 as I already had a line and it was BT’s fault. On the 16th of November I spoke to a supervisor called Chris who told me that it was because the re-connection was placed on the New System and should have been placed on the old on which he told me he will do. I also asked what happens to my broadband and said I need to ask my provider to get it re-activated and that they can get it down faster by getting it escalated, I spoke to my provided who said they can but BT charge £170 for this. Chris also said that I would have a phone call Friday Night or Monday morning as it was a priority order. I never got a phone call. 19th 20th 21st November I rang up to find out what was happening and was told by customer services that they can’t help me as it was being dealt with by the back office! 22nd November I rang up yet again to find out what was happening with my phone line, I was transferred to Sheffield department and spoke to a Kerry Mason who told me that my address hadn’t been changed to 112 Inglewhite and Also that on BT’s system 112 Inglewhite doesn’t exist I explained that it did exist and she got my account moved from 110 Inglewhite to 112 Inglewhite and that it will take 24hours for the update to take place and that I will get a phone call Friday or Monday and my line will be active on Wednesday 28th November. 27th November I rang customer services to ask what is happening with my phone line as I was promised a phone call and I never got one, the guy then transferred me to another department who then give me another number to ring which when I rang it I was told I need customer services. I then rang customer services and was told that it was being dealt with and it is a priority order and then the rep logged my complaint and give me a ref number of 18191194 and that I will have a phone call from him that night to let me know what is happening and yet again I never got a phone call 28th November Rang customer services who told me they were sorry for everything that is happening and that I will get a phone call within 48 – 72 hours from today to say when my line will be re-connected, I explained that this is not good enough I kept being promised these phone calls but I don’t get any phone call and nothing ever happens, I also explained that I’m not happy and have logged 3 complaints so far and no-one has ever got back to me. And that I want to claim my expenses back from BT as I’m in a contract with my broadband provider and so I’m paying £29.99 a month for a service I can use because of BT and also will be claiming all call charges on my mobile phone for all the times I have had to ring up because no-one ever rings me the supervisor then said it was my fault that I never rang up to see why I hadn’t had a bill. I explained that since April 2006 I have been ringing BT to make sure they change my address as my next door neighbour was passing them to me but now the house is empty and it still hadn’t been changed. I have had enough of BT now and I’m fed up of ringing and being told a pack of lies. I want my phone line back on today as I was promised this has been going on for 2 weeks and it is BT’s fault It is not my fault that BT didn’t have my house on there system’s when every other company that I have services with do have my address and I had a phone line for almost 1year 6months before this happened

Daniel Hope 4 years ago

Well, I am so glad to hear that i'm not the only one with a BT complaint. Just got off the phone to BT at 6pm. Took 1 hour 25 minutes to resolve my simple probelm of getting a phoneline installed in my new house. This webpage along with the blog are excellent resources for anybody who has <a href='http://www.btcomplaint.com'>BT Complaints</a>. Keep up the good work and good luck everybody with resolving your problems. Look forward to seeing BT's response to your report.

Jodie Shaw 4 years ago

Well i cant eveb bring myselft to go into the nightmare ive had with BT, the complete lack of customer service and capability to sort out a new line in my house is behond beleif. The staff are extremely rude and unhelful - one of the staf even said to me "what do you want" upon answering a call - disgraceful. On top pf all that they send us a bill for another line they have installed the other end of England for £300 - trying again to get through and sort this took me over an hour. This is totally unacceptable and BT seriously need to do something about this and compensate every one who has had such a terrible experience,

Louise  4 years ago

My BT nightmare began 2 months ago and like the rest of you I've spent hours and hours in customer service queues or speaking to half wits that tell you a complete load of rubbish. To cut a long story short when I rang up back in September for a simple line connection, BT decided to put me on an option I didn't choose. I spent hours trying to tell them this and racked up a huge mobile bill in the process! After receiving such appalling customer service and reading blogs from fellow sufferers, I decided to switch to Talk Talk (who incidentally have been fantastic). Since then BT have had the audacity to send we a wapping great big final bill for cancelling all these options (options I didn't choose). I have been told by countless people at BT not to pay because it's mis-selling but I never actually managed to speak to anyone in any position of authority. Having said that I did speak, supposedly to a manager called Ramesh in India, who tried bartering with me ... how professional! Eventually after speaking to Ofcom I spoke to someone in the BT High Level Complaints team who told me that in light of all the problems I'd had with BT she was cancelling the bill entirely and I would be receiving a credit note in the post to that effect. Instead of a credit note, I received another bill for half the amount!! So angry I could scream. I spent another hour on hold to High Level Complaints only to be told the person who said she'd cancelled the bill for me was out of the office today but her manager, Aileen McCormack would call me back. As usual I'm still waiting for the call and quite frankly having been told 4 times before I would be called back by someone at BT and never once getting a call, I seriously don't hold much hope!! Slowly going insane!

dondilly 4 years ago

I know many of you are going to find this incredulous but posted on the BT PLC site is a story 'BT Voted number one for customer service'

http://www.btplc.com/news/articles/showarticle.cfm Planet are the on.

dondilly 4 years ago

I know many of you are going to find this incredulous but posted on the BT PLC site is a story 'BT Voted number one for customer service'

http://www.btplc.com/news/articles/showarticle.cfm Planet are the on.

Karen Pepper 4 years ago

This is so depressing why is such a big company so useless?!! Our problem started when we moved house. My house mate phoned BT before the move to arrange for the phone line to be active when we moved in which was the 11th Sept 07 we were told that would all be set up but when we moved we found that Talk Talk were on the line and the previous tenants had just cancelled it so we had to wait two weeks for them to disconnect. We rang BT once this time was up and were told we had to wait another two weeks for Talk Talk to come off the server, after that we were then informed that we would have to be reconnected at a charge of £125 even though we were not warned of this in the first place !!! After much discussion and hours on the phone to them we finally agreed just so we could get set up and we had an engineer arrive on 5th November to reconnect us we have since found we now have a fault on the line so an engineer has to come out again which means more time to be taken off from work, this situation has driven us crazy!!!!

stephen reed 4 years ago

How can a business move go so wrong we have moved 100 mt being served my the same exchange to move 5 lines including bt broadband and redcare.....

9 weeks and 14 bt sorry openreach engineers later and the job has still not been finished and you cannot find anybody to take the problem on board to resolve it

so where do I go from here

Adele Watson 4 years ago

Two years ago we moved from a BT line to Virgin Media and the line was disconnected. A month ago we decided to have Sky and SkyPlus installed and were told that we would have to have a BT line. No problem I thought, we can just have it reconnected, so we went ahead and ordered Sky. Immediately afterwards I contacted BT who said no problem, we can do that, but it will cost you £125 as an engineer will have to come out and re-install the line. After much discussion and trying to get someone to see logic that we didnt need an engineer to re-install the line, the line was still there and surely all they had to do was re-connect it, I wearily agreed to the cost and was told that they would come out the following week between 1pm and 6pm, and that I had to be home as the engineer would need access to the premises. I arranged for Sky to be installed the next day.

The day duly arrived (which I had to take as a days holiday from work) and I sat in patiently waiting. 6pm came and went and no BT engineer. I then spent an hour waiting for someone to answer the phone, when they did they said it was the wrong department, I then was on hold another hour and by the time someone finally could help me (which by the way was about the 5th person I had spoken to and two and a half hours later), I was nearly in tears with frustration and anger. They said that they didnt know why the engineers didnt come out, but that I hadnt needed to be in the house anyway as all the engineer had to do was reconnect the line and that would be done in the next 12 hours. I explained that Sky were coming the next day after 12pm and they assured me that the line would be connected by then.

Next day arrived (which I was taking as another days holiday) and by 11am I still had no line. I rang again, was on hold another hour to be told that I had been told a load of rubbish the previous evening and that my order was not given to the engineers with the required 5 days notice from BT, so I was not even listed on their job sheets. You can imagine my anger, this was the second day I had to have off work for nothing, I had to cancel the Sky installation and was no nearer getting anything sorted. After yet more waiting on the dreaded line for someone to help me, they finally sorted me an appointment out for yesterday (29th Nov) between 1pm and 6pm, so I arranged for Sky to come today (30th Nov). Well guess what, 6pm came and went and still no Engineer had been. I then spent 1hour 20 mins trying to get through to someone, and when I finally got through I was told that something went wrong on the system and my order never went through to the Engineers. To say that I was reduced to tears in anger, frustration and disappointment is an understatement. A very nice young man on the phone told me he would try and sort it out. I have been promised that the Engineers will be out next Thursday, but I dont hold out much hope. If this is how they treat new customers, I am dreading anything going wrong once I am an existing customer. If it werent for the fact that I had cancelled Virgin Media and paid the Sky fees I would be telling someone where to shove it !!!!

jake horsley 4 years ago

I had been using my BT soft phone for several months to call the US when i noticed on a recent bill that I had been charged over 30 pounds for calls to the US. (It is possible that I hadn't noticed before becoz the calls I had made were too short to amount to much.) I called and discovered that - despite having been informed months ago that my softphone no. was activated and all i needed to do was plug in the phone line to the Home Hub and make a call (i was getting the different dial tone when i did so) - for some reason the calls were all registered as landline calls and I was charged for such. Technical help have apparently found a way for me to switch from softphone to landline without changing the point of plug-in, tho I won't know for sure until i check my billing. Once this was resolved, I was told i would get a refund, and transferred to billing dept. Billing said only technical dept could provide a refund, and transferred me back again. At tech dept i was told I would not get a refund but given no satisfactory explanation why not. I asked to speak to a supervsior, and spoke to one Danny Johnson, who was no help whatsoever. When I asked to speak to someone higher up, Mr. Johnson at first refused, then promised a callback within 24 hours. This has has not occurred. I would also like to complain about Mr. Johnson complete lack of assistance.

jonasthan fisher 4 years ago

add me to the list:

http://www.jonathanhfisher.co.uk/b2/?p=47

Peter Stephens 4 years ago

Received a response from Ben Verwaayen. the same day I posted.

Have been getting excellent support from his Compliant Management team.

Am now receiving the kind of service that gets them awards.

Don't have our second BT line (yet) but with daily monitoring by the Chairman's office, I feel confident we are now in good shape.

The Chairman seemed to expect to be e-mailed !

bapidebu 4 years ago

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Jonathan Parsons 4 years ago

Here's a copy of the email I posted to ben.verwaayan@bt.com which I gather has prompted responses in the past:

"Below is a copy of a letter I sent to BT at the beginning of October. I have now received a letter threatening me with court action unless I pay BT whatever they say. It is impossible to talk to anyone who can do anything at the BT call centres so it seems that I have to pay whatever BT like regardless of whether I have received a service, signed a contract or tried to explain the situation.

I have now sent a cheque for the amount demanded to avoid any further hassle from you.

I will, of course complain to Ofcom and if I have a few spare minutes will contribute to any consumer web-sites etc that I come across so that as wide an audience as possible will know how BT treats people with threats while ignoring their justified complaints.

Yours furiously and £255 pounds poorer

Jon Parsons

Dear Sir or Madam:

Complaint number 070928-005224

I have received a bill for a service that is not connected: Acc. No. SW14056738.

This service is not connected (ring the number if you want to check!). Although I started the connection process I was later informed of additional charges that I don’t want to pay at this time. Because it is not possible to investigate the feasibility of a new connection without paying first the site was not investigated before the engineer arrived to make the connection.

Nothing during the ordering process suggested that the price would be higher than the standard fee or even that it could be and I was assured by one of your anonymous call centre staff that there was one price which did not vary.

There was no opportunity given by BT to discuss if there would be additional charges before paying for a connection. The property is some distance from a telegraph pole so it was obvious that it would need more poles erecting before the connection could be completed.

I don’t mind paying for work done and accept that there may be an additional charge in the case of this property.

However given that BT didn’t bother to survey the site before charging me a standard fee I feel entitled to decide not to pay additional charges until I am ready.

I certainly will not pay a line/service charge as there is no line or service.

I have cancelled the direct debit for this account in the hope that I will get someone to ring me up who can both understand the situation and act appropriately to alter the bill.

The alternative which I have experienced this evening of being deliberately cut off by BT call centre staff and on a second call having to explain at great length about my situation to three separate people before being passed back to the department I started with is not acceptable service.

Please alter the bill to reflect:

That I should only be charged for the work done to date

That no service charge is due until there is a service

That there will be no additional fees in the future without written quotes agreed by me

That there will be no reconnection fee or other hidden costs.

Yours sincerely,

Jonathan Parsons"

Julia Semmence 4 years ago

I think BT are just dreadful for a so called communication company. Firstly i have been dispute with them about thier charging policy - I paid via internet banking (my time, my work processing) and they charged me for the priviledge. i complained asking them to justify this and thier charges for cheque payments. Ofcom acknowledged my letter - BT eventually did and have done nothing since. Next bill I get they add a further charge for late payment- i try to speak to them to discuss - get connected to India and told they cannot deal with my complaint. So hence BT are making money hand over fist for doing absolutely nothing and charging me for the priviledge. I think i should now start charging them for the time i have spent trying to contact them to sort this issue out, time spent writing letters etc etc. At the earliest opportunity I'm off - I'd rather communicate through smoke signals than bother with BT they treat any customer large or small with utter contempt and Ofcom are idiots allowing them to get away with it.

G Kumorek 4 years ago

I ordered phone and broadband on 14th September and set up direct debit, which is being taken out. Have been sent bills ever since, now all cut off and another bill for £108 because they said I stopped service. When I ring them everyone says they cannot deal with GB accounts. Puzzled and very angry, GK.

Nigel Reed 4 years ago

We changed our internet service from BT to Tiscali at the beginning of September. BT kept billing us. We have called them three times (each time spending over 30 mins on the call) and have also emailed three complaints (none of the emails have been answered). We have cancelled the direct debit as they kept taking money off us. Today we have received another bill. Surely this is theft. BT is the worse company we have ever dealt with. I am now complaining to Ofcom.

Emily 4 years ago

BT are so annoying!I ordered basic line rental in September (lowest cost package of £10.50 per month) as I just needed an internet connection.  Since then they have tried to charge me for a more expensive package and when I refused to pay as I didn't order this (after several 2 hour phone calls and about 10 emails!), they added a cancellation charge of £168.74!  For a service I neither wanted nor asked for!Does anyone know what I can do about this?  Is it worth contacting Ofcom or trading standards?  Surely it is against trading regulations to charge someone for something when there is no proof that the ordered it!Thank you in advance for any advice you can give me.

Louise 4 years ago

Emily,

You are in precisely the same situation as me. I only asked for basic line rental back in September because I needed an internet connection and BT put me on Option 2 which I didn't order and then the Together option without even consulting me. I've spent over 20 hours on the phone to BT trying to resolve the problem after they sent me a final bill for over £200 made up of cancellation charges for these two options. I can assure you now no one in any of the call centres will be able to help you and you will just get passed backwards and forwards without anything actually being resolved. After 2 months of hell, I rang Ofcom and they gave me a special number for BT's Ofcom Referred Complaints dept, based in Glasgow (supposedly higher than BT Chairman's Office)! 0800 671 502 but they are only open Mon-Fri 8am-6pm which can be a nightmare if you're ringing from work! These are the people who have the authority to waive any charges through mis-selling etc. Every conversation with BT staff is recorded so you can request to be played the recording which will prove you didn't order the more expensive package that BT took upon themselves to put you on! By the way Ofcom will only investigate once you have exhausted all avenues with BT and been issued with a deadlock letter. You could try Otelo, the ombudsman but I would first recommend ringing the Glasgow team on the number I gave you above. I've only ever rang early in the morning and it's taken on average an hour to get through. At present there is also a team in Newcastle dealing with overflow calls to Glasgow - it's just potluck who you get through to but my understanding is that Newcastle team don't have as much authority as Glasgow. Although my bill was completely cancelled I still received another bill for half the amount a week later but after speaking to the Ofcom Referred Complaints team they told me they couldn't understand why this bill had been generated because according to the system I didn't actually owe anything ... apparently it was down to a new IT system giving them a few teething problems! No doubt I will receive another automatically generated bill though! I'm not convinced my BT nightmare is over but I'm further down the line. Don't waste your time ringing the general numbers for BT because you'll wait for hours and hours, speak to dozens of people, explain the same thing over and over again and get no where ... I wish you luck!

KK 4 years ago

BT won an award for customer service. You have got to be joking!! I have never come across a more arrogant non customer focused organisation in my whole life. I am presently in dispute with them and will take it as far as I can. Honestly I do not want to go into the issue on here.

When it got too hot for the "personal assistant to the CEO and chairman" he simply declared "as far as BT is concerned the matter is now closed". Well that's all right then!! Unfortunately without the efforts of things like this BT will ride rough shod. They are a disgrace - more power to your elbow and good luck.

KK

MA, sw19 4 years ago

over 2 months ago, we ordered out BT landline with the plan to get Sky to provide the additional cable, broadbank and skytalk services. BT installed our landline alright - it only needed us to call them up a couple of times and be put on hold for a few hours - but it was done.

When it came to providing Sky with the correct details (post code) to enable the installation of the other three services, there was no assistance from BT. initally they blamed royal mail for giving them the wrong post code. we spoke with royal mail, resolved the issue - confirmed that only one correct post code ever existed. still, BT would not agree to help us. In fact, over the past month and a half, we have probably been put on hold a total of 10-12 hours over the 6-7 calls we have made to several BT numbers. On many occassions we were told that the post code stands corrected and the details will be updated through their system within a couple of days. It has never happened. Then we call Ofcom and get a special number, which reduces the waiting time to 15-30 minutes per call. Call them and the same story continues - finally one rude officer asks us "you're landline's working fine - ain't it?" we say "yes" to which she responds "then what the hell are you complaining about to BT" She goes on to say "if you're having problems with your broadband, come to us and we'll resolve the problem" to which we respond "but its the post code, not the service" she responds "well we can take care of it if you come to us"Now we're out of energy complaining - Ofcom says do not come to us with individual complaints. I wonder how anything gets done with such a lousy administrative body and worse incumbent players. I wish BT suffers huge losses and has to fold up its operations soon - at least then Virgin can take over and show everyone what service customers really deserve.Is there some way we can get in touch with the media and publish a full article on this? I am willing to help provide all details, if someone has the contacts.

Emily 4 years ago

Thanks so much for your advice Louise. I was just about to spend the night with BT's number on handsfree! I will wait until they send me a reminder then call Ofcom as you suggest.

It's comforting to know that BT don't always get away with their amoral practices but is still so infuriating that we loyal paying customers are forced to spend hours of our precious time trying to fix their stupid mistakes.

Chloe 4 years ago

Two years ago I moved into a new house where I got a BT line connected and Virgin broadband ordered on that line. However, the broadband was not activated on the day Virgin assured me it would be. Virgin said it was BT's fault, BT said it was Virgin's fault, and this went round in circles for two weeks where they just kept on blaming each other and I still had no internet service. Two weeks and £63 of premium rate calls later I am finally told by BT that my line was not ready to receive broadband on the date Virgin wanted to activate it, so they postponed my broadband order with Virgin for two weeks without telling me anything about it and insisting day after day that it was Virgin who were causing the issue! Not only did I find it ludicrous that this could happen, but I also wonder why they postponed my order for two weeks when I am assured that it takes just two days after a line is connected for it to be ready to receive broadband??

Now, I just moved into a new flat and needed to get a phone line installed but didn't want to pay the £125 it costs for BT so enquired about Virgin, but someone else was already using Virgin within my house and they couldn't split the cable, so due to BT's monopoly I have no other choice but to use them.

My line is due to be installed on Wednesday morning, but I can't get the time off work so my dad is taking time off work during a busy period to travel cross-country and wait for the engineer, so I wanted to check that the order had definitely been processed for Wednesday. 30 mins of holding during my lunch break, 1 hour of holding on one phone in the evening plus 45 mins on another plus 30 mins on another (I surrounded myself with phones on speakerphone at work) someone finally answered the call on the 1 hour line, so I hung up the other two phones so I could hear this call, thinking I was home and dry - until the person on the other end hung up before I even had a chance to speak! So I had to go through it all again! Then when I finally got hold of someone and raised my issues with them they apologised because they had a high volume of calls today?? I was like, "Are you seriously trying to tell me that you are a phone company who can't handle the number of calls they receive??" It is just absolutely ridiculous! So I argued with him for 10 minutes where he kept saying he was going to forward a complaint on my behalf to the "concerns department" and I wanted a name of someone I could contact directly myself - eventually he went to get his line manager (a manager in the billings department, a department which when I originally called told me they were unable to tell me the status of my order - clearly that was not the case!) and this guy wouldn't give me a name either! Just told me to go on the website and forward a complaint there and assured me they would get back to me! Although I am quite sure that they wouldn't, so I'm not going to bother wasting my time.

I'm not waiting nervously to see my first bill to see how much they overcharge me for the basic line rental, as I'm sure this will not be the last issue I have with BT...

Wayne 4 years ago

My complaint is similar to Karen's above. Having originally set out to change provider I decided to cancel installation of BT line with appropriate notice given. They are now charging me for an installation that didn't occur and have gone on to charge me for cancelling a contract which I did not enter into. Because I refuse to pay them £80.00 they are threatening me with a debt collection agency. They will not respond to my e-mails and I have spent numerous hours on the phone speaking to nothing but idiots in the UK and abroad. HELP!!!! Can anyone offer any advice?

Mary Wilson 4 years ago

So! I am not alone! It's not just me that BT are robbing.

After 5 months of very poor connection - I can't call it service - from BT I gave one month's notice to stop the line. BT disconnected the line immediately, one whole month early, leaving me with no phone/broadband when we were about to emigrate. First we knew was a letter saying "Welcome to BT" - we thought there was a fault on the line and spent hours talking to 'faults'.!) After hours waiting to speak to someone, BT apologised, reactivated the line but gave a new account number, assuring me there would be no charges for connection. (Very gracious of them.)

You can all guess the rest. Like many of you, I have now paid bills which I do not owe, have been threatened with a debt collection company, threatened me with disconnection too - which will puzzle them since it is now 3 months since I left the UK.

Now I have a bill for the first account number which BT had informed me they had cancelled in error one month too soon.

I cannot ring BT from my Irish mobile number - think of the euros which would vanish after at least an hour listening to that dreadful insincere voice repeating - "We are VERY busy........"

I swear, if I ever hear that voice for real I will not be responsible for my actions!!

Have sent back the bills, have written 3 times now, have sent recorded letters from Ireland, and, you've guessed it, no response.

Well, I will not be paying BT any more money. Enough is enough. Let them take me to court. Whose bank account is all this un-owed money going into, I wonder....

Oliver Jones 4 years ago

Arranged to transfer current number and contract from bulldog/pipex on 7th Sept 2007. Transfer scheduled with BT for 8th Oct 2007.

Never happened. Now following almost 40 calls to BT and various faults being fixed and then re-occurring. 2 temporary numbers allocated and then dropped. I am still without service on my own telephone number. Ultimately I don't even use the landline - I simply need it in order to get broadband!

Today is the 4th Dec 2007 = 57 days and counting... losing will to live.

Complaint number KMM39527234I24871L0KM still outstanding - no reply since 9th of November...

David Burdon 4 years ago

The service I'm getting from BT braodband is appalling. It breaks down 2 or 3 times per day. An average speed is 0.7 meg with results as low as 0.09 meg. Yep I supposedly get 8 meg. When I applied to have the service terminated I was told I was contracted to April 2008. Originally I had the 2 meg service. When I told the operative it was a complete ripp-off I was told it was tough. I just had to wait unti April. Sadly for BT they've lost me for good. I have 12 weeks from my first complaint before I can complain to OFCOM. I'm waiting with relish. BT are a diabolical company and deserve to be stripped of their monopoly.

L W Owen 4 years ago

I had an XLN Business A/c and wanted to change back to BT residential. I asked BT to do this buy they explained I would have to change back to business, wait a couple of weeks and then phone again and ask for the line to be changed to residential. I phoned Business a couple of weeks later and put in my request and was then transferred to Residential. A date was agreed for the changeover in October 2007. Each time I phoned it was taking up to an hour to speak to someone.

The day arrived for the changeover and found that BT had cut off the line. Me and my partner spent the next 3 days trying to get through and when we did speak to someone, whether Business or Residential they passed us on to someone else.

Eventually somebody decided to help only to say the number we had could not be used anymore so we would have to have a new line which could only be done in two weeks time.

We then received a bill from BT Business for nearly £400 for terminating the contract and another one from BT Residential for £140 for installation. I've written to them to complain to say I shouldn't have to pay for their incompetence but so far have not received a reply. It seemed such a simple request in the beginning but I never dreamed it would cause such chaos.

gary mckenzie 4 years ago

i have tried to cancel my telephone calls with bt for 6 months, all three times i have "cancelled" and they still bill me for calls, i've been signed up with AOL talk since august, and today dec 7th they send me another bill for call charges, with all the hassle of running my own business that aside, i feel i can't complain any more as my mental health is suffering as a result of BT, this is my last comment / say on the matter, if i get more bills im sorry to say im just going to pay them, so im paying twice for my phone calls because i haven't the desire anymore to complain.....

Mrs Harris 4 years ago

I dont know that I dare complain now I have read some people have been at the mercy of BT's awful customer service for far longer than me! We moved just over a week ago and have now been promised FIVE times that they would turn our phone line on (there is already one in the house, it just needs turning on - i.e. the click of a button on a pc no doubt) and have spent (I am counting also!) 275 minutes trying to get this sorted, most of that on hold. It is the most disgusting service I have ever heard of, and cant believe they can get away with this, and there are clearly people on here had far more problems than mine and BT just dont seem to care. I have lodged my complaint on the watchdog website, but if everyone does this then maybe they will look into it. BT are rubbish and its even worse that we dont have a choice but to use them.

Sheri 4 years ago

BT is offering a 4th rate service and quite frankly is a joke. I have moved to a new build site and after several calls to BT, we eventually got the line connected. Apart from the unbelievable wait when trying to reach BT Customer Services (anything from 20 minutes to 40 minutes) I found that each time I spoke to someone at BT, I was given different information. BT – just a thought, why don’t you give us the correct information on the first phone call and save us all a headache eh? I am now trying to sort out Sky (who answer the phone promptly) as Sky can’t deal with our broadband/phone order because BT has not completed their side of things correctly with the database! I give in; I really do. What is so hard about connecting a phone to a property? They are supposed to be the experts! My stress levels could cope with the inefficient and incompetent service if it wasn’t for the ridiculously waiting time on their 0800 800 150 number. Oh and one last thing, I only found out what my new BT phone number was by phoning my mobile from the landline. What great customer service.

Sarah Jones 4 years ago

I first contacted BT over a year aho when i first moved into my house regarding them being my phone and internet supplier. However they told me that it was going to cost me around £120 to set up a new line as the old one was 'damaged' so I backed out as I didnt want to pay that. Anyway, a year later I decided I would pay this fee so rang them up to organise an appointment with an engineer to reconnect the line. Big Mistake!

Thhe call centre person I got through to said that he had checked my line using hsi computers and could see that there was no problem with the line to my house, no reconnection was needed and that the phoneline could be set up within 24 hours. I was pretty unsure about this but he seemed to know what he was talking about so I went ahead and set the account up. the next day i checked my phone to see if it was working and ofcourse it was not! I got onto the phone to chase the matter up and in the space of two hours I spoke to over 36 people. I was repeatedly hung up on, transferred blind so i had to repeat my story over and over. Noone seemed to know who I needed to speak to! When I eventually got through to the right person he told me that the number I had been given as my new BT number was actually already in use by a national bank based in Leeds! My god it was a disgrace. This guy then promptly hung up on me! I was so exhausted I decided to put my complaint in writing to BT to see what would happen. Whilst I was waiting for a reply I was charged for a service I had not received via direct debit! I was fuming.

After waiting around three weeks I sent in another letter this time saying that I wanted to close the account due to the complete incompetence I had experienced. At this point someone contacted me by phone trying to get me to stay as a customer, which I refused so I was told that I would recieve a credit to my bank account off the money they had taken from me within three days. Two weeks later I recieved a cheque addressed to someone completely different! It was hilarious. I had to laugh or I would have cried.

So I sent the cheque back with yet another letter, and am still to hear back. The best is yet come however. Around a week ago I receieved a letter saying that I owe BT around £15 and that if I dont pay it within 10 days they will transfer it to their debt collection agency! I could not believe it. How can I owe them money!! I rang the number on this letter to explain but ofcourse they had no idea what I was talking about.

so Ive sent a letter to the managing director to see if they can sort the mess out. Its ridiculous!

ben ayme 4 years ago

I moved into a new property 6 weeks ago and, knowing the previous owners had a BT phone line, I decided to take the plunge and use BT (I’d been with NTL previously). I was given a connection date and phone number which allowed me to apply for a broadband package from a third party supplier. On the day of connection, nothing was working. I called BT and they said that I was connected and that maybe my handset was faulty??? They then asked me to dismantle my socket and try the service line. Eventually, they relented and agreed to send an engineer. I took a day off work to await his arrival but he failed to turn up. When I called BT they told me that they’d been able to fix the problem at the exchange. At no stage had they even imagined that it would be courteous to let me know. Anyway, and needless to say my phone wasn’t working and by then, I was paying for a broadband package at the same time. I complained using the online provision but they’ve just ignored my correspondence. It has now been two weeks, and they’ve still not addressed any of the issues.Yesterday, I received my first bill. I phoned to enquire as to why I would be charged a monthly fee considering I had no working phone line. The automated customer service phone line stated that all of the advisors were very busy and it suggested that I call after 8.00pm. On the bill, it says precisely that billing enquiries close at 8.00pm. Is this misleading message intentional?After waiting for twenty five minutes, the phone was picked up by one of the customer services advisors who immediately put the phone down on me. One cannot imagine my frustration and fury at being treated so badly. Besides, all my calls to BT are made from my mobile (for obvious reasons) and these are charged at quite a high rate. Today, I took my chances and decided to call BT again. I wanted to cover three simple issues, namely: why I had been billed, why their customer service was so bad and what their complaint handling procedure was. I spent over 90mns on the phone, was transferred to three different departments and basically told there was not much they could do. Whilst waiting for someone to answer the phone, I discovered this website and decided to cut my losses and sever all links with BT. There was plenty more waiting to be put through to the right department and I was then told that there was a £70 cancelling charge!!! Eventually, I got this waved and am now free again. One cannot imagine the relief. It is better to have no phone at all than anything to do with BT. I’ve written to OFCOM. I’m quite out of pocket as a result, having to pay for 6 months of internet which I cannot use, not to mention my mobile phone bill and the fact I had to take a day off work. If anyone knows of a consumer action group taking BT to court, please let me know.

Carol T. 4 years ago

Have been trying for over 6 months to get an answer from BT about their habit of taking direct debit payments for my Broadband account as and when they feel like it, rather than once a month as agreed. Complaints via email and letter (registered post) to Durham were largely ignored. Complaints to Ofcom and Otelo met with the repsonse that, a), not within their jurisdiction, b) couldn't do anything until I had exhausted the BT complaints procedure. Exactly how you do that when they ignore you, or send an acknowledgement, then fail to do anything, is beyond me.

Finally sent an extremely rude email to "Chris" at the compliance department, who in turn handed me on to the Complaints Management team. I am now dealing with a seemingly intelligent lady called Karen, but she seems to have no more luck at finding anyone at BT Billing with a functioning brain than I have! All I want is for them to honour our contract by taking their payment once a month, on or around the 6th, to help me balance my accounts. Countless other organisations have mastered this feat, why can't they? And why do I now have an inbox full of emails from people who have no idea what the original complaint is, or flatly deny that I either have a direct debit with them, or that they frequently take two payments within a couple of weeks of each other?

Andrew 81 4 years ago

Just had a bizarre experience... I've been having the usual trouble trying to speak to someone at BT. This evening, after waiting an absurd amount of time in a queue, I found myself suddenly listening to someone else's customer service call!! Neither the other customer or the advisor could hear me. If I hadn't been out of my house on my mobile (this was BT's 'call back' service), I'd have written down the other customer's account details to prove the point - what an enormous breach of data protection, and just general professionalism. I've no idea how it happened, but what a cock up for a communication company!

Merton 4 years ago

I'm on a supposed 'up to 8Mb' connection and never clocked it at over .9. I cannot even watch videos on youtube without stuttering or hitting pause for a few minutes before playing. Nothing wrong with the pc or settings, infact it's a high end machine.

Furthermore, BT is the worst customer support I have ever experienced over the phone. 20 minutes through 7 seperate robotic voice queues and still no one answers the phone. Really hope these fraudsters get some serious competition soon so they might start treating their customers better. It should read 'up to 1Mb' and we will cut you off when we feel like it for maintenance with no forwarning or explanation. I pay less for my water supply, electricity, the phone, and Sky tv. Yet these services work as intended and are rarely troublesome.

steve leavey 4 years ago

my problem started yesterday evening.i can not log on to my bt yahoo email plus.i stated phoning bt at 11:15 7 dec 07 i have not reseived any positive help or answers it is now 15:27 please send me details i would like to put a more official complante i would also defy anyone to get a answer from this line 08702414567

john corrin 4 years ago

i have recently changed over to bt from pipex

i have had nothing but problems with my old number which i wanted to keep and bt were aware of me wanting to keep my old number.i was given other numbers and was not informed of this and everytime i complained they changed my number again did not inform me and still did not give me back my original number.they have now said that they will give my original number back to me on the 11th of december????in the process of this being done i have been in contact with bt every day regarding this issue and feel it is not acceptable that i have to spend so much time contacting them over the same issue.they tell me it has been done each time i speak to them and the next day i have a new number and have not been informed of the change of number.my wife and son have lost work through this error occuring as they work for agencies.my mother in law has had a major operation and the hospital wre unable to contact us during this stressful time.it has affected other family members contacted us because of the 3 times the phone number was changed.we have still not got are old number back which we have had for 18years and as you can understand everybody nows us on this number.do you not feel this is a reasonable complaint.they are quick enough to send us the bill why not quick enough to sort out the problem.john.....

Mr Fryman 4 years ago

Took BT SErvices up when i moved address took them 2 months to connect my phone line up and gave me various excuses for reason why it tooks o long. then when i wanted to talk to a BT customer services it took an hour to get someone to answer, a couple of people tryed for me with same problem too. recently i owed £130 a asian person answered and said that i needed to pay my bill, told them i could only afford £80 so paid that over phone and was told i have nothing to worry about has long has i pay the left over in my next bill. 3 days later my contract is terminated plus ive lost my broadband and other services from Sky . i did try to ring and pay the reminder but again a asian person answered and said i had to ring 0800 800 150 which i was already talking to them on. asked to speak to a supervisor another asian person get calling me Mr my first name and said same thing i need to put phone down and ring the number they gave me but like i say i had used this number already to speak to them?.

Anja 4 years ago

BT Services are shockingly bad. Their Business processes are woefully broken, and I don't believe they will survive longer as a provider if they don't do a seroius turn around.

1. They have lost emails regularly for the past (minimum) 3 months - when I surfaced the issue they blamed vodafone, who have given me great customer service, and whose fault it wasn't. Then when I had PROOF that they were losing emails, I spent several phone calls convincing them that it was their fault. Turns out their YAHOO SERVER has a bulk folder and randomly, emails get filtered to it.

2. Their solutions were totally ridiculous. "Turn off Spam filter" "Read your email using our (really poor) Yahoo/BT webmail program" "It's not our problem"

3. They broke their promises to call me back at least 3 times. No word, no update.But I get sales calls to renew my account (ARE YOU KIDDING?!?!)

4. I have to call an Indian Help Center who calls the Yahoo Canadian Server technicians. Everyone takes notes, has limited/inconsistent technical ability, and they cannot actually SPEAK TO EACH OTHER about the bugs. THe process is slow, grinding, with no real information being passed back and forth. If I could just speak to the Yahoo technicians it would likely take 30 minutes to view the filtered emails, provide feedback, and to see what the issue is. Everytime they call me back to check on progress, they have NO IDEA what the issue IS. "How is your service - are you getting any error messages? (?!?!?) I never WAS getting error messages - you lost my emails!

5. Now my internet account is not running - no access and the server informatoin says "call this number if you are having trouble accessing email today and a representative will help you" And what you get is a circular menu system going from 0870 241 4567 which is the dial up technicians... if you mash buttons frustratingly it says "hit 8 for broadband" and sends you to 0845 600 70 30 which send you back to the other number.

The incompetence, poor service, and technically broken service should take them out of business. If anyone has a good alternate service provider, please post your thoughts.

Thanks

3

P Farrar 4 years ago

I have spent 7 hours on the phone trying to exchange a ohone which is not as specified please help I am 77 and need this exchanging s a p I have done all I can to no avail the telephone service is appalling please send a label for returning one i HAVE

robert fallon 4 years ago

bt your service on line and phone are atrocious i have been emailing constantly and just spent 3 hours on phone just to be passed about hung up on and finally given to foreign woman i could not make out a word she said i think you should really get out of the market and let decent companies that want to help the public go ahead shameful really all i want is an internal box ive got line just waiting to be activated

Jan Pope 4 years ago

My parents want a BT phone connected in their new flat and to take their old Virgin number with them - remember that it is 'easy to come back to BT' !!!!!!

Dad is 87, has a pacemaker, partially deaf, going blind with macular degeneration and has a history of epilepsy.

Problem 1 - different information depending on who you speak to - cost of transferring the number £149.99 or is it £149.00 to change the old address to BT and then transfer the number to new address £149.99 X 2

Problem 2 - appointment made for 29 November 2007 but engineer didn't turn up - no contact from BT at all

Problem 3 - many hours of calls to BT but I specifically asked if it was free (I am not on a BT line) I was told it was 'toll free' - not an expression used in England - was I calling India? As this was a premium number am I going to be billed for my calls to the 'non-help line'?

Problem 4 - told that the order of 29th November had 'failed' but we seem unable to get another set up

Problem 5 - told 'might' get installed AM on 28th December but no engineer order number given. Told again that transferring the number cost extra (I thought we had cleared that up!)

I can never speak to the same person twice and emails just get an automated answer - what can you do?

Dr Sam Hamad 4 years ago

BT is now in a stage where they do not care. To get them by phone became increasingly impossible. Some Call Centre's staff are actually arrogant bordering on ignorance. I have an "Abuser" from them yesterday and I put a formal coplained as all conversations are recorded. I gave them seven days to get-back to me after which I shall seek legal advice.

Laura 4 years ago

We'd had no problems with BT for years til we moved into a new home out in the sticks (so our own fault really) and were told by an engineer that we couldn't get broadband due to the distance we were away from the signal box (this is after 5 whole days spent on the phone to call centres in Timbuktu going round in circles and spending most of the time on hold while they have a teabreak).

We gave up and went with Sky - who are fantastic btw - BT then sent us a MASSIVE bill for £260, which includes:

connection fee to the broadband service we could not use

set up fee for the broadband service we could not use and

set up fee for the talk service which was pretty pointless without the broadband service we could not use!

So I went through the old rigmerole of calling, holding, speaking to someone who really couldn't care less and then finally having a mini nervous breakdown, whilst remaining in the same situation as I started out.

I moved into my new house on October 19th, it's now almost 2 months later, BT have cut my phone off becuase we haven't paid the £136 that we do not owe and I have just printed out my formal complaint letter which will be winging it's way to customer services by tonight.

Wish me luck....

Mike 4 years ago

I signed up for BT as I was moving house and thought the customer service would be better than axis (who I was with before). Axis use BT engineers and the exact same system as BT, only they can do it for cheaper somehow. Anyway...I was told I would need a line installed in my new property and it'd cost £124.99. Which I agreed to pay begrudgingly. So the engineers comes out, spends 10 minutes in my house (without doing anything at the exchange) and tells me that "you will be charged a reduced rate of less than £124.99 as the line was already in". When I received my bill it came to £162 and included the £124.99 installation fee. Since then I have called BT a number of times to arrange a reduced rate for the installation fee. Each time I called BT it took AT LEAST 1 hour to get through. Eventually I got someone to arrange for a supervisor to call me back. He gave me a reference number and said I will receive a call within 48hours…I never received a call back. Since then I have had my mobile phone bill through and the calls to BT equate to around £50! I thought calls to BT were free as – when you call BT from a mobile phone it says: “This number is not free from mobile phones…Please redial without the first zero”….Now to me that means if you call the number without the first zero...it will be free. Needless to say…it isn’t free and I will do my up most to have this money refunded to me, by BT. I feel as though I am stuck! I don’t want to call BT as it costs a lot of money from a mobile phone and BT always fail to call me back…It’s like they are just waiting for me to give up on this but I refuse to give in! £124.99 FOR 10 MINUTES OF THE ENGINEERS TIME! THAT’S £750 PER HOUR! HOW DO I BECOME A BT ENGINEER! Coupled with other problems I have had with BT…which I won’t go into…I am absolutely appalled at the level of service BT offer!

Tim Pryce 4 years ago

I have a similar story- I ordered a new landline in June and have now been without a land line for 6 months. BT eventually agreed to "disconnect" me, but charged me £70 for the privilege. I have also been charged for someone else's calls. I took my complaint to Otelo who have written back to tell me that I am liable for the disconnection charge and the outgoing calls! This despite the fact that I've never been able to place any outgoing calls on my line, and the numbers listed on the bill are for companies that I've never even heard of.

W.B.M. 4 years ago

I have booked "engineers" and they have not come. My 'phone has been disconnected 5 times. My broadband has just been disconnected. I have been waiting to get in touch with BT for over 40 hours. Any human I talk to cannot help with any problem, will not give their name or any contact details for BT. I am now changing from BT to ANY other company, as it could not get worse.

BT, FUCK OFF!

Tom Hill 4 years ago

I am at my wits end with BT. I asked for a phone line to be connected to my house, but knowing we were to be there for only a couple of months before we were due to rent rooms to our grown up children, I made it clear that I only wanted the line for a few weeks. i was told that there was no minimum contract on line rental. The guy in the Indian call centrethen asked me if i wanted free evening and weekwend calls for a nominal sum. I agreed. The line wasn't connected. After two days of 7 hours (sic) each day on hold, plus dozens of shorter calls, the phone was eventually connected and all seemed well.

But then I rang and told them that my partners grown up children wished to take over the line. They disconnected the line, and sent me two bills for £172 and £61 respectively for early termination of service. I wrote explaining that I had been told there was no minimum contract but they refuse to reply to letters or e-mails. i have got my £172 back through the direct debit guarantee scheme at the bank, but now they are sending me reminders again.They eventually phoned me on my mobile (after about two months) as I am now travelling abroad. They verbally agreed to waive all the bills, but they are still now sending reminders again.There seems to be no end to their incompetence.

Jorge 4 years ago

I am writing this letter after almost an entire month of unsuccessfully trying to get a BT line transferred. I am completely appalled with the service offered by BT, which has caused me a great deal of stress and wasted large amounts of my time.

In early November, I tried to arrange for BT to transfer the line. The initial arrangement was that on the 16th of November, an engineer was going to come to the flat and install the line. This did indeed happen, but unfortunately, I needed a special key from the Building Management Company and so the line could not be installed. The next appointment was then made for the following Friday, the 23rd when no engineer came from BT. I then rearranged the instalment for the 30th, when, once again, no one turned up. I then made complaints via the email service as my order had been arbitrarily cancelled and rearranged (having to go through the entire process of setting up an order) for the engineers to come yesterday 11th of December. In order to make sure this happened, I called the client service team, who then informed me that apparently that date was not going ahead, and the engineers would come today the 12th. However, it is 13:30 and no one has turned up, but I received a call informing me that the installation has been, arbitrarily, moved the 14th December. I am pretty certain that no one will actually arrive on the day, and I leave on December 17th for a month, and I need the line installed before then. Unfortunately, I have to go ahead with this order as the building can only receive BT lines.

I actually find it ridiculous that it has been this difficult to install a phone line. I would have assumed the company actually wanted to have customers, but the service I have received would suggest otherwise. When trying to call the client service team, I have spent hours on hold, and been treated rudely and by completely unhelpful staff, who on various occasions have hung up on me or passed me around different departments pointlessly. Furthermore, the last email I received after my complaints (today 12th) was ridiculous, asking me again for my order number and reference number, when they could just be traced by whomever is dealing with the complaint, not to mention that the English in the letter was appalling.

Jodie Marshall 4 years ago

I am a new (unwise) BT customer, I called last week to arrange to have a BT line activated in my new flat, the engineer was supposed to arrive yesterday morning (the 11th Dec) but didn't turn up. I had no missed appointment card, and no calls to my mobile.

I rang BT that afternoon to find out what had happened and rearrange the installation, and after being kept on hold for 28 minutes was told that their systems were down and I would get a call back within 24hrs.

Suprise suprise I did not get a call back. So I rang them again this morning at 10 am approx, was kept on hold for 36 minutes only to be told that the line was indeed activated, and the engineer hadn't needed to enter the property to do so (So a morning off of work for nothing). When I queried this I was told they could test my line to be sure and transferred me to the faults dept. Another wait of 23 minutes and I was told testing would take about 2 hours and they'd call to update me.

By 2.30pm I had heard nothing so decided to call them back, I wrangled my way through to the faults dept and was on hold for 45 minutes, as I am at work I got fed up and hang up, looked on their site and found a different number to call, I was put through to a polite young man who gave me this number for their service centre: 0800 022 3089. I got through to this number pretty quickly (only 11 minutes on hold! RECORD!) only to be told that I should just plug a phone in to test it. This despite me already telling them I was not in the property but at work.

So that concludes (Or perhaps this is just the beginning) of my BT ordeal....

Carmel 4 years ago

I was delighted to find your site and relieved to find I was not alone. Set out below is a copy of the email I have just sent off to Mr. Ben Verwaayen. I have removed our personal details. I was very grateful to see the name of Mr. Verwaayen on your site. Thank you to those who provided it. Most of the complainants on your site have put up with appaling lack of service for very long periods. It must be remembered that individuals who sign up to BT enter a contract. If BT does not come up with the goods, they may be in breach of contract. People can sue for specific performance, with an order of Mandamus, requiring BT to fullfill the terms of their contract, with an application for costs, of course. People may also be entitled to general, exemplary and aggravated damages and the costs follow the action. I for one am not going to hang around on this. I will be pursuing the matter vigorously and will keep you posted.

12th December 2007

Dear Mr. Verwaayen,

I am very very dissatisfied, angry and frustrated and am writing to you as a last resort, before I take legal action, to have a number of matters rectified immediately.

I live in the south of Ireland. I commenced rental of an apartment in Belfast for my two young sons, who commenced in Queen's University, September 2007 and are in Belfast for the first time. It is essential that they have a phone line to enable close contact to be kept and also broadband, for study purposes.

I made application to BT for a phone line in August 2007. My phone was connected on 8th September 2007 (Phone No. given here). Because there was a telephone line previously in the apartment and a reconnection only was involved, I was told there was to be no charge. I am the account holder.

I also ordered Broadband Option 3 on 18th September 2007 after I received my phone line. Following promises of connection dates on four occasions in September, which did not materialise, it was finally connected on 4th October 2007.

I received my first bill dated 11 September 2007 ( A/C No. given; Bill No. given) on the 24 September 2007. I contacted BT immediately upon receipt of the bill because of incorrect charges on the bill. I notified BT of the two matters which were incorrect. The first and more minor matter concerned the ‘Payment Processing Fee’, the second related to a ‘One-off Charge’. After waiting for over an hour, the person I spoke to took down the details of these matters and undertook to pass them on to the relevant department. On that occasion I also requested VAT and Tax invoices.

In relation to the first matter about which I complained ( i.e.the Payment Processing Fee of £4.50 ), I informed BT that I was concerned to see this charge on my bill. I explained that I had attempted to set up payment to BT by Direct Debit or by Monthly Payment Plan, however, I was told by the BT Direct Debit Team that I could not do this, as I live in southern Ireland and do not have a northern bank account. It is not either just or equitable that I am penalised with a charge of £4.50 a quarter (£18.00 a year) for not paying by these methods, when it is BT says I cannot pay by these methods by virtue of where I live. In addition, I was not informed by BT that there was such a charge, or that this charge would apply to me. At no time did any BT person raise this charge. However, this charge is minor in comparison with the other complaint set out below. (For information, I have contacted Ofcom in this regard and have lodged a complaint (Reference given). Ofcom agrees the charge is not equitable. It equates with being charged for paying my bill. It hopes to have this charge ceased, as it unfairly discriminates against those who live outside the UK, or who do not have a bank account or who cannot afford a bank account, eg elderly or low income persons/families).

The second matter I raised with BT was the One-off Charge of £124.99. At time of applying for a phone, I was told by BT that if the apartment had previously been connected with a phone, that a charge would not apply. I was aware that a phoneline had been connected in the apartment. I got notification that an engineer would call on Monday 3rd September, between 8.00am and 1.00 pm. to ascertain the situation. I took a day off work, left home at 4.30am to be in Belfast by 8.00am on the 3rd September and waited all day in the apartment, but nobody showed up. I rang BT on four occasions on that day and was assured the engineer would be there. Still nobody showed. I had to stay overnight in a hotel. I contacted BT on the following morning of Tuesday 4th to find out why an engineer had not come. I did not get any answers, but was told an engineer would be there on Saturday 8th September. I again left home at 4.30am on the 8th September, drove the 3 hour journey and was in the apartment from 7.30am. I rang BT at 11.00am and at 12.30pm when nobody showed. I was assured an engineer would be there. At just after 1.00pm an engineer arrived. He said he had been told to call in the afternoon, but just decided to come a bit early. This engineer (Name given) confirmed there was a previous phone connection and there should not be a one off charge.

Despite phoning BT on at least 30 occasions in relation to these complaints related to overcharging, totalling almost 36 hours and being referred from one department to another within BT, necessitating lengthy explanation from me to each operative each time, I could not get anyone to deal with the matters of overcharging on my bill, let alone rectify them. One each occasion I phoned, I waited an average of one hour, often more. On each occasion, I was told that someone would phone me back. Nobody phoned me back at any time.

On 8th Oct, as matters had not been addressed by BT and I was very concerned to get the bill sorted , I sent payment for my service charges (£32.63) accompanied by a letter of complaint, to BT by recorded mail. I sent this to BT PLC, BT Payment Centre, Durham, DH 98 1BT.

In addition I also sent in three complaints by email related to the overcharging. An automated response acknowledged receipt of the emails. That is all. There was no further response.

To make matters even worse, the phone system ceased working over six weeks ago. I notified BT immediately. It returned for a few hours on one day four weeks ago and went off again. It again returned for a couple of hours on Saturday night 6th Dec/Sunday morning 7th Dec and went off again. It has not been on since. My two sons have been without service for six weeks and also without broadband now. We had to get Queen's University Security staff to contact them when their dad, my husband, was ill, as we had no other way of contacting.

Since the phone system ceased working, I have made over 35 further calls to BT, totalling 42 hours to date, trying to get the matter sorted. I have been given many varying and diverse explanations and sent from Billy to Jack. The Faults Department says it is not a fault and puts me through to Customer Services. The Customer Services Department says it is not a billing issue and insist it is a fault. Both departments say there is a new system and they are not familiar with it. Neither department seems able to sort it. Neither department could find out why the phone was not working or why it was connected for a few hours on two occasions or how/why it was not working again. There is a refusal to put me through to managers. I was told to "suit myself" and "do what I want" when, in frustration, I said I would have to resort to the legal route. I have spoken to many individuals eg Isobel, Ryan, Marie, Leanne, Rachel, Gemma

Fred Hause 4 years ago

If you have a dynamic IP address then every time your modem is repowered or there is some other service disruption then you are allocated a new IP address (which uniquely identifies your modem). I have done this 8 times in the last week to see what would happen. EVERY IP address that BT allocated was blacklisted on 24-25 blacklists.

Bineet Desai 4 years ago

I contacted BT in 2nd week of november to install a phone line in my new house. They said at first it will be done and no problem. Ever since, I have been trying to get hold of them but they are ignoring the complaints and not resolving. I am without phone, internet and no one is answering the call. They make me wait for minimum 2 hours and more on certain occassions. All the time they say is order has not been submitted correctly and its the BT employees that have made a mistake. Its the 4th time i have placed the order but no joy. Can you please help

justin h. 4 years ago

I F#####G HATE BT WITH ALL MY HEART AND SOUL!!! They have robbed me and my partner at least 20 hours of our lives over the past few weeks and still, all of this waiting on hold, being passed to LOTS of different departments and being cut off, it is to no avail, the robdogs still havent resolved our problem! we were charged a £70 cancellation fee for changing our provider and not only that being extortionate, we were charged £159.42 for the rest of the years line rental even though our new provider are paying our BT line rental anyway!

we eventually backed down after numerous 'customer service' advisors couldnt understand plain english and receiving threatening letters, we asked if we could pay BT in installments being as though xmas is round the corner and they basically told us no way.

we then went on to pay the balance on the automated service just so that we didnt have to be cut off or speak to yet another person that couldnt help us..............and then that told us that our number is not recognised and that we needed to call ANOTHER number!

.....................we called another number and they say that we dont have an account with them and so there is no outstanding bill!

we will call again tomorrow, thats if we have a line connection, and possibly no tv and setee!

Kat  4 years ago

For personal reasons (separation) I wanted to change the name of the BT account where I live to my name from my estranged husband’s name. After hanging on the phone for about an hour I finally got through and was told I would have to open a new account and the old one would be closed down. I provided all my information and then got cut off. Went through the whole procedure again.

I was told that the new account would be started between 8am and 8pn on 11th December. What happened was they closed the old line and did not start the new one. I found this out by calling the fault reporting line.

On 12th December I tried ringing the customer services on my mobile, the problem is that the mobile reception where I live is very poor and keeps cutting off. I rang the fault line to ask them to suggest what should I do. Meanwhile I had sent 3 detailed e-mail enquires to which I received automated responses and one unhelpful response. I have also sent on e compliant and received no reply.

I rang the fault reporting line at 10.30pm and explained that I could not get through to customer services as I did not have a working land line and my mobile connection was unreliable. Their response was I should go to a neighbour’s house and use their phone, to go to a phone box or to drive to somewhere where my mobile connection would be better. I was also told “well you work don’t you - ring from work”. I gave up and went to bed.

On 13th December I spent 50 minutes on my mobile (away from home) and finally got through to customer services and was told my order had not been processed. My phone would now be connected on 19th December. As I was asking why had the order not been processed I got cut off. I went into work and used the phone there, 35 minutes waiting and got cut off. 45 minutes and got connected. I was then told the order had not been processed as they had written to the previous account holder and were waiting for a response from them.

I said that no one had told me this would happen and asked to speak to a supervisor. The supervisor told me BT had made a mistake and had not processed my order, so the part about writing to the old account holder was untrue. When I expressed dissatisfaction with this I was told we all make mistakes. They now say that my phone will be connected on Monday. From reading the rest of the posts I’m not very confident this will happen.

In all I’ve probably spent about 6 hours on the phone and £20 on my mobile phone. Like others I found their attitude unhelpful to say the least and although “yes I’m sorry” was repeated on numerous occasions felt no one really was bothered.

Billy 4 years ago

I originally ordered bt vision off of these mugs and instead recieved just the total broadband option 3 package.

I then had to move home and requested for my service to be transferred to my other address. The phone line had been transferred and was told that the broadband would be back on the following thursday 48 hours after the phone had been activated.

It is now the following Friday after which i've had to reorder the broadband and spend countless hours on the phone and am still on it now being passed from one gimp to the next and still no closer to getting my broadband.

I haven't had the account with BT for more than three weeks and have also been sent a bill £313.80 for a service that these jokers fail to supply me with. It also isn't entirely clear why this bill amounts to this much.

this is just the brief version not including my numerous trips to the public phone and the fact they have charged me £50 for some kind of 'deposit'

It's astonishing that these fuckwitts get away with the treatment of customers like this. the only reason they take the piss like they do is because A) they own all the phone lines & B) we let them

so stop going to bt, don't use their phone boxes and burn out their vans and chase off the guy screaming profanity at him

On a more serious note it would be nice to see action taken to relieve BT of their power over communications in britain and should have the phonelines seized from them and used publicly by any company that wishes to compete with BT. The Bastards.

P.S. sorry for my profanity but i'm still on the phone waiting for the next nincompoop to forward me to yet another dimlow who will in turn forward me to a shitbag of some descript and the circles increase ever larger.....

it iis now 20:45 i started this phone call at 17:20

and this isn't the first time, wankers.

klynch 4 years ago

If your problem isn't resolved, lodge a formal complaint (I did this through 0800 800 150) get acomplaints number and ring 020 7356 5000. This gets you to head office. Tell them you've got an outstanding complaint and that you want it escalated to the Chairman's Office. The guy I spoke to there got my issue sorted in 20 minutes, treated me with respect, did what he promised including ringing me back a couple of times to update me on progress. I assume that they'll only be open normal office hours.

bob 4 years ago

Letter/Email to ben.verwaayen@bt.com

Sorry, it's long, but it has to be. Check out the false names and numbers offered. Beware. If you can, when offered a phone number or a name, check it.

================

Dear Mr Verwaayen

I would like to make a complaint (upon a previous complaint) of the strongest nature to you regarding the service (or lack thereof) and the handling of my account.

Back in October, I had two telephone numbers at my, both on the same account number: 020 8*** 9476 and 020 8*** 2905, the former for my freelance work and the latter my home number. On notification of the move, I called BT to cancel the second line (2905), order a new line at my new address and requested that my main working line (9476) forward to my new number.

Simple, one would think.

However two weeks later, alerted by a friend, I discovered that the call forwarding service was applied thus: 020 8*** 2905 > 020 8*** 2621, NOT what I had requested at all. What is worse, I am unsure of how many calls I may have missed.

So in addition to the written notification, I called my clients to inform them of the number change just in case, albeit two weeks after the event. Two clients did not see the change of details and tried to call me on a dead line! How embarrassing. Do you not provide Caller Redirect for this very reason?

So, on 1st November at 14:00, I spoke with Shapish (who refused to offer a surname), who promised to call me back with a resolution within one hour. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.

At 15:30, I called (on hold for 23 minutes) and I was put through to "Redirect Dept" where I heard only "Is that Mr D". The line went dead. I hoped that someone would call me back in such a case. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.

At 15:32, I called again and was on hold for 20mins but had to go out for a meeting so I gave in.

At 17:53, I called again and spoke with Gurshee Singh, who could not assist but put me on hold for 40 minutes then transferred me to Sanjay, who said that due to a technical problem, the transfer failed.

Seeking to track the issue back to Sales, I spoke with James, who put me though to Melissa who then put me though to Mr John Gibbons, a Sales Dept Supervisor. He said he would deal with the issue and offered me the telephone number 01324 445 6007. THIS NUMBER IS NOT RECOGNISED.

On 5th November, I spoke again with Ingrid Stanley in Sales to track Mr Gibbons but unable to do so but did offer a number for him; 01324 458 532. THIS NUMBER IS NOT RECOGNISED. But shortly after that, the line went dead. Under the circumstances, I did expect a return call. THIS DID NOT TAKE PLACE.

I called again (duration 1hr 4 mins) and spoke with Stephanie Brady who put me though to Linda. On explaining my problem (and not being able to reach people that can help resolve this) Linda apologised and said "It can be difficult as we are a big company", an understatement no doubt. I was put though to Mr Gary Donnelly (Inbound sales) and when I escalated the issue into a formal complaint, I was put through to Simon Ponsford in Exeter.

On explaining the issue, he proposed £40 compensation and that my Caller Redirect service charges (both the one I had asked for and the one I didn’t) would be provided free of charge. I accepted, hoping that was the end of it and on good faith, duly ordered my second line via Michelle in Sales. The line was installed on time and without incident.

ON the 20th November, I received two bills for two call redirect services - one I did order and was put into place THREE WEEKS after it was meant to take effect (therefore not much use) and one for the Redirect Service that wasn't ordered.

Further, on the 29th November, I received a letter informing me that £40 had been credited to my account. I called to query this and spoke with Claire Morrison in Lancaster at 11:59. She informed me that £40 was being credited to the account - the Redirect Service I didn't request.

As she did this, I alerted her as to this disingenuous action (meaning my compensation of £40 would be mainly consumed in charges that I was not liable for). On realising the problem, she informed me that she corrected the problem and when I stated that I did not make payment by Direct Debit, she informed me that I would receive a cheque in approximately 5 working days. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.

12th December at 20:15, Kruti (who refused a surname despite having mine and the rest of my data) informed me that indeed my refund was applied to the bill that I should never have received, virtue of the fact that it was a service placed in error.

I attempted to explain the agreement made by Mr Ponsford and when I asked if she was in a position to assist, she could not and said that a Manager would call me within an hour. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.

On 13th December at 18:10 I spoke with Customer Services again and asked where my telephone call didn't happen. I was informed, "No call back was offered"! I was passed to a '1st Line Manager' called Praven Prabhakar (he spelled it for me). I explained the history of the problem (again) and he apologised and said he'd "take responsibility for the issue".

He also informed me that if I call Customer Services and ask for him by name, there would be "no problem" in getting through to him. He asked for an email address that he could post me a confirmation, pressed as to when, I was told that by midnight at the latest, I would receive it. THIS DID NOT HAPPEN.

On 15th December at 11:15, I called and asked Customer Services to speak with Line Manager Mr Prabhakar and I WAS INFORMED THAT HE DID NOT EXIST and no email was offered! On pressing for an explanation, I was put through to Mr Ashish Verma who told me that while I was on hold, he'd "spoken to Mr Prabhakar and even though he could speak with him, when I asked to, it was refused on the basis that I couldn't be transferred.

I asked Mr Ashish Verma if Mr Prabhakar offered any explanation for not sending my confirmation email as promised and he said that he "didn't actually speak with him", but asked him to recall having said just that. I also asked why I was informed that Prabhakar didn't exist. I was offered no explanation.

Further, as compensation was offered by means of cheque that would arrive between 5 and 20 days (from the date 29th Nov), I asked him why my BT account was being credited and that the said cheque was now not being posted and that I’d receive it as credit on my next bill – IN JANUARY 2008 – two months after it was offered. I asked Mr Verma if that in case of the issue not being resolved, could contact him again just as Mr Prabhakar had suggested, to which he replied "no". He has raised an investigation, which means I might hear from someone in 7-10 days (bang in the middle of Christmas!).

Merry Christmas.

In my experience, all 150 calls are filtered into the Indian call centres UNLESS IT BE FOR SALES, which I do not object to, but what I do object to is being lied to, misinformed and lied to by staff that are either becoming disenchanted in having to deal with rightly irate customers, or simply unable to provide a service that we pay for. And when one does call, first we are informed "We are very busy at the moment, did you know you can blah blah self help number, Sunday between blah and blah - in fact every message sends one AWAY FROM THE ASSISTANCE WE NEED IN THE FIRST PLACE.

I've been a loyal customer of BT for many years, often with two phone lines and since my move in October, I have had services applied to which I did not request, have services that were requested not applied and been recompensed on an account that was wrongly sent.

But worse is that I have been systematically misled, lied to, placed in a black hole of unaccountability and or redress and what is more, I hear that BT w

e moses 4 years ago

for a whole weekend now i have been trying to get reconnected back to bt..after receiving a bill back end of oct i called a customer service agent to explain that i would not be able to pay the bill in full at that time. the customer service rep told me to pay as much as i could i just received a bill this week however for £154 as they said that i had ternminated my contract. until this letter came through the post i had no corro from bt and could'nt believe this was happening as i'd just paid £50 towards clearing my intial bill. i called and spoke to and agent (from their call centre in India) who informed me that they would re-emburse me the cancelation fee and instead of £154 i would only pay £104 which i did....i was told on paying this fee i would be reconnected. However this wasnt the case and i was told that i was now on a 'new' systerm and would be treated like a new customer...well if this how they treat new customers then hell im in the wrong job!!... after being put through to Another Agent i was required to go over all personal details again and then told i would now be subjected to a credtit check...because of the cancelation that had taken place ( note that the bt rep had rembursed me this fee as it had been a fault on their end) i was now being told that i had failed this credit check and would have to pay a £50 'security' fee that would be given back to me in 6 months time either via a check or being taken off a bt bill.....this was on fri...its now sun this week alone ive given bt....£50 to clearing my bill another £104 for their 'final bill' and and will be giving them a further £50 to have my phone reconnected even though i never requested to terminate my contract in the first place...im so angry i cant describe i've spoken to more customer service reps than you can imagine..my partner is now dealing with them on my behalf and is having the same problems....how they get away with this its un real.

e moses 4 years ago

for a whole weekend now i have been trying to get reconnected back to bt..after receiving a bill back end of oct i called a customer service agent to explain that i would not be able to pay the bill in full at that time. the customer service rep told me to pay as much as i could i just received a bill this week however for £154 as they said that i had ternminated my contract. until this letter came through the post i had no corro from bt and could'nt believe this was happening as i'd just paid £50 towards clearing my intial bill. i called and spoke to and agent (from their call centre in India) who informed me that they would re-emburse me the cancelation fee and instead of £154 i would only pay £104 which i did....i was told on paying this fee i would be reconnected. However this wasnt the case and i was told that i was now on a 'new' systerm and would be treated like a new customer...well if this how they treat new customers then hell im in the wrong job!!... after being put through to Another Agent i was required to go over all personal details again and then told i would now be subjected to a credtit check...because of the cancelation that had taken place ( note that the bt rep had rembursed me this fee as it had been a fault on their end) i was now being told that i had failed this credit check and would have to pay a £50 'security' fee that would be given back to me in 6 months time either via a check or being taken off a bt bill.....this was on fri...its now sun this week alone ive given bt....£50 to clearing my bill another £104 for their 'final bill' and and will be giving them a further £50 to have my phone reconnected even though i never requested to terminate my contract in the first place...im so angry i cant describe i've spoken to more customer service reps than you can imagine..my partner is now dealing with them on my behalf and is having the same problems....how they get away with this its un real.

saha 4 years ago

i have been waiting for my bt line for over a week now as the engineer failed to show up and to make the whole situation even worse i have spent god know how long on the phone trying to get answers! BT are a complete disgrace!

Julie 4 years ago

Please can you tell me why BT will not disconnect my dead uncles phone line straight away? We have been told it takes 14 days for this to happen, yet if he'd run up a dept BT could have switch him off in an instant. Why must we pay for an extra 2 weeks worth of unless line rental?

lee scott 4 years ago

Just been on hold for hours as usual and passed from pillar to post between bt indian call centre. to my amazement BT has given the customer service work to a company called HCL technologies somewhere new new delhi in India... the guys were rude as usual... and they dont care as they dont work for BT.. they work for a company who gets paid by BT for the number of calls they attend. with a result they are more interested in their own numbers rather thana more genuin customer service to british customers. after trying for days to sort out my bill which has chargs for the services that i have never asked for and never used. ihave given up and i am moving on to virgin no matter how much it costs me to do it.... and as expected BT doesnt care... so why should I...

niclak 4 years ago

Our nightmare with BT began in June 2007, when we ordered a line for our newbuild house. Amidst hours and hours hanging on the phone, trying to get through to somebody, we placed an order 4 times, took time off work to wait for an engineer 4 times and not once did we get not even a courtesy call to warn us that they weren't able to fulfill our order or apologise for the fact that nobody had showed up. It was 4 days holidays plus the costs of having to use our mobile phones for everything, the inconvenience of not being able to do our grocery shopping etc online and everyone having to ring us on our mobile numbers. Not an apology, not a single reply to our complaints. Then, one day in October (!!!), out of the blue, we picked up the handset and realised that we had a line! We knew the BT engineer that had come to our house in June to install my work line had left the box set up for us so it was just a question of making it live in the exchange and we explained this to BT every time we rang them - they don't take notes of anything, do they? You have to repeat the same thing every time. And also note that they had no problems sending somebody to connect my work line! Then, a few days later, our first bill came through - amazing how they were suddenly able to write to us! Well, as it goes, they wanted to charge us for the line rental from 8th October even though we never even knew we had a phone until 18th October - they never wrote to us to inform that the line was going to be connected, they never even provided us with our telephone number! So I queried that and also queried the one-off connection charge and the line had been connected without us having to be there so for all we know (and I have been told this by a BT employee), they probably connected it remotely - therefore, no justification for the charge - and there has been no attempt from BT to reimburse us for the losses we incurred when we took all that time off to wait for their engineer, not to mention the calls, etc. I have now paid for the calls made to date and for the line rental although I'm sure they haven't really re-calculated anything. The people on the other end of the line are being trained to lie through their teeth as well - one moment, you get told that they've refunded payment charges, next thing you know it's all back to square one. They've even gone as far as to suggest that I pay for it and then the amount will be re-credited to my bill - do I believe that? No way! They lie, lie and lie and I'm just so, so sick of it.

Lewis M 4 years ago

Well it sounds like I have has a very similar situation to a lot of you here. I'm posting this just to vent my anger. I have recently moved into a new flat and have been trying to get my line reconnected. After 4 weeks and around 12 phone calls to BT I am still not connected. Instead of rambling on, I will list the things that have contributed to my anger:

1. I was originally informed I would need to pay £125 connection fee which the 'advisor' would take from me there and then by debit card even after I had informed her I already had a BT phone junction in my new flat. NOT TRUE. Upon calling again I was informed completely the opposite, that I could reconnect an existing line for free.

2. I was told my line would definately be conectedon the 4th December. NOT TRUE.

3. Upon phoning BT on th e5th December, after being on hold for 32 minutes, I was told my line would DEFINITELY be connected on the 5th Dec. NOT TRUE.

4. On the 6th December I was on hold to BT for 56 minutes. I then spoke to someone who told me I needed to be transferred to the faults department. I was put on hold for a further 15 minutes or so. I was then informed I was through to the wrong department because faults couldn't deal with me if I didn't have a number yet. NOT TRUE (see below).

5. Upon my third transfer I was informed that my account had been set up incorretcly and someone who was actually helpful told me they had re-set up my account and I would absolutley certainly positively be connected on the 10th Dec. NOT TRUE.

6. On 11th Dec I was on hold for over an hour again. I was then informed an engineer would be arriving at my house at 8pm as requested. I told the advisor as it was now 8.30pm this seemed unusual and that I had never actually requested an engineer to be sent. Nevertheless the advisor was adamant one would arrive tonight. NOT TRUE. The phantom engineer never arrived.

7. I phoned the net morning and was told there was no record of an engineer being sent to my house. I was also told the actual date of my connection would be today (12th Dec) and I would be connected by 12 midnight. No engineer would be required. NOT TRUE.

8. I gave up for a few days, resigning myself to the fact i would never have a phone line and couldn't listen to that damn 'We are very busy' message anymore while on hold. Today, finally, I have got trhough to the faults department who have told me I have got a fault on my line (so, with no number, I can speak to the faults department, who previously lied, see above).

I have now been informed an engineer will text me with a time they can come to the exterior of my property and fix the line......I have a feeling I may be waiting some time.

After I have moved from this flat I am boycotting Bt and I strongly urge everyone else who reads this to do the same.

On another note, if I see another moronic BT add with that idiot from my family and his inane girlfriend who like relate everything in life to the BT Home Hub I will insight violence against the fat cats who front this coyboy operation.

Nigel Reed 4 years ago

I have just sent this email to the CEO of BT after 3 months of problems with them. The story is contained in the email

Dear Ben Sorry to have to email you, but you are the last resort before I take my complaint to OFCOM. I moved my internet and phone to Tiscali at the beginning of September. BT took money out of my account for BT Yahoo Surftime in October and November. At least twice I have telephoned BT and have waited 40 minutes before speaking to someone, who has reasurred me that I will be compensated and the service has been cancelled. This never happened and I recevved a bill at the beginning of December. I cancelled my direct debit because BT have been illegally taking money from me and I have now been sent a red bill. I have emailed complaints to BT 4 times in the last 3 months (ref numbers KMM40510950I24871L0KM and KMM40015780I24871L0KM) - none of my complaints have been answered (I have just received the automated acknowlegement). I believe I am owed nearly £50 off BT in money they have taken illegally. And I want this sorted out. When I have mailed Talk Talk or Tisacali the problem has been resolved in two days. This problem has caused me a lot of hassle and stress. I will never come back to using BT and a lot of my friends are now considering transferring. There are also several online blogs and groups on Facebook where peope are speaking of similar problems with BT. I noticed BT were on Watchdog last week and if this matter isn't resolved in the next couple of weeks I shall be in touch with them as well as OFCOM. Regards

Nakajima 4 years ago

Very interesting that this site has come about just as I am experiencing terrible service from BT.

I moved to a new flat and opened up an account with BT. So far, so good. However, despite the number being in my name, with my address, somehow, the landlord was able to take the number with him to his new address. I was cut off within a week of opening the account. Not sure how that can happen, or whether indeed they have any security checks. In order to find out exactly why I had been cut off, I had to wait 45 mins on the customer service line and when I did get through, I was put on hold and then cut off. The second attempt, 50 mins waiting on the line before I got passed through to 4 difference departments before finally being told I have to set up another account. So, I had to wait for 4 days without a landline and I was then billed twice for the same month, before being charged a 240 pound cancellation fee despite the fact that I didnt cancel anything!!

Stupidly I also took on BT total broadband and that has been just as much of a farce. I was told the date of delivery and that it was non-negotiable. They couldnt say whether it would be a morning or afternoon delivery so I had to wait all day, from 9am to 6pm. Of course there was no delivery (I found out later that my flat number had been omitted from the information given to the delivery company). I called BT to ask what was happening and whether I could have the number of the delivery company. They said I couldnt have it and would have to wait for the redelivery the next day. Huh?? What is the sense in that?? The next day I called again and spoke to someone else. Miraculously this time I was given the number for the company. I ended up driving to the depot to collect it myself. It doesnt end there!! The charger for the hub-phone doesnt work. I've sat on the phonelines again to try to get a new one, was told someone would call me back to confirm the order within 24-48 hours and that was a week ago, with no call.

My experience with BT has been awful... long waits in line on the phone, ineffective staff - the people that work at night from India are very friendly but ultimately have no power to do anything but ask someone else to call you back the next day... which they never do!

I have written a long letter about my experience to the complaints department. Since then I received the charge for 240 and so now have to wait on the phone AGAIN to try to get this mess sorted out. Ridiculous!

Robert Wilson 4 years ago

My BT Nightmate,

I joined BT last week. When i called them i was told by the sales person that i would receive Option 3 Package and included is a free BT Vision box at no EXTRA charge.

I received my Hub and HUB phone but no BT VISION Box. I then decided to call up BT. O what a mistake that was. Last night i spent over 2.5 hours on the phone to them. In the end i got transferred to a queue which i was on hold for 45mins and i decided to terminate the call and ring back. The queue i was transferred to was closed and there was no-one there. Now i'm starting to really get frustrated.

Called them again this morning. I was told i need to pay £30 for the box and £10 a month for the BT VISION on top of what i'm paying and if i want to cancel the whole package i will have to pay up front the full 18month contract.

I then asked them to listen to the call i originally made. Again on hold for another 30mins.

Unfortunately i do not have the time to be on hold for 1hour at a time.

The customer service is discusting. I work in Customer Service and i'm sure that if they have SLA's they will not have met them once.

My sister who ordered the same package as me the day before has also had exactly the same problem.

BT seem to be an absolutely TERRIBLE company. I thought Tiscali was bad. This is the worst service i have ever had from a company and surely there must be some legal issues here.

TK 4 years ago

I am disgusted. I have had to go through the same route as every one else to get a phone service and broadband. Was told to pay a deposit, paid, phone activation due in 48 hours. Fine. 48 hours. Nothing. Again, 48 hours, again 48 hours. Nothing. Was told due to a system problem; an engineer would need to come out, free of course as it was a stopped line. Line was then switched on but guess what was on the bill £124.99. 2 hours, then 3 hours to get through to the service number. Said it was taken off the account. (At present the next bill hasnt arrived-but I wont be surprised if I was charged still). Next step Broadband. It couldnt be ordered because of a tag, and because my account was on the new system. 3 months today, broadband is now active. But have I received my equipment ? Take a guess.

Abdullah 4 years ago

I recently reconnected to BT on 6 December 2007. Although my property had a BT box etc, I was informed that I would have to pay a reconnection charge and thus made arrangements (time off work) for a telephone engineer to come out on 12th December between 1 and 6pm. On 9th December I realised that my line had been activated (possibly activated before the 9th) and I could make and receive phone-calls. When I phoned customer services (took me over 30 minutes to get through and had to speak to several people totalling 95mins) on 10th December (daytime) to inform them that my line was active I was told that I might be reimbursed the reconnection cost if an engineer did not have to come. I phoned again in the evening to cancel the engineer (yet again took me over 30 minutes to get through and had to speak to several people – customer services and faults- totalling 140 mins) and after speaking to several people and getting conflicting messages, I was told that I would get a call back by customer services on 11th December. Unfortunately, this never happened. On 12th November I phoned again, and was told that an engineer had to come out and I would not be reimbursed the reconnection cost. After waiting several hours for a telephone engineer, no one turned up. So yet again I phoned BT billing and services to inform them that the engineer had not arrived. After explaining to BT billing about what had happened I was told that they could not assist then transferred to BT services (took over 80 minutes to get through). After speaking to Deepak (at a call centre in India) and explaining my predicament, as noted above, he was reluctant to resolve my issue of reconnections, numerous telephone calls to BT and time wasted for an absent telephone engineer. I was then transferred to Panjali (the coach), who was slightly more understanding. She acknowledged that the line had been activated before 9th December and it was not necessary for an engineer to come to the property and apologised for the time wasted etc. Finally, I was informed that I would be credited with £10 pounds and my discounted reconnection charge (i.e. £62.50 for a 18 month contract) would be waived. On 12th December I received a bill and had not been refunded or credited in any form. So I phoned BT again (a call centre in India) on 18th December and went through the same process as above (no record of reconnection charge been waived). The advisor informed me that he could not do anything as he did not have the authority and was told that I be would contacted by the appropriate department 24 hours. As expected this never happened. Again I phoned up on 19th December and was promised I would receive a call back the next day. Again this never happened. So I phoned again on the 21st, I was told that the advisor could not do anything etc so I demanded to speak to someone more senior. After much hesitation and reluctance (threatened to cancel) I was put through to Japinder (the coach). Encountered the same obstacles as before but after giving an ultimatum as before, I was credited with £60. In all honesty I would have declined this offer, but I got fed up of dealing with the call centre in India and a BT line was necessary for an internet connection (no cable in my area and need it for work).

Tufty the Nuts 4 years ago

I live on an island in The Western iskles , and we have NO adsl.

I would like to know why BT are refusing to upgrade the exchanges that serve Harrris , Uig and Scalpay.

Is it True that BT were given an OPT out of responsability when the HIE created their "Wireless" scheme , so they have no obligation now to upgrade exchanges.

My complaint is: I have emailed and phoned BT endlessly over the last month and have never eceived an accurate explanation of this situation. The have bounced me from Commercial to Dowmestic customer services , given form answers in emails "BT is currently upgrading all it's exchanges". So Bt when will you enable exchanges for those still unable to receive anykind of ADSL?

Gill 4 years ago

I have been a customer of BT for over 33+ years but have only just realised that I have to pay a 6p set up charge for every call made during the day, irrelevant of how much time you spend on the call. Everyone I have spoken to about this assures me that they were not aware of this "hidden extra" I am told that charges are 5p up to an hour in the evenings and at weekends and 3p per minute in the day for National numbers for Option 1. Why havent they added AND 6p for setting up these calls. No-one has ever told me about this charge although I have found that if you click on Option 1 a drop down box informs you of this. How convenient!! How many people are aware of this???

Chris Roxburgh 4 years ago

We moved on 28th November 2007 and were promised reconnection in the new property on 1st December. Engineer arrived as agreed. Left soon after saying 'it would be sorted n Monday 3rd.

It is now 28th December and many telephone calls and letters of official complaint later we are still not connected. Furthermpre my letter of 4th December to Mrs Jillian Lewis, Head of Customer Services, remains unanswered.

I am racking up huge mobile bills, have no internet access and guess what is their preferred method of communication - email!!! They really do not like talking to their customers do they?

If this is not resolved in the next 7 days I will post details of thewhole sorry saga together with the names of the incompetents I have dealt with.

Babushka 4 years ago

I shan't even attmept to start typing out ALL of my complaints about BT, I came back to them on 13 Dec after being with talktalk for 18 months, my main reason for going back to BT was to get the 8 megs speed THEY advertisded... & talktalk could not do, because they refused to do any upgrade work on my exchange..Also I wanted to take advantage of the BT VISION offered with Option3...

I live in a small village with just eight houses, and the exchange IS in this village, I can throw a stone & hit that exchange from my house, yet I still can't get anywhere near the 8megs they sold me, because there excuse is, I am too far away from the exchange, I guess being an almost next door neighbour doesn't work with BT.....

As for my BT Vison, well as of today, 29th Dec ..It still is not set-up, after DAYS of continually calling their helpline, spekaking to ELEVEN different people in his time, spending HOURS a day ON the paid for phone line...repeating the same procedure to get the supplied line adapters to work and them (NEVER working) yet, being told by each Individual that HE/SHE will get this box up & running, that IS what they are there for after all.....lol lol .....I have now been told that the adpaters ARE faulty, so replacements will be sent out, WHEN? I have no idea, Also...as my own landline phone disconnects me from my HUB phone whenever my landline phone rings, I had also been trying to get help from BT TALK..Who again had me go over and over a procedure to find out where the fault might lie there, yesterday, I was told it was Obviously the FILTERS ..Both adpaters & filters supplied by BT (of course) Neither which work.......

A phone bill since the 13th Dec that has exceeded what my FULL month Broadband& phone package was with talktalk, with constanly being put on hold, or into a queue, and to even get there, to go through the LONGEST animated voice list I have ever heard to get a department to asnwer....I find this is disgusting that a company that serves most of the UK can be so BAD......

And worse, getting away with it.......

Thomas Farley 4 years ago

Seriously poor company... I changed over from Demon broadband (fantastic provider) to BT at the start of November. Near enough two months later I am yet to recieve my hub, phone, 'welcome' pack etc, etc... For a telecomunications company do these morons know how to mess up. Cut off three times, transferred to the wrong department god knows how many times, ridiculous connection speeds and consistency, I'm still witing for the three call backs and apparantly its all DHL's fault. They're not my fucking provider are they? It upsets me that these gimps get me so angry. My direct debits are coming out fine though...

mark & trish 4 years ago

What a horrible company bt is, will never deal with them ever again, moved house just before xmas, took 4 hours on the phone to have the old service diconected,22nd dec, which they did'nt do, then they were supposed to reconnect at new house thursday just gone, 27th dec, which they did'nt do, spent another 5 & half hours on the phone being passed from pillar to post on the 28th dec, they said vol number did not exist though had been given this on the 22nd, got sick of being cut off, so my mum phoned for us on the 29th & gave them a mouth full (no swearing) she eventually gave up after two hours of being shunted all over the country & being put in contact with the welcome back to bt team, no chance, bt you can stuff your service & all the hours of hanging on the phone, my mum rang virgin who she has been with for years, tell you what guys, she was on the phone for 21 minutes ( not hours ) & they are coming on the 9th jan to set us up with the full package & a £30 bonus for mum as she recommended us, not bad eh, BT ROT IN HELL< WILL NEVER RECOMMEND YOU EVER> thank you for this site i feel so much better now. mark & trish

Alkesh Patel 4 years ago

Dear Deidre, I am not happy with your response. If what you say is correct why has it taken longer than ten days to get the line reconnected even after the funds were cleared I had no telephone line. You may have looked at this bill but I advise you to look at my previous complaints carefully. from the very beginning BT did not set my line up correctly. The first bill was incorrect as I had a telephone and no broadband for several months despite numerous discussions (being passed between departments and lengthy waiting times up to several hours waiting to resolve billing and broadband issues. Hence all my correspondence is by email. The initial bill was incorrect and the delay was at BT's end to get the correct bill to me. You are now penalising me for this. I am completely not happy. My complaint was escalated to the 'High Complaints' department in light of the poor service that I continually received. The problem with my broadband was only resolved when my girlfriend asked a BT engineer who was fitting her BT vision service to come around to my flat to look at the problem. It was something that clearly not resolved by the complaints centre itself. I am completely unhappy with the service that I have received. Unless I am compensated appropriately please can you take steps to cancel my service. I have sent around ten emails and still I am getting nowhere. I look forward to hearing from you. RegardsAlkesh Patel The bill was incorrect at your end. > Date: Wed, 2 Jan 2008 19:55:55 +0000> From: residential.services@bt.com> To: alkesh-patel@hotmail.co.uk> Subject: RE: Reply from BT. (KMM41398644I24871L0KM)> > Dear Mr Patel,> > Thank you for your e-mail regarding the charges you have received on your latest bill. I called you today but you were not in to take my call I did however leave a message on your answer service. I am very sorry to hear that your line was disconnected and for the confusion over the charges you have now received for reconnection.> > I would like to advise you that I have checked the details on your bill for you. This clearly shows that your bill was produced on 17/09/07 with payment due no later than 24/09/07. This bill was for the amount of £41.85. Sadly we did not receive payment until 16/11/07 which was made by a one off card payment. > > Therefore if you miss the payment we send out a reminder. If however this is ignored a second reminder will be sent. If this is missed then the line will be restricted. In your case the line was restricted on 16/11/07 which was the date on which you made your payment. As your payment was only made on this date then it takes 10 days to clear on our systems. > > Once payment has been received, approved and the balance cleared we can request for the restriction to be removed. Your line restriction was removed on 11/12/07. Therefore a charge was placed onto your bill for the restriction to be removed. This charge is for £23.50 which has been put in place to reconnect your line after it has been disconnected for non payment of bills. > > I trust that the information I have provided is satisfactory for you and once again please accept my apologises for any inconvenience caused. > > Thank you for contacting BT and enjoy the rest of your day.> > Yours sincerely,> > Deirdre Howe> eContact Customer Service> Ref: 14526456> > British Telecommunications plc Registered office: 81 Newgate Street London EC1A 7AJ Registered in England no. 1800000. This electronic message contains information from British telecommunications plc which may be privileged or confidential. The information is intended to be for the use of the individual(s) or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient be aware that any disclosure copying, distribution or use of the contents of this information is prohibited. If you have received this electronic message in error, please notify us by telephone or email immediately.> > Activity and use of the British Telecommunications plc email system is monitored to secure its effective operation and for other lawful business purposes. Communications using this system will also be monitored and may be recorded to secure effective operation and for other lawful business purposes.> > For BT's privacy and security policy for web and email usage, for pricing information, and for our terms and conditions, please visit www.bt.com.> > Original Message Follows:> ------------------------> > Dear Ramesh,> > I did speak to one your colleagues and according to my bank statement I did pay the bill on time so I am completely unhappy with a late payment charge and no service to my line which I am being charged for. Furthermore, I was advised my a member in your call center who said that I will be credited accordingly and it was because BT's error as its computer systems were being migrated and apologised for the poor service (it still seems to be continuing!). > > Please can you arrange for the appropriate credit on my invoice and also credit me for the time that I was unable to use my telephone (which was around five weeks even though I paid). I do not want to keep emailing you the same notes that I have provided time and time again. If you cannot deal with this matter please can you pass this up to somebody senior in BT. Failing this, if this matter is not resolved by 2 January 2008, I suggest that you cancel all my account including the telephone and broadband and I will use another provider.> > I look forward to hearing from you with a solution to resolve this matter. If this is not forthcoming I will instruct Solicitors (this is clearly a matter for the office of fair trading and OFTEL to deal with) to handle this matter on my behalf.> > Regards> Alkesh Patel> > >

Joel Barnhurst 4 years ago

I've just finished writing a letter outlining the experience, I think it's best to paste it here.

In the first week of October 2007, I purchased an eshop with BT. Having grown dramatically in the eleven months of trading I was hoping to find a service that would more readily expand with the business than my current eshop provider, EKM Powershop. I sampled a few different providers, all of which offered a free trial before one committed to a service, and eventually found their eshop package online. Their software package looked impressive and capable of holding many more items and categories than what I had previously seen, so I gave it a go.

The first warning sign was we received no confirmation, automated or otherwise, that our order was received. I phoned the number listed on the support page, and the representative that picked up after an hour in the queue didn’t know BT offered an eshop service. After being transferred from one department to the next for at least an hour and a half, somebody finally was able to tell me that we should be able to just log on. They couldn’t offer any explanation as to why we hadn’t received any confirmation, but they walked us through the log on process and made sure it worked before we finished the call. Of course, logging on meant we automatically committed ourselves to a 12 month contract, site unseen!

Two and a half hours on the phone just to find out how to log on isn’t good enough. One of the major issues that complicated the problem was we were not existing BT customers of any sort and never have been, so their employees didn’t know what to do with us when we told them we bought a service but were not broadband or landline customers. I got the impression that the service wasn’t really meant for people without BT broadband because clearly there was no procedure for dealing with customers who didn’t have any other BT services. One of the myriad representatives I spoke to actually commented on how it was strange that it even took my order because I wasn’t an existing customer, which, coupled with the fact that I had not received confirmation of the order and as such were given no reference or account numbers, meant I couldn’t be found on the system.

The service was, in a word, diabolical. The software, while powerful, was not very easy to use and it took me at least four days of down time to get the site where I felt I could host it, which is unacceptable, especially in view of the fact that the other providers all offered a free trial period where you could set up the shop without switching your domain and then make the switch if you were satisfied, offering virtually no down time at all. Further, I had four separate technical questions about how to use the software that were never answered. I submitted the questions by email and, when I didn’t receive a punctual reply, I phoned the number given by the support website.

And there is when the real nightmare began. I would like to point out that BT's eshop service is almost double the cost of most other providers we’ve encountered, some of which use almost identical templates to theirs. Their inventory software is much more powerful and you have promises of excellent service teams available round the clock, 365 days a year. Perhaps they do, but I never managed to get one on the phone. With my first two queries, my wife actually managed to solve the problems simply by finding other solutions which were considerably less efficient than we would have liked in the time I spent waiting in the queue to be answered. The third question I got through to a person using the number offered on their support site, but again they didn’t know who I was or that an eshop service existed, and I was bounced from department to department yet again for another two hours. This process was complicated even further because I still hadn’t received any correspondence about our order and so had no account number to give the representatives as they answered.

When I finally did get through to someone who knew what the eshop service was, I was determined to close the account and walk away from BT for good. I challenge you to find a company that would do any less for an angry customer after four days of down time, a total of over six hours on hold, and a string of customer service representatives that didn’t even know what the service you supposedly bought was and with no way to find out or even verify that you existed in their system. Actually, I think BT is the only one to have any reservations about cancelling an account regardless of the reason why. Every other one I’ve found offers a free trial period or an opt out period, but evidently not only do you not offer an opt out period but you also can’t even trial it to see what you’re getting for BT’s exorbitant fee without consigning yourself to twelve months of it, like it or not. My experience leads me to think it’s the only way your company manages to keep any customers at all.

The representative I finally did get on the phone, Jennifer Adcock in your Customer Options Team, managed to remain reasonably polite after bearing the full brunt of my frustration, and told me that she’ll see what she can do about this “before we started to fight about it.” I sat on hold for a few minutes. When she came back, she told me that in light of the exceptional circumstances of the situation, she had authorization by her supervisor to delete our account and call it even this one time. However, because I was never given a confirmation email with an account number and I was not an existing BT customer, she wouldn’t be able to do it right then and there. She asked for my email address and, after some hiccups, she sent me a test email. I was instructed to please send her an email with a short reminder of the situation if I ever did get any correspondence about the account and she would do as she promised and delete the service. That was on October 8th, 2007, not one full week after we started trying to use the service. Our domain was transferred out a couple of days before that, and the eshop was online for less than two days in total.

On the 4th of December, we received a bill for £146.87, itemized as “rental charges.” As we are not BT customers, it could only be for the eshop and I emailed Jennifer with a short reminder and my account number as instructed, asking her to please delete the service and remove the charges as agreed. I received an automated reply saying she was out of the office and no other word.

Shortly after Christmas, I received an overdue notice for the £146.87. I wrote to Jennifer again asking her to please do as was agreed. When I received no reply, I got back on the phone yesterday (2nd January, 2008) and, armed with Jennifer’s name, I managed to get through to the Customer Options Team after a mere forty minutes on hold and one transfer.

Unfortunately the representative, who later identified himself as John H, told me that Jennifer actually worked in a different building and he couldn’t transfer me to her line. John then said that he would email Jennifer’s supervisor and she would call me back later that day. I told him that this was unacceptable, that I had been waiting for a reply to my emails for four weeks and I didn’t see why they would reply to his any more readily. I told him that I had no faith that any representative from BT would return any of my messages after the treatment I’d received, and I asked him what we were going to do about it. He put me on hold. He came back and repeated himself. I realized that I wasn’t going to get anywhere, so I gave him my home telephone and told him that if I didn’t have word from his company with a resolution to this, I would be writing a letter to their head office outlining my experiences.

I’m sure you fig

Sara Baldassari 4 years ago

I activated a new home phone line with BT on October 12, 2007. The advisor I talked to when I ordered the line (on September 27, 2007) made a mistake when writing down my home address (flat 10 instead of flat 4 was noted down).For this reason the first bill, including the costs of line activation and three months prepayment, never arrived to my post box, and by November 28, 2007 I found out I could not make calls from my home phone, but only receive them. I phoned BT customer service on November 29, 2007 to ask for an explanation and was told that this was due to the fact I had not paid the first bill. The advisor I talked to found the mistake made in taking note of my home address, and suggested me to request a copy of the bill to be sent to my correct address. I was told that as soon as I had paid the bill my phone would have worked again. I therefore asked for a copy of the bill to be sent to my address and received it on December 8, 2007. I paid the bill (162.87 £) on Monday December 10, but a couple of days later (Wednesday December 12) I found that my line had been cut, and my account was closed on December 15, 2007, despite my three calls to BT Customer Service to solve the problem. I made tens of calls to BT, usually being kept waiting in line for hours before being able to talk to an advisor. I also signalled this problem by email to BT “Telephony Faults” Service, on December 17, but the problem has not been fixed yet and nobody has even contacted me.

Katie Payne 4 years ago

I have just submitted a complaint to BT about their appalling service. I have been kept on hold for about four hours of my life and this has had to be on days off from work or during my lunch break. Even though everywhere on the bill says that they are open until 8pm they are not! My partner and I have tried every number and every option possible and no one is there after 6pm.

We need our land line as my partner is a dialysis patiend waiting for a kidney transplant. We are expecting a call at any time to say they have a kidney. However we just don't want to keep giving money to this awful company. We tried to break our contract but was told that it would cost £70! We pay a small fortune every three months for terrible service and then have to pay them to leave! I have tried to set up direct debit, friends and family, resolve issues with the bill etc but have waited and waited, been hung up on twice when I wasn't irate and then spoke to some sniffing person who I couldn't understand and who clearly couldn't understand me.

Ever waiting....

nigel taylor 4 years ago

pretty much the same as the rest,poor customer service ,cut of by indian call centre when you push to get a problem sorted bt vision problems ie can not down load films because to slow line speed which keeps on occuring line interferrance of which bt try to attribute to old sockets

New Site 4 years ago

Here is a new site which you can use (as well as this one!) to have a good old rant about BT.

http://www.complainaboutbt.com/

Lizzy 4 years ago

Well, 2 new things have happened recently. Firstly I am incredibly frustrated (this does not happen often) & secondly I have felt compelled to write a blog (which I have never done before) as an outlet for the nightmare that has become my experience with BT.

As a newly self employed business owner, I had a new installation at my home (it was the only option in the area) I paid promptly 3 months in advance for services.

I dont actually know where to start, for 4 months, its been problem after problem. Hardly productive in a new business. Nothing I paid for works. All attempts to resolve issues have been fruitless. I am a tenacious person but I have to say, that I can no longer face calling the company.

I have now received another bill for the same line for services never ordered (by the way the ones I did pay for are still not working) Its quite a large bill , and 2 weeks in I am threatened with disconnection? How can you be disconnected on a line that is paid for in advance?

Anyway, whats a girl to do, I cant pay it, nor should I have to. Nobody returns any kind of competent feedback to the numerous complaints logged (by a variety of communication methods) . Its my source of income, and here I am in this impossible situation. I know we all vent and complain on here, but this could have serious consequences for my business and I am at a loss as to what to do.

I did just receive a "priority" call back this ave though regards a broadband query.............from November !

Shilps 4 years ago

I think we should boycott payment for services not rendered against it's own tems and conditions and also collectively serve a winding up order if that is possible. Such is my frustration.

Jamie 4 years ago

I got a bill yesterday for £202, what a shocker! turns out that BT were trying to charge me £168 for downgrading to option 1 from option 2. I spent a long time yesterday evening on the phone to India trying to explain that I attempted to cancel well within the alloted 7 day "cooling off period" but due to busy phone lines I was a day late. All the managers/supervisors I spoke to insisted that there was nothing I could do except pay and file a complaint. I duly filed the complaint but took the precaution of canceling my direct debit.

This morning I did some searching on google, found this forum (amongst others). I followed the advice of calling Ofcom, got my reference, phoned the number for the Ofcom referred complaints line given to me by Ofcom (they said that BT had already contacted them the previous evening), they said they would look into it. To my surprise, 30 minutes later I got a call from the High Level Complaints office and the very helpful man had had it all sorted in less than a minute.

My advice to anyone in a similar situation? register a complaint as soon as possible with a supervisor/manager, then follow it up with a call to Ofcom and the high level complaints office.

Sounds like I have been lucky, hope this can be of help to someone!

Erica 4 years ago

Dear Sir,

I too have a major bone to pick with BT. They constantly change service agreements and terms without the knowledge of the consumer or a letter to the consumer to let them know they are changing the billing payments.

I pay BT on a quarterly scheme and just finished paying a bill in December for £241.00, which I made an overpayment as well. Now BT sent me a bill at the end of the month stating I owe them another £38.00 for call charges called an 'L' bill. This is not another quarterly bill but for calls alone. I called them and received a call back from a manager named Sharon and she stated that it was in my service agreement that they first sent back to me in Feb 07. I have the service agreement and no where does it state that they will be sending me an 'L' bill if I exceed my calls.

I think they are awful and I refuse to pay until my quarterly bill arrives. I strongly recommend to people find another alternative to BT. They are a waste of time and their call centres aren't even in the UK. I am constantly transfered overseas.

I wish you the best of luck and to everyone else on this board.

Jamie 4 years ago

I'm rather unhappy with the customer service I've had from BT, after unsuccessfully trying to order a line rental and then cancelling the order I've been sent a bill for you betcha no phone line.

30 - OCT - 2007 - Ordered phone line as follows 11 - SEP - 2007 - BT Advised stopped line at property and asked if I wanted to take over phone line11 - SEP - 2007 - I requested line was put under his name 15 - SEP - 2007 - BT advised order was cancelled due to incorrect incomplete information16 - SEP - 2007 - I re-provided details as entered in original order04 - DEC - 2007 - BT advised a Van would be showing up at my address to install the line connection before noon 10 - DEC - 2007 - I arranged to have time off work and wait at home for BT van, it never came before noon. I waited until 2pm.10 - DEC - 2007 - I e-mailed BT to arrange another time. 12 - DEC - 2007 - BT requested a customer number and installation address to proceed.12 - DEC - 2007 - I provided an installation address and advised no account number had been provided12 - DEC - 2007 - I requested the order be cancelled.04 - JAN - 2007 - I received a bill from BT from a billing period of 10th of Dec 04 - JAN - 2007 - To date no phone line has been active at my home address.

I've complained a couple of times via e-mail and this website so they'll cancel my bill fancy sending me a bill and not providing a service.

Wendy 4 years ago

Reassuring to find that I'm not the only one that BT treats this way!

I had BT for 4 months with few problems untill I moved house. I moved from a remote village, to the center of a city. BT eventually came an installed my line (After not turning up when they said they would twice). My phone line eventually worked, but by broadband did not. Several hours of calls later (the usual, on hold, cut off etc) I was told they couldn't provide broadband where I lived.

They then told me that not only would I have to pay for the remainder of the contract, but that they had acidentally opened a new account when I moved house so I would have to pay a full 12 month contract for services I cannot receive, as well as £125 for line installation!

Needless to say I was less than happy. This has been ongoing since October 12th and as yet is unresolved. I phone BT on a daily basis, repeat the same story to a different person every time. I am pased to various different department, cut off and await return calls that never come.

After reading some of the comments here I will now be sending an email to BT chairman. It can't do any harm! Wil let you all know how I get on...

frederick arthur cox 4 years ago

If this is just a sample of the satisfied!!! customers..thank God Iam with Virgin. It is probably a waste of time contacting the BT Chairman as I think he has been waiting 2 years for a connection!

ANDY9466 4 years ago

bt 8mb broadband is sh@t, every day at 1 pm they start to throttle the broadband speed and carry on doing so every 30 mins. till around 4pm then its at its lowest and will stay that way until after midnight! you will never get 8mb, Im only 1 mile from exchange and struggle to get 4mb (at 4am in the morning). im downloading a song at the moment(11pm) and can only reach 3.2kbs. I just ran seven different speedtests and the results are less than dial-up!I have complained to bt several times and gone through their "script"including removing the front off my bt socket and plugging directly into the test socket and monitoring the speeds for 14 days!!.Im now looking for a cable isp as im so f@@cked off with bt!

Mrs C Ferreira 4 years ago

I contact BT about my broadband package DUE TO EXPIRE on 1 December asking about available offers.

On the 6 December I was given 6 options and I enquired about one of them.

I called BT on the 10 and explained I wanted to go for that option. I was told that I would be contacted within 48 hours.

I emailed again on 11 December asking for a response.

On 15 December I sent a new email explaining that I was still waiting for a response.

I got a response on the 18th saying my email had been misplaced. I emailed original emails back to them immediately.

On Friday 21 December I received a response from the original BT contact saying the offer had expired in the interim (she had been away on holiday).

I responded by saying that I belived BT should honour the offer as the delay was not of my making.

An email from her today is making out that as I only asked for DETAILS in my email of the 6 December (ignoring my calls, confirmation and further emails proving details lost and the fact that she went on holiday) so I am closing my account with BT and moving to Talk Talk

Lizzy 4 years ago

Having moaned on this blog 5 days ago about the appalling service and ongoing concerns regards my account, I thought its only right and fair to update and perhaps offer a glimmer of hope to the many others that suffer at the hands of BT !!

After only 2 written complaints I did in fact receive a call (yes they called me) . Not only did I receive a call but I also received an apology and a promise of a full refund following charges imposed on services never ordred, and Yes all of this happnened before the complaint was even sent to the chairman or ofcom!

Accountability was the last thing I thought I would see considering the problems I have had and I am still agahast that it has been resolved so promptly.

So there you go, dont despair, they may be some hope of a resolution for others caught in the BT communications black hole..............perhaps the complaints dept have started reading this blog !!!!!

Douglas Wilson 4 years ago

I have two complaints.  I wanted to cancel my broadband which should be easy enough, but I had to make 6 phone calls to do so, spending around 15 minutes on hold for each call before speaking to someone.  Every time I told them I wanted to cancel my broadband they said they were going to put me through to another department but they just cut me off instead.The second complaint is that I want to reduce my direct debit payment, as I am now saving £17 per month by not using BT broadband.  But they would only let me reduce it by £9 per month!!!!!  How is that legal?!?  I have an obscene credit balance with BT now and just try getting through to someone to ask to be reimbursed.  I tell you, it's impossible.

Peter Edelsten 4 years ago

I emailed complaints@btbroadbandoffice.com and received the response ...

"Thank you for contacting BT Business Help and Support team. Your message has been received. Your incident number is 080107-000991 ... This is an automatically-generated email. Unfortunately this mailbox does not accept incoming messages."

I sent another complaint complaining that if the email address does not receive emails why did it respond?

Has anyone ever received a response from their complaints email address?

Cat 4 years ago

In my last bill BT decided to charge me something called other fees (0.075) and also charged me for a phone call that lasted 00:00. Although being small amounts of money I was very curious to know what this is about. I queried calls by e-mail three times and every time had the same answer: they do not see what I am talking about. I phoned them and again got the same answer the account they can see does not have these charges. But funnily enough it adds up to the same total as the one I can see which includes these charges. If it continues like this they can just make up phone calls and other fees and charge anything they want, and the annoying thing is they have no need to justify it. I am waiting for a copy of the bill they can see, and then I guess I will have to make a written complaint sending copy of the bill I actually have online.

Selina Evans 4 years ago

I am one of several business people in my area who have had exceptional poor service from Bt, my case ssems to be extreme, and no one at Bt seems to be interested in puting things right. I have done everything from write to Sir Christopher Bland, the Chairman, to get a response almost a month later from someone else who hadn't actually read my letter or knew anything about my problems! Every department is a complete joke.

Sir Christopher Bland

Chairman.

British Telecom plc.

BT Centre

81 Newgate Street

London

EC1A 7AJ.

30th July 2007

Dear Sir Bland,

I am forwarding this letter of complaint for your personal attention regarding my experiences with British Telecom as a business user. My complaint centres around problems experienced with these main numbers listed above and also all other associated telephone numbers under these accounts. So far, my loss of earnings and costs to my company are approximately £36,000 I am having full quotes, accounts etc drawn up and see this figure rising and am not happy with the responses of the people in the chairman’s office or any of your staff to date.

I have tried dealing with practically every department in BT and found them all to be inconsistent, one department doesn’t seem to know what’s happening in another, all seem pretty good at telling you that you need to deal with someone else. I say this with the exception of two members of staff whom I have taken the contact details of who were excellent, honest, straight to the point, easy to deal with, (spoke clear English which is a good start for a telecommunications company one would think) and should in my opinion be promoted, you’d have a better business.

April 17th 2007: I placed an order with BT for two feature lines to be installed at ************ These lines cost £50 connection per line and a rental charge of £40.95 per quarter plus £112 per line per quarter as I wanted a diversion from two numbers at our main site as BT seemed to think they couldn’t move the numbers to the new address we would pay for a divert on 01952 272627 and 01952 272744. The date of installation would be Monday 21st May, over a month away, plenty of time to get it sorted having heard nightmare stories about other companies in my building having problems moving due to BT. I explained we had to be out of the building then as I’d given notice to the council who were demolishing the building.

Monday 14th May. Lots of messages from clients and candidates complaining main phone line dead, was not in office, and seemed back on when I checked the following day.

Friday 18th May. During the afternoon, I received a phone call from BT regarding my installation on Monday morning. They would not be able to install feature lines. I explained that I placed the order over a month ago, and with no working days in between notification and installation, it was a bit late for me to look into service provision from anyone else or to see what I could do as we’d already started relocating the office. I asked the person to at least offer me an alternative. I was told, we can either cancel the order altogether, or fit two standard lines. I replied well I have no choice in this mater do I so that will have to be it, fit two lines, I need phone lines, my whole business is conducted via the telephone and internet so I need something and to keep my numbers on. I was then told the standard lines cost more than double the price of the feature lines to which I was accustomed to using and had been promised, I argued the point it isn’t my fault you’ve taken a month to do this to me I am not paying for them, to which effect I received a call from someone in an overseas call centre later that afternoon to tell me the cost would be waived, having had to explain the whole problem to her again.

Monday 21st May 2007. Installation day. Waited at ****** for BT engineers to arrive, had a phone call late morning to say they were running late and would come in the afternoon. Waited, waited, had a phone call in afternoon to say they weren’t coming and my number was ‘with planning’. I was livid having taken a day off to ensure this went smoothly, having half the office piled high in stacker boxes until after the engineers visit to organise the office. Left ****** to go to our main office at *******where at 4pm I found all our phone lines had been cut off. I contacted BT to explain they seemed to have made some mistake, hadn’t turned up at secondary location and switched all lines off at main site. Within 10minutes the problem was rectified and all lines were switched back on, lots of angry calls from clients and candidates complaining they could not get through. Called BT to ask when they were going to resolve the installation problem, they said they’d get back to me in a few days.

Tuesday 22nd May. Out of office all day. Thought diversion on line to company mobile very quite, very unusual.

Wednesday 23rd May. Phone lines in office off, rang BT to complain and discuss problems regarding installation. Lots more angry messages via email from Clients and candidates getting fed up of this lack of communication with us recently. Asked BT to at least switch Main number back on 01952 272627, the number by which we are known and everyone contacts us. Was called back in afternoon to say someone would be out to install lines tomorrow and would sort issue of main line out once installation had been done. Other lines seemed to be working. Was due at Retail Consultancies Forum at hotel in London, cancelled to ensure BT installation tomorrow goes ahead with no problems.

Thursday 24th May. Waited at ****** all day having cancelled Retail Consultancies Forum for BT. BT failed to turn up. Called them and was told first of all they knew nothing about a call to say they would be there. Then was told later the job only came through after 4pm today so they couldn’t get out today but would be along tomorrow. Sent out apologies to clients and candidates, in particular new client in London, big new account, very embarrassed explained problem would definitely be rectified tomorrow and they could call my mobile in the meantime. Lots more emails complaining.

Friday 25th May. BT turned up a promised. Did not come to the house itself, someone told me they were digging up the lane and the drive so I spoke to them and one came and knocked the door when I was promised they would definitely have my lines in and on by end of the day. The BT van disappeared in the afternoon with no word to me. I thought initially they may have gone up the lane to do some work or gone to have a break and will be back, by 6.pm that evening I gathered they weren’t coming back. My main business line is still off, a dead tone to callers.

Saturday 26th May. I telephoned BT this morning to see what happened yesterday and when they intend on coming back, will they be arriving on Monday, my line is dead, it will be a Bank Holiday and myself and my clients do still work on Bank Holidays in retail. I am told they are scheduled to return on the 6th of June! I complained that who ever went out to a job, left half way through without telling the customer and thinks its ok to return 12 days later (without telling the customer), in the meantime my line is still off and as I was promised it would be switched on when they installed my lines I demand as it’s going to take so long it be put on now. There seems to be a problem as usual and I am told by Marilyn at BT that she will call me b

Patricia.CONNOR 4 years ago

Today I have been to Calne in Wiltshire where my Son has brought a new Flat. Gary, when he is not at work spends many hours on his X Box 360 which is his hobby. Before he commenced in buying the the Appartment he contacted BT regarding Getting a new line put in and Broadband. no problems at this stage.

Today however has been the worst experience I have ever had with BT. We must have phoned them 25 times and no-one wanted or could help and several of them at BT cut us off, The problem is with the Broadband and phone line. They may promise you up to 8mbs but if you live in some areas you will be lucky to get 1mb. due to the lines and if you live a distance from an exchange you have had it. More that half the people I spoke to today I could not understand. They kept giving us different numbers to phone which turned out to be the one I had just rung. I have been a BT Customer for 30 years but not any more I am going to Virgin and get it from them. If you get this message BT I suggest you sort out all in your Customer Sevices Dept. Starting with TOM and Alex who were the two tocut me off first. Try and educate all your Staff to know about the product they are selling and generally be of some help when people like me are asking serious questions. Also I think you should do a check on all your lines before signing anyone on to Broadband. We Asked for 8mb with our provider who came back and said we could get only 1mb because of your line. The Line had been put on today.

vrs 4 years ago

I have had so many problems with Bt it's unbelievable. They have almost put me out of business and so far are doing nothing to address this. Today was the final straw, having filed a court case against them which they did not defend, the judge filing against them, when I called to chase for payment...well, read my lettersto the chairman, and now the Chief Executive to get soje background to this thing...

Sir Christopher Bland

Chairman.

British Telecom plc.

BT Centre

81 Newgate Street

London

EC1A 7AJ.

30th July 2007

Dear Sir Bland,

RE: 01952 ****27, 01952 ****44, 01952 ****30, 01952 ****72, 01952 ****75 and all associated telephone numbers.

I am forwarding this letter of complaint for your personal attention regarding my experiences with British Telecom as a business user. My complaint centres around problems experienced with these main numbers listed above and also all other associated telephone numbers under these accounts. So far, my loss of earnings and costs to my company are approximately £36,000 I am having full quotes, accounts etc drawn up and see this figure rising and am not happy with the responses of the people in the chairman’s office or any of your staff to date.

I have tried dealing with practically every department in BT and found them all to be inconsistent, one department doesn’t seem to know what’s happening in another, all seem pretty good at telling you that you need to deal with someone else. I say this with the exception of two members of staff whom I have taken the contact details of who were excellent, honest, straight to the point, easy to deal with, (spoke clear English which is a good start for a telecommunications company one would think) and should in my opinion be promoted, you’d have a better business.

April 17th 2007: I placed an order with BT for two feature lines to be installed at *****************. These lines cost £50 connection per line and a rental charge of £40.95 per quarter plus £112 per line per quarter as I wanted a diversion from two numbers at our main site as BT seemed to think they couldn’t move the numbers to the new address we would pay for a divert on 01952 ****27 and 01952 ****44. The date of installation would be Monday 21st May, over a month away, plenty of time to get it sorted having heard nightmare stories about other companies in my building having problems moving due to BT. I explained we had to be out of the building then as I’d given notice to the council who were demolishing the building.

Monday 14th May. Lots of messages from clients and candidates complaining main phone line dead, was not in office, and seemed back on when I checked the following day.

Friday 18th May. During the afternoon, I received a phone call from BT regarding my installation on Monday morning. They would not be able to install feature lines. I explained that I placed the order over a month ago, and with no working days in between notification and installation, it was a bit late for me to look into service provision from anyone else or to see what I could do as we’d already started relocating the office. I asked the person to at least offer me an alternative. I was told, we can either cancel the order altogether, or fit two standard lines. I replied well I have no choice in this mater do I so that will have to be it, fit two lines, I need phone lines, my whole business is conducted via the telephone and internet so I need something and to keep my numbers on. I was then told the standard lines cost more than double the price of the feature lines to which I was accustomed to using and had been promised, I argued the point it isn’t my fault you’ve taken a month to do this to me I am not paying for them, to which effect I received a call from someone in an overseas call centre later that afternoon to tell me the cost would be waived, having had to explain the whole problem to her again.

Monday 21st May 2007. Installation day. Waited at ********** for BT engineers to arrive, had a phone call late morning to say they were running late and would come in the afternoon. Waited, waited, had a phone call in afternoon to say they weren’t coming and my number was ‘with planning’. I was livid having taken a day off to ensure this went smoothly, having half the office piled high in stacker boxes until after the engineers visit to organise the office. Left ********* to go to our main office at ********* where at 4pm I found all our phone lines had been cut off. I contacted BT to explain they seemed to have made some mistake, hadn’t turned up at secondary location and switched all lines off at main site. Within 10minutes the problem was rectified and all lines were switched back on, lots of angry calls from clients and candidates complaining they could not get through. Called BT to ask when they were going to resolve the installation problem, they said they’d get back to me in a few days.

Tuesday 22nd May. Out of office all day. Thought diversion on line to company mobile very quite, very unusual.

Wednesday 23rd May. Phone lines in office off, rang BT to complain and discuss problems regarding installation. Lots more angry messages via email from Clients and candidates getting fed up of this lack of communication with us recently. Asked BT to at least switch Main number back on 01952 ****27, the number by which we are known and everyone contacts us. Was called back in afternoon to say someone would be out to install lines tomorrow and would sort issue of main line out once installation had been done. Other lines seemed to be working. Was due at Retail Consultancies Forum at hotel in London, cancelled to ensure BT installation tomorrow goes ahead with no problems.

Thursday 24th May. Waited at **********all day having cancelled Retail Consultancies Forum for BT. BT failed to turn up. Called them and was told first of all they knew nothing about a call to say they would be there. Then was told later the job only came through after 4pm today so they couldn’t get out today but would be along tomorrow. Sent out apologies to clients and candidates, in particular new client in London, big new account, very embarrassed explained problem would definitely be rectified tomorrow and they could call my mobile in the meantime. Lots more emails complaining.

Friday 25th May. BT turned up a promised. Did not come to the house itself, someone told me they were digging up the lane and the drive so I spoke to them and one came and knocked the door when I was promised they would definitely have my lines in and on by end of the day. The BT van disappeared in the afternoon with no word to me. I thought initially they may have gone up the lane to do some work or gone to have a break and will be back, by 6.pm that evening I gathered they weren’t coming back. My main business line is still off, a dead tone to callers.

Saturday 26th May. I telephoned BT this morning to see what happened yesterday and when they intend on coming back, will they be arriving on Monday, my line is dead, it will be a Bank Holiday and myself and my clients do still work on Bank Holidays in retail. I am told they are scheduled to return on the 6th of June! I complained that who ever went out to a job, left half way through without telling the customer and thinks its ok to return 12 days later (without telling the customer), in the meantime my line is still off and as I was promised it would be switched on when they installed my lines I demand as it’s going to ta

vrs 4 years ago

Ok, the summary of my continuing BT case, things only got worse, my number is permantley lost, lots more problems including having a taxi companies lines diverted to my BT mobile for 5 hours on a day my new maiin line had problems so no clients could get through to me.

Wnd result, took them to ocurt, they did not file defense, filed for judgement, which the court granted and ordered payment of my claim for compensation. Upon calling chasing payment they claim no knowledge of judgement, then ask me to fax my court papers to them which I do, then when I threaten enforecemtne action I am told I'll get a call back shortly, which I do from the legal department telling me now they are having the decsision overturned at court so that they can have a chance to look into it!! and then make a defence!!!

The fact they had a month to do this, then respond to the judgement escapes them. So now, I have contacted the Chief Exec, in all credit first thing this morning I had anemail fromhis colleague promisin to get back to me..not that I have any fiath this will b resolved any time soon, despite having taken court action, I'm now preparing to place it in the hands of a litigation specialist as it's looking like the high court at this rate and in the meantime my business is suffering and I just want to re-genrated it, and focus on that.

BARBARA MCINTYRE 4 years ago

I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT BT FOR SEVERAL MONTHS RE. BROADBAND. I HAVE BEEN PAYING FOR THIS SINCE MAY 07 BUT CANNOT GET CONNECTED. ITS A WASTE OF TIME PHONING AS I CANNOT GET THROUGH THE SYSTEM. I PHONED 3 DAYS AGO & WAS TOLD BY THE TELEPHONE VOICE THAT IF I PRESSED RING BACKI WOULD BE PHONED BACK IN 1 HOUR - WHICH OF COURSE DID NOT HAPPEN. I JUST WANT TO CONTACT BT & GET BROADBANK UP & RUNNING. 01387 265919 (barbaramcintyre@nhs.net)

lashes0 4 years ago

where o where to start

We have been customers of BT for a year and in that time i have managed to have absolutly rediculous bills sometimes around £250 !! for not much usage

we then found out we had been over paying and were owed £400

trying to get the money off them after moving providers was like trying to get blood from a stone as i type this i have been on hold 4 times each time been hung up on after waiting for 40 minutes and then one time actually getting through and then being told oh sorry my system crached can i call you back tomorrw ( yeah right ) so i am once again on hold and they are vERY BUSY ...... i am so frustrated and feel like slinging my phone at the wall but i will not give up they owe me £400 and rising seeing as we cancelled with them ages ago and yet they still managed to take £90 out of my bank yesterday .. amazing

I would never ever recomend anyone to go with bt they are a disgrace and the worst company i have ever had the misfortune to be with I really hope something is done about the appalling lack of care for the customers and the outright theivery and deception going on .. one small bit of good news .. they will plant a sappling for every customer who decided to get their bills on line .. thank goodness for that !!!!!!

Janice 4 years ago

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 arent interested in the plight of customers.

Susan 4 years ago

It is comforting that we are not alone in this but also worrying that so many people are experiencing the same sort of problem with BT - where their message of its good to talk seems to lose its ring somehow.

We have had problems with our phone line and bought the BT Homehud with the phone to see if that would improve matters - but it was no better, in fact, it appears to have made the line much worse. We rang BT to report a problem and informed them of the history with the line. They tested the line and rang back as I was going to work so they had to then call back in the evening - however they did not go through all the fault finding with us which I recalled a little while later but at the time it never occured to me. They tried to say it was the equipment which was making the line worse (bearing in mind it has always been poor and we pay a hell of a lot for line rental) and that if they call out an engineer and it does appear to be the equipment that we may incur a charge. Obviously I stated that we wanted to avoid that at all costs but also that if it is anything to do with the Broadband that THEY supplied us with that it is a cost they should incur. BT also failed to state how much this cost would be - which I am sure they do have to inform customers of. The engineer came and went, for less than an hour, and fiddled around a bit. We did not get any feedback and was charged £184.00 +VAT. During the many irritating and very frustrating phone calls which took forever an being passed around a lot it, the general consensus was that the Broadband was exacerbating the problem with the line. The initial problem with the line is that is so quiet that some people find it difficult to hear us and we sometimes have problems hearing the caller. We did not use the phone much as we relied mainly on our mobiles but landlines do have their uses. The Broadband facility it now appears to make an incessant crackling and for a period of two weeks before we rang BT about the problem was so bad it was impossible to make a call or receive calls.

Now how on earth can BT charge for a product that they supplied us with which apparently interferes with our line and charge such a hideous amount that is totally unjustifiable? I also argued the point with them that they failed to go through all the fault finding possibilities with us so how could we possibly make an informed decision. If we had discovered that their product was in fact hindering the somewhat poor line further, we would have sent all their Broadband product back and sought another supplier.

I have had several calls - some which they failed to return when they said 'someone will call you back'. They have failed to answer any of my letters of which I have now written 5. I paid the line rental and call charges for the month but refused to pay that hideous call-out charge yet they cut us off. When I rang BT to find out what was going on they said that that should not have happened that they should have suspended the bill until it has been resolved but to keep the line active. They did reconnect - at 'no charge' but then a week or so later made all calls outward bound 'not recognisable'. They have sent us endless bills etc but have failed to write to us to acknowledge the complaint. I have received acknowledgement from OFCOM and say that I have to keep at it and then get OTELO involved - of which I have already notified them of the problem but have not heard from them yet. This has been going on since 5th November 2007 and naturally wanted to resolve this issue quickly and didnt want it to drag out as long as it has and was concerned about leaving it as long as has been. Unfortunately BTs complaint process is 12 weeks. 12weeks is way too long. They should actively resolve them a hell of a lot sooner. The calls to overseas call centres is futile and have in no uncertain terms been called a liar. Why on earth would my partner and I ring up BT to get an engineer out if there wasnt a problem!

I am absolutely disgusted with their lack of customer service and ignorance. This sort of inaction from BT as experienced by so many people is intolerable and and should not be allowed to continue.

Alex Mason 4 years ago

In July, I moved to a new apartment. BT are the only telephone company who supply here, so I had no choice but to go to them. I spent a fortune on my mobile phone trying to get through to them. I was on hold for over two hours several times, and one day, after being on hold since 7:50pm, I was cut off at 9:55pm, with a recorded message saying that they were now closed! Eventually one day I got through to them, but the woman I got was rude and also quite stupid. She kept asking me over and over again for the same information, and wasn't at all bothered when I told her about the bill I was acrrueing for the call on my mobile phone. I was halfway through giving her my bank details, when she cut me off, after spending half the call fiddling with her headset.

I called back and after only an hour on hold, I got through to a man. I informed him about the previous call and gave him the account number, but he told me that he couldn't access it, because there were two different computer systems for residential customers, and each call centre only had access to one of these! He said that at the end of the call, he would call the other call centre and completely cancel the other account, so I reluctantly agreed to start the process all over again. I was given a new account number with different letters at the start of it. Bizarrely, he only wanted a £25 deposit this time 'as insurance I would pay my bills as I was a new customer', even though the previous woman had taken a

Alex Mason 4 years ago

In July, I moved to a new apartment. BT are the only telephone company who supply here, so I had no choice but to go to them. I spent a fortune on my mobile phone trying to get through to them. I was on hold for over two hours several times, and one day, after being on hold since 7:50pm, I was cut off at 9:55pm, with a recorded message saying that they were now closed! Eventually one day I got through to them, but the woman I got was rude and also quite stupid. She kept asking me over and over again for the same information, and wasn't at all bothered when I told her about the bill I was acrrueing for the call on my mobile phone. I was halfway through giving her my bank details, when she cut me off, after spending half the call fiddling with her headset.

I called back and after only an hour on hold, I got through to a man. I informed him about the previous call and gave him the account number, but he told me that he couldn't access it, because there were two different computer systems for residential customers, and each call centre only had access to one of these! He said that at the end of the call, he would call the other call centre and completely cancel the other account, so I reluctantly agreed to start the process all over again. I was given a new account number with different letters at the start of it. Bizarrely, he only wanted a £25 deposit this time 'as insurance I would pay my bills as I was a new customer', even though the previous woman had taken a

£50 d

Alex Mason 4 years ago

Regarding the £4.50 payment processing charge, I have not come across any other company which charge it. However, I think I know exactly why they do. They realise that many customers avoid paying BT by direct debit, because the risk of BT stealing money out of their bank account for telephone lines which they have not installed, or for packages which the customer is not on, is so likely. So they came up with the £4.50 fee idea as a way of financially benefiting from this, which is disgraceful. I have had nothing but problems with BT. Their customer service is diabolical, most of their staff are incompetent across all departments, and the computer systems are obviously not adequate. I am sick to death of them, and once I get my money back, I am never dealing with them again. By the way, for customers who can't get Virgin Media, if you become a Sky TV customer, you can also get Broadband, and pay both your telephone line rental and for your telephone calls through them, removing BT from the picture completely. Sky Broadband is free for 2mb, £5 for 8mb and £10 for 16mb. The broadband helpdesk, in my experience, is not like BT's. They are polite, and they don't cut you off because they are too incompetent to help you with your problem, which is what BT tend to do. Sky Talk is not costing me much either. I pay £5 a month for free calls to landlines round the clock, and I think I get free calls to USA, Australia and Canada thrown in. My line rental is £10.00 per month. No more BT. Hurrah. And you can get hold of Sky 24 hours a day and their customer service is good quality. You might be on hold for 40 minutes, but that is very rare; I am usually on hold for an average of 10 minutes, to BT'S two hours! I recommend Sky over BT any day.

Georgina Harper 4 years ago

Miss Georgina Harper2 Andrews CloseBrookthorpeGloucesterGL4 0URAccount No: GB03465384Customer ref No: 1302539363Dear Sir/MadamI am refering to your letter dated 11 January 2008, Monthly Payment Plan, by Direct Debit.Originator No: 954759I have made several telephone calls to your offices regards to this letter, and on each occasion I have not been able to resolve the issues in question. So twice I have requested for someone in authority to ring me back, but I have still not heard from your company.I had been offered a half price installation fee of £62.00, To be paid in installments of 7 months @ £20.00 and for the rest of the contract £11.00 line rental.. to be taken by DD on the last day of the month. These details were not correct on the DD Financial details that were sent to me, so I have not signed this enabling you to access my bank account to take any amount out of my account. Due to the incorrect details also further more to the conversations each time I contacted BT. I have been told different information each time that I have spoken to one of your staff. I was told that my DD would of been £45.00 per month, also I have been offered different optjions each time. On my last conversation, I did state that I hoped that the conversation was being taped, as I had agreed a contract and now that was changed without my knowledge or concent. I now come to the conclusion that BT is not bothered about loosing customers, I have not been able to resolve this issue, so I feel that I have to cancel any installation that had been previously agreed. Please can you send me confirmation that you have received this email.Thanking you.Word by mouth is the best recommendation that any business can have. Miss Georgina HarperTel 07788854271

Sharmilla Kampfer 4 years ago

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!!!!!!!

Adrian McCrum 4 years ago

Back in August I told BT that I would be leaving a going to a new supplier. Since then I have been sent a bill for services after I have left? I don't understand this. How can they charge a customer after they leave. I have emailed and emailed so many times and get absolutely no positive response from their "Customer Service" team other than the tell me to pay the bill. Of course they want me to pay it but why should I give in to their threatening letters. I for one am recommending to as many people as I can to go to another supplier. On top of all of this they charged me £125.00 to reconnect! This is disgraceful. I was not made aware of this at the time of going back to BT and fnd it unbelievable that they have the cheek to charge customers who are willing to use them this amount. If I had known there was no way I would have gone back to them.

Richard H 4 years ago

Hope you can bear with me on this story. Moved into rented accomodation and was forced to deal with BT to reconnect phone for a charge of GBP 130 or so. Despite fact phone line was there. Told them at the time I would be moving to Talk Talk as soon as it was reconnected however they confirmed I would be able to pay this by Direct Debit.

Without any notice they promptly cancelled my direct debit and demanded full payment just after Christmas. After hours of waiting I managed to get through to someone and agreed I could pay over three instalments.

This morning I get a letter telling me they will be taking me to court if I do not pay. I called the number on the letter which led me to an Indian call centre but they could not help me and gave me another number to queue up in. This turned out to be the wrong number and I am queuing yet again.

And as a footnote been on the Ofcom site to complain but they have no facility to leave an email. Why not.

Viva the revolution we should not have to put up with such poor service.

Mr C Kings 4 years ago

Moving business premises and BT can't confirm until the day of the move if we can take our current phone numbers with us.

elCesar 4 years ago

BT is th worst company, how can they get away with extorsionate cancellation fees? According to them their fees are clear when you sign in, to me it was first news when I called to cancel their phone service due to their poor service. BT sucks!

ceri869 4 years ago

I was recently made redundant from a job which i really loved,so thought ok now i'm gonna do what i've always wanted,set up my own business,i knew it would be tough but it was a dream of mine.I already had the stock,found a shop to rent,sorted out the lease etc.All went really well,plain sailing without a hitch.I noticed in the shop there was already a phone-line i thought great that's all i need now is for a BT engineer to come out.So i rang BT on Weds.16th January,got passed around from one person to another to another to another before i actually got to the right department i needed.A lot of them were either apologising for a quiet line or they couldn't even understand me.????????

So I'm through eventually and went through all my details and was told an engineer would be out the following Weds.(23rd January)10 minutes later i was called back on my mobile,I was told that They were so sorry but an engineer wouldn't be out after all as there was an outstanding bill on the property and they would need to see a copy of my lease for the shop as proof that i was going to be the new tennant.Soooo i sent a copy of the lease and thought i'd wait till Monday before ringing them back to see why they hadn't got back to me.So i rang back Monday was answered by a foreign lady again who couldn't understand a word i was saying then passed to another 3 people before i got back to BT Business.I was told then by someone else(got all your names)that the reason things were held up was because they hadn't done a credit check so they done the credit check that was fine.When i asked them why didn't anybody return my call they relayed my mobile number back to me and only the first 4 digits were correct some imbecile couldn't even get my phone number right,also messed up my address.By now my dream is turning into a complete nightmare and i'm turning green with anger.Soooooooo i called them again today and I'm STILL waiting for a call from them,also they had to do ANOTHER CREDIT CHECK AND GOT MY PHONE NUMBER WRONG YET AGAIN.I'm sooooooooo angry but it makes me feel better to see i'm not alone in all this.I really don't envy any of you in having to deal with BT .Their customer service is non-existant,they just don't have a clue what they are doing.I'm normally a very patient person but BT have really p***** me off big time.

Bob 4 years ago

An update to my earlier post, if only to be courteous and fair.

That email address works! Within an hour, I recieved a response and a couple of days later, a call from Jason Campbell, who promptly resolved the somewhat over-complicated cumulative and complicated issues that arose from ineptitude in the overseas Customer Services and local Sales Departments.

He did so with courtesy with a level of professionalism that we expect. I openly commend him for his efforts.

Zoe 4 years ago

I've had not working service since I asked to be connected two weeks ago. I've had numerous BT engineers come round and they still can't fix it. They now say I have to wait in again for ANOTHER engineer. When I asked to cancel they said I can't as I'm tied into a contract and will have to pay extortionate fees to cancel. They are thieves and need to be put out of business

mrs g cooper 4 years ago

I cant believe how bad B.T customer services are.I've had an ongoing problem coming up for 3 months now.Back in October i noticed that i had 28 international calls showing against my number so called to say there must be a mistake as i havent and dont make internetional calls.After speaking to 4 different people, being past to one dept to another, being put on hold then cut off. I called back went through the same rigmarole i was told to call back on the 16 Dec as that was when my bill was due.SO i called back again i explained I DID NOT MAKE THESE CALLS nor did anyone in my home.I also explained that some of the dates that calls were made we were on holiday and the house was locked and secure and no-one had access to my home.I asked for a block to be put on all internetional calls which was done.After a few weeks i checked my online billing again and guess what THERES STILL INTERNETIONAL CALLS SHOWING AGAINST MY NUMBER.I called B.T and was told that the calls are coming from inside the house again i said NO THEY ARE NOT as i have a block in place.I was asked if i had children as they probably made the calls so that means when we were all on holiday my 11 year must have took a 4 hour plane journey back to the uk, drove from the airport to our home, deactivated the house alarm, plugged everything in, made phone calls then done the return journey. STRANGE.Today i got a call from an engineer asking loads of questions.I felt as if he was trying to catch me out i was furious. Then the icing on the cake came from someone from the investigation team who said i have international calls showing against my number and the investigation was now complete BUT as a good will gesture they will credit my bill by £20. WOW.Still hasnt solved the problem as even though a block is in place international calls are still showing against my number.I would love to hear from anyone with the same problem.

hey meee too 4 years ago

Tried to switch line back to BT in August - Easy HUH have had no phone for 3 weeks due to bill redirected to BT's own offices and I've been been paying for a line that doesn't exist. Just got a refund after 5 mnths. Still can't pay bill and they have terminated my line and no one can help because guess what -- I have a GB number and it isn't on their system. I've just been on hold and bounced for 1hr - even got the same person twice!! how does that happen???? I hate BT they had me in tears last week. All I wanted was my line switched back now I have a restricted line, (incoming only) due to non payment of a bill I never received and I can't fix it!!! Ahhhhhhh Grrrrrrr Useless Idiots - OFCOM here I come.

PaperShuffler 4 years ago

I have an ongoing problem with BT that started in January 07 with the installation of broadband. Firstly the equipment failed shortly into the contract. However after some small problem an oprative agreed to replace the hub but this would constitute a new contract being started. I pointed out that in fact this was in breach of the law to no avail and indeed received the new hub.

Following this I was contacted to adopt paper free billing, good idea thought I. Not.

After being contacted by email to inform me i could view my email bill on line i tried to do so. Guess what I could not.

After many attempts and emails to resolve the issue and an automated call to inform me I had also been hit with a late payment charge, I exploded.

Eventually after being in contact with BT the techs admitted they could not understand why it did not work and the solution was to discontinue this service to me.

I was then chased for payment and services curtailed despite never receiving a bill.

When I did eventually convince BT to send me a bill it was totally incorrect. Despite promises late payment charges were still showing, international call incorrectly billed and so on.

I have even requested to terminate the service but it seem even this cannot be done.

I have been in contact with India Ireland and the UK in an effort to resolve this matter.

Countless phone calls and i guess in excess of 90 emails sent, all to no avail.

The straw's that have broken the camels back are;

I contacted BT to request information so that I could email the Complaint Review Service in Durham with both a copy of all the emails and other information. (I could not print them all off and send them by post as I am sure it would go against BT's attempts at reducing the use of paper)

The call was answered by a very nice lady at an indian call centre who told me such a service did not exist, i pointed out that it did and confirmed I had the address but reqiuired an email address due to the quantity of information I needed to send.

RESULT she terminated the call.

I followed this up today by calling the number listed for the complaint review service. I was informed by a guy called Dave that I needed to outline the issues of the complaint so he could forward me to the correct dept. He pointed out that they were in fact just like the indian call centres and only forwarded information.

OK WHAT MUST I DO

Phone 0800 085 6161 they will be able to help.

At Last thinks I, maybe just maybe light at the end of the tunnel.

Not so having gone through the usual automated rubbish the call is terminated with a redirection to

Guess Where?

150

back to the very start one year later.

I have requested meetings have asked for advice I cannot talk to one single human who understands the issues.

HOW IN GODS NAME DO I RESOLVE THIS?

If anyone can forward me an email address for the Complaint review service that would be fantastic.

But if you can dont try emailing afterwards for a day or two. My email will block the system for ages.

Karen 4 years ago

Apart from having an ongoing complaint about Broadband (11 weeks now, still not resloved and still counting!). My biggest complaint is that even if you get a staff members name, when you phone back about the fact that they have not done what they said (this seems to be usual practice as far as I can make out), no one has heard of the person you spoke to, or no notes have been put on the system by that person. It seems that not everyone has the same information and I have actually been accused of lying (well a very strong implication) and it turned out the girl I was dealing with did not have access to the screen that would have given her the full information. What is the point of getting a name as reference if it means nothing at all. I have been fobbed of so many times, or told that something would happen and it does not, that I just do not trust them anymore.

Pete Flannery 4 years ago

I recently changed my bank account; by new bank informed BT of the new Direct Debit details; BT send me 2 separate (but identical) confirmation letters with my new details included (for me to check for accuracy). 2 months later my bank informs me that BT have yet to take their payment; my bank phoned and BT said everything was fine, it did not matter that the bank said all was not well. The bank then suggested I telephone. After waiting for 50 minutes and then being cut off, I had to wait another 45 minutes to be put through. I then relayed the details to the call centre; they then confirmed that I had not set up a direct debit; I said that I was in receipt of 2 identical letters saying that I had set the debit up. They were very insistant that I had not, I then mentioned the banks intervention to which I was told that they had no records of such a call - ho hum. All of this so that I can actually give BT money, it was enough to make me weep. They then said (after setting up the debit) was I happy with the service BT offer? I warned the call centre person that this was not personal and then had a rant (the answer was therefrore no). I have great difficulty with BT who seem to think that a blizzard of (crap) advertising will hide the fact that the BT brand is a pile of Shi*, and they always increase this cobblers when they increase their charges. Their current run of advertising on the TV trying to sell their product as a lifestyle choice in the so called 'noughties' (recently divorced with kids) simply makes me nauseous. Oh and by the way should you get through to a call centre abroad do not expect your problem to be understood any time soon. BT truly are a despicable brand and I can just picture the meetings that they have (probably every Monday) where at least one of the thrusting management nobs must come up with a way to fleece the customers and then make it look as though they are giving us something. Once the meeting is over watch them laugh into their Starbucks (and then be thankful that they still have a job).

Claire H from tipton 4 years ago

i have been a customer with bt for the last two years at my parents address but moved to a new property on october 2006. I called bt to ask them to switch my internet and phone line from my parents address to my new address, but was told that the previous tenants had changed their phone line to a different company and i would need to call that company to ask them to give up the line. which i did.

I then called bt back and i was told that there was no bt line at the address and would need to pay £129 to get a line connected. which is ludacris because there's a white box in my new home with bt's name on it. there was no way i was going to pay bt £129 for them to send an engineer to flick a switch or for bt to have the privilage of my custom.

But it gets better.... the previous tenant at my property has given me a letter, sent by bt to himself at my address in january 2008 stating that ,

"when you moved from bt, it may have been for another phone companies introductory savings. but are you still getting them? just simply sign the form below and send it back to us and we will reconnect you."

so why is it that the previous occupants that moved away from bt would of been able to get their line rental back for free, but as a loyal customer, i am being asked to pay £129 because i had the misfortune to move into a property that no longer had a bt line? i am going to leave bt next month because my contract is up this month and i think their methods are a bullying tactic. i'll keep my £129 and the £50 each month i would have been continuing to pay for their services.

thank you BT for nothing.

bert wilson 4 years ago

I've been reading all this shite on here about BT being a monopoly on lines.

last year BT divided into distinct and seperate businesses, BT retail and Openreach.

BT retail provide phone and broadband services to the general public.

Openreach provide line rental and adsl services to Telephone providers like Talk Talk, Sky, Bulldog AND BT Retail who then sell them onto the general public. all treated to the same terms and conditions so that there is fair competition available.

However this seems to gone totallly up shit creek.

BT retail can connect a line if you take out a 12 month contract for services with them. they will place the order with Openreach to connect the line and BT retail will pay rental to Openreach for the privilige.

Now that there should be fair competition between all the different phone providers ANY company should be able to do the same!

HOWEVER try asking Talk Talk or Sky to connect up a line for you and they will tell you to get "BT" to connect the line first. this is BULLSHIT!

now that ofcom have agreed these competition rules (the reason Openreach was created) there is Nothing to stop other phone providers placing an order with Openreach for you, it will cost them though as openreach will charge Talk Talk or SKy the same price as they would charge BT retail as there is NO LONGER a monopoly on phone lines.

Phone companies like talk talk or sky for example would rather NOT be paying Openreach to connect a line so take the easy way out and expect BT retail to pay Openreach as it costs far less to takeover and existing BT retail provided line that a line that is not connected.

SO next time you are hit with a bill for connecting then cancelling a BT retail service because you only wanted the line to get another provider I'd be right on to the new provider asking them why you had to go to a competitor (BT retail) to get a line connected when under the new rules as laid down by ofcom they could have done it themselves.

If I want to buy my shopping out of tesco they dont tell me to go to asda first to get a shopping trolley! other companies are using BT Retail to get out of paying the going rate to Openreach for services they want to provide.

Simon Farmer 4 years ago

I had a similar problem to you - I moved into a new flat in june 07 and after unsuccessfully trying to get cable installed by virgin (couldn't supply my street) had no other alternative than to get a BT phoneline installed.

I hadn't used BT since a previous problem when I moved house and they wouldn't swap my account over to the new address (making me pay the remainder of my account at the old address and starting a new one at the new address).

To cut a long story short I spent literally hours on end getting through to someone who would process my order and each time i did - nothing happened. After much complaining and so on I eventually got connected to a woman who sorted it out. By this time though I was already at the end of my tether. A few days later I decided to move house again instead of staying at the address so phoned up to cancel - I was assured it had been done and that my deposit would be returned to me (it had at this point not been cashed). This was in august 2007. After the phonecall (within a few days) they cashed the cheque. Then they turned the phoneline on (despite claiming they couldn't over the phone and that an engineer would need to come out). Then an engineer came out - who was a lovely bloke and just sighed when he found out I had already cancelled it and who told me this happens all the time now.

I have still not received the deposit back despite many emails (no way - I am going through that phone system again) and in the last email I warned them I would be going to the media or even considering investigating the matter further and finding similar people to perhaps make some kind of documentary film to highlight just how abysmal their customers service has become. It was during this research that I found your website which will no doubt be a wealth of use.

Susan Hedges 4 years ago

I thought that I would just add a few comments of my own against BT Broadband. I am so angry, which isn't like me at all.

I have had a problem with broadband for a week. I rang on 1st February 2008 to the technical support people. They fluffed about for 2 and half hours, couldn't find anything wrong with my computer. I repeatedly told them that it was not my computer, has I have another three in the house, with which I also couldn't access broadband. This seemed to rile them,mainly because I think that they knew that I knew something about the solutions they were trying and had tried.

Anyway after this they said they would get someone to ring back. Off course, they didn't. I rang again, repeated yet again my problem. They insisted that they tried again, for another 2 hours. I had now spoken on an 0845 number for 4-5 hours. They still didn't resovle the problem.

I asked neighbours if they had braodband, of ocurse they hadn't, their system was down as well. They had also been trying to get an answer to the prblem.

I rang aagin on Saturday, this time I spoke to someone who mentioned that their was fault in certain areas but thought that my area had been cleared. So he tried the system, yet again, no luck. This was another one and half horus wasted. Soemone would get back to me. THEY DID NOT.

I rang, yet again, on Monday, I could face Sunday, so I didn;t bother. Hoping that someone somewhere would plug in something!!!!!! NO SUCH LUCK. Monday, yet again, another two hours on the phone, PLEASE BEAR IN MIND THESE WERE NOT FREE CALLS. Same process again.

Tuesday, yet again, I ring. This time I was not calm and pleasant, they again tried everything, they are no help at all. They do not want to listen to you, either they couldn't hear me, or I couldn't tell what they were saying. Anyway, after all this time, I sugegsted that I wanted to speak to someone else about cancelling my broadband. That didn't work, they cut me off. Rang back, had to go through all the stupid questions again, on the threat that if I didn't they would hang up. Still no joy.

Finally, I said that they should check the exchange in the next village to me, because other houses on the road, still hadn't got their broadband. They said they would ring me back, once again, they didn't, ha, ha ,ha.

Well would you believe it, Wednesday morning it was up and working, and this being Thursday, it is still going strong.

Maybe they finally flicked the switch.

I was fuming stil though, because I didn't see why I should have to stand the cost of the telephone hours I had spent trying to

Susan Hedges 4 years ago

Sorry , somehow or other my previous words went away, said that they had been posted, hope you have them.

To continue though, I tried to speak to someone last night with regard to the charges for the 0845 numbers. I started on the phone at 6.10pm and finally came back down to earth at 7.15pm and was still disallusioend by the whole episode.

I spoke to about four different people altogether, and still am not happy. They couldn't do anything until the bill was sent out. Please ring back, madam.

I can tell you, in no certain terms, I am quite disappointed with BT, in all aspects, no wonder they are in debt, nobody wants to use them anymore.

Cutomer Service does not exist with them, I won't be using them next time.

Mick O'sullivan 4 years ago

I cancelled all my BT services in October 2007 & they were duly disconected on 17th November 2007. One months notice as required. Since then I have had many demands for payments from Bt despite my account fully settled. They are now demanding payment for broadband & their latest letter saying that my bt broadband is suspended on JAN 25th 2008. I have written a complaint to BT sent by signed for delivery on 24th Jan 2008. This letter came back to me to-day, BT would not even SIGN FOR IT! They are now threatening legal action for money they are not owed. WASTE of time ringing BT. They Just give the runaround.

elvis smith 4 years ago

Hiya

ok, so mines not as major as some complaints but annoying nonetheless...

I got a letter saying that i could get free evening and weekend calls for 12 months if i put my calls back through bt, (contract 18 months), now i hardly use the phone evenings and weekends, but thought it would be just about worth it.

so i joined that service. i had 1 week to change my mind.

today, 2 weeks later, i get a letter saying, if i change my calls back to bt, i will get free weekend calls (NO CONTRACT).

of course too late to change now, so i'm on an 18 month contract for something i would have got most of for free.

I rang to ask if i could change, but was told to change they would charge me the FULL PRICE of the 18 month contract, EVEN THOUGH i would still carry on paying my usual line charge & calls (ie i would pay for next 18 months line charge TWICE).

i asked why i was getting all these offer letters even though i had already changed back to them and was told it went out to ALL bt customers. i seem to get tons of letters from them, i think they are just trying to bamboozle us with lots of things saying FREE FREE FREE.

bah!

elvis

Lucy Jopling 4 years ago

I have moved into a house of my own for the first time in May, I joined BT for my line rental. The first time I spoke to them, they couldn't even get the right eara code. They gave me the wrong number, they said they needed my bank details and would ring me back with the right number. I have had nothing but trouble from BT, I have been billed for 6 months for someone else's bill. As well as my own! I have called them 6 times, the first few times they said they would close the account and give me my money back. We live on a low income, at Christmas my 10 month old daughter had to with out because they took

the last of my money. I have since got my solicitors to write to them as they are taking money that isn't theres. The last time I called them (Safe to say I was very upset!) they pretty much said it was fault they messed up I have just got a letter from them this morning, to comfirm the cancellation on my direct debit, to the account that isn't even mine! Now they are telling me I will receive quarterly invoices in the future. They would like to draw my attention to the £11.00 presently outstanding on the account THAT ISN'T MINE! If I do not pay it immediately this could result in my telephone service being restricted without further notice! Are they kidding me?! NO, taking the piss is what they are doing!

It's bad enough that we have to put up with their mistakes which cost us money, let alone them being rude to us over the phone and not having any idea what there jobs are.

Peter Fletcher 4 years ago

I cancelled my bt surftime package in August 2007 as I was starting with Virgin Broadband ADSL, and asked for the basic BT 'Option One' (basic landline). Since then I have been charged for 4 months' BT Surftime which came via BT Yahoo - a separate company. BT Yahoo said they had noted my cancellation and were waiting for a cancellation confirmation from the BT 'Offline' team, i.e: not contactable by phone. I have made repeated calls to BT and Yahoo and I keep getting the same answer - Yahoo are waiting for a confirmation from the BT Offline team. I cancelled my direct debit to BT in early January and was told I would receive a bill for the correct amount quarterly, i.e: in March. A few days ago I received a bill incliuding 4 months' worth of BT Surftime IN ADVANCE, - £ 198, when I should instead be receiving a rebate for the overcharged surftime. I HAVE HAD TO PAY THIS BILL, as I am applying for a mortgage and non payment will affect my credit rating - how about that??

J. Pep1inski 4 years ago

I have been exchanging emails with BT regularly. While they admit fault with my complaint, they do nothing to make ammends. Here is my initial email:

> 124.99 on Nov 13 for "New Charges for exchange line Standard Connection". > What does this mean? I was at no time advised that I would be charged this> fee.> > We were visited by a technician, who told us that there was no charge for> his visit, and that his visit was totally unnecessary, as it was only a> phone number swap. We were told that his supervisors seemed to be unable> to appreciate that. > > I have attempted to contact BT via the helpline, with no luck. I have held> for 90 minutes, 40 minutes, 25 minutes, and again for 20 minutes. How can> you explain this? It is purely ridiculous that the "phone company" is> unable to handle its calls. > > As a new customer to BT, my initial impressions are poor.

simon dunn 4 years ago

8th November 2007REF: CUSTOMER SERVICE OR TOTAL LACK OF IT My number 01375 65024221 Trelawney PlaceHoward GraysChafford HundredGraysEssexRM16 6DGDear Person ( Sir/Madam is to nice for anyone working at your company)I am writing in total disgust , first i would like to say that every time i have made any changes or odered any service with BT your staff mess it up.I phoned around the 26th of November 2007 after selecting the service for moving home and spoke to a customers cant be bothered representative and explained Iwas moving and needed 2 new lines at my new residence , I currently had 3 lines at the above address 01375 480151, 01375 481523 and 01375 650242 as I have a business and sometimes work from home and customers will phone me out of hours especially on the 01375650242 . I explained I wanted away of letting customers phoning the 650242 my new number at the new address , I was told that caller redirect would be the best thing for me so we agreed on a price and two new lines were ordered for new address TEL 0207 4760469 this was the number for redirection the other number is 02074761776 new address 2 Sullivan Avenue West Becton london E16 3LJ . All 3 lines for the 01375 area code were cut off the day after speaking to the customer cant be bothered representative . I thought it was odd as this meant thier was a gap between this happening and new lines in new address bieng installed , after the new lines were installed I phoned 01375 650242 and it was just dead i phoned customers cant be bothered and spoke to a guy with very poor english who i had to keep repeating everything 4 times he said as the line had been cut of it could not be done . Obviously I was not happy with this explanation as I have phoned well before line was cut off, all he kept saying was he wanted to transfer me to the technical department I said I had been in a queue for 40 mins to speak to him and did not want to wait another 40 mins to speak to them he said hang on and put me on hold immediately the phone started wringing to a diffferent department i waited 30 and had to leave to see a customer not in a good mood I love waiting on the phone for 70 mins to achieve nothing . I have a telephony voice recorder I use for my business which I have used on most of the calls after this one to BT. I got home and my wife asked why I looked like I was stressed i explained that i had a problem with BT , I then phoned 150 again and after another 40 mins got through to another so called customer service person, they said that the original order was not put through I explained I did not want to be transfered anywhere as it means I have to sit on hold again , they said they would not do this and before I could speak put me on hold after about a minute the line went dead I phoned twice more. 1 time i was cut off again the scond time even after pressing the right buttons when asked too, was told I was through to the wrong department and before I could say anything was transfered to another department baring in mind each time was at least 20-40 minutes listening to a voice telling me you were very busy at the moment and virtually suggesting a I call back at another time, I have called at all times and the wait time and message is always the same . I was so angry I could not think straight so my wife said she would try for me , she said just listening to how the call was going was making her feel angry and she is the most easy going patient person i know , she tried and the same happened to her she was cut off before speaking to anyone or constantly transefered to different departments with not one person taking any onwership over the problem .We gave up in the end during the long waits on hold we taped a majority of the calls and took photgraphs of the lcd screen on our phone displaying the number and time holding to speak to someone thier are 4 photos on the same date to 150 showing between 40 minutes and 70 minutes .We then went online to watchdog and brieflly explained the difficulty and that we had hard evidence how we were getting messed about. I then tried the next day and same thing one guy even made it obvoious you could here the reciever or cancel button bieng deliberately pressed and i was cut off mid sentance at no time had i used obusive langauge so bieng cut off was not warranted , if you listen to your taped calls you will discover this if you can be bothered that is . i finally put through to a technical person who did explain it was not the right department what a suprise but was going to help me anyway atlast , I explained how I had been messed around and she said she was not suprised what does that tell you.I got a call back friday the 6th to say it would be active sat I tried sat still not connected call 150 again after the 3rd attempt got someone who in a very offhand and unfriendly way admittedly I was talking in a stern voice but no abusive langauage can you blame me , that it was going on monday she did not say but you could tell she was thinking why is he getting upset, come on she must be able to see on her system that I had called a dozen times before or can she not read.I am a mortgage broker and I get at least 2 referred customers phoning 650242 after work hours for a mortgage , remortgage etc each mortgage could earn me up to 3k as i have not been geeting these call I have potentially lost 2-6k are you going to compensate me this money or will I get a patronising letter saying how sorry you are not good enough .In summery these are the problems with your whole service structure , everyone I speak to says the same thing .1. To many options to choose from so you have to be constantly transferred, as the person even after pressing the right number can never help you, bieng transferred is okay if you had not been on hold for 40 mins already and then another 20 mins.2 If bieng transferred it is only to another department that cannot help and wants to transfer you.3 Not giving out thier full name thier is no consistance in solving a problem as saying thier name is Tracy etc never will I speak to the same tracy again so when I call back I have to start everything again regardless if has been recoded on your system , this is just bad full stop.4 Having the phone put down on you , the only time this should happen is when obusive langauge is used but 3 times in the same day is a sin , I worked in a bank if anyone done this it would result in serious disaplinary action you probably will do nothing as it is so commen.5 Not even acknowleging the fact you have been dealt with poorly by previous staff as if it is irrelavant.6. The fact that you mess up everything you are requested to do everytime , I have spoken to a lot of people who say the same thing .I have gathered a lot of evidence so i expect some kind of monetery compensation or I will take this to your regulator, my solicitor and a watchdog body like BBC Watchdog and i will not let this go until I get monetry compensation. I have decided that if it is my lifes work I will mess with anyones job career who treats me with no respect I promise .yours sincerelySimon Dunn

James Fair 4 years ago

My complaint has rattled on for months regarding their useless BT Fusion package, but has turned into a giant illustration as to their incompetence on a grander scale. Put simply, they couldn't arrange a simple collection of their dodgy products so they have tried to trump up contract cancellation charges and referred me to creditors, despite there being a dialogue with their complaints team in place. It is hideously farcical. I've spent numerous HOURS on phone lines and had soppy emails that never result in any action. They really are the worse provider around.

Harry Lochhead 4 years ago

They are priceless. Telecom company who manage to send threatening letters recommending you visit a website that doesnt work. I have been disconnected three times from a land line that has never worked in the first case and managed to negotiate over the phone like a dutch auction some compensation which actually felt like was I was dealing with a turkish carpet salesman. "I give you eighty off if you pay twenty now" I kid ye not. Jillian G Lewis is obviously a figment of BTs imagination. Is there invisible ink on her charming letters which hides any contact numbers. "Customer Services Director"? Hiding behind a desk director more like. Off to negotiate a better price on 2 paper cups and some string. Keep up the good work my friends.

Gulshan Rafiq-Williams 4 years ago

Right form the start I have had problems with BT. Thought ending my contract with Virgin was a good idea, now come to think of it WHY THE HELL DID I DO IT. At least with virgin you got what they offered and no hidden charges. I joined BT in Aug 07. The problems started before I even received the products. BT had set me up on 2 reference numbers I only asked for one account to be set up and this was the Option 3 with the black unlimited Hub. One account was set up on a separate line rental that charged me for calls & the other ref number for the actual product that I went for. I was offered the caller ID which was not activated till 3 months after. I then tried to make a complaint via phone and this is the stress it caused me. Complaint Email:- on the 07/10/07 To the Customer Services Manager I would like to bring to your attention the experiences I have been through whilst trying to set up an account with BT. On the 16th August I rang to get my line activated with BT and to order option 3 package. My 1st call was made at around 11 am and I was on hold for 45 mins then to be told that I needed my phone number from customer care to complete the order. So I rang customer care was on hold for 25mins, long but acceptable. Once I was given my number I got put through to BT Broadband to make the order. After being on hold for further 1 and half hours, I got put through to someone who said "I am sorry the system is down, I???ll put you through to my colleague". I was waiting a further 45mins and got put through to an Indian lady who could not understand me. I asked if she could hold so I could get the address where to send the hub to, she said yes, came back and she put the phone down on me. That really annoyed me as I spent my whole afternoon chasing BT advisors to sort my package out. I decided to ring customer care to make a complaint and asked to speak to a supervisor. I was told that a supervisor cannot come to the phone and was asked to go back to option 3. I then said to her I want to speak with your manager and when the manager came on the phone he did not listen to my complaint, was very rude and said I had to go back to option 3 to raise my grievances. I then decided to give up and write you a letter. I am disappointed in the service I have received thus far from BT. I had anticipated a vast improvement from my previous provided Virgin, however I???m sorry to say there is very little separating you both at this point. As I am not in a contract with you for 18 months I do hope that your service will vastly improve in order to make me stay on as a customer although at this point it is very unlikely. Please feedback to your customer service manager that the current process for new customers is substandard and a long way away from achieving World class customer service. I would like assurances that issues with your transfer processes are being addressed and that your escalation process aims to resolve a customers query not antagonise the situation and leave issues unresolved. The response I got back did not resolve my query so I wrote another email, till this date has never been resolved and its over the 12 weeks complaint period. NO ONE HAS GOT BACK TO ME, and their still charging me for 2 accounts and internet usage?????? Then I received a bill including admin charge…. This puzzled me as I thought I had the one account, was not aware of 2 accounts. This prompted me to make them a call as I was getting so angry and upset about this. Spoke to a member of staff who said that he has sorted this out????? Till this date I am still paying for 2 accounts. I don’t think this is fair…. I want compensation for all the stress and wasting time this has cased us. BT are rubbish the worse provider to be with. I cannot wait to leave their service. And THERE’S A LOT MORE, IT DOES NOT END HERE.…..Any ideas on what we can do???

Mary 4 years ago

I had a new line installed 10 days ago. As yet my phone number does not seem to exist, despite the fact that I can make and recive calls and have recieved a bill for calls and installation. want to sign up to SKY for broadband but they cannot do it as they say the line is showing as CABLE!??! Even on BT's own website when i try to register the number to my account it says it does not exist. All the online broadband speed checking sites come back as 'this number does not exist'. Seem to be chasing my tail when it comes to customer services, fed up of waiting 40 minutes pus to get trhough to a human being on the phone. Sending complaints via email seems a bit quicker but the replies are obviously from India (I used to work in India so recognise the words and sentance structures they use!) and are of little help - keep on telling me it has been fixed when it has not.

Vickee 4 years ago

Hi! I have had various problems with BT over the last 6 months. Its all started when we were going to move ove to TalkTalk, but decided not to. We made BT and TalkTalk aware of this, yet BT still allowed TalkTalk to take over our phone line without telling us. Our phone line then got cancelled, then our broadband went down, and it took about 4-6 weeks to get them set back up. During this time, we ordered BTVision, which had to be ordered 3 times before we finally got it delivered. After our phone and broadband began working, we started recieving bills which were not ours (BT had compensated us about £130 after the troubles previously). These bills were for telphone numbers we didn't have, and area codes I've never heard of! We were also getting letters from debt recovery agencies. When calling BT to ask them to cancel this debt, they seem to have cancelled our phone lines (again!) and now we have no phone or broadband, and our BTVision has gone down as well. We wrote to BT, asking them to respond and correct the problem within 14 days, or we would take legal action. We have now decided to move over to Sky, but don't want to risk phoning BT as we know we will end up wasting a couple of hours of our lives! I'm not really sure where I stand now - can only use the net at work, and really don't want to waste time on the phone... Does anyone have any idea if writing will work? Or if going down the legal route is a good idea? I've been told that going to the small claims courts can make a difference! Help!

Anneke Temmink 4 years ago

Well I am currntly on hold and being tranfered and hung up on. This has been goibnng on 8 months now with broadband and phone prblems. They tried ripping me off several times and i caught them and they had to refund. They treatened to cut me off for asking for my mac code to change then said there was a fauly 7 months later and they would refund me 7 months of crap service,. now i cant get a hold of anyone and no one will talk to me or call me back! they said i am cut off tomorow for asking for my mac code also and i have paid up to date. I have sales assistants shout at me, poeple hang up on me and no onw will deal with me.

why are they running from me when they saiod the fault was their fault? hey even send me an engineer and tried charging me! I refused to pay for it as i dont trust them, they gave that for free as i didnt ask him down and he appeared. My part was fine no faults. And they are palming me off as i type this while tranfering me 20 times.

worse company ever they should have compition where poeple can dign up for phone and have nothing to do with them. They know they can treat customers like crap because they have no where else to go.

well i found internet that dsnt need phone, may nt be as good but least i dont have to deal with BT!

Phil schofield 4 years ago

How come BT charges extra for paying a bill by cheque at the post office, this is nothing more than blackmail and intimidation, trying to get customers to sign up to a direct debit. Its about time something was done about this disgusting practice, letting another provider supply an identical service. It can't come soon enough for me.

David 4 years ago

I called BT to terminate my BT account for the landlines and Broadband (prior 1 month notice as instructed) before moving out of the UK - and that was 22 June 2007.

I was given a termination reference number and was informed they will send me my final bill which will be bill accordingly.

I followed up on my bill online and discovered that they billed me the whole month - not as accordingly to the termination date.

I have been trying to call BT but their customer service is just so terrible!

All I want to ask them is a confirmation that my account has been terminated (since a whole month bill was sent) and to be send a correct billing. But the each time the customer service staff who answered the phone would transferred my calls again and again and I was put on a VERY long hold. Too long that each time I gave up!

It's frustrating as I was making a long distance calls (and with the time differences). I don't know how much I have spent all all those international calls. I proceeded to send them message via their website. And that was even more frustrating.

It’s clearly shown the customer service who attended to my enquiry plainly didn't even bother to read and understood my enquiry properly.

First, I had indicated that I had problem getting my calls to BT customer service being attended to. So I would like to be provided with a direct number (like other companies usually does for customer calling from overseas) or at least a email address where I can contact someone directly.

But instead, the reply I received was to contact BT customer service at that same number which I’ve been calling.

Second, I provided my telephone number where I can be contacted with the country code added. And I even had highlighted in the email that I am no longer residing in the UK.

Apparently, the customer service tried to contact me (as she claimed on her reply), to the number provided. But she dialled without the country code assuming it’s a local UK number (explains why there was no answer).

I responded back to the email but no reply. When further calls made still ended up the same, I proceeded to sent a complaint letter to their Customer Service Director (address provided at BT website). Yet till date no reply. During those time, I've been receiving reminder letter to pay my bill or my account would be terminated - well, shouldn't my account already be closed?? Thanks to the inefficient customer care, I am not only given a late penalty fee but now also legal letters (all my letters were redirected to me). It's been 7 months now and I still cannot believe I am still dealing with this issue.It's impossible that I keep on chasing them with phonecalls, emails and letters while they don't really bother.I seriously don't know what else to do to get BT attention on my case. If anyone could help with some suggestions I would greatly appreciated.Thanks.

susan 4 years ago

First off, for anyone having problems with BT and who is in a cable area, I wholeheartedly recommend Virgin Media. After 18 days of getting nowhere with BT in our quest to take over the phone line in a flat we've moved in to, we called Virgin Media on Monday 18th Feb to see how fast we could get connected. Today (Wed 20th) an engineer came to check our cable connection, which apparently hasn't been used for a few years. The set-top box and modem arrived a few hours later. We plugged everything in, made an activation call to a freephone number. We are now set up with a phone, fast internet and TV.

Best of all, we will never have to deal with BT again (for as long as we're here anyway - I hope).

My partner and I moved in to a new flat on 1st Feb. I called BT to have the phone line put into our name. Took half an hour on the phone but all seemed to go well. "That's it done," said the BT guy "call your mobile when you move in on the 1st and get your number."

Ten days later, we thought everything was fine until we tried to set up broadband and were told by BT Wholesale that the phone line hadn't been transferred into our name after all (we were making calls on the previous resident's bill - hoorah). The line was then stopped so we had no landline.

Were promised activation would happen on the 14th. It didn't. Then the 18th. It didn't. Hours wasted on the phone to customer services. False promises. Lies. Continuous transfers to other departments. Blame aportioned to Openreach (subsidary of BT Group - think the engineers are employed by them). Similar story to those which people have been telling on this blog. Don't have the energy to elaborate on the details.

We had to cancel a broadband order we'd placed with an ADSL provider. So they have lost out due to BT's incompetence. Doesn't say much for competition, but it's good news for Virgin Media - especially if they keep playing their cards right.

When I called BT today to tell them to cancel our request for an account, I felt elated, but the mere act of calling them again sent my blood pressure right up... :)

good work on this blog.I had exactly the same idea to gather in complaints and present them in a oner. Maybe you could film the great handover to BT (make the trip to HQ in person) once you've put them all together. I'll spread the word with others who i know have had huge problems getting new lines installed and suchlike (two of my immediate close friends).

In the meantime, go Virgin Media!!! And BT employees - I recommend you switch too.

elaine connelly 4 years ago

my problem started back in november of last year ,i had bt broadband any my phone for well over a year until november ,when i went online to check my bill i discovered that i couldnt get into my account ,it stated on it that i had to phone bt i did so there n then to discover that they were going to put me onto incoming calls as i had my direct debit of £67.50 had not been paid for that month ,i asked why as the funds were there ,they told me that my bank had cancelled my direct debit out ,after a few disputes i told them i would call them back as i was goin to call my bank which i did and they told me that bt had tried to take funds out of my account on a different day that was agreed and they cancelled out my direct debit ,so i called bt back but they were still insisting it was my bank ,i asked them if they could put me back on to my monthly payments to get this sorted out to be told no that my outstanding bill of £236.00 had to be paid in full ,i explained to them that i was on maternity leave and couldnt pay it it one payment ,i asked them if they would accept 3 weekly payments to be told no ,i am still fighting this as now i recieved a new bill for £587.oo i have phoned them a few times to be told i would get a call back as there systems were down which i didnt get a call back ,i have emailed them on numerous occassions wanting to get this sorted out ,i did recieve one email stating that i owe them that much as i cancelled out the contract and the charges were for ny outstanding bt option 3 and my broadband service ,i have refused to pay the charges as i didnt cancell my contract they did ,i told them i would pay the £236 that i am due ,but im not liable for any other charges as it was there fault ,they have now put my account to a debt agency ,and there is no compromise theyre not interested , help please as i want this resolved .

Chris Goulding 4 years ago

I originally left BT to join Carohone Warehouse several years ago (due to BTs extremely poor customer service), but have recently returned to BT as I needed a BT line to take up a new offer with AOL. Over the last few weeks I have discovered that nothing has changed.

I spent over 3 hours on the phone in 1 week attempting to sign up for BT Option 1 (line Rental only). I only want line rental as I have committed to a 24 month contract with AOL Talk Unlimitted as part of my Broadband Package.

Everytime I phoned BT I would be transferred numerous times and on every occasion was eventually cut-off. Of the 15 or so people I spoke to only 1 person appeared to know what they were doing. Out of frustration I then decided to sign up online. However, after completing the online form I found out I had signed up to BT Option 2 - Option 1 is not available to sign up for online.

As Carphone warehouse had put a ceas order on my telephone service I was advised by BT I would have to wait for my phone line to become inactive, then phone up BT to reconnect with a new number, I was also told my online order had not been processed and that there was no record of it.

My phone line never became inactive, but I did recieve an Email from Jacqui Kamara at BT asking me to cal 0800 800030 to arrange reconnection? I didn't call. Then I recieved a welcome letter for BT Option 2.

I have since been trying to contact Jillian G Lewis - the person whose name appears on the welcome letter. The welcome letter gives no reply address - very unprofessional - so I sent an Email to Jacqui Kamara asking for Jillian G Lewis' Email or postal address - however she is unable to help.

I'm no expert on communications but as BT are a telecommunications company I am amazed at how poor they are. Their operators are very unhelpful - and from experience useless. At my place of work we have Lotus Notes (not exactly cuttin edge software) but this allows me to find the contact details of anyone working for my company - something BT appear to be uncapable of.

I have registered 2 complaints now, both with no reply. It appears that I won't get anywhere trying to resolve this issue so I am now considering with-holding any payments now until BT agree to provide the service I want.

For now I will send both an Email and a written letter to Jillian G Lewis but I expect it will join her pile of unanswered letters.

How can BT survuve with such poor customer service - because their position is virtually uncontested. In a so called free market where competition is encouraged BT have been allowed to keep far too much control. It's about time OFtel stepped in and split BT up.

Amanda Brindle 4 years ago

How reassuring it is not to be alone! The frustration I feel with BT makes you want to cry. For eight months now I have been trying to get them to resolve my problem, however all I ever get in foreign call centre staff who lie to you and transfer you to anybody they can and the merry-go-round starts again. Most of the time you are left holding for half an hour only for the line to go dead. I have emailed them constantly and they still do not seem to be able to help me. This is appalling service. All I wanted them to do was switich the name on our account to my partners, they promised they would do this and charged us £25.00. After what feels like hundreds of calls and email they have not been able to resolve this for me and have even lost the £25.00 payment. I have been acused of making the payment up and this morning was told by Arlene GraingereContact Customer Service that she had tried to phone me. Phone has not rang this morning!!!

Kevin POTTS 4 years ago

I Contacted BT after my line started showing lots of interferance and crackling. Strangely at the same time as I took on BT broadband. An engineer called and said that the line running under my tiles in the kitchen was damaged. I had no way of confirming or denying this as it was buried under the tiles. I hadn't had any previous problems with the line. Anyway.... The very helpful engineer said "Don't worry, I'll just run this external line along your skirting board and problem solved". My faith in BT restored. He took about 10 minutes, got the line working but severed the other line to my phone in the hallway (which I haven't bothered to complain about). i have now received my BT bill and have been invoiced £184.00 for his services. AT NO TIME DID HE SAY, I WOULD BE BILLED.... I have a telecommunications background and could have run the line myself if I'd have known that I would be billed. I then phoned BT in order to complaint, only to be told that their systems were down and phone back in 3 hours..... PLEASE HELP... AM I JUST NIAVE OR ARE BT TRYING TO FLEECE ME.

mr a shafiq. 4 years ago

hi im making a complaint against the work that was caread out at my house ive been charged £99 for call out service wen ur enginer changed the wiring out side the house and in side the house so y do i have to pay for that ive tryed to contact bt on sevrel occcusions bt ur sttaff coudont aser my queshtons and hung up is that the service u r comited to provide customers. im not willing to pay that £99 call out charges if thats the case i have 3 houses and have 2 bt lines in my tenents names and ill cancell all the lines. and ill contact the locall newspapers regarding the way u have deallt with me. meany thanks mr a shafiq contact no mobile 07958 600327. watting to hear from u.

Mr H Sharda 4 years ago

BT Stole my number

We had been with BT over 5 years, paid all bills on time with out fail.

Over six months ago while trying to call home found no one was answering, upon investigation found my home number had changed. Called BT, they advised the had sold it in error and there was nothing they could do now. Had been given a temporary number, which seemed to change every few weeks, always without notice. Have raised mulitle complaints, been on hold number of time for hours, and passed to every department there is.

Forced to take legal action now

Email: Hsharda@hotmail.co.uk

sarah wyatt 4 years ago

Am not surprised to see so many posts on this site. I moved house at the beginning of january and tryed to transfer my bt account to my new address, i was told this would take 10 days. After 10 days nothing, so i called bt and was told my order had been cancelled, i placed a new order, again nothing happened. When i phoned to check the order bt had no record of it and i had to place another order, when this didnt happen i phoned to cancel and put in an order with my local cable company, who had me connected on phone and broadband in 3 days. i am now on into my 5th hour of phonecalls after receiving my 4th letter welcoming me to BT, and being told that i have 2 orders neither of which have been cancelled!

Jeremy Smallwood 4 years ago

It takes a while... sorry. But we're not alone! I have recently been without telephone or internet connection for 20 days, due solely to the incompetence of BT. Please consider the following: Wednesday 6th February: nearby BT excavations began and my telephone connection promptly vanished. I was not pre-warned of any disruption, offered any apology, nor advised of possibility of line severance or of the expected duration of time-out. Good project management and demonstration of excellent customer relations, an unfortunate accident augmented by poor communication, or simply the limp beginnings of an exhibition of impressive and cavalier incompetence? (Read on...)Monday 11 February: fault reported as soon as discovered, when I returned home from a week away. Further communication from BT was then limited to automated updates and automated apologies... (How can an update be of any use if all it tells me is that there is ‘no further progress’? And where is the sincerity behind an automated apology?)The automated prompt suggested I went on-line for updates... this was particularly difficult as there was no line. BT may care to look at the logic involved in this statement. Monday 18th February, 13 days later. Out of mounting desperation, I trapped a passing BT engineer, explaining my predicament to the first contact with an actual person from BT. He confirmed a fault and suggested a colleague would arrive that afternoon. (But no one appeared.)Another technician visited the following day, reconfirming the fault and suggesting necessary installation of ducting for a replacement line. “I would be hearing from the excavators very soon... (I did not.)19th: Telephoned by BT: “Diggers will be with you 08.30 tomorrow, 20th”. 20th: Diggers (II) did arrive but only to tarmac another BT hole, nothing at all to do with my problem. Diggers (III) arrived later that day. Excitement steadily mounted... this team filled in gaps between the same paving stones that would have to be removed anyway by my ducting squad. (Synchronised industry is such a difficult concept to grasp...) Having waited in thrilling anticipation all day, I phoned BT at 15.20 for signs of detectable life. “Excavators should be out some time this afternoon, before 5pm...”I know this will come as a shock to BT, but would you believe nobody appeared? (Anyhow, all was not lost; it was yet another opportunity to spend contemplating the toothless plight of the poor British customer when set against the disinterested incompetence of a Multi-National dinosaur.) 21st February 08.00. i) An engineer arrived to complete cabling, but was powerless through incomplete duct-work, even though his records confirmed otherwise... ii) 08.10 this engineer left to speak with the excavation ‘organisation’ (sic). “I will phone when I have further news...” iii) 08.20 an automated voice called, telling me that this same engineer was now on his way to my house... (Magic.)10.00 return call, from same time-travelling engineer: “Contractors will probably do the duct work tomorrow”13.30 I rang BT for confirmation. Operative had no records of anything, but rang back after 5 minutes with: “I think they will be coming tomorrow...”I again phoned BT later that day:” Notes not yet up to date. No further information. Will ring back.” (But of course, no one did...)22 February 09.00. BT Fault Line was unable to update on anything, holding with irritating music for 13 minutes before I rang off in now-familiar frustration. (Round 1 to BT.) Operative II later assured me that “duct work will be completed today...”Yet another BT van and engineer arrived around 13.00 (#5 so far...) to finish the cabling through what, his records showed, was completed duct-work. (But of course there is no duct work...) Much phoning around before he left, with hopes of “something happening this afternoon”. (I believe BT is vaguely linked with communications? You’d never credit it, reading these chronicles of wasted time....) As he drove off, an automated text arrived telling me to expect his arrival. Matters were dangerously starting to get eerily similar to Dr Who... “Spooky BT conquers Time Travel”.... (Honestly: you just couldn’t make it up!) 14.30. My excitement was difficult to bear... The Duct Team had landed. Did the job. Left site in excellent order. Same universe.I phoned BT Fault Line at 16.00 for next stage advice. Operator would “Ring back in the next few minutes...”And guess what happened next, Tarquin? Yup... no-one called...(In case you’re dozing off, it is now the 18th day without a BT line.)23 February 09.10 update call to BT: “Work will take place anytime between now and 5pm on Monday 25th. The engineers may need access to your premises”. (So. I was now effectively under house arrest for the next three days, as the moment I left the place a shiny BT van was, by Sod’s Law, destined to arrive...) 09.50 I tried another operator on BT’s efficient help-line. “Please ring Monday morning for more information”.09.55; yet another operator, damply lurking somewhere in Wales: “I’ll call the engineer with this problem, and ring you back”......and, most unusually, did return the call: “Unable to locate an engineer so cannot be of further help. I’m sorry”. (It was the last two words that really threw me, as so rarely a part of BT’s vocabulary...)25 February. 08.30 call to BT:”Anytime between now and Tuesday 26 February at 5pm” (House arrest now extended a further two days... Becoming just a little angry... Leant on bell of local telephone exchange until a real human answered. Courteous and understanding – as are the majority of the poor individuals working for this ‘organisation’ - this individual managed to push the right buttons, and...A little later...An engineer arrived to complete the connections. (I had to sit down for a while, as the room was swimming.) With hindsight, why was “work” started in the first place if BT was unable to complete their original task, with minimal customer disruption, in as short a time as possible? Why not simply source the required materials, detail a work-force, schedule the job, inform affected customers, and get on with it? Why have 4 separate teams of diggers and a further 6 separate BT units employed on such a simple job? That’s fourteen men and ten vehicles over 20 days; merely to join a few broken wires back together that BT cut off in the first place! I’m fairly certain that this sorry mess is by no means unique to your experience, so no doubt BT will have suitable processes already in place... (If I change my existing ISP to BT, as I’m presently contemplating, will this standard of management become the norm? Is it really worth proceeding, in the light of the above farce? Persuade me. Please.) I would be grateful if the person whose turn it is to field customer complaints this week could spare a few moments to write a sensible reply. Not an automated whine and not an anodyne response from a disinterested pimple, but proper words from an actual person who can offer mature advice. Are you there?

Peter Cook 4 years ago

I had a niosey, fast clicking on my line, sometimes loud enough to not be able to hear the caller speaking. I removed all the equipment and extension leads from the main socket and left in only the phone. It still clicked loudly. I changed the phone and it still clicked. I called BT's fault line to report the fault. They checked the line and sent out an engineer. He was checking for some time - he couldn't find the fault. He unpluged leads and checked, which took a while because the battery was flat on his laptop computer, so he had to keep going out to his van, which was obviously powering it. Finally he said it must be the extension lead to my broadband router and want away. I just received my latest bill and was charged £184 for this, what I thought, was a free service to its loyal customers.

So much for loyalty! I have complained and received a standard reply, which basically says that in your contract with BT they are perfectly within their rights to rip you off however much they like. I intend to cancel my direct debit with them, end my broadband as soon as my 18 month contract ends and switch my phone to a different supplier, leaving only the phone line in place. I don't think I will ever call their fault line again, however bad the fault!

Pete Flannery 4 years ago

Re: Jeremy Smallwood ordeal; for goodness sake do not change your ISP to BT - they are every bit as awfull as your above experience. All of the time and effort spent on your easy to repair difficulty and they still manage to make massive profits. I wonder if they can imagine a world when they become efficient and customer friendly and then further imagine the massive profits they would then rake in. Still, I suppose it is easier to rip the customers off and watch the cash roll in with the minimum of effort. Nice work if you can get it... BT are (one of the) most despicable utility providers - as voted for by its customers although their advertising would have us believe otherwise. Still - happy days eh... I no longer have any service from them (other than line rental); I would urge you to do the same.

MRS B CAVALLA 4 years ago

I LIVE IN A PARK HOME FOR SENIOR CITIZENS. IT IS VERY QUIET AND WE FEEL SAFE, UNTIL WEDNESDAY EVENING AT ABOUT 11 O CLOCK WE HAD TWO PEOPLE DELIVERING BT TELEPHONE BOOKS. MOST PEOPLE WERE IN BED, SO HEARING PEOPLE WALKING AROUND WAS QUIET FRIGHTENING . IF THIS IS NOT THE RIGHT DEPARTMENT, PLEASE PASS THIS E MAIL TO THE CORRECT DEPARTMENT, AS IT IS HARD TO CONTACT THE RIGHT PEOPLE AT BT TO COMPLAIN TO ABOUT THIS.

cerys 4 years ago

on the phone to BT as i write this losing the will to live!!!!!!!! been 3 hours on hold so far!!!! aaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!! was 5 yesterday!!

Ki  4 years ago

I have been having arguments with BT since November 2007. I moved home, asked to cancel my phone line and move my Broadband to the new phone line. I agreed that I would have to pay a £70 charge for the cancelled phone line. Only they never cancelled the line. They just continued charging me every month for the person who moved in to my old flat's phone calls! I finally managed to get them to cancel this 2 weeks ago but as yet they have not refunded me for the charges they took. I had to cancel the Direct Debit to stop them taking more money, then they sent me a letter saying they hadn't taken my Direct Debit because of an error on their part and would take it on the 20th Feb - and sent the letter to my old address!

The broadband took over 5 weeks and hours of phone calls and repeatedly getting cut off to get them to move it over. Even when they told me it was sorted and gave me a start date, they then wrote and said they had cancelled it because my phone line wasn't installed! I rang them and pointed out I was ringing from the phone line they said I didn't have! They still made me pay for the Broadband I didn't get.

After the broadband finally went on, they took £346 out of my account for cancelling the broadband contract - which I hadn't done and the broadband was still working! I rang them, and they told me they couldn't return the money! They offered to make it a credit on my account! I only pay £20 per month! I used the direct debit guarantee to get the bank to return the money.

I've complained 3 times by email, been told I can't speak to anybody regarding my complaint when I ring, even when they asked me to call them! They are now saying they sent me a cheque for £346 the day I originally complained and I have to pay them back! I've never had a cheque from them, and my complaints seem to be going nowhere. I've asked for details of their ADR but they're not giving them out!

Cerys - I know what you mean! I've wasted so many hours going round in circles with them, and they've admitted it's their errors but won't do anything about rectifying them!

Miss Lucy Willett 4 years ago

i hate BT!!!!!!!!!!!! I really cant stand them! they are too big, too many people not knowing how to deal with your problem. I moved house, and for some reason they cant seem to understand that I HAVE MOVED!!!!!!!!! They wont stop sending letters to my old address, all my bills, they havent changed my address on their computer, but my broadband had been changed. the first payment i made to BT was for £200 but this isnt showing up for some reason!! i have made so many complaints to BT its getting stupid, and they never respond and they wont respond now so dont know why i'm wasting my time writing this. I have asked again and again and again for itemised phone bills but guess what!!!!! no itemised phone bills have been sent to me! it took them 2 months to set up my broadband! i have been living in my new address for over 3 months now and they still havent changed the address! they are now saying that i'm going to be cut off for not paying my telephone bills!! for one - i have never received a bill as they have been sending t to the wrong address!!! 2 - i made a payment of £200!!!!!!!!! which they said they can see when i phoned them up (after being on hold for over an hour!!!!!!) but its not showing up on my account! so they need to fix this! and i'm supposed to be on some sort of option 3 plan but my phone bill is nearly £400!!!! um................... i dont think i'll be paying that some how!!!!!!!!! i hate BT!! I have been hung up on 2 times! the waiting time is stupid, i have been on hold for over an hour before, people dont know what they are talking about, "i'm not authorised" is all i hear!!

GARY 4 years ago

LET ME SAY BT IS CRAP L PHONED BT TO GET HUNG UP FOUR TIMES TO TRY AND SORT OUT MY PROBLEM WHEN L FIN GOT THROUGH L GOT AN PERSON WHO COULD NOT UNDERSTAND ENGLISH THEN WHEN L ASKED TO SPEAK TO A MANAGER HE THEN HUNG UP ON ME L HAVE NOW BEEN CUT OFF AND BEEN GIVEN TO THE 09/03/2008 TO PAY MY BILL AND THEN L HAVE A FUTHER £25 POUNDS TO PAY IT IS A COMPLEAT JOKE

Matthew Winyard 4 years ago

Ordered a BT Line for the house I just moved into, the people that occupied the property before me was with "Talk Talk" and so for me this became a problem as this was not a "BT LINE" according to BT and there was no line on the house, I repeatedly told them there was a line to the house but I gave in and agreed with them and they dispatched an engineer to my house to install a line on Moday 4th March, so I booked the day off work to see what was going to be done, they also advised someone be at the property incase they need access to install components. 4th March came round and I was waiting all day for an Engineer. Later I tried the so called "Talk Talk" line to find it worked. So now I have to pay £130 for a line that already existed, I lost one of my company days holiday.

I contacted BT and said I had no engineer come to my house and they said sometimes the engineer does not have to be present to make a house visit they can do it all at the exchange.

In no way I will be going Direct Debit with them, but oh wait they will charge me £1.50 more a month if I don't...

I cannot wait till I can come out of my 12 month fixed contract to go with a different provider not because of all this messing about but when I call customer service I wish to speak to someone that can speak English.

Peter 4 years ago

I was going to switch back to BT after years with NTL/Virgin, as I had got fed up with the poor customer service! Ha!

When someone answered the phone (it took 40 minutes for them to do that) I couldn't understand a word they said and had to redial. The second time it took about 25 mins. This time I got someone who was so impatient and bullying that I found myself agreeing to new phone lines being put in, which I hadn't thought would be necessary and which I can't easily afford. After more than an hour trying to get through I didn't want to miss my chance, so I accepted.

The next morning, having thought it over and having phoned Virgin and been offered a better deal than I was on, I rang BT again and cancelled.

Today - a week later - I get a 'Thank you for joining the thousands who choose BT every week' letter. and two identical 'We're setting up your direct Debit' letters.

So I rang them this morning. After half an hour someone answered, asked for my account number, told me he couldn't help as it started with 'GB'. Said he'd put me through to someone who'd help me. I asked how lomg that'd take. He said something I couldn't make out and transferred me. Aafter listening to the ringing tone and the same bloody message over and over again I gave up.

I'm SOOOOO pissed off.

Peter

Michael Barley 4 years ago

I've been put on restricted speed for downloading too much on an apparently unlimited download account. I've contacted BT about half a dozen times to receive general emails about downloading which was obviously copy and pasted from a web page. A page that I had already read. I asked for a real response and was given a phone number to call, which is only available between 8am and 5pm Monday to Friday. Hmm, that's when I'm at work, and we're not allowed to make personal phone calls. I've tried to explain this to BT and have asked (politely at first) that they give me guidance on their recommended acceptable download limit for my account, so that I can keep check of it myself and try to be fair. I've had no response, just the usual copy and pasted replies and a link to the phone number. It seems that whoever receives these emails just don't know what to do with them, or don't have the power to do anything. I've contacted the complaints department twice but had no reply. I did get a reply to my question of how long my contract is however, and it seems that I can't break it without a penalty, even though in my opinion BT have already broken it, supplying me with an appalling service.

I pay £25 a month for 8Mb broadband. Last week I was getting 500k download speed, a couple of days ago it was down to 250k, and now this evening it's at an all time low of just 75k!! I've checked the BT Hub, and it's fine.

I'm appalled at BT's lack of interest in their customers. I hope that people vote with their wallets and leave BT in droves. They deserve it.

Michael

Bob 4 years ago

Here is telephone number for the office of BT's chairman.

08000232067

Hope this will help some of you.

P.S dont ask where I got it.

Jack Koumi 4 years ago

It is now 3 weeks that our telephone 01788 543 643 has been out of order, which means we’ve had no broadband either. And according to various staff we have talked to (after interminable delays on 0800 800 151) it is the ISP, btinternet, that is to blame. We have been told that the job keeps being closed ready for BT Wholesale to do their bit (BT Wholesale are the engineers or the equipment suppliers for btinternet), but that bit never gets done!! It is those "tie - pairs" or whatever they call them that need replacing. The engineer that came yesterday thought he could sort it, & I was hopeful for once..... then he phoned & explained everything to my wife in detail, even the exact place where the fault lies, but, guess what, he can't touch that bit because it belongs to BT Wholesale.

The situation is so exasperating. My blood pressure has reached epic heights!

How can BT possibly justify this situation? It is absolutely disgraceful. Surely there is someone with the authority to order someone to DO SOMETHING.

Tom Fisher 4 years ago

I waited three months for my phoneline to be installed then Back in December I paid a bill for £164.97 online, however the payment was debited three times (a total of £494.91) from my account.

I contacted BT and they had no record of this occurring and told me I should contact my bank. I then went to HSBC who said it definitely had occurred and they agreed to pursue BT on my behalf to recover two of the three payments.

HSBC recovered two payments (a total of £329.94) leaving BT with a single payment for the correct amount of £164.97. In January BT refunded me these two payments but again according to their computers they have no record of these transactions. All that is showing up is that I paid in December but it failed, this is clearly not true.

I assumed this was the end of the matter as I had recovered the excess amounts debited from my account and BT still had one of the original three payments (£164.97). Also I called the call centre and was assured there was no money left to pay.

Then three weeks ago my phone line stopped working. So I called BT to report a fault. However the engineer discovered there was nothing wrong with the line and that it had been taken temporarily out of service. He said I would have to phone BT to correct the line. I spoke to BT and they said the only reason that would have occurred was if I had not paid my bill but I was assured this was not the case and they would get an online team to investigate, I am still waiting to hear from them. So by now I had been assured on several different occasions that my bill had been paid.

However on the 6th of March I received a reminder letter from BT for the same amount £164.97. This completely shocked me and I called BT they said I owed £164.97 (despite being assured the Monday before that I did not owe any money). When I asked to speak to a Complaint Review Manager I was not transferred as there wasn’t one available.

I had another letter yesterday informing me the line may be cut and a late payment charge will be added and I may have to pay for the full contract period. As my bank statements show this money did get paid three months ago.

PaulBri 4 years ago

This is what happened to me

1} 22/feb have tried 3 times to order BT vision, every time the order as been cancelled internally by BT, spent ages on the phone trying to find out why! have waited weeks for delivery that is not going to happen. Not one person on the phone at bt knows why the orders were cancelled, and they will not let me talk to anyone in charge at bt vision, looks like i have come to a dead end. wish I had not taken out total broad band for another year, will be going back to sky for TV but another year for sky broadband, after being duped in to going with BT.

Can anyone help at BT? I must be joking

2}29th feb BT are Re-ordering for the six time, got to wait until the 10th march for box, don’t think i will get it. One of the bt staff told me to go back to sky! and that was one of the btvision staff. Its just unbelievable no one to help me. will just keep waiting.

Keep seeing BT vision adverts on TV,

3} 8th march. Just been on the phone to BT again my seventh order for BT vision as been canceled again, I have given up on BT vision, customer service in total Kr***p, one lady gave me a parcel tracking number for delivery on the 10th March when i checked the number it did not exist, rang BT back and found out that the lady made up the tracking number, its totally beyond any understanding, I have now given up anymore phoning of BT vision, now spent about 90 minutes phoning, no one can tell me why or can be bothered to phone me back. one lady that worked for Bt vision said i would be better using sky TV and that is the staff.

many thanks, Bob for the phone number will give it a try, but I don’t hold much hope.

Sharon 4 years ago

I called BT in october 07 to let them know I was moving house and to put call mobile on my account, some idiot took that to mean I wanted to move from paying monthly to paying quarterly! I forgot to check my bank account for the DD as I assumed it was all as normal (moving house etc) and then got a bill for £285! I queried this (3 hours on the damn phone) it was apparently sorted out. Then I got a bill for £283 on 8 march 08, which BT had debited from my account the day before the bill arrived and 12 days before the due date.

I got an indemnity claim through the bank and will have my money back.

Spent hours on the phone to BT yesterday, got some very rude and ignorant manager who told me I have had my phone disconnected and my BB will follow today. I would be sent a bill that they wanted paying asap or they would send debt collectors to my home. I have offered to pay what I think I owe over 12 months on my DD but they refused and insisted I pay over 4 months, no leway, nothing. Ive told them to shove it and to sue me!

I have just called Virgin media and have got them to supply me with phone line and Bband for half the cost of BTs services, oh and Virgin have much friendlier customer service

janet  4 years ago

ive been with bt now six months... everything was goin well unitll marchs bill!! my bill was for 89 pound!! well wen i 1st signed up to BT i had to pay a charge of 50 pound which i was told i wud get back at the end of six months!! i asked them to take this 50 off my 89 and i wud pay the difference with giro check!! anyway BT told me they wud ring me back within 24 to 72 hours... which they never!! they cut me off the phone and sent my 50 back in post!! now im without a landline and they are tellin me i need a engineer sent back out again because the not pickin up my line!! they r tellin me i need to pay a fee of 125 pound once again!!!!!

Tony 4 years ago

One way to complain about slow broadband speeds is to phone 0871 2003369 (the sales number) and complain abou deceptive selling. Tell them up to x y and z dowload speeds is a nonsense and they should be giving average download figures which are half what is advisrtised.

Jim Morrell 4 years ago

5 weeks i have been trying to get through to bt about sorting my ridiculously slow broadband speed and crackly line.. Its there duty as a service in which I PAY FOR!!!!! to come out and fix. I am not allowed to touch the cable which is outside my house which i know for a fact is the problem and I am constantly getting emails back explaining i am being capped.. well if im being capped 24 hours a day then jesus I must be downlaoding a lot which ahrdly seems possible when im only receiving less 0.5mb/s connection!!! I hate Bt with a passion and i will win this even if it goes to court!

Phil Gee 4 years ago

Have 8mg option 3 broadband unlimited,i have had this service for 9 months now. Upon getting a slow speed of 0.7 i phoned bt to find out why.

They said you have had your speeds cut because of the fair usage policy. What fair usage policy i asked. The liar on the phone pointed me to another number.

I phoned this number next morning to be told the same words. I then pointed out i knew nothing of a fair usage, nothing was mentioned on taking out the contract for broadband. I was under the impression my broadband was unlimited ie. no limits to downloading or uploading. I knew over and over again that i had asked about this being unlimited downloading etc. They will not tell me what the limit is, only that you can be charged 30pence per gig,soon rising to 60 pence.

I went their website and yes found some fair usage for option 3 (but they will not say what the limit is). There is a limit for option 1 and option 2 but not option 3.

Going back to conversation with the chimp on the phone,i asked how come you did not email me as to stating on your website that you email customers on option1 and option 2. The chimp replied oh we don,t send out emails to option 3 customers.

So my understanding is this, bt lie and lie, excuse for excuse. They expect me to put up with a limit that no customer knows an answer to and charge me as well. They peg me everyday ,including weekends ,at the moment times of 6.30pm to11.45pm with 0.7 or lower. They even had the cheek to say download outside of peek hours or at night(which i did anyway). Since when has 11.30pm been peek times.

I have found it impossible to find out the limit-how long this will last-from what period till when. I can,t find a way to warn other customers of this. They are rude,liars and to my experiance don,t give a damn about customers once you are tied to a contract. I,ve tried every avenue of complaint.

They also fleeced us of the the line fiddle.

A bt line was already connected to this house. I asked bt what the charges would be for the phone, they said ask the engineer when he calls before he goes up the ladder,because if he says there is a charge then you will be billed,ok i said.

The engineer called,tested the line and did what he had to do. After that i asked him what bt told me to do. Are there any charges he replied no. I asked again to make sure,he said no again. A little while later a bill for £125.00 came,i contacted bt and complained. The answer i got back was,the engineer had no right to tell you that. I stressed that is what bt told me to do,i was only following instructions. We.ll look into it the chimp said,that was 9 months ago and still nothing,i,ve complained since then but nothing. I am convinced that this is a regular practice of bt charging again fo the price of new lines,i have heard of customers with similar problems.

I feel cheated over and over again. My conclusions regarding bt internet are poor speeds,poor service and they ignore and lie to customers. I would not reccomend them to anyone.

As to the phone...people beware and get eveything in writing if you insist on them. Do not at any cost take their words over the phone ,email or internet. My best advice would be don,t go near them. They now are increasing line rental. I have 3 more months on my contract,i cannot wait for it to end. I will never see the £125.00 they conned out of me. Hope you take this advice..Regards!

M O'Byrne 4 years ago

I closed my BT telephone account, moved overseas and gave them my address. Bill took 14 days in the mail, I sent back a cheque for two pounds 35 pence!. BT did not take into account the time it takes to pay bills and I received a letter from a debt collection agency. I checked that BT had cashed the cheque, which they had. What a bunch of thugs. i take solace in the fact that it probably cost them more than my measly final bill. hurray!

mr ben celisse 4 years ago

i was kept on the phone when i wanted to get reconnected for over an hour. i was asked to pay £25 on a card and set up a direct debit for monthly billing and connection cost£125? spread over some months. the engineer was meant to come on 6th march, after another long wait to see if they were coming i was asured that they could come up to 6 o clock, still no show. i contacted them again on 9th march, i was passed around the call centre with difficulty being understood. i wanted to complain about the service. BT had taken money from my card and a payment through direct debit of £36 and I still wasn't reciving any service from them. I had to take the day off of work and being self employed lost a days money, now i was being told that an engineer would come the following day, resulting in me losing another days wage. I told them that i wasn't happy and would like to be compensated for my inconvienience, the bad service and my loss of two days work. I was told i would get £10. I don't think this is good enough from such a large succesful company. I ended the call getting very frustrated with the caller and told her to cancel my agreement and reemburse me. the next morning an engineer turned up who was very helpful and approachable. I would like to speak to someone who can help me with my situation and the way i was treated.

I do want the service BT provide and am considering taking out other BT services such as broadband and tv. I would just like to be considered as a valued customer with some form of compensation.

thank you for your time looking forward to hear from you

mr celisse

Hung 4 years ago

Reading your inputs above, I genuinly share your frustrations and am feeling sorry for you all.

I had a situation with BT last November. When I 1st moved to my new home, I contacted BT for connection, and was told (after checked on their system) that my address has no line therefore I need to pay £157.99 connection charge.

A date was set for this, but no engineer turned up at the time they should be, I called BT again and this time I was told that there's no need for an engineer to call as I have a line already and hence the number was active there and then, They also confirmed that there will be NO connection charge at all.

2 days later, I received a telephone call from BT asking me for an appointment so that they can send an engineer down to connect my line. I explained and the person on the phone apologised and confirmed to me that she will cancel the booking.

Some 4 weeks later, I received 2 bills 1 for the current number which I recognised, and the other, charging me £157.99 for connection fee , and on it it shows a completely strange telephone number. I quickly checked my bank statement and found that they had already took money from my DD account.

I was furious, I called Customer Service and was passed around between department like a bloody football.No one seemed able to help me, and it was a total waste of time. I got fed up and decided to write to their complaint review service in Durham. I threatened to take legal action unless I receive a full refund + £25 for my letter.

I sent this on 18/02/2008, and until this morning , nothing happened!!!

I was so frustrated every time I thought about it. I search and found this site , after reading some of your guys' stories, I got hold of the CEO contact address:

ben.verwaayen@bt.com , I wrote to him at 11.27 and 4 minutes later he replied with a message :

I will ask our high level complaints team to look into thisben.... Anyway, this after noon I received a phone call from BT : basically they agreed to pay back the full cost + £30 for my letter. They also told me to ignore a bill which was sent out on the 8/02 demanding £73 termination charge on this "non existing line"... and repeatedly apologised for all these troubles.I hope this was the last I have to deal with them, and my advise to all of you is: write to the right people (in this case Ben Verwaayen BT Chief Executive), you will be surprised with the response. Good luck to you all.

Sam 4 years ago

I am currently in BT's complain procedure after a 22 day delay in connecting the correct phone line.

I experienced major problems with BT customer services.

After the initial few days, I began to diary, to the nearest minute, every call, every transfer, every period on hold, every callback that never materialised, every deadline that passed with no action etc...

I also have a piece of correspondence from them calling me "Mrs Upchurch" (?), with invalid reference numbers on that they can't find in their system, and claiming to have attempted to contact me when they blatantly have not.

All in all it makes pretty good reading and it makes BT look like a complete mess in every dept.

If you are still interested in this data, please contact me on sam@majestictours.co.uk

June Lee 4 years ago

This is simply unfair contract, the despotism of the conglomerate.

I have two stories. please help me.

Last autumn, I paid my bill lately. So BT disconnected my phone and broadband with one-year charge of the line rental. I reconnected the phone line with extra charge.

This winter, I've chaged my phone and broadband to Tiscalli from BT. Tiscalli said that they can handle everything and only one thing I can do is just relaxed.

I was surprised couple of days ago that the BT sent me a bill of cancellation charge.

I think I spent almost 300 quid for this extra. because I'm student, this money is something big to me.

BT's customer survice is just a henpecking hen. Always same neverending story.

I think this is unfair trade. Anybody has similar experience or any advise, please send yours to me at freemanjunelee@hotmail.com

Cheers,

andrew sheard 4 years ago

dear sir /madam

i recentley moved into my property two months ago three weeks later i decided to have a broadband and bt vision this was fine until 2 weeks ago where it begun. i lost connection with broadband for over a week there for found myself trying to get in touch with yourselves but to my disscuss found myself passed from pillow to post it was harder enough not being able to understand your colleauges but when i repeatedly told them of the problem nobody wanted to take responseability therefor i kept ringing all there the various numbers 0845,150 ect to the point where i was so frustrated and then today found one of your colleagues asking me the same question no less than four times some times i found my self needing a interpreture and telling me my bill was over due of which i told him that i had already spoke to again someone yesterday being the 12/03/08 and he carried on with the same question what sort of training do some people get i would be of sound mind appreciate it if some one in english without being rude would get in touch

yours hopefully

andrew sheard.........................

Gary Thorpe 4 years ago

What an absolute farce, BT have proved to me to be just about the most incompetent company I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. It would take way too long to write my whole sorry story, however, suffice to say it is not dissimilar to the above complaints. Our problem started over six months ago, with a problem with our internet, which was never resolved. We then moved house about 5months ago and unwittingly requested BT services at our new address. So for the past 5 months we have had nothing but trouble. This is internet, BT vision, pricing, etc, etc, So the ordeal continues to no avail and this week after around 20 phone calls and equally as many promises to resolve our problems we are still awaiting the remote control for our BT Vision Box, which we have had for a month now, (and no doubt still being billed for) It would appear that this item has been sent out 4 times now but to our OLD address.......oddly enough we have never had a problem with a bill arriving at our new address. The biggest frustration is that no one listens and no one cares. Afterall BT Profits are up and we are a minority.......OR ARE WE???????

Tom Brown 4 years ago

I asked BT for the code I need so I can change ISP's from BT to Tiscali.

First they told me that it would cost £270 to leave BT before the end of my contract. I asked for the code anyway, but its been over a month now and I still haven't recieved it. I heard that legally they have to give it to you within 5 working days. I would like to take them to court but I don't have the time, money or the know how.

Olga and Anastasia 4 years ago

This letter is explaining the situation happened in regards with BT services.

Dear Sir or Madam

We are writing to you regarding above mentioned bill. We wanted to subscribe to BT Broadband on 28th September 2007 over phone. On that day we were told that we would need to have a phone line installed first. This would be done free of charge under the condition that we would be using BT broadband afterwards. After several unsuccessful attempts of your servicemen to install the line it was finally installed at the end of October. After that however we haven’t heard anything else from BT. It took several calls on our behalf to clarify that we were supposed to order additional equipment for the broadband to function. Just for the information calling to BT from our mobile phones usually takes us an average time of 6 hours to clarify the situation. However after hours on the phone we finally managed to place an order for this equipment under the condition that it would arrive within a week time. We also clearly told that we would be charged only after the equipment arrives. After that we haven’t heard anything else from BT neither have we received equipment. At that time we were already fed up with the poor customer service your company provided. We are MBA students and needed the internet service desperately for our studies neither we had time to spend another 6 hours on the phone with BT operators. Therefore we decided to switch to a different supplier who was able to provide us internet at the very same day of an order. It is to note that none of us ever signed a written contract at that time with BT. We were very surprised when we received a bill on February 12th 2008 for the amount of £172.07, which is basically 4 months after our last conversation with BT operators. It took several calls to your so called customer service to find out that apparently the broadband service was up and running and that we have been charged for it since end of October 2007. However we have never received all the necessary contracts, broadband equipment, any other paperwork including the internet password necessary to enter our account, or any previous bills. We double- checked with our neighbors whether they have received anything but this wasn’t the case either. Once again we had to deal with your very poor customer service and it took several calls to clarify that we were registered incorrect in your system,namely under different address . We assume that probably all equipment and bills were delivered to whatever of our neighbors your accountants wanted to send it to. However, we are now charged with the full amount of line installed, and the broadband charges since October 2007. When we tried to quit this contract (that we never agreed or signed) we were told that BT would be charging us for a year of broadband use plus an additional charge for the early termination of the contract (around 800 pounds). Even though it is possible to prove that we have never logged to the internet because we had no equipment, and we have never used the landline of our phone. Also we would be charged for the installation of the phone line.Meanwhile we are quite happy with a different supplier and don’t want to use BT broadband anymore.

sean 4 years ago

how can bt make mistakes with your direct debits and then cancell your services,when i was told it was bt's fault,cant wait for the final bill!

pamela armitage 4 years ago

19th march 08 Pamela Armitage

Its just discusting the service ive got from bt. First signed up in october 2007 for broadband package at 8.95 amonth, which as i was told by the extremely young sounding sales girl would include my phone line too. i thought it was too good to be true, and it is too good to be true. 5 months later they tell me its too seperate accounts and 17.99 a month after 6 months for broadband the girl said 8.95 for 18 months and 17.99 after 18 months, she lied just to get me to sign up and being a pensioner who is disabled too, i cant afford it all. they should sort there staff out and get some better advicers on these cases. ill be damned if im going to pay all that.

KATHLEEN  4 years ago

I LIVE ON THE ISLE OF LEWIS IN THE OUTER HEBRIDES OF SCOTLAND. ALTHOUGHWE CAN GET OUR CALLS THROUGH OTHER COMPANIES, UNFORTUNATELY, BT IS THE ONLY SERVICE PROVIDER WE HAVE FOR LINE RENTAL.

ALTHOUGH MOST AREAS IN THE ISLAND HAVE GOT BROADBAND THROUGH THEIR BT LINE, OUR EXCHANGE NEEDS TO BE UPGRADED BEFORE IT CAN SUPPORT BROADBAND.

WE HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING ABOUT THIS TO BT FOR LITERALLY SEVERAL YEARS BUT TO NO AVAIL.

I EMAILED BT AGAIN LAST WEEK TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THIS, AND IT TOOK THEM SIX DAYS BEFORE THEY ANSWERED MY EMAIL, WHCIH OBVIOUSLY CAME FROM A CALL CENTRE IN INDIA. THE SENDER SAID THEY COULN NOT UNDERSTAND WHAT MY PROBLEM WAS AND COULD I RE-SUBMIT MY COMPLAINT IN 'PLAIN TEXT FORM'.

I WAS EXTREMELY ANGRY ABOUT THIS AND TOLD THEM SO. I RECEIVED ANOTHER EMAIL FROM THEM SAYING THAT THEY DETECTED THAT I DID NOT HAVE A BT LINE.

I WAS FURIOUS THEN AND EMAILED THEM BACK SAYING I HAD THE SAME BT LINE AND NUMBER FOR THE LAST 19 YEARS AND WHY WOULD I COMPLAIN TO BT IF I DID NOT HAVE A BT LINE?

STILL WAITING FOR A REPLY.

eddie 4 years ago

1.taken a £50 deposit & given my at that time a order no "VOL011894518****" along with a phone number "01642******" & verbal assurance that my line would be working with 48hrs. 2.subsequently cancelled my order without telling me (despite them having a mobile contact phone number from me) 3.at this time of writing failed to refund my £50 deposit in full 4. failed to give me any reason as to why this order was cancelled after a £50 deposit was taken. 5.would have charged me £125 + £13 admin fee for a new line, despite there already being a bt line currently installed at my home.

and spent +2hrs in cold payphone box, being passed around differant departments, dispite telling staff am disabled, worst customer service staff i have ever spoken too

j mordell 4 years ago

Moved house 4 wks ago broadband not working from day one. Numerous phone calls made to people who couldn't understand me after being transferred from one place to another. Then believe itg or not my phone doesn't work. I report it on line and without any notification an engineer arrives whilst i am at work. Told my children that it was a fault outside and he would be back when he had fixed it. We asked him if he could do something about the broadband but he said he was only here to do the line not the broadband. As you probably know he did not return, never to be seen again. I still have no broadband, a very fuzzy telephone line and after complaining both by phone and on line no one will listen to me. What are we suppose to do? I have never had such appalling service from anyone before in my life. I am going to change my broadband as i can't go on any longer.

tracey 4 years ago

hi i was disgusted at the treatment i received from bt.I had rang up and said i was moving house and wanted to transfer the phone line to my new address they said that this was not a problem and asked when we wanted it in by, my partner said Friday would be the best as we knew we would be living at new address by then and it was all agreed for then. It came to Friday and we didn't get line connected not only that but we had our bank details and sorts codes etc sent to old house so we wernt amused to start with and it came along with a letter saying it wont be connected till 17th so we rang up and we spoke to someone that didn't have a clue all they could do was apologise and say the systems are down and that's why it hadn't been done, we asked to speak to manager and they refused three times to speak to manager. my partner was that angry she hung up. SO i rang back and i explained the situation again as it was someone different she said that she had our new address so no letters would go to old address and that she is sorry and it will be up and running by Monday at the latest, IT came to Monday and it wasn't connected so we rang up again bearing in mind this was all on mobile as we had no other way of contacted them and we got someone else on phone that didn't know what was going on,we said we received letter saying 17th and its still not on they we putting us on hold and transferring us to every department so we wernt happy, we asked to speak to manager again and we got told there was no manger to speak to again at there convenience so i raised voice and said i want to speak to someone higher and i got the attitude there's no one higher eventually he put me through to someone else we then again explained situation he said that they had mucked up and that they tried to connect our new address before disconnected old address so as you can tell its not professional at all, All they have is there big company name but they haven't clue what they are doing even 3year olds could run it better, i guess bt stands for basic tripe thanks Tracey

tim porteus 4 years ago

Having ordered a broadband connection the equipment failed to arrive, my phone line went down and I spent more that 2 hours being transferred from one person to the next, speaking to Indian call centres who couldn't help to, and was then informed that there is no complaints number, but they could transfer my call. Guess what . I was left waiting . no answer.

m.thomas  4 years ago

hello ,firstly great site a!its just great to see that im not going mad and that bt ,and bt customer service are really so bad ,my problem started when i closed my bt line down ,told all was ok ,but guess what still getting charged loads ,then to get my money back i must have travelled all around the world ,New delhi,stoke on trent ,every where and all to the expense of my phone bill ,and ten hours of my life telling different representitives of this company ,please can bt be put on hold by ofcom,PLEASE !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Miss L Callaway 4 years ago

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 privalege 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.

Malcolm Lochhead 4 years ago

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 spokend to has any idea what's goin wrong and all they do is offer a new appoitnment which the engineers then miss again.

The last manager I spoke to said we didn't even need an engineer and the line woudl 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 concelled for some unknown reason and they won't be coming.

Bob 4 years ago

Going by the amount of dissatisfied customers above this complaint box.It would appear that not only are BT failing to provide a first class service but are also arrogant enough to publisise it.

My grievance with BT is in relation to their inability to supply BT Vision to a customer who is barely a mile away from the nearest telephone exchange.

It is no wonder that people are taking advantage of companies like Sky for all their telecommunications and entertainment packages.

J.Shah 4 years ago

My neighbour's telephone was out of order and he asked BT to investigate. BT blamed us without ant evidence stated that it was third party damage. Our telephone lines were o.k. BT were told several years ago when they installed the cable that it should be in proper tubes and then put in underground. BT chose to put the cable attached to a wall which was subject to all sorts of weather. Somehow our heighbours line was down but we had no problem althugh we share the same cable from the front. How can they blame us for the third party damage. How can they justify one of charge of £ 360.00 plus 13.70 repaired / replacement equipment and VAT on the top. BT needs some commonsense !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! If you leave your cable outside, then they are subject to cold, hot and damp waether. Life span of a exposed cable cannot be more than 15 - 20 years.

Brian Baxter 4 years ago

Bt is a nightmare. We wanted to get a phone line put into our static caravan. The facility already exists on site. I am on my second hip operation and my partner is due to reitre. We need to be by a phone (there is no signal for mobile where we are) Getting a phone? easy? Ordered it, a lot of trouble, but eventually got a date. My partner went to the van for two day (200 miles away) to be there when the engineer arrived. I only found out that they had cancelled the appointment when I rang them to confirm the day before. So my partner lost two days work and still we had no phone.

A new date was set, this took hours, one asian insisting "that you cannot have a telephone in a caravan" ( I suppose he was thinking of a long traveling wire!)

Eventually a new date a week later was set. We informed the site owners, who were to admit the engineer and we would then have a line over easter. Nest step to get broadband...Even worse!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

First, the line for the van was activated on the 14th (just found that out today), customer service rang us at home to ask if it was OK. Hard to tell from 200 miles away, so they were informed that we would let them know st Easter. Broadband was the next hurdle. I must have spent over eight hours on separate occasions, waiting, listening to why I could not get broadband, being told I could and would be put through, then no there was a tag on the line, then no the line was not strong enough and would take from the others. on and on and on.

At no time when I 'was being put through' did the call make it, it just went dead.

My partner ordered broadband on the internet, it was accepted, but the 48 hours was sesven days ago still no word. on and on and on

So, Hurray it's Easter, we have our phone, we are on holiday. Except there was no phone, no engineer had been on site, no phone had been fitted. I did think of ringing faults to tell them there was no dial tone.!!

Ordering again was the same nightmare. So it was decided that my partner would handle it on returning home after the break.

Brain Baxter.

This is Olive Lee I take over now. Oh joy, a complaints proceedure on the net. Wrote it all down, sent if off. Telephoned complaints also.

On the telephone. Nice service, Tracy, put me through to faults, and we arranged a visit for today 26th March, between 1 and 6pm. If of course, the line was there we would be charged for the visit. Of course you all must appreciate how hard it is to search a caravan for a telephone line. Beyond us no doubt. The fact that the engineer had not visited the site could be one of the reasons the line was so hard to find.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, Brian was waiting in the wings, and he too rang compliants. They arranged an engineerd this morning to actually fit the line.

Guess what? No engineer no line. YET............. perhaps this afternoon will bring the mythical beasts out of their lair.

Now, remember, there was also a complaint on line, written telling everything.

Reply to the subject of no phone, no broadband was.......

Phone was activated on the 14th, ring so and so and ask to increase the line from 256 to 512k and "see what happens?

What is the point of having customer service's answering complaints if they cannnot read, or perhaps in this case understand English How much of "WE DO NOT YET HAVE A PHONE SO WHAT IS GOING ON" is hard to understand.

So situation so far. No phone, no braodband no engineer no satisfactory contact at BT anywhere who can sort it out

Olive Lee

Jax 4 years ago

What are BT doing? Without notice, they've just made some fundamental changes to their security system which has stopped me sending any email. No email to tell me they were making changes, no letter, no notice on their website, no training for their barely intelligible tech support people. Nothing Nada. Apparently, they've decide to stop people relaying emails via their server. So it's ok to forward emails, download them to the BT server, then send them on to my PC, but not to relay them - which is much more efficient (and more secure surely?) I want to use a proper email address not a 'BT' one.

I'm halfway through an 18 month contract, so I can't change ISPs without incurring a wopping great penalty But BT think it is entirely reasonable to change how and what they deliver!

Thankfully my domain host, Fasthosts, do have people who know what they're doing and have provided me with a temporary fix. They only found out what BT had done yesterday.

Manish 4 years ago

I have about 16 calls to Premium Adult numbers from my line in Feb. Me and my wife never made these calls. However, BT is saying the line is not faulty. Sometimes when I pick up the phone, I could hear 2 people talking. Is my line crossing with someone else? Is someone hijacking my line? I have no idea. Any advice, anyone?

Andy Wood 4 years ago

I have recently been stung 2 months in a row with a £1.75 charge for caller display even though I signed up for FREE BT Privacy at Home. I am informed this is because I have not made the requisite 2 calls a month using my landline. I understand this is their little way of penalising people who sign with another provider but in my case this does not apply and I simply do not use the phone very often. I complained that there was no warning about this charge when I signed up for this apparently FREE service (not even an asterisk referring me to the small print) but so far I am going round in circles as they just keep reminding me that it applies and have even suggested I type "BT Privacy at Home" into their search box so that the T&Cs are displayed (!) which to me simply highlights how well hidden they are. Next stop Otelo.

john murray 4 years ago

orderded bt option 3 for nov 10 08. thought the package came with bt vision. no! had to make another order for delivery. vision box was delivered dec 10 approx.non bt engineer installed the system (thought bt engineer charges were too high).do not how much my phone bill will be.tried to contact bt several times 9not colour prejudice but cannot understand them most of the time).i've been bounced about by bt solutions . every time i phone up there is a queue. problem is still not resolved for bt vision.more to come.

Laura Purcell 4 years ago

To whom it may concern,

I got a BT phone line installed on 17th March. I was under the impression I was getting it for free but i've received a bill dated 24th March informing me i have to pay a half price line connection charge of £62.50. I was unaware of any charges until i received my bill.

On the evening of the 17th March (day of connection) i had no line. I thought it was possibly the house phone so i bought a new one, it still did not work. I called up your staff a day later and they arranged for an engieneer to come by. In the mean time they said I would have all calls diverted to my mobile and this would be free of charge. At no time did they mention that i would be paying for this service. On recieving the bill dated 24th March, i see that i am in fact being charged for these calls.

I called today, 27th march to sort this out, i was left holding for a total of 50 minutes and passed round to several departments. One of the gentleman that i spoke to, said a lot of peple had said that they were unaware of the connection charge also. i found your staff rude and unhelpful, with one of them stating that ' i'd recieved all my free stuff, and at the end of the day he had nothing more to say about the matter.' With BT being such a long standing company i would have expected a better service.

I do not feel that i should be paying for this line charge (£62.50), nor the calls diverted to the mobile.

i hope we can resolve this matter

thankyou,

Laura Purcell.

Tel: 0208 348 2795

ACCOUNT NUMBER: GB03906140

BILL NUMBER: Q0010S

paul burdett 4 years ago

Have been unable to send emails for last three weeks. All bt customer service say is engineers working on problem, but no redress to customers.

SUE EDDY 4 years ago

NOVEMBER 2007, MY DAUGHTER AND HUSBAND MOVE IN, THEY NEED INTERNET ACCESS. I WAS WITH 'TALK TALK' AND WAS DISSATISFIED WITH THEIR SERVICE (ANOTHER STORY). I THOUGHT GOING BACK TO BT WOULD BE THE EASIEST SOLUTION AND MY DAUGHTER COULD CONTINUE HER INTERNET ACCOUNT. NEARLY 5 MONTHS LATER I HAVE A BT CONNECTION IN WHICH I HAVE TO PRESS 1280 WHENEVER I MAKE A CALL. SOMETIMES IT WILL LET ME CALL MOBILE NUMBERS SOMETIMES I AM NOT AUTHORIASED. 2 LETTERS OF COMPLAINT, NIL RESPONSE, NUMEROUS TELEPHONE CALLS TO CUSTOMER SERVICE WAITING ON AVERAGE 20 MINUTES TO SPEAK TO SOMEBODY, WHO THEN TRANSFERS YOU TO THE CORRECT DEPARTMENT, WHO THEN TRANSFERS YOU TO THE CORRECT DEPARTMENT ETC ETC...BT BLAME MY OLD ACCOUNT WITH TALK TALK, TALK TALK BLAME BT AND STATE THERE IS NO ACCOUNT AND CONNECTION WITH THEM ANY MORE.I RECEIVE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES AND A £50 CHEQUE AS COMPENSATION FROM BT..SORRY FOR ANY INCONVIENCE. MY LATEST BILL (WHICH IS DIFFERNT TO THE ONE THEY QUOTED ORIGNALLY) INCLUDES THE £50 CHEQUE THEY GAVE ME!!!!!SO TO SUMMERISE I STILL HAVE TO TYPE 1280 WHEN I MAKE A CALL, MY BILL IS INACCURATE AND THE MONEY HAS BEEN TAKEN FROM MY ACCOUNT WHICH INCLUDES THE COMPENSATION THEY GAVE ME!!I CANT STAND MUCH MORE. THE OMBUDSMEN 'OTELO'I CONTACTED HAVE GIVEN ME A LEAFLET ON HOW TO COMPLAIN AND TELLS ME I HAVE TO WAIT 12 WEEKS... EVEN THOUGH IN MY LETTER TO THEM I STATED THIS NIGHTMARE BEGUN IN NOVEMBER 2007.WHAT ON EARTH AM I TO DO ??

sarah piggott 4 years ago

i have received a bill from Bt 5 time for £168 and i dont even have a telephone, so how can i be charged for something i dont even have !!! i've wrote on several occassions and even had a call back to say the matter has been closed but yet still i'm receiving bill and debt recovery letters. i am distgusted with their service and am sick of wasting my time ringing them to be put on hold for hours !!!

sheen 4 years ago

I moved house and was given a connection date and confirmation that my direct debit was set up. No phone on connection date. Then spent two weeks phoning every day, being passed around, but totally lost it when I was told that my order had been cancelled because BT COULD NOT SUPPLY A PHONE LINE IN DORSET!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Got given another phone number, new account number and eventually a working phone line. Called Bt to move direct debit to new number and was told that they couldnt do this and worse still could not cancel the direct debit on an account which was no longer mine. Told I would have to wait until money was removed from my bank account to pay someone elses bill then I would have to complain and they would then investigate.

STATHIS 4 years ago

I WONDER WHY WE STILL TOLERATE THEM...

Alistair 4 years ago

I recently moved address and decided to move my phone and broadband with me. They say with 1 call they can organise this for you! What they mean is that it takes 20 calls over 3 weeks to get it organised. Then after having it all sorted after 1 month I recieve a bill through to my old address for the name Alyson and they have charged me a £430 cancelation fee on a new broadband service I apparently set up and canceled. This was taken from my bank before I got the bill.... (as it was sent to an address I no longer use). I have called them and after a few heated phone calls they agreed to send me the money back via cheque withing 5 days to my new address. I wonder how long it is actually going to take, if they indeed have sent it in the 1st place.

Sarah 4 years ago

Copy of letter sent to BT, date shown, so far no reply!!

16/3/08 Dear Sir I am writing this letter due to the fruitless attempts to resolve the problem by telephone. I signed up for Broadband in August 2007 and this service worked efficiently for approximately 2 months. After this time the broadband began connecting intermittently therefore I had to connect manually when signing on. This was inconvenient but once connected the broadband worked fine. During January/February I could no longer connect manually and had to call the helpline for assistance. Since this time I have made several calls, all of them lengthy 30 – 60 minutes each time, in which the problem was supposed to have been resolved. The problem was not resolved, and following more calls to the helpline and complaints by email, I decided to end my contract with BT to find a more reliable provider. Following my second complain by email requesting to cancel my broadband, the first went unanswered, I received a telephone call 15/3/08. After clarifying the above I was advised by the operator to contact the cancellation line. The operator also advised that he would inform this department of the problem and that I should call after 2 -3 hours or the next day. I telephoned the cancellations department on Sunday 16/3/08 and was disconnected whilst the operator was attempting to put me through to another department. I telephoned again and spoke to three more operators, whom I recounted the same facts above, all of which could not close my account and wave the charges. Apparently no one had contacted the cancellations department to confirm the technical difficulties therefore they could not wave the cancellation fee. Whilst talking to the 5th operator, who could apparently give the technical confirmation the 4th operator needed, in order to wave the cancellation charges, I was cut off yet again. No one returned my call, and after being on the telephone for approximately 45 minutes, I had lost the will to phone and go through this whole process again. Just to clarify I am requesting that you cancel my broadband service because I no longer wish to pay for an ‘expensive’ service that does not work! I will not be paying your cancellation fee because I am not responsible for your poor service and therefore request you wave the fee! It is not my problem BT staff do not communicate.I do not wish to spend considerable time phoning BT, only to be passed around many different operators, or to be cut off, or to be told by yet another operator that they cannot resolve my problem.I do not wish to speak to anymore operators with an accent I cannot understand.I do not wish to listen to anymore awful music whilst I am left hanging on the phone.I do not want to listen to any more explanations of why my broadband does not work.I do not want you to keep apologising for your appalling service – it solves nothing! I just want you to CANCEL MY BROADBAND AND WAVE THE CANCELLATION FEE – PLEASE! If you would do this on 1/4/08, so I have time to arrange another provider, I would be eternally grateful.

adrian 4 years ago

I had problems with my line. As per their website, I checked if it was the phone etc to avoid a charge but they were ok and so called them out. They repaired their own junction box which was faulty and I thought well I wont be charged, I then received a bill for £184 for half an hours work to their own equipment. usual threats to cut me off if I didnt pay so how do you argue other than taking them to court

Marcus 4 years ago

Below is the latest complaint I sent to BT - it was only 2 and a half weeks ago and still no reply - they're a complete joke!

I registered for BT broadband last August and was reasonably happy with the service, up until about 6-7 weeks ago. Suddenly the speed just dropped to almost nothing, it was barely possible to open a web page in less than 5 minutes, if at all. I have, on about four separate occasions and over this whole period, spent about 2-3 hours on the phone to various members of the technical team, performing various tests as requested. Any request for an engineer to come round were instantly rejected (presumably based on cost) even when the technical team concluded they had no idea what was wrong. I pretty much self-diagnosed (rightly or wrongly) the issue as being a fault with the home hub wireless router, as when using a standard BT modem, the broadband seems to be okay. Using the same wired (or wireless) connections with the home hub caused the internet to become unusable again. After trying to explain this to 'the experts' they reluctantly agreed to send me a replacement home hub (about 3 weeks ago). When nothing arrived a week later I called to ask what had happened and was told that they had forgotten to put the order through. I then had to go through another 30 mins of fault analysis before they agreed to resend the order and it will take 3-5 working days to arrive. This was about two weeks a go and still nothing. I'm pretty much at my wits end as the Broadband is not the cheapest and it has cost me about £20 in mobile phone calls to your 'help' line (the landline phone wasn't practical as I was having to go up and downstairs all the time for various tes ts I was asked to do). If you eventually send me a replacement home hub and that is not the cause of the problem, I have no idea how long it will take to get the problem sorted out.I think this has gone beyond being bad customer service, and is disgaceful from a large national company. Whilst it will be impossible to right things now I would hope that, out of goodwill, you could arrange for an engineer and a new Home Hub to come to our flat so we can be sure the problem will be resolved. I would also like to be compensated for the loss of broadband for two months and the £20 phone bill I have incurred.

john buswell 4 years ago

my computor has contracted a virus athough i have bt security.and trying to get the bt help desk is not possible although they claim to be 24 7,i keep getting pop ups from america telling me my computor is in infected with spy ware what ever that and they will solve it for a price.i thought bt security was to protect my computor.i have tried to contact the bthelp desk but am told its not available,so i am going to cancel my direct debit to bt as no one seems to bother or give a toss

mrs baker 4 years ago

We have had endless faults with our bt broadband service, mostly not being able to connect. BT keep changing our username for no apparent reason without telling us, so we can't log on or send/receive mail. To fix this we have spent hours and hours on the phone to clueless 'consultants' who just don't listen when we tell them what the problem is likely to be, and why we need our real e-mail address back! Bt is a disgrace, especially the phone 'helpline'. At the moment we are unable to send messages with outlook express - bt no longer recognises our e-mail address. After nearly an hour on the phone to the 'helpline' the 'consultant' admitted it was an ongoing problem with one of their servers which 'would certainly be fixed within 24 hours' and then added 'or maybe 48'!! Three days later, no change.

jon 4 years ago

Just contacted my mobile phone provider to query a large bill, it has transpired that on Feb the 22nd at 15:24 i phoned 118/247 (correct). Apparently my <1 minute call was recorded at lasting 19 minutes and 28 seconds, and i have been charged by BT £16.54 my mobile phone provider is unable to refuse payment for this obvious travesty by BT.

Zafiropoulos Andreas 4 years ago

We sent the letter below on March 18 2008 - there was no answer ! We send it again TO BRITISH TELECOMDepartment of ComplaintsW1 London United Kingdom Athens, March 18, 2008 To Whom It May Concern Gentlemen, With this letter, we would like to bring to your attention a serious communication problem that our London subdivision is facing on road 130 Shirland, Flat III, W9. In particular, our company member Mr. Andreas Zafiropoulos gave in an application on January 2008 to your company and you connected their telephone line with number 0044 207 266 4516 However, on February 22, the phone line became problematic. Even though we could call from our line, there was a weak connection with incoming calls and there was no connection. Our representative called your company, in particular the technical service department, and you stated that a technician would come and fix the problem. However, three days later, the technician still hadn’t come. When we called again to state our complaint, your company answered that a technician would be sent right away and until the technical difficulty is fixed, you would forward the calls from our telephone line to our cellular phone, something that hasn’t been done yet. On February 26 we sent you an e-mail to the address as seen on your website about the problems we have been facing in hope of an answer, however after two days we suddenly couldn’t even call. The line had gone dead.When we got in touch with you again, we were surprised when you told us that you had cut off our telephone line and you didn’t know the reason why because our bill had no breach or problem. No technician has to come to see the problem and all our efforts have gone in vain. We are sure that you can understand this problem that is serious and difficulties have arisen in our communication between Athens and London. Meanwhile, we have no Internet access, which is an imperative tool for our work. With this letter, we are forced to express our displeasure with the problem at hand and your weakness with how incorrectly you misinformed our representative. We would appreciate for an answer, as soon as possible, about our account: Name: Andreas ZafiropoulosAccount Number: GB03367410Address:Shirland Road 130Maida Vale, Flat IIIQ W9 2BT

Telephone Number: 02072664516

andreaszaf@partners.grandreaszaf@hotmail.commarima@partners.gr So we can program our next course of action. Sincerely yours, Mamouzelou MariaGeneral Manager Partners SA 9 Kefallinias strMarousi 15125 GreeceTel 00302106180546Mobile 00306945466823

Fax 00302106197029

cc : ukecc.net

Kathryn Foster 4 years ago

Last month BT cut off my phone line for no apparent reason. Well their reason was that i hadn't paid my bill - actually i had paid it! It took over 2 weeks for them to reconnect my phone after admitting their mistake.. When it was reconnected i had a different phone number!

To add to this - i then got a letter from Sky who provide my broadband to say that they are sorry that I was leaving them. As they had been informed by BT i had cancelled my phone line.

Also to get BT to reconnect my phone i had to phone them from my mobile.... This has cost me over £25. When i asked BT to compensate me for this - they said i should of used a public phone! What??? I don't even know where the nearest one is! And i am not going to spend 30 minutes on hold stood in a public phone box on an evening.

How on earth do BT get away with treating their customers like this?

If only i was in a cable area... i would be changing to another provider in a flash!

Jane Nicholas 4 years ago

once again i have to compalin to BT, i cannot send e-mails because of stupid verification, which i cannot read. i am not stupid just very tired, i work all day and see my husband in the hospital in the evenings, he is a very sick man. i cannot have all this rubbish which bt are throwing at me. ia m fed up with them, you phone them iup and cannot undersatnd what is being said

, bt are crap

J Scott 4 years ago

BT cut my broadband off today with no warning. I had cancelled my contract with BT from end May due to huge bills of about £260 a quarter despite not making a lot of calls. 10 days ago I got an extra bill for the accumulated shortfall in the direct debits which I had not yet paid. My contract has a further two months to run. BT did not give any warning. They just cut me off. I have paid my BT bills on time for as long as BT has existed.

cynthia 4 years ago

poor service only take calls when wanting money never take calls when complaining. l want my line back made payment and my line is still off

The Mitchells 4 years ago

When we had to move house very urgently because of subsidence of the property we were living in I called BT as soon as i found out where we would be moving to and asked firstly for them to activate our line at new property and secondly for an engineer to come out to put in an extension line for our BT home hub in our office room. I was told that the engineer would call out on the following tuesday to fit the extension and our new home would have an active phone line from that same Tuesday morning, Tuesday morning came and went , no phoneline no engineer , my partner phoned up to ask where the engineer was only to be told they had no record of my phone call , BUT surprise surprise our phone number (which we were taking with us to new property) was inactive from that date , so if they didnt receive my call how did they know to stop the line at the old property ????? we were then told we couldnt have an engineer out to fit an extension line until we had an active line and they couldnt book an engineer till AFTER the line was active. So we had to wait 2 days before they activated our new line, as soon as they did i called up to get an engineer out , i was then told that i would have to wait another week before an engineer could come out and the cost for the extension would be £167. which is more than if you want a brand new line fitted.We eventually got our phone line but once we put the BT home hub on the phone stopped working and we could no longer be online at the same time as receiving phone calls , my partner again phoned BT went through all those silly options you get and waited 30 mins before being put through, only to be told he had to phone a different number , which he did ,went through all the options again , waited 40 mins to be put through only to be told yet again he was connected to the wrong department and to call another number , this went on and on for over 4 hours being passed from pillar to post , number to number , operator to operator and still the problem persisted . Even as im typing this my partner is now on the phone with a customer service person being played the most boring music as he holds on to find out if they can fix the problem we are having . All in all moving our BT line to the new house has cost us over £70 in costs for using a mobile while we had no phone connections, and numberous hours wasted being passed from person to person and having nothing resolved.

We are now convinced that BT stands for Bloody Terrible. And once we can get out of our contract with them we are going to leave and find a better service ANYWHERE ELSE.

phil 4 years ago

Continually awful customer service. Misinformation resulting in charges of £70 and others. Customer service via phone rude and utterly incompetent. We were informed that a procedure had been completed on multiple occasions and actually had not. Consequentially we have had problems with our service throughout the year. Our phone line got cut off prematurely twice which we didn't request. When we asked for a reconnection we were charged despite the disconnection not being requested! When i queried this I was spoken to very rudely by a female employee, and was told that we had compromised the contract!! We moved house and wanted to pay the line rental at the old house and have a new line installed at the new address. I waited for 2 whole days straight for the engineer to come. When he did not arrive by the end of the 2nd day I rang BT and apparently the engineer had quit for the day much earlier without informing me. We tried to rearrange and were told we would have to wait over a week, despite the fault not being ours. An absolute disregard for customer satisfacton by everyone we spoke to. A thorough lack of proper training given as everyone we spoke to at BT told us different information in response to the same question. We were charged for a line cancellation despite being told we would not be charged, that the direct debit was cancelled when clearly it wasn't as it still went out anyway. If proper training was given everyone would give consistent advice. I don't think we were given consistent advice by 2 people once. Disgraceful service. When trying to speak to a Manager to complain I was left on hold for 45 minutes before the phone line cut off at the BT end. The phone line does not give any clue as to whether one is still on hold or not also which is very frustrating. Once we have completed this complaints procedure we will never ever return to BT under any circumstances.

Carl Stevenson 4 years ago

I ordered broadband in Sept 2007. I still haven't got it. The customer care has been appalling. People from different departments phone me up with conflicting information. Nobody is able to tell me what is going on except for giving new review dates every 4 weeks.Hopeless.

I'm embarressed that they are "British"

Pauline Silker 4 years ago

I have been trying without much success I might add to resolve a billing dispute to the sum £333.47 for a one off repair, a ridiculous amount for 4 metres of cable and two junction boxes. I have called and called only to be put on hold, cut off, fobbed off and finally passed over to India only to hear the operative sniggering on the other end of the line. I have written and to date have still received no reply. It is impossoble to speak to a manager. BT's customer services are absolutely appalling and woefully inadeque. On Thursday I finally managed (I think) to resolve the dispute, not to my satisfaction I might add as I still believe I am being ripped off. I am waiting to receive a counterfoil for the amended amount I owe and to have my services restored for the time being until I find another supplier. If this is the way BT treats its good paying customers they are not worth doing business with.

David 4 years ago

Referring to my last complaint posted here, I would like to thank the person who shared twith all of us here the email address of the BT CEO. My problem is FINALLY over..phew! I advise the others who still having issues with BT to contact the CEO as the matter would be dealt with by his assistance efficiently and most importantly quickly.

Now..after reading some of the complaints here, I realised that some of the problems seems too familiar (not of the same issue with my complaint though). I still remember the first time I moved to the UK and signed up with BT..I plug in my phone one day and there was a dial tone (just to highlight, the previous tenants never had BT line at all). So I called that "special" number (sorry can't remember..but it's 3-4 digit no.) to know our the number, got the number, use the line as usual. But then, there had been several occasions where I called my wife at home and she said the phone didn't even rang. So I called here while on the phone with her on the other line on her cellphone..and true enough, the home phone did rang at all. And another occasion where my wife received a phone call, and the caller seemed to be surprised to hear her voice. She told him he got the wrong no. And the guys asked "isn't that xxxxxxxxx"? And my wife replied "Yeah it is". And the caller replied "Well that's MY home number". My wife of course replied "it's our number which was given by BT" and she was sleepy then..so she somehow managed to end the conversation. But she admit the caller sounded genuine and was not playing a prank. Few days later, the phone line was not in service anymore. We made an enquiry to BT and was told there was NO BT line installed at all on this flat so we need an installation. Of course we told them, if there's none, howcome the phone line seemed to be working for 2 weeks? To cut it short, they scheduled for someone to come and "installed" the line. It took several weeks until we realised there was a dial tone again on the phone. I called BT to confirm if this that was really our line and they said yeah, our line was already active now. I asked them I thought we were told there was NO BT line at all installed in this flat and we had one scheduled in few days time. This time BT told us that we need no installation cos there existing one in the flat (???). It was full of confusions but we didn't want to think about all that as we were new in the country and we just wanted to have our landline soon! But during all this problem, I had thought that maybe the construction work on my bulding must have caused all this problems with the phone line(phone line interrcepted?). But reading some of the complaints here, I realised that it was obviously BT fault.

BT is the main phone provider in the UK? Aren't they going to do something about the bad quality and service?? What a shame! One thing for sure, sould I return again to the UK, BT would definitely not be our no.1 choice!

Cynthia 4 years ago

On 30 March I 'regraded' my BT Total Broadband account to Option 2. I then decided to change this and phoned on Saturday, 5 April to cancel. This was withing the stated cancellation period. I spoke to a young man who cancelled the order and gave me a refenence for same.

I phoned back to check on this on Monday 7 April only to find that the order had NOT been cancelled and that the reference number he had given me was for the original order to start service! I was told that the order was in progress and could not be stopped but that I should phone again on Tuesday8 April to cancel.

I don't know what will happen, but will post again with the outcome.

Cynthia 4 years ago

I phoned to cancel service on my second phone line and was told that it would take 14 days for this to happen. Meanwhile, I am being billed. If I had asked for additional service, I doubt it would have take so long. All it takes is a flip of a switch.I object to being charged for two additional weeks of service, which is clearly an outrageous scheme to squeeze extra money from consumers. I plan to go to OFTEL about it.

Robert Fisher 4 years ago

Bt, lol, its ironic that I luckily have virgin.net to be able to complain about the continuous lag out, time out, cable work excuses fall out every time, ok every second time i turn my pc on only to be confronted with a BTHOME HUB bullshitting exscuse of that there is a problem with my isp.BT YOU SUCK. Your system is third world comparative you LAG so many Victorian years behind other european countries that you are being laughed at abroad. YOU SUCK.

Peter Lemer 4 years ago

BT engineers dug a hole next door to our let to repair that telephone line and disconnected ours.

The earliest they will come to repair it is 10 days later!

There is no formal way to complain other than by writing a letter to the BT Correspondence Centre, which of course will take roughly 5 days to turn around.

Meanwhile 6 tenants are without access to the internet.

I think this is an appalling response to a mistake made by BT Engineers

peter

Owen L 4 years ago

I saw Bt advertising cheap packages for internet and phone which I used for my business. I was paying massive bills (60 pounds plus per month) for a sevice that included an internet phone which should have made calls cheaper by making calls to land lines free. In the end the land line and the internet phone whould get 'mixed up'' and I was being charged premium rates for local calls out of hours and rediculous charges for minimal mobile charges.

I called their sales team and said I was going to leave if they couldn't sort me out with one of these cheaper packages they were advertising. They wouldn't so I left.

I swithched to talk talk but they were still renting the line from BT. 2 days before Chritmas BT decided to cut the line and it took 1 month to 'get it back'. In the mean time their help desk in India was sure I was still a BT customer and if i said I wasn't they would transfer me to an inactive line and I had to do the whole call over.

I couldn't be more vexed about BT. They charged me when I was a customer. They are still sending me bills now I am not. They cost my business more than 1 months worth of internet business. There foreign CSA s are rude and un helpful. There technical support team is rude and unhelpful. There connection team are slow and in effective........ great company........not!!!!!

GONUTZ 4 years ago

This is a copy of an email I sent to BT regarding my complaint..........

I BOOKED A BT ENGINEER TO COME LAST THURSDAY 3RD APRIL & INSTALL A BT LINE. THIS WAS SO I COULD CHANGED MY LINE OVER FROM VIRGIN MEDIA. THE ENGINEER DID THE NECESSARY WIRING AND ASKED ME TO LEAVE IT A COUPLE OF HOURS FOR VIRGIN TO RELEASE MY PHONE NUMBER OVER TO YOU AT BT. THE ENGINEER SIAD VIRGIN WERE NOT THE QUICKEST TO DO THIS. I TESTED THE LINE ON & OFF ALL AFTERNOON BUT THE LINE REMAINED WITH VIRGIN MEDIA.I HAD THE BT LINE FITTED SO I COULD HAVE USE OF MY SKY+ . I WAS GIVEN THE IMPRESSION THAT THE CHANGE OVER WOULD BE NO HASSLE ??!!I CONTINUED TO TEST THE PHONE LINE ON & OFF ALL DAY FRIDAY 4TH APRIL BUT IT STILL REMAINED WITH VIRIGN MEDIA. I RANG & SPOKE TO SOMEONE AT BT & THEY ASSURED ME THAT IT WOULD CHANGED OVER BY 6PM FRIDAY AFTERNOON.ON SATURDAY 5TH APRIL THE PHONE LINE STILL REMAINED WITH VIRGIN MEDIA. I RANG BT WHO INFORMED ME THAT MY ORDER VOL0118844371813 HAD BEEN CANCELLED ???. (BY BT) BT SAID THEY COULD RECTIFY IT & PUT ME THROUHG TO SALES WHO PROCEEDED TO SET UP ANOTHER ORDER VOL0119340319960 & DIRECT DEBIT BUT WAS TOLD I COULD NOT KEEP MY ORIGINAL PHONE NUMBER AND THAT THE PHONE NOW WOULD NOT CHANGED OVER FROM VIRGIN MEDIA TO YOURSELVES UNTIL THE 22ND APRIL ! I WAS NOT HAPPY ABOUT THIS HAVING BEEN ON THE PHONE TO BT NOW FOR 45 MINUTES ! SO SALES PUT ME THROUGH TO ANOTHER DEPARTMENT WHO SAID BT WOULD GIVE ME MY ORIGINAL NUMBER BUT HAD TO SET UP ANOTHER ORDER VOL0119341068701 & DIRECT DEBIT (3RD) BUT STILL THE LINE WOULD NOT GO OVER TO BT UNTIL THE 22ND APRIL & COULD NOT BE DEALT WITH URGENTLY. AS BT HAS LET ME DOWN I THOUGHT THE LEAST YOU COULD DO WAS PUT THE MATTER RIGHT A.S.A.P.I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED WITH THE SERVICE AS I HAD SKY+ INSTALLED ON THE 3RD PRESUMING THE HAND OVER OF LINE FROM VIRGIN MEDIA TO YOURSELVES WOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM.I NOW HAVE SKY+ INSTALLED BUT I AM UNABLE TO USE IT FULLY BECAUSE BT HAVE LET ME DOWN. IT HAS ALSO DELAYED ME GETTING MY BROADBAND INSTALLED. HAVING ALREADY INFORMED VIRGIN MEDIA THAT I WISH TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT (W.E.F 13TH APRIL) WITH THEM I AM NOW GOING TO BE WITHOUT BROADBAND FOR A WHILE. I WOULD LIKE TO THINK THAT YOU CHANGE QUITE A FEW LINES OVER IN A DAY AND DREAD TO THINK HOW OFTEN IT GOES WRONG.I AM CERTAINLY NOT IMPRESSED WITH THIS SERVICE SO FAR AS I WAS NOT GIVEN A REASON AS TO WHY BT CANCELLED MY ORDER ? AN EXPLANATION WOULD BE APPRECIATED AS TO WHY THIS WENT VERY WRONG.

This was the e mail reply I got from BT........

Thank you for your e-mail dated 07/04/08 about the BT line.I would like to confirm you that your order for the BT line has been cancelled. However I have place a new order for the BT line.I am delighted to receive your request for BT telephone service at your property. I have placed the order for your telephone service at address: [give customers address] Your Order Number is VOL011-............... (please quote this on any contact with us). I have arranged for an engineer to visit your property on 22 April 2008 between 0800 and 1300 to connect your service. Please see the full details of your order below:There is a connection charge of £124.99 (including VAT). * Your line rental has a minimum 12 month term. Please note that if you cancel your service within this time there will be a charge added to your account. * The telephone number is 0.......... Please note that I cannot guarantee this number until your line is connected. Please note that this is a provisional order as all orders are subject to an engineering survey. All prices include VAT and you can cancel this order up until 12 Midday the day before your line is connected without incurring any charges. We provide telephone service subject to our standard residential terms and conditions. You can read them at www.bt.com/termsYou will receive your initial bill within 10 working days of your line being connected. This will include some rental in advance before you go onto your regular billing period. For information about viewing your bill online, please visit www.bt.com/youraccount. Thank you for choosing BT. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact me again via e-mail.Thank you for contacting BT.Yours sincerely,Preeti WadhawaneContact Customer ServiceRef: 16553865

I think my problems have only just begun !!!!! Bearing in mind that I have already paid for the connnection charge of £124.99 and they have already taken out my first line rental payment of £11.00 for a line thats not connected !

NESTA HUGHES 4 years ago

this has been on going since Jan/Feb when i attempted to go on tiscali broadband.However owing to BT insiting that my phone no 01766 540673 did not register to the bt post code which they insist is LL413EB.

Because of this delay i then discontinued my efforts and attempted SKY broadband,same problem.

This post code you bt instists is correct is not it should be LL414SE.

BLAENAU FFESTIONOG although is included in the postal address is about 13 miles from my village TRAWSFYNYDD.Enquiries reveal there are TWO post codes for different addresses in the BL FFESTINIOG AREA which are a house called FRONWNION,ALSO FOR GLADSTONE COTTAGES.

Today i contacted Tsicali and they have set their records stright and terminated

my accoutn with them.However again SKY informs me that BT IS STILL INSISTING

ON ll413EB.

I do not feel i am being unreasonable by requesting this be addresses and dealt with immediately.If i do not hear in 24 hrs i shall as advised contact OFCOM to register this ridiculous unacceptable situation.BT IS blocking my attempts to go

on broadband.please sort this out.

THIS ADDRESS IS AND HAS BEEN FOR DECADES FRONWNION,TRAWSFYNYDD,GWYNEDD LL414SE.NO 3EB.

YOURS AT THE END OF MY TETHER

NESTA HUGHES

j.shunta 4 years ago

I am so angry & fed up with the service i have been receiving from bt, i have been a customer with them for many years and my problems started since october last year when i opted for bt broadband option 3. Everything was fine when i rang up to get the broadband service, they took all my details and gave me my connection & delivery date for my bt home hub equipment. The equipment did not come so i gave it a few more days until i had to call up to find out what was going on & was told that the order will be with me within 24 hours which it didnt so i rang back & was told that the stuff had never been ordered and that they will courier it out to me within 48 hours so i should stay in and wait for it as it requires a signiture, 48 hours passed & still nothing the weekend came in between so i called them back a few days later & was told the exact same thing that it will be couriered out to me via special delivery and that they will give me 7 days of free broadband for the inconvenience & then a few more days passed so i rang back to be told the same garbage so i demanded that i speak to a manager, i explained to him that i was fed up of being on hold for hours on end & being transferred to different department & being told different things/lies & fed up of the false promises made to me, he then assured me that he was going to definately sort it out & he will courier it out to me via special delivery & he will give me one months free broadband. Days passed and still nothing arrived so i made another call to bt & was put through to the order department and finally the guy i spoke to sorted it out for me and by this time a month had passed and i finally received my equipment and thought my problems with bt had finally come to a end but how wrong was i, i still could not connect to the internet at all so i had to make calls to their technical department everysingle day to get them to connect me, each call took a hour and it was not a free number so it was costing me, the advisor would assure me that i will not lose connection again but it kept happening on a daily basis so every day i was having to phone them and spend an hour each day. Finally about 2-3 weeks later the connection problem got better but i still lose connection on a daily basis but it comes back a little while later not like before where it would go all day. I contacted bt regarding my problems and they never replied back to me, i also contacted them regarding my free 1month & 1 week free broadband they promised me but they just ignored me like usual & said that there was nothing on the system to say that..another false promise made by them. I asked if i could have all my call charges made to the technical helpdesk refunded to me & thier answer was no which i feel is so unfair as i was not receiving the service i was paying for so why should i still have to pay! I could not believe that a company like bt would treat their customers so badly. Today i spent a further 2 1/2hours on the phone to bt as my home hub phone has not been working since yesterday and again they kept transferring me department to department and then was given another number to call & when i rang the number it was dead so my problem was not resolved. I was so angry that i couldn't call back as i know i would just be on hold for hours on end & just be going round in circles. I cannot believe bt can treat their customers so bad and get away with it they need to be shut down. They are all nice when they sell you a service or product but as soon as you have a problem thats it they don't want to know. I've had enough with bt i'm fed up with being on hold for about an hour just to speak to someone & then when you do get through to them they either cut you off or transfer you so your on hold for another hour or they make you false promises and tell you bare faced lies, then they have call centres in india where the staff don't seem to have a clue about anything, most times it seems like i'm solving the problems for them, & you cant hear or understand them properly. I'm an indian person and even i cannot understand them properly so i feel sorry for people who have to call and speak to them. Bt are using cheap labour and fleecing their customers and lining their pockets and at the end of the day we are the ones losing out we need to get bt to sort themselves out and start listening and addressing the problems we the consumers have. I AM SO ANGRY I HAVE STARTED LOOKING FOR ANOTHER SERVICE PROVIDER FOR MY PHONE AND BROADBAND AND I WILL TELL ANYBODY WHO LISTENS NOT TO GO WITH BT, THEY ARE A BUNCH OF TIME & MONEY WASTERS. I FEEL SORRY FOR ALL OF YOU WHO HAVE PROBLEMS WITH BT!!

chris 4 years ago

bt have by far the worst customer service. It takes many days to get through to the right person or dept. No one is willing to give you there name and most of the time the info is incorrect.

nell gordon 4 years ago

for 1 year I have never been so dis satisfied with any product as I have with BT broad band as well as my phone line with BT. Every time I come to use my computer BT are up grading something and this is affecting my use of the computer. They cut off what I am doing with their upgrades. It can be at any time of the day but as soon as I turn on the computer and start doing something , that is it! They start interfering with what I am doing with their upgrades. i don't ask for the upgrades. I wold like the broadband to work for my benefit not for BT's. I would like to have the broad band removed as soon as possible. I am bound by BT,s contract but I want out of it as I feel that BT has not fulfilled their part. This being the case I think I am well within my rights to get a refund as my broad band has been at fault all through this year and even at 22.13 hrs there are still upgrades being put on my computer. This is not acceptable practice for such a big company.

Alexander 4 years ago

Dear BT,In October 2007 I bought a house and phoned BT to take over ownership of the existing line and also order a second phone line to be installed, with broadband internet to come down the second phone line. This second phone line was not installed and so having found that I could use broadband talk as a second phone number I called BT to check that no second phone line would be installed. BT confirmed that this was the case and so I left things as they were - one landline with broadband internet down that line and broadband talk to give me a second phone number.Please find below a summary of what has happened over the following five months - I have removed many of the phone calls and resulting conversations to try and keep this letter of complaint to a manageable length. You may be interested to know that I have kept a rough tally of the number of people at BT to whom I have spoken and it is upwards of sixty - I'm sure you can tell me how many hours on the phone that would equate to, based on typical time on hold and typical length of your service calls - I know it is well in excess of twenty four hours.17/10/07 - Ordered existing phone line to be transferred to me and second phone line added, with broadband internet on the second phone line.24/10/07 - Visited by BT engineer. Existing phone line transferred but engineer had no record of a second phone line having been ordered.25/10/07 - Called BT to cancel the order (if it existed) for the second phone line. No sucess despite over two hours on the phone.26/10/07 - Called BT and eventually told that there was no record of an order for a second phone line and my account simply had one phone line with broadband internet and broadband talk.31/10/07 - Found the internet was no longer working. Then found that the phone line was not working. Called the BT fault line and an engineer was ordered. Received to text message from engineer to confirm that he was aware of the job.01/11/07 - By 1100 no update from the engineer. Called BT and told that engineers had investigated the fault and found they needed access to the property and rather than contacting me and visiting the property (they had my mobile number and I was at home) they simply told BT this. Had to request another engineer to visit the property and was told that I was not a priority customer so this would take some time. Persisted with my request and eventually told that they would order an engineer for Saturday and would call me back with the details. Never received a call back. Later that evening found that the phone line was working again but it was a new phone number!02/11/07 - Called BT to say my phone line was now working but was a different phone number and the broadband internet was not working on it. Was told that they would need to get this new phone number disconnected and the original number reconnected as that had the broadband assigned to it. An engineer was booked to visit the nearest exchange to change the connections.05/11/07 - At 1245 I checked the phone and it was still on the second phone number. Called BT to find what was happening and was told that there was no record of an engineer being booked to change the phone number back. Was eventually escalated to a manager who said she would investigate the problem and call me back. Never received a call back. Eventually reached someone who told me that the second phone number had replaced the first phone number and that the first phone number was scheduled to be cancelled.06/11/07 - Called BT and finally told that the only solution was to re-order broadband internet. Unfortunately I would have to wait five working days for this to be activated.13/11/07 - Second broadband internet account now working.04/12/07 - Receieved bill for £286.16 for early cancellation of my first phone line. Called BT and was told this would be cancelled. Also requested that any similar bills for the first broadband internet account should be cancelled.06/01/08 - Received bill for £101.43 for first broadband account. Called BT, explained that this account was no longer active.28/01/08 - Received reminder for bill, once again phoned and asked for it to be cancelled.19/02/08 - Received another reminder for the bill, called again to have it cancelled.03/03/08 - Broadband stops working, after 2.5 hours of phone calls finally find that new broadband account has been cancelled. Am told it will take 5 days to get broadband reinstated despite it being BT's fault. Do some googling, find a BT complaints related forum and get hold of a number for serious BT business problems. Spoke to a useful chap called Ken said he'd try to sort things out.04/03/08 - Broadband starts working again.I then continue to receive ridiculous bills of £2.13 for the old broadband account which I simply refuse to pay. As you can see writing this letter alone is worth more than £2.13 of my time yet over the past five months I have wasted countless hours due to BT's utter incompetence. Today (09/04/08) I received a letter from a debt collection agency for this amount. I demand that BT retracts its claim for this money, erases any references to this on my credit reference data and seriously considers a substantial refund for my stress, hassle and timewasting. I would also like to remind you that I have also repeatedly asked for BT1571 to be set up on my broadband talk line and this has yet to be activated.I would like to remind you that I currently pay you approximately £50 a month for my telephone and broadband and if this matter is not resolved to my satisfaction I will be taking my business elsewhere.Yours,Alexander

Michael Beard 4 years ago

Dear MargaretTried to call but was greeted by an answer phone.What do I have to do to get ANY service from BT. I have two lines not functioning and BT are prohibiting us from transfering to an alternative service provider.It cant get any worse but somehow BT manage to make it so. I have made a simple and generous suggestion. Ten days on it still has not been responded to.Kind regards, Michael Beard----- Original Message ----- From: retail.service.office@bt.com To: michaelbeard@thecarrierpigeoncompany.com Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 10:43 AMSubject: FW: 12 months disrupted service VP64952370...........HELPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....................URGENTMr BeardCould I take this opportunity to acknowledge receipt of your email in this office, myself or one of my colleagues will be back in touch with you within the next 5 working daysIf you wish to speak to us direct before then please call 0131 448 6552 quoting reference CM 31259834RegardsMargaret SmythService Office.From: Michael Beard [mailto:michaelbeard@thecarrierpigeoncompany.com] Sent: 01 April 2008 17:01To: CFB ONEBILL COLLECTIONS GSubject: 12 months disrupted service VP64952370...........HELPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....................URGENTDear Sir / MadamFollowing another hour on the phone to BT the situation with our account VP64952370 is still after 12 months unresolved and still we do have only partial use of the services which you demand incorrect and excess payment for.It will take me days to give you full account so I hope in the first instance the following synopsis will be sufficient. Please remember that the problems I am about to relay follow previous experience with BT where it took me 2.5 years to get successful settlement of the over payments that BT took through direct debits.The situation on this account VP64952370 has now gone on for 12 months and started when BT without my permission, and after I personally phoned in an attempt to stop this action, allowed another operator or provider Midland TLM to take over our lines, 01926 811822, 01926 811823, and Broadband. Due to the quarterly billing regime the error did not come to my notice until three months later when I received a bill from this company. BT would not take any action over their error and illegal action and I was left to pay Midland TLM in order to get the telephones back with BT. I was encouraged by one of your business IT divisions and naively put my faith back with BT. In this process it was recommended I go to One Billing. In the transfer to and and from Midland TLM I paid and had duplicated costs by BT which I was told I could claim back. I was told that if I put everything on to the one bill then it would be easier to make a claim for refunds. My first application last summer was responded to and suprise suprise I got not one billing account but two! After more days wasted on the phone I eventually got the two accounts on to one! Progress?, unfortunately not as one telephone line 01926 817180 was left off the new account.So I get another account the current one, but meanwhile through means outside of our control the 01926 817180 is suspended as we are told some other operator has acquired it. BT cannot tell us who, so for the past five weeks we have not been able to use this number and still cannot. About the time this problem arose I got my first ONE BILL and could not get sense from this complex and incorrect bill.I had 20 queries with errors on the bill, so I called the appropriate line and was told that I can only have two of these answered????!!!!! The two I was allowed to query were for approximately £200 of equipment I did not need and had not been sent. I was told a new bill would be issued and until then and the other billing issues were resolved BT would not press for payment. So why is one line currently barred, another not useable..........and another issue in the midst of all this the Broadband line failed being faulty and it took BT over a week to fix the problem. During that time alone I spend over 20 hours on the phone.........this is ridiculous and totally unnecessary.So I am happy to pay what is owed which is a fraction of the £700 plus requested by BT but I genuinely believe the balance owed is significantly in my favour. The reasons for this centre around but are not exclusively, the following issues BT allowed my accounts to go without permission to undeclared third party service providers on two separate occasions over the last 12 months.In the first transition and reinstatement I was obliged to duplicate payments which have not been reimbursed.BT representatives advised me on more than one occassion that we are due compensation.In the second and more recent transition we have been charged and denied use of one line.My business broadband was out of action for several days and you seek payment for such.Your erroneous, duplicated, protracted and delayed attempts to ONE BILL these accounts has denied me resolution of most issues todate.The one and only bill you are seeking payment against is riddled with errors.I and my wife have spent not only hours but accumulatively days on the phone over the past year with no progress at all in resolving the issues.Mobile phones have had to be used excessively.I believe the situation is now so complex as to take disproportionate resources to resolve. I recommend that both parties draw a line as from 1st April 2008, today, with us withdrawing all claims as long as BT have all lines working and our account goes to zero balance and we start paying from today onwards. Though this does not anywhere cover our claims and costs.I would not relish court action, but 12 months patiently waiting for BT to do resolve outstanding issues without success is indication that this may be the only alternative and if taken our claims will be substantial. Oh! and one other action was to contact my local BT business manager who agreed a one to one meeting could resolve all. Promised a 48 hour response and still waiting three weeks on...............there is more.I do really believe my proposal is fair and the most effective for all of us. I would appreciate immediate response as this dispute is detrimental to my business, private life and health.Yours faithfully, Michael BeardDear MargaretTried to call but was greeted by an answer phone.What do I have to do to get ANY service from BT. I have two lines not functioning and BT are prohibiting us from transfering to an alternative service provider.It cant get any worse but somehow BT manage to make it so. I have made a simple and generous suggestion. Ten days on it still has not been responded to.Kind regards, Michael Beard----- Original Message ----- From: retail.service.office@bt.com To: michaelbeard@thecarrierpigeoncompany.com Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2008 10:43 AMSubject: FW: 12 months disrupted service VP64952370...........HELPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....................URGENTMr BeardCould I take this opportunity to acknowledge receipt of your email in this office, myself or one of my colleagues will be back in touch with you within the next 5 working daysIf you wish to speak to us direct before then please call 0131 448 6552 quoting reference CM 31259834RegardsMargaret SmythService Office.From: Michael Beard [mailto:michaelbeard@thecarrierpigeoncompany.com] Sent: 01 April 2008 17:01To: CFB ONEBILL COLLECTIONS GSubject: 12 months disrupted service VP64952370...........HELPPPPPPPPPPP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!....................URGENTDear Sir / MadamFollowing another hour on the phone to BT the situation with our account VP64952370 is still after 12 months unresolved and still we do have only partial use of the services which you demand incorrect and excess payment for.It will take me days to give you full account so I hope in the first instance the following synopsis will be sufficient. Please remember that the problems I am about to relay follow previous experience with BT where it took me 2.5 years to get successf

Jo  4 years ago

In 2006 I left my old flat and after 3 attempts I thought at last I thought I had cancelled my account. Skip ahead to March 2008 and in the middle of trying to secure my mortage for my first property, I receive a Notice of Debt Collection from a bill I had not paid for January 2008. I haven't lived their since 2006 and somehow now I'm being threatened with court! As well as being very distraught, this has effected my credit rating and surprise, surprise it is impossible to get hold of BT. The debt collection thankfully is on my side and we are both trying to find out what is going on and clear my credit rating. So far it's been 6 weeks and no news from BT!

OGGY STOOP 4 years ago

BT HAVE REDUCED MY BROADBAND CONNECTION FROM A HEALTHY 6 MBPS TO A MEASLY 2MBPS - AFTE I PAID FOR OPTION 3 AN THEIR BEST SERVICES I FIND IM IN A POSITION NO BETTER THAN OPTION 1 CUSTOMERS - ONLY IM PAYING MORE FOR IT!!!

A K 4 years ago

I just want to speak to someone who can understand basic english

Tony Quinlan 4 years ago

I am absolutely sick to death of BT Broadband. It is so slow I cannot watch live streaming and downloads take ages.

I am paying £25 a month for Option 3 Broadband and yet when I go to www.speedtest.net I find my download stream is around 600kbps!!

This is a disgrace......when I complain by email they say an engineer will ring me....do I need tell you nobody ever has despite 4 complaints in the last fortnight.

I want out of my agreement with them as soon as possible. They never told me my speed would be this slow.

The place is run by people who are not up to the job.

graham 4 years ago

spent over 8 hours only for bt to disconnect my phone line by mistake,found that they have took money out of my account for a second line that does not work,they will not refund my money,,bt have you over a barrel because they are the telephone line owners and have threatened to cut off my main line because i refuse to pay for a second line that is not connected,,,you are sent this way and that only to be asked time and time again the same questions and after a bit of differing ,oh you will need to speak to another department,,,

some one please give us the head of bt there mobile or land line number ,so we can phone him direct,,

graham.

Ken Townend 4 years ago

This is a copy of latest letter to BT. 5 Months now trying to sort it out.

8 Mount Pleasant GardensHAYLETR27 4JR01736 757633 Complaint Review Manager BT Correspondence CentreProvidence RowDurhamDH98 1BT13 April 2008 This is two letters in response to the service provided by BT over the last 5 Months.The first part is a copy of the letter sent will the initial received bill on 3 March 2008. Accnt No. GB0346 8646. Bill No. F002 HH The second part is my second appeal at getting something done about the total inadequate service from BT. This is the story so far………….Part 1.At the beginning of December I decided to go on to Sky and was informed I needed to be on a BT line to do so. I contacted my provider Post Office and BT to inform of the change, which was to be on the 28/12/07. On the 15/12/07 at 20:15 I contacted you again stating we would not be going to Sky and cancelled the change back to BT. This was acknowledged and agreed by your representative. (check your recordings). I also told the Post office we would not be transferring which they were very happy with. We went away on a Xmas break and when we returned on the 8/1/08 we found we had an invoice for 3 months line rental and BT had taken £19 out of our account with no signed authority. After trying unsuccessfully for 24 hrs to speak to an English person to sort this out at 08:10 on the 10/1/08 I spoke to your representative who assured me we were still with the post office and that she would sort this out and any monies taken would be returned. She also stated there was a note to say we had phoned on the 15/12/07. Later that day I had a voicemail on my mobile from a foreign sounding male stating that the monies would be returned less 60p for calls made. I didn't understand this as we had not been with BT and the calls made since our return had been after 6pm when our calls with the Post office were free. Later that day I was called on my mobile by a friend stating they had been trying to phone us and were getting number not recognised. We tried the phone and found we could not phone out or receive calls but our Virgin internet still worked. This can only lead me to believe you had transferred us when requested not to. (since confirmed by the Post Office whom I called asking why we were cut off). After spending endless time talking to someone in India I again managed to get hold of someone in UK on 11/1/08 who stated he could put in a request for my number to be reconnected but not for 48 hours and if I wished to go back to the Post Office I would be liable to a penalty payment. I asked him to make the connection and we would sort out the penalty when it came to leaving BT again. As this was all an error on your part I do not see why a penalty would be payable. Especially after all the hassle and expense of using my mobile phone to contact friends and family to explain why we were not on the phone. I was advised my line would be connected on the 14/1/08 and was actually connected on the 15/1/08 with a totally different number. I again rang BT and it was agreed to give back the old number but it would take 48 hrs. We were connected back to our original number a couple of days later. We received a bill (Q001 GJ) enclosed stating we owe £41:91 payable by the 28/1/08. This includes line rental charges of £37:29 which we do not agree with. We were transferred back to you on the 28/12/07 (wrongly I may add) then cut off on the 10/1/08. Re-connected on the 15/1/08 and have now arranged with Post Office Phones to go back to where we were on the 4/2/08. Which gives around a months rental due. I was quite happy to pay the line rental for the period with you and any calls made during that time. I do not see why we are required to pay any further penalty as all the problems have been caused due to BT not doing as they said they would do on the 15/12/07 when the agreed not to transfer my number from the Post Office. We have since paid the bill for £41:91 and received from you a final bill dated 24/1/08, stating you owed us £50:82 which we duly received by check a few days later. We have now received another final bill from you stating that we owe £135:25 including a cancellation fee. As the whole mix up was down to you and no fault of ours we do not see why we would be expected to pay any cancellation fee. We had to go through BT to get a line back, after you wrongly cut us off, so that we could go back to the Post Office. I have had e-mails from your department to say the cancellation charge would be waived. (From Rohit Ohri eContact Customer Services Ref 15203872 Dated 28/1/08). Can you please reassess the second final bill to show charges for any calls made within the chargeable times and re submit to us without the cancellation charges?(Also not forgetting that you took £19:00 from our account without the written mandate which I destroyed when I rang on the 15/12/07 to cancel the change over). Your company received the Company of the Year Award for 2007. How you got that with all the problems you have caused us over the last 3 months I do not know. Please can you sort this as soon as possible as it has put a lot of unnecessary stress on us for no reason at all. If all your departments checked with each other this would not have happened. A very very irate customer. Ken Townend BEM (Mobile No 07733156530) Part 2 13/4/08 09 April 2008 We have now received a final reminder from you for the £135.25 Bill No Q002 KA. With no comment about the letter above sent on the 3/3/08. 10/04/08 I rung your Customer Service line and after 20 mins of recorded messages actually spoke to an adviser. After some discussion she stated she would not be able to reduce that amount and would pass it to her Manager for her to contact me. She took my mobile number and said I would be contacted. 13/04/08 I decided to write this as I have heard nothing and I am now worried about being cut off. Please can you ensure you look at this as a matter of urgency and speak to which ever department to ensure we are not ‘cut off’ until it is all sorted out. yours

Ken Townend BEM Mobile No 07733156530 if not at home.

Gillian Smith 4 years ago

I have added the le letter i sent to MS Lewis at BT :

Subject : Complaint

First Point:

On the 31st of March 2008, I called your sales team regarding connection of my existing landline, and to place an order for your ‘special offer’ Option 3 broadband deal, with limited edition Black home hub and free bt Vision Box.

Upon speaking the sales advisors it soon became clear I was dealing with one of the most incompetent operatives I have ever encountered. After explaining my wish of my landline to be connected to order ‘’special offer ” Option 3 broadband package.

Whilst taking my detail he obviously thought it appropriate to continue eating and coughing down the phone whilst speaking to me, after 30 mins on my mobile which (contrary to some of your Indian operatives beliefs is not free) and him taking all my details, he announced he had lost everything and we would have to begin again.

An hour and ten minutes later only my order for my land line to be connected was complete, the broadband still had to be done, after approx an hour and a half on the phone and repeating my detail numerous times the order was complete. I was told my line would be connected within 2 working days and I would receive the homehub and the broadband would be connected on the 9th April

Order consisted of :

1. Connection of existing landline

2. Standard line rental contract (free evenings and weekends)

3. 1 limited edition black honehub

4. Option 3 broadband package

5. Free BT vision Box

Upon summarising the order I realised my BT vision box was missing, so when I mentioned it I was told I had to wait until the 9th of April to order it, which he had neglected to tell me at any point during the call or upon completion of the order.

Call time aprrox 1 hour 30 mines

Point Two :

After 3 days of waiting for my line to be connected I decided to call to find out what the problem was, holding for 25mins to speak to someone was only the start of my problems. I was the put through to an Indian gentleman, where upon I first discovered my details did not match those on the account, again we can contribute that to the completely incompetent sales operator I first dealt with, who had not input my details correctly, and obviously didn’t understand what his job entailed.

After being told he could only speak to the account holder, and as my details didn’t match I wasn’t

he account holder, I was transferred AGAIN.

After convincing the next advisor that I was the account holder by giving my bank details, which funnily enough did match those on your system, strange how the only thing the original advisor did manage to get correct were my banking details.

So my account was being debited, yet my name wasn’t even on your system. This is extremely disturbing that my bank account, can be attached to details of another person.

After supposedly sorting my details out with this gentleman, I then explained my problem, he

seemed unable to grasp the fact I had already ordered my line connection, but it was still not working, and told me I would need to be transferred yet again.

After being passed from Indian team to Indian team I was getting increasingly annoyed as no one seemed to understand what I was wanting to know, or saying for that matter. I was being read the same statements and asked questions over and over again, there was a complete breakdown in communication as I found them extremely difficult to understand and often completely incomprehensible

I then asked to speak to someone in the UK who could deal with my problem, I was told there were no customer care centres in the UK and that she would get someone to call back with 24 hours, of which she could not give a time slot.

Call time approx 1 hour

After waiting over 24 hours for my supposed call back I called again as my line was still not working 4 days on.

Again I was through to an Indian call centre where I gave my details which, surprise surprise didn’t match those on your system, after being transferred a further 3 times I was got through to a ‘delightful’ Indian girl who I could barely make out and was again told someone would call back within 24 hours.

I decided to call again and by sheer luck got through to and English girl who within a few minutes had amended my details and told me what the problem was and that she would send an engineer to the exchange and gave me a date of connection the 9th of April.

Call time approx 30 mins.

So in order to get my phone line connected supposedly free of charge I made 3 separate calls and a total call time of 3 hours which left me a with a mobile phone bill of £30.

Point three:

The 9th of April came and the phone line was connected and the homehub was delivered. Upon opening the package I discovered I had been sent a standard white homehub, and not the ‘special offer’ limited edition one that was advertised and promised to me.

I connected the hub to check the line and broadband were working and decided to call to find out why I had been sent the wrong hub, yet again another Indian call centre, who informed me that I was sent a standard hub because they have “had no stock of black homehubs in warehouse for a while”.

So in conclusion I was not contacted about the lack of black homehubs and I am stuck with the standard white hub, meaning it is not a special offer, therefore am I correct in saying the you were advertising a product to the public which you knew you did not have in stock and knew you wouldn’t be getting any more the near future.

This method of drawing customers in with special offer products, which you do not have in stock which was openly admitted by several of your staff, is false advertising and therefore trading standards will be informed!

Point 4 :

On the 9th of April I also called your sales department to order my BT vision box as I was told to do. My detail were again taken and the line was checked, I was given an order number and told everything was fine, my box would be with me on the 15th April.

Today the 14th April I decided to call to check the order status, as my trust and respect for BT and your ‘advisors’ has long gone, only to be told the order had not gone through.

So after taking a day off work, in order to be here when the box arrived BT have again proved how incompetent their staff are.

I then had to again, go through all my detail and the box had to be re ordered and now won’t be here until the 22nd of April, 22 days after the original order for the package was made.

I called your BT Vision department seeking compensation (possible upgrade in viewing package) only to be told that no compensation could be given!

It’s just not acceptable, I cannot believe the service I have received from BT it is the worst I have EVER encountered, The call centre operative in India are completely incomprehensible and its fairly obvious to me that they do not receive adequate training or English lessons for that matter.

When I phone a company as an

Elaine 4 years ago

I find BT a joke, i recieved a phone bill for 107 pounds when i had switched to AOL as my talk provider, i have agreed this is for some calls before the switch over, waited untill the remind came in and informed BT i would have diffuculty paying at the moment she gave me a few weeks to pay. The next week i cant call out phone BT to find i have been disconnected, pay 40 pounds and set up a direct debit for the other 67 to be taken out over 2 mths,

Had to wait 3 days to be reconnected instead of 12 hours. Today discover they have cut me off again, i cant call out no one can call me and i cant even dial 150, phoned from my friends they apparently do not have my dd instuctions when i gave it to 3 people, the man was suppose to call me back and hasnt, this company is a joke and i plan on finding someone else to rent a line from.

david gollop 4 years ago

from Saturday 4th.April until Friday 11th.April our phone line and broadband service was not working.After endless phone calls from our mobile to bt to complain we did not have any feedback as promised as to how long we were going to be down. We expect some compensation for this inconvenience as we are trying to sell our property and have found this has been a real problem.

Phone number 01264 773542

ruth saphier 4 years ago

i have had the hub package since november 2007 and have not beeen able to make a single phone call out going, on the new number given 0161 309 0226 people have been able to ring in. i have made several phones to 150 and 151 from my mobile phone which has cost me a lot of money and time. 99 per cent of the time i wqs left holding on and passed from person to person only to be cut off.i have sent several letters to customer complaints which i have had a response which i replied back today. only to find when i got home today 15/4/08 i coule dial out on this phone line but nobody can dial in i used this number to phone the number on my computer spoke to an advisor who told me to ring 150 which i did but got cut off again. when i tried to ring back i can no longer dial out but people can dial in.so hence this email. mrs r saphier not a happy bt customer at all .please reply to iansaph@hotmail.com

Dr. Mansoor 4 years ago

Dear Sir/Madam,

I want to bring your attention to the extortionate reconnection charges BT is making. As you know the company which is undertaking engineering work is a BT subsidiary.

I have existing line in the house which was in use previously but now BT wants 125 pounds to reactivate in comparison to 50 pounds sky charges which incluides free dish LNB and instalation.

Due to the rip off I have decided to depend on mobile so I wonder if BT could make any money at all if all the customers take steps to stop this ripoff.

regards

Charlotte Caldwell 4 years ago

It is so good to not feel alone! I was encourage by this site to wrie the enclosed email. Thjanks!

Mr Verwaayen,Our story with BT started last year when we bought a home in Scotland and tried to get phone service. We live most of the year abroad and naively thought we could be connected immediately, as it does here in the US. How wrong we were. After three months of 5 missed appointments we eventually got service, for one week, and then we were disconnected.I have tried with little success to get some response from BT regarding our situation; we have now been informed we were disconnected because of non payment of our bill, despite being set up for direct debit and money being withdrawn from our account. This was done with no warning or explanation. You are aware I am sure of how long it takes to speak with someone in customer service - hours in some instances.. Each time, times, when we finally got through, we were cut off in the middle of the conversation and then we had to start again. I have spent literally hours and many pounds of mobile calls on this fruitless quest. When I eventually spoke with someone in billing who seemed to know what had happened, she added insult to injury by telling us, we were charged 70 pounds for an early cancellation fee and that we we would have to pay a further 124 pounds for being reconnected - with a new number. I asked that our original installation fee be refunded. She said a supervisor would call me back, but when I said I was in the US, she told me BT employees could only call the UK! And this from a communications company? What about all these calls we make that get answered in India?.I cannot express my frustration in dealing with BT. I cannot imagine how you are able to stay in business. Like many people, I look forward to the day when I can get VOIP in the UK, as I do in the US. Until then, my mobile will have to do, as I cannot get another landline without a BT line rental. How crazy is that.Please take these complaints seriously. This is gotcha capitalism at its worst.Charlotte Caldwell

Futrai 4 years ago

Having confirmed no charge to be levied I obtained a Mac Code to transfer my Broadband from BT to Be. All went well but I then received the bill from BT for the cancelled service.

1 hour later on my call to India I was informed that the charges were due to both systems ? not being updayed my the migration personal. The present outstanding payment would be waived but I would have to ring India again in 3 months to get the next payment cancelled.!!!

Yvette  4 years ago

I just want to correct my surname that was spelled wrong on my account details when I opened the account over the phone. After 7 phone calls speaking to customer services that can't understand english I still don't have any luck!

Gordon Ward 4 years ago

I am at present with cable landline.

Why should BT have the momopoly on landlines. I want to change from cable with my package deal of bradband/talkunlimited landline to a comany of my choice but I am told I am unable to do so because I do not have a BT landline. BT want to charge me at least £110 to be re connected. It is wrong, they should not have the right to whether I have a landline with them. I at present to do have the right of choice. BT should be made to let go of their monopoly.

Sarah Stratford 4 years ago

I am so confused I don't know where I am at.

Was really upset with BT service so called to say I wanted to cancel. The bloke (Scottish) was so offhand and said alright, but it will cost you £400 or more.

I was very worried and called to reactive my account in December. I thought I was reactivating my account but although I had the same telephone number, I was now called Sarah StraPford!

I was still querying the old bill which caused me to cut BT off, as I had signed up for call barring to stop my son making premium phone calls and hadn't been given the right info. I thought those calls were barred but they weren't. I have several pages of most amusing responses from BT customer service, one telling me that you can't bar premium rate, another saying you can't 'stack' the bars.

Many frustrating calls were made to reinstate call barring, all with different info, I have kept a record of some.Once in a while you would get someone who knew what they were doing but the chances of speaking to them again are slim.

I got cut off last month,not sure why. Then was put back on with a new number - had to wait two weeks for the internet to catch up. Now I seem to have a bill, recieved today with a £200 odd cancellation fee. I have been in tears of frustration because I thought I had paid everything up to date. I have two current accounts (net and phone) and at least two old ones which I keep getting random bills for with no dates on and no one seems to know what they are really for - least of all me.

Any ideas what I should do anyone?

Chris Lewis 4 years ago

Dear Sir,

I am sorry to trouble you but I have spent 4 hours on the phone to BT Customer Services in the last week and I have hit a dead-end.

Last Thursday (10th April) I rang BT to get my phone line re-connected and get BT Broadband Option 3. After much toing and froing I eventually got the order that I wanted and was told that my phone would be connected on Monday (14th) and my broadband today (17th) I thought this a little slow considering I already have a dialing tone and I have previously had BT Broadband at this address, but I accepted this.

I then received letters dated 10th, 11th and 12th April giving a BT Service start dates of 16th April, 25th April and 15th April respectively. Assuming the latest dated letter was correct and this was for both phone and broadband I was happy. This would've meant that I would have received my service on Tuesday.

After 2 hours being bounced around many members of BT Staff and being put on hold for long periods of time I have now found out that I will have no service until 25th April. That is 15 days and 11 working days from the original order. This is totally unacceptable.

Is this what you would call a good customer service or an abuse of a monopoly position? I want to be a BT customer because your BT Broadband is the most consistant service on the market but BT is totally let down by its customer service.

Looking forward to your reply,

Chris Lewis

Cathie 4 years ago

I received my new BT verve 500 April 16th battery on one of the handset did not work I phoned the on the no on the instruction book and they said they would send nw battery fine. I receved a call from them to say that they had just taken over BT customer service re phones and that they had no battries and gave me a BT no to acll and quote aref no. This I did and they said that they could only send me another phone that I would have to pay for first and that they would then refund the money I had already paid. They would collect my phone on the 18th but I could wait atleast 3 days for the new one. I did not agree to this and they said the only other way was if I called a company that supplies ther parts they would send me a new battery and I could then send the invoice to them they would refund me the cost of the battery. While I did not agree with this I did try I phoned the company and they have not got any so I again phoned customer service to be told ther was nothing else they could do.I then said that they could take a battery out of another phone, they could not do this as it would affect the warrenty of thet phyone HaHa as the battery is in a plastec bag by itself I could not see this, but after quite a time on the phone I have not got any satisfaction.

I told them that I had just had a toe amplitated and that bothe myself and my husband are disabled therefore cannot be without a phone

I have been looking to see if I can find a battery on the net and have found the same phone £ 13 cheaper, but am concerned that ! if I send this one back will I get a full refund and 2nd how long will I be without a phone

Neil McDonald 4 years ago

This is a copy of the complaint and the response regarding the exceptionally bad service I have received from BT after having only set up a simple land line.

My Complaint:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to inform you of the unbelievably poor service which I have received since setting up a basic phone line back in November 2007.

The account appeared to be running perfectly well until the first notification of an unpaid bill which was received on 07/03/08 advising that there was an outstanding balance of 174.81. It appears that the bill had not been paid since December but was not brought to my attention by BT until March. On receiving this notification I immediately contacted your customer service team to pay the bill. Your advisor was informed that the bill would be paid ASAP as I was now aware of the issue. The bill was then paid online by my girlfriend but was not applied to my account as she is not the account holder. I then contacted your customer service team again and was advised that it would be noted on the account that this was a missing payment case. My girlfriend then contacted you with the payment details and the transaction was identified and applied to my account. During this call an order was placed for the broadband hardware to allow an internet connection to be established and my girlfriend was informed that the package would be delivered within five working days. I then called to ensure the account was up to date and was informed by your advisor that this was the case and every thing was in order.

Having rectified the previous problem it was brought to my attention that the phone line did not appear to be working. I then contacted BT again and was informed that the account had been closed and a final bill issued. I asked to speak with the relevant department and was passed to several different people who were unable to help. At this stage I had been on the phone for over half an hour and asked to speak with a manger as it was clear the multiple customer service representatives did not know how to deal with my query. The manager passed me to your sales team who set up a new account for me and advised that the phone number would remain the same. Your sales advisor asked me to call back in two working days to check if the broadband order was being processed as he was unable to check at that time. This call took over 52 minutes and cost 8.99 in call charges on my mobile phone not including any of the many previous calls my girlfriend and I have had to make.

Finally it appeared that the problems had been resolved but this was not the case. I contacted BT again to check on the broadband order and was informed that the order had been cancelled and that the phone number allocated to my new account was different from the original. Your customer service advisor sent through an order to have the number changed back to the original ***** ****** which takes four working days. I was asked then to call back again to order the broadband hardware once the phone number had been corrected.

Today I checked my Equifax credit file and found that BT have registered a warning in February indicating bad credit on my part. I called to make a formal complaint regarding the continual shocking service and was then passed from the original advisor to three additional people before being told that a complaint could not be raised due to system issues. I was promised a call back within two hours which I never received.

This is the worst customer service I have ever experienced due to lack of communication and incompetence on your part. I would like the following issues addressed to bring an end to this nightmare.

1. Correction of my credit file with formal notification being sent to me by letter

2. Phone line to be reconnected with the correct number ***** *****

3. Suitable compensation for the wasted time and phone bills

4. Delivery of the broadband equipment

5. Details of a direct contact to assist with future problems

I can be contacted on my mobile ***** ****** at any time. Should there be no answer please leave a message with a direct contact number. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

The resepnse:

Dear Mr *********,

Thank you for your email dated 9/4/08 about your BT telephone service.

I am very sorry to hear of the difficulties you have experienced in the past in relation to your billing of the land line and for the ordering of your Broadband service.

I have checked your BT account and when the line was started in November 2007 you had requested for monthly billing. We issued bills out to you in 15th December 2007, 15th January 2008,15th February 2008 and 15th March 2008 to the installation address, reminders were also issued 10 days after the original bill. Your line was made incoming calls only on 11th March 2008 and due to the amount of bills outstanding the line was then disconnected on the 16th March 2008 and the final bill issued on 7th April 2008. Once BT send the bills out on the cycle that the customer request (ie monthly) we trust that the customer will be aware that bills will be due and if they are worried that they haven't received one in 4 months they would contact us in regards to it. Bills can also be viewed online at www.bt.com to allow customers to keep a closer check on the bills. Therefore details on the credit file are correct and no adjustments will made.

Your phone number has been changed back to the original ***********.

No compensation can offered at this time, I am sorry that you had to wait so long to get through to an adviser however this call is a free phone number when dialling from a land line.

Broadband products will not be issued out to you until the order has been placed, now that your line is back on and working an order can be completed please ring the Broadband sales team on 0800 085 6161 to request this.

Unfortunately we are unable to give direct lines to advisers for customers however you are welcome to reply to this email and I will be happy to help with your enquiries.

I understand that this may not be the response you were expecting however I trust that the information I have provided has helped you understand BT's position on these matters.

Once again please accept my apologies for the problems you have experienced with BT recently.

Thank you for contacting BT.

My comments:

It appears accrording to BT that there is now a serious issue with the Royal Mail. Is it possible that the bills and reminders issued for 3 months could all go missing? I thnik not!

Note in the response they state that the BT telephone number is free from a land line. Thats great if your landline has not been disconnected by BT.

I asked to be contacted by phone regarding this complaint but again BT cannot follow simple instructions and they replied by email!

If anything can be done about this I can be contacted at neilmcdoanld@keme.co.uk

Thanks

mary jackson 4 years ago

I have two complaints, the first one is, i got bt vision from you a good few months ago, it never worked from day 1, some 1 eventually came out to fix it, it lasted 2 weeks at the most, the same thing happened again, i have reported it approx 5 times now i don't even get any replies, the other issue i have is my home phone isn't receiving income or out going calls i again have reported this a few times again no reply. mary jackson

Douglas Johnson 4 years ago

I have been complaining about the interference on my hub phone since it was installed Oct 07.

To date nothing that has been tried by you has worked.

About 2 and a half months ago you ceased talking to me although I had been promised that you would endeavour to find a solution.

I wrote 3 weeks ago to BT and Monday 7th April received a telephone call from BT unfortunately the wrong department. The lady called Pauline said she would get someone from the correct department in the internet section. This has never materilaised.

I feel that you are side lining the problem and that you win whichever outcome ensues. You are not going to be out of pocket as I continue to pay the bills.

Ayisha Madden 4 years ago

I called BT 4 weeks ago when i moved in to my new property. There are BT sockets and BT line wire everywhere so i thought this would not be a problem. How wrong was i! Firstly they charged me £124.99 to connect a line that they said was not ther but evidently is, then i have to wait 4 weeks for an install date. Only then to recieve a text on Fri 11th at 6.30pm to cancel this date and give me new date another 8 days away. When i called to say this was most disappointing i was basically told tuff that the new date and thats it. 5 hours on the phone to them from a mobile doesnt come cheap. I now have no faith in them whats so ever but have no choice as they are the only provider i can get in my area. Id been with Virgin for 4 1/2yrs without a porblem im very dissapointed.

debbie 4 years ago

i have been separated from my husband for over 2 yrs now and bt still insist on linking our phones, he has been able to read my billing info,

order things from bt ,these have been put in my name and sent to our old adderss that we both lived at over a year ago, and to top it all today bt have done a credit check in my name without my permission for something my ex wanted to order from them,

i have made many many phone calls about this linking our accounts to be told they were no longer linked, then this happens today!

fumming dosent even come close to how i feel,

what they have done is against the law!

Ali Bongo 4 years ago

Foolishly, a week and a half ago I accepted BT's offer to provide Broadband, phone line and Broad band Anywhere.

The next day when the mobile phone arrived it was faulty. I was not impressed with customer services and made the decision to cancel my order and was assured that the cancellation had been done. I confirmed this a couple of days later.

On Saturday I lost my Tiscali Broadband and discovered that BT had taken it over.

I contacted BT and was told I was not a customer of theirs and that I had no Broadband with them.

I tried Tiscali they advised me I was now with BT!!!!!

After 9 hours of speaking to idiots at BT i eventually obtained a MAC code for a service they still state I don't have.

However, I cannot migrate from BT as they have tagged my line and tied it to them.

What a *****ng shambles!

Having spent the weekend going round in ever decreasing circles I have now found that I can connect to the internet. I have checked with BT who say it' not with them. I have checked with Tiscali, they still say the lines tagged to BT so I can't jon them.

So....FREE BROADBAND :-)

Mr A A 4 years ago

To cut a long story short, not only did they charge me £124.99 to flick a switch for a line when a box clearing saying 'BT' already exists in my house, but they have to balls to charge me late and reconnection fees when they dont send me out a copy of the direct debit mandate to make me aware of the date the payment will be taken.

Now, without trying to sound racist, its taken me over 6 hours to finally speak to somebody that speaks effing english! after being cut off, transferred around and speaking to managers who have promised refunds for all the failed direct debit late payment & debit charges from my bank, Ive still yet to recieve the credit returned to my bank account. Finally i brought myself to painstakingly call BT again. As usual, I got the same routine of being transferred around, speaking to fucking indians that dont understand a fucking thing you say! FIIINALY after 2 hours of hanging up and re dialing, i spoke to somebody in the UK (friendly chap) who saw all the notes on my account, quite willingly agreed to refund the whole amount of £102.50 back to my bank account, he took my sort code and account number and it was settled. i felt a huge relief. i even logged into my online BT account then next day to see if there was any progress, and it showed a credit of £102.50 being processed. I thought this was the last of it....I was wrong...

The monday after the weekend, i decide to check my online BT account for any progress, and what do you know....a bill of £102.50 is required to be paid! so its like BT lent me money only for them to ask me to pay it back again when I havent even received it back in my account yet!!!

Im a Sky employee who deals with sales and accounts! Even though i get free sky, broadband and telephone, i put off switching over to sky's phone service simply because a BT line is required by everybody when switching between providers, so i decided to stay with BT to keep my future options open, but after today, i was straight back onto my computer at work and signed myself up with sky talk.

bottom line...STAY AWAY FROM BT AT ALL COSTS!! THEY WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE..LITERALLY!!!

John 4 years ago

i have had trouble with my BT line for ages now! My ISP has told me that BT has a problem and will fix the line but no! The intenet still disconnects when i get a phone call. It's now running at 0.5 mbps and shouls run at a closer to 3 mbps with a max of 3.5. I have been told 3 times that they have fixed the problem and all 3 times nothing has changed. all they have done is slowed my internet speed from 3 mbps to 0.5.

If anyone knows anything please help!

debbie 4 years ago

ok gave my ex the email addy thats been put on here, within a few mins he rang me back to say he'd had a relpy, (under five mins) and that the problem would be looked into,

ive just googled ben verwaayen and he is one of the top bt guys out there,

will keep you posted on the outcome, have also told my ex about this site.

the email was

ben.verwaayen@bt.com

Aravind Venugopal 4 years ago

I recently took a BT landline. Now the only reason I did take it, was to get my o2 broadband connection. So when asking for the new line, i specifically mentioned that I wanted the minimum option 1 contract for 10.50, alongwith paper free billing. The customer service agent also promised that the half price installation (a whopping £60) would be taken from me in installments. All well so far. then I receieve a bill, where they informed me I was put on option 2 instead of 1. I called them to get it corrected. keep in mind that this was even before I got the service activated. I was then promised by the customer service agent that this was a free upgrade, and any charges would be reversed. At that point, i specifically asked him whether I would continue to pay 10.50, and he said YES. 3 weeks down the line, neither has my complaint been resolved, but my repeated attempts to get BT to correct it result in one answer - 'your complaints have been noted and our team will get back to you in 24-48 hours'. That, im sorry to say, was over 10 days back. Am i in a different world, or does BT time go according to some different clock, that as normal humans are unaware of?

Peter Halsey 4 years ago

I am writing to complain about the extortionate charge of £4.50, plus a stamp, for cashing my payment cheque each quarter. I am a pensioner living in the countryside and need communications, but this represents a significant extra charge to the already high line rental charge, Is this actually legal?

Liz Bonelli 4 years ago

We just got billed for supposedly making 100 calls FROM our house number, TO that very same house number....!!! After spending around an hour waiting for an advisor, he seemed to find it funny... 3 months on, we are still waiting for our money back and a correct bill. I have also had experiences of money for two bills getting deducted on two consecutive days, etc. etc. The point is that because BT have the monopoly on home phone lines AND THEY KNOW IT, they can get away with providing no service at all to customers, long waiting times, rudeness, incompetence and mistakes after mistakes. What can be done about this? I have no choice but to stay with BT because providers such as Virgin don't service my area (despite the fact I live in zone 2 London, and not in the sticks!!). Does anyone know of any other provider? I've enquired with Sky but they need a BT line... Catch 22...

Mandy Carter 4 years ago

I ordered a new phoneline with BT around 3 months ago, at first it seemed to be going quite well! The engineers came and dug up the road within two weeks and then it all started to go horrible wrong. We waited about 4 weeks for someone to come and connect the cables to our temporary caravan but no one came and we heard nothing and could not get a answer from BT. On my way home from work one day i saw the engineer and explained that we were still waiting for the road connection to be put to the caravan and he said that he would talk to the exchange and give me a call. Which he did and the next day we were connected. Great i thought now i am going to order broadband. So the next week i called BT and got passed around to a least 10 people and repeated over and over again my tel number, Name and Address. I was on the phone for a least 2 hours but no one know who i was and the phone number did not exist. So i was eventually told to call back the next day and then they would know who i was. Unfortunatly the next day i still did not exist but lucky for me i did get to speak to several more people for 2 more hours...Trying to convince them i did have a phone line. I was told to try again later in the week. So later that week i called again and spoke to several more people at BT but i was still invisible. This time though a break through, she know i was there and confirmed that the connection had not been done correctly. She promised to send a email through to the faults division and that the next day i would be able to order Broadband. Unfortunatly the next day my phone line was cut off and i no longer existed. I had at this point lost the will to live so my husband called BT on his mobile for two hours and spoke to various people in India who he was unable to understand, eventually he spoke to a lady who promised to get the problem sorted and said that she would call him back the next day. And quess what she did and 2 days later we had a phone line..and a new number. Thankgod. But unfortunatly the very next day we were cut of again. At this point i wondered if BT was responsible for contributing to the countries suicide figures. We then started the ongoing process of talking to BT again, so we talked and talked and talked to lots and lots of people. We were eventually promised the the phone line would be connected on the 16th of April and quess what...wait for it, It wasn't. I called BT and Complained again but no one seemed to care, I was passed around, what i could not understand was that i had had a phone line twice so why is it so hard to connect us again. 4 days later i received 2 phone calls from india telling me my phone line was not connected, REALLY! and would be re-connected in 30 days or at least i think thats what they said! So i sit in anticipation everyday with my fingers crossed hoping for a phoneline. MY god and i still need Broadband.

pauline silker 4 years ago

Here I am again!! As a result of my last run in with BT I finally managed to get a response, yes it's amazing isn't it!! Finally I received a counterfoil for a greatly reduced bill, my initial bill was £333.73 which after much hair pulling and screaming on the end of the telephone line to India and various other departments belonging to BT the bill was reduced to £130.70 which I agreed to pay, and was told that when the amount was paid my services would be restored (ha ha). I have been without service to my landline since February. I sent off my cheque believing that in x days I would be functional again, yes your right I wasn't. I received another bill for £20 and a few pence which was paid immediately and then to my ultimate disgust yet again I was told I would have to reapply for my services, enter into a twelve month contract with BT again, free of charge - wait for it after they had checked my credit rating, what a 'B' cheek. If any on the numskulls working for this organisation had taken the initiative and looked at my account no outstanding monies were owing or ever had been as I paid my account by Direct Debit. I have been so annoyed and frustrated with BT I told them not to bother. I am now looking to sign with hopefully a more reliable company. How BT manage to get away with such atrocious service (lack of it). Where are the company's who are supposed to deal with customers complaints against big organisations such as BT. A very worrying aspect in all this is how the bills are calculated, how can BT justify an amount of £333.77 and then make such a reduction? The replacement cable used for work carried out in my home cost, and I quote £13.72, pluse £99 call out charge which is outrageous for half an hours work. so the additional amount on the bill was for what precisely I wonder, share holders holiday fund!! I also complainded to OTELO and also got no joy, apparently my complaint was not the right kind of complaint, sounds like the statement British Rail made regarding the wrong kind of snow/rain. Otelo also stated that the booklet enclosed would explain the situation to me, yeh you've guessed, there was no booklet enclosed, what a farce of an organisation, as bad as BT in fact. So, what if anything can be done regarding such practices if government watchdogs haven't got any teeth to bite with then they are of no use at all and a waste of money, another government quango, jobs for the boys. Who is the head of BT I would dearly like a one to one with this bloke and his cronies.

Adrian Hicks 4 years ago

I have NEVER experienced such a bad service as BT offer. I simply moved house. On the day of the new move they gave me a new number and said it would be up and running the next day at 8.00 am. It wasn't. I complained (30 minute call) and was told the number was wrong. I was given another one. That didn't work. Another call (1 hour). Still no joy although I was assured it would be up and running in 48 hours. Another two calls (1 and a half hours). Its still not resolved. I have however spoken to the entire population of India. How many departments do they have? They have no direct lines and will not do call backs. Awful!!!!

sean 4 years ago

I have recently lost approximately £2 via your payphones and the general level of service at these is disgusting.

It is neither not just the money but the amount of time and inconvenience this has created!!!

colin graham 4 years ago

ok, we ordered business broadband and a phone line for our new office. firstly BT didnt show up on the day of the installation then claimed we hadnt placed an order. strangely enough after placing our second order we then received two hubs and 2 sets of documentation. since we didnt place our order in the first place this was obviously an act of god.when i called customer services i was then informed that we had placed 2 orders.ok BT then finally came around and got everything up and running very quickly which was excellent. unfortunately our company requires a static IP as we are a web company and had ordered this with both orders.its now 3 weeks after everything was setup and after at least 7 phone calls to at least 15 different people they still dont seem able to get this sorted. Our business depends on this and BT just cant deliver.In my opinion its the lack of trained customer services staff compared to some organisations they are abysmal.

Cannon68 4 years ago

charged £300 for call out. They said fault was my fault - down to an internet router. The router was supplied by work - had it checked. 100% working fine. BT just took the £300 as a direct debit. It's theft............................... and can I get through to them on the phone............what do you think.

Tim Poole 4 years ago

I moved into rented accomadation in Inverness on January 16th. The previous occupant had BT phone and broadband and had attempted to cancel the line with BT on the 14th. On moving in, I did phoned BT, who informed me that the line had never been cancelled. Since then, I have spent a unmber of hours on the phone to BT customer services, billing, faults, etc. The latest brilliance from BT is to install a new line without shutting down the old one! The customer service has been appalling, the last guy even telling me that in order to sort out a fault on an order that has never been truly processed, I would need pay

£116.33 for the engineering visit£99.88 for every hour of part hour of work completed by the engineer

For a line which was in the house and I have never been able to take up due to a 'technical fault', I found both the tone and attitude of BT extraordinary. After 3 months, one would have presumed that someone somewhere would be able to do the simple thing and after all the hassle, any mention of additional charges would be dropped (what are they doing to get £124.99 for a reconnection anyway?). What's more, I am increasingly angry with continually having to explain myself to new people and BT employees in India, who although are doing their best, seem uhnable to really help in this situation. My girlfriend is Canadian and this has been frustrating for both of us.

Marie Phillips 4 years ago

My mother was recently made deceased at a very young age, a totally distressing time for us, made even worse by BT!!! I asked for the account holder name to be switched to my brothers name who lives at the same address as my late mother. BT said they couldnt do this they would need to open a new account in his name, same number. there would be no hassle they said no interference with our line connection. I had also paid a recent bill in my mothers name that was in advance so they said this would be issued back to me (I had to call twice to ask them to issue the cheque in my name not my mothers). Anyway, the new account was supposed to be activated on the 24th April 2008, on the 25th a neighbour called to say she had been trying to get through but the number was not reconized. Nobody could ring in, I contacted BT who had re-circulated the telehone no. we had been issued for the last 15 years or more out without informing us. No guarantees of getting it back they said, they had not even issued us a new telephone no. Also the number was crucial to us at this time, my mothers death was surrounding tragic circumstances and the number had been issued to police, coroner, funeral directors etc, family and friends. They also said it would take up to 5 days to sort but we were expected to still pay line rental as we could ring out. They also issued the refund cheque in my mothers name and had to re-issue it again, third request for this. We are stil waiting for the number and line to be re-connected. BT have caused us a tremendous amount of stress and inconvienience at the most difficult and stressful time of our lives. They are a complete and utter waste of space!!

Anita 4 years ago

The only reason I'm forced to be with BT is that I need wireless high-speed broadband and Virgin seems to require a BT phone line if you're in a non-cable area. The space here is not enough to describe the frustrating endless phone calls I made to BT in the past and now. In the recent episode they cut off my line without prior warning, because I have not paid the full amount requested. The bill they sent me was £10 short of what I'm supposed to pay, but how should I know that if the amount on the bill is incorrect? So now they disconnected my account, if I want to reconnect, I have to pay the outstanding balance + £35 reconnection fee. I DONT' THINK SO!

Grace 4 years ago

BT suck eggs in hell! OMFG! It's been 9 weeks and they still haven't returned my £50 despoit I paid them after I cancelled my service with them!

You know what?! I don't even want the poxy £50 i'd be happy to give it to charity... it's the principle of the thing! BT should stand for b*stard tw*ts!

(count back from 100.... and relax)

Cheers people.. just needed to vent! LOL

Dave 4 years ago

I sent the following to BT, I thought it easier to copy and paste rather than write it out again:

I was moving into a new property and required a phone line (the property had never been connected before) and with everything being finalised I attempted to be pro-active and order the phone line knowing it would take a week or 2 to be installed. After, what I would deem an unacceptable amount of time being kept on hold (I will later realise this is the norm for BT), I managed to order a phone line for the property. Again, being my pro-active self I thought I would order broadband at the same time, or at least make it known that I was intending to order it so it would take less time once the phone line has been set up. I was promptly told this was not how it was done and I would have to phone up again. Anyway, after just over a week of no confirmation from BT about my order I phoned back (when I learned that it is not unusual to be on hold for over an hour) and was told there was no record of my order. Strange, since I had even been given a reference number, but putting it down to a bit of bad luck I re-ordered. I phoned back a few days later to make sure everything had gone through and amazingly my original order had been found. Now we are at about 3 weeks from when I originally ordered and about a week away from an engineer coming out. Great, took a bit of time and there were some hiccups but it should be done soon.

Once the phone line was installed I wanted to order broadband. So off I go to my nearest Wi-Fi hotspot to order it (I couldn’t bare being on hold anymore). I ordered broadband with no problem; I even get the limited edition black home hub. Broadband takes about 10 days to be installed, so about 10 days go past and I’m getting ever more excited about my limited edition hub, but nothing comes. So back on the phone (still about an hour on hold) to find out what’s going on. “It’s been put on hold sir because we can’t find your local exchange, hasn’t anyone told you?” No! Nobody contacted me to tell me anything of the sort. I’m now told that BT engineers are driving around trying to find the exchange and it will be within the next few days, then 10 days after that my home hub will be delivered, but I will be contacted once the exchange has been found. No contact but my home hub is delivered a week or so after. Happy with the limited edition hub, not so happy with the lack of contact.

Now I am online and surfing away to find a TV provider. I see an advert for BT Vision…do I dare? It looks good; I must have had a bit of bad luck with the previous services BT provided me, and this is their rival to SKY, so they must be anxious to satisfy my television needs. So I ring up and am put through to a BT sales assistant straight away, things are looking up. A line test is done on my broadband (I have option 3, 8mb) and I’m told everything is ok and an engineer will come out on the 22nd September (the standard 6 weeks). I make the arrangements to be in on the 22nd and hear nothing back from BT. Stupidly assuming all is well I sit in and wait on the 22nd. About 4pm on said day I decide to phone BT to see what’s going on. I find out there is no record of my order! By this point I have put up with quite a lot and am starting to feel a bit aggravated by what I perceive as BT clearly not caring about its customers. The sales assistant was very apologetic and the only answer she could give was that BT’s systems are ‘playing up’ and orders are being lost. So by your own employee’s admission the systems are inadequate.

Reluctantly I re-order BT Vision. Another line test is done (I still have option 3, 8mb) and I am told this time that the equipment will be sent out, not installed by an engineer, and will arrive in 6 weeks time. I asked for a reference number but that will be sent out via email over the next couple of days. Sensing my diminishing faith in BT the sales assistant told me someone would phone to confirm the order. 1 week passes and I have no email and no phone call. I’m back on the phone to BT but now the sales representative refuses to speak to me. After answering all security questions she asks if I am the account holder. I am not, my partner is, but you have been dealing with me thus far so why are you refusing to me now? All I want to know is if my order is actually being processed or if it has succumbed to the same fate as my other orders. Now being unable to even speak to anyone I am fuming. I ask for the complaints department but because I am not the account holder she refuses that as well. I ask for the address of the complaints department but am told there is no such thing.

At this point I am wondering why I am giving BT my hard earned money. I phone my partner and tell her she now has to phone to ask for the update promised to me. She does so and is told that our order has been put on hold because our broadband speed is not fast enough. I found that a little strange since it is currently the fastest you offer. If you are offering a faster service but not telling customers might I suggest a different approach? We are again asked the question “didn’t anybody tell you that your order has been put on hold?” Again, the answer is no. Another line test is done and amazingly it is found that we do have fast enough broadband to support BT Vision! 3 line tests – what an amazing waste of resources.

The order is apparently now being processed as I write this letter, with a full promise of an update over the next couple of days. You will forgive me if I don’t hold my breath.

I am amazed that this is what it takes to order BT services. A friend of mine was in a similar situation (requiring a phone line, broadband and television) at about the same time. He went with SKY for the whole package and it was all fully working within 3 weeks of his original order. I envy him.

Now I am hoping I have painted enough of a picture for you to be able to understand my position. In turn I tried to understand yours; to see what I should expect as a customer. I was clicking around your internet site and came across your values. It may be worth either reviewing them or the ways in which you achieve them. As a customer, and based on my brief but eventful relationship with you, would you like my opinion on how I think you are doing in relation to your values? Well I’m going to anyway:

· Trustworthy - we do what we say we will – In none of my contacts with BT did you do what you said you would, not without considerable stress on my behalf.

· Helpful - we work as one team – This is clearly the most laughable, nobody who I spoke to had any idea about any other processes in place if they were in a different team, the very fact a customer has to phone up so many times to each separate department, and my bills for phone, broadband and Vision all come through as separate accounts, demonstrates how far away you are from achieving this.

· Inspiring - we create new possibilities – There is more truth in this one, good going! It’s just a shame customers have such a hard time getting these new possibilities.

· Straightforward - we make things clear – Not really – I was told things on the phone contrary to the website (or hidden on the website) and at no point did I think to myself ‘thank god I spoke to that BT representative’

· Heart - we believe in what

Christine 4 years ago

after reading some of the other horror stories here I dont feel as bad however having gone through the same abismal service since last august when we had BT vision installed,has not worked since day 1 and we get shunted from pillar to post and back again with noone taking any responsibility.after many,many hours on the phone-at local rate! we get another dept thats if the servers not down or no reply or just been hung up on!! a company as big as BT needs seriously to get its act together and treat customers properly.Needless to say contacting directors/CEO etc may get results but 8 months later i'm about to throw the V box in the tip and order SKY!The frustration and anger just dont seem to be worth it, lifes too short but why should they get away with this C**p?

Daryl Smith 4 years ago

I requested a pin number change on our smart divert system last monday 21st April 2008. I was given a BT reference number. 9689653566. I was informed that the job would be complete in 48 hours and i would receive an email when complete. On wednesday no email arrived so i waited until Thursday. i contacted BT local business department and i was informed by a young lady that she would sort it out and email me when complete. Monday 28th April in the morning the requested pin number change had not occured, I then went to use the smart divert system at 16:50 monday afternoon to hear a message that the service was not available. So i presumed that the pin number had been changed. I tried again with the requested pin number and still no service available. i immediately phoned BT and was told the pin number was changed and the job was complete and closed down. I informed them that the system was not working. They carried out a line test and informed me there was a fault. I then spent a further 2 hours trying to get some one to resolve my problem, All the chap in faults wanted to do is charge me out of hours call out fee to fix the fault on my line. A fault which i never had previously to the pin number change. I was left with they would fix it by 5pm tuesday. Tuesday 29th April. I received a text message at 07:23 this morning to inform me they were working on the fault, at 11am this morning still no line working. At 11:32 a text message to say that the faults were fixed arrived. STILL NO LINE WORKING. I have now spent since 11:40 tuesday trying to get someone to fix our problem and get our smart divert working again. We only access our system by Smart Divert and never use the phone socket directly. The actual socket is at a remote location to satisfy the legal Licensing laws surrounding taxi and private hire business. At the moment my business is losing about £430.00 per day. this line has been off now since approximately 16:30 monday afternoon. Wednesday 30th April update. still no smart divert working and still no closer to being resolved by the look of it. The worse thing with BT is they dont even have the decency to phone you back.

Mr Lee Smith 4 years ago

My turn!

I recently began a bt contract for a phone / internet combination priced at £19.00 per month inc,some free calls.i had a telephone conversation (india)during which i repeatedly asked if there were any hidden / rising costs to said plan.I was assured the price was all i would pay , excepting call charges.this suited me as i only wanted the line for the broadband and very occasional fax anyway.For the first 3 months that was indeed all i payed .the broadband played up quite a bit which invoved many a infuriating phone call to india , but thats another story.the problem was , after 3 months , bt started another account up and began taking a daft amount of money from my bank for broadband.after many an infuriating phonecall , they agreed to refund the broadband portion of my bill.

being angry as i was i asked to cancell the whole thing and as they had admited miss selling me the package i wanted to start from scratch.However after looking at the broadband options on the market , i decided i would phone bt to retain my line rental and just get my broadband elsewhere.again.. many an annoying phonecall later ,during some of which i was left on hold and then hung up on .i was told that i hadnt cancelled my line rental at all

I,m no racict and would happily talk to a alien who spoke reasonable english ,but the people in these call centres do not and it just makes complicated matters unbearable.

Bt is shit!there summed it up!

lyn  4 years ago

10 weeks ago we had problem with our shop phone on the Monday a Bt engineer found a fault. The same day we received a letter from Bt stating unusual activity on phone and over £120 of premium calls had been made. On the saturday, Two days previously we had mis-laid a hands free handset. Checking our usauge online the calls had been made in a 3hr time frame on the Saturday. I immediatly phoned the police and informed BT, who told me to wait until the next bill arrived then phone them back. I phoned back when bill arrived to be informed I would have to pay the charges and if I did not the phone would be cut off.

I made a complaint to Bt regarding paying funds on my behalf to a company when the calls had been made without my permission and fraudulently. I enquired had Bt notified the companycornserned, no it was not their responsibility they stated. I asked for the companies details which Bt refused to give me. I asked for the address to make a formal complaint to Bt and was told they would ring me back. 10 days later no one has rung and this morning we received a letter stating they had explored all avenues and we now had to pay. We could complain to OTELO if we wished to so.

Phoned Otelo who are sending out forms advised to also complain PhonePayPlus

Why should I have to do any of this. The premium numbers are sex phone lines I asked Bt why these numbers were available without a pin or credit card, not their problem I was informed. On the Saturday when we were having problems with the credit cards machine not being able to access the phone line(because some dirty pervert was using the phone) I pulled out the hands free and put an old corded phone in, would I have been facing a £3,000 bill my Monday if I had not done so?.

Harri 4 years ago

I moved into a flat in Woolwich on January 4th 2008, and on the same day made the first call to have my BT phone line installed. I have now placed 6 separate orders, been told that the phone line has been installed twice, been charged 4 times for installation and still don't have a phone line.

I am absolutely beyond despair.

Harriet Burnell 4 years ago

Currently having a nightmare with BT. Asked them to set up a phone and broadband package. On two seperate occasions engineers failed to turn up. We then cancelled the service and sent the equipment back.

Since then we have had about 8 bills, for varying amounts. Each time we call them we spend about £10 trying to find someone who speaks enough English to understand. After an hour on the phone each time they promise to cancel the account. After only another few days we receive another bill. Have no idea how to handle this.

Michael Lock 4 years ago

Letter of complaint I sent

I have cancelled my Bt Account as of 1/5/2008 due to the terrible service I received from you. I paid my account regularly whilst I was in work. I had to give up work and I asked to go onto a monthly payment plan to make payment more affordable to me. This posed no problem to the first person I spoke to and arrangements were made. However my phone and broadband was cancelled even though I was making payments. On ringing to ask what the problem was I was treated like a bad debtor and the person I spoke to was very abrupt and made me feel as if I was a criminal. I was informed that under no circumstances could I have a monthly plan, even though I had a letter and paying in slips to the contrary, as I would have to pay my bill in full before I could be considered for direct debit. This left me confused and very upset. I phoned back the next day and got another person who informed me that I had the monthly payment plan and the other person was wrong, they apologised and my telephone and broadband was resumed. I thought it was all sorted but no my phone and broadband was disconnected yet again, and yet again told I had to pay my bill then I could set up a direct debit. Yet again I rang up and was told I could have a direct debit set up as I only had one payment to go, so I arranged to pay by direct debit. I paid my final payment and the direct debit was set up, or so I thought. No I was yet again informed that I was unable to have a direct debit until I had paid my bill in full, even though I had signed a direct debit form with the arrangements of paying £61 a month, which was due to be taken on the 1st May 2008. I received a letter stating that I couldn’t have a direct debit until my bill was paid, even though it had been cleared at that time. This was the final straw for me, and I decided that I would go elsewhere as the treatment I was receiving was appalling. I had been a loyal customer of BT for a number of years and I do not expect to be treated in this manner. I informed you that I was leaving and would require a MAC code to give to my new supplier. I received the code and my new supplier informed me that you had given them the date of 1/5/2008 as the switch over date. However I noticed when I set up my new broadband that my BT broadband was still active, I rang to ask why this was and the lady informed me that on my records I had switched over to another supplier and my account had been closed with BT. I do not expect a bill from you regarding payment from the 1st of May 2008 .Michael Lock

Michael Lynch 4 years ago

Possible phone Scam

I live in France and father has been calling me on the same number for several years. He attempted to call me recently and was sent through to an operator who informed him that the number requested was unattainable. The person who replied then suggested to put him though to the desired number .... with the catch that at the end the operation was to be charged. Has anyone else experienced such problems ? Is this a ligitimate technical problem often encounter, or is this yet another underhand method of filling BT's coffers ?

I now only call my father from France....and its cheaper !

Michael Lynch, Orléans France (michael.lynch@infonie.fr)

Hitesh 4 years ago

I want to complain about the charges which occur to my final bill. I think they are unfair and I am pressurised to pay for the services which we haven’t received and no one taking responsibility for the inconvenience we been through.

My phone line is installed in May 2007 and after using phone line for a month then it was off for 2 months and then got back connected in August 2007 then the main trouble started end of August, when neighbours builder was working out side the house and they cut the phone line by accident.

So I inform the BT about it and ask them to solve the problem. As BT send the Engineer in weeks time then engineer came and gone with out doing any thing.

Then I asked them about it and they don’t have any answer about it and they send the engineer again. Still engineer came and gone without doing anything, which wasted my lots of time and energy.

So finally in three months time nothing happens, I asked BT to disconnect the line and finished the contract.

So BT gave me bill 254.58 pound bill on 11 November 2007 and explaining for engineer visits. So I ask the BT about it and refuse to pay for the work which they haven’t did. As result they wipe out some of charges 99.00 on 14 November 2007. But they still come up with 119.46 pound bill on 29 November 2007. I explain then again in last 7 months of BT service.

Connected in May 2007

Disconnected June 2007

Connected August 2007

Line broken August 2007

Disconnection request November 2007

November Bill 119.46

After that I spoken to BT about it and every time new story happen so some time they say there is no more payment due in your account.

But now I got letter form SC Gray Solicitors Limited Ref no 3380079 dated 21/04/08 saying that they are collecting debt for BT Group PLC.

When I spoken to BT about it then they say you have to pay the amount because it is your liability but I am trying to understand if some thing happen inside my house I will feel responsible for that but some body broke the BT line out side how come I am become liable for that, if BT want to collect the money form builder who broke the line then BT must look for the builder or people who broke it instead of ripping of their own customer.

Amanda 4 years ago

BT are a disgrace. I sonly signed up so i could get sky broadband , they put me on a payment plan, well thats what i though! now they want full payment for connection charges (124.99) plus line rental which i cannot afford!!!! customer service is crap they tell you lies,i have explained my situation about 50 times to different people beacue they dont make notes on the calls!!!

god im so angry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Colin 4 years ago

This is an extract from the complaint letter I'm sending.

"After closing my account I was sent a huge bill, £70 (less a service refund it came to £55.59) and informed that that it was an administration charge for the closing of the account. There is no way that charge genuinely reflects the amount of money it takes for you to close an account and transfer the data to another company. This is just a blatant attempt to impose financial penalties on leaving customers because your company does not want to compete in the marketplace.

I rang your customer helpline and explained that I had not been warned about the excessive nature of the charge. I was promised that someone would contact me within 24 hours, to deal with the dispute. I waited for 24 hours. Nothing. Then I received a letter a week later telling me to ring your helpline. No department number, just the switchboard where I again spent my time waiting in a queue. I was told in an effort to contact me you had sent an email to a non-existent email address. I left my mobile and house number again and waited for another 24 hours. I did not receive any communication for the next three weeks, after which I received a bill for the amount again. I phoned again and the lady I spoke to expressed surprise that I had been told I would be contacted in 24 hours because according to her process took far longer. I explained the problem again, after some argument she agreed that I had not been warned about the charges and therefore would not have to pay them. I assumed that since an official representative of BT had told me everything was taken care of, it was fine and I gave it no further thought. I received another bill and then a threatening letter telling me that I would be referred to debt collection agency and my credit record would affected. I have never been threatened with debt collectors until I had an account with BT! As soon as I received this letter I phoned your helpline and spoke to someone who put me on hold and then hung up on me. When I phoned again someone told me that they could do nothing to help me and would not offer me any assurance that this would be dealt with. They claimed the account was being 'processed' and that no one alter it until that process had finished. I asked to speak to a supervisor because I found that lack of a definite answer totally unacceptable. I was placed on hold and was hung up on, again. When I phoned a third time I had to explain all of the above again and argue with someone who told me a number of outright lies including that OFCOM did not have complaints number! When I asked to speak to a complaints review manager in line with your complaints policy, he refused to confirm or deny whether he was one or not, or give me any information about the BT complaints procedure. He finally agreed that, since I had not been warned about the charges, I would not have to pay. This has taken months and months of pointless phone calls, being passed from department to department, and constantly chasing your people to do their jobs and being threatened with debt collectors for the privilege. The worst thing is I'm not even your customer!"

I still don't know if my credit rating is going to be ruined by these morons. They seem incapable of processing their own paperwork. I am a student in a student house and I never knew it was going to be more trouble than it is worth just having a phone. To cap it all the threatening letter came on the day before I was due to hand in my 3rd year essays, instead of editing and proof reading them I was on the phone to BT trying to make sure I can still get a mortgage when I need too. Seems like I have had the same trouble as all the people above (though not nearly as bad as some!) I also had the phone call to India. The best part about that was that he said there was a problem 'over at BT!' The call centre staff you talk to are by their own admission are not even part of the company!

Andrew Gallon 4 years ago

We just wanted the internet. It wasn't a complex problem and surely is carried out every day. The amount of hours and phone credit wasted has been an absolute disgrace. If this simple task of setting up the internet was dealt with so badly I struggle to believe that anybody can receive good customer service from BT. Had a know it would be a saga I would have logged all the phone calls and taken names and locations of all the advisors spoken to.

The story begins when me and my girlfriend moved to a new address and wanted to set up the internet. We initially approached Virgin however we could not get a line connection on our street and so we went with BT. A grave mistake. On 1st Feb 2008 my girlfriend Ming asked for BT's Option 1 package with broadband for £8 and we also had to get the phoneline for £11 per month. On February 5th the phoneline was activated and we were given a date of Feb 8th for our internet activation. Feb 8th arrived however the internet did not work. Ming phoned BT and after several hours, being transferred several times and having to repeat herself several times she was told the order had not been processed. Another order was set up.

After 2 weeks the internet and the phoneline was set up and working. Life was good. However a month later with no word of warning the internet was cut off. Ming phoned again and once again spent several hours on the phone, being identified incorrectly as the previous tenant several times, being cut off several times and was transferred all over the place. Eventually an advisor told us to switch the router on and off again. This worked. Should this have taken 3 hours of Mings life? However we were not told of the actual problem which would crop up again in a couple of weeks time.

On April 1st the internet was once again cut off. Ming phoned again and after several hours, being cut off and........well you know how it goes by now, eventually she was told that the order had been messed up due to some problem with the account holder and not receiving payment. Ming had set up a direct debit with them on the telephone. It was their error. The advisor was very vague about the problem but we think they cut it off as they had not received the payments. This was after Ming had been told several other ridiculous stories about how we didn't have a working phone line and so the internet was cut off for example. At this point we wanted to go elsewhere but Ming was told that there was a penalty for cancelling the phoneline early and so Ming asked for the internet to be reactivated. Despite it being BT's fault they told us it would take another week. Ming was rightly sceptical of this and wanted assurance that this would be done. She was told that she would receive a call in 3 days to confirm the order. This call never arrived. After 5 days, Ming phoned BT again. Usual procedure of being transferred loads of times and being identified incorrectly as the previous tenant. Eventually told the order had not been processed. It is a reflection of Bts customer service that this did not surprise us. It was also a slight relief as we could take our business elsewhere. We signed up with 3 and had the internet the next day at a much cheaper cost. We have had no problems with them at all. To avoid the penalty and further problems with BT we decided to keep the phoneline and we expected not to hear from BT again. We were wrong.

On April 16th BT left a message on our phone that our internet activation date was on the 23rs April a complete contradiction to our last dealing with BT. Ming phoned again, had the usual problems and eventually got through to a person who spoke to a supervisor and told us that the order would be cancelled as was the phoneline with no penalty and no charge.

A month went by and the phoneline kept working. We thought nothing of it as we had paid our rental for that time period. However we then started receiving bills so Ming phoned again and went through the usual process. After being transferred loads again(despite phoning the correct number provided on the bill) she got through to somebody who told us he would cancel the phoneline and send us a final bill purely for any calls we have made. It should be in the region of £1. We wait with baited breath. Ming took his name and department.

I'm aware this has been a long post. The fact that it has been such a long post indicates how many problems we have had in trying to do a simple thing. We just wanted the internet. Ming has wasted so many hours and so much phone credit trying to deal with this. She has vital exams to study for. We are reasonable people and do not complain readily however this situation has left us completely disgusted with the BT system as a whole. Maybe we should have been more pushy and demanded to speak to a supervisor but I doubt we would have got anywhere. We'd be put on hold and transferred somewhere random. Communication between departments appears non existent and as there are so many advisors nobody can take accountability. So many different things have been told to her that it is difficult to know what to believe. Every transfer and every phone call is like beginning at square 1 again. The account details have to be handed over again and the story repeated. To phone BT you need to set aside an afternoon to do so. She has phoned the correct number provided however reached an irrelevant department. Or the advisors lie and just get rid of customers who do not want to buy anything. Its either that or they have not been trained properly to deal with quite simple customer enquiries. Even if it wasn't the correct department surely the advisor can identify the right department and put her straight through and so an ABSOLUTE MAXIMUM of one transfer is necessary.

Something has to be done

Rob 4 years ago

Currently I haven't hear anything for about 6 weeks. I don't want a BT line anymore. I'm not even going to post this. If I do something will wake up in the order system and I'll end up in a circle of hell trying to have my order cancelled and being ordered to pay!!!!

Dear Mrs Lewis, I would like to bring to your attention an ongoing service provisioning experience I am currently going through, and have been over the past 5 months.

Upon moving into my flat in December 2007, I made my first call to enable the BT line installed in my flat as a new customer 20th December 2007. As I already had a physical line, I was told this would take only 4 days. By the 27th I still had no service. Upon returning from vacation early January 2008, allowing another week for the New Year break, I still found I had no service:

- the line was up, with dial tone – yes

- calling unavailable – single tone on commencement of dialing

I made a follow up call to be told the order had been canceled. No reason was given. We started a new order. Again, I gave it a week without service before calling back. Again I was told the order had been cancelled – by the customer. This wasn’t the case, so we started another order. I was away in February, however followed up again when I returned in March after finding I still had no service.

This is a digest of the issues. In reality I have put up with being bounced around your call centre network, put on hold, dropped and caught in endless loops of trying to explain where we are up to and to be told there is no record of why.

In April, one Sunday I received a call from an operator from an Indian call center. He informed me that there was a technical problem with my exchange. I was wondering if I should go round and fix it – it’s only down the road from my flat.

Daily problems can and do affect all service provisioning departments, but I think the level of issue I am experiencing in what should be a simple telephone service activation request are reaching a level beyond absurd.

This letter is notice that I DO NOT wish you to process this order. It is clearly not within your remit to supply this service or communicate with customers affectively and promptly. Nothing has been charged to my account, and I have received no letters from you. This matter is closed.

Claire Morris 4 years ago

This is a copy of a letter I have sent to BT today.

Sadly I have to write this letter of complaint today, as my family have strong roots with both the G.P.O and later BT. My Mother and Grandmother opertated a telephone exchange in Wiltshire, and my Mother joined telephonists in the exchange in Swindon working for many years including those of WWII. My Father was a telephone engineer working on "The Gangs" and much later worked as a storeman until he retired at 62. My first husband was a Commercial telephone engineer with BT until he died in 1983.

Today I am utterly shocked and disappionted to find that after waiting three weeks for a line to be installed in my mothers room at a care home in Elgin, Scotland, I have to write this letter of complaint as after endless phone calls yesterday, only to be reassured time and time again the line had been connected I discoverd yesterday evening, with help from a dedicated carer in the home, who went from room to room with my Mothers telephone, the line had been connected to room 1 and not room 13 as ordered, and my 89 year old frail Mother had sat with her telephone in her hand all the afternoon waiting for my call.

Today I have spoken to BT for one hour, firstly to an advisor for twenty minutes who failed to transfer my call, so I waited in the queue for the second advisor who couldn't understand what I was saying properly and I couldn't understand her properly, who kindly transfered me to the residentail department, not the commercial department I required. After twenty minutes talking to yet another advisor I was told although I had a contract for the 13th May, because of an automated system my Mothers phoneline could not be connected today and will be connected between 8am and 1pm tomorrow the 15th May.

No engineer entered my Mum's room to check the line, did not report to the home he was there and I am absolutely disgusted with the service BT is providing to us, you should remember your business will only ever be as good as your employees, and it is time you reassessed your work force and put your customers before your profits, sadly Mum has to use you, we however move in three weeks time and will be subscribing to Virgin Media.

As you have broken your contract, I feel the connection fee therefore should be waivered, and an apology sent to my Mother from an executive member of BT.

Lynne Holton 4 years ago

Where do I start? BT are a joke and I can't believe that they have been getting away with providing the lack of service that they do for so long.

It started in Jan of this year when we moved house. We moved in to rented accommodation and so I called to move our number to the new house. After 5 calls and over 3 hours on the phone I was told it was not possible to transfer the number and would have to set up a new account. On top of that we would have to pay £124.99 to have the line connected to the house as there was no record of a line ever being connected. Our landlord confirmed this was absolute rubbish and that the previous tennants that had moved out 3 days before had had a BT line connected!!

The engineer visit was a smooth process and the line was connected quickly however when we the first bill came through they had overcharged us and had not set us up on the £11 a month tarriff as had been advised when the order was placed. This then took numerous phone calls and hours of being placed on hold to be advised that they would deduct the overpayment from the bill.

The saga then continued on 10th May when we returned home from a weekend away to find out that our phone line had been cut off!! I called BT on the 11th and it took 3 different people to work out that our account had been cancelled because of an unpaid bill. As no one could explain which bill was unpaid I was promised a call back.

As of 12.00 on the 11th I had not received a call and so set about the gruelling task of calling BT again. A total of 4 calls, 3 and a half hours on the phone from my mobile and being passed round over 7 different teams, i am still none the wiser as to why our account has been cancelled and our line cut off. I was advised that i would need to pay the bill dated 9th May as this was now overdue, even though it was only 2 days old! I duely paid the bill over the phone and asked to be reconnected. They passed me through to reconnections only to be told that I couldn't be reconnected, I would have to raise a new order, meaning we had lost our telephone number and it would take 3 working days to connect the line. I was also advised that it would a completely new account and at this point, no one can explain where the £57 that I had just paid for advance payment of my old account had gone. And as for an answer as to whether my credit rating has been affected by these idiots....no-one appears to have enough knowledge of their job or BT's systems to work that one out.

We have today, 15th May, now received a reminder bill and a termination notice informing us that if we don't pay the bill dated 9th May (not due until 19th May) by 21st May, we will be cut off. Somebody at BT does not appear to be able to read a calendar because we were cut off on the 10th, before these letters were even produced or our payment is due!!?!

I have called to log a complaint and got absolutly no where. I was given a complaint reference number and was told that somebody would call me back....I wont hold my breath.

I am normally a very clam person but BT make me want to scream.....

George Steele 4 years ago

Why is BT so incompetent. They sub-contract the email to Yahoo and we have dreadful service, always breakiknig down, they sub-contract personal webspace to Geocities who can never be contacted and finally they sub-contract customer hekp to India who almost never never respond.

The only reason I stay with BT is for the BT Vision television serevice but i am already thinking of paying another supplier for my email.

Claire Morris (again) 4 years ago

Another copy of another letter of complaint to BT!!!!!

Dear Sir/Madam, This letter is a sequel to my previous letter of complaint of 14th May 2008, following the disgusting service my Mother and I continue to experience from BT. In my previous letter you will see an appointment had been made to disconnect the incorrect connection to room 1, and connect to room 13 on Thursday 15th of May between 8am and 1pm. The Engineer arrived on Thursday morning, but seemed to have terrible problems finding what he was looking for. As he walked the corridors of the home with the Manager and Handyman, who opened cupboard doors and loft hatches to help him, the Engineer repeated, he couldn’t find what he was looking for as he didn’t know where it was. Later he reported to a member of staff, it would be impossible to connect a line to my Mother’s room, but strangely contradicted himself by saying it would be “extremely costly”, and to buy a mobile, (an absolutely useless suggestion and my Mother is 89 years old and unable to operate a mobile phone.) After hearing nothing from BT and telephoning the home, I telephoned BT, and once again joined that interlude of musical appreciation, and reassurance that there are actually people waiting to speak to me, if I have the patience, the time and presence of mind to remain sane. All I needed was to speak to someone who actually knew what they were talking about. When finally reaching the faults department, explaining the catalogue of events, I was deemed important enough to speak to a manager after patiently waiting once again; however, she was concerned and had an advisor whom I had spoken to the previous day, with her, and assured me all that needed doing, they felt, the same as I did, was an Engineer to revisit the home that afternoon, disconnect and reconnect, and the job would be done; but unfortunately she didn’t bother to phone me back, and no Engineer visited to the home! I decided at approx 3:30pm to once again contact the faults department, I spoke to yet another advisor who put me on hold countless times, but did thank me for my patience each time. I was passed to an advisor called Sarah who had been informed of the comedy of errors, who was apologetic and very officious, and was really of no use whatsoever, because she had no idea like all the other advisors exactly what to tell me, as they are advisors with no engineering knowledge. For the last two days I have not been offered any opportunity to speak to anyone in the Engineering department. Sarah did explain to me in great lengths however how the order should have been a provision order, which meant other equipment would be needed to connect to room 13; she would however contact a colleague in the provision department to discuss the matter and would contact me again, but she really wasn’t sure how soon she could do this and felt it would be unlikely to be the next day (16th May). The time was now approximately 4:45pm and my Husband arrived home from work, I relayed the situation to him and he was livid. My Husband then for 1½ hours experienced the queues, endlessly being put on hold, the transfers, the music, the inability to understand, and then was transferred to a gentleman. He said it was clearly a case of disconnection of the wrong line and connection to room 13 and he would transfer the call to the person who could deal with it, this was a helpful lady who though she tried very hard, could not beat the system, and my husband was transferred to another gentleman who listened and said “this has to be changed” and typed out a report which he sent to the Engineering department. He told my husband to expect to hear from them within 48 hours. May 16th 8:45am – Message received “recognised fault, aim to fix by 15th May” May 16th 9:15am – “fault fixed, contact within 48hrs if you need further assistance”.

May 16th between 9:15am – 10am telephone call, from Greg on 0800 028 5085. New order been arranged, and booked for Friday 23rd May, for telephone line to be installed correctly in my Mother’s room. All equipment on site from previous connection, therefore no problem envisaged, straight forward connection.

Why were we told yesterday the original order was set up incorrectly and a provision order should have been set up? After my conversation with Greg today, I understand this to be incorrect!

Why, when this connection is obviously the same as the previous one, do we have to wait one week for this to be carried out, as a second Engineer has visited the site two days after the original mistake? Does no one within BT actually care what happens to their customers? It seems that they are unable to accept when they are in the wrong or wish to rectify their mistakes promptly, we are just cast aside to the end of the queue because we simply do not matter. Surely after three days of absolutely despicable service, we should not have to wait one week for a phone line which was ordered over three weeks ago, to be installed correctly in the room of a frail 89 year old lady, who is too weak to travel to England to be near her family. For my Mother, who suffered a stroke and heart attack five months ago, everyday is precious.

John 4 years ago

I copied this lettter to BT today. after several like it...

Customer Complaints BT

Dear BT person,

I am absolutely and utterly astounded by the fact that I find BT one of the most incompetent, inefficient, pitiful excuse for a ‘communications company’ that could not organize a piss up in a brewery.

All I have wanted for the last 6 weeks is a BT phone line. One of these is essential to connect a thing called a telephone to the outside world. You may or may not be familiar with the fact that your company specializes in this.

Firstly I wait in for an engineer. I take ½ a day off work no one turns up and after 15 automated decisions via Dehli I find that I am connected. No I’m not. Several days later I find that my BT phone socket in my flat does not work. That is one of the things you imbeciles were suppose to check in the first place I presume when I took a day off work.

Anyway I have my phone plugged into the bedroom. So I receive a £124 charge for this service and a sign up to some talk plan I never asked for. Dear BT, I would not pay you a penny more than I have to as you really are the most incompetent fools on the face of the planet as 10 days later you disconnect me!!!!

I assume that my phone is faulty as my broadband connection through AOL is working …just. So I buy…..and get this you’ll laugh….. a BT phone. So I pay more money to your miserable excuse of a company only to find out that my broadband is working and my telephone line isn’t despite some jackass of a technical support guy telling me my line is fine.

So I begin to send emails, some of which are more obnoxious than this letter, but I am now getting really pissed off. I have paid for a phone line connection to the tune of £124 and I am not connected and the phone point in my flat doesn’t work. I am now paying BT for the use of a line I cannot use. I am also paying AOL for services I cannot use. And still I use my mobile phone at my expense to sort out this problem. In the mean time AOL inform me that you have turned down their application for me to pay my calls through them. How spiteful can you get?

You cannot work this out for yourselves. After a WEEK on the phone through dozens of departments across the planet I reach someone who I can talk to. Oh and why do I go global to talk to BT? Because you fools put this number on the back of your bill 0800 800 150. You get a Delhi telephone operator who barely understands English telling me that my telephone account is in England so I need to ring 0800022 3089. Why in gods name do you not put this number on the back of the bill!!!!

Anyway several emails later and mobile phone bill that is escalating faster than fuel prices I liaise with several of your staff I find out that you allocated my number to some other bugger. Not only that I ask you to sort it out and 3 days later still nothing.

IMBACILES!!!

On the phone again I eventually track down a person who allocates me a new number. Why could YOU not do this in the first place? Why did I have to do the donkey work and organize your miserable little company? Now I hold my breath. Will I get connected or not? But I still have grumbles because since you fucked up I now have to wait another 3 weeks before AOL can set up broadband with you.

So I paid you for a connection that didn’t work. I continue to pay you for a phone line I cannot use. I pay AOL for a talk package I cannot use. I pay for a broadband package through AOL I cannot use. I pay for a mobile phone bill to sort all this out. I do not complain often, but tell me please that I am not unreasonable to complain. Also tell me that after 6 weeks of the above its not unreasonable for me to get absolutely and utterly demoralized with your lack of so called ‘service’.

I am as you can gather not impressed. It really is absolutely appalling and I want some compensation for the time effort and expense I have had to endure to sort out this problem that should never have happened.

Yours angrily,

Tony Benson 4 years ago

Having moved house I contacted BT to cancel my home office and broadband account last November. Unfortunately I'd not long since signed up to a new broadband deal which included a hub and hub phone. They said I'd have to pay the full amount of the contract to cancel, but when I pointed out I didn't receive the kit AND that I'd signed up to BT in my new office and no one said I could have transfered the account and save the extra payment, they said they'd waive it. At the time I asked them to cancel both line rental and Broadband. 3 months later I received another broadband bill. I complained but they'd already got the money off me. After hours on the phone to customer services, they said they'd send me a cheque to re-imburse me. Instead they sent me another £230 bill. After not paying it, they set CSL on me, and eventually I had to pay it. It's not my fault that their customer service is shite, but it doesn't seem to matter. I'll ditch them as soon as possible and never go back.

Sarah Cook 4 years ago

I set up the phone line with BT and cancelled it one day late without using it. I was told I'd be charged £70. I complained and was told it would be written off. 2 days later a new direct debit was on my bank statement, they had set up broadband without my permission. I cancelled that, with no apology. The a week later got a bill of £169.95 to cancel my phone line! 4 weeks, 2 complaint letters, 20 calls and over 50 customer advisors later and I'm still no further forward!

Dorothy Campbell 4 years ago

33 Montagu Gardens Edmonton London N18 2HB 22nd May 2008 The Manager TO WHOME IT MAY CONCERN RE: Account No: GB 03907179 Dear Sir/Madam Good day to you, this letter is to let you know of our dissatisfaction and my intention to withdraw my custom from your poor service. Sometime in March 2008 my home phone was connected but I only get two weeks service before it was turn into incoming calls only. I was sent a bill for the amount £16.??? which has been paid a couple of days later, however the telephone suddenly went on incoming calls only without notice, with my permission my son got in touch with BT which we were first told we were the one barred the phone which was not true, we tried everything with your engineers including faults customer service and other several times but to no avail. After a long and tiresome campaign we finally found the problem it is your High Value Department barred the phone and requested documents from me, they said the address owed money to BT so in order for me to be exempt and have the phone go back to normal I have to send copy of my driver’s licence and proofs on my address which I have done. However it makes no difference, nothing happen. I ask my son to call for some progress, but was told by a rude woman from India pay the money you owe us or you won’t get the phone back on. I persistently push for the phone to be put on, they cut me off completely, I made a call to the faults department who came and fix the problem, but the next day it got cut off again. I call BT but were told their hands are tied at each department there is nothing they could do all I have to do, (Sorry) BT expects me to pay for the previous account holder’s error and I no intention of doing so, and we cannot pay for a service we haven’t got. Can you help? Your sincerely Dorothy Campbell (Mrs.) 07984 814603

g shaw 4 years ago

i asked for a second phone line to be billed in my mothers,this was aug last year,christmas 2007 i phoned bt to that the bill was in my name,they said no problem it would be sorted,

april 2008 i recieve a bill still with my name on it and phoned again they said they had to stop and restart the line so it could be put in my mothers name,unfortanly bt not only stopped the line but also disconnected her phone,so they had to send a bt engineer around to reconnect her line,

2 weeks later i recieve a bill for the line being reconnected,i phoned bt and they said that it would be recredited to her account,

i then recieve a bill for disconnecting the line before end of contract,i phoned bt yet again to inform them that it was bt who disconnected the line not me,

well i am still fighting with bt about this

this morning i get another bill for connection of the same line that i had already paid for,bt said they would phone me at 1400 it is now 1549,

so far i have spent 14 hours on the phone 2 hours on the internet to bt and i am self employed which means i have lost over £400.00 in earnings

bt is a mess with a total disregard to its customers

BY THE WAY IF BT REMOVE MONEY FROM YOUR ACCOUNT WITHOUT YOUR PERMISION PHONE UP YOUR BANK CANCEL THE DIRECT DEBIT AND ASK THEM TO RETURN THE MONEY BACK INTO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT USING THE WORD INDEMITY,I HAD TO DO THIS THE OTHER DAY AFTER BT REMOVED OVER £200.00 FROM MY ACCOUNT,IT WAS BACK IN MY ACCOUNT A DAY LATER

Graham

graham shaw 4 years ago

WELL IF WE CANNOT GET THROUGH TO BT ABOUT OUR COMPLAINTS , TRY EMAILING PATRICIA HEWITT MP WHO HAPPENS TO BE ONE OF THE NONE EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS AT BT,WHO IS EARNING MONEY OFF OUR BACKS,

www.patriciahewitt.org.uk/

if we hassle her with our complaints about bt and block her email with complaints about bt maybe something can be done about it , i am just doing one now,

Graham

Joy 4 years ago

I had my experience of non help from BT when I requested a line activated July 12,2007.

The BT man assigned me a number and said the line would be functional in 3 days,maximum.The line was not activated,and went dead,instead.When I called on my mobile, I was put on hold for hours.When a person answered, they were rude and unhelpful, and sounded bored.I was polite and kept my calm, but they put me back on hold for four hours and then put me through to a closed desk.This occured everyday.

Meanwhile, on my mobile I was getting periodic texts stating BT was aware of my problem and that engineers were currently working to fix the line fault.This was untrue, as when I finally was visited by the second schedualed engineer almost 4 weeks later due to my refusal to give up with complaints(the first didn't bother to show, nor was I notified about the non-appearance,nor offered an apology or an explanation) he stated it was the first he had heard of my problem.It was the end of the first week of August,almost a full month since I requested the line.I was in central London in a good area.I had good credit rating and was never late with payments to anyone.A good customer.I was being treated like rubbish.It was very offensive.I was billed by BT,meanwhile for three months payment ahead of time for services from July to October.I have been told this is illegal.

It was August, and I hadn't even received the requested phone line!

Any employee I did finally manage to talk to was hghly apologetic,but absolutely clueless.I demanded finally to speak to a manager, who said to just pay the money, then I could complain.Nothing could be done until I paid.This was outrageous.I requsted he send a "complaints package" in the post,as he had suggested he do.No package arrived.So noone could help on the phone, and no one was sending anything by post.Service was terrible, and I no longer wanted any part of such a bad company.I was advised to go to Talktalk by a talktalk representative I met.Ihad been with them before, so I thought perhaps I should go back to them.I entered Carphone warehouse, and told them what was happeneing with my phone line.They checked the functionality, then said to leave it to them and they would sort it all out.All I had to do was sign a contract and pay them.They were reassuring,soothing and polite.They dealt with me face to face and promised good service.I received nothing of the like from BT, who would not even talk to me.

In fact, the deciding moment was when a BT manager phoned me and demanded I pay.When I stated my case and my problem, he refused to listen.I was polite and emphatic he listen to what had happened.Then he hung up on me while I was relating what had been going on, and all the money I had spent on being on hold daily on my mobile to BT.

They refused to let me go as a customer, and next told me if I tried to leave them, I would be fined.But they breached any verbal contract with me when they refused to give me a line within their guaranteed 3 days as stated by the person who took my initial enquiry and request over the mobile.Billing me ahead of time for a service I didn't have.

They sent lies in texts to my mobile stating engineers were dealing with my line fault, when no engineers had shown up for almost four weeks.Lies from a company to a customer should never be tolerated.

BT has no excuse for bullying, or threatenng behavoiur as a company.They did not take responsibility at any time for services not given.They did not explain the untrue texts sent.They did not answer my calls promptly, nor were they helpful when after hours of being on hold and paying I eventually got through to different people, whoeach time could not help me. I was even told once to fix the phone line myself!That man told me to go get a screwdriver and find the line box!I wasn't going to be responsible for damaging myself or BT property or taking that kind of risk.They have happily sent threatening letters and periodic bills.I am currently paying Talktalk by direct debit and receiveig their good service and excellent customer help.Their people are all ppolite and treat me with respect.They help in a fair and prompt manner.Carphone Warehouse supply face to face friendly advice and service also.BT are so used to being sole suppliers of phone service that they do whatever they like to people.There doesn't seem laws in place or consumer help.I have only just discovered this site after months of looking on my own.It is good to know I am not alone, but I am angry at being scared by a phone company I called and expected good service from almost a year ago.

I would not have gone to Talk talk if I had received any kind of decent service from BT.Abuse of human rights with a telecoms company is not to be tolerated.Bullying should not be tolerated.Any business must face the fact that the customer is why they exist.Not vice versa.

Leah Green 4 years ago

In November 2007 my partner and I tried to get a phone line connected at our home. BT told us it would cost £124.99 even though there was already a phone socket in our flat from previous tenant. My boyfriend took a day off work and waited for the engineet to arrive. He saw a BT van pull up outside so he went out to show them where we live (as our doorbell did not work at the time.) The engineer said he could not connect the line that day as BT had told them the wrong address. This meant that he was expecting to carry out the installation from a different exchange box which was about 5 metres down the road from us!!! Because of this we had to phone BT to re-arrange an engineer to come out another time. The second time the engineer was a 'no show' so we had to make several calls again to sort out another appointment. I was then contacted by BT who told me that the engineer couldn’t make it so again we had to re-arrange another appointment. Finally the phone line was installed in January 2008 - this was after my boyfriend lost 3 days wages waiting for engineers to turn up and connect the line and not to mention the costs of all the telephone calls we had to make from a mobile phone as obviously at that time we had no land-line telephone installed yet.

When I originally contacted BT in November to order the connection of the phone-line, I requested to pay by variable monthly direct debit but I received a letter a few days later saying that they have put me onto a 'payment plan' and would debit my account with £30 a month - I did not request this. Again this took several calls to sort out.

Since January 08 when the line was finally installed, we have received no bill from BT (it's end of May 08 now) despite us phoning BT constantly to find out when we would get the first bill. We kept being made false promises that my account would be debited "tomorrow" or "next week/month" but this never happened. Now we have just received a letter saying that the first direct debit will be collected on 20th of June 2008. My partner contacted BT and was told that we now owe roughly £270.00 which is a lot of money to have to pay out all at once.

Before the line was installed we have spent so much money on mobile phone credit because every time we phone BT we are kept on hold for ridiculous amounts of time. Once we were kept on hold for 1 hour and 45 minutes!!

We have yet to speak to anyone who actually cares or takes our complaints seriously. We receive no apologies’ and always have to deal with rude sales people who are only interested in trying to upgrade our package or getting us to sign up to BT broadband etc to earn extra commission. We also frequently end up speaking to staff from a call centre based in India, who have little understanding of what our complaint is.

In view of this, we are now refusing to pay for the connection fee due to the amount of money we have lost trying to sort out their mistakes. (Estimated money lost: £150 = 3 days lost wages and about £20.00 - £30.00 mobile phone credit.) It's totally unacceptable that as a company they have caused one of their customers to actually lose money due to their incompetence. We are at our wits end trying to sort this mess out and have finally had enough. The least they could do to resolve this situation is to waiver the connection fee as compensation to me and by partner for the time and money spent and wasted attempting to sort out THEIR errors. We feel that this would be the only satisfactory outcome to an extremely frustrating situation.

They are the obsolute worst company I have ever had to deal with in my entire life!! They are completely incompetant and unreliable. I can't bear to ring them anymore - all that ever happens is I get passed around to different departments and kept on hold constantly - It's like talking to a brick wall. There is a complete lack of communication between departments and they never actually resolve anything. They should be out of business - THEY ARE A TOTALL DISGRACE!!!

Gregor Fleming 4 years ago

After moving into a new flat my new BT line was installed and everything was fine for 2 weeks. Then my line was disconnected without any notice or communication from BT. I was told this was because the bill was not paid but no bill was received and a direct debit had been set up from the start. Then,again without notice, my line number was changed and registered in the name of a complete stranger. So now I have a changed number which is not in my name. My Sky broadband now has to be canceled because the line is not in my name.

I have spent around 10-12 hours on the phone being passed fron department to department with no success. Three times I have left my mobile number for supervisors to call me back but nobody has. The customer service has been absolutely shocking! Two times I was even cut off. It seems like nobody wants to deal with the problem so keeps passing the probem to other departments. I think the training that customer service staff receive has to be reviewed, it is not working. It is soooo frustrating!

VinceSamios 4 years ago

my complaint - my connection isn't fast enough :D!

NGandhi 4 years ago

I have only been trying to 'go back to BT' as they call it, since mid March 2008 and it is coming to end of May 08 and they still haven't done the job. We used to be with BT until about a year and a half ago when we moved to bulldogbroadband. However, as you can't get many services like Sky unless you have BT, I decided to move back to BT.

I placed the (first) order on around 14th March 08 and they promised that my telephone line will go back to BT on 2nd April 08 with the same telephone number as we have now. Nothing happened on or after 2nd April and no one from BT informed me anything either. I made several phone calls, spoke to about 15 different people on the phone who kept transferring me from one section to another and spent ridiculous amount of time trying to get some answer from them. Finally after trying for another 2 days, I spoke to a lady in customer options team who said the same thing as others that there was some technical problem and she placed another order for our line to get transferred on 27th April.

Coming 27th April nothing happened again and after a week of this date someone from BT called me on my mobile to tell me that the current supplier Bulldog is not willing to realease our telephone number. I asked why and he did not know! He said he could install BT line with a different telephone number. I said no, I will speak to Bulldog. Bulldog told me that they have never had any order to transfer or even heard from BT about our telephone line being transferred!!! Bulldog even gave me a reference number for BT to query with them.

I called BT again and again the same saga of being transferred from one section to another started wasting immense amount of my time over the phone. At times even my fully charged phone battery has completely run out talking to BT!!! This time one of the several reps I spoke to told me after 43 minutes of conversation (as you have to repeat the whole issue with every single person you speak to everytime, the torture of which is enough to convert any sober person into a terrorist againt BT) that I should cancel my line with Bulldog myself and then ask BT to reconnect and they will give me the same telephone number without any problem whatsoever.

When I spoke to Bulldog about this, they told me that I can disconnect my line with them but then BT will charge £127 for activating the dead line. The even told me that BT should do what is called "return to donor" and they should be able to transfer my telephone line with same number without any problem!

I have sent a written complaint to BT (by recorded mail which has confirmed that my mail was delivered on 14th May 08) but BT has not even acknowledged anything. As BT had initially promised to change our line on 2nd April, I even took over mobile broadband from Vodafone as our internet connection would be terminated with Bulldog when BT takes over. But BT did not change our line and I am having to pay for 2 broadband lines, one to Bulldog and Vodafone as well for nothing, hoping that BT will change our line!!!

The nightmare of BT is as big as the size of their company.

Kim 4 years ago

Our problems started after we bought our house and asked for them to fit a line. Their engineer never showed up even though my brother took a day off work after arranging the appointment. Engineer then contacted him two days later saying he was sat outside our house ready to fit the line.

We tried telephoning on the day that he was supposed to come out and SEVEN HOURS later we had still not spoken to anyone helpful. After speaking to 7-8 members of staff, we were finally put through to a number that was dead and our call was cut off. Finally spoke to someone who told us she would email someone to sort out the problem and they might be in contact.

We then received three bills asking for payment for the installation of the line. A couple of the members of staff we managed to get through to confirmed that there the line was dead and had not been installed. We wrote to BT to complain about the service and then, after receiving another bill whilst waiting for a response, we received a telephone call to confirm that a "zeroed" bill would be sent to us. To this day, this bill has not been received, but three further bills stating an amount £10 less than the original ones have been received.

I have now written a further letter that I'm going to post to their complaints department stating that I will take the matter further and contact Otelo if they do not resolve the issue. We'll see how that goes down!

Michael Gordon 4 years ago

Usual Service! Need a new phone line set up for my home based business. Order placed, engineer didn't show up, nobody called to tell us. Next date set for 2 weeks later, so i'm now losing money. Service centre washes their hands of responsibility even though they somehow had cancelled our order! But hey, it's not just BT is it? It's just British service in general. There's 3rd world countries with better infrastructures than us. I'm leaving this toilet at the earliest possible convenience. Britiain sucks!

Chris 4 years ago

MASSIVE SECURITY FLAW ON BT WEBSITE!!

It turns out that you can gain access to the phone bill of anyone you want, cancel their paper bill and read their itemised calls online...

All you need is the BT account number from the top of the bill - then you can sign up on the BT website and with no security checks at all - gain access to their details and have all future bills sent to your own email address.

How do I know this ? My ex did it the other day - I wasnt involved in setting it up at all. The bill is in my name. She just wrote down the account number and went online, created an account with her own details and signed up for online billingfor my phone number - now I dont have access to the bill at all. Inside her online account, the account details for the phone bill still show my details and she cant change them but she can still see all the calls that have been made and the bill gets sent to her email address.

Thsi is actually ok for me becaus I'm moving out and we are keeping the bill in my name just so she doesnt lose brodband access. In case you didnt know - you cant just change the name on a phone bill - if you want to switch it over BT will cancel your account and disconnect the line and your ADSL - you will have to open a new account in the other persons name, pay a line re-connection fee AND an ADSL connection fee! There is no technical reason for them to do this - its purely to make money out of you.

Anyway - take my advice, SHRED your BT bills if you are not keeping them because any stranger could gain access to your bill !!!

Nicola Jiggle  4 years ago

bt customer service is shocking

Ross Willett 4 years ago

Joined Virgin Media back in September 11 and ive only now just managed to get my calls and broadband package from Virgin cos up untill last week i was getting charged from both Virgin and BT!! I estimate about £150 or probably more BT has cost me. Everytime i phoned Bt i would get rubbish like"Oh virgin has not told us yet", "Virgin has told us but they have to do something else on there part?" blah blah blah and more. Only last week did BT actually decide to acknowledge me and have finnaly let me go to Virgin and stopped chargeing me. But last week i phoned BT again asking to be refunded my last couple of bills but they refused. So am going to write a letter now to see if that helps? urs, Ross

Maureen Eastham 4 years ago

I had been told by BT that this phone would be worth while getting and save me money. All ive had is trouble from it and now its going to cost me money and grief. Ive complained in Ref no volo11-10552830013 and need a quick and satisfactory solution to this complaint. If there is no result with the billing cost not being reduced, I would like to cancel the whole contract! I hope this can be resolved in a short time.

roymundo 4 years ago

i recently applied for a bt phoneline to be installed in my home,giving bt all of the information they needed to process this they then sent a email to a none bt employee addressed to myself whom forwarded it to me with all my detail on it. name,d.o.b,present address,previous address,bank account number and sort code. after complaining via email all i was told was they still wanted £50 to process the order with no apology.after phoning them it did take bt 50hrs to respond,there reply was all we can do is apologise.what can i do.

FRANK 4 years ago

REF NO; 080530-003052

I HAVE A BT CONTRACT FOR 12MONTHS THAT BEGAN FROM 12/02/08

I MOVED HOME SOMETIMES LATE MARCH AND I CALLED BT TO MOVE MY PHONE, A CHECK WAS DONE ON MY NEW ADDRESS AND I WAS ADIVCED THAT I WILL BE SURCHARGED THE SUM OF 124.99 POUNDS BECAUSE THE FORMER OCCUPANT OF THE HOUSE I WAS MOVING TO, MOVE THE BT LINE TO ANOTHER NETWORK AND I WILLL BE SURCHARGED FOR THAT.

I THEN ADVICED THE CUSTOMER CARE ATTENDENT TO KEEP MY PHONE LINE (ACTIVE) IN MY FORMER HOUSE AND I WILL HAVE TO DISCUSS WITH MY WIFE, (BECAUSE WE DONT WANT O LOSE THIS PHONE NUMBER) EITHER WE NEED TO TERMINATE THE BT CONTRACT BT OR MOVE TO ANOTHER SERVICE PROVIDER.THE CUSTOMER CARE ATTENDANT TRIED CONVICING ME TO SPREAD THIS PAYMENT OVER TIME.

I NOW CALLED BT ABOUT A WEEK LATER, AND I WAS SHOCKED TO DISCOVER THAT MY BT LINE HAS BEING DISCONNECTED, MY CONTRACT TERMINATED AND A DEBIT ADVICE AGAINST MY BANK ACCOUNT FOR THE SUM OF 80.14POUNDS WAS MAILED TO ME.

HOWEVER, I HAVE CALLED BT SEVERAL BETWEEN EARLY (APRIL TO LATE MAY) OVER THIS ISSUE AND I HAVE WAS ADVICED THAT MY BT LINE WILL BE REACVTIVATED BUT WHENEVER I DO A CHECK ON THE LINE IT WILL NOT BE WORKING

KINDLY, ADVICE ON THIS TWO ISSUES;

1.WHAT IS/ARE THE PROCEDURE IN TERMINATING A BT CONTRACT?

IF I DID NOT BREACH ANY OF THE TERMS IN MY CONTRACT WITH BT AND I DID NOT GIVE CONSENT (EITHER VERBALLY OR IN WRITTING TO BT TO TERMINATE MY CONTRACT). WHY WAS MY CONTRACT (WITH PROOF PLEASE) WAS TERMINATED?

2.MY ACCOUNT WAS DEBITED TO THE SUM OF 80.14POUNDS WITHOUT MY CONSENT, BT TERMINATED MY CONTRACT, BILLED ME 80.14POUNDS AND WENT TO MY ACOOUNT TO COOLLECT THIS SAME AMOUNT WITHOUT MY CONSENT.

I WANT TO MAKE YOU UNDERSTAND THAT BT HAS MADE ME GO THROUGH FINANCIAL PAIN AND YOUR DEPRIVED ME OF THIS MEANS OF COMMUNICATING . AND AM SENDING THIS MAIL TO BT TO RESPOND TO AND AT THE SAME TIME ASKING QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR ACTIVITIES.

john bamford 4 years ago

I had NO line,it was dead/ got bt too look at it/ fault in line at entry box, and a new bt master box needed thought to be becouse of lightning, their equipment/ line and box, but because it is inside my house I need to pay call out charge/ WHY thier equipment that I rent they should pay to keep it up to scratch not me bt don,t want to know.The stress it causes me/ no one cares

christine Jones 4 years ago

I am a disabled student with the OU who are forcing students to go on-line. Sadly i chose BT as my ISP; I had non-stop problems with service mainly no-service at all quite often and after 'being connected' to the internet i often had no phone either.

It took MONTHS to get this problem sorted out, as most people know, trying to complain via phone is impossible if you have no working phone; its not much easier if you do have a phone. BT refunded some charges eventuall after a stinking letter to the Chief Ex but I shouldn't have needed to go down this road. I wrote to the faults people (recorded post) as I couldn't ring them -no reply. I wrote to accounts and customer complaints also recorded -no reply, which is why after months of crap/no service i wrote to chief Ex. I lost a year of work and money as I was forced to take an OU course which didn't require internet access at that time (one of a few), but BT don't compensate customers for loss, inconvienience, stress, misery and so on. They fob you off with a few quid off your bill full stop and quite often they get that wrong. They sent a letter offering X amount of pounds refund but forgot to pass on this info to accounts, so it took weeks more to get it taken off the bill (for a service I had NOT received)

To cap it all, my phone was hit by lightening recently. This happens approx once a year; usually, even if I have unplugged the phone, a bolt of white/red light shoots 6 ft out of the wall/phone socket across the room. Usually BT come and repair the socket/box/thing and thats the end of it. I have explained what happens but get no reply to written complaints and engineers just say naff things like 'oh' or 'it shouldn't do that'. This last lightening was unexpected and sudden, i had not unplugged the phone or disconnected the ethernet cable. The wall socket got it but so did the Hub which was just a massive (approx) 6ft high, wide, white flash, crackle and BANG and my computer motherboard was melted as well.

Bt first insisted that there was no fault on the line although my phone was dead and a friend made the complaint. Then we got the usual intimidation "if there is no fault we will charge you £216 call out fee" but an engineer did come out and replace the wall /phone socket and BT sent a new hub. House Insurance paid for a new computer but then BT sent me a bill for £216 anyway. According to them if damage is caused by lightening they are not responsible for repairs. Actually they are because i rent the phone socket from them and wouldn't have a phone line/connection without it. Red letter arrived despite protests etc. I rang my insurance company and explained the situation including how often lightening hits the line and shoots across the kitchen; very lethal should anyone be in its path (and I have a young child). The insurance company, who are brilliant, were very concerned not just about the frequency of 'hits' but also about possible injury/death and the fact that BT had been made aware of these dangers months ago and done nothing, suggested nothing or even replied! They said if I had repeted claims they would have to discontinue my insurance policy. I rang OTELO. They said they don't normally deal with lines/cables but were also very concerned about the serious danger element. Wow, up to this time i'd been led to believe there was nothing that could be done about it, reinforced by BT lack of response/concern.

I rang Consumer Direct, they advised me that BT probably weren't responsible for the hub (which they were not charging to replace) but were responsible for the wall/phone socket; they advised me what to do : recorded list of complaints and so on; 7 days to reply...

I got a reply of sorts, a very brief one line reply saying BT are going to credit my account with £184.00 ( new chief ex ignored letters sent to him) what happened to the rest of the £216.00??? BT failed to apologise, failed to address the problem of danger caused by lightening coming through this socket and insurance company concerns etc nothing -the letter did add around another dozen lines about other products and services but as we all know these aren't worth the paper they're advertised on! Since the massive bang/flash/whatever it was that destroyed the computer, hub and phone socket I have been scared stiff. If it looks like a storm I unplug everything, ethernet, phone, electric sockets leaving me with no communication with the outside world. I live 6 miles from a bottle of milk, in the middle of the Preseli hills in wales and NEED a phone. More storms are forcast according to the insurance company so i will again be paying for a service not available due to danger. If anyone gets injured the Ins Co won't cough up because this is an on-going problem and BT have been told of it many times.

Incidently when i rang them to complain about being charged for lightening damage to the socket, which i had not previously been charged for, they insisted i would be charged for similar incidents in future because lightening coming down the line isn't their fault; they eventually, very reluctantly put this in writing but only after i told them they had to, by law, if that was how i wanted it. Phone calls are easy to deny. BT constantly refuse to put things/replies in writing; i wonder why (not). I am frightened of the damn phone now, more so than before and this last week we have had nothing but storm warnings. Can anything be done? I have never had a problem with the Electric travelling down the line and that pole is the highest thing near the house.

S.M.Sutcliffe 3 years ago

On the 28th my neighbour's phone wasn't working. Mine was so I tried to report hers. The automated line said there was no fault on her line and disconnected. I went on-line to the web-site, but found I could not report the fault because I had no fault number. I phoned the help number that put me through to one of those very helpful young people in Delhi. Despite the length of time I have to wait to speak to anyone, I have a friendly relationship with them after all the calls I had to make after taking on BT broadband. The young woman told me to try another handset in my neighbours phone and gave me another number to ring if that didn't work. I did that and got no response so rang the next number and spent the next 4 minutes listening to instructions telling me to do what I had just done. I waited till the end hoping for another suggestion but the line terminated again. I rang my friends in Delhi again. This time, after reciting my story yet again, she agreed to make an appointment for an engineer to call on my neighbour. She also told me it would cost her £160 pounds if the line was found to be OK, plus another £99 if any repairs were made.

My neighbour is old and infirm and a widow, so I took the phone round to her house to let her decide what she wanted to do. She was very upset and apologetic to me for wasting all this time and tried to pay me for the phone calls. However, she agreed to the engineer coming and told me later he arrived shortly after I left, replaced the outside junction box and did something on the pole in the street. He assured her there would be no charge because there were 2 faults on the line that he had duly repaired.

When I returned and learned this, I tried to complain to BT, but since I couldn't find anyone to speak to and had no fault number to post a complaint on the site, this appeared impossible. I also tried to lodge a complaint with OFTEL, but the Web site has been discontinued.

This state of affairs is utterly disgraceful. No-one is available from BT to make a complaint to and it is no use complaining to the operators in Delhi. It is hardly their fault that they work for such a bunch of swindlers. The only thing I can do, apart from rant to myself and on here, is make sure that when my contract is up, I have nothing further to do with BT. The tragedy is I used to work for them when they were British Telecom and a good, helpful, fairly reliable publicly owned company.

Leah Green 3 years ago

I emailed ben verwaayen one of BT's company directors as advised above - I received a reply to say that he has passed my complaint on to the higher complaints dept. I received a telephone call the next day from someone from the higher complaints dept and they apologised for the appauling customer service we have received etc and offered to credit off our entire balance (£270.00)!! We have received the credit note now and we don't owe them anything! Result!

john bamford 3 years ago

BT/ Don,t talk too me about bt. They are so big they think they can do ,charge anything,and we the unexpectant public will just pay up. I,ve an ongoing complaint with them for about a month now. I can,t receive iternet and phone line together at same time , BEEN ONTO bt asking WHY /put on hold ased too check this that and everything done it no help ,AT one point lines went dead I had too phone up from friends put on hold again/ engineer came out found fault with bt line .bt entry box and master socket/ fault /perhaps down to lightning strike/ their equipment but still I get call out charge to fix it ////BUT still not getting both internet and phone at same time/ been told extension cable to sons room too long andbad quality/ this rectafied but no change onto bt again/ again on hold check ,check ,check nothing/ told bt looking into it get back to me after 48hrs / but still nothing/ BT complain. complain /complain but get nowhere / scream/ pull your hair out nothing its so stressful

James Roeves 3 years ago

Call queing is truly appalling and progress should be about moving forward this is not the case in this instance. It is intended to manage staff more efficiently, but this is usually not the case and what is so sad is that the National Telephone utility manages their telephone system worse than any one else.

Every time I have to contact Bt I know I will have had to wait for hours only to find I have been put through to the wrong department. I am writing this whilst being held in a queue. I want to cancel my line, because I am renting my house out. There is no option for cancelling a line, so I am waiting for customer services. I just got through after 23 minutes and sure enough have been transfered after having to answer questions as to why I am cancelling and having to be told that my call was important and could they do anything else and they hoped I would have a nice day; After 23 minutes I have no interest in passing the time of day with a stranger I will never meet, or probably speak to again. The transfer was almost immediate. There was crackling on the line which made it almost impossble to hear, but our business was concluded in short order.

In the past I have spent well in excess of an hour trying to resolve isuues and have frequently been transfered between departments up to 5 times, often back to the same department more than once. I have therfore come off the phone feeling quite positive which is an incredible that I felt like that after being kept waiting for 23minutes.

I own a restaurant and would like to put into context for BT would you be happy eat in my restaurant if you had to wait 2 hours for your meal, have the wrong order sent out, when you tried to complain you were told there was no one to complain to, but the barman could sort it out, who then said you needed to speaker to the washer upper, who passed you onto the chef who passed you back to the waitress again, who passed you back to the chef again. At this point you are quite agitated after insisting on speaking to someone higher up. You are begrudgingly passed to a supervisor, but only after being told that they will say the same thing as they have already said. The supervisor then tells you all all complaints must be addressed to someone in writing and no you cannot speak to them in person. The question is would you accept this as adequate and be happy to return, or would you never eat there again?

John 3 years ago

I have had the misfortune of talking to the BT "helpdesk" several times. In each case they had passed me on to different people and had taken my details and details on the issue several times. It took no less than 4 weeks to resolve each issue. One issue had takn 8 weeks and an engineer came out - this particular incident got me quite stressed especially after being told it was my home line at fault and I would have to pay for the replacing of this! However, the engineer was english speaking and resolved the issue within 24hrs. Those call centres I always get through to really have no idea what they are doing.

Pat 3 years ago

I was given the wrong package , i only wanted the line. During the last 6 days trying to get it put right before they connected me. Ive tried and tried to alter and cancel but can get nowhere. by phone they just pass you on to another person, by email they dont answer at all. Looks like ime stuck for 12 month contract i dont want . Their behavior i find disgusting!

Michael 3 years ago

On Thursday 24th April I requested a new line connection to my house and explained it does not have a line due to refurbishment work. I was told this was not a problem and I would just have to pay £124.99 to get a new line and it was booked for the 16th. I pay with my direct debit which I setup there and then and in total it takes 30 minutes to complete everything. (done, or so you’d think?)

Then I get called roughly a few days later explaining to me that I no longer need a new line connection as I already have an active line. I disagree as I live at the property and can see with my own eyes that I don’t have a line. He says that he will cancel the order!. After countless times of explaining to him that I DO need a new line he says ok it won’t be cancelled.

I ring up a few days later just to check everything still fine and and i find out the person has indeed cancelled my order! Therefore i have to create a new order for the 20th and explains to be that he can transfer the direct debit details over to this new order so nothing needs to be done.

I then get a call from the 0800 number again explaining that my money can’t be transferred to my new account, I don’t understand what they mean by this as I only know of one account, he then hangs up on me without any further explanation.

I ring the next day and explain how rude the person was and i am told that he needed not have rung me to tell me this and should have begun to refund the £124.99 connection fee money back to my bank account.

I ring a few days later as i’m not happy about the whole thing and I am informed by this person that they will try to sort it all out for me and arrange a credit to my account for the trouble. The problem is that I received my bill for another connection fee which I have already paid but have not been refunded yet on this so called other account as promised. ( Can I also add that the other account was caused by someone at BT cancelling my order, so I thought swift action by BT to refund this from the old account would have been mandatory. )

Just to top it all off I have sustained a payment processing fee which makes no sense as I was told my direct debit had been transferred to me new account, after all I can prove I set it up as I paid my connection fee of £124.99 with it and ironically would have managed to cancel this payment if I had paid by any other means even if it was not my responsibility to do so as this is clearly BT’s fault.

I rung last on 30th May and had little joy with the person at the other end, as I again had to explain everything and he told me there is 2 accounts, the 1st account has the £124.99 credit which I paid last month which is yet to be refunded and the 2nd account is in debit by roughly the same amount due to the connection fee being charged again on this account. I told him the situation and wanted the payment processing fee taken off Immediately of £4.50 which he would not do without my direct debit details. However I will not pay the connection fee on the 2nd account until I have been refunded my first payment. I rung again on the 2nd june and was told my account is £25 in debit which makes no sense at all so i asked if he could tell me what this cost relates too but of course he couldn’t as he only works for BT? eh????

I rung again today (3rd june 2008) and after 10 minutes was cut off. Looks like they have just blacklisted my number. The saga continues….

I find it amazing how i’ll ask a simple question on the phone to a BT employee in India (0800 number) and they will give me an answer to something completely different?!!??!?!?!??

Cass 3 years ago

I am a small business owner, and I had no choice of company when I needed my phone line, so I was stuck with BT. This involved many many calls, promises not kept, assistants who were going to ring back and never did. I eventually got hold of a number that was apparently an unofficial phone on a wall in some office in Birmingham - it was answered in some alarm. However it was great - finally I could ring up and attempt to speak to the SAME person on the SAME issue for the first time. Usually you can never contact the same person, hence no one is ever accountable in BT - but this time I had them. And it worked, through many calls and keeping the pressure up I got my line and broadband.

Then came the first bill. When I had signed up for my bt business broadband site it cheefully tells me how I can view and manage my bills online - so I tried - and tried - and tried. No luck. I then tried phoning the billing team on the number on the bill - the automated response system twice asked me to press number '2' if I wanted to report a fault - which I did. Then it asked me to enter the telephone number to which this fault was connected. I entered the number (correctly) and the auto response told me that it was not a BT number and I should contact my own telecomms service provider and then hung up. Great. How do you report a fault on the reporting a fault service? I was stuck in some kind of psycho-technical Gordian knot. But I am not easily defeated, I tried several ways to speak to a human being and finally did (again by phoning the number provided on my bill). They ask me, 'what is your account number?' I start to reply, but 'Ah, no your phoning the wrong department, you want the OneBill department', but I phoned the number on the bill I wail in despair, they'll put me through they say. But what if I never speak to another human at BT again I cry? They give me a bachup number in case. Luckily my handset has hands free, as when they put me through the phone alternately played 80s elevator music, told me how important my call was (like I didn't know) and then rang - for about 20 minutes. Finally I spoke to the Holy Grail of bill advisors, the OneBill operator.

'I have been trying to view and pay my bill online, as it tells me I can do on BT broadband webpage to which I was directed by your sevice' say I.

'You can't do that with the OneBill' says she.

'Then why does it tell me I can?' says I.

'It wasn't giving the right information so they stopped it' says she.

'So its a fault' says I.

'No its not a fault, they just don't provide that service for the OneBill' says she

'But the webpage to which I am directed by your service tells me explicity that for my convenience I can view and pay my bills online' says I.

'Well we could change your bill to two seperate statements and then you could do it' says she

'sounds okay' says I

'There will be a charge of £4.50 for each of those' says she

'I know its not personally your fault, but BT really doesn't work very well does it?' says I.

'Would you like to pay your bill over the phone?' says she.

And I did, with a heavy heart, and a growing sense of disbelief that a company making 6 billion pounds of profit could be so unutterably disorganised, bewildering, uncaring, useless and arrogant in its disregard for the customers who heap riches upon it. They are totally sh**, and I will leave them the moment that twelve months is up, the very moment. I just praise the lord that all those phone calls they made to me to try and convinve me to sign up for three years came to nought. I now see why they are so desperate to sign you up for three years - you wouldn't stay that long once you experience it.

Hurray for this site, lets give BT what they deserve, not just for overcharging us and giving us all stress we don't need, but also for actively throwing a spanner in the works for small businesses for whom all time is precious money, and hours of it wasted on the phone to BT may be the difference between success and failure.

ana 3 years ago

I havent got broadband since 3 months ago and now im living the country and still they ask me to pay my contract till august 2009

holly 3 years ago

Oh my god – BT are such a joke. My phone line went dead a month ago. Situation resolved itself so I cancelled the engineer. 2 weeks ago, same thing happened. Took my broadband down this time too. I’ve had 2 engineers come (both fixed the problem for about half an hour – something to do with the main box in the next street) but fault returned. Situation now is that I’ve been without a phone or internet access for two weeks, I’ve made £40 worth of mobile calls to the faults helpline (why is not a free number?!), I’ve had to take one annual leave day to wait for an engineer, I missed my best friend’s farewell drinks because I had to spend a Saturday waiting for the other engineer, I’ve heard ‘I’m sorry to hear about your fault’ 12 times from 12 different operators, I’ve spent the last two evenings on the phone to them trying to sort out the problem – talking through floods of frustrated tears, I’ve left my number in call queues and been promised a call back within 45 mins only to hear nothing, I’ve been transferred between departments, I’ve been cut off, and I’m at my absolute whit’s end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! how can this company be so damn incompetent?!?!?!?!!?!?! Thank god I now have a support group at BTComplaint.com! Is there a Facebook group I can join too?

As soon as my contract is up with BT (1 month and counting) I’m switching to TalkTalk!

But until then, I have yet another engineer coming this Fri. Please wish me luck!

griffgrogg 3 years ago

Hi,

this may be an unusual one but need some help and advice here as I am slowly going round the BEND!

I am goind round in circles with BT "customer servies" and "fault finding" dept (isnt there a trade descriptions act offence they can be prosecuted for!!)

I have the misfortune of having BT broadband and landline services and as anyone knows when you pick up your landline handset to make a call it defaults to the internet line........however my dilemma is that all of a sudden on christmas day 2007 my landline number started dialling and making silent calls to one random number on the same exchange. So far it has made over 500 calls to this poor person at all hours of the day and night, there is no pattern and calls have been made when none of us is at home and house alarm set.

BT have suggested that when were out of the house someone is letting themselves in without permission to make 5 second silent calls to this number and presumably sneaking in whilst me and my children (all aged under 10 years old) are soundly asleep in the small hours. I have a BT home hub phone which, like most phones, has a dialled number list.......this other number has NEVER ever been on this list.....if only I could drag someone from BT to look at it !!

I have made at least 40 calls and each time spoken to different operators, broken promises are made, my calls never logged meaning I have to repeat myself OVER and OVER again, some of the call charges have been refunded and Ive now changed my telephone number in an effort to stop it but to my dismay after a month they have started AGAIN!!!

I have phoned this unfortunate individual (on my mobile I hasten to add) and she is a confused old lady who none of us has ever known or had dealing with in another town.......she told me that she is blighted by these silent calls and when she does pick up the phone she hears a 'whirring' sound in the background. Interestingly she said she experienced the same scenario a couple of years ago from another residential number on the same exchange that went on for months until he changed his telephone number.

Im at a complete loss...........BT dont believe the calls are not being physically dialled from my house, customer services are useless and inconsistent, and I cant find any information on the web about similar problems....but I CANT be the only one !!

My only step now seems to be getting rid of my BT landline completely

Has anyone heard / experienced this before........BT says not but I dont believe anything they have to say to me

Fred 3 years ago

I've been on the telephone to BT since 12.10pm this morning.... it's now 4.15pm and I still haven't got my telephone line connect at the house... It sounds so simple to get a line connected... Not so with BT... Haven't even got the order taken yet as their computers are running so slow... Holly don't go Talk Talk... had a nightmare with Talk Talk would not recommend at all...

holly 3 years ago

Thanks for the tip Fred - would appreciate any recommendations from anyone!!

Fo 3 years ago

I have for days experienced problems with BT internet.

Their staff in India are compulsive liers, part of the BT culture by now.

Its an outage problem that will be sorted in 4 hours first one 3days ago, now its 24 hours.

lee singes 3 years ago

bt all i can say is they are the laughing stock ot the telecom world, if i could use someone else i would, job advertisments to work for BT obviosly say compulsive liars, incompetant, usless waste of spaces needed to feed the good old english public a whole lot of bullshit. they need to be put out of buisness, i hate them and i am totally disgusted that they use the name British in there name especially when they employ those useless crib card reading monkeys in there overseas call centers

bob 3 years ago

BT want shooting

I spent 5 days on the phone (logged)

spoke to countless people not in the uk, lost a lot of business, said they would call back, also had days of work.

I was told i have to agree to £110 call out and £90 per hour for repairs, if I did not agree they would noy come out, so the result is under section 40 of the harrassment act I intend to sue them, as it is illegal on paper or verbally to demand any monieseven oftel agree with this one.

so bt now it is my turn.

Mags  3 years ago

I just cant believe that there are so many people out there who are having a nightmare like me and mine isnt over yet and yes BT customer services is appalling and I have complained to the ombudsman and they arent doing anything to resolve this matter either. I own my own business (a guest house) and did inform BT when I bought this property and thought I was on a business line package WRONG! The new yellow pages phone book comes out and I am not listed as promised and so I ring BT and they tell me they have made a mistake and I have been listed as a residential property instead and it would be straightforward to transfer to business WRONG! I have just received two bills from BT £171.70 and £262.40. The £171.70 relates to a featureline which I do not have and other calls and services I do not have either. I also have direct debit set up and they have tried to charge me £4.50 call handling fee. The £262.40 relates to the cancellation of the featureline which I never have had and £30 connection fee to BT but I have been with BT for two years so there is no way am I going to pay for a bill including a connection fee to BT. I am also supposed to have a call divert facility but BT keep taking that off on a Fri at 5pm and I am loosing business because of this. When I phone BT business they dont know what is happening and I get told that they cannot understand my account as it is in such a mess but that doesnt help me. The other thing that was suggested was to allow BT to take these two amounts out of my account and then I could try and claim it back but who would pay for something that they dont use and if I did allow BT to take these amounts out of my account they wouldnt give them back to me would they. The other thing that has totally cheesed me off is that residential have taken £56.00 line rental on top of these bills and when I spoke to BT residential I am told I cant claim this back as the account is closed so I had to go to my bank and get it back that way so when I rang BT they said they would send me a further bill requesting this money but I do not owe £56.00. I have been told that my actual bill will be £125 only but they cant raise this bill with these two other bills outstanding but like I said they cant be outstanding because I dont owe it. The other stupid thing is that BT reckon I have BT broadband but I dont I am with o2 who are brilliant before that I was with AOL who were totally rubbish and BT are trying to say I have a BT hub etc at the property but like I have said come and see for yourself but they wont come out because they know they are conning me. When I spoke to an Advisor they told me that the business line is £40.86 and then £6.00 for the divert total £46.86 but when you look on the BT.com website their own website they have three business line packages and one is £43.11 including call divert so why are BT trying to charge me nearly £47.00. I have spoken to BT but it was nearly hometime so couldnt deal with it and told me they would ring back but I always get told this and never get the phone calls back. I wish I had taken my business elsewhere and used another phone provider but if you need to advertise in the yellow pages etc you are tied to BT but I am losing business hand over fist especially at the weekends when they deliberately turn my divert off which was working fine Mon-Thurs why turn it off on a Fri at 5pm and then tell me they cant deal with it until mon but I have been told if BT put an order in for the divert I will be charged £30 connection fee but how can they get away with this it feels like I have a loaded gun at my head. If anyone can help me resolve this as I cannot afford to be paying for bills I havent run up or connection fees that BT have deliberately created by switching my divert off.

Vie 3 years ago

I'm not even a BT customer and I have a complaint!

Recently I got a spam email from BT, advertising there NAT service, or at least it sounds like a NAT service anyway. They told me, and I quote; " We sent this email to *My email* because you gave us your address and permission to contact."

No, I did not.

Anyway, I unsubscribe on there website. To do which they demand your name, title as well as your email (Obveously the email needs to be there, why they want the other stuff confuses me.). I tell them to never contact me again and explain that there services are vastly inferior to the one I already have.

Today, JOY of Joys! I get ANOTHER Spam email from BT. Once again telling me I asked them to send me the garbage!

lp1 3 years ago

I have copied my letter to the head of customer service Jillian Lewis below in the hope that it is some help to people. I am one of three people at my work who have had this same problem of being cut off with no notice and then having a complete nightmare reconnecting. I'm keeping my fingers crossed...... Good luck to the rest of you. I am writing to you concerning a number of problems I have recently experienced with my BT service. Following alleged late payment of a bill issued on 8 April this year, my BT account was disconnected with no prior warning from BT. The bill clearly stated payment should be received by 18 April, disconnection occurred on this date.Arranging for the reconnection of my telephone line has taken almost two months and a total of over 20 calls to your company. This has resulted in loss to me as follows: * A total of over 20 calls to BT and associated costs as detailed in the enclosed mobile phone bills, at a total cost of £19.97 (this does not include calls made via a separate 'pay-as -you go mobile account) * The major inconvenience of loss of service for an unnecessarily protracted period - resulting in missed calls from family and lack of access to the internet, all of which was unnecessary - I was quite prepared to pay any outstanding amount over the phone as soon as the problem arose. I would also dispute that payment was late. * Loss through advanced payment for broadband covering the period 1 April - 30 June, invoice Q004 RS, totalling £79.90. During this time I was paying for a service I was unable to access.The issue about which I feel strongest is the unnecessary stress and inconvenience of BT's customer service. Throughout the period I was given conflicting advice with every phone-call I made. Choosing which of the many numbers to ring was a lottery - I had to make separate calls for SD and GB account numbers and the lack of communication between advisors meant it was necessary to restate my problem a number of times. Trying to alleviate this problem was impossible as customer service numbers quoted on the back of GB account bills connected to advisors who only had access to my SD information. I was told an SD account was a business account and shouldn't have been allocated to me and then subsequently told that it was completely normal to have two accounts in this way (a situation I am still confused about as I don't seem to have been allocated a new SD account despite reconnecting my broadband service). I was put through to numbers and subsequently cut-off, meaning I had to start the whole process again as I had no idea of the number I had been put through to. I was told I would have to wait for a final bill to be issued and paid before I could re-order the service - that final bill never came. When I phoned to ask if despite not receiving this bill I could pay over the phone, I was told that wasn't possible. However when I phoned a few days later this advice was directly contradicted and I did pay over the phone. I was told that in reconnecting my phone-line my broadband service would automatically restart, however it didn't and I had to make a further phone-call to ensure that it was. I am now on what I have been told is a temporary land-line number although I have had no explanation as to why, or whether this situation will change in the near future. Since reconnected I have also received sales text messages from BT, a service I did not sign up to and do not want to receive. I would like you to reimburse me the total sum of £99.87 (which does not include the cost of calls made via 'pay-as-you-go') which I believe I am entitled to. Yours sincerelyMiss A Smith

Sonja Mitchell 3 years ago

Lovely to come across other people frustrated with BT - my partner and I wrote to OFCOM about the problems we had had with BT in a letter dated 30 July '07, and I was frustrated by it's response that 'it does not investigate individual cases'. There were too many ways that BT failed us over the two months, in particular the misleading information given to us by different members of staff, BT's failure to contact us to explain why promised services had not been delivered, and the sheer difficulty of getting thorugh to BT to tell them something is wrong, for me to believe that ours had merely been an 'individual' or isolated problem. And, indeed, reading through other comments posted here, I can see it is not.

It took BT two months, from early July until late August 2007, to supply my partner and I with a telephone line. They were efficient enough with their charging - taking payments from our account over that period, but were near impossible to get hold of over the phone in order to tell them that we still had no phone. Over those two months my partner and I spent long periods standing in the phone box outside our house listening to that patronising BT voice telling us that the lines were 'unusually busy at the moment' and they would answer our call as soon as they could. It invariably took a minimum of 45 minutes before BT got over it's 'momentary' business, an hour-long wait was more usual, and on a particularly bad day, I waited for 1.5 hours before i got to speak to anyone. And all this was just so that I could inform BT that the service they had promised had not been delivered and we were still being charged for it. At no point did BT make an effort to contact us to explain why the service they promised (and then when failing the first time to deliver, re-promised) still had not been delivered.

My main issue with BT is WHY ON EARTH IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET HOLD OF THEM TO TELL THEM SOMETHING IS WRONG?

We wrote a detailed letter to BT's then complaints contact - Jillian G Lewis, Customer Services Director, on 30 July 2007, setting out the numerous problems we had with BT, and pointing out that two months on, we were still without a functioning telephone line. We cced our letter to OFCOM, the Office of Fair Traiding and BBC's Watchdog. We received a response from OFCOM, the Office of Fair Trading and BBC's Watchdog, but guess what? NO RESPONSE FROM BT. It was only after more calling, more standing around in that cursed phone box, and after having to work quite hard to convince the person we eventually spoke with that we really did not have a phone line ('But we've been charging you for a phone line since July', they said, 'We know!!' I cried), that we finally got one installed.

We never received a response from BT to our letter and we have never received any apology for BT for the inconvenience of having gone without a phone for two months, while being charged for having one, for the hours and hours we spent standing in the phone box, and for the £130 we incurred making international calls from the phone box to my family in New Zealand (incidentally, my sister in NZ was had a baby over this time, and i was anxious to be in close contact with her and intensely frustrated and upset that i couldn't be).

In summary, I have never encountered a service as bad as BT, and if i could find a way of never purchasing another thing from them I would. Unfortunately, like most people, i need a phone line. the only other answer is emigration? or perhaps for some of these government-set up institutions like OFCOM that are meant to be regulating phone companies to DO SOMETHING TO END THE NIGHTMARE THAT IS BT.

Thanks to those who set up this website for allowing our individual grumbles to unify into a wail loud enough to hopefully catch some attention.

Regards, Sonja Mitchell (and on behalf of Henry Fisher)

grace 3 years ago

I'm going to cut a long story short here: Ive had an ongoing problem with BT since i moved into my new property in November 07. When we moved in we found the line had to be reconnected (at a cost of 124.99 which is rediculous in itself, why should i have to pay because of something the previous occupants did) so we paid and had the line connected. We opted for paper-free billing and after a month or so i realised i had not recieved a bill. I called BT and after 4 hours on hold i was told that their system was not producing my bills. I asked if they knew when the problem was going to be fixed as i had set up a DD for my phone account and i did not want it just sat there not being used. They could not give me and answer. I have chased this ever since, every month. In March i was told that my total bill was only 32 pounds, i paid 20pounds of this with my own debit card (the account is in my partners name). I carried on chasing the problem and i was continuously told not to worry, the problem was trying to be resolved and that i would NOT be expected to pay a massive phone bill when the problem was resolved. It was only by pure luck that i decided to ring BT on the 8th June 08 to check on the problem and i could not believe my ears when i was told this:

"The problem has now been fixed and your DD would be taken out shortly. the amount your will be paying is 450POUNDS!!!!!!"

I was absolutly fuming. I asked why they did not bother to contact me and tell me that the problem had been fixed, even though I repeatedly asked to be notified when the issue was resolved and why the bill was so high. I was told that one charge was the 124.99 for the reconnection, even though I was told in November that it had been paid and another charge was 171.00 for change my option plan!!! I did change my option plan but i did it within the 14 day period that the letter advised. I have continuously battled with BT's incompetant call centre staff to find out why they have messed this up so badly and even had a phone call off of a senior manager who, as soon as i answered the phone, accused me of abusing her staff (all i did was get a little angry after being on hold for 4 hours only to be told they were going to take 500.00 offof me in a couple of days!) and that i could not deal with account as i was not the account holder (despite my partner telling them time and time again that i COULD deal with it as he works away from home) and she then put the phone down on me! I have now taken my complaint to ofcom and it is being dealt with by the BT chairmans office. Im expecting a call today to get it resolved. if its not then i will seeking legal advise! I would urge anyone having problem with the call centre to go straight to ofcom, i wasted 2 weeks repeatedly calling BT only to get through to people who dont care about the customers, have a limited grasp of the english language and are completely useless. In my opinion, everyone in their call centers need to be retrained or fired

Richard Bushrod 3 years ago

Hi Everyone.

My hobphone has a very poor ear piece volume and dispite various complaints no answer is forth coming, now we have lost the dial tone on the internet line although it well still dial out and recieve calls.

Danny Boy 3 years ago

I am glad I've found this website. I have only been a BT customer for 6 months, and already I have a catalogue of errors to document.

To start with I signed up for BT Vision's free bundle which came with the top level of BT broadband. THE BT Broadband arrived and was absolutely noway near as fast as the sales people had told me it would be, but that's another story.

It took 2 months to finally get sent the BT Vision box after repeated phonecalls. To add insult to injury when I complained about this the person on the phone told me as an apology BT would wave the connection fee and give me a free on-demand channel.

Some time later I noticed on my bill that I was going to be charged for this 'free' channel, so I immediately rang to complain. I was told that this would always be the case. So the person giving me this free channel by means of apology for BT was just lying to sell me a package I didn't want that I would ultimately end up paying for.

The person on the phone apologised and said I would be immediately taken off this package. Ok fine, until I get my bill and BT have charged me £47 disconnection fee. I again ring to complain and literally have to have an argument with the guy on the phone to get this fee waved, as I didnt even want a payed subscription in the first place and only had one due to a lying BT employee misleading me in the first place.

So now I have moved house and have spent the past 2 months trying to get BT to activate new telephone lines. I have been put through to the home movers department 4 times now, and each time despite protests am forced to give all the same information, and each time told I am being put on a priority call-back list. I am yet to receive a call-back.

So I have had no phone line for 2 months, and am being charged for it, and everytime I speak to BT noone knows quite who to put me through to in order to get the situation resolved.

I am so fed up I honestly have never dealt with a company that has consistently let me down in every possible way. Very stressful. I advise everyone to steer clear of BT.

Laurence McMorrow 3 years ago

My email shown above has not worked since 2nd June. I cannot read messages and orders that have been sent to my business. I have spent hours on the phone trying to get it sorted without success. My business is being badly dammaged. The drop down box from the btopenworld server will not accept my password. I demand that someone rings me today with a solution to this 3 week old problem. In the meantime do not send me a bill of any description.

Nigel Carpenter 3 years ago

I have been a loyal BT customer for 35 Yrs +. I have my phone + Braodband + packages with them. A satisfied customer for 30 years but the last 5 the service has gone down & down & down.

They have rung me 5 times on an automated service to say I have not paid my bill. I want to pay my bill but I have no account number to quote.

I have tried ringing them - I have tried searching their web site - I have tried google - I just cannot pay my bill unless I have my account number - but I don't have it & I cannot get through to a 'REAL LIVE PERSON' to ask for it

Enough is enough with BT - I will change supplier for sure

Flea 3 years ago

I had to end my BT total broadband contract early when i moved out of my flat so the next occupents could connect phone and internet lines of their own and the house i moved into already had an internet and phone supplier. I rang up customer services and was quoted, after some adding up by the BT representative, the fees to end the contract early would be about one hundred pounds. At the time i didn't think it necessary to ask for the quote in writing but i wish i had when i recieved a bill for three hundred and thirty pounds for ending the contract early. After a few phonecalls to BT and two complaints lodged they still insist they will adhere to the larger amount and have since refered the amount to a debt collection agency. I have since moved house again but they refuse to change my details until the amount is paid in full so correspondance is almost useless unless i happen to be near where i used to live so i can stop by to pick up mail. BT also refused to set up a derect debit scheme for me to pay off the ridiculous made-up bill since the amount is now overdue. I have now had to borrow money to pay BT off and have still heard nothing of my complaints. I can't really express the stress and anxiety this has caused me, i am a manic depressive and BT definately has not in any way helped my mental or physical health. Great stuff.

missmarple 3 years ago

This is a minor complaint but one that really agitates me. Why am I charged £4.50 to pay my bill by cheque. It is pure extortion. What is this fee for? And should I in return send an invoice to BT for the cost of a stamp, envelope, petrol to drive to the post office to post the cheque. I will not pay by direct debit. It is just another way for BT to gain extra money through interest earned. And my bank account details are private. Nobody should have to pay this charge.

G Dobson 3 years ago

I moved to BT around March 08.

April 08 I received a bill. I went online to pay. I phoned up BT to pay. I tried to set up my account by monthly standing order. I requested a form. I spoke to several BT reps in India. I complained on line. The Indian reps couldn't understand me and I could hardly understand them.I asked to speak to someone who I could complain to. I asked to speak to someone in the UK. I constantly got put on hold and passed to another foreign rep who could not help me. I tried every avenue to pay and to set up monthly direct debit. It is now June 24th and this still has not been implemented. A reminder came in April, I still had not been able to pay online. I sent a cheque. Subsequently the phone was cut off. Supposedly for 24 hours- it ended up being for 3 days. I run a business from home, my mother's husband was taken ill abroad, we couldn't contact him. I spoke to many foreign telephone reps in India. It was an agonising time. The bill was paid by credit card (2nd payment BT received)the phone eventually came back on 3 days later. I subsequently asked to move from BT I was told I'd have to pay a fee to leave!

I also tried to set up enhanced BT answer service on the line for my business. I requested several times on line and three times on the phone. Much waiting, much music etc. Personalised greeting was not set up despite BT saying it was available on line. Sent several complaints throughout all this. BT phoned when I was not in residence. Were told to call back that evening, they did not. No number left for me to call them back.

Today phoned BT again re answer service request still not having been implemented. Said I wished to move away from BT need the personalised answer message for my business. I added I did not want to incurleaving charges due to continued bad service. Rep said she'd cancel line there and then. I intercepted to say I did not want to be without a line. She told me the phone would not be cut off till July 24th 08. I was put through to another rep, then another, then another. The final lady rep said that my phone looked like it may be getting cut off the following day 25th June! Meaning I would have no phone for my business. She tried to put a stop on the cancellation and said I should phone back again tomorrow (the 25th June). (Yet another agonising evening in store listening to BT music) BT's treatment of me has been appalling. It has led me to much stress and much lost business due to the line being cut off and the standard BT answer message.After the horrendous time I've had with BT I wish to leave them without having to pay any leaving charges and go to a different supplier. I am at my wits end. If I have been cut off promptly it could take up to a month to get a new line with a new service provider.

T Rowley 3 years ago

I closed my account with BT in March 2008 was sent a bill in April 08 when reading it was discusted to have been charged for ending my contract which may I state I was not in a contract with BT as it had been well over tweleve months I phoned to explain all this and was informed not a problem please pay £23.58 and my account will close so no problem I paid the amount the following day

To my horror I returned from a break to receive a debt notification letter from a credit service acting on behalf of BT for amount £35.93 outstanding on 25th June 08 I was not a happy bunny I phoned BT to which I was informed they knew nothing of this and as stated I have a letter in my hand this has been sorted but trust me I will never ever go back to BT for this to happen is a total disgrace it could or most proberly has happened to an elderly person whom would pay with such a letter that I received BT is a sham

Melanie McNicol 3 years ago

I knew things wern't going to go well when I received all my equipment 3 days earlier, when nobody was available to accept delivery. Not having received it all though I called to ask where the rest of it was. As it was so early in the contract I had not been informed of my land line number, so was extremely frustrated when no one could help me without this information, even though I hadn't been told what it was yet.

After being passed to around 6 different depatments, all of which ask you the same thing time after time, it then took me approx 5 minutes to explain to one of the overseas calling centers what my postcode was. Only to be told they couldnt understand me !!! I GAVE UP, and just waited to see what would turn up.

Now I have been sent a telephone to rent which is not the one I ordered, and after going through the same proceedure as above managed to get it arranged to be collected on 20th June. This is a Saturday and after waiting in all day, realised that it was not happening. I still have the phone in it's box awaiting collection. When will this happen ???????????????

The call centers you have are useless: The attention to detail on delivery dates and products is terrible as they were both wrong.

Unfortunately I am now stuck with BT for 18 months but just out of princable I will make sure we change to another supplier the minute we are able to.

Gordon 3 years ago

I ordered a 'new installation' of a BT phone line on the 19th June 2008. An appointment was confirmed by both text and phonecall, than an engineer would call at my address between 1300 and 1800 on 25th June 2008.

At 1400, I decided to call and try and identify when exactly the engineer was going to complete this work. After much delay, I was reassured that the engineer would call, but they couldn't provide any further information with respect to a specific time.

At 1730 I called again (25 mins on hold), as the engineer had not arrived to start the work. I was informed that the work had been successfully, completed and that I now owed them £132.00 as the line was now 'Active'.

I protested that no equipment had been installed in my property and that I'd been instructed to remain at the property to provide access for the engineer etc.

I believe that I had a very narrow escape by not becoming involved with BT again. They then conceded that I would owe them nothing (although, I've not received any documentation to this effect).

The company's treatment of its existing and prospective customers is DISGUSTING. I feel foolish now, for even allowing myself to believe that BT had got better since my 5-6 years 'away' with a cable company.

I have finally learnt my lesson and vow never, ever to have anything to do with BT ever again.

Mr G. Bansal 3 years ago

Bt have taken my my original numbers away from me by mistake, I am a retaurant owner, since they have done this my turnover has gone down by 50%, I am on the verge of Bankrupcy. I signed an order for my telephone Numbers to be transfered from the old company to the new one, instead I had my had my original lines ripped out and a new one put in, this happened on the 20th of May 2008, it is now the 27th of June and BT have still not put my original numbers back in, this mistake of BT is costing me an average of £5000 per week plus the longterm damage it is doing to my business.

I need some one in BT to realize what is happening and resolve this matter soon before I close down.

There must be someone there who has some sympathy for me, Our liveyhood is at stake here. BT has made the mistake, we asked for something and we got something else.

Please Help

G. Bansal

J Swift 3 years ago

Paid for a BT phone line August 2007 after spending months on the phone, waiting in for an engineer and no one showing up finally installation complete in March 2008. Just received bill charging me line rental from October to date. Phoned up stupidly optimistic that it was an error and would be removed from my bill. Message left today on phone to say "Mrs Swift the charges are correct as the job was finished in October 2007". HELP!

S Rimmer 3 years ago

Speaking Clock

My sister and I are trying to care for our poorly mum in her own home and BT are not helping. Mum has short term memory problems but doesn't want to leave her home. The problem we have is the cost of the speaking clock @ 25p plus vat per call.. Mum constantly dials the clock building up a large bill which none of us can afford. We have been told by BT that all they can do is barr the line but this would not allow mum to make any calls which would be dangerous for her.

I really want to hear what BT can do for us to help the sistuation. Sadly they are all singing from the same song sheet and seem to forget what customer service actually means. How terrible it is to be old in this country. We just want our mum to be treated with dignity and respect and for BT to use this as an opportunity to help. Don't say sorry if you don't mean it! Do something!

Wendy Fortnum 3 years ago

I've just had my phone bill of £187. I rang them upto see what I could do to get my bill down, ( apart from not using it, and then you still get charged silly money to have a line !), only to be told that the calling plan that I am currently on £40 per month, is actually on offer to people for £10 a month. Why of why are we only told of these price reductions when we want to save money or threaten to leave BT. Surely to keep customers they would want to treat everyone the same and not just dangle a carrott in front of you at the start then rip you off after a few months. The call person wanted me to agree to this new charge over the phone, which sounded good until, he told me that if i wanted to terminate the contract I would have to pay the full amount of how many months left, i.e 10 mths = £1000. Forget it BT, at the moment your not any better than the rising fuel prices.

Scott & Kerri McDonald 3 years ago

I would call this a comedy of errors if there was anything remotely comedic about it. I transferred my BT Business Broadband to a Residential package with BT. I was told this would be seamless. What I wasn't advised was that they would cut off my business broadband, not switch on my residential at all, claim I had my facts wrong, advise me I was in the wrong for trying to move my service to residential, tsk tsk, how could I? and that I would spend countless hours in a loop between India Call Centres, enlist my husband to help when it got too much, be passed to Sales, Order Management, Technician, Senior Technician, Customer Face (what is that!), and back again. I understand economics and the offshoring reasons, what I will NOT excuse is shoddy call scripts, badly trained Agents, disparate systems that are not cross referenced with your order/issues history, badly managed queue handling (90 minutes!!! for one answer) and the myriad of issues I have ran out of energy to list. Fundementally the systems and processes need integration and re-engineering from a business perspective, as an end customer who still has not had service re-installed as expected, I am flabbergasted (not used that word in ages!) that a key service provider can carry on without recourse in this way. Thanks for the blogathon opportunity to rant, Don't feel better yet, but time is a healer....

Ken Maughan 3 years ago

I decided to return to BT after my contract with TalkTalk expired as I wanted to take up the offer of the BT Vision package deal. I signed up at beginning of June and was informed of the start date of their service and the delivery date of the broadband goods. This was put back a few times and I got annoyed after speaking to many different operatives and told them in no uncertain terms that if the goods were not delivered,as promised, then I would cancel my account. Unfortunately this was taken out of context and my phone line of 25+ years was disconnected. I was told I couldn't have it re-instated so I had to have a new telephone number which I would have to send out to all my contacts! I was duly connected to this new service and to add insult to injury,was later sent a bill for £41 for the couple of days I had with them using my old number. Then I was promised a delivery date for the broadband equipment which never turned up but which appeared on another promised date, with a duplicated order delivered the next day! Then I was told the delivery date of the Vision package which never turned up, then another date was given ,tomorrow,which I've just been informed was incorrect, and now it will be delivered next week on the 8th July.

Well, I have talked my way through 25+ call-centre operatives and technicians, spent dozens of hours idly listening to crap music whilst being "put on hold" as they tried to sort out the various problems that's arisen since I first signed up, and took days off,as have other family members, to await delivery of non-existant packages, all of which has left me tired and frustrated and I told the last lady to put a note against my order that, if the goods were not delivered by their latest "promised" delivery date, I would cancel everything and request an engineer to visit and rip out all my cabling and remove their equipment,if not, I would do it myself.

BT are like many other broadband suppliers, going overboard with promises to get you to sign up for their packages and leaving you high and dry as soon as they get their hands on your bank details. And their customer service is like swimming through mud!! BT....an acronym for Bloody Terrible.

John Rafferty 3 years ago

BT what a bunch of total tossers Orders lost, BT unable to deliver a vivion box they didn't know my address! funny the bill arrives each month, then the BT vision box dos'nt work wait 3 days for a call back no call back phone up to ask and I am told yes they know it is not working but cannot tell me anything I have to wait..... ARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Troy Bennett 3 years ago

I recently bought a flat that does not have a BT line or socket installed. I called BT and arranged for an engineer to call (costing £124.99). This was set for 26th June 2008 between 0800 and 1300. No engineer called and I rang several times during the day and was assured that an engineer would call. I waited 10 hours and no engineer came.

I emailed a complaint to BT at the lack of service only to get a response stating the engineer had completed the work by turning on my phoneline at the exchange. I said this is all well and good but I don't have a phone socket so can't make or receive calls!

So, after getting £30 pounds in compo, a second appointment was made for 2nd July between 0800 and 1300 hours. I made sure the dept I spoke to knew exactly what I needed. i.e A PHONE SOCKET TO BE INSTALLED...its not hard!!

On 2nd July I waited until 1330 hours and still no engineer called. I rang yet again and was told by the rep that he would call back when he had an answer. After 2 hours of further waiting, no callback, so I rang again.

This time the 'chase team' was put on the case to I suppose chase it up! I was told they would ring me back. It's been 18 hours and I am still waiting for the call!!

I waited 8 hours yesterday for the second engineer no show, but it gets better because I went back to where I'm staying currently and checked my fault progress online only to discover that the engineer apparently called but no one was in!!

I was there all day, and no one came...they are lying!!

It gets even better, because this morning at 0355 hours..yes 4 in the morning..I got a text message on my mobile phone which woke me up..It was BT saying they had repaired the fault and sorry for any inconvenience!!!

Are they having a laugh???

I went down to the flat this morning just to check that the engineer hadn't broken in overnight to install my phone socket..but no luck...he hadn't.

So to recap, I have waited a total of 18 hours over 2 days for no engineer to call. I have not had a phoneline installed as yet, however according to the BT fault site the work has been completed!!

Its a complete joke...words fail me...

DG 3 years ago

We are first time buyers in a new build property who wanted a phoneline to enable us to eventually get the internet. This is what had already happened: We ordered a phoneline about one month ago, the week before we were moving into our new house. Our appointment for 18th June was cancelled the weekend before installation by BT OpenReach, who promised to call back 23 June. The answerphone message informing us of this was from a totally incomprehensible foreign person so we had to call back to find out what it was meant to be telling us. An engineer / OpenReach didn't call us back with a new date and we were, in fact, sent a text message confirming that the work would be done on 18th June despite the fact that they had already cancelled this appointment. We rang BT to chase this up, to be told that the line was down as "completed" even though it isn't and engineer hasn't been anywhere near our home, nor have they contacted us. The fault was logged with faults department and we were promised an engineer visit within 24 hours. Engineer didn't turn up. No contact from BT by 5pm on the day the fault was scheduled to be fixed by (25/06/08). We rang BT again, who chased this with OpenReach and promised a call back AM 26 June. No call back from BT. We rang BT again, who advised OpenReach would contact us PM 26 June. We rang BT at lunchtime to try to make a complaint but were put on hold for 15 minutes and had to hang up to return to work before being able to speak to anyone. We rang BT again, to try to escalate the problem due to the time we've been waiting, but were cut off once, then put on hold and cut off, then on the third attempt were passed from faults to customer services back to faults and then around to a few other people until we had been transferred six times The sixth operator advised that it could not be escalated, and it would be 48 hours before they would be in touch to advise on how they were going to solve the problem (total call time 35 minutes) We rang up later that day to try to complain about the service and when we finally spoke to the lady in the faults department she told us a completely different story to everyone else we had spoken to, saying that an open order was preventing anything progressing and that it would need to be closed before anything else could happen. Why were we not told this earlier instead of being fobbed off with a different story every time and excuses about people being on holiday?The 48 hours passed and the promised call never came. When we rang to ask why, we were told we actually had to wait two working days, but this is not what we were originally promised.Since then we have made more phonecalls to BT, only to be told completely different stories by everybody, and no-one seems willing to update us on what is going on. We have received no phonecalls back from anyone who promised them, and we have also received no response at all to our letter and email of complaint. On top of this, this is what has also happened:· After weeks of waiting for a phoneline with no clue as to when we would get one, yesterday (02/07/08) we happened to lift the receiver of our telephone, only to find that there was actually a dial tone. Why had nobody bothered to contact us to tell us that we were finally connected?· We rang BT on the evening of 02/07/08 to say that we were connected and to check that we wouldn’t be billed for anything prior to this date due to us not having been connected, and the lady told us that she would adjust the bill accordingly.· On the morning of 03/07/08, we received a text message informing us that an engineer would be looking into the fault on our line, despite the fact that we had made the lady we spoke to the previous evening aware that the line was now working. We called BT at lunchtime on 03/07/08 to point this out and were assured that a note would be made that we no longer had a fault.· An hour later, whilst miles away from home, we received a call from an engineer, asking where we were. He was outside our house and had come to check the fault. Why did he make this wasted journey when we had already told BT not once, but twice, that the line was now working? We were originally told, in the many weeks before we were connected, that if an engineer came out unnecessarily we would be billed a horrendous amount for his trouble, and yet he still turned up at our house despite us having informed BT twice to cancel the fault report.We thought that our problems with the company would be over now that, after almost two months, we finally have been blessed with a phoneline but still they are managing to cause us grief.Our main gripes are these:1. BT'scomplete inability to call us back or keep us updated on events2. BT staff's complete inability to talk to each other, meaning repeated calls and repeated explanations on our part and wasted texts and visits on their part3. BT's complete failure to respond to our complaints thus far4. During busy periods they seem to ship alltheir calls out to India. These people are barely understandable and seem only able to transfer calls several times to different people without actually being able to solve problems or answer questions (see our experience above)

Maz 3 years ago

It didn't take me long to realise that I hade made a big mistake when I took out a phone line with BT. For 6 months, I did not receive a single accurate bill and every month I had to call BT for them to put it right. Only they didn't. They cancelled the charges on one bill & promptly applied it to the next one. I even got billed for calls that BT say they do not have a clue what the calls are but they're billing anyway, even if I DID NOT make my calls through BT. In the end, i just had enough and cancelled my BT phone line. BT applied a cancellation charge and a lot of other charges which I believe are unjustified but wanting to see the back of this legal crook, I paid up. Imagine my surprise today when I get a BT bill for a cancelled service. It gets better. Apparently I am paying for BT caller ID and answerphone when there is no active BT line. Are my supposed to be receiving these services through my derriere considering I DO NOT HAVE A BT Line. I've been calling those SOBs all day and hear this, their system is down and they cannot help me!!! Quite convenient!! I bet that if I said I was calling to pa up, the system would be online!!! I think that we should all get together and complain and hopefully they will receive a big enough fine to make them go bankrupt!!!!

Samantha 3 years ago

After leaving Tiscali broadband who also provided my phone line, i wanted go with o2 broadband. To do this, i needed a BT phone line, so after sorting out the cancellation with Tiscali, i contacted BT and told them i would like to have my phone line rental back with BT.

The lady on the phone told me about the unlimited anytime call plan and i said OK, i will have that then. The lady instantly replied by saying, you do know that evening and weekend phone calls are free anyway in the standard line rental don't you? I said, oh right, i'll leave the unlimited call plan and just have the standard line rental. She then said, its too late, i've put you on the unlimited plan now and that i will have to phone back tomorrow to cancel the unlimited plan and that i have 7 days in which i can cancel anyway, so it will be ok. I thought this was very strange, almost like i was tricked.

I phoned back the same day, as i was not happy about being put on the unlimited plan, when within seconds of saying i'll go on it, i said, no, i'll leave that and go with the standard line rental. When i phoned back, i explained and told them i want to cancel the unlimited plan and just have the standard line rental. The man on the phone, who could not speak English very well and didn't seem to be listening to me said, right, you want to cancel your line rental with us then? I said, no, i want to cancel the anytime call plan, all i want is the standard line rental with no extras, just the line rental. He said ok and he had done that for me.

I wasnt confident that everything was sorted out though after those two rather strange phone calls with the BT staff, so the next day, i phoned back and just asked them to tell me what package they have me on. They said just the line rental, so after confirming that again with them, i was happy.

Three days later, i receved a bill for £235.62! £1.01 usage charges, -£0.10 discount £43.16 rental charges, £209.55 cancellation charge, -£18.50 direct debit payment that i had no idea about.

This is when it all started. I'll cut it short, as this would go on too long.

Phoned up to explain what happened above. They told me the charge would be removed from my bill. Phoned back again next day to check it had been removed. It wasnt removed.

I was to told by trading standards to ask BT for, under the freedom of information act, the first telephone transcript (recording) to be sent to me.

My Husband phone BT and explianed everything to them AGAIN and said either remove the charge from our bill, or send the telephone trascript of the first phone call from me. The man said he has now removed the charge and as a good will gesture, will credit our account with £15.

Still not trusting them, i phoned back the next day and without tellingthe story, i just asked what me bill was at the moment. £235.12 i was told. Here we go again!

My Husband took the phone off me and told the man to remove the charge right now. The man said he can not do that from were he is, so my Husband just said, ok, under the freedom of information act, send me the telephone transcript of the first phone conversation right away. The man said, can you hold the line for a few minutes and went off. He came back on the phone and said, i'm removing the charge for you right now and my Husband said he could hear the man typing. The man gave my Husband a reference number for the charge removal.

Still not trusting them i phoned back two days later again, to ask what my bill was at the moment. £10 the woman said and she went on to say i see here you have had a charge of £209.55 removed. GREAT! IT WAS OVER AT LAST!!!

My Husband and i were so relieved it was all over and said we could not believe the stress we went through with BT just to get line rental with them.

A month went by when i was paying for some shopping at the counter when my card was declined. I couldnt understand it, as i knew we had money in the bank. I left the shopping and went home to check our account online. BT had taken £220.12 from our bank and left us overdrawn!

When my Husband got home from work, he was absolutely fuming. He was waiting in a que on the phone to BT for agaes, all the time, he was pasing up and down the garden on the phone. When he got through to billing, he said BT have stolen all our money from our bank account and i want it back NOW! He then said, before i go any further, can i ask what this reference number means and he read out the removed charge reference number he was given almost a month ago. The man said that reference number is not valid, so my Husband said, OK, so you are giving blag reference numbers out too now are you, i'll have every telephone transcript sent to me please and i will take this to court. The man then said, oh, he has found what the reference number is for now and said its a £209.55 charge thats been removed. So WHY has it been taken out of my bank then? My Husband asked. My Husband can't even remember what the mans reply was, as it was so much bull! To cut the phone call story short, my Husband told the man they had better have that money back in our bank SOON. The man said it will be back in within the next few days.

More LIES! As when i phoned back the next day to make sure the payment had been sent, i was told in these words: "Its waiting for approval and will take ten days, Nothing is instant" he said. My Husband got on the phone to them again and told them we need that money back now.

I phoned again the next day and a lady told me, "Its all sorted out and its been approved. The money has been creited to your BT account". NO WAY i said, i want that money back in my bank! She put me on hold for a while and then came back and said its on itsway to our bank and will be there in a few days. That was yesterday, so lets see what happens.

Sorry to go on for so long, but i had to tell the full story. BT are crooks in my opinion. I believe that the staff are trained to try and rip people off and the lady in the first phone call knew what would happen.

My Husband and i are only in our 30's, but we just feel so drained and tired after our ongoing battle with BT. £209 is a lot of money to us, as we have three kids to provide for . BT are nothing but organised, faceless thieves.

Sam.

Seriously annoyed! 3 years ago

Copy of letter sent to BT 7 July 2008

I was contacted in April by a BT Cold caller informing me that it would beneficial for me to leave Tesco Home Phone and return to BT. I was informed that my telephone bill be less, and so encouraged by this thought of saving money I switched.

I have since discovered that my phone bill has increased considerably. I rang the BT customer services department and declared that I had been tricked into swapping my telephone company. I informed them I would like to leave BT and was told that if I do so before 12 months I would incur a charge of £140.00. This is unacceptable.

I wish to be released from this fraudulent contract immediately with no charge to myself incurred.

I expect a response within the next seven days and hope that this can be resolved without delay, and without my complaining to the Ombudsman.

Sincerely disappointed.

Mrs C Harrop 3 years ago

I have tried and tried to transfer my line rental from B.T. to Tiscali. They both seem to be blaming each other for this. In the meantime i'm paying for two lots of line rental and calls. I am absolutely frustrated and fed up with both of them, as i seem to be getting nowhere whatever i do. If the matter isn't resolved soon, i'm swithching to another ISP.

Spaniel 3 years ago

After 3 months, and nearly 50 hours on the phone, complaining about everything from incorrect billing to service disruption, I complained to OFCOM, and lo and behold, I got a phone call 2 days later from a customer service manager! But it was still a case of too little too late, as BT had disconnected my broadband, losing me around £1000 worth of business. I have now requested a contract with Virgin Media instead, they're by no means faultless, but they're a damn sight better than BT! And the manager I spoke with ADMITTED that BT have no handle on the situation at the moment, and haven't had for about 7-8 months now! For anyone banging their head against a brick wall with their foreign call centres, here is the managers number that I got my hands on. If she asks where you got it, keep schtum! 07918880797

Samuel 3 years ago

Taking BT landline and broadband was the biggest mistake of my life. First BT put a new line in my house and charged me £150 while there was already a line in the house and started charging me for 2 landlines and when i received the bills for 2 lines i spoke to hundreds of advisors and called them for almost a week, every day, first everyone refused to help and the worst thing is that every other advisor tell you a different story and nobody tries to help you... but finally i made them realised the its BT's mistake and then i got rid of the other line got my bill waived but my £150 for the new line is gone and now i've moved the house and they want me to pay another £125.....

They never listen to you and even if its BT's mistake they still charge you for it.

Worst experience of my life.

Never take BT services.

Totally Disgusted 3 years ago

In April 2008 I paid £100 to put my account in credit by £52 in order to ensure continuity of service as I was changing jobs and pay dates, unfortunately I did so against an incorrect account number - my money has fallen into a void.

One week later I received an unpaid bill reminder - I checked my payment and at this point realised my error, I telephoned BT immediately & passed all information on to them. BT (India) said that they would transfer the payment within 7-10 working days. Fair enough, that didnt seem too bad - particularly as it was my error - BUT - 12 Weeks on, 22 Phone calls later, 2 letters requesting refund, followed by 3 formal written complaints made through thier complaint system and still no transfer or refund, service disconnected and reconnected in June 2008, this is to happen again shortly as I am still receiving payment demands for the April Account. I shall be commencing court proceedings against BT this week in order to obtain a refund of monies that it appears they are incapable of transfering to the correct account. If and when judgement is made in my favour and still no refund + costs + interest is paid to me within the relevant time frame, I shall then not hesitate taking further action - ie - sending the baliffs in. A course of action that many could legitimately consider.

A shambolic service all round, faulty equipment provided, hiddeously slow broadband - wrong telephone number provided by BT on paper vs actual, endless telephone calls asking for correct spelling of my name which incidentally remains incorrect - This shambolic service appears to be provided by what are in my opinion incompetent staff that are incapable of recording anything thats been discussed nor are they capable of following up to ensure the relevant action is made.

Finally a tip for complainents from the UK - its been my experience that if you call between 9 - 10 a.m. you get through to people within the UK - but again based on my experience - you wont be allowed to speak to thier accounts department.

I am advised by BT's Indian Call Centre Operatives that speaking to anyone in the UK within BT is "NO LONGER POSSIBLE." - given that thier customers are unable to to do so is it right that they still carry the name "BRITISH" Telecom?

W. Duncan 3 years ago

I have been a bt customer from the 1st of may this year what a joke l have sat on the phone to bt for 6 hours now and still going past from piller to post and still on hold what its about l get my line rental and broadband from B.T. and was told l can pay the two every mouth with a DD. it was set up for that payment plan now to find out that B.T. did not set it up and now l sit with a £124.00 bill for broadband when l pay £43.00 a month for a phone and thats with out calls. What was suppose to start off with a 43.00 a month line rental and broadband payment has just ended up bein a total nightmare for me.With bts estimates i should be paying £83.00 a month for broadband option3 and line rental without calls. WHAT A JOKE.

Andy 3 years ago

Where to start?!

In the 1st instance I requested for this line to be cancelled when I moved house in December 07! After finding out this would cost well over £150 I decided it best to keep the line for the minimum term, as this would work out cheaper! I did however ask a representative to place a bar on the phone to make sure no-one could use it, to which they agreed!( I have later been told that I would have to do this from the phone line itself- I was not told this, as I would have explained that I didn’t live at the property so that was impossible to do!!)

After 3 or 4 months (April I think) I realised that the bar had not been put on!! After much arguing and an extremely long conversations with at least two different people, I was eventually told that if I paid an extra £45, I think, on top of the last bill I had been charged for, then this would take it up to the amount to cancel the line, and that would be the end of it!! I very reluctantly paid this (which was obviously on top of all the charges which had been made by someone else… as I wasn’t living in that property)!The full amount we had agreed was debited from my account, so I obviously assumed that my account had been cancelled as promised!

In May I realised that I was STILL being charged and had to phone you again, they said this would be sorted and I would receive all my money back since my last conversation!! However in June I was charged AGAIN- I phoned back yet again to complain and after a long argument (even though last time it had all been agreed) they promised to give me back the last two months and I would receive a final bill with a refund on!! On this occasion I had to phone back three times, as the first time they needed more information, so I had to dig out an old bill, and the second time someone put the phone down on me- I’m 100% sure this was on purpose!

Now in July, I have been debited £11.20 from my account…the third time since I was assured my account was cancelled!!!! I am DISGUSTED that I have had to continuously phone up every month for the last 3 months to re-discuss an issue, which had been promised to be sorted!! I cannot understand how this has not been rectified?! I was angry enough at having to pay extra money in the first place to cancel the line, when I had been charged at least 4 months of someone else’s phone charges from a property I don’t live in any more, when I had originally requested a bar to be put on the phone!! To then be told it was sorted, and be charged 3 more months of line rental is utterly shocking! Ive found it very hard not to raise my voice on the phone when discussing the problem, as it never seems to be fixed, so I am now writing this letter!! I can 100% say this has been the most terrible service I have EVER received, and I would love for someone to be able to step forward and deal with this issue properly- a refund of the last 3 months charges would obviously be the very minimum I would expect for the terrible way in which I have been treated as a customer!! Taking money from my account when you should have been crediting it seems ludicrous to me!!

If the issue had have been dealt with properly, I still may have continued to use BT in the future- I now find this extremely unlikely! I would appreciate a very quick response to this letter, and unlike the last 3 times, I do not expect to have to wait for another bill to be processed before I receive a refund!

Please please please would somebody deal with this properly?!

Andrew Marshall

Charlie 3 years ago

All I wanted was some information. I was in two minds as to whether I should choose a business or residential line & business or residential broadband service from BT.

My local area is not local loop unbundled, so I don't have many cheaper options.

After being passed to 6 different departments and after half an hour of time on my mobile I've given up. I am no closer to anything that even resembles an answer. If BT can't even get the pre-sales right it doesn't inspire much faith that the service will be any good either. More importantly it shows a glimpse of what customer service is going to be like, as they were one of the 6 departments that I spoke to.

I'm so frustated by the way the guy in the business sales section passed me off without even finding out what full enquirey was, that I think its made my descision to pick another vendor for both at any cost.

0/10 BT...

Kal 3 years ago

I have a bt e-shop, what a joke. My online business began in September 2007 & from the very beginning BT have literally caused my business to crumble. I have experienced so many problems with BT and the e-shop that it would take up the full length of this page to list them all, so I will save the space. The biggest problem however, is the customer service at BT. If you are running a business you should not expect to wait for hours, days, weeks, months at a time for problems directly caused by BT to be addressed and resolved. I waited 5 months for a response from BT when I first began to experience problems,thats the first 5 months of me trying to get my new business off the ground! I made dozens of phone calls to BT Helpdesk, Technical Helpdesk, sent emails, eventually ended up writing a complaint letter which was ignored, conacted Trading Standards, Oftel, wrote another complaint letter, gave them time to reply, heard nothing for 5 month.When I finally got a call out the blue to see how I was getting on with my e-shop the staff member was unaware of all the problems and the ongoing issues and promised to get back to me asap-he didn't and I ended up contacting staff at the Chairmans office (i got the number off someone else who had big problems with BT). The staff member at the CO listened to my concerns but they still have not been resolved. My website is contantly unavailable, often for 1-2 days at a time. I can't get into my administration pages to check for new orders or make changes to my website when this happens so my customers end up suffering as a result which makes ME look uncapable and stupid when its actually BT who are the root cause of it all. I can't afford to pay another company to design and host my website now, I put everything I had into this- all my savings.My company sells fashion items so I had to put alot of my stock onto ebay to shift it (for much less than it was worth). Until I get compensated (one can dream) or the problems are resolved my business will almost cease to exist. So, anyone thinking of using the bt e-shop- save yourself from the sheer stress and disapointment & go with another company. BT don't know anything about running a business, obviously.

Paul Hughes 3 years ago

On 30th May 2008, we moved into our new house. The telephone line was active, and so as soon as contracts were completed on the sale of the house, I telephoned BT to open a new account.

After choosing the “Unlimited Evening Weekend Plan with Renewable Contract” and giving my Direct Debit details, a quick credit check was carried out, and after approval, I was informed that as this was a straight-forward take over. The line would be active on 3rd June.

On the 4th June, the line was still not active, so I contacted BT Customer Support to enquire as to why the line was not active. And so started my nightmare experience of the labyrinthine BT Customer Support service. Over a period of eight days, I contacted BT seven times totalling a duration of 35 minutes using my mobile phone to try and get the issue resolved. Each time I was directed from department to department, from one geographical location to another and, put on hold for several minutes and gave my bank details once again. In one instance after being put on hold for ten minutes, I was redirected to department that had closed for the evening.

These are some of the reasons I was given why the line was not yet active:

-There is a fault on the line (impossible, as it was working perfectly for the previous occupants of the house – as we contacted them on the line)

-The order is Open and Validated, but not progressing (?)

-BT is waiting for OpenReach to connect the line.

-OpenReach have no record of the order.

-I need to pay £25 deposit before the line is active, as no credit check has been done!

Basically, it seems as if my order had “stuck” and no-one understood why this was happening. During daily telephone calls, several BT Support staff were deeply apologetic regarding my case and offered to “take charge of my case personally and phone me back”. Usually, that was the last I heard from them. When I contacted BT Customer Support and asked to speak to one of these members of staff, I was usually told that they were “in a different office”.

By now I was absolutely fed up. I’m a very patient person, but trying to get a basic service was driving me to despair. After demanding to speak to a manager a number of times (and being put on hold for several minutes at a time), I finally spoke a manager. She did phone me back – once – with no resolution.

After trying again on 10th June, the staff member I spoke to again informed me that she did not understand why the order was “Open and Validated, but not progressing”. She said that the best thing to do would be to cancel the order and create a new one.

When this was done, she informed me that straight away, she could see a number of items on the order that was not present on the old one. I was informed that she could not set up the account with the Direct Debit details I had provided with my original order, but that the account would be set up as a “cash and cheque” account. I was advised to contact BT again to set up my direct debit details when the line was active on 12th June.

Sure enough, the line was activated on 12th June, so the first thing I did was to supply my Direct Debit details - again. My bank details were duly noted and I so I was satisfied that the problem was now resolved.

A few weeks later, I received a bill for £40.43. I ignored this, as my Direct Debit had been set up. On 28th June, I received a reminder for the outstanding amount. I telephoned BT Customer Support, and the staff member informed me that she could see my Direct Debit details against my account and to ignore the reminder.

Today, I tried to make a call and was directed to BT Billing where I was informed by a pre-recorded message that my service was now restricted due to non-payment of the overdue amount!

This didn’t come as any surprise, as it seems that to provide me with a basic telephone line has been beyond the capability of BT.

BT Billing had me put on hold for several minutes again while they attempted to contact a manager. I was on hold for so long, I hung up.

Eventually, I got through to a manager who informed me that my Direct Debit details were in fact present, but the last person who had entered these details against the system had not activated them. I have been informed that the restrictions will be lifted from line by tomorrow afternoon, but given my previous experience with BT, I’ll believe it when it happens.

The incompetence of the company astounds me.

All I want is a basic telephone service – something that the GPO could have provided me with much quicker forty years ago.

When contacting BT Customer Service, as a customer I felt that I was down a ravine crying desperately for help. In a nutshell, it’s diabolical. After negotiating several automated options, I was redirected to several centres at a time. I’m sad to say that I couldn’t actually understand many of the staff I spoke to in the Indian call centres – not because of their accents, but because the volume of their voice was painfully low. Again, I had to hang up and try telephoning again.

I was also incredibly frustrated that many staff did not know why my order had “hung”, and so I was again re-directed to other departments. My wife even resorted to calling the Welsh language customer support line as her first language is Welsh. They couldn’t understand what the problem was with the order – so she was re-directed to an Indian centre.

The final straw is having the line restricted due to non-payment when my bank details had been supplied three times.

Unfortunately, I am now locked into a contract for twelve months with BT. You can be sure that I will not remain with BT one day longer than is legally necessary.

total cock-up! 3 years ago

After so much hassle and aggrovation from BT, in march this year my husband and I decided that enough was enough and we would switch servicce providers to go with AOL! Simple eh - NOT AT ALL!

The ORIGINAL reason we decided to swap was the usual c**p service we received, plus the fact that they'd cocked up on direct debits to the sum of something like £500. Anyway. after a lengthy in-depth investigation by BT, thney agreed they'd made "errors" and would clear our account, leaving us owing NOTHING which would thus enable us to switch providers.

We jumped at the chance, but low and behold, 4 days intoi our NEW contract with AOL BT, in their infinite wisdom, seized the line! MY husband called BT and after much shouting and cursing we discovered it was infact in "INTERNAL ERROR" and they would restore the service asap! 6 weeks later we were able to make calls, receive calls and use the internet - safe in the knowledge these were ALL being supplied by AOL!

Imagine my complete FRUSTRATION then when only 4 months into a NEW account with BT for LINE RENTAL ONLY the pillocks have taken upon themselves to RESTEICT MY LINE! Can NO-ONE at BT understand simple instructions - LINE RENTAL ONLY! Apparently, un-beknown to my Husband and I, BT were still charging us for our calls until May this year - HOW THE HELL did that happen when we switched Service providers back in March???

So, dur to NOT being able to contact BT because THEY BLOCKED ALL CALLS I couldn'tphone them (OBVIOUSLY) from the house phone so I've currently used about £50 phone credit - and got nowhere! I've emailed them using the "COMPLAIN" link on their website - and got NOWHERE!

Feeling I have no further choice, I've sent the CEO of BT an email informing him of my - how shall I put this - FRUSTRATION at the recent events, and am now waiting for a response!

WILL IT EVER END - ALL I WANTED WAS A FLIPPING LAND LINE!

Norman Dowe 3 years ago

Hello I have complained Several Times, It all Started when I moved House from 83 Foxburrow Road Norwich NR78QX To Herbert Nursey Close Norwich NR86BT I had to change as I was with Virgin and no Cable at Herbert Nursey Close, This was in April, I went for BT Phone a Broadband, and it has been a Total Nightmare, I and Members of my Family have spent over 30 hrs wasted on Phone, the final staw when talking to call Centre a BT helper asked if he could take over my computer to solve the Broadband Problem, I said yes Next Morning I had lost all My Microsoft Programes, It cost me £234 for a New Windows CD, Last week end at last BT sent an engineer round to check the Line, I had asked all along to get the line checked and after he Left I had The Green Light on my Hub, after a few hic ups it has been Green for 72 Hrs, Great My broad band account is 3761 9849. But I can never forget all the wasted time listening to Music and the Same cnversation for 30 plus Hours,And the Hassle a Cost of losing My programes, But at moment Fingers crossed all is well. But Please DO not charge me any Broadband time untill after 15th July

3 Foxburrow

Julia Banks 3 years ago

I moved property in January and signed up online to a joint (or so I thought) Broadband and Talk package, for which I set up a Direct Debit of £32 a month.

Things were a bit chaotic for a number of months with decorating etc and I got a bit behind on checking my post so was concerned enough, when I opened an overdue bill reminder for £58.47 in April, to simply pay it straight away - via BT's automated phone system.

I thought no more of it until a couple of weeks ago when I received a Termination Notice from BT saying that I still owed them the £58.47, plus £12 late payment fees AND an additional £45.93 in new charges. It was only when I started going through my bank statements to locate the £58.47 payment I knew I'd made that I thought "Hang on then, if I owe all this money what's happened to the £32 a month I'm paying by Direct Debit?".

I tried going online to check my account, only to discover that their IT Team had deleted my account. I had received an email advising this, but had naively assumed it related to my previous property only. So then I tried calling BT's "Customer Service" team, but after being on hold for 30 mins I was told by the gentleman in India that they were having technical difficulties, were unable to access my account so I "should" call back in 2 hours.

So I sent an email to their complaints team . . .and I have now sent three emails to their complaints team. Each time I get a different response from a different person in India, none of which appear to have bothered checking any of the facts or reading the history of emails.

But reading between the lines it appears BT have split my account in two, so my £32 a month is paying line rental and calls only - as I rarely use the phone during the week I am assuming that that account must therefore be in credit, but I can't check that without the online account and the CS people seem incapable of providing me with a paper statement. The account I am being billed on is therefore for my broadband only, and they appear to have lost the £58.47 I have already paid on that.

I am therefore refusing to pay them another penny until they can clarify exactly what has happened to all the money I have already paid them, and how the balance of both accounts actually stands. I wonder what will come first - hell freezing over or the baliffs??

Rosieb 3 years ago

My husband is a caretaker in a primary school and we live in the school house. We have always had our own personal residential bt line totally separate from the school and are billed as residential customers. At present the school is being rennovated and the school is a building site. In May the phone line went dead and i contacted the site manager, not us they said. I phoned to report the fault and an engineer called the next day. Not you he said and went straight to the school/building site where my line had been cut off. He also wrote a report explaining the cause of the fault and that it was not my responsiblity.

One week later I was billed for £316.20p for the visit.

No need to say I was passed from one BT department to the other when I phoned to complain. I then contacted the local council who accepted total responsibility for the line being cut, (although they couldn't understand why a private residential line was connected through the school building). Meanwhile I continued to receive billing for the above ammount from bt, even though they had been contacted by the council to say it was their responsibility. Bt even told them that I had accepted their decision and would pay.

An explanation was sent to me by BT stating that since I had phoned about the fault and since "the fault is not within our network.. the payment is now due". Even though they had been informed that a third party was resposible for the fault, that the third party were willing to pay the totally ridiculous charges £99.00 +VAT for a callout and £85 per hour+VAT, they persisted in harrassing and threatening us for payment.

Yesterday the whole process started again when my phone-line was once again cut by the builders-who again denied responsibility and I had to report the fault. Again the engineer came out and traced the fault to the school building and no doubt I will be billed for it despite the engineers report that "the fault was not with my equipment " and indeed does lie within their network, for installing my residential phoneline in a business premises that is now a building site and will be until Feb 2009. How many call outs will I have to make by then?. Another nice little money maker for BT., but not at my expense. They have already priced themselves out of my market with their 3 month advance line rental and broadband charges introduced with no advance notice whatsoever. As pensioners on a fixed income we have no way of paying these charges in advance. Do they give a rebate when the internet and phone line is down due to a fault in the line? No way; they make the customer pay to get it fixed.

PEOPLE POWER is long overdue to combat the abuses in customer service practiced by this arrogant and greedy corporation. Pass the HBP pills. Bt is as a big a health risk as smoking.

Arthur Noble 3 years ago

I have tried in vain to contact BT about the following and thought you might be able to take the matter up for me. Thank you for all you are doing to expose BT's pathetically awful customer "service" (!!!):

Re: [I have deleted my phone number and account number for security reasons: both were quoted in the original text which it was impossible to send to BT]

One of your salespersons recently contacted me with an offer of Total Broadband. I explained to her that I already had BT Broadband and above all that under no circumstances did I want to change my Netgear router to a BT hub. She then offered me a freeview box for a one-off payment of £30 and assured me that I would not need to change my router. Imagine my surprise when in addition to the freeview box two other packages arrived, including a BT hub. I phoned your helpline and was told by a very helpful young man called [name deleted for security reasons but retained in text to BT] that the freeview box had to be used in conjunction with the hub and that I would have to change my router after all. I then realised that the salesperson had therefore misled me with the assurance that I could continue to use my present router. Furthermore, Mr […] told me that if I did not use the hub within four weeks, BT would consider it a breach of contract! I therefore decided to cancel the offer and have the equipment collect, but was told that my £30 could not be refunded. This is scandalous! I was misled in the first place by the salesperson, who fully understood that I did not want to change my router to a BT hub and who said that the freeview box could be used independently. Moreover, she did not inform me that the freeview box would not work with an indoor aerial. (I am in direct line with the transmitters and no not need an outdoor aerial.) This is disgraceful practice and I demand that my £30 be refunded as I was doubly misled. Kindly see that it is credited to my BT account, failing which I shall be obliged to take the matter up with BBC Watchdog.

I have made it quite clear that I wish to continue with my present broadband contract with BT and do not wish to change to the offer which you recently made.

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Arthur Noble.

Arthur Noble 3 years ago

Further to my last blog: BT was to send a courier today (Friday July 18th, 2008) to collect the wrongly sent equipment. They asked me to be at home all day. NOBODY CAME! Utterly pathetic! I had to get a label sent from BT HQ in Belfast and will have to wrap up the equipment and personally bring it to my local PO in Holywood for return to BT. Is BT totally inept, delinquent, retarded... or what?!

Totally Disgusted 3 years ago

UPDATE TO MY PREVIOUS POST (SEE ABOVE)

I received two bills this week, ARGHHH WITS END!!!!!!!! The bills total £248 - These should have been £108 in total less the £100 payment on account - currently sitting in a void, not refunded or transferred to the correct account (Court Acton for Recovery Pending.) Although as to why I was receiving two accounts was a mystery to me - why is my broadband bill for £170.11 when it should be £108 (less payment on account £100) Yet again I am forced to waste my time being passed from one operator to another for a total of 3hr 45mins only ultimately to be disconnected due to the length of time I was holding - either that or disconnected intentionally as I would not let the matter rest without some sort of assurance towards resolution of this ongoing hiddeous scenario.

It seems that I have been charged for the disconnection against my landline I account which should never have been carried out at all had the payment on acount been correctly allocated to my account as promised a zillion times! However JOY!!!! I actually got to speak to a rational, competent member of staff, (If you are calling BT regarding your landline account on ask for Christopher Leckie - he should be honoured and recognised as an asset to BT - as employees of his calibre are obviously a rareity.) Disconnection charge duly credited, 1 months free line rental too. Reducing the now extortionate account(s) to a total of £206. I explained to Christopher that I had been told that my BT Package ordered & installed in April 08 would be £36 pcm and would include all telephone calls and all broadband fees including V.A.T. and yet I was being billed for call charges of £52? He advised me that sadly he was unable to deal with the broadband side and gave me another number to ring. I duly dialled the number.

At this point my "customer service experience" with B.T. took a radical downturn to the depths of hell. I was again forced to speak to a representative that could barely understand me and I certainly had a great deal of difficulty understanding him. However, communications sufficiently understood in terms of his chastisement and total disrespect towards me. I was told that I must not tell him I had been missold a product as the broadband bill was totally correct. I argued that if that was the case the figure would not be as stated upon the document. I then insisted on speaking to a superior member of staff and surprise surprise he was unable to connect me due to the high level of calls.

Status at this point then :

Payment on account reamins in void.

Missold package.

No credit for call charges to account.

Now owing excessive monies as a result of mis-sale.

Broadband speeds ridiculously low - ethernet still not working with hub - despite investigation by techie for which I had to pay on advice from B.T who confirms the problem lies with B.T.Broadband.

Top quality service eh readers?

Apparently billed for two quarters rental as this is my first broadband bill - also not advised.

If anyone knows of a solicitor or corporate expert that could advise as to how one may get out of a contract that was obviously missold I would be most grateful to learn, as I suspect as would many that read the posts on this site, as to how a letter should be worded to B.T. in order to get out of the contract without incurring termination charges as a result of mis-sale coupled with thier total incompetence.

Please post here.

I will update if theres any change.

I remain

TOTALLY DISGUSTED.

Mike 3 years ago

BT Broadband

Went down on the 5th July and not back on until the 11th - meantime literally hours and hours on the phone to their India call centre trying to convince them the problem was at their end, every day the same 2-3 hour process with the same suggestions over and over again....

Work from home so it cost me a fortune in time and lost business and had to buy a mobile plug in broadband (which worked instantly and pretty cost effective too compared to BT)

Also lost BT home hub phone which then automatically went to 1571 answerphone which we couldn't access.

I now have my latest bill and want to seek some sort of refund on it but how on earth do you get past their automated system to speak to a human being? Managed it once and they then just told me to phone another nuumber - which of course was totally automated.

Jonny Colllinge 3 years ago

I moved into my new home at the end of April 2008 and decided to order Sky which came with a broadband package so i would need a BT line.

I phoned BT and asked for my line to be switched on, whilst on the phone the sales guy tried to sell me BT Broadband and Vision but i explained i had already ordered Sky though it was not yet installed for another week or so.

The sales guy then seen his chance to persuade me to go with BT as i could still cancel my Sky order, I was told i would get a BT phone line with unlimited evening and weekend calls, BT Broadband option 1 and a BT Vision V-Box thrown in free as a way to persuade me, and all for £17 a month for the first three months then £28 a month after.

I then mentioned that my friend (who's line i was phoning from) was on BT and he recommended BT to me but at first i was unsure after hearing of so many problems, the sales guy then said Dave (my friend) and me would receive a promotion for recommending a friend. (A weekend away each or something along those lines, which is also on the BT Home page)

This sounded a good offer so i accepted, he then told me a need to pay a £25 connection charge, which i did, and everything would be sent out and switched on for such a date.. Great.. So i stupidly thought.

Then during my order process i received a phone call from a BT Broadband adviser asking me if i would take part in a new BT Broadband service that was being tested in my area and there would be incentives for me as the line may get interrupted now and again, again i accepted as i am not a heavy Broadband user.

Three days later i received another phone call from another BT Broadband advisor telling me it was a mistake and they where sorry. Fair enough i said, mistakes happen. He did however credit my account with £20 as a good gesture.

Four days later i received my BT Voyager 220v modem, no BT Vision box nor these promotion tickets. No problem they must be on there way, i thought, so i installed my Broadband which was easy and quick to do.

The next day i phoned BT asking where my Vision V-box was, they informed me i had no order for this and i would have to pay £30 for the box, i argued my point politely that it comes with my order, no it doesn't the women said... Here we go... I then asked where these promotion tickets where for recommending a friend, again the women said that is not with my order, again politely i argued my point and got absolutely nowhere.

Next i sent in a complaint to BT via there website, about 1 hour later i received a phone call from a guy i could not understand a single word he was saying to me. After trying my hardest to understand the guy said he was from BT and was ringing regarding my complaint, ok i said and asked him some questions, to my amazement he didn't no anything about my order and could not help me he was just phoning to ask me if i was ok.. LMAO.. I said yes im fine i just want my BT order sorting out, but he could not help me.. It was like just ringing a random number for fun and asking them if there happy with life!!!

So two days later i sent in another complaint via the BT website again, the next morning i gets a call from a women who spoke perfect English and told me i would get a call in the morning about my BT Vision and the order was in place, so was the promotion.

The next day no phone call, again the next day no phone call.....

In the meantime i then gets a letter from my bank "Unable to pay BT Group plc £37 from a direct debit, there will be a £25 charge".. Now my Direct Debit account i only put money into when a bill is due and this was not a due bill, i was only with BT for 2 weeks at this point and there is already £45 credit in my BT account!! Enough to cover me 2 months @ £17 a month and i never use my house phone. So BT have tried to charge me £93.94p (as i have also received a bill through the post for £11.94p).. So in a month the £25 i paid upfront + the £20 credit for the Broadband mistake + £37 they tried to take from my account + £11.94 bill i received through the post.. = £93.94p.. Now thats a joke!!!

Anyway today i have had enough so i phoned BT to ask where my Vision box and my promotion for both me and Dave had mysteriously vanished to...

My answer:- I cannot see a BT Vision order on your account Mr Collinge but we have some great deals on at the.... I slam Phone down!!!

I want to cancel my order and please anybody reading this DO NOT SIGN UP FOR ANYTHING WITH A BT LOGO ON IT!!!

Or any company that starts with the word BRITISH!!! Cos they all suck!!! (i am British by the way)

chelsea1983 3 years ago

BT just might be the worst company on the planet. Seriously. I've done a lot of traveling, have had experience with a lot of companies, and this one just takes the cake. I have been through so much with them (thankfully, it's now all over, but it took over two months just to CANCEL an unwanted account). Now, my friend is dealing with the same awful service... he and his roommate have now taken two days off of work over a course of two weeks to stay home and wait on the engineer to come and set up the line, and twice no one has shown up - and no calls were made to explain why. Their broadband "service" is active, but since no one will show up to set it up, they are being charged for nothing.Instead of going through my entire ordeal again, I'll just post the letter I wrote to as many management e-mails as I could search out online. (I won't post the e-mail addresses here, but I will say that I finally received a prompt reply from BT through this method... even though these higher-level people weren't able to solve my problems for over a month.) --------------------------------------------------------- Dear BT Management,I am writing to document the fact that I am extremely, EXTREMELY unhappy with the "service" I have received from BT. I have already made a complaint regarding this issue by phone a few weeks ago, and was promised that someone from Customer Service would contact me soon about it, but so far I have not heard from anyone, which is really no surprise after the kinds of events I have been through with this company. I don't know who else to write, so I am sending this e-mail to the addresses which I can find, in hopes that someone will hear about what I have gone through in order to perhaps make experiences better for future customers. I apologize if you are not the appropriate party; please feel free to forward this to someone who has the responsibility of handling such issues.First, I want to say that I do not mean to be offensive to whoever is reading this - I know that you are not personally responsible for the events which I have experienced with your company. But I do think that it is important that someone at your company realizes what is going on with your customers, the sort of service that is currently provided, and the frustration level that is experienced by those who deal with your company. There are so many options for phone/broadband out there, at better prices, that you cannot continue providing this kind of service and succeed in this market. Major improvements will need to be made.I am an American MBA student, living in London for only five months. Trying to get phone and internet for my flat for that amount of time, I called BT to see if I could get a short-term contract. I was told on the phone that yes, certainly, I could have a 5-month contract. Apparently, this was not true at all, and luckily after I received the paperwork in the mail several days later, I noticed that it stated that the contract was for a 12-month period. (I don't know if the salesperson that sold me the contract was being paid by commission on number of sales made, but I greatly suspect it - can his name be looked up?) I called BT, and after about 20 minutes on hold, I was finally able to speak to a human being. Frustrated that I'd wasted a week waiting on the hardware/paperwork from BT and would delay my broadband capability even further, I explained this situation to about four different people at BT while being transferred from one person to another. Apparently, my phone line had already gone active, so I asked that it be cancelled. Your system is incredibly inefficient, regarding the fact that I had to cancel each service with a different department, and each time I was transferred, I had to explain the entire situation again, and have a different segment of the services cancelled (at one point, I was re-directed to someone after fully explaining my situation to someone else, because my account began with a "GB"?). A few times, I was transferred to people who said I shouldn't have even been transferred to them. At this point I was very angry and just wanted to cancel all of my services with BT, immediately. They transferred me to someone else who said that Customer Services would contact me about my complaints, and of course, they haven't. Thinking that everything was now solved, I called a different provider (who has turned out to be WORLDS different and actually knows how to provide customers with quality service without putting them on hold for hours) the following week to set up service. However, when they checked out my phone line, it was still active, and they said there was nothing they could do until BT cancelled the line. So I called BT again, and again spent a long time on hold just to talk to someone (please be aware that it costs me 15 pence per minute on my mobile phone, the only line I currently have, or 30 US cents per minute - I would estimate that as of now I have spent at least $50, which I do not have to spend, as a student, just on calls I have made to BT to sort these issues out). BT told me (this was Tuesday, I believe; I had called to cancel all my BT services the previous Friday) that my phone line/broadband had not been canceled at all at this point, that "they did it wrong" and that now my broadband was active too! So after talking to several more people that I was transferred to, they said that they could just give me the "migration code" to give to my new service provider, and that would solve the problem because the new company could just transfer service. So I call my new provider, and they said that in order to use the migration code, they needed to know whether a "PSTN Cease" had been placed on the line, which would apparently affect whether or not they could use the code and transfer service seamlessly. I called BT again, and again was placed on hold for a very long time in order to talk to someone. When someone finally picked up, I had to again re-explain the entire situation to her (suggestion: you should keep better records about what your customers have already been through - this saves a lot of time and a LOT of frustration on the part of your customer!! my new service provider, PlusNet, is EXCEPTIONAL at this, even e-mailing the customer every time an update to their file has been made!) The person I spoke to had no idea what a "PSTN cease" was, and I didn't get a "yes" or a "no" after asking her this question MULTIPLE times. (I do hope you have a recording of my conversations with your staff for review!) Also, they noted to me that my services have not been canceled correctly. Again. On this particular day, I would estimate that I spoke to about 10 or 15 different BT personnel, explaining my entire situation to each one of them, and spent a fortune on my mobile phone calling your company, mainly from being placed on hold listening to very bad-quality classical music. My broadband and phone service has been successfully switched to my new provider (well, we'll see if any problems arise within the next few weeks) and I thought that all of my dealings with BT were over, finally. Wrong again.Earlier this week, I received a package in the mail - the hardware for BT Broadband. The next day, I received even more hardware. I called BT, spent more time on hold, and finally spoke to someone who told me that they would ship me a bag to mail it all back in. Today I received the bag as promised - but it is not large enough to fit the hardware in! (At this point, why would I expect a bag that would actually FIT what it is supposed to?) Today I tried to call BT again to request another bag, but after 15 minutes on hold with no response, I hung up and e-mailed some "customer service" e-mail address instead, and was told that someone would get back to me in

Arthur Noble 3 years ago

The following letter to BT says it all!

Dear BT,

References: (deleted for security reasons)

Some time ago Mrs Jane Stenhouse and Mr Anthony Kidd kindly helped me with a Broadband problem, and I am now writing to you both again as a frustrated and angry BT customer in the hope that you can sort out the following fiasco which has occurred:

I am already a Broadband customer, but recently one of your salespersons contacted me with an offer of Total Broadband. I explained to this young lady that I already had BT Broadband and above all that under no circumstances did I want to change my Netgear router to a BT hub. She fully understood this. She then offered me a freeview box for a one-off payment of £30 and assured me that I would not need to change my router.

Imagine my surprise when in addition to the freeview box two other packages arrived, including a BT hub. I phoned your helpline and was told by a very helpful young man called Colin McKane (based in Dundee but from Portadown) that the freeview box had to be used in conjunction with the hub and that I would have to change my router after all. I then realised that the salesperson had misled me with the assurance that I could continue to use my present router. She had assured me that the freeview box could be used independently. Moreover, she did not inform me that the freeview box would not work with an indoor aerial. (I am in direct line with the transmitters and no not need an outdoor aerial.)

Furthermore, Mr McKane told me that if I did not use the hub within four weeks, BT would consider it a breach of contract! I therefore decided to cancel the offer and have the equipment collected, but was told that my £30 could not be refunded. This is scandalous, and when my bill dated 23 July 2008 arrived there was a charge of £76.58 plus VAT instead of the quoted £30!

I have since made 14 telephone calls to various BT numbers – all to no avail – pressing various irrelevant options and coming round in circles. Your very helpful Mr McKane revealed to me that if I pressed option 3 twice I would be immediately connected to an advisor, which did in fact happen. Why you do not explain this when clients are asked to “listen carefully”, I cannot understand: instead, people are sent round in circles and kept waiting when a direct contact with an advisor is immediately possible.

However, back to the main problem: Mr McKane was able to direct me to a person regarding the return of the equipment. This person promised to send a courier last Friday to collect the equipment, and asked me to be sure to stay at home all day, which I did. The courier never arrived! So much for BT’s efficiency and customer service! On telephoning 150 to find out why, they were at a loss to say, but said they would send me a label which I could “reverse”, stick on the equipment, and bring it to my nearest Post Office (Holywood) for return to BT. This never arrived either, but the courier did arrive on the Saturday instead of the Friday.

Now, despite the fact that I made it quite clear to BT that I wish to continue with my present broadband contract with BT and do not wish to change to the offer which you recently made, and despite the fact that BT knew that I had returned the equipment, I find a charge of £76.58 plus VAT on my current BT bill. This is quite disgraceful, and I demand that it be refunded if it is charged, or deducted if a new bill can be issued before the direct debit is applied. After all, the fault lies with BT, and I have returned the complete equipment out of sheer frustration.

I would be grateful if you could kindly sort this matter out at your earliest convenience, and I thank you in advance for your help.

I stress again that I do not now wish to change from my present broadband contract with BT and would ask you to make sure that it remains intact and unaltered.

I am sending a copy of this complaint to BBC Watchdog and will ask them to investigate the matter if it is not resolved quickly.

Thank you for taking prompt action.

Sincerely,

Arthur Noble.

Mr.Angry 3 years ago

The curse of BT Answer 1571: This has got to be the most inflexible answering service on the planet. You have absolutely no control over how it operates and the marketing ploy is that all new customers get it free, the truth of course is that the person calling gets charged for a connected call and you have to call them back.. BT wins both ways!! If you want it removed you have to contact BT and ask them, but I didn’t ask for it in the first place! Its so much better if the caller gets an engaged tone instead of being robbed yet again by BT’s unscrupulous hidden con of providing you with this 'FREE' service. My advise ring them, complain STRONGLY that you didn’t want it in the first place. And get it turned off. …. End of rant!

cuna44 3 years ago

Sent the following letter to BT will be interesting to see what they say, and if they intend to reactivate my line.

In January this year I decided to go back to BT for my line rental and calls (much to my now regret). I did this online, during this process I signed up for BT Together Option 2 with an 18 month contract. After signing up I decided I wanted to have the BT Vision. This also means I had to have the Home Hub as well. So on 3rd February I received a letter welcoming me to Option 2. On examining the Home Hub set up I would be getting the same free calls as with option 2. I called BT on 3rd February and asked to cancel my order and change to Option 1, as stated in the welcoming letter “YOU HAVE 7 DAYS TO CANCEL FROM THE DATE OF ACTIVATION”. I was told that even though I was within the 7days I could not cancel my order. But I could change from an 18 month contract to a 12 month. At no point during that conversation was I told there would be any payment needed or any penalty for doing this.

Three months later (May) I received my first bill stating I owed £256.80 One-off charge for changing from an 18 month to a 12 month contract. I phoned BT and was told this amount would be removed from my account. I phoned again two weeks later, to be told nothing had been to my account but the money would be taken off. In the mean time I received a letter of non payment. So again I phoned BT and was told the amount was being taken off my account. A week later I received a letter of termination unless I paid my bill. So again I phoned BT and again I was told not to worry as the amount was being taken off my account.

Not long after that people started telling me they could not get hold of me on my phone line. And at last I get hold of someone who is in the UK, and not in India and who do not have a clue about my account, and was able to finally sort this out. The repayment to my account would go ahead and he would lift the block put on my line, which had been on for at least a week prior to that. At no time have I had any correspondence about this. And I have been without a phone line for people to contact me, due to no fault of my own.

The phone line was working well until people started telling me they could not get hold of me again. So again I phoned BT and was told the line had been affected by BT Vision and would have to wait till the next day to contact them. The next day I called BT Vision and was told it was nothing to do with them and was transferred to technical dept who could not find anything wrong so they transferred me back to customer services who could still not tell me why I was not able to use my phone, so they transferred me to another dept who then transferred me to billing. They then told me my account has been cancelled which is why I have no phone line, and a new account has been created, also a direct debit has been set up on this new account. At no time have I been sent any information about having a new account, I do not know my new account number, also I have not requested or authorised a Direct Debit to be set up on my account, which is illegal. Again I am without a phone line due to no fault of mine.

My account shows I am £13 in credit. So what I want to know is what is happening with my account. I assume my original account of 12months is still valid, since I will be cancelling all my BT accounts in the New Year when my contract ends and go somewhere where they have a decent customer services dept.

blimeyocrisis 3 years ago

Just thought I'd share this live chat session with a BT agent with you - might already have similar postings on this thread, but really shows what a shower they are... I did try to get them to hang on, but obviously even their agents know how long i'd have been hanging on the phone!

We are now routing you to one of our chat team...

You are now connected with Nicole

Chris: I've just moved into rental which will probably be short term. Can I get services installed and then migrated across to the next property (which will be a permanent residence) free of charge when I move?

Nicole: I would love to help but am unable to because we dont currently have access to account details, we currently deal with new orders but if you call customer services, they will be happy to help. BT Customer Services are available on 0800 800 150.

Chris: this will be a new order - what will the connection fee be? I don't want to be told 124.99. I think there's a deal for 29.99 at the moment

Nicole: We only deal with Broadband, with your online order you won't be charged a connection fee.

Chris: is that for broadband only? ie, will I still be charged for the PSTN line?

Nicole: You'll be charged for line rental and line installation since you don't have a line.

Chris: but there is a line that was used by the previous tenant. Are openreach in the business of ripping everyone off by charging for a nonsensical engineering visit? This is the digital age for god's sake, everything is console based where existing infrastructure is concerned. It's all soft switching. Why are BT going back 20yrs with on site visits?

Chris: are you still there?

Nicole: I would love to help you with this but we only deal with broadband, for Line Re-Connections we require you to call 0800 055 6258 to obtain the best price for reconnecting your line. Please quote "Web Chat" when calling.

Chris: OK. Can you hang on whilst I call them?

Nicole: Once you have an active BT line you can process your online order. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Chris: Is that a 'NO' then?

Nicole: Thank you for chatting with me today. BT values your feedback. Please click the "Close" button at top right to answer a few questions about your experience with us today.

blimeyocrisis 3 years ago

Just thought I'd share this live chat session with a BT agent with you - might already have similar postings on this thread, but really shows what a shower they are... I did try to get them to hang on, but obviously even their agents know how long i'd have been hanging on the phone!

We are now routing you to one of our chat team...

You are now connected with Nicole

Chris: I've just moved into rental which will probably be short term. Can I get services installed and then migrated across to the next property (which will be a permanent residence) free of charge when I move?

Nicole: I would love to help but am unable to because we dont currently have access to account details, we currently deal with new orders but if you call customer services, they will be happy to help. BT Customer Services are available on 0800 800 150.

Chris: this will be a new order - what will the connection fee be? I don't want to be told 124.99. I think there's a deal for 29.99 at the moment

Nicole: We only deal with Broadband, with your online order you won't be charged a connection fee.

Chris: is that for broadband only? ie, will I still be charged for the PSTN line?

Nicole: You'll be charged for line rental and line installation since you don't have a line.

Chris: but there is a line that was used by the previous tenant. Are openreach in the business of ripping everyone off by charging for a nonsensical engineering visit? This is the digital age for god's sake, everything is console based where existing infrastructure is concerned. It's all soft switching. Why are BT going back 20yrs with on site visits?

Chris: are you still there?

Nicole: I would love to help you with this but we only deal with broadband, for Line Re-Connections we require you to call 0800 055 6258 to obtain the best price for reconnecting your line. Please quote "Web Chat" when calling.

Chris: OK. Can you hang on whilst I call them?

Nicole: Once you have an active BT line you can process your online order. Enjoy the rest of your day.

Chris: Is that a 'NO' then?

Nicole: Thank you for chatting with me today. BT values your feedback. Please click the "Close" button at top right to answer a few questions about your experience with us today.

Natalie 3 years ago

I set up my BT account on 26 June 2008 and was told I would have to pay £125 for an engineer to "flick a switch" at the exchange. I opted to pay this money in monthly installments and then continue to pay my bill monthly. After signing up to the BT online service to check my bill, I was shocked to see that my bill was £160 (they hadn't set it up monthly). I telephoned BT to request this be set up monthly as was initially requested. I was told I would have to clear the bill of £160 before they could do this - as I had already set this up in the first place, I refused to pay the money. I spoke with a different person who advised they had set this up to pay £35 a month each month. After another telephone call - this wasn't the case. 11 phone calls later this problem still hasn't been resolved - I have been told BT will call me back and have received no phone calls. I have now missed 2 payment dates, and am worried that the phone line will be disconnected and I will receive a black mark against my credit - all because of BTs incompetence at setting up my account correctly!

Awful service from BT.

Lyn Norman 3 years ago

We ordered 'Total Broadband' on 11 March 08 and received the 'hub' etc - tried to set up but no BB signal. Tried all the suggested resets etc and phone the 'help line' - no signal because we had a DACs line. We had advised this was a possibility when ordering but was told it would not be a problem. We have spent many hours trying to contact someone in BT who could tell us when we can expect a resolution - have spoken to numerous BT people, passed around, mostly unhelpful responses or rudeness. To date, now August, we have only be contacted by BT once to give an activation date of 25 July which has, of course, passed like all the other 'possible' dates without activation or any contact from BT. What a shambles this company is, and unfortunately a monopoly. Our neighbours are having similar problems and, on top of a non-connection to broadband, are paying a monthly charge for something they are not receiving. Still not resolved after hours on the phone to BT. Are Ofcom any use at all? We have a complaints ref number from them but they seem completely useless too. Can Watchdog shame them into some action?

Julia 3 years ago

I have had a terrible time with Bt we chose to use the Bt home moving service to move on the 25th July 2008 they cut us off three weeks earily when I rang to explain the mistake they hung up on me three times. I emailed my complaint to them, they phone to appologise and hung up on me again. I emailed them again to complain and explain how much it was costing me in mobile bills as my husband was now working away and I was still arranging my move, and as I was moving i had lots of things advertised for sell with my home number as a contact. They have not contacted me since. I have emailed them again and an still waiting for a reponse. I am now changing my service provider because they are bad.

The best was still to come they have now sent me a bill for my new address before I even moved into the house.

I was doing a home exchange through the council the lady moving into my house was told she would have to pay £124 as they were not my service provider (which of cause they are)they were caught out on their con I believe this was illegal for BT to do.

I am going to try and phone them as see if I can actually talk to someone in their complaints department wish me luck.

My advice do not use BT

Adam Simms 3 years ago

On 21 July 2008 I signed up with BT Broadband for Option 1 broadband. Within 24 hours of that order being placed I cancelled the order. Since that date I have had a "flag" placed on my phone line which does not allow me to sign up to any other ISP's until the "flag" is apparently removed. I have spoken to exactly 15 different representatives from BT since that time (spending a total of 2hrs 10mins on the phone) and have been advised on more than one occasion that the flag would be removed within 48hrs of the conversations which occurred on the 23/7, 25/7, 28/7, 30/7, 1/8, 4/8 and more recently today where the Customer Service agent argued with me (the customer) and then advised me that if I wanted to buy a BT product then she would assit me but otherwise she would not. I asked to speak to a Supervisor who was conveniently on the phone (after she placed me on hold for 2 mins) and was then told that the Supervisor would call me back within a 48 hr turnaround. I have had this once before (25/7 contact) and never received the call. It has now been 3 weeks since that date and I still CANNOT connect broadband to my home due to this "flag" of my home telephone/address. I am now led to believe that the flag is for a “duplicate order” flag which would indicate that this is a mistake on the part of BT as there was only one order ever placed. This whole affair, to date, has resulted in serious implications to my postgraduate studies and has cost me also financially, factors which I have now had to document. I am at a point of despair where I am considering legal action and public lobbying due to the negligence exhibited by BT in not removing this flag from my phone line despite the many conversations I have had with employees. This is amounting to negligent confinement of my phone line and infringement of my right to have internet access.

In all my years (and some of them dealing with very ordinary companies) I have never witnessed such ineptitude and callous disregard to customer service. If BT were the last telco on earth I would not give them my business. If anyone else out there wants to commence a class action against this corporate bully then count me in!

Gary 3 years ago

I have just been informed by BT that my line has been disconnected for non payment of my most recent bill, the 08/08/08 bill, yes thats right the one 2 days ago that i received in my mail box. Now because they have disconnected me, they are going to take 48 hours to reconnect me, and on top of that i will loose my internet connection and my inclusive calls. What a wonderful system they have, and they call other countries a third world. How can i stop them from disconnecting my internet?

kay chilvers 3 years ago

im trying to save my 82 year old mother some money on her phone bill. phoned bt customer services who said that she would save money going on to the low user scheme, I asked if they could send details so I could show my mother. Later when on line I noticed a new scheme called Basics, I phoned again. Although its supposed to be up and running I am told its not available yet and even if it was my mother would not be eligeable as she uses £4 more per quarter than the scheme states. I emailed to cmplain that 2 BT operatives told me totally different things. One said she would be eligable one told me she wouldnt. I received a phone call back telling me THEY HAD SIGNED MY MOTHER UP TO THE LIGHT USER SCHEME. I did not give them permission to do this and insisted they take her off of it until she had looked at the information BT were supposedly sending. On top of this terrible customer service, i complained about the £4.50 charge which BT brought in which is still payable even if my mother has a pre payment card therefore giving BT their money before the bill is due just as a DD does. this is disgusting and I told them so but its like talking to a brick wall, I asked that my comments be passed to someone who actually has some authority but I wont hold my breath.

singman 3 years ago

told bt i was switching to sky.bt closed my account and cancelled my phone line.sky could not then take over a line that did not exist.tried and tried to get bt to reistate the line only to be told i needed to take out 12 month contract with bt for the phoneline.

kay chilvers 3 years ago

Unfortunately Mr. Ben Verwaayen left BT in June so try this one cceo@bt.com which is where he passed my complaint to.

Marian Sanders 3 years ago

I too have had problems with BT which started in February. I had a fault on my line which I reported to BT. Two engineers came out three days later and worked on the street and this seemed to sort the line problem out, however the next day the phone wasn't working. Again I phoned BT and reported the fault, the BT advisor said he would send out an engineer, he also said there would be a charge if the problem was due to wiring within the house or if it was due to faulty phones. Two engineer's in 2 vans arrived two days later, one replaced the old style main socket and the other engineer worked on the street. The engineer told me there would be no charge as the socket is the property of BT. The next week I received a bill for £230. I phoned BT to query this charge and after about six hours I was told they would look into the matter. This went on for 3 months in which time BT cut off my phone. In this time I phoned BT 30-40 times, I sent 20 or more emails which I now know was a tatal was of time. In the end I sent an email to cceo@bt.com the next day I had a reply asking me to phone telephone number 020 7356 6666 when I phoned this number I spoke to a very nice man called Raj, within five minuets he had taken off the £230 charge and within an hour my phone was reconnected. I thought that was an end to it but my next bill BT tried to charge me for reconnection once again I phones Raj and he took the charge off there and then. I hope this will help anyone who is at the mercy of BT. I think we should all agree not to give BT any more of our hard earned cash as they are RUBBISH.

smoocher 3 years ago

ive had no phone line for six days bt cut me off i rang up bt once again asking them to recconect my phone line still waiting i think i mite ring up and complain to head off about this im not happy having no phone line for six days

Andy 3 years ago

I called on August 6th to say that one of my BT lines was not working. I had a couple of sound guesses as to the cause as I’ve become way too experienced with your company and (lack of) service having lost months of service through no fault of my own. Seems like every time you do anything locally, or God Forbid! - go up the pole opposite my house, my phones go down! If you don't believe me, check my records. You will also find refunds for lack of service and gross inconvenience well into the hundreds.

So to find out what was going on after being told by your automated fault check that I didn’t have a problem, I had to trick your damned time-waster of a phone service to get through to a real person who might put me through another real person in faults. I ended up with a lady with a script who I can only assume was an Asian, with a nice thick Asian accent. After a variety of pronunciation tries, this lady reconfirmed that the problem was at my house after having me execute one test and that I could have an engineer out at an exorbitant call out rate. I was furious by now.

Again I told her that a/ there was work going on down at the local exchange, and b/ BT is increasing my broadband speed sometime this week so either of those might be the reason that your auto-fault-finder is lying, because I definitely DID NOT have any service. But apparently I was mistaken because I know nothing and your automated tester is always correct.

I told her to forget sending an engineer out - which in my experience takes about 5 days - until I called one of the engineers that over the years spent way too many hours trying to get your service up at my house. So many, in fact, that I am now friends with some of them AND their families! So while we were on the phone discussing theory, lo and behold, it all starts working again! Nothing moved, nothing changed, nothing here anyway....

Your fault checker was wrong.

Then, I get a call from one of your voice robots checking up on me. It said that they had tested my line a few times and nothing was wrong, so was I happy? NO! You were If you are going to employ robotic voices, tortuous call sifting programs and automatic fault testers in lieu of REAL people who speak proper English (it’s a PHONE service!) constitute your so-called ‘Customer Service’, have them at least be right! BT cut me off for at least 2 hours and doesn’t even know! Hopeless!!!

So you’re asking why I’m still with BT? Because as much as we’d like to emigrate to the companies with the MUCH better deals, the way the lines work in this neighbourhood, we have no option because they are antique and you own them! I did try a couple of weeks ago to get my broadband away from you but stupidly was talked into staying with a suddenly competitive package. “Oh! You are supposed to get a call every year before renewal to discuss your plan!” Am I, heck!! No one has discussed my ‘package’ in years. Not until I was going to leave, that is.

And on that subject, I am sitting on a projected bill for the broadband line which runs from July to October where, even though my bills have gone down, you still want me to give you the difference to hold until October! Now how does that work? I have asked for a revised bill reflecting the actual usage between now and then but apparently you can’t do that??? I know you can and I suggest you do because I’m not paying a bill that doesn’t not reflect my purchase correctly. How is it right that BT holds even a pound of mine for a night when BT has not earned it, never mind 3 months? Why should BT be earning the interest on my money? Please just get me a correct bill and I will pay it.

Finally, after all this, my download speeds are supposed to have rocketed up to 6MG but nothing appears to have changed. Has the upgrade even happened yet?

So, in short,

A/ if you are going to torture us with automated systems, have automated systems that work!

B/ we are in England so get people who speak English with English accents to work on your phones so that we can understand them! Helpful gesticulations and lip reading are not possible from the other end of a phone line!

C/ Call your customers before they renew to make sure that they are getting the best deal! Don’t just say you do!

D/ Revise charges when plans are revised and correct your bills at that time! DO NOT presume that withholding someone else’s money for ANY period where the services bought do not exist is in any way acceptable! It isn’t!

And I realise this letter will change nothing because BT is too smug and fat for that, but you know that I am not alone and I will be leaving as soon as I possibly can.

In the meantime, I suggest you reissue me with a correct bill so I can pay it and forget about you all for the next 3 months.

(AH)

PS: (PEH), my mother, died in 1999. I have notified you of this any number of times but no one seems to care enough to change the name on the account. I guess that ‘s because the money keeps coming in.

TMG 3 years ago

just had a call from someone, dont know who as the number was withheld, and although it was not a malicious call (prob small kids on there parents mobile phone) I could not disconnect the call from my end, in fact when i hung up my phone my phone rang again. this call continued for some time 20-30 mins with no-one on the other end , even when unplugged my phone and plugged it back in again they are still connected, customer services/faults (when i got to a real person)tell me they can do nothing about this.And they could SELL me an additional service to help combat this problem, which i refused as this does happen but not often. Im pretty sure BT COULD make it so i could disconnect incoming calls on my end I am also sure they will not as this MUST be making BT many thousands of pounds every year, as always with BT its money first customer services second.

dean charlton 3 years ago

hello, im hoping you can help me? ive recently recieved a letter for an overdue amount of £139.33? (account number - GB 0431 2124) having cancelled my bt account and understand that the cancellation fee was around £70-75 which i had no problem with. Originally when i phoned an advisor to question this amount of £139.33 i was told i had also terminated a call plan and that id occured a charge for this? when i took the bt line on the advisor `advised` me to go with a call plan to save money on my calls in the short term as i had informed the advisor i will be closing the account within 2-4 weeks. There was no mention of a cancellation fee for the call plan! Now i have been informed that i have an extra cancellation fee to pay?? for the line and the call plan??

Like i say i have no problem with paying the cancellation fee for the line but i feel i have been forced into taking a call plan with the intention of bt gaining an extra cancellation fee from myself. I understand the advisor may have gained a bonus for this sale at the time, but its now at my expense. If i was told of a cancellation fee for the call plan then i definately would not have took the call plan.

Hopefully we can come to some understanding about this, ive been looking at several websites with respect to this matter and have found that im not the only customer to have this problem.

Thanks for your time and i await your reply

regards

Keith B 3 years ago

I have recently joined BT after moving from NTL and it is a decision that in many ways I bitterly regret. After some teething problems with the handover I was shocked at how difficult BT have made obtaining technical supported. It is almost impossible to get to speak to someone - the automatic complaint line hardly enables you to speak to a human being. I was passed from one technician to another repeating the same information ad nauseum. Several times I was passed on without any warning. It is an utter disgrace.

John Cobb 3 years ago

Hi all

I have tried to get back to BT on the 4/08 iwent on line and applied for unlimited anytime package. I heard nothing for 7 days. I contacted BT 11th August and was told no record of this transaction. I had to re apply i did this and was given an order no starting with VOL. and that i would get transfered on the 29th August. I still had no confirmation in writting from BT so again i contacted BT on the 14th and informed that my previous order was cancelled, no reason given. I was instructed re apply yet again and they would cancel the previous applications. I was informed by BT that i would have transfer by the 1st September. I contacted BT again and was told that i woul only get connected on the 3rd and not 1st. All i got from BT was appologies. THEY ARE DISGUSTING

Jamie Keeling 3 years ago

Having had problems with the Broadband a year or so earlier, i'm not suprised this has happened again.

We currently have ADSL broadband, which means we have to share it through our phone line, plugging the home phone and router cable into a filter so it works.

The internet connection will drop randomly, it can be on for a matter of minutes or a matter of seconds, maybe an hour if we're lucky. We've rang up BT around 15 times within the past week, going through line test after line test.

We were then told to rip the box off the wall and try the test socket (Which we had done a year ago when we had problems before) but we refused as we know it's not our connectons. They said we need to do it otherwise if the Engineer does come out and finds the fault is indeed the box on the wall, we get charged for it. So i was quick to explain to them that this had happened before and the engineer had checked the exchange up the road and the wiring here and concluded that the cabling is not the problem.

We explained that we've had 3 routers before this and the internet connection would still drop, even with the this found BT Homehub. We sat through more tests, being told to do the same things we had done the day before and it just felt like nothing we had said to them previously had been recorded and it was like starting from square one every phone call.

Eventually they agreed to send out another engineer who, unsuprisingly said that our cabling is perfect (It bloody ought to be after we replaced it just to make sure its not us) and that he's going to send a report off to HQ.

We checked the status earlier today and have now been told the case is closed and we are being sent a replacement BT Homehub.

This is ridiculous, hours of phonecalls and telling India that it's nothing on our side. Countless times of telling them that we've already done what they asked us and they finish everything by saying "Have a new Bt Homehub".

Any person with a brain would of realised by now that if the engineer said the cabling is fine, if the connection has dropped with any router we try and if the problem doesnt improve even when it's not at "Peak Time" (Still happens at 4am) then how on earth is another replacement going to help.

It just seems to be going around in circles and i'm just going to cancel it and go back to Virgin.

Cable broadband, always on, no fuss.

Charlotte Kirin 3 years ago

Strangely comforting to feel the frustration coming through these comments and to know I am not alone.

Early in 2007 I contacted BT to ask them to provide a call package. I gave them direct Debit details and was told I would receive written confirmation within 5 working days. I heard nothing, and couldn't get a telephone response, and so after several weeks attempted to get a service from our previous provider. But they couldn't provide a service because BT had been in touch to say that they were taking over the line. Following this the provider cut us off, but BT did not take over the provision.

We were cut off on the 16th July 2007. Between that time and November 2007 I rang countless times, spending hours on mobile and borrowed phones (discovering that hours on a mobile gives me a REALLY bad headache), being cut off, passed round in circles, told that there must be a fault with our phone. We finally got our service back on the 27th Novemeber 2007. After making a formal complaint, the money that had been deducted from our account while we had not had a service was repaid.

In May and June 2008 we started receiving bills for a number we had never had. We rang BT each time we received one of these, and each time we were told that the situation would be resolved. On the 2nd July we were cut off. Knowing how incompetent BT are this felt inevitable and deeply depressing. Many, many hours of phone calls later we were reconnected. But we have just paid a charge for the termination of that line because there was no way that we would ever trust BT to resolve the situation without us losing our phone service again. I know intend to make a formal complaint but have no confidence that this will acheive anything at all.

Of all the dismissive and unhelpful comments, probably the most astounding was when my husband was insiting that we had not asked for our service to be terminated and was told that I must have done it behind his back.

jennings 3 years ago

KEEP AWAY FROM BT.NEVER HAVE ANYTHING TO DO WITH BT.SWITCH CHANNEL WHEN BT ADVERT COMES ON.LET DOWN TYRES ON PARKED BT VANS.IF YOU SEE A HOLE WITH BT MAN DOWN IT-FILL IT IN.IF YOU SEE A BT MAN UP A TELEGRAPH POLE SET FIRE TO BOTTOM.(preferably his).IF YOU SEE MAN FROM BT ADVERT KICK HIM IN THE NUTS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

wizard99 3 years ago

Christmas 2007 i thought i would treat myself to BT broadband because i already had the phone socket on the wall and that being i was a bt customer befor i went to NTL , anyway i took out option 3 Bundle and that is broadband + phone +£30 pound for the conection which i was told.All so that i would be paying Quarterly { 3 months }. so i thought great so i took a loan and payed £100pound in advance.After christmas i was to get a very big bill with £125.oo pound for a phone conection which i thought was very wrong being that I was told that If all the wiring was in tact then there would not be any charge for the reconnection. The £125 refers to the charge if the wiring has to be reprovided. the sales team said. so i put the phone down on them being anoyed. in april thay cut my broaband + phone off and was still billing me in july. They now have put a £285.51 phone bill to Moorcroft debt collection plus their fee of £71.38 which total is £356.89p for the phone. Now for the broadband bill which is £519.50p which wescot debt collection are billing me for.A grand Total of £876.39p bill for BT which i find unreal and disgusting.

I hate BT 3 years ago

Advice

1. Never phone BT you will wait for hours and get nowhere. Immediately write to the address on the back of your bill some place in Durham sounds like Royston Vasey.

2. Immediately initiate proceedings via the small claims court using their MD as a named individual . Why put up with rubbish clean it out,

3. Any and all time taken off work can be claimed back via the Additional losses procedure. There is simply no need for you to jump through their hoops, Send them your last pay statement / 365 and request the money per day.If a business send in your P&L and do the same. No surrender they will fold.

4. I've personally gained back over £350 for a simple missed appointment. I took a day off work they couldn't be bothered to turn up as I live in a rural village.

5. OTELO are paid off hired hands and the so called independent overseer is a total incompetent quango paid off idiot. Do not waste your ink with this bunch of inbreds, the small claims is so much more fun. Watch them squirm and it costs them loads in solicitors either in house or contracted in.

GO TO SMALL CLAIMS COSTS NEXT TO NOTHING AND AVOIDS ALL THE GRIEF. ONE LETTER OF COMPLAINT NEEDS TO BE SENT, IGNORE THE GUFF THEY SEND BACK (IF ANYTHING) AND 12 WEEKS LATER YOU ARE IN THE MONEY.

FYI As soon as you threaten this they resolve the particular issue you have the next day. So take the fix and still go through with it, you will ALWAYS WIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Simon Anthony 3 years ago

I have all relevant record to cover the following:We were Cold Called to 'come back to BT' - assured calls to Iran were free. Our first bill showed they were not.We complained - after months and months we were refunded this charge. Then - because of the considerable disruption, being cut off twice despite being told we would not be - frequent incorrect or missing bills, lost details and hours of lost time we left BT.They now intend to charge us for leaving them. A One Off cancellation fee due because we broke the agreement for low cost local calls. Our argument is that BT broke the agreement by their very poor service and so can not bind us to that broken contract.They now threaten to use a debt collection service. This is theft and intimidation by the BT system.We can and will pay for what we really owe but we will fight to protect or rights.

AdrianB 3 years ago

Recently I received a bill from BT for £450 of which £435 was for fixing a fault that a BT engineer had told us was due to water entering a cable joint some distance from our house. We had three visits from BT engineers and every one assured us we would not be charged as the fault was not on our side of the master socket.

We were confident that the fault was within BT's responsibility so we logged a fault on 150. But how many people are so intimidated by BT's warning that they may be charged (£99+VAT to callout a BT engineer plus £85+VAT per hour) that they never report a genuine fault? They have good cause to be scared as we found out. My advice is to record every word of every conversation you have with BT, on the 'phone or with an engineer.

This is the second major dispute we have had with BT in less than a year. The standard of service they provide is risible while they are allowed to maintain an effective monopoly by owning and operating almost all subscribers' telephone lines, a model that may work for the electricity industry but is clearly failing fixed-line telecomms consumers.

If the collective dissatisfaction of just the bloggers on this page could be harnessed and the amount of wasted time, stress, time spent with inadequate or no service, over- and mis-charging and mis-selling could be documented, could people power (as suggested by Rosieb) bring about change? Surely there's a member of the legal profession on the wrong end of BT out there who could suggest how to take them on effectively... I for one have had enough enough of them and would readily give up my fixed telephone line but for the fact I'm dependant on it for (non-BT) broadband for my work, so I can't give my business to someone else even though I want to.

RockHard Place 3 years ago

As we know BT line reconnection costs £125, depends whether line exists is active etc

Before placing order, I call BT, they confirm on the phone that a line exists at my new address and there will be no reconnection fee.

I place order, and order broadband aswell.

First bill includes (you guessed it) £125 connection fee (despite the fact that no engineer was called, the line was just activated remotely etc etc). When I complain, they say that the person who advised me that there would be no fee was wrong, and that I need to pay it. As a special favour they say they will allow me to cancel the order without any cancellation fees.

So I can either pay 125 that I was assured I would not need to pay; or I can have no phone line. Hobson's choice, I think it's called

Yrs, stuck between rock and hard place

Miss Shek 3 years ago

I am a new customer BT and sadly it was a headache from the very beginning. I requested for the current account holders name to be switched over to mine. I was told its not a problem but the account number would change. Of course I ask one of the obvious questions and that is if the tel no would change as of course this would affect our internet connection with Tiscali. BT advised the no will stay the same and the change will be seamless from the 27th of July. 3 days after this day our tel line was dead until after the 30th. I called BT so many times during work and after work, I spoke to soooooo many BT staff of whom all made false promises and clearly didnt care of whom gave me crazy time scales to fix the issue but never did until the 2nd week. I couldnt understand why the internet was still no working then having made numerous calls yet again to BT I found out that they had changed my number!! There were times where I got cut off but no one bothered to call me back hence I was in the queue for long lengths of time and finally was told that BT will request for my old tel no back. Days later I got a call to advise that my old tel no would be given back in 3 days. 7 working days later this was completed however inbetween those days I called everyday and they kept making false promises says yes yes it will change over anytime after 8pm tonight. Such lies and unprofessionalism!By this time Tiscali detected a dead line and close our account, hence another 7-10 working days and still its now the 27th of aug and our internet is still not working!I spoke to BT customer services and she said that they would give me £15 which doesnt cover the fact that I havent used the internet since a month now plus all the inconviences. Still to this date no letter of apology from BT. I am moving property as of Nov and will be cancelling my BT account.

jen smith 3 years ago

Back last year, i was slightly late on paying BT their bill, when i did pay, they cut all my services off 2 days later. After getting on the phone to them, they said i would usually be charged £500+ pound for being disconnected within the contract time, and for reconnection, but because id already paid my bill, and wanted all services back, they said they would let me off with the charge this time.

A yr on, and a different phone number with them, all up to date in bills etc, ive just had all my services disconnected. Called them, and they tell me ive failed to pay £500+ pound for the old account, ( yes, the charge i was told i dont have to pay),Spent all day so far on the phone being passed backwards and forwards and with no luck. This means ive lost BT vision, BT broadband, and the phone. I needed my internet for studying, im so close to my exams for college, this is pathetic.

Helen Davenport 3 years ago

Something needs to be done about BT - the service they provide will cause someone to keel over and die with stress one day. It's up to us to do something about it. So glad to find this website and find I am not alone. We're all paying £125 for a terrible service and untold amount of disruption, upset and stress.

Here is a copy of a mail I just sent BT.

I moved into my property on July 23rd 2008. I immediately contacted BT to arrange my landline to be connected. The flat is a an old property that has been converted into flats and unfortunately my postcode was not on the BT database (it is on the Royal Mail Database). This resulted in a lengthy phone call to locate the postcode but, eventually (45 minutes later) the postcode was found and I was informed I would get a call back about my connection date which was projected to be the 27th August (!) Two weeks later, no call back. I rang back to enquire only to be told there was no trace of; my call, my details, or the mysterious address. Luckily I rang a call centre I believe to be based in Ireland and a very polite woman said she would ring my mobile back immediately, which she did. This time she was enable to locate the postcode (45 minutes on hold) and I was told that her manager, a Mr Leo Murphy would ring me back that afternoon. he didn't. The next day I rang again. It was my misfortune to get put through to a rude and sullen girl who; a) said it was not possible for her to ring me back as her manager had refused and b) at one point quite angrily said to me "I'M DOING THE BEST I CAN!!" this phone call took around an hour. I was informed someone would ring me with a time for installation. Two days later they did! And I was given a time, being promised that the address was all correct. I booked the afternoon off work. Two days ago I received a text message advising when the engineer would come. The address was incorrect. My heart sank. A phone call put me through to an international call centre to a man whose english was barely comprehensible. He informed me that there were now two addresses for me on the system, one that was right and one that was a little way up the road, the incorrect one. He told me the entire order would have to be raised again. After 40 minutes on my mobile I was informed that now my installation date would be September 10th and that was the only date available. I also amazingly had to pay a £25 deposit!! This had never been mentioned before. I am furious and frustrated for many many reasons that I will list here. Your company's treatment of customers is APPALLING. 1) It is not my fault that your system failed to recognise my postcode that is on the Royal Mail database 2)O800 calls from mobiles cost. A lot. Why is it ok for one call centre to return my call but refused by others; this is disgusting service. 3) Why do you have a system that takes (consistently) 40 minutes to amend a simple address error. 4)You employ people from overseas whose English is barely understandable. 5) You fail to ring people back even when promises are made 6) Orders get misplaced. 7) If an engineer was booked to come to my area tomorrow afternoon and it s YOUR mistake, why have I been given an appointment 14 days later??? What is that engineer doing now? 8) I have taken time off work - I will lose that time now. I have no landline (read intenet, but I wont be taking that with you)that is vital to my job, still. I have had to spend the best part of 5 hours on my mobile (often during working hours)to your incapable service centre. I have been charged a £25 deposit. You have the indignation to charge me £125 to connect my line. 9) At times I was left on hold for more than 10 minutes at a time; you have only one lousy classical 2 minute piece of music - sheer torture. I have no other choice but to use your company to connect my landline. I believe that you have abused this authority and treated me appallingly - websites show me that I am by no means alone. In December I complained at your appalling service when I disconnected my previous landline. I got an e-mail to say that my complaint was being processed and then; nothing. I am not going to let this complaint go unheard. I have already contacted Ofcom and am in the process of contacting Watchdog and other media. I believe that I am entitled to reimbursement; other complaints about BT that I have read about online have had their connection fee waived. You do not deserve the lions share of the telecommunications business, your service is a total and utter farce. I anticipate a hasty reply. I will endeavor with this complaint until I feel that I have received a satisfactory reimbursement and apology.I will be forwarding a copy of my mobile itemised bill as evidence (with a copy of this e-mail) to your complaints department in Durham. As soon as time allows, I will be placing my business elsewhere and will be advising everyone I know to do likewise. Your customers deserve better.

Helen Davenport.

What can we do next???

PaulaB 3 years ago

I am normally a very patient 40 year old but have been driven to tears a number of times by the incompetence of BT to not deliver even the most basic of tasks and with the hopelessness of their customer service:

- last summer we moved back to our flat in London, and arranged with BT (which took 1 hour on the phone) for a phone number and broadband. Nothing happened on the due date and when I phoned to find out what was wrong BT had cancelled the order (for some unknown reason) and failed to inform us

- my husband then tried again and we ordered a phone number and broadband

- the phone line started but the broadband didn't. After about 10 hours of frustrated phonecalls moving from one department to another, there was some problem with the designation of the line but noone knew how to change the code on the system. So we gave up and went with Virgin.

- we are now moving back to our house in Bristol and asked for the number on caller redirect to be transferred back to the restarted line. All that happened was that the caller redirect was cancelled, and the transfer order VOL didsappeared.

- so today I have tried again, and as usual after being transferred 4 times and 30 minutes on the phone I was given another VOL number and told this would happen within 48 hours - we shall see!

- I then had another argument about our refund on our caller redirect, where the customer service lady kept telling me a cheque had been issued on 7 August, and seeing as I changed the caller redirect on 18 August was obviously not true but she insisted that that was what was on the system and therefore she was correct!

Overall I have never encountered such incompetent service - the automated option system is frustrating, I often get cut off and then haven't a clue how to get back to the person who I have been through a number of people to get to in the first place!, the operators are generally nice but hopeless, their systems are complicated and each operator can only ever see a very small part which exacerbates the problem.

If I struggle with BT then I am sure there are many elderly customers who are also having major problems with the service and are powerless to get the problems fixed, and feel that this is criminal of BT.

Sam 3 years ago

Whilst agreeing with all other reader's entries regarding BT's incompetence, arrogance, systematic failures- I'd like to add HARASSMENT to the list of crimes against its customers! Having left BT within 2 weeks of being persuaded to go back- after a catelogue of appauling errors- I wrote and complained and was called by someone proporting to report into the Chief Exec. She apologised, offered me £100 compensation and agreed to waiver the cancellation charges.

How utterly naive of me to assume that the matter had been resolved! Several months later- several letters later, numerous phone calls later- despite being told that the matter had been resolved, BT now have written me to inform me that they are about to instruct a debt collection agency to recoup £265. This sum hilariously includes the £100 compensation they sent me by cheque! Meanwhile- they keep writing to me- asking me if I want to come back to BT.

Personally- I'd like to see them in court for harassment, loss of earnings, anxiety and moments when I'm sure I've been close to a heart attack. How they are allowed to keep functioning in this way is quite beyind me.

Sam 3 years ago

Whilst agreeing with all other reader's entries regarding BT's incompetence, arrogance, systematic failures- I'd like to add HARASSMENT to the list of crimes against its customers! Having left BT within 2 weeks of being persuaded to go back- after a catelogue of appauling errors- I wrote and complained and was called by someone proporting to report into the Chief Exec. She apologised, offered me £100 compensation and agreed to waiver the cancellation charges.

How utterly naive of me to assume that the matter had been resolved! Several months later- several letters later, numerous phone calls later- despite being told that the matter had been resolved, BT now have written me to inform me that they are about to instruct a debt collection agency to recoup £265. This sum hilariously includes the £100 compensation they sent me by cheque! Meanwhile- they keep writing to me- asking me if I want to come back to BT.

Personally- I'd like to see them in court for harassment, loss of earnings, anxiety and moments when I'm sure I've been close to a heart attack. How they are allowed to keep functioning in this way is quite beyind me.

Louis De Quincey 3 years ago

Hi all fellow frustrators. Dont really know where to start, not certain anyone will even read this but it wiill be good for me to get it all out. First 12 months with bt wasnt too bad at all, the worst that happened was home hub packing up and a replacement was sent out straight away, oh yes, 8 month battle trying to get money back for text messages i was being charged for even though they were included in my package, i was told every month that i called and complained it would be sorted and wouldnt happen again but it always did.My initial contract came to an end just as i was moving home and because my experience with bt wasnt really that bad i decided to go with them at my new address, of course the added incentive of free installation and vbox for bt vision if i signed a new 12 month broadband contract sealed it for me.This turned out to be a lie which i found out a month on when i called to track my order i was told by bt themselves i was LIED TO to encourage me to sign up. Not good.

The next saga in my loving relationship with bt began just a month into my new contract. I recieved a bill on the 5th and was amazed that in less than 4 weeks i had managed to run up a £77 bill, this included next months line rental but as i was concerned about the charges i was incuring i ordered call barring online. The next day i recieved and email stating that i couldnt have call barring because i didnt have a phone line with bt?They had not just cut me off they had terminated my contract because i hadnt payed my bill for one day!!!!!! calling bt from my mobile ,after an hour of holding i finally got hold of someone.We got down to it and we established that it was a massive error on bt's part, they were very sorry and would i like to order a new phone line? HELL NO, this was my oppotunity to leave bt and never look back.I said i would NOT like to order a new contract and as i had paid my bills in advance (phone and broadband) asked for my final bill to be totaled and any money owed to me be refunded.I was told this would happen. Nearly a month passed with no word from bt until two days ago (28th) i recieved a letter dated the 16th?!!! telling me my new line will be active on the 19th!!! ive tried and tried to get this resolved with no luck and today to make matters even worse i recieve my final bill that reckons i owe bt £123 for a one off charge they cant even tell me what it is for.

The battle continues....

BT is supposed to be a national institution but it is just another thing that is letting this once great country down.

Good luck everone and DONT GIVE IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Paul Carloss 3 years ago

I moved home from one flat to another in the same block and paid an extra £125 for the provelidge when the new flat already had a phone socket, I paid the £125 previously too in my previous flat too. Then BT then tried to transfer my broadband to the wrong address despite an engineer visiting the correct address to install a phone line. Because of this I was without broadband for over 2 weeks.

I have just received a broadband bill with a different account number, 6 weeks after my move. This was the first I knew of another account, I thought I was using the same one as it was still active with on-line billing. They have also not tranferred my direct debit and have sent a paper bill and charged me extra, when I was paying by direct debit, paperless. I complained and got passed to 6 different operators and was queing 6 times for 3 hours in total, one operator even said she was finding out information for me and then put me in a queue waiting for the Home Movers Team, when they answered, I asked why I was speaking to them and they where rude, unpleasant and unhelpful in every way. I eventually found out that they didn't disconnect my old account as promised 6 weeks ago and I would had been charged for this and for my new account. BT didn't cancel my old address over a week after moving and I found out while complaining about having no service, but even then it still wasn't removed from the system. Someone else who wanted BT Internet is living at my old address and if he had a Hub could he have been using my Internet under my name? If so, this is dire.

BT have now finally cancelled my old account, but now the on-line payment system is saying it's just collected payment for almost £50 from my bank without my consent as it's charged me for service at my old flat after I moved which is in error. BT say that if I want this back, I have to speak to my bank and it's takes 10 days to get it back after making a special visit to my branch. Another operator is saying it hasn't gone out and I won't know for sure until Monday. I can't afford to be without £50 when I'm on benefits and this debit wasn't authorised and isn't even on the correct date, besides I normally pay £26 a month. Another direct debit I've set-up is also due in a week for my new account. This would mean I've paid £76 for broadband for 1 month when I was without it for 2 weeks too. Since this mess up at BT, my BT email is deleted and I have no Internet phone, it's not transferred and it's a total shambles. This is extremely inconvenient as people know this phone number and Email. I can't get into any on-line BT services either and all operators are confused I have 2 accounts. I'm not supposed to be pay for service while not connected either, making it more confusing.

I've asked to speak to a manager on 4 occasions now. My accounts are totally messed up and I'm very confused. Different operators also keep telling me different stories and I haven't got a clue what's going on, but I can't even trust BT with direct debits any more if they take money without authorisation for incorrect amounts. I've written a complaint to BT and am very stressed and upset by the terrible service I've had, plus I'm waiting to see if I'm out of pocket by almost £50, if this is the case, I'm going to be very short of money until my next benefit payment. I now want compensation for the awful way I've been treated by BT.

Please see http://www.paranormal-marketing.com/2008/07/24/btm for my full journal on my complaint.

Steven Courts 3 years ago

I left BT several years ago and joined up with one of their competitors because they offered a better deal. Since that time I have been receiving calls from BT Business every few months asking if I would like to continue having my business number in the phone book. On each occassion I have patiently explained to the BT rep that this is a private number, is not a business number, never has been and never will be. I have lost count of the amount of times I and my wife have been assured that my name and number will be removed from their database but nothing happens and a few months later the next call comes asking the same questions. This, as I said, has gone on for several years and today I finally lost it. Before I returned from work my daughter took a call from a member of thepublic who wished to know what sort of kitchenware items I stock. My wife took over the call and explained to the gentleman that this was a private number etc etc. The caller, after hearing the story, was very annoyed on our behalf and made a couple of suggestions about what we should do. So when I returned from work I rang BT complaints to be told that as I was not a BT customer I would have to discuss it with my provider. I actually called the nuiscance call line and complained that I was getting nuiscance calls from BT which I'm sure didn't go down well.

At this moment I am planning to call the complaints line in the morning and if I don't get a satisfactory answer or am put through to someone who will deal with my problem at that instant then it will be the Ombudsman. I don't think I should have to wait any longer for action as this farce has gone on for long enough.

laura russell 3 years ago

I have been waiting in for 2 days for a bt engineer to come out and fix a new line to my poperty I have taken 2 days off work without pay as was told that this was definately going to happen. On complaining, I am now being told that I have to wait for a phone call from the engineers to arrange a new date and time for them to come out. Which means more time off work. This is totally unexecptable and I feel that a company of your size should know this. Having already paid the money for the new line, I feel that I am not getting the service, that I would expect off of BT. On complaning I expected the telephone operator to say that the engineer was running late, not that I would now have to wait another 2 days at least ( waiting for them to phone) and then on top of that to wait another number of days for a convenient day and time for them to come out to my property, to do the work that should have been done today, ( but to start with yesterday).

tony crisp 3 years ago

bt rang me up asking me to stay with them for another year and we would recieve £2.00 a month saving off broad band.

I explained that we only work at 1/2 a meg and bt inform us that there are no plans to improve this service.

so why am I paying the same or more money for a cr- - service.

The sales people were then offering a pr0duct that would not work on my system due to the poor rating but will they listen like hell will they.

I will change when I am certain the one I want is reliable.

Rob Winn 3 years ago

Bt: To be connected you need to enter a 12 month contract

Bt website: you can pay more per month to not be tied to a contract

Bt: Yes you can pay more and you will definitely not be in a contract

Bt bill: you are in a 12 month contract

Bt: we have to listen back to your original order to see whether you were told about the contract, we will call you back in 10 working days

...

...

3 weeks later

bt: oh? ok you wont be charged any cancellation fee

Bt letter: your final bill will be sent out within 2 weeks of your cnacellation

...

...

three weeks later: direct debit has been taken... still no final bill...

Even if they charge me the cancellation fee it's still worth moving to talk talk just to get away from the idiots at BT

Beth Abbott 3 years ago

I drafted the below to email to BT but their website keeps crashing and I can't submit it online! Typical!!

To BT:

I have recently moved house and have had problem after problem with BT and have spent more than 3hours on hold to your phoneline, much of which was before bt got around to installing my line and therefore cost me money as I had to call from a mobile phone. The first problem revolved around 2 separate people giving me false information when I phone BT helplines to enquire about moving house, mainly telling me that I needed to give no notice at all, then subsequently telling me I was going to be charged 14 days line rental for giving no notice. Then telling me it would be connected within 7 working days and there would be no connection charge (the only reason I stayed with BT) and then sending me a bill for £125 and telling me it wouldn't be connected for closer to a month. I spoke to customer services about the issue and explained that the only reason I decided to stay with BT and not go to telewest was because there was no connection fee and that it would be connected in 2 weeks and I was outraged that I had been lied to and trapped into the BT contract under false information. I spoke to Triyanka in Customer services who was able to reduce this £125 charge by 50% and remove the penalty charge of 14days line rental and said this would appear on my bill. This lady was very helpful which was the exception to the rule when talking to people from BT on the phone lines who generally just say they don't know what's gone wrong. I now have a bill for the full amount without the refund which means having to take even more time out of my day to sort out BT's mess ups. (I have now sorted this out via your website, it took half an hour out of my day on the online chat but at least it is now sorted I suppose. That is assuming it is actually sorted, but given BT's customer service track record with my account I am dubious.) In addition to the problems with the phone connection, there was a problem with the time it took to connect broadband (another TWO WEEKS after the phone i.e. SIX WEEKS after I moved), repeatedly being cut off by customer service staff, and the fact that I have lived in my new house now for TWO MONTHS and STILL do not have BT Vision because BT made ANOTHER mess up of my move and didn't order it to move and I will have to wait another TWO WEEKS for the BT vision to work. Basically every single step of the way BT have messed something up and as you can imagine I am appalled at all with the service I have received from BT. Especially given my flatmate who moved at the same time as I did was set up with phone and broadband with Telewest within 2 weeks with no problems at all. I would not recommend moving house with BT to anyone and would recommend that BT seriously look at how moves are handled to prevent other people having to go through the horrific service I have been subjected to.

Ian 3 years ago

I have recently recieved a letter from BT's Credit Management Department stating that they had applied to my credit card company for a payment of £0.34 and that the application had been returned to them.The letter went on to say that the payment request would be represented within the next few days. It further stated that if this second application failed there's no need to do anything because future credit card payments would be collected as normal on the dates that I'd agreed with them. It then said that if the payment is returned again that a fee may be added to my account and my services could be restricted without further notice.

* The actual bill was for £33.91 not £0.34!

* On receipt of the above letter I immediately called their Customer "service" number 0800 800 150 and spoke to a young lady (British I believe and in the UK!!) I explained the situation and she assured me that she would contact their credit management team and get them to call me back as a matter of urgency to explain how this error had occured - NO ONE PHONED BACK

* Thinking that all would be well I did no more, assuming that the correct amount would be taken from my credit card on their next application.

* It appears that, according to their subsequent letter, they did apply for it a few days later but this time for the correct amount £33.91 - which they said had also been refused by the card company. They went on to say that as stated in their earlier letter that if payment was refused again that outbound calls would be barred on my line.

* outbound calls were indeed barred

* I again phoned their customer service number ( this time being connected to a centre in (yes you've guessed INDIA) I got no joy out of the advisor and asked to speak to his supervisor - she was very apologetic and could only suggest that I phone the payment line and make the payment direct myself- which I did. she said she would put a priority request through to re-connect me within 4 hours.

* on making the telephone payment a recorded voice informed me that a charge would be made for re-connection. I, again phoned the customer service number, to challenge the re-connection charge. I spoke to yet another advisor (in INDIA of course) and said that I was not happy with being charged for re-connection when the problem was of their making. Eventually the advisor spoke to her supervisor and re-assured me that a re-connection charge would not be made.

* by this time I thought I'd ring my credit card company to enquire if there was any problem with the payment requests made by BT - I was informed that BT had made no such requests.

* back again to the customer service centre for the upteenth time I eventually got passed to a guy who called himself the manager. I expressed my concern that there appeared to be a problem within BT that had resulted in these non payments. He took my credit card details and gave me a strong assurance that he would speak to the necessary people within BT to ensure that there would be no further recurrence of the problem. QED !!

* Finally a few observations on BTs appalling customer service record:

1 SERVICE CENTRES IN INDIA REPRESENT NEITHER SERVICE NOR PROGRESS - THEY ARE AN OBSTICAL TO RESOLVING ANY PROBLEMS

2 IF IT WERE POSSIBLE TO PHONE DIRECTLY TO THE UK DEPARTMENT RESPONSIBLE FOR TAKING THE PAYMENT THE ISSUE COULD HAVE BEEN SORTED IN MINUTES!!

3 BT'S CREDIT MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT IS SENDING OUT DEMANDS FOR PAYMENT WITHOUT AVAILING THEMSELVES OF ALL THE FACTS - NOT VERY PROFESSIONAL OR MORE IMPORTANTLY FOR BT - NOT VERY EFFICIENT

4 THERE IS NO TELEPHONE NUMBER FOR THE CREDIT MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT.IF AND WHEN SUCH REQUESTS ARE DEEMED NECESSARY IT IS PERHAPS A GOOD IDEA THAT THE POOR UNFORTUNATE CUSTOMER IS GIVING A PLATFORM FROM WHICH TO REPLY!! - ARE BT INTERESTED IN GOOD CUSTOMER RELATIONS? ( A RHETORICAL QUESTION OF COURSE.

Danny Boy 3 years ago

I thought that I would transfer from my cable provider to Sky and unfortunately I had to get a BT phone line in the house as part of the set up. Within a few days of placing my order with BT I knew that I had made a big mistake, as everyday I received introductory letters, the latest contradicting the previous. Within a week I had been given 2 new numbers and 2 new transfer dates. Realising the mistake I was making I contacted the Customer Services Dept and cancelled my order. I then followed it up with an e mail, cancelling the order, just to be sure. I then advised my cable provider that I would not be cancelling my contract and cancelled my direct debit to BT.

Since then I have received duplicate bills and another letter advising me of a 3rd number and a 3rd transfer date. As I had doubly cancelled the order I felt certain that everything was in hand. Imagine my surprise to come home from work tonight to find that I had no telephone line. I contacted my cable provider only to be advised that BT had taken over my line and that if this was an error I had to contact BT. After being put through to various departments and being put on hold several times I eventually spoke to a guy in Aberdeen who actually understood what customer service meant and within a few minutes was able to explain that from what he could see, my order had been shambolic from day one and that he could see that it had been cancelled BEFORE BT contacted my cable provider to transfer my telephone. He admitted that it was most definitely an error by BT and that if I contacted my cable provider and requested my line be transferred back it would not be a problem. I contacted my cable provider and hopefully my telephone will be back with them tomorrow.

For such a large, profit making organisation, BT is abysmal and this latest foul up reminded me why I went over to cable in the first place. I shall be writing to the Customer Services Director and shall seek compensation, which I shall give to charity, just to hit them where it hurts, in the pocket, it might only be a few quid but if enough unhappy customers request compensation the Board at BT might just start to recognise that they need to start delivering a customer focused service.

I HATE BT 3 years ago

On 27/02/08, I upgraded to broadband (provided by another service provider), at the same time I requested that my dialup service with BT be cancelled. Shortly after, 3 March, I received a bill with advanced charges for 3 months internet dialup. (£40.82). I phoned up to again request that the service be terminated, this took a long time due to the staff on the phone not even being able to see that I had dial up in the first place let alone cancel it. I was eventually told after a couple of hours of faffing around to get a simple job done, that the service had now been terminated and that I would receive a call within one week to arrange for the refund of the £40.82. Two weeks later I had not received a call, so I phoned again. This time it took even longer to find anyone who even knew that BT still did dial-up!!!

I was told that there was no record of my previous request, and that the service still was enabled, and that I would receive a call again within a week to arrange for the return of the over charge. A fortnight later, nothing had happened, so I phoned back again to request that this be finally sorted out and to make sure that it WAS disabled. I was told that it DEFINITELY WAS DISABLED. .... Since then I have received a bill early June with internet service charges of £40.82, and after going around the whole loop again, I found my self being guaranteed that this had now been terminated and that I would receive a call within a week.... Since then NO call to refund me, and my next quarterly bill has just arrived with ANOTHER 3 months of dial up itemised on it for another £40.82.

I AM FURIOUS!! This is ridiculous. I want a service terminating and six months later I'm still trying to achieve this simple goal.

The service from BT has been disgusting!

Tim Donlon 3 years ago

Having waited 8 weeks for a new phone line I finally thought I might get somewhere when I was told a surveyor would contact me in 3 days, that was 7 days ago. I did get another call from a distant call centre asking if I accepted additional charges of £1610.00!! No thanks I just want a poxy phone line I donot want to buy BT.

Needless to say no one rang me back but I kepep e-mailing customer services.

Arwel Dewi 3 years ago

I have asked BT to change the name on my bill as the name on the bill is incorrect - I have phoned at least 10 times and have been assured that the next bill will have the correct name on it. I'm at a tether now. I may send a letter of complaint. Any ideas?

Ewan Jackson 3 years ago

I am disgusted with the latest ways of bt.I have just received my latest bill with a so called one off charge of £4.46p for caller display but was never told about this charge at anytime.Surely I have the right to told as I would have cancelled completely with bt as I will be doing very shortly.Then when I phone to ask why I am told it is not a one off charge and it will be on every bill so I have cancelled that sevice.I think you are misleading people and I will make sure they are informed unless you can come up with a proper explanation.

Patrick Nicholas 3 years ago

If BT is bad in Britain you ought to see what it's like here in Italy. We have ADSL and 2 phone lines from BT Italia for our business - the service is dreadful!!! Complaints a waste of time, the lines are often down, ADSL is slow, some of my local clients whenever they ring get a 'this telephone is inexistent' message, calls from abroad often get the same message. BT refuses to fix the problem saying that when they test the line it's OK. The fax line often crashes after one page so that clients cannot send faxes without calling us first. I could go on and on

julesmolloy 3 years ago

On the 26th August, following our house move, I order BT Broadband and BT Vision. I was told that the broadband would be delivered on 2nd September and the vision would be delivered on 12th September. The broadband did arrive on the 2nd September at my new address. However the Vision was delivered to my old address. I only found this out when telephoning BT to find out where my vision box was. They confirmed that due to their error, it was delivered to my old address on 28th August. So not only to the wrong address but I took the day off work waiting for the delivery of this item and it was delivered on a completely different day than what I was told. BT have told me that I will have to start the whole order again which will mean waiting a further two weeks for the service which was ordered 26th August. BT were not prepared to rush this order for us and after they sent me round my hat ringing different places to be told that the parcel had not been returned like BT had said, no offer of a refund of the calls made was offered either. Absolutely unacceptable. A complaint has been forwarded to BT.

Paul 3 years ago

We are moving so diligently contacted BT on the 10th September 2008 to let them know on the that we would be moving from the property and our last day there would be the 12th October 2008, all went well with that call.

Until on the 12th September 2008 we found we could not dial out or receive incoming calls - bit of a pain really as we're in the middle of arranging the move and all the people involved had our BT number to contact us on.

So we try to report the fault - interesting we are now apparently not a BT customer, and spend just over an hour on the phone before we're talking to someone who can help.

Help - well you were disconnected on the 12th September 2008 if you want to have the line for another month you'll have to sign up for another 12 months and pay a termination fee after the month - OK we explain that BT have disconnected the line early and everyone will be contacting us on that number while we are moving - just a repeat that we were disconnected on the 12th September 2008 etc this went on for a while.

After a few times around we asked to speak to a manager, which happened to be Sachit Badrinath who eventually agreed that if BT were at fault we would still only have the option of a new 12 month contract and a termination fee if we wanted the line to be terminated on our chosen date rather than the one they had chosen for us.

We're now frantically chasing around trying to notify everyone involved with our move of BT's mistake and giving them new contact details.

It's kind of interesting trying to complain about an Indian call centre when all the calls get put through to that same Indian call centre and they would appear not to have any authority to rectify BT's own mistakes.

Our new property did not have a BT line so fortunately we won't have to go through this again, although we had just paid BT another 3 months line rental so anticipating an interesting time getting a refund - although if this experience is anything to go by we'll just write it off.

Johnathan Williams 3 years ago

Firstly I rang BT and was offered a great package deal of talk, vision and broadband for £40 a month. This I was very pleased with and decided to order this product. After getting my broadband and waiting for my vision I was informed by a mate that in order to get the vision I needed to be able to get Freeview and this is something that I can't get in my area. Therefore I did not want the package deal that I was offered in the first place. When I contacted BT I was told that I would have to pay to get out of my contract, which of course I was not happy with. After speaking with a couple of people at BT one person agreed with me and said that they would cancel these products free of charge as I was not informed in the first instance that I had to be able to get Freeview. The person I spoke with assured me that everything had been cancelled and I was satisfied. I then rang back a couple of days later as my broadband was still working. I was then informed that there was no information on my account of cancellation and when I gave the name of the person that helped me from before there was no evidence of her ever looking at my account. I was quite shocked. They then assured me that the problem was then sorted and that everything had been cancelled.

I rang back again a few days later as the broadband was still active and asked to speak to a manager. The manager I spoke with listened to all of my complaints and said that she would be sending me a letter outlining these complaints. I am still waiting for this letter as this was over a week ago.

I have been shocked by the level of help that was offered to me when speaking to people at BT for the last five or six hours that I have been on the phone to them. I have been hung up on many occasions, either blatantly or when I am being passed from one department to the next. The waiting times that I have had to endure have been laughable.

When being passed from one department that is aware of my account number to a broadband department, why is it that I always get sent to the department that does not deal with GB accounts, even though the person that is passing me over knows my account number? I have lost count the amount of times this has happened.

I am still confident that this problem is not sorted as the broadband has still not been cancelled which is holding me up getting a new service from somewhere else. I do not believe that this is the last time that I will have to deal with BT as two days ago I received a letter thanking me for choosing the Anytime service for the phone, something I have never ordered. I, of course, had to ring up and ask them to cancel this. They assured me that I would not have to pay a charge for this, but to be honest I do not believe a word of what anyone says at BT.

I am also worried that in a couple of months time I am going to receive a massive bill for all of these services that I no longer want or indeed have. What a joke!

Rachel Green 3 years ago

When I bought my first house back in February I was very wary about having BT as I had heard horror stories about their customer services but being a bit niaeve I gave them a try. To be honest I had looked on the internet for an alternative but Virgin and cable were not an option so reluctantly I gave BT the benefit of the doubt. I signed up to a package and arranged payment by direct debit and eagily awaited my services. My phone line was switched on and my monthly charge was debited from my account, all was going well. I arranged for broadband and this is when the problems started. Firstly it took weeks to be delivered as the couriers were not reliable and items were been sent to my previous address. Then as the second monthly direct debit was due bto go out of my bank account I noticed my bank balance was looking very poorly so I checked it out and BT had tried to take a huge amount out of my account so I rang BT to query this and I got an apology from a boy in a call centre assuring me it would be rectified and sure enough a few days later they tried the same trick again. This time I was furious again I got an apology and an assurance it would be rectified. The following month I could not believe my eyes when not only had the direct debit not gone out of my account but I recieved a bill which was £100 more than the previous one. Again I rang BT and demanded the errors be rectified. I calculated in total I spent 5 hours on the phone to BT. In the end the lady from BT told me that I needed to pay off the huge bill before she could correct the problem. I told her that with respect I didn't feel it was my job to correct BT billing errors and the reason I wanted monthly direct debit was so I didn't recieve a huge bill. This had now gone on for 3 months so out of 4 months BT had correctly charged me once. Reluctantly I paid the bill as the lady from BT told me I was going to get disconnected. So I settle into a stress free life for 2 weeks beforemy phone line gets restricted at the weekend, so I immediately phone BT again to sort it out. Again I get an apology for their mistake, I told the call centre boy that I was not happy and wanted to speak to someone in charge and then the line went dead. So far I have had 1 delay in delivery 3 months of bill errors and a cut in service can anything else go wrong. All I want is for someone to be held accountable for the mistakes and for them to make themselves known to me so when I have a problem I can go directly to that person.

Francis 3 years ago

The first on-line application to reconnect an existing land got lost somehow. Received confirmation e-mail but they never send reference number by e-mail as promised on the web. Phoned them up and they would set everything right. 2 weeks later no news so I applied again. No confirmation number again, but a phone call a couple of days later. Nice lady gives comfirmation number and explains the cost, although she could not tell if we had to pay the reconnection fee of a ridiculous £125 or not. Since I am hard of hearing I requested a e-mail and something in writing to be sure I heard everything right. Oddly they could not provide this kind of service, although I should have received the reference number by e-mail.

A couple days later they phone again, telling that an engineer needs to come and we made an appointment. I take the morning off and waited and waited and waited, but no engineer. Then I receive a text message that I will be connected. Checking landline and yes it is working. Never received my phone number but thanks to number recognition on mobile I figured it out.

Today I received the bill and yes I have been charged £125 for reconnection fee i.e. for an engineer who never showed up. Probably somebody flicked a switch and typed in a random number and earned £125 within 5 minutes. I should charge them for my hours of waiting and waiting for nothing.

Shawn 3 years ago

Where to begin............

I missed a £14 payment from the start of my contract - my mistake I admit. No reminders were sent to me, the first I am aware is when my phone is cut off. Not happy with this. On the same day I receive 2 bills (1 red, 1 blue) with the same date (15/8/8) for the same amount (£63.04)

On 20/8/8 I phoned BT & was told I would have to pay off my terminated contract & apply for a new one. Not happy with this at all. Spoke to supervisor in the UK who said he would call me back on my mobile the next day.

21/8/8 Supervisor fails to call me back. Not happy with this.

22/8/8 Contact BT again. This time get put through to Bangalore & speak to a nice chap. He states that all I have to do is pay the £63.04 (which I do) & he will organise reconnection of my line. He states that I WILL NOT HAVE TO PAY OFF THE YEAR'S CONTRACT. Quite happy about this.

I am then put through to sales who, I presumed, restarted my service.

5 days later, phone is connected, but broadband is not. I contact BT and end up speaking to 13 different people. Bloody furious about this. Wholly unsatisfactory & incompetent. It turns out that a BRAND NEW account has been started for me with A NEW NUMBER!!!! I didn't even know what my new phone number was!!!

No broadband service was initiated so I have to start a new one. I explain to broadband sales that I have a router, but the chap states that there is a new better one available & he will send me one. I assumed this was free.

2/9/8 Receive a letter from my bank claiming overdraft charges due to a BT direct debit for £112.65. What the hell for? I still don't know and I find it way too painful to attempt phoning BT again. Did I pay for the router I didn't really need? Not happy about this.

8/8/9 Receive a final bill for £86.70 from BT for cancellation charges from my previous account, despite what I was told prior to this. Am absolutely flabbergasted as to the sheer incompetence of BT as an organisation.

Kevin 3 years ago

Well I'm currently waiting to get a refund back from Bt for a large amount of money. Basically what happened was my BT broadband contract was ending and without any knowledge or acceptance of it, a new contract was started when I didn't want one and I was about to move home. I phoned them about this spending hours of time and speaking to lots of people and they said that the new contract could be cancelled and they would waive all the charges of cancellation. That was great that it was sorted I thought. Then a couple of months later I checked my balance and a huge amount of money was missing. I went to the bank and they said it was BT that had taken it from my direct debit without my knowing about it. I phoned them again and they said it was a mistake and I should go to the bank and get an indemnity claim. I did so and the money went back into my account a couple of days later and I thought that was the end of it. No way! another couple of months later the same money was taken out of my account again. So I phoned BT again and they said sorry again but it was the system automatically taking the money out. They said it will be sorted out by them and the money will be refunded into my account. I've been phoning the last 2 weeks to ask where the hell it is. I also cancelled the direct debit for BT so they can't take anymore money. I've now just sent an email to cceo@bt.com and told them exactly what's been happening and how unhappy I am about it. I'm waiting to see if they reply.

Allan Brown 3 years ago

I was a Virgin phone and Broadband customer but decided to cut my costs by going over to Sky’s triple package. For this I needed a BT phone line.No problem you might think. I arranged for BT to come out in late August to install the line at a cost of 125 pounds. I took a day off work, and nobody arrived. When I called BT they apologised from the sub-continent and told me the installation had been cancelled. Nobody told me about this.I rescheduled the installation for September 3rd. and they did come out and they installed a line. I wanted my old number so the engineer told me I had to accept a temporary number until my old one was ported over from Virgin. He gave me a BT number to call to arrange the transfer. When I called I was told it would take 10 working days to make the changes. I had to get on to Virgin to extend my custom with them.I called BT 3 times during that 10 days to see if there was any progress on the transfer of number but was told I had to wait and that there was no way the people cresponsible for porting could be contacted. They did put in 2 requests to have them call me, which they failed to do. In addition I got a letter stating that as arranged there would be an engineer out to install a BT line on the 16th. Who arranged that one? Not me! So I had to phone BT to cancel that.Finally I got a call from BT on the 10th. working day to inform me that my request for a transfer of my old number was being dealt with and would be sorted within 11 working days! Naturally I was incandescent with rage and frustration. The operative finally admitted that ‘within’ 11 days actually meant ‘at the end of’ 11 days. I am told I should get my old number on the 2nd. October, at which point I can then contact Sky to arrange for their Broadband - after 5 working days, of course!Meanwhile, who am I paying for my phone? I agreed line rental with BT, but not phone charges, as I assumed I would be with Sky. And will BT try to bill me after I am with Sky, if I ever do get to them?I only wanted to give BT some cash and they cocked it up. This wouldn’t happen in the states, and it certainly wouldn’t happen in my business. I’m a teacher, and often my proffession is accused of not being in the real world. Real world! I would be instantly dismissed for such rank incompetence.BT are the most inept, disorganised crew I have ever ever had dealings with. They couldn’t arrange to string 2 cocoa tins together, and I wish I could turn back the clock and go with Virgin. They were more expensive, but very efficient.

Istmeet 3 years ago

Hi..My nightmare with BT started in April 08 when I moved into a new build hosue and was told I need to get BT line first of all before getting any other...installation charges were a hefty 129. First time the engineer did not turn up and my AL went a waste..but worst was that when i called to chase this, they said there had been a miscommunication b/w internal departments and so no1 was sent but I had to pay the price for their mistake. The next available appointment was after 15 days and this time Er turned up for 2 min and asked me at the door itself to check if line was working....it was but he didnt even wait for a min for me to check all my lines. When i said i wanted to check lines in other rooms, he said he is in a hurry and is responsible only for main line. When i called BT back, I was told it will cost me £300 + to get 3 other lines working. And after all that pain when i emailed to complain saying they wasted my AL, they said they will refund £10. This is how much value they put on your time but an unbelievable price for 2 min of their staff time.....anyway my ordeal which I though was over had actually just begun....My bill was 16 pound over my rental charges. On checking, I saw an 0844 no. was dialled countless times each time for 9 to 17 seconds. I complaint and have written 4-5 emails but each time a different rep gives a different response. First one said he had made checks and no. was dialled from my landline. when i insisted its only me n hubby at home and we did not dial the numbers another rep offered 10 refund but not for full amount. My nightmare continues since this same 0844 no. is already showing again under "recent usage" in my online account which means it will also show on my next bill....and I cant do anything about it...except waste my time sending them long emails or waiting in queue for hours t speak to someone......BT's customer service is the worst I have ever experienced in my life. They have the monopoly so they think they can treat their customers however they like....I am absoultely disgusted by their service.

Andy Robertson 3 years ago

Hi,

My BT experience was one of the worst that I have ever encountered with a large company.

My broadband stopped working and after 19 days of trying to get it resolved via the tech department in India I eventually got through to the UK tech department (which BT do not want you to use). The UK team sorted the problem out within a few hours.

Then I received an e mail from India stating that I needed to find a new e mail address as mine was no longer available to use with the account that I had.

Again the UK team got it sorted within 2 minutes and confirmed that the Indian tech department in their words was CRAP!

My latest saga was when I went to install a wireless router. The prompt screen asked for my user name and password? I could not remember them so phoned BT for advice and was promptly put through to...........................yep India. Again the information I wa given was all wrong, the person on the Indian side could not understand what I wanted, well after all user name and passsword are very taxing for someone in the know.................NOT!

I eventually sorted the problem with the help of friends and family!

If I wanted Indian telecom then I would have asked for it but I pay to Brithish Telecom and expect to speak to someone in the UK who has the educated knowledge to be able to understand my requirements!

Andy Robertson

K Roberts 3 years ago

We reported a telephone fault 3 days ago to BT and they made an appointment to call between 1pm and 5pm the next day.

they didnt arrive, they appologised and made a 2nd appointment for today between 8am and 1pm, it is now 12;20pm, and they have as yet still not arrived, I have just been told by their operator that they may.....still arrive, isnt that nice!!

In a nutshell,..BT is just taking the P, and so much for giving disabled people priority, god help able bodied people.

Lynda Bramley 3 years ago

I contacted BT to arrange for a telephone line as we were moving house. I was informed that the property that we were moving into was a “bronze” address and therefore an engineer would be required to put in a line at the property for which I agreed to pay £124.99 if this proved necessary. An appointment was made for the engineers to come 6th June. I advised that we would be using sky as our provider of phone, broadband and TV services so we would only require a BT line. I sent an email to BT on 2nd June to advise that we already had a line into our property and that it was working so that the engineers could be informed and not waste their time. I then received a letter detailing a monthly payment plan and terms of agreement. The monthly payment plan that we were put on was £41 per month? This was not what we had ordered. I spoke with BT 5th June to amend the order to meet our requirements. The bill was adjusted to a direct debit for line rental only. I also confirmed that we were not expecting to be charged for engineers to come on site as the line was operational and I also wrote to confirm. During July we received a bank statement showing that we had been charged £124.99 for installation. I wrote to BT again to dispute the charge. I told them that when the engineers came out we told them that the line was connected and they got back into their van and drove off. We contacted the Residential Service team again and advised them that the engineers had done nothing but they insisted that the charge should stand. We were told that there was no existing BT line into the property however the previous resident had two BT lines so they did exist. We do not understand how BT does not know which properties they have supplied services to in the past. We formally requested a refund. We heard nothing and got no refund. I contacted BT again during September via their email complaints process. They sent the following response From BT Customer Services checked the account details and confirmed that already a request has been sent to BT’s offline team wherein they tried to call 4 times however there was no-one available. A request was sent to the offline team to contact me once again. Furthermore, it is understood that there was a line at your property, however, that line was dormant for more than three months, therefore, it was ceased and BT has to appoint an engineer to visit the property and activate the line. Hence, even in case of a line present at your property there will be a connection charge of £124.99 if the line was ceased for the past 3 months. If the line had been working fine anytime in the past 3 months then there is no connection charge. I appreciate your co-operation with us and take on board all of your views and comments, please rest assured that your feedback is welcomed and appreciated. However, the connection fee has been maintained. I trust that this E-mail will have helped to provide you with the clarification needed. If you have any further query please do not hesitate to contact me again via e-mail. Thank you for contacting BT. My response I am surprised that you were unable to contact us. There is someone home most days and there were no messages left. Alternatively you should have been able to contact me at work on at least one occasion. As I wrote to your customer services, I would have expected a response by letter if you were unable to contact us. The line was active when we moved in as I reported to you dated 5th June prior to your engineers visiting. The previous occupant moved out only one month prior to us moving in so the line was not dormant. Please re-evaluate. Response from BT Customer Services thank you for your e-mail dated 19/9/08 about the connection charge for your BT Landline. I would like to inform you that the cost of provision of a standard line is £124.99 Incl. VAT. Even if BT wiring is intact within your home, full connection charges are applied. This charge is raised to cover the cost of connecting your line. The policy on charging to connect ceased lines changed from 15 August 2007. Previously, where the customer had confirmed internal wiring was intact, no connection charges were quoted. This policy was often confusing for customers. Connection charges are now raised for all line provisions of ceased lines. If you need any further support with this enquiry or any aspect of our service, please do not hesitate to contact me again and I will be happy to help you. Thank you for contacting BT. My response What do you not understand about the line was working. It was not a ceased line. There was nothing to connect. Please provide a credit. You have wasted the time of your engineers and are trying to get us to pay for this. I strongly object to this and I will take this matter further if this is not resolved. Please provide the credit to our account of £124.99 Lynda Bramley BT keep changing their reason for the charge. At least we have a line but this is theft as they have really done nothing. Who are BT accountable to? This is theft.

How do we make a complaint to this company?

Very frustrated

Lynda Bramley

Paul Anderson 3 years ago

Just thought i'd add this one.

Phoned to tell BT that we would be moving home. This was 2 weeks before we moved giving them plenty of time (or so we thought) to sort out the phone and Broadband. Was given the phone number for the new house, everything seemed to be going to plan(or so we thought again). We moved into the house and found the phone was working however discovered the number was totally different to the one in the house. The problem we really had was trying to get the broadband working. We phoned BT who had said that there was no order placed. After discovering there was a delay after the phone was working we decided to phone back in a couple of days if it still wasn't working. they said that they will give us a dial up connection to be going on with. We then received a csancellation bill form the old house. We only wanted the transfer of accounts. The bill was £178. We phoned up and were told we wouldn't have to pay(that was really good of them).I think it was cos of the way i said we wouldn't be paying.We then made a couple more phone calls to ask about the broadband. Twice we were told the order had not been placed and twice we were told at the end of these conversations that they had kindly ordered for us. The 3rd time we phoned i was so wound up that we were then told we would have to wait another 10 days for the broadband to be up and running. We now have the broadband sorted out and just received our first bill for £218 which included all the dial up internet charges , again we've phoned up and will do again cos they said we did not have to pay. From previous experience we'll phone everyday. Surely it won't take them long to charge us for complaining to them!!!!

Jolanta Pitera 3 years ago

I have a recurrent problem with BT landilne. It get started at the begining of this year, and I am BT customer for years now. I had lost dial tone and I phone up BT fault line. I was lucky this time and I was told by the advisor, the fault he recons is at the exchange and the line would be fixed up in two days. it is what happened. However the problem appeared again several months later. This time it was no that easy, because I swapped bt for talktalk for linerental. After long conversation with India in confidence the engineer will find no fault on my premises keeping in mind my previous experience, I naively arranged the bt man to visit. When he arrived he just disconnecet my phone from the socket, plugged in the analog phone he had with him, punched some numbers twice (it did not work first time) and my line was back. When I asked him what was the problem he said 'no idea!'. And or this 'service' I had to pay £99. My handset is OK, I tested it on the other bT line we have in our house and it was working fine. Therefore there was no faulty equipment. Also I use this socket solely for the phone, no other equipment plugged in. All was fine working for several weeks and bingo, one day my phone again lost dial tone. This time I decided to do some more research and see how I can and if I can test me line myself. I found instructions on bt website and also on bbc/home webpage suggesting that I could test the line by removing front plate from my nte5 socket and plug in working handset into test socket. Two working hansets did not detect any dial tone in the test socket. I was advice by some BT usergrop that it is the prove that this is the BT problem not mine. ALl so good so far. Armed in all this knowledge I rang up BT customer service and was repeatedly bullied by adviros supervisors (two of them) into inviting again bt man and checking my equipment for as they say 'line test is OK'. Now I am waiting several hours to obtain promised call back from line manager. I know that it will never happen. I did search what does it mean when the line test is done, and come up with explanation, that it simply testing my side of nte5 socket, and conclusion that no fault is found simply means that my side of nte5 is OK. That is why they probably insisted on sheking the equipment. But now i feel like fraud for lady supervisor told me that she has no other test but my words that the equpment is OK (handset). I am paying my bt bills with direct debit and I feel bit angry at the suggestions that I trying to lie. I am exhausted by all these problems. And although BT itself says that no dial tone at the test socket means no fault of mine I am still pushed to fix bt man coming up, and I am very much afraid of doing so because it can happen again, 'no idea what is the proble' and this time charge of £116 as they increased the rates. ANy suggestions will be appreciated. Should I invite the engineer and risk being charged again for possibility that my line side at the exchange is for some reason disconnected from time to time and the bt man just need to reconnect it, and to show up come to my house punch the digits and Tada! Please help. What should I do with all these mess?

Jonny 3 years ago

June 2008 i moved into my new home and ordered Sky TV with broadband, i then realized i need a BT phone line to receive my Sky broadband.And here is where the story begins................It was a nice day, the sun was shining and the time was about 2pm, i had just finished work so decided to go to my friends and have a bottle of Budweiser before phoning BT fron his BT phoneline.About 30 seconds later my drink was empty so i dialled 0800800150, after pressing a long sequence of numbers i finally got throught to a BT Salesman who said "Hello Sir how can i help you today"?, "I havn't been Knighted yet" i replied jokingly....Anyway i explained to the bloke that i needed a BT phone line for my Sky broadband. No problem he said and asked if my Sky was yet installed so i told him i had only just ordered Sky and the installation date was not for a week.He then told me that i would get a better deal if i signed up for BT broadband, phone and Vision and there would be a special offer for me.All 3 for £26 a month with free installation and equiptment, i then told the bloke my friend had mentioned BT to me and if i order online there is a recommend a friend deal so i will do it online, there is no need i will do that for you Sir, he said.So £26 a month, a bonus for me and Dave for the friend deal, free installation, free equiptment and he made me aware i could cancel my Sky order before the installation date...OK i was persuaded.. Deal!!!So 2 days later i get a phone call from the BT Broadband team asking me if i would go on trial with a new service that BT is trying out and i had been chosen to participate, i was informed my line may be interupted now and again and for this i would receive 3 months free. I agreed as im not a heavy Broadband user..The next day i got a letter with my username, password etc to set my Broadband up.The next day i got a letter with a completely different username, password on it.Turns out it was a mistake and i wouldnt be on the trial thing, no problem but where is the communication between departments of a communications company? Mind boggling and the first mess up!!Another 2 days later i receive my BT modem plugged it in put the details from the correct letter and off we go.. It works i was happy, but not for long!!Another 2 days later i thought Where is my BT Vision? so i phoned BT to find out and it turns out i havnt ordered Vision!! Yes i have i said, i was sold it by a very persuasive bloke who persuaded me to cancel Sky!!"There is no record of this sir", the girl said,but i have paid a deposit payment when i signed up and where is mine and Dave's recommend a friend deal?.. "There is no record of this sir", the girl said again!!!I was amazed!! So i sent a E-mail of complaint to BT and the reply was outrageous, they made me feel like i made it all up, i only had 1 bottle of budweiser and i have a Dave as a witness. Still they was not buying my story!!!Anyway i then gets a phone call from BT telling me my Vision order was being processed and i would get a call tomorrow about this..I didnt receive a call the next day so i phoned BT back and asked them again about my Vision!!No record of a vision order on your account Sir, Now im getting very annoyed, so the lady ordered vision for me but it would cost me a lot more than the persuasive bloke told me it would..3 days later i got my Vision box, plugged it in nothing, so i phoned BT and was told to plug it into my HomeHub!!! Whats a homehub i asked, the whit box you got with your broadband said the lady, but i got a lttle black box called a Voyager!!!The next day i gets a letter from my Bank. BTGROUPPLC attempted to take £37 from your Direct Debit account but as there was insufficient funds you will be charged £25.. Now i only use this account for direct debits and put money into it when bills are due and this was not due, i have only been with BT for a week!!!So i phoned BT and talked to a polite lady who admitted it was a mistake as my account was in credit, so i told BT i expect them to pay my bank charges.. No joy i must pay it.. What a disgrace to society!!Oh then i will order you a Homehub said the lady, that will cost £50... WHAT!!! I should be getting all this free, that very persuasive bloke told me so!!! She was having none of it!!! I have been gangbanged by all departments of BT from every angle possible.. OUCH!!I was upset... Then my broadband started playing up so i phoned BT and got nowhere because they are useless, i had given up at this point!!I decided i no longer want anything from BT except the phone line so i cancelled everything and phoned O2 to get Broadband from them.. They are Fantastic in every way and BT should learn from them!!!I then got a letter from BT demandind a final payment of £261 for my cancelled broadband so i phoned BT again and told them that a manager told me i was correct, my service was pants and i have been badly delt with from BT so he would cancel my contract.To my amazement the guy i was speaking to didnt help me at all but then said to me "you may get a phone call after this conversation, its just a survey BT are doing at the moment about customer service, please just press number 1 for all questions"... So the phone rang asking me to rate from 1 to 5... 1 being excellent 5 being really bad.. and that guy just asked me to press 1 for everything and he was useless!!! Amazing!!What a brilliant communicatins company!!So the reason for this complaint is today was the final straw.. Last week i was at a family funeral and had booked a week away after the funeral.Before i set off i phoned BT to ask about my BT answer and how many messages it could hold i was expecting some very ipmortant phone calls and was going to be away for a week.The women said to me not to worry it can hold a lot, so whilst on the phone i asked about my account and the women said everything is fine and i am ion credit with bt.. Great i thought so i can go away with nothing on my mind except the funeral..Yesterday i got home, picked up my phone, tried to dial my Brother to make sure he was ok after the funeral.. Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepi tried again 01beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep..Nothing BT have cut me off, i was told i was in credit, infact BT even sent me a cheque because my Broadband account ended in credit which i received today.. I got no warning, no letter, nothing... I was told i was in credit and have no problem paying a bill if i wasnt!!! BT have cut me off even though i have been told im in credit!!!A very close family member has just passed away and my family need each other but i cant speak to anyone because BT have cut me off when im in credit!!!!I feel so angry that i am now dangerous, i feel like Basil Fawlty on steroids!!!And believe me, apart from all this there is bits i have missed out because my fingers are now hurting.I have never dealt with such disgrace in my life and the only reason i have not ripped the bt wire from my wall is because i need my broadband.

Linda 3 years ago

I am now in the situation that as no fault can be found using the diagnostic system it must be my home telephone. I have had three engineers imto my home testing the telephone no problem, I have had a new line connected to my home and the street pole. I am now again sitting at home waiting another engineer as yes it is my indoor telephone that is causing the problem but the best was being told that the internet fault tracking service does not provide you with an engineer you have to telephone in to report a fault. I asked how can I do this without the use of the telephone and only access the internet?????? My problem So remember to find a phone that works internet access does not..

sue wills 3 years ago

Appalling customer service - won't bore you with the finer points as I am boring myself just thinking about it; suffice to say I sent a letter of complaint two weeks agao and even though I have spent four hours on the phone trying to follow it up am still no nearer to sorting a very simple (I would have thought) Broadband problem. Want a laugh (well you have to don't you) a "gentleman" in a foreign call centre told me off for writing a three page complaint letter and refused to read it as it was "too long" and insisted that I tell him the problem myself...................aaargh!!!!!!!!!!

James Barnes 3 years ago

The worst thing we ever done was to sign up to BT homehub . Smart advertising on tv and direct mailing what they dont tell you is the numberof complaints unresolved that bt have we eventually were given the Mrs Jillian G Lewis address , the way we were told this by Bangladeshi Telecom was because we were fed up trying to get them to understand us and in turn us trying to understand them I did not know that in India J is pronounced G so we have been writing for a month to Mrs Gillian G Lewis and still getting nowhere , I am now at my wits end and no longer know what to do my health is suffering and I am now having to take medication prescribed by my GP All we want is the service that BT are taking our money for this has been going on for 20 months now I am in such a state that in my last letter to BT I have told them that I am going to get to their head office and suspend myself from its highest point to let the British Public know howtheir customers are treated I've had enough

Good Sight ,Good Idea But they dont seem to take any notice of you either

joan G 3 years ago

I helped a friend order BT broadband cos they had an offer of a free wireless hub - the order was confirmed via my email cos my friend had no knowledge of computers/broadband. We waited for 10 days - no more emails and no wireless hub and no letter. So I checked the website where they say "Track my order" - the phone number I typed in - says - no such order - called BT. I called BT and when I entered the phone number I was calling, the BT voice recorded message hung up on me saying I wasn't their customer. My friend is with talktalk. So I phoned BT againa nd tried getting a human to speak to me - waited for an hour - got passed around 5 times to different staff and had to tell my whole story 5 times - finally got on to a Sales guy in Broadband Dept - he says he can't speak to me - but if my friend phones him up he will get my friend fixed up with BT Broadband. I asked him if there is any difference in doing it online and on the phone - he reluctantly told me that there is a difference - and my friend might have to pay for the wireless hub - but I insisted that since we have already ordered it online but it fell thro the cracks of BT, then why should my friend be penalised for BT's mistake? He hung up on me!

I was horrified and promptly phoned my friend up who then said he will join Talktalk Broadband. So that was that - BT lost another customer and I won't be recommending BT ever again.

joan G 3 years ago

I helped a friend order BT broadband cos they had an offer of a free wireless hub - the order was confirmed via my email cos my friend had no knowledge of computers/broadband. We waited for 10 days - no more emails and no wireless hub and no letter. So I checked the website where they say "Track my order" - the phone number I typed in - says - no such order - called BT. I called BT and when I entered the phone number I was calling, the BT voice recorded message hung up on me saying I wasn't their customer. My friend is with talktalk. So I phoned BT againa nd tried getting a human to speak to me - waited for an hour - got passed around 5 times to different staff and had to tell my whole story 5 times - finally got on to a Sales guy in Broadband Dept - he says he can't speak to me - but if my friend phones him up he will get my friend fixed up with BT Broadband. I asked him if there is any difference in doing it online and on the phone - he reluctantly told me that there is a difference - and my friend might have to pay for the wireless hub - but I insisted that since we have already ordered it online but it fell thro the cracks of BT, then why should my friend be penalised for BT's mistake? He hung up on me!

I was horrified and promptly phoned my friend up who then said he will join Talktalk Broadband. So that was that - BT lost another customer and I won't be recommending BT ever again.

m henry 3 years ago

well i am soo glad im not alone in my frustration anger and absolute dis-belief in the so called service im receiveing from bt ,i have been a bt customer for nearly three years now and not i may add by choice . i live on an island and as such i find myself restricted to bt due to lack of competitors .

many,many,many times i find myself being over-charged or in-correctly disconnected by bt for what appears to be no reason at all which in turn starts the relentess soul draining cycle of endless phone conversations to try and rectify which-ever insane reason they decide to apply to my situation at that time.

These situations are be-coming ever more frequent and just recently i found myself once again wrongly disconnected ,although bt had sent me a termination notice stating i was due to be disconnected on the 21/9/08 , after i called them to argue this matter they then went on to tell me i had already been disconnected a full two weeks before the date on the termination notice they sent me .

It just seems that they can say or do whatever they like in order to end the conservation asap and leave me to feel totally unsatissifed or hopefull that this time they might actually fix the problem they so readily admit is there fault ,but 9 out of 10 times i know ill be ringing them back in a day or two to once again complain about that very same problem i was previously told would be rectified.

I truly believe this whole bt experience is effecting my health and sanity, plz plz plz could someone make them accountable for the way they think they can treat there customers:(

Tony Layzell 3 years ago

i have just spent the last four days, hours and hours and hours and hours trying to get bt to switch my line back on.

someone phoned bt and said i wanted to end my line with so they just cut me off.

no warning they just ended my phone line.

a business line i might add.

i knew nothing about it.

they now tell me i have to wait six to ten day,s to be re-connected.

what a load of bollocks.

this will cost me thousands of pounds in lost work.

i find it remarkable that anyone can phone bt and cancel your line.

and why does it have to take six to ten days to get it put back on?

something needs to be done to stop this happening to someone else.

i have reported bt to OFCOM and i strongly suggest everyone else does the same.

richard shean 3 years ago

This is the latest letter I have sent in a bid to reach a human with the ability to resolve the problem:

I am writing as a last ditch attempt to get through to someone with the ability to resolve an issue that I have reported more times than I care to remember. Indeed I have spent several hours on the phone being passed around the network until my brain aches from repetition. I have also sent countless emails which never get followed up in any number of days alone 2 working ones. Here is the issue that I want resolved:

In January of this year I decided to reorganise my internet package with BT. Previously I had two phone lines. The later was installed when I had a dial up connection and it was retained when upgrading to broadband. Since I no longer required the 01708855585 line I decided to terminate that line and put the broadband on the 01708851248 line. Since the package could not be transferred the BTopenworld one was cancelled and a BT total Broadband was initiated. This switch over was confirmed on the 7th January 2008. As of a week later I used and paid for the broadband service on that line, the dial up line no longer existed. However I was still being charged for the old service with Btopenworld at a rate of £26.98 per month. This was despite cancellation, despite the line not existing and despite having another package already provided by BT. I decided to call and rectify the situation. Rather than go into the gruesome detail of the countless calls and emails I will just put you in the frame: I have requested the charge be stopped and the money reimbursed. All 107 people I have spoken to at BT admit this was an error, an oversight and no doubt an inconvenience to me. I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately no one was able to resolve the issue since they either didn’t have authority or were not in the right department. Invariably they transferred me to another wrong department or sometime gave me a number to call or sometimes just lost me altogether. From my perspective I have been charged a total of £161.88 for a service I wasn’t getting. Forget the hassle, the inconvenience and the hours I have wasted on fruitless correspondences and please just cancel the charge and refund the charges. I really cannot bear the thought of having to go through this again.

nicky 3 years ago

I HATE BT as i am a new customer and have been given the false information and am being charged double amount of money then i was told the pooooooor customer service needs to be fixed up, and thier products are rubbish they dnt have very good broadband as it keeps disconnecting.

I was Given false figures to attaract me to BT even though i double checked with the assistant that my monthly figure would only be a little amount as my bill came it double.

carly 3 years ago

Hi, I have recently received my bill from BT, A bill for £254, It also shows 233 calls to many differnt mobile numbers, on ringing BT who I have not heard from for 3 weeks (until I re rang them today), as they were supposedly investigating the calls that were supposed to have been made from my landline as I have callbarring, (but still have not contacted me), on checking my account on line this morning it shows on my recent calls, that 23 calls have been made to mobiles, I again rang bt as the last call made showing on line was a call at 1.30pm yesterday to my old mobile number a number that I changed 2 months ago, so before I contacted bt I attempted to make a call from my phone to a mobile to check that my callbarring was still active, and found it to be, and I also rang my old mobile number from my mobile and the message I got stated that this number is no longer in use, yet apparently yesterday I made a 13 minute call to it from my landline??? So I rang BT who told me that someone must have took call barring off my line and used it, I explained that there is no one here but me at that time as my son is in school but again I was told thaty would look into it I also explained that the numebr the last call had supposedly been made to was an old mobile number that I have proof is not in use, but still was just told they would investigte it! I then decided to again go through my last bill that on it contained 233 calls to mobiles and found that most of them exactly 178 of them could not have possibly been made as it is when I am at work and my son at school, and no one else lives here or has access to my property, I know If I were reading this my first thought would be yeah right, its someone just tring to get out of paying theier bill, but there is really no way that the calls showing on my bill or the recent calls to a mobile number could have been made, Does anyone know who I could go to about hese calls, as BT really are taking the pee,

danielle p 3 years ago

well where do i start a catalogue off errors and ive only had the line "installed" for 3 months. bt said i could pay 125 installation fee over six months but then made 3 balls ups with the direct debit trying to take 188 pound instead of the (4 times) agreed 44 pounds. Crap customer service vague and incoherent staff and shite complaints procedure am going to phone every day and email incessantly to fight this ineptitude and breach of contract even though it pisses me off being on the phone for hours if u have any advice please can you email me at d.porter765@btinternet.com

sam 3 years ago

my nightmare with bt started in march 2008 i had a phone line account and broadband with them which unfortunatley fell into arrears and services restricted so i phoned them to pay both accounts in full and to get my services reinstated simple right? NO,the person i spoke to said that he could not reinstate old account would need to open a new account,fine as long as my services were back on at this time i set up a monthly d/d to pay for future services.One month later after everything apparently being fine i receive a bill for the previous closed account so now i have two live phone accounts and two live broadband accounts.When i phone bt (after going through 4 departments and waiting 50 mins) i speak to someone who reassures me that the account has now been closed and to ignore any previous bills for thoose accounts,however three weeks later i get a bill for a cancellation charge of my two old accounts which bt closed? so i phone again and same trouble as before with wrong departments and speak to someone who says she will overwrite the fine as i myself did not cancel the old accounts.Next i get a debt recovery letter asking for the amount owing to bt i phone again get midway through my phone call to be cut off so i phone again and this time the lady i speak to tells me i actually have 5 account numbers and goes through each account telling me she is closing them and i should get no further problems and that i now have my two accounts that i pay for by d/d.So iwas rather surprised to recieve a letter yesterday sayiny a debt collecter will call at my home in 72 hours to recover debt.I get straight on the phone to be told yes i do owe that money even though i have spoken to at least ten other bt workers who say no its their error and not to worry!!!!!!!! easy for them to say.then once again as i protest this the call gets cut off,so i phone back this person says i do not owe the money i request a call back to let me know they have contacted debt recovery and funny enough i get cut off again.Who knows what today will bring?

GRAHAM STEWART 3 years ago

BT WORST COMPANY EVER. DIE A SLOW ONE...

Loren Williams 3 years ago

I will never as long as I live ever deal with BT again,I will use any other provider irrespective of price as I have never encountered such incompetence in any organisation that I have dealt with.BT must be the epitome of a monolith that is completely out of touch with its consumers.

I had a fax line installed in Feb this year which took 3 months to get done.I received 3 bills in the interim all of which were paid and the last bill I did not receive ,I then received a reminder for late payment and a penalty charge for disconnection of the line.I phones them 4 times and was held waiting for at least 30 minutes on each call.Once I explained the situation to a supervisor I was told that the penally charge would be dropped and my line reinstated.When I tried to reinstate my line I was told that the number no longer existed.I run a business from home and naturally all my business cards etc reflect this number.I was told that there was nothing they could do and ordered to pay the last bill.

I then received a demand for late payment.All I can say is BT had better tret their customers better as there are alternatives available now and I certainly will never use them again.

Lucy Gray 3 years ago

Well last year I had a raging 3 month battle with BT to get a line (which I won), and you might be forgiven for thinking this is now a traditional annual event...In a nutshell, the saga continues, and I'm writing it down so all can share in my feelings of righteous indignation at the general incompetence and utter shambles of a business that is BT. (And I'm not excluding BT OpenReach here, I’ll get to them later...)So to start with, it was all going well. I was moving house, and put an order for a move. The line was set to arrive on the 10th September (because the previous guy hadn't cancelled his line).It then occurred to me, as I was pottering around the house, that I couldn’t see any phone sockets. So I call the letting agency, and we all agreed it was very odd, but there didn’t seem to be any. No problem, the landlord would pay for me to get one installed if needed.So I merrily call BT to ask them to send out an engineer. They say no problem, just wait until after the 10th, then call in a fault.So I wait (and then leave the country for 2 weeks), and on my return, call BT. We’re now well past the 10th, so I call the faults department. But wait, oh no! We have a problem... I don’t have a line yet, so it can’t be a fault. But what is worse, is that there are no notes on my account, so BT have no idea what the issue can be. They call BT OpenReach, and they don’t know either. So I’m promised a call-back within 48 hours. Now of course (and I am a little sorry for this) I laugh at the guy on the other end of the phone. Did he realise, I ask, that I’m still ‘waiting’ for 15 call-backs promised to me last year? He didn’t know, apologised and swore that this call would happen. I told him I’m sure he meant well, but I knew he was inadvertently lying. Poor chap.Oh, and I couldn’t make a complaint because I didn’t have a line yet.Well now, after a few days, I leave the country for a week (oh, and no call back, who was surprised?), and gave them another call today (03/10).I was on the phone for two hours. During this time, I spoke to 7 or 8 people (I lost count), who contacted BT OpenReach three times; I was hung up on once; apologised to 100 (ish) times; and told ‘oh there’re no notes’ and ‘yes I’ll enter this into the notes’ in equal measure about 7 or 8 times.I was told first that the numbers I gave (my previous telephone number and the one I should now have) didn’t exist, or were attributed to someone else; then later was told the exact opposite.I was informed that BT OpenReach had had ‘a problem’ with installing my line, but they didn’t know what the ‘problem’ was. This person then said I needed to place a new order, which would definitely go through, and as an ‘urgent’ case. I confess, I did laugh a bit here as well.Little did I realise that my scepticism would be proven true so soon, as no sooner than I was transferred to another department than, hey-ho, my previous order was still open, so they couldn’t do anything.So I was put through to another department and another poor soul.He contacted his supervisor and BT OpenReach (very soon I’m sure my case will be heard by all of BT’s supervisors...). Apparently, BT OpenReach had called me to tell me there was a problem (a lie), and left a message (another lie). I know these are lies because the number they ‘called’ me on is a mobile (and I have no missed calls) and I’ve currently got my voicemail switched off (so they cannot leave a message).When I explained all this to the patient and apologetic person, he cancelled the previous order; placed a new order; booked an engineer; and there we are. The line is set to be installed on the 7th, and the BT OpenReach engineer is booked for the 9th... so watch this space for more angry ranting when I take half a day off work and the engineer doesn’t arrive.

andrew  3 years ago

ihave been with bt for 1 month as a new customer, and had that many problems with them ive spent a total of 3 hours every day on the phone 2 them ,,, about my broadband their sales team giveing me faulse informaton so i wud bye the broadband of them,,,, in the past 1month ive had 3 bills ranging from £ 53 to £ 163.00 ive found out that i was billed twice for the same servis and yet again this morning i have had yet aother bill for £169.22 wot are BT doing it seems that no one has a idear on wot is happeing BILLS ARE SENDT OUT WHEN EVER THEY FEEL LIKE IT and for me to go from option 3 to option 2 on my my boradband will cost me £50 NOT ON YOUR NELLY BT i was sold my boardband under flase information

Matt Stuttard 3 years ago

I rent my landline, broadband service, and phone package from Talktalk, under the talk3 international package. On Wednesday 1st October, BT mistakenly, illegally and without notice or agreement, took control of my landline, and changed the phone number. I discovered this because my Talktalk broadband of course stopped working. I had no warning from Talktalk to tell me this was going ahead, even though apparently it was on their system. In the last 6 days I have made 9 phone calls to both Talktalk and BT to try to resolve this issue, so far without success. Each call has involved on average, a 20 minute wait in a queue. On one occasion, I was passed between 4 different BT departments, before ending up back at the one I was with originally (BT 'Options'). Both BT and Talktalk are saying that they cannot solve this problem!! The issue seems to be that BT have mistakenly assigned me a new number, after a request from a different address. Talktalk cannot take the line back, as they still actually have my original line, and have no control over the new number. BT cannot reverse the process, as apparently, the request for the new line and number was put in from a different address, and mistakenly applied to me! I am at a loss! I have no broadband service, and my landline number has been changed. Neither company appears to have a 'system' for dealing with this scenario. I have complained to Offcom, as there is no other option left.

Ben Martin 3 years ago

I STRONGLY ADVISE ANYONE TO NEVER GET INVOLVED WITH BT IN ANYWAY OR AT ANY POINT IN THEIR LIVES. HAVING LIVED AND WORKED WITHIN THE CALL CENTRE ENVIRONEMNT I CAN CATEGORICALLY SAY THAT BT ARE THE MOST DREADFUL COMPANY YOU WILL EVER POSSIBLY DEAL WITH. I MOVED ADDRESS RECENTLY AND DUE TO A PREVIOUS HORROR SERVICE FROM BT I DECIDED TO GIVE THEM 2 MONTHS FULL NOTICE OF THIS. THEN 2 WEEKS BEFORE THE MOVE I THOUGHT I WOULD CALL TO MAKE SURE EVERYTHING WAS IN PLACE AND ALSO BECAUSE I NEVER BELIEVED THEY WOULD DO THIS CORRECTLY IN THE FIRST PLACE. THEN IT STARTED... PASSED THROUGH TO 5 DIFFERENT PEOPLE, NO TRACE OF CALL, NO ORDER, RE-ORDERED. CALLED BACK NEXT DAY, NO TRACE OF SECOND ORDER FOR CHANGE OF ADDRESS BUT LOCATED PREVIOUS CHANGE OF ADDRESS, TRANSFERRED, PHONE PUT DOWN, CALLED BACK TRANSFERRED, EXPLAINED AGAIN, PHONE PUT DOWN, PUNCHED THE WALL NEXT TO ME AND RECALLED, EXPLAINED SITUATION. THIS PROCESS CONTINUED FOR FIVE WEEKS UNTIL EVENTUALLY I HAD THE INTERNET. MY LIFE WAS BACK TO NORMAL AGAIN FOR 1 MONTH UNTIL MY INTERENT STOPPED WORKING. AGAIN I ENTERED INTO THE FARCE THAT IS THEIR CALL CENTRE. 24 HOURS WORTH OF MY CALLS AND MY TIME LATER AND 1 WEEK WITHOUT THE INTERNET I FIND MYSELF WRITING THIS BLOG. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE STAY AWAY FROM BT. HAVING DEALT WITH THEM FOR ONLY 1 YEAR NOW I AM CLOSE TO BEING SECTIONED. EVERYTIME I SEE THE BRAND IT MAKES VOMIT ALL OVER MYSELF WHEREEVER I AM. IN SUMMARY I WOULD RATHER SEASON AND SEAL MY OWN GENITALIA IN A FRYING PAN THAN EVER HAVE TO CALL THEM AGAIN.

Brian M. 3 years ago

I was scheduled for a simple home-move (September 25th), where my old number was to be taken with me to my new flat. Of course the old number hadn't been cancelled, so it would take a while (15 days!) but if I could have the old owner phone BT to tell them to cancel the line, it could be done as soon as the line was cancelled. So this happened, and I called BT back on the 29th, and they said the line would be connected by the 2nd of October. Long story short, it wasn't, I called back, they then said the 4th, repeat, the 6th, and ultimately fine on the 7th it worked. Now I have broadband with Be (who are excellent). Unfortunately they can't transfer the broadband over until BT updates it in their records. I call back BT to ask why this hasn't happened, they couldn't answer my question but say some order was still open (what order, I don't know, and they couldn't tell me either). Anyhow, they are making me "call back tomorrow" to see if the records are updated and state they won't let Be transfer over the internet connection for "at least 2 weeks." I don't understand how this is deemed acceptable, and how there is no accountability and why the regulator doesn't either demolish this monopoly or force them to perform better.

sian morgan 3 years ago

hi, my mum had TERRIBLE progress with BT beacause my mum wants to change the name on her phone bill so she rang up BT and was expecting an answer or maybe if they were closed a time for when she could call next tomorrow but BT asked if they could put her on hold beacause they were busy so she waited, waited and waited for 25 minutes.

So my mum kept calling and all she got was answer machine so my mum was so fed up and angry and had to hung up and i was just very cross with BT so i stomped over to the computer and kept looking for a decent phone service that my mum could look at but i had no luck.

So i got really fed up and ever so angry about BT so i did what i have just done wright a complaint about BT and i know this isn't a proper long complaint it is just a note saying what BT can do to be unhelpfull so what ever you do do not go on BT unless you are ever so sure that they are trustworthy enough for you.

sonja bigg 3 years ago

We are in the process of moving our phone and internet moved to Sky. We have a disabled daughter with brain damage and chronic lung disease and have to therefore work from home to look after her. She is constantly in and out of hospital. and we are awaiting telephone appointments that are vital from Great Ormond street hospital. On Tuesday 28th, we requested our MAC code to transfer from BT. We cannot be without a phone, not only for our business when we are struggling to keep our heads above water. But also because it endangers our daughter's life. BT told us we would receive this code within a week. BT did not send it, but bombarded us with a tirade of hard sell type phone calls, offering us things we did not need. We repeatedly explained that all we wanted was our MAC code. We phoned a week later, still requesting it.to be told it would be there within 24 hours.Still BT did not send us the code.We rang again yesterday, to be met with a young man who still repeatedly tried to hard sell us BT instead of giving us the code, who then when we explained the urgency and asked for his name, put the phone down.We rand back, to be put through to an advisor who said she would email us the code last night.It was still not done.We rand again today, to be again refused the code and to be informed that a cease order was put on our account following our last phone call. this now puts us in a position of being without a phone or email for the next two weeks.This endangers our daughter's life and puts us out of business for two weeks. The hospitals are unable to contact us. we are unable to call them or even email. ALL WE NEEDED TO PREVENT THIS SITUATION WAS THE MAC CODE THAT THEY HAVE REFUSED TO GIVE US. We have 6 children to support in total. BT will also be putting us out of business. BT, as a supposedly reputable company have acted in a disgusting and dangerous way towards members of the public and a small, disabled child. I am astounded and amazed.

Russ Barlow 3 years ago

nywyay. The guy finally turn's round and say's you have to go back to BT online! I had to laugh at one point, when my wife said quite clearly, "Before we start, I want to let you know that I bought this phone online." two minutes later he had obviously asked "where did you buy the telephone?" My poor wife nearly went potty.

So another email went to BT Online. I'm still waiting! I'd also like to know how a hearing person can be qualified enough, to judge what is a suitable replacement for the BT Converse. They don't know the difference in sound quality and volume we may need?

julian bigg 3 years ago

hello,I am writing regarding the intolerable position we have been put in by BT regarding our daughter.We are in the process of moving our phone and internet moved to Sky, from BT. We have a disabled daughter with brain damage and chronic lung disease and have to therefore work from home to look after her. She is constantly in and out of hospital and we are awaiting telephone and email appointments that are vital from Great Ormond street hospital. On Monday 27th September we requested our MAC code to transfer. On Tuesday 28th we repeated this as we hadn't received it to be told we would get it within 5 days. We cannot be without a phone, not only for our business when we are struggling to keep our heads above water. But also because it endangers our daughter's life. BT told us we would receive this code within a week. They did not send it, but bombarded us with a tirade of hard sell type phone calls, offering us things we did not need. We repeatedly explained that all we wanted was our MAC code. We phoned a week later, still requesting it as every time they rang us, it was not to give us the code as promised, but to try to 'hard sell' BT products and give us offers for us to stay with BT. This time, we were promised the code would be there within 24 hours.Still they did not send us the code.We rang again yesterday, to be met with a young man who still repeatedly tried to hard sell us BT instead of giving us the code, who then when we explained the urgency and asked for his name, put the phone down.We rang back, to be put through to an advisor who said she would email us the code last night.It was still not done.We rang again today, to be again refused the code and to be informed that a cease order was put on our account following our last phone call. This now puts us in a position of being without a phone or email for the next two weeks.This endangers our daughter's life and puts us out of business for two weeks. The hospitals are unable to contact us. we are unable to call them or even email. ALL WE NEEDED TO PREVENT THIS SITUATION WAS THE MAC CODE THAT THEY HAVE NOW ABSOLUTELY REFUSED TO GIVE US. They have only refused because we did not accept their offers during their tirade of calls trying to keep us as customers, in which they repeatedly talked over us as we tried to explain we could not afford to stay with BT. We have 6 children to support in total. They will also be putting us out of business.BT, as a supposedly reputable company have acted in a disgusting and dangerous way towards members of the public and a small, disabled child. I am astounded and amazed. All we need to prevent this situation is the MAC code which was issued on 27th September, but which they refuse now to give us, cancelling our service instead.Please can you help us?Sonja Bigg

JL Sussex 3 years ago

0800 328 9393 telephone calls

Am totally FED UP of this BT number calling my phone and I usually ignore their calls and they leave no message.. I have answered a couple times in past months and told them to STOP calling me. I am disabled so getting to the phone is a real problem for me sometimes.

I have told them this and told them to STOP calling, but still they do, several times a week usually. Just had another call now at 14.20 on 10/10/08. Is there anyone at BT to complaint to?? I'm on TPS and also informed this BT number to take me OFF their list, to no avail.

Lynda Hazelwood 3 years ago

I have steam coming out of my ears having spent about 4 hours today on the phone to BT. My daughter had a BT line connected in a flat in Manchester in March 2008. On 22nd September 2008 it was disconnected by BT. My daughter rang BT to ask what had happened. They said there was a fault. She asked when it would be re-connected but they did not know. Nothing happened so she phoned again and was told that BT had disconnected her line because someone else had contacted them and told BT that they were moving into my daughter's flat as she was moving out. My daughter was not moving out and she couldn't believe that BT would just believe someone's story and disconnect her line. I took over at this point as she is working 8-6 and cannot phone from work.

I asked how BT could possibly justify this action. I was told that BT had given her 2 chances to contest this claim - one was a phone call to her on the landline before they disconnected it (she wouldn't have known about this because she does not have a phone plugged in, she uses the line to access the internet) the second was a letter telling her she was being disconnected! She did not receive the letter - no wonder when you read on!

So we were at the point where OK she has been disconnected but please can she be reconnected? BT's answer was 'there is already an active phone line in that flat registered in a man's name.' This of course was not correct so I asked where they had this information from and they quoted the address - I said that was the wrong address and they went off to find out what had gone wrong. Then the apologies started - oh sorry we have down a different address in that block of flats. Right I said well re-connect the line. But BT said they could not do that because of the problem with the addresses - I asked further about this problem and was told that they had my daughter down as living in 'the sorting office'!! Of course, I said that was rubbish and how come her bills came to her correct address? They couldn't explain that, but because of it she could not be re-connected. They admitted at this point that the address mix-up at their end was their fault and this had given rise to BT incorrectly disconnecting her line and also why she had never received the letter from BT telling her she could tell them not to disconnect her line!

They then started talking about compensation - all very well, but what we really want is the line re-connected was my reply. On Tuesday 7th October I was told by what seemed like a more helpful person that a manager was getting involved and I would get a call back. I got a call back saying that the address was now correct and she could have her line back. I was to get a call within 48 hours from the 'off line team' who would re-connect the line. The call would come between 9 and 1 Wednesday or Thursday. The call did not come.

I phoned BT again and was told more or less that none of that had been logged anywhere and I was back to square one - ie we have her down as living in the sorting office! I said I was going to Watch Dog and suddenly a manager (who was according to him on his way off duty but had to come and speak to me due to the seriousness of the complaint) came on the phone to me. He said the address was now correct and he would find out when the line was being re-connected, but he couldn't find out now because he was going home!!!! He said he would phone at 9 a.m. the next day (which is today) I made him swear that he would phone and told him I had waited for calls for the last 3 days and they had not happened. He swore he would call at 9 am. You guessed it no call!

At 10.30 am I called BT and got the same story that the address was incorrect and that nothing could happen etc etc I asked to speak to a senior manager and suddenly the person who should have phoned appeared in their office. He said he had arrived at work late!!!! So, I said when will my daughter have a line - more apologies and offers of compensation ensued followed by October 27th! I was obviously not happy at this and exploded. Why, I said, could BT not just re-connect the line the way they had disconnected it? I was told it was because of the address!!!!!!! I said I was staying on the line until I was told it would be re-connected today! He said that would not happen. I asked to speak to someone higher and was told he was the senior manager and I couldn't speak to anyone else. I gave up on that one and phoned again. This time I was cut off as my daughter had been several times when she had been through this whole sorry story.

I phoned again and got through to customer services. Then it became a little surreal - she told me that I had been lied to. I said 'Are you honestly telling me that these people may have lied to me?' She replied 'No, I am telling you they definitely lied to you!'.

'So where do we go from here?' I asked. She said nothing would happen until 16th October a new date, but certainly not acceptable because she then said that someone has to be in the flat to allow the line to be re-connected. I asked why it could not be re-connected the way it had been disconnected and was told it was their fault but because they had my daughter down as living in the sorting office they had to go into the flat! I then asked how come this engineer is going to find where she lives if you have her down as living in the sorting office, but her bills come to her flat? Where is he going to go? This customer service adviser said that she was the only one telling me the truth here and that there was no guarantee that the engineer would find her!!!!!!!!! And that is where we are upto - I am going to sit in the flat for my daughter even though she lives 30 miles away and wait for an engineer who may go to the sorting office looking for my daughter!

I have the names of all the people I spoke to and I told them they should look out for their names on Watch Dog!! Hope someone from Otelo is reading this!!!

Kriket 3 years ago

I am in total sympathy with all regarding the complete lack of service with regards to this company - and cannot believe that in this time of world economic meltdown - companies such as this don't fall as well - they seem to be so incompetent and useless it is a wonder that they exist at all - oh yes that is right - they survive due to the amount of money they skim from small business' and customers alike - for giving a service that is BEYOND a joke. I feel that surely we could combine our collective time we have spent dealing with service problems and invoice BT for that time!

I am a small business owner - VERY small - like most I am lucky if I can pay myself at the end of the month once so much money goes back out to these various companies for your 'essential' business accounts. First I was billed by BT for a line installation of £120 - even though I was told by the engineer and the sales departmant that if a line already existed I would not have to pay the fee! I managed to get that bill wiped (20 minutes of my time x 2 calls).

Then I happily got on with working every second of everyday for 6 weeks starting my new business. One day I got a random call from a company asking me to switch to them in order to get cheaper call rates. No thanks I said, I am fine. The bloke was persistant (as they are ) and informed me of the current rates I was paying for calls through BT. I felt ill - and thought no he must be trying to scare me - these call rates are ludicrous there is no way I am paying these calls costs in this day and age! But I did call BT just to confirm......... I was in told yes in fact I was paying these rates as follows

local - 4 p per min @ peak time and national 8 p per min @ peak time. 4p per min for both nat and local off peak. PLUS I was paying a call connection fee each time for each call. International calls to OZ were 20 p a min and Sth Africa (we have family in both countries) 50p a min. Mobiles were equally expensive.

I asked them to give me the current balance on my bill and it was over £90 just for calls. I had literally used the phone less than a dozen times!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY GODDESS!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just how is it different to making a local call from your workplace than your loungeroom floor using your homephone - how and why are there diff rates!

Then I was told by the BT staff member that I could be on the special BUSINESS REWARD 200 package and get calls capped - I would only pay 10p for up to an hour anywhere in the UK and mobiles only 25p up to the hour and Australia 20p and SA 50p up to the hour.

WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? So on my current call plan it would cost me £20 to talk to Aust for an hour OR if I swapped (for FREE) to this other it would be 20p. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE! how can they have these higher prices in the first place - how can there be such a HUGE difference in call costs. I was told that these plans do not suit everyone - WHAT! I asked them to give me an example of who it would not suit? WHO would prefer to pay so much more for costs. I told them as far as I was concerned there was only one reason and that was for them to skim as much as they could off every customer who had not been told by one of their staff members about this deal. I demanded a credit for the calls they had billed me at the higher rate - I was told it would have to be 'investigated' - who by? the CIA? As far as I was concerned there was no need to investigate anything - they had ripped me off - not given me the infomation or told me of this deal, I could not fathom the fact that they needed to investigate anything. Suddenly the sales person became very defensive of BT and suggested that it was my fault and that I could have rung up and asked for this reward scheme - YES IF I HAD KNOWN ABOUT IT!!!! She then proceeded to inform me that well 'There are billboards advertising it, it is also avertised on the radio and TV, so I had no excuse'. NO EXCUSE? I asked her if she knew just who she was talking to? I had just moved to a small/semi rural village and opened my own business. THERE WERE NO BILLBOARDS - I was working 10 hour days - I had no TV, let alone any time to listen to the radio in anticipation of new products that BT may or may not have - that may or may not save me money and prevent me form being right royally ripped off!

After much back and forth/to and fro/disconnection/hair being pulled out/more WHAT?/ and hours of my time I spoke to someone in the investigations team in India who kept repeating it was my fault and they would not credit me - but I would be started on the plan at the new plan rate. Again I was told when I asked why I had not been offered it the very first time I rang up to have a Bt line installed, the response was ' Madam do you expect BT to try to sell you something that may not be beneficial to you until BT has had a chance to monitor your call useage to know if it would benefit you?' KEH? I had to point out to him that YES I did expect BT to offer me a service that clearly would benefit ANYONE - even a rhino on the plains of Africa would benefit and that there was no question of SELLING as it was a free service! I repeatedly asked to speak to someone higher up because I expected a credit, but he kept balking. Finally he transferred me and I went through the same thing over and over with his manager - The blame kept being transferred to me, I should have asked for it. Finally when I threatened to take it further and higher he got off the phone for 3 minutes and came back and conceded that yes as I had not been offered the reward package he would credit my account. THANK YOU.

Today I received my first bill from BT.

Of course the call rates have not been adjusted (despite me receiving a letter confirming the new package) and of course there is no credit. I called the billing department and was told yes I had been put on the plan but for some reason the actual call rates were not instigated on my account.................. I suppose BT expected that I should have put on a hardhat, climbed the telephone pole and wiggled some wires in order to get me the cheaper call rates for myself? They kept insisting to transfer me to the discount department - but I kept being cut off - finally I got through to a recorded meassage the discount dept is closed on the weekend. The various departments within BT do not even know when their other departments are OPEN!

I feel angry and cannot believe the inadequacy of these organisations - the sheer lack of service, the sheer lack of connecting the dots. What are we to do - is it all simply too hard - have they all become too big to function and are we complete and utter suckers with only ourselves to blame when we sign up time and time again for services that simply do not exist?!

Amir Majeed 3 years ago

We have had very poor line quality on our home phone for a very long time. Around two years ago I called faults to fix the problem and an engineer came out, did nothing to fix the line quality and we got a charge if £100. I did not appeal as we were going through a difficult time with some bereavments in the family. In August 2008 after being frustrated by the tereble line quality my internet goes down and I felt this was the best time to get this thing sorted.

I called, listened and checked the line / equipment at least twice (i knew about the call out charge) Being completly certain the faults was not in my property I asked for an engineer to come out. The guy checks the line, agrees its very bad, plugs his phone in and does some more checks. He lets me listen claiming (unconvincingly) it is better, my father, nephew and myself all disagree. The line was vertually the same as befire. He makes some more checks, disconnects the internet wire and claims in is better, the line was still exaclty the same i.e almost inaudable. He then leaves to check at the excahnge telling me to contact the BT internet people as they are sepErate. I do so and the internet guy checks everything, takes my BT hub and within 30 mins comes back. He said the equipment in the house is all fine there was a problem in the exchange. He brought my old hub back as it did not need replacing and was dumbfounded as to why the engineer could not fix the problem which was external.

I recieved my bill with £100 + added for the call out charge and disputed it immediatly. Not at anytime has anyone at BT even looked at it from our point of view. I followed the rules and still got charged. Today 12/10/08 at around 8pm I get told they do not accept our dispute over the phone. I was told a decision would be made within 10 days, that was over 1 month ago. I regret being on direct debit was the money has gone. The lady that called was so matter of fact with me, when I presented a diffreent story to the notes she was reading out it was dismissed! I talked for over 10 mins and soon realised she could or would not take anything on board.

As a consumer who has his phone and internet from the same people I cant beleive the difference. The phone people want to take your money, despite being unsure what the fault is. The help I got is being ignored. Heres the icing on the cake. The phone engineer tries to make me get a new phone socket (dont need one) on the sly, wants me to pay £70 for it, I refuse - when i tell their complaints people they say "thats a seperate issue it has nothing to do with this problem". The engineers in my opinion vary, some like the interenet guy we met are cool, patient, knowlegable and take pride in their work and some are just clowns. One lat thing, every time I call I get "I am very sorry about that" - just once i would like to hear "I am sorry abou that, here's what we are going to do". If I an get this resolved soon I intend to make friends, family, everyone that listens aware of the joke that is BT faults and move to a different company, they dont value loyalty. .

Martin 3 years ago

I signed up to BT business support for being able to check my emails on 2 computers at once.

When we got remote assistance, we had to uninstall office package to install outlook 2007 and we said no to this as the laptop was from a retail shop with office pre loaded and we do not have any cd's for office. So, we could not uninstall office package to install outlook 2007 for doing emails in outlook on 2 machines at once. Disgusted because none of this was said in the first place.

We have been on phone for over 2 hours and this has caused a lot of irritation. Just listening to music all morning with no results.

jeeny 3 years ago

Hello,

When I moved into my new House In December 2007, I decided that I wanted Sky but at the time I was advised to go with BT for my Line ( ONLY) So that's what I did. They did offer me the free weekend and Evening calls but as I was going with Sky All I needed was the line as I was getting free weekend and evening calls with Sky. I then Noticed three months after getting my £11 amonth line rental that they had put the free weekend and evening calls on. So After being passed from Pillow to Post I finally got through to a Young Lady who informed me that she has sorted it all out and from then on I was only going to be charged £11 for Line rental and I would not have the free evening and weekend calls. Then the next month after that I noticed that BT had started charging me more for the line rental. So I contacted them and they informed me that every customers Line rental had gone up. So I left it a Month and then again my Bill had changed and gone up more and everytime they seem to have had an excuse. So In the end I informed them that I was cancelling their Services and I will be transferring my Line away. So I did that and transferred to sky but then after a month of informing them that I had cancelled all my services. I then recieved a letter informing me that I had to pay a cancellation charge of £168.96. I couldn't believe this was happening again. I thought it couldn't get worse!! I contacted BT to inform them that this was a mistake and they informed me the information was correct and I was being charged this becauseI asked for free evening and weekend calls and also I had cancelled within the 12 months. I cancelled after 10 months because of there service and I only had a Line open with them. No Line Renal, No free evening and weekend calls but a line So that I could have sky connected and also so I did not recieve a charge from BT. for disconnecting my Line rental. When I did not have it. Why would I ask for free evening and weekend calls??? When I have this with Sky. That mmeans I would be paying for two line rentals. I'm not that thick. I don't think anyone is that stupid! but they insist that I did and all I got from them was that I did ask for free evening and weekend calls ( When I never) and that I always recieved a letter from them. When infact the only letter I have recieved from BT was the letter to inform me that I had to pay £168.96 Cancellation charge. When all I paid in the first place was £11 a month and now they want me to pay a Year and a halfs worth of line rental. I am not a liar and I know what I set up and it wasn't to pay two bills of Line rental. It was to set up a Line with BT and fr Sky to take over everything else.

Regards

Jenny Beck

jenz2006-07@hotmail.co.uk

RICHARD BAILEY 3 years ago

i was "slammed" in july by BT, i was happy with talktalk providing my landline calls and broadband and had been for over a year, then BT came along and took over my land line and from that point on nothing but problems, asked talktalk why there was £62.00 for leaving before contract was up showing on my bill? as this was the first sign somit was up! told by talktalk that BT was now running the show!! so i thought "over my dead body they are" and told them to give it back to talktalk asap , which to be fair they seemed to do, also paid me £57.00 ?? to help pay talktalk the £62.00 i owed them, then they cut me off !! so i asked talktalk what the problem was and they told me BT still had the landline and i owed them money??? I then contacted BT to ask why and was told that i didnt in fact owe them anything and talktalk can have the line back as soom as they can sort it out ,so BT re-conected me and all was fine ,but talktalk wrer very hard to contact and slow at getting the line back so i left them and went over to sky instead "theres a pattern here aint there" anyway over i went and all seemed to be fine until my broadband started to play up and then BANG!! cut off again, phone sky to ask what the problem was only to be told that BT had cut me off ."but i aint with BT, i says, you are say sky but just for line rental. they just cant seem to let go of me can they!!! i phoned them to ask "politly" what the hell they were doing to me life only to be told that i was a customer of theirs and i owed them £114 ? for what i just cant understand since as far as i was aware my calls were FREE with both talktalk and sky and if i was being charged for calls due to them "slamming me" back in july,surely thats their problem as its totally their fault, as it is now i seem to be stuck with them and have to pay-up before i can "shake em off" Honestly if they were the only providers of calls and broadband i would go without.. "BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER"? i think not. if BT would like to contact me regarding this matter call on 07824491808 as my land line does not work!! or e-mail me on BAILEY_RICHARD3@sky.com....if my broadband works that is!!!

RA BAILEY....."its good to talk?"

Mary Costigan 3 years ago

number;GB 04737703... I made a request on the 4th of july 08 for a buisness phone to be connected to my pub... some days later i received a letter saying the phone would be connected on the 14th of july... I already had a phone connected in the pub and assumed that bt had taken over this line to provide me with a phone connection...I rang and asked for a broadband to be connected and was told the the line was not a bt line I explained that I had had a line connected on the 14th july its only then I realised that bt had connected a residential line and not a business one, I was still on the same line in the bar, the reason I din't realise it is because I had just taken over the pub and was still using my mobile for contacts. I contacted bt and told them of their mistake and asked for the line to be disconneted and for a bt line to be connected in the pub eventually the residential line was disconnected and the buisness line was provided... I feel it was bts fault in the first place that the residential line was connected when I clearly stated I wanted a buisness line in the bar (i provided the line number already in the bar) and feel that i should not have to pay the 97.16 outstanding on that account. I do have other services with bt and am most upset to be threatened with disconnection of these services if I do not pay what I see as an unfair bill.

I would appricate it if you could look into this matter.

Kind regards

Mary Costigan

BEN 3 years ago

CANNOT BELIEVE HOW BAD BT'S SERVICE IS, I MUST HAVE PHONED AT LEAST 300 TIMES IN THE PAST YEAR. I HAVE BT RINGING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT WAKING ME UP ANG HANGIN UP ON ME. NOTHING HAS WORKED FOR MORE THAN A WEEK AND I HAVE PAID UNTOLD AMOUNTS FOR MY INTERNET AND STILL NOTHING WORKS. AFTER BEING TOLD THAT IF I PAID FULL AMOUNT THERE WOULD NEVER BE A RESTRICTION I WAS RESTRICTED AFTER 2 MONTHS. IF I TRY TO CANCEL MY ACCOUNT I AM THREATENED WITH COURT. ITS ALWAYS A PROBLEM WITH MY COMPUTER (OF COURSE) EVEN KNOW AFTER I HAVE BEEN ON THE PHONE FOR HOURS THEY FIX IT (WHICH LASTS ABOUT 20 MINUTES). HAVE HAD BT TECHNICIANS CHANGE MY PASSWORDS WITHOUT ME KNOWING WHICH MAKES THINGS IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO USE. THEY CUT MY HOMEHUB PHONE OFF FOR A YEAR AND MADE ME PAY FOR IT. I AM CHARGED WAY TOO MUCH FOR THE SERVICE WHICH HAS NEVER WORKED PROPERLY. AM ON THE PHONE AS I SPEAK AND AM BEING TOLD ITS NOT BT'S FAULT (AS USUALL) EVEN KNOW HALF AN HOUR AGO A PREVIOUS TECHNICION FIXED THIS PROBLEM. I AM ABSOLUTELY FURIOUS ABOUT BT AND HAVE NEVER BEEN SO INSULTED IN ALL MY LIFE. DO NOT SIGN UP TO BT FOR HEAVENS SAKE, HELP US BRING THEM DOWN.

kim 3 years ago

HAVE BEEN WITH BT OVER A YEAR NOW, NOTHING HAS WORKED FOR LONGER THAN HALF HOUR WHICH MAKES IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ME TO DO MY COLLEGE COURSEWORK. AS A RESULT OF THIS ON GOING PROBLEM I NOW HAVE TO STAY VERY LATE AT COLLEGE TO COMPLETE MY COURSE WORK OR I HAVE TO HASSLE MY FRIENDS TO USE THEIR COMPUTERS ASWELL AS PAYING FOR MY OWN INTERNET THAT DOES NOT WORK. AFTER A YEAR I RECIEVED A PHONE CALL FROM BT STATING THAT IF I STAY WITH BT FOR ANOTHER YEAR I WILL RECIEVE A 4 POUND A MONTH DISCOUNT. OF COURSE I TURNED DOWN THEIR OFFER AND NOW BT HAVE ARRANGED FOR ONE OF THEIR TECHNICIANS TO DO A HOME VISIT (SARED OF LOSING YET ANOTHER CUSTOMER). WHY IT HAS TAKEN OVER A YEAR OF COMPAINTS FOR BT TO BEGIN RESOLVING MY PROBLEMS IS BEYOND ME. MY ADVISE STAY CLEAR OF BT.

tony shrubsall 3 years ago

I will never use BT again i would sooner use two empty cans and a ball of string. Since moving from Essex to Wiltshre they have been nothing but trouble. I asked to move my Broadband and BT Vision from Essex to Wiltshire. They sent me a bill from Essex saying i have cancelled my contract and then re-connected me in Wiltshire to a higher tariff without asking or letting me know until i got the bill. A couple of months later they cancelled my Broadband telephone service without being asked to. I decided to change supplier but it is easier getting blood from a stone than getting a MAC code. Despite asking four times and being promised it on my -mail i have been still waiting over two weeks and still no code. I have been advised they are oblidged to send me a MAC code under Offcom rules.

Kevin 3 years ago

Just moved here to the UK and into a new flat. Learned that I have no choice but to sign up for a BT line first, and only after a year can I go to a competitor. This is allowed?? I will skip the detail of the three days it took me to get the account set up. I'll start with the ripoff. So they tell me that I have to pay 125 pounds for installation because there was no record of a phone line ever existing at my flat, even though there is BT branded socket and cable in the wall. The installation guy comes out (a day earlier than scheduled) and says that there is a line, and that it just needed to be activated, and I should not have to pay the fee. Phoning today to discuss the bill I just received was a waste of time. BT customer service says that the line was inactive since 2005 and that was why I had to pay the fee. Hmmm i thought there was never a line here? She goes on about how service guys don't work for BT anymore and so they lie to customers. I question why the bill is for the full amount of the line and the installation when I was told that the payment would be spread over 6 months. she says the bill is just giving me the total but I'm really on a payment plan. I point out that the bill says the full amount will be debited from my account, but she reassures me that's not going to happen. After reading the comments above, I'm sure I'm going to get hosed. The customer service people all tell me different answers to my questions, just to get me off the phone. I am being forced to pay them a lot of money and stay with them for a year, but they are not getting any more of my business. I went with O2 for my broadband and will find some other provider for my television. And when my contract is up next year, I'll gladly switch to a new telephone provider. I think that BT doesn't care about customer service because they know, no matter what, they'll get every man, woman and child in the UK for a 125 pound one-off "installation" and a year of money. So they can afford to lose customers after one year, because the newbies are queuing up. Why is this allowed?

Abul A Foyez 3 years ago

BT recently given me 3 month bills this month which is £183.10. My BT package every month bill is £17 something but it is very astonished that after 3 month bill they sent to me £183.10. I talked to the customer service after 1 hour waiting with bt phone. Everytime computerise answer said to me different direction and I followed. When I received one staff BT he didnot give any satisfactory answer and all on a sudden he disconnected and again I tried and found someone after one hour. It is really embarrassing and time wasting procedure. BT is overcharging me. Can you please make an inquiry and let me know the result.

Kate Parker 3 years ago

I THOUGHT that I had set up a direct debit in August, using the internet, for payment for my landline (phone calls are through Virgin) . I also spoke directly to someone in India who asssured me that all was OK. Today (17.10.08) I had a letter demanding payment for my last quarterly bill! I then had to spend time again phoning someone in India who told me, eventually, that it was a fault of theirs! Why can't we have a phone line for complaints about this kind of poor service that is based in this country? If I phone to complain will it still be picked up in India? If I did that would the complaint be passed on to BT executives ?

baz29873 3 years ago

just to say that today[17/10/08] b t came to my house to replace a corroded external wire[no charge] when they had left the premises i found to my dismay that the upstairs extension socket did not work.i contacted b t and was told that if i wanted this extention to work it would be a charged call out.the extention worked before b t came to repair the line.come on b t get your act together,why should i have to pay for something that you have made faulty by your error? a very dissatisfied customer of 40 years.

john thompson 3 years ago

have just had a land line installed by bt so I can use the internet which is fine but I can't recieve incoming calls from virgin although I can call them, I complained to bt but they said their line was ok and it was up to me to get the fault fixed through virgin which is a bit rich when I'm paying for a line from them and I can't recieve incoming calls from a different source, has anyone else had this problem

stephen cant 3 years ago

i have had BT vision for two weeks but for the last five days it hasnt worked i have phoned them and for the last two days been told that it will be fixed with in 12 hours still no bt vision today i have been told that it will take 72 hours i am totaly discusted with BT and am going to do every thing in my power to get out of the contract with them .

alexis gaines 3 years ago

I got my bill last saturday and they put me on restricted calls by tuesday. i complained was told i would be reconected in an hour. Yeh right it took till dinner time next day. i asked to be put through to complaints only to be told they dont have a telephone department for complaints.

Lee 3 years ago

Strange question, but today my landline would not recieve, or make calls. I have the phone+b.band from b.t, there is no outstanding bills, or tech issues. On phoning customer service they said i had no b.t account, just the b.band, which is proving somethings amiss. the b.band works fine, and my online phone account shows as active, so i will address the problem via email, as c.service say they cannot help? Anyone had this problem?

Nindia Riphat 3 years ago

I cut and pasted the love letter I by email to BT's compaint page.

THe service is just disgusting!

I moved houses in June 23rd. I called BT and they gave me my new phone number and said that its already up and running. All I have to do is to plug my telephone on the BT box.

When I got to my new house there was no dial tone. I reported 'the fault' and they said that the line is working. But obviously its not. It took me three months and several phone calls to finally get the BT customer services to awknowledge that there is a fault and sent and engineer and my line was restored on the 6th of September 2008.

After the line was restored I obviously requested a three months refund off my line rental. Since the line wasn't working at it was BT's fault. I got a reference number from one of your advisors in India and he said that it would be deducted off my last bill. I thought everything was fine. Little that I know what would happen next!

A month later I got a bill of £90.37 although the total of my call usage was only £1.96. The three months call charges which I have reference for was not deducted. I called BT and after more than 10 very painful phone calls each being transfered to at least 4 'advisors' and lasting more than 30 minutes. In a nutshell, nobody had a record of that reference number and it means nothing! I said I refuse to pay the full amount of £90.37 (obviously, like what any other person with a sane mind would do), before they take off the three month call charges (amounting to £53.10).I finally got through to a gentleman on the faults department which gave me a new reference number 14065253177 for the compensation I deserve and he said it would come off my next bill.

On Friday I wanted to make a phone call, and found out that my line was disconnected. I had absolutely no idea why. So I called again to complain. I have been on the line for 69 minutes (thats over one hour!!!!!) and being put through to around 15 people. I am at work and lost an hour of work time for this. Apparently, it was a mistake of billing. And that I had a balance of £17.70 which I havent paid, from my last July bill. And because this was not unpaid, my line was disconnected. There was no communication whatsoever that there was this balance!!!!!! The last bill I received ref: Q006 G2 was a blue bill with no late payments. I cannot understand how BT who ows me money for the three months line rental, disconnected my line for something I was not informed about. It is just appalling!

The billing department said that the only thing they can do is for me to pay the full amount of £90.37 for my line to be reconnected and that there will be the 3 months compensation in my last bill. So half heartedly I paid the bill. I was then put to the sales deparment, which advised me that I will not be charged for the reconnecting of the service obviously since it was a disconnection in error, but I have to start a new contract for 12 months. I DONT WANT TO START A NEW CONTRACT. I just want to continue my contract till January and then just stop service. I am not happy and this is not how you should treat your customers. They then put me throught to service, which they decided after I gave my account number that I am again in the wrong department and that they are putting me through to the right one, and the phone line went dead. I AM AT WORK. I DONT HAVE TIME FOR THIS!!

I just feel that I keep being wrongfully adviced. I am exhausted of talking about this, and being in tears in frustration when talking to your advisors. Especially throwing rediculous amounts of money down the drain.

Now what I want is for my line to be reconnected, for the remaining period I have the contract which will expire in January. And get my three months compensation.

If this doesn't happen I may have to report if to the watchdogs. I am just absolutely frustrated by the service.

Please contact me immediately in my mobile phone!!!!!

Lee 3 years ago

Just found out today a c.s.a in Ireland had cut off my phone account, along with a lot more other peoples. All down to him leaving, and seeking his revenge on callers, who he'd cut off. What a saddo, but new number, and b.band to be cut off is all looming.

Mark Sherratt 3 years ago

Just found out that paying my bill by card each quarter is costing me £4.50 in a "Payment Processing Fee"... hummm OK, I'll switch to direct debit then.

There followed about half an hours worth of running around and around the website, only to work out (by studying their useless help pages for ages) that for some apparent reason the website isn't showing me the direct debit option.

Nice way to ensure customer's don't switch to a cheaper payment plan! I guess it's time for a phonecall to one of the many agency staffed BT call centres where nobody really cares about your issue...

Wish me luck!

Elaine Mcneil 3 years ago

I recently stupidly fell for a sales person calling my house convincing me to go back to BT I agreed to going back but wanted to sign up to broadband as well. They assured me someone would call me re the broadband - that was at least 2 months ago. I complained through there web site but still had no joy and still no on broadband as no one has bothered to call me or take me up on my order. I don't know why I went back to them HELP!

creativity4 3 years ago

we are a community group relaint on funding from grants and all work is done voluntarilary (curreently)imagine our annoyance having been sold a BT advert, which we took out PURELY on the basis of an online entry as well as being in BT phonebook, because we have NO WEBSITE as we are not techy and cannot afford to pay someone.... well we paid the £250 AND RECEIVED 2 enquirys only from the bt book, a 3 yr old and a pervert, and pestered relentlessly about vat of £50 to still pay which wasnt at all clear when we bought the advert, as was pestered all SUMMER despite my telling bt the trustees are all on holiday, anyways...they annoyed me so much i checked our online bt entry(you know what we wanted!!!) by now we had missed the sept rush(also the whole idea as we advertise dance tuition in terms)...you guessed it wasnt there!!!!!so for about 5 mths =no online space we had paid for, which they wriggle out of by saying =we paid for the bt book= online was free!!!!ha ha wat a laff=well if yoo buy something with a free gift you want the free gift, anyway our contract doesnt say it was FREE...THEY ARE STILL HOUNDING US FOR THE £50 VAT, I HAVNT HAD THE PATIENCE TO EVEN LOOK IF WE ARE ON LINE YET????ANYONE FANCY LOOKING FOR US???WHY SHOULD WE WASTE OUR VALUEABLT TINY BUDGET SET UP TO HELP DISADVANTAGED AND DISABLED ENJOY THE ARTS, WHEN THEY =BT ARE GREEDY, AND HAVNT DONE WHAT WE ASKED FOR, eg=cafe"EGG N CHIPS PLS" OH OK HERE YOU ARE A CAN OF COKE....ANY IDEAS WHO TO COMPLAIN TOO BEFORE THESE MISERABLE SO AND SO,S ROB US AGAIN???THANKS

Adrian Vitovschi 3 years ago

no landline, no broadband, no signed contract but one nice bill for me to pay. No one answers the phone but the robot.

what should I do? buy a riffle?

Debra G 3 years ago

Anyone else have a business line and feel like they have been mis-sold call diversion? I have spent over £5k in the last 18 months with BT. I had a calling plan in place whereby I paid 15p per hour to landlines and 20p to mobiles. I was told that if a diverted call went through to my mobile I would sill only pay the 20p. However, BT charge me 30p per minute for call divert to a mobile. I only realsied this when I scrutinised my bills. Spoke to BT who basically said it was in the T&C's and there was nothing they could do. Anyone else in same situation?

Danny B 3 years ago

After been late with a bill, we got the money together and phoned up to pay it. We were told that we couldn't pay due to the fact that it was been processed and we would recieve a final bill through the post shortly, which we could then pay.

We were then dissconnected, so we phoned again to pay bill and be reconnected, we were told that once the outstanding balance was paid we would be reconnected with no problems. so they excepted payment this time and then went to reconnect line,THIS IS AFTER ABOUT 2 HOURS ON HOLD BTW! - after this we were told we had to pay a £50 deposit to get the phone back on. We were never told this in the first place. Anyway I phoned back up a day later to sort it out, we had been without a phone and broadband for about 4 days now, when trying to reconnect we were now told that they couldn't find our number? And they had now LOST OUR NUMBER!! Utterly ridiculas, I'm now in the process of trying to get our line rental etc through another compan, what a load of sh*te.

Dean From Essex 3 years ago

My ADSL started to intermittently disconnect from the line every 5 mins yesterday evening. I called 0800 111 4567 and got through to the call centre in India. I explained the problem and the guy went through the usual script. By the end I was fed up because nothing was working. I agreed to check every piece of MY equipment even though I knew it wasn't the problem. The next morning I had the same problem, so I went round to my neighbours, and alas, three of them had the same issue. Unfortunately, only one of them was with BT broadband. Anyway, I called 0800 111 4567 again and went through the same crap. I can't believe that BT outsource this stuff to India, it reminds me of the guy from FoneJacker, they just read from a script! 3 hours later and they're not taking any notice of me when I say it's the whole street. I've had enough and don't know who to complain to now. I have some time left on my BT ADSL contract, bt when that's up i', going to a company that DOESN'T OUTSOURCE......

PAMELA WHITE 3 years ago

bt cut off my broadband because they are dam stupid!! its because of a bill they sent..way back in july..after a lot of nonsense..they scrapd the bill..but then sent me another 4 of em.. i have to remind them the bill is scrapped..everytime..till 3weeks ago they turned off my broadband?? i complained for 3days!!! they said oops sorry we will put on your bb..but it will take another 5days to connect you!!! as its no a new account??told them i use the bb everyday..as this is how im sent the work i do!! through email..and i now can not work!!! they said oops sorry...now at last the bb is on..but the computer is not working so well?? you try and get your emails.but you can only get onto the site for about 6 seconds then it has error and goes off..the pop ups are constant..so i now as a woman of 53years old and knows nothin about computers..have to get someone to come and look at for me..and that will ost!!! they aare on £20 per hour!!!! not happy..complaining does NOTHING..IM MAD AS HELL

mr jones 3 years ago

cancelled bt service. agreed final bill and paid it. bt forwarded my details to a debt recovery agency anyway.

Fraser Hunt 3 years ago

I have encountered a nightmare when dealing with BT. No one person would deal with my problem with my Broadband Talk phone line. This has involved about 14 members of the BT team. It is thanks to this forum that the last two managed to resolve my issues. I sent an email to Ian Livingstone at BT on Sunday morning. This was answered within the hour and within two hours I had someone dealing with my problem in the most efficient manner. If you have jumped through the hoops and have got no where and are reaching the end of your tether....there is hope. Email Ian Livingstone at ian.livingston@bt.com .

Thanks to the forum and Ian and his team!

Fraser

Andrew C 3 years ago

I'm soooooo glad to be off BT and onto another provider, but as usual with them - there's a sting in the tail: They haven't cashed my cheque, and have slapped on a late payment charge!

Annie D 3 years ago

I have recently relocated a business and I have never, ever experienced such appalling customer service as that associated with BT. It nearly sent my business under.... here is a log if you want to have a small insight into their ineptitude:

8th September.

Our business (Baumhaus) moved into a new warehouse in Oxford. BT were booked (through XLN telecom) to install 4 telephone lines on that morning.

By lunchtime, they still hadn’t arrived. We made four telephone calls to try and find out why the engineer hadn’t turned up, we were informed that he couldn’t find the building (despite our contact mobile number being on order, in case of problems).

When we requested that the engineer come in the afternoon instead, we were told that it was not possible and that we would have to place a new order for telephone line installation. We did this immediately and they confirmed that installation would be on 23rd September. However, that afternoon, we were sent a text from XLN saying that the installation would actually take place on 29th September meaning that our business would have no telephone or internet communications for 3 weeks! Then received another text message from XLN saying that the installation would now be delayed until 30th September. After a week trying to get a faster date we gave up.

15th September

We then contacted BT directly to try and speed up the installation. Was advised that we should place a new order for 4 lines because they DEFINITELY install on either Wednesday / Thursday (17th / 18th). Then we received an answerphone message from BT saying that installation would actually be on 29th. We called him straight back, told him that we were promised 17th / 18th. He said that the sales team should not have promised this. We explained that our company was completely cut-off in terms of communications. This contact pulled out all the stops and said he would have an engineer with us on 19th.

16th September

Unbeknownst to us, BT got our order wrong and has allocated one of the lines for a BT broadband service (whereas we want to use our own internet service provider). This means that when the lines are installed, one of them will be blocked (tagged) and we won’t be able to get our broadband and internet services working until it is untagged. BT realised their mistake and put an order on the system to have the tag removed.

19th September

The engineer turned up in the morning. The order was wrong and he had only been instructed to install two lines instead of the 4 we ordered. Said he was not allowed to install the additional two lines because he could only do what was on the order. He installed the lines, and then after he left, we discovered that one of the two didn’t work. We called BT and told them about the fault and an engineer turned up to repair the line that afternoon.

That afternoon, we told our ISP to activate our broadband on the line, they informed us that they couldn’t do it because there was a tag on the line. We called up BT and they said that there was a request put in on 16th to remove the tag and it takes up to 5 days. We told them that our business was completely cut-off in terms of communications and they said that would change the priority to ‘urgent’ and remove the tag within 48 hours.

22nd September

Our ISP tried on the hour, every hour to hook up our internet connection but couldn’t do it because the tag has still not been removed. That afternoon we called BT again, and then said that the tag is still on and they would put an ‘urgent’ on the order and get it removed within 24 hours.

23rd September

Our ISP tried on the hour, every hour to hook up our internet connection but couldn’t do it because the tag is still there.

24th September

The line we were supposed to use for our Broadband services is still tagged. We rang to complain and were told for the third time that an emergency request to remove the tag would be put in place and that this would be done within 24 hours.

25th September

Rang BT because the tag had not been removed as promised. The contact verified that there was a tag on the line, and told us that we had to contact the wholesale department on 0800 169 8639 / 0800 169 0934 because they are the only people who can remove the tag. We tried contacting them for over an hour but the line was either dead, went to a reception, or was answered and immediately hung up.

Rang 0800 1698639 and spoke to Sandra Radovanovic. She said that there wasn’t an order for Broadband under our company name – which is true because we didn’t want it, so didn’t order it, but didn’t change the fact that BT have tagged the line. She then rang round the various departments and spoke to the Wholesale Department. They told her that there was no tag on any of lines. But they couldn’t 100% verify it because all their systems were down. I was told to ring back in 20 mins on 0845 600 70 20.

Rang back later and was told that the tag had not been removed, and that for some reason the request had been cancelled by someone in BT and we would have to place a new request which would take up to another 5 days.

Rang the complaints department on 0800 085 0629 to lodge a complaint about the service (ref: 22948535). I was told that the complaint would be put through to the department I was complaining about for investigation! I requested to be put through to someone with the authority to have the tag removed. Was told that they didn’t have anyone with that kind of authority, so I would have to be put back through to the Wholesale department again. After 10 minutes, I was put through to Gavin Thomson (Customer Service Advisor) and I asked to be put through to a manager. This took another 5 minutes on hold. Kerry Crichton – Customer Service Supervisor said that she would investigate this with the tag removal team whilst I was on hold. She contacted the Manager of the Engineering department (Mohammed) who promised that the tag would lifted definitely be lifted tomorrow as a matter of urgency.

26th September

11.30 am Rang BT aftersales team to check that everything was going ok. They tried to put me through to Kerri Crichton in the Business Processes team but they hung up on her (they told me it was a common occurrence). I was told I could not be given their telephone number, but that an email would be sent to Kerri Crichton and her manager – Annie Toburn requesting that they ring me. Email was ignored.

12.30 pm Spoke to *name supplied upon request* at BT aftersales team – acknowledged that other departments frequently hang up on them. Said they are not interested in taking calls that did not involve earning commission. He then emailed the escalations team to request that the job was undertaken as a matter of urgency and said he didn’t understand why it had taken so long because it was a quick job. I was informed that Annie Toburn’s telephone number is: 01382 567706 and that her boss is called Bruce Simpson – 01382 567609. I was also given the name Mohit Malhotra 0800 0850816 (option 1) and said that he was the person in charge of allocating jobs, but was not customer-facing so I shouldn’t really ring him.

12.40 Telephoned Annie Toburn, and was told by someone called Ryan Calendar she was in a meeting until 1pm. I requested that she ring me at 1pm.

1pm Kerri Crichton telephoned me and told me that there was no tag on 01865 396621, but I asked her to check the other telephone line (01865 748 372), because I think that was the one that had the tag on it. She said she would check and get back to me.

2pm Telephoned Kerri Crichton to find out whether the tag had been removed from the second line. Spoke to Ryan Calendar - he informed us that the second line was now clear.

2.15pm o

Margaret Collins 3 years ago

Manor Farm Veterinary Surgery

Green Road, Codford, Warminster, Wilts BA12 0NW

Tel: 01985 850752 Fax: 01985 850874

23rd Oct 2008

Complaints Dept

BT Business

Dear Sir/Madam,

My account number = SS 7852 2963

This complaint concerns the following three telephone numbers

01985 850752 - our main number in existence for over 20years

01985 850581 a new line put in in June 2008

01985 850730 for some unknown reason, 850581 was changed to 850730 in the middle of all the problems we were having.

I have also been given the following account numbers recently:

SS 77726206 for 850581

SS 80963285 for 850730

These are my complaints:

1) I spoke to BT in May to ask advice. My business was growing and clients were finding it difficult to contact us during busy times. I was told that I could have another line and a “switch in reception” which would allow a second phone to ring when 850752 was busy or not answered after 6 rings. This line could be switched off when there was only 1 receptionist in the building. A hunt group was not mentioned. I was told that the new number would be on Feature Line.

My first complaint is that I was not given totally correct advice at this point.

2) I agreed to this plan, but to my surprise I received no correspondence or email at all to confirm what was happening and the first I knew about it was when an engineer phoned me to say he was coming to do the work on Friday 20th June 2008

He was unable to do the work that day and came back on Sat 21st. I asked him where the “switch” was for the reception and he said he new nothing about a switch, but the phones would be part of a hunt group and we could divert one to the other on busy and no answer.

3) The new phone line was not set up as a hunt group, so we could not understand why the instructions given on a very old copy of FeatureLine Compact instructions did not work. I expected to receive some correspondence or instructions from BT but nothing arrived and the only reason we knew the new phone number was because the engineer left a sticker on the phone socket.

4) After some weeks I decided to try and sort out why we could not divert 850752 to 850581 as I had wanted. I wish I had never tried as the following catalogue of errors, all caused by BT went from bad to worse, eventually leaving us with no way of our clients contacting us at all. We are a veterinary practice, the problems we suffered were totally unacceptable, especially as they were all avoidable had BT acted competently.

5) I was told that a hunt group had not been set up and BT would do this. On about Thurs 18th Sept `08 we noticed that 850581 was ringing when it should not be and nobody was answering it. We had not diverted calls to it but I went through the procedure for removing the divert and the automated voice said the divert was off, but the phone still continued to ring occasionally and clients started to complain.

6) On Mon 22nd Sept 08 I reported this fault again, (I think I reported it earlier than this but cannot find a record) According to the on line Fault Summary this fault was resolved 4 mins after I reported it - THIS IS TOTALLY INACCURATE.

I spent hours, (literally) on the telephone to BT over the next few days and weeks. Every one gave me different advice or said they would do something different. 850752 was still diverting to 850581 and nothing we did would stop it. When only one member of staff was available to answer the telephones, it proved to be a nightmare for her and clients were complaining the phone was ringing & ringing and not being answered (presumably when 850752 was engaged?) This was an intolerable situation for me as I run a high standard veterinary practice with a good reputation to keep.

All BT would tell me was that “work was going on at the exchange and would not be completed until Fri 26th.“ When I kicked up a huge fuss about this I as told it would be completed by Thurs 25th. WHY DID IT TAKE THIS LONG? I pay extra for my phone lines to be repaired within several hours. WHY WAS THIS NOT DELT WITH OR RECORDED AS A FAULT, with the corresponding compensation?

7) Whatever was done at the exchange made matters even worse. On Thurs 25th we lost all phones into the practice. Clients had no way of contacting us from mid morning onwards and were very disturbed by this as some had emergencies. We had universities, laboratories and referral centres all trying to phone us and all everyone got was a ringing tone which sounded as if we were simply not bothering to answer. Some people got a permanently engaged tone. Clients were arriving with no appointments and many were angry or upset.

To my complete disbelief I was told that BT were unable to divert our main incoming line to a mobile so there was no way to resolve the situation.

8) When I telephoned in the afternoon of the 25th Sept, to my complete horror I was told that the matter had not been recorded as a fault because “work was underway at the exchange” so nothing more could be done until the morning.

9) The problem was not resolved on Friday 29th Sept, but BT did manage to divert our main line to a mobile number. Mobiles do not work at all well in the practice as we are in a rural situation. They do not work when the receptionist is standing in her usual place, near a computer, which is essential when someone telephones us. All I could do was leave a message saying that there were major problems with our phones and explain what to do in an emergency. It was an appalling level of service.

10) The problem was only partially resolved on Monday 29th Sept. Incoming calls started to come through on 850752. The engineers said that the whole problem had been caused at the exchange and that I had never been given what I had requested ie two numbers on a hunt group.

11) We were only slightly better off as incoming calls were still being diverted to 850581 which at some point in this fiasco had been changed to 850730. Why?

We didn’t always realise or have anyone to answer this line.

12) We reported this problem, yet again and we were told it was a crossed line. The women was initially fairly off hand with me as if she believed the fault was all ours for not following the instructions for FeatureLine correctly.

13) All problems were resolved on 1st Oct 2008. That was 10 DAYS OF CONTINUOUS FAULTS EFFECTING TWO PHONE LINES. However, I still do not have two lines that work as a Hunt Group and I do not want to risk doing anything more to upset the system after this previous experience. I was also told that Broadband would not work - why wasn’t I told this earlier? I can move my Broadband to our fax line (01985 850874) but I do not want to risk doing anything more at all now.

14) I emailed two long complaints to BT’s complaint Dept. shortly afterwards. The only acknowledgement I received was a single automated reply saying BT’s computer had received my complaint and I need do nothing more until I heard from them. That was weeks ago, not the way I was trained to deal with complaints. I received a short letter from 15th Oct about my incorrect bill only and when I rang three times, the person concerned was not available to speak to. I was told that a letter had been sent to me, but I have not (yet) received it.

15) I have been incorrectly invoiced.

a) I was invoiced for 01985 850581 from 20/6/08 until 31/10/08

b) This number was changed to 01985 850730 and I was then billed for this also!

c) I was invoiced for 01985 850752 until 31/10/08 but this contract was changed to a 5 year LTC rental, something I did not sanction. The bill for this started on 23/9/08, so I was charged twice for 9 days.

I am expecting to move premises within 12-18 months and I want to move the phone lines into this new build. During the very first discussion I had with BT in May 08, I was told that if I had a 5 year contract on 850581(became 850730) I would not be ch

Yvonne Daggitt 3 years ago

Our BT line became faulty last Friday morning (24/10/2008). BT took until Monday to send out an engineer to supposedly fix the problem. He spent about 15 minutes attempting to cure the fault in which time he disconnected our internal line to the telephone upstairs. The engineer claimed this was the problem. After he left and upon the very first phone call from an outside party the telephone line went faulty again. The continuation of the fault was reported immediately. Today we have recieved 2 text messages on our mobile phone, which is our present mode of communication, within an hour of each other, to inform us that the problem had been fixed. On both occasions BT were informed that the line was still faulty. We are still awaiting for the line to be repaired... it is now Wednesday the 29th October. We will keep you informed of every BT response.

John H 3 years ago

BT VISION seems a good idea until you move house and try to be connected. Unless you are prepared for a long wait, we are talking a minimum of 10 to18 day's. Reason, the biggest communications giant in the world do not speak to each otrer from dept to dept,so nothing gets done. Speaking from bitter experience and hours on the phone.

S.H.GUEST  3 years ago

ACCOUNT SM462534436

DEAR PROMMIS LAND/BT

YOU GAVE US THE PROMMIS OF £50 SHOULD WE GET YOU CUSTOMERS.

i GOT YOU A NEW CUSTOMER n1emo@btinternet.com my oldest friend

IT MUST BE 2 YEARS NOW STILL NOTHING, YET YOUR VERRY QUICK IN ASKING FOR PAYMENT BUT NO GOOD AT PAYING YOUR OWN BILL IF YOU ARE STRAPED FOR CASH TAKE £50 QUID OF MY NEXT BILL THIS SHOULD BE AN INSENTIVE.

YOU WILL PROBABLY FIND A REASON NOT TO GIVE OVER THE PAYMENT

OUTSTANDING TO ME SO i will look into a possable intrest arrengment

to help your pocket. so now as you are not any good at payments.

this will be a good time to get rid of your dead wood at your payments

dep. Signed S.H.GUEST A 50 YEAR CUSTOMER, YOUR B/BAND HARDLY WORKS

AND PHONING INDIA IS JUST TIME WASTING AS i DO NOT SPEEK HINDY.

emma stevenson 3 years ago

hello this is an email i have sent about 5 times to BT, this complaint has been on going since feb, and still has not beem resolved. many thanks emma x xhello, i have had an on going dispute with BT since feb 2008. The problem began when a quarterly direct debit tried to be obtained from my nat west bank account. i have always paid a monthly direct debit as i am a single mum who cannot afford to pay out large sums of money. The 1st payment of £96 did not go out my bank because there was unsuffciant funds, this is because i allowed for a monthly payment to go out of £26 as normal. As a result of this mistake from BT i was charged nearly £100 in total from my bank in unpaid direct debits. I of course contacted bt asap to resolve the problem, i was assured that it had been sorted out and that no more payments would be taken and all future payents would be monthly, however the follwoing week BT attempted for a second time to take a payment of £96 again this resulted in many charges all of which i have proof of. In total i was charged nearly £200 in the space of two weeks, my child tax credit money was taken up to pay charges and my child benifit money was also used to pay all the charges, as i stated i am a single mum and this money is all i have to live on. After numerous phone calls to BT and 4 letters which included my bank statements as proof of charges as a results of BT mistakes i have still not had my complaint dealt with. i have rang numerous times and every person i have spoken to has been very unhelpfull, on one occasion the man i was talking to hung up on me which was very rude. This situation has gone on for far to long, and as i am sure you are aware i will not be dropping the matter untill i have recieved my money back that i lost and possible compensation for the months of unhappiness and stress that BT has caused me. I was forced to leave BT because of this difficult situation, which was more added tme and exspense, i did not want to leave because i was generally happy with the phone and broadband service that BT had provided me with for quite some time. I would please like a response to this email and a possible solution to this matter otherwise i will be forced to contact the Telecommunications Ombudsman so get the situation resloved to my satisfaction. many thanks for your time and i hope to hear from you soon. Emma Stevenson

Rachael 3 years ago

Cantbelieve how mnay complaints are on here! Thought I was the only unlucky person in the world with Bt. Similar scenario what happened to me. I moved house, got my phoneline the same day the engineer came out but since then i have been given more thna 5 different activation dates for my broadband (which i need for my job) since then i have lost a months wage and nothing has been replied to either from BT

TERRI HILLS 3 years ago

It's clear that there is a lot of frustration and dissatisfaction with B.T. services. I'm tired of them also - for many reasons and the last straw was when I received an e-mail saying the'd levy a charge for changing to another provider at the end of the minimum period. Hardly the brightest way of retaining customers eh? The cost of £18.50 will be money well-spent in order to rid myself of this organisation, once and for all. For everyone else fed-up with this tiresome monopoly: VOTE WITH YOUR FEET. CHANGE TO ANOTHER PROVIDER EN MASSE and enjoy watching the B.T. ship go down. (eventually).........

Laura Giaconi 3 years ago

As BT was unable to provide me with the service which I first requested on 06/06/08, exhausted, at the end of August, after millions of attempts to the Call Centre, I informed BT via letter and over the phone that due to their inefficiency, if unable to rectify the problem within 2 weeks from my letter, I would have like to be released from my BT contract. As expected, BT did not contact me and I never received any letter back to confirm that my problem was at least read and finally approached. The only letter received was a bill of £57.44 for CANCELLATION FEE. In few words, I was forced to contact a different supplier to provide me with landline and broadband as BT in all this months was not capable to do so, and now BT is sending me a letter asking for CANCELLATION FEE? Moreover, they took money out from my direct debit- which I now stopped- for a service that they never provided me. When I claimed the refund, I didn’t get any reply…Till I received the bill of £57.44 for cancellation fee. BT kept the money that supposed to be refunded and sent me the remaining balance of £57.44. How terrible is that? BT did not consider sending me a letter of apologies for all the inconvenience caused, but the only concern of the company was to rip me off the last bit of money by asking for cancellation fee? Initially, we are now back to July, they tried to rectify the problem by assigning me a telephone contact number that belong to someone else. This poor customer had constantly her service cancelled without being notify and ignoring the reason why…This client was still using the line and regularly paying for her bills. To add more mess, when I contacted the Call Centre and gave them the number I was assigned to, they called me with the other client’s name , ignoring the Data protection act and any respect for privacy. The confusion was so obvious at this stage…2 clients with the same number. Did it help? Of course, not!!! Where is the customer service that they should deliver to customers, where is the service that they should provide, where is the caring and the ability of solving a problem, where is the efficiency of any one in the Call centre, including Managements? I had the honour of speaking with everyone at the Call Centre for the last 5 months (from 06/06/08) and no one was able to help me.. No agent, no, supervisor..and when asked to speak to a manager I was constantly denied as on meeting….No comment! Please note that my last call to BT is dated 30/10/08...and my first one 06/06/08!!! I have been wasting so much time and money after this issue, that I leave the rest to their common sense. Kind regards, Laura Giaconi

Allison Parkyn 3 years ago

They are the worst company I've ever dealt with. They are liars. They will tell you anything on the phone and then deny it when you call back. They make you hold on the phone just to then tell you that you've called the wrong line. So you call back and they tell you that the first number was right. Why can't they transfer you? Why can't they attempt to help? We called and asked to suspend our account for a few months because we had some complications with a place we were renting. They said that was fine, then slapped us with a £169 fee for cancelling. We called back telling them what was said and how we didn't plan to cancel just postpone it and still pay for two months of service without receiving it so as to not cancel service and then we were told we couldn't do that. Plus, if you ever need a new phone line connected - how is it fair to charge someone £150!!! Why are they allowed to monopolize the market? Something really needs to be done! Now we moved out of our old flat and had no choice but to go with BT. They told us they would call us back about when an engineer would come out. We waited a week and no one phoned (to get a hold of them the first time it took several days - 5 hours on hold for 3 days) on your mobile since you don't have a phone line!!! Then they told us they would need to come in 8am - 1pm so I got off of work and waited and no one showed up. Then I called to find out what had happened and apparently they connected the line but did something from the exchange or something so never set foot in our apartment. But it was nice that I got to wait for them for 5 hours. My husband called 12 months later to make sure that our contract was up and find out how much it would cost / how to cancel because we weren't sure of the new house's connections. They told us that we would have to pay for another 30 days which would cost us £91. We agreed to it, to get rid of BT. Then we got a £26 bill and yesterday received another bill as a cancellation charge for £136. How can they do this???? I am so glad that we at least can use a different company at our new house. I am so sick of dealing with BT. They are BY FAR THE WORST COMPANY EVER! I would avoid them like the plague and I think most people would if we were given the choice.

Peter W 3 years ago

I do'nt know why this site is trying because it is obvious that BT dont give a tos. I can now speak from experience of spending 80 minutes, on the phone, just to get to get a land line to my new house. I got through in 1minute to sales for a Broadband setup. It then toke 2 week to get it working and I was not told that BT Broardband cannot work from my first BT land line and that I had to have another line fitted,they charged me acordingly, just to run BT Broadband. What a lot of Lies that they tell. I must take some of the blame because I forgot that BT stands for BAD TELECOMS.

Erin 3 years ago

Dear BT,

I am deeply unhappy with your poor standards of customer service. Earlier this year, I called to get the phone line reconnected into the flat I had recently moved into, for the sole purpose of using broadband internet. I clearly stated to the salesperson I spoke to, that I wanted to pay line rental, and broadband charges monthly by direct debit. I also said that as I have a mobile phone, I would not be connecting a phone to the line. This person consequently set up the line, and arranged for a hub to be sent, which duely arrived. The direct debits were being paid monthly, and this was fine. Three months later, I received a bill for around £80. I immediately called to find out what the bill was for, as I was on the understanding that I paid my bill monthly by direct debit. I was told that the bill was for broadband services. I was then told that the monthly bills I had been paying by direct debit are for line rental, PLUS a call plan (which I clearly stated that I didn't need when I called to set this all up)

I was horrified when I realised that I had been set up for a call plan at an additional £17 per month, that I specified I didn't want, as well as being lied to when I was told that I was paying the whole lot monthly by direct debit. I paid the broadband bill by cash at the bank, and then called customer services to complain. I was put through to some call centre in India, where the person I was speaking to had no idea what the situation was, or how to deal with it. He just repeatedly told me that to cancel the call plan, I would have to pay £175! Why should I be penalised for your error? In addition, he said that I would need to hang up and phone a different number to sort out the broadband payment situation. This after spending the best part of an hour trying to explain to the gentleman that all I wanted was broadband internet without a call plan!

I called the number for broadband, who told me that I cannot have one bill, and that broadband is billed quarterly, and seperately from phone bills. I do not trust BT enough after this fiasco to set up an additional direct debit for my broadband service as well. This brings me on to the second issue:

Why does your company insist in backdating bills? I am very angry at being slapped with a 'late payment charge' every time I pay my broadband bill. Surely it must be illegal to alter the dates on bills in order to penalise those customers who choose not to pay by direct debit? I received my most recent broadband bill yesterday (31st October). It was dated 26th October (a Sunday!). There is no way that the bill was posted on 26th October. It does not take five working days for a letter to make it from one place to the next. This is not a one-off. All bills I have recieved from BT have been backdated, and none of them have a payment date on either. I have never written a letter of complaint to a company in my life, but the level of incompetence I have found with BT has compelled me to do so.

Rest assured, the minute this contract is up (it's slightly cheaper to see it through than pay the extortionate cancellation fee) I will be transferring my custom to another internet service provider.

kay 3 years ago

Can anyone explain to me BT pricing. Their Option 3 or whatever it is called now is supposed to be £10.50 Line rental and £5.95 for all inclusive calls except 084, 090 or mobiles. So I should pay £16.45 per month including VAT. This works out to £49.35 minus £1.25 per month for paperless billing. Yet on my bill my rental charges are £45.19 plus VAT, however I try to work it out I cannot get it to come to the £49.35 which is 3 x £16.45. Customer services are a waste of time I cant get a straight answer. Help.

Sarah Scott 3 years ago

I am thoroughly disgusted by my recent treatment by BT. In September 2008, as I was moving house and about to leave the UK, I cancelled my BT account, paying in full for all services which I have always done as a loyal BT customer for a number of years. I was disgusted to then receive a bill for £158.72, the amount for the full Broadband service from October 2008 until Spring 2009. I have tried since this date to resolve the issue - have had the same discussion with operators in Bombay who tell me a 'higher authority' has made the decision to charge me but that I am allowed no access to this higher authority to discuss the unfairness of the bill. BT have currently passed my case to the Debt Collection Agency as I refuse to pay this extortionate amount. They also threaten me that my credit rating (which has been impeccable all my life) will be affected. I am so frustrated by these bullying tactics and BT's refusal to allow me any contact with anyone who seems capable of making a decision.

Chris Murray 3 years ago

This is a copy of my complaint....

(apologies for the length)

On the weekend of 15-18th February 2008 I moved into the above mentioned flat. Just before I moved I phoned the 0800 800 150 number to arrange for the flat to be installed with a phone line and to change my billing address. I followed the numbers through to get to the change of address department. I spoke to an Indian lady whose name I did not take down. She did not understand what I wanted to do when I explained that I wished to change my address. I find this appalling when you consider that she works in that specific department. At one point she actually said to me “please speak slower there is a technical problem.” After spending a large amount of time speaking to her and on hold several times she told me that everything was fine and that the new address had been input on the system. I then asked the lady if I need to get a new line installed or if I can just plug my phone into the line and expect it to work. On hearing this she thought that I wanted to leave BT and I had to explain that this was not the case. When I eventually got through to her as to what I meant she said she did not know and that I should plug it in and find out. Around two hours later that evening I was woken up by a phone call from an Indian gentleman (again I did not get the name) asking me if I wanted to change my address on your records. After providing my address again the gentleman informed me that everything was ok and that my new address was now my official address on the system.

The next day I phoned the 0800 800 150 number again to arrange for a new line installation. This time I spoke to a Welsh lady who was much more understanding of what I wanted and was able to help me, however I was on hold three times for around ten minutes each time. She also informed me that my address had not been changed on the system and she went ahead and changed it for me (or so I am led to believe). This lady arranged for an engineer to visit my property on the 29th February. I questioned if I had to be in my flat on the 29th February and was informed that I would have to be as the engineer would need to enter my flat.

However, when I moved into my previous flat in September 2007 (Flat 46, Block 2, The Hicking Building, Queens Road, Nottingham, NG2 3AN) I arranged for an installation of a phone line with yourselves and was given a date and on that date my flat mate sat at home all day expecting an engineer to call around. Once I had got home from work I called the 0800 800 150 number to explain that an engineer had not been around and after waiting in a queue for over an hour I was told that the engineer activated our line from an external location. This was a complete lie to me as I have since been informed that they need to enter the premises. That weekend I went out to purchase a phone to check the line. I plugged it in and nothing, there was silence. I phoned the number again and after waiting for around an hour again in a queue I was informed by another lady that I must have purchased a faulty phone. So at my first opportunity, I exchanged the phone at Argos and again plugged it in, and again, silence. I then proceeded to call back and explain that I must have a problem with my line. Now I can’t remember the exact details here due to it being 6 months ago, but I was informed that an engineer would call on a specific date. I received the text on my phone that morning explaining that everything was underway, but they never came and I had to rearrange. Overall, it took me just over a month for you to sort out my phone line, a month that I was paying line rental for. I did not bring this up at the time as I did not deem it worth spending a considerable amount of time on the phone just for a months line rental, so I let it slip.

On the 29th February I received a phone call from the engineer around lunch time informing me that he was on his way around to my flat. However, I had been called into work and so I was unable to meet the appointment. I was not expecting to be working that day when I agreed for the engineers visit. When speaking to the engineer I offered to give my flat mate a call and to see if she would be in that afternoon. I did this and she informed me that she was not going to be at home that afternoon, so I called the engineer straight back and apologised for not being in and for wasting his time. He then said to me that it wasn’t a problem and that he would call the day after in the morning (1st March).

The next day the engineer did not call but I received a phone call from some department within BT. Unfortunately I missed the call and as soon as I noticed a missed call on my mobile I dialed back to hear a message that explained that I had received a call by BT and that I would be called back. This call back never happened, so on Wednesday 5th March I phoned the 0800 800 150 number and requested a new appointment for an engineer to visit. After spending a while on the phone I was told that because it is a home move they could not arrange a visit and that the services department would call me within 24 hours with a new appointment. This never happened!

Then on Saturday 8th March I received a phone call from a gentleman asking me if I wanted a new appointment. He looked at my profile on the system and explained that because it is a home move he would speak to the services department and call me back within 15 minutes. This never happened! The next day I received another phone call from a lady who said exactly the same thing to me and that she would call me back within 15 minutes. She called me back about 30 minutes later and told me that she was unable to book the appointment and that I should call the 0800 800 150 number. Which sends me back around in a loop to the 5th March.

I was away that weekend so when I returned on the Tuesday 11th March 2008 I phoned up the 0800 800 150 number and explained what had happened. The lady was apologetic and promised me that I would receive a call from the service department within 24 hours with a new appointment time. Later that day I received a phone call from a gentleman named Ragav in the WLR3 department. Ragav kept going on about how I missed an appointment already and was therefore implying that the blame for all of this was my fault. He explained to me that I would receive a call by the end of the week (16TH March 2008) with an appointment time for the engineer. I was extremely unhappy with this as it is contradicting what I was told earlier that day. I spoke to Ragav’s manager who again mentioned that it was all because I missed the appointment on the 29th February. He explained to me that I would receive a call at least a week from then (18th March 2008 onwards). I find it appalling that a member of staff tells me one thing, then I receive a phone call telling me something else, then two minutes later that gentleman’s manager totally contradicts what I have just been told. Ragav gave me the order number VOL 0118725430248 but this means nothing to me.

As soon as this phone call was over I was calling the 0800 800 150 number again to try and sort this out myself as this WLR3 department were completely wasting my time. I spoke to a lady and requested for a new appointment. Where she informed me that she would need to speak to the engineers and that I would receive a call back within 24 hours. I explained to her that this was totally unacceptable and that I would not wait for a call back and to book me an appointment and that she could speak to the engineers once the call was over. I did not accept her offer as BT were completely wasting my time by not calling me back when they said they would, and then when they did contact me they were completely unable to help me and pretty much told me to sort it myself by phoning back. I was given the slot of Friday 14th March 2008, 8am-1pm.

Again my f

Audrey W 3 years ago

For now, it seem I am far from the worst cases, but who knows with BT.

I asked to install a phone line at my flat on the 24th of September. The on-line process would not complete, so I phoned. A few days later, I decided to change for a better offer from Tiscali. I called to cancel on the day, well before the first engineer came. Of course, the appointment and line were not properly cancelled and they phoned to arrange a second appointment (african call-center). I told again I wanted to cancel with BT.

The Tiscali line was installed, by a BT Openreach engineer (!). I received letters from BT, so sent a complaint mail to be sure the account was cancelled. The Asian call-center employee (or should it be mail-center?) said everything was all right and to ignore following mails.

Of course, I received a bill for BT for a line they did not install and a service they do not provide. I then decided to send a polite complaint letter to Durham.

I have now been debited from the first instalment of £137.13. I am a student and the reason why I changed was that Tiscali provided the same for a third of the price. I have sent a second mail complaint today (4th of November) when discovering this (less polite). I am resolved not to lose any more time and money on the phone, as I already spent too much during my first useless cancellation call to some African call-center.

BT is just losing a customer for life! If they can not understand "I want to cancel my line" with all references details you can imagine, no surprise complex bill problems do not get resolved. I just want my debit refunded. I suppose if I cancel the Direct Debit myself, I suppose they will say I owe them.

I don't think apologies from them is even a remote options. Good luck to all fellow complainers!

Zoe Rix 3 years ago

I feel quite relieved to think that i am not the only person who feels lied to, miss led, cheated, not listened to, passed for pillar to post repeating the situation time and time again.

I have written to the complaints department and guess what! They haven't even bothered replying to my complaint!!!

Emma C 3 years ago

I have been trying for two weeks to cancel my BT service. I was told I was liable for a £299 bill because my broadband is tied into an 18 month contract. I was NEVER told about this contract, the person who rang me five months ago simply said they were reducing my monthly payment. I presumed because I was a good customer...how wrong I was! My intial 12 month contract period was up, I thought I could cancel my service at any time.

10 phone calls, five hours on the phone, two emails of complaint, a thousand apologies and countless lies later, I was told today that I am liable for the £299 charge because I should be aware of my term and conditions...What term and conditions?...I didnt sign up to anything!! If I want my recorded phone call listened to from when I was mis sold the contract back in June, I need to pay for it! I was not allowed to speak to a manager because there "was no point" and she would not tell me who BT were regulated by as "there was no point in complaining, it will be the same outcome".

No one in the call centres know what they are doing, I have been told so much contradicting information its unbelievable. Today I was told a complaint should be answered within 48 hours but over the past two weeks this has ranged up to 14days.

I am ringing OFCOM tomorrow to get their advice - theres no way I am paying £299!

P.Patel 3 years ago

My mother's BT line stopped on 19th October , called BT who could not fix the problem so 2 days later they sent a engineer who said the fault seems to be from outside. They then sent another engineer a on the 30th October who said the problem was with the internet side of the BT controls and had ordered the parts which would take 48 hours. Called back 48 hours and was told that they do not have any idea when it will be fixed, and that they will call me back with a date but todate there is no reply. Every time you call they put you to different operators and it takes atleast 45 minutes to get through and get the same answer every time. My mother is an elderly lady and its very frustating since we cannot contact her as neither her internet nor her phone works. Also I tried to cancel my contract which they have broken and was told that they would charge until the end of the contract.

bt

David Britch 3 years ago

We moved our business premises on Friday 31st October from Liverpool to Warrington and therefore needed to transfer over our buiness lines.

I contacted BT local business (tel 01704 898200 Natasha Quayle)early in October to sort out the smooth transition of the changeover.

We had two lines in Liverpool 01514740808 ad 01514740807, together with BT broadband on the 0808 number.

I advised Natasha that I wished to transfer over the 0808 number and the broadband but we no longer required the 0807 number. I also wanted to have a answer divert message placed on the 0808 number and was told by Natasha that this would be no problem and would cost £33 per 1/4 with a minimum contract of 12 months. I asked her about the transfer of the broadband and Natasha told me that all I had to do was unplug it from my old premises and plug it back in at the new premisies.

I therefore ordered the new line at the new premises(order number KWT813LV) and the new line was placed in on October 24th (number 01925269642) at a cost of approx £110. After the new line was in I telephoned Natasha back gave her the new number so that she could set the divert message on and confirmed with her that everything would be okay for the transfer on the 31st October.

We then transfered premises on the 31st October and plugged our broadband into the new line. Nothing happened!!!!. I telephoned BT broadband and was told that broadband had to be connected on the line, contradicting everything that Natasha had said. We therefore had to place an order in for broadband to be connected and was told this would take an extra 5 working days.

I then telephoned the old 0808 number to see if the answer message was working, but I all I got was an inaudible tone.

I telephoned Natasha back and she said that there was a fault with the line and the engineers were looking into it.

A week later and nothing has been resolved, ie there is still the inaudible tone and the engineers are still looking into it.

We are a professional organisation who prides ourselves on the service that we offer our clients. What picture do you think it is painting for them when they phone our old number and all they get is an inaudible dial tone. They will think that we have gone out of business and use a competitor subsequently losing us thousands of pounds in comission.

I wish Natasha had told us before the transfer went through that there could be a problem with both the broadband and the divert answering service and I would have been able to put some contingency plans in place.

Instead we have been made to look like rank amateurs in our marketplace.

I am very dissapointed with the level of shoddy, substandard service that I have been given by you.

I need this matter rectifying immediately and the answer message going on the old line.

I also wish compensation from you, starting with the connection fee for the new line, any exitfees for the old line and a discount on the divert telephone answer service, when it finally gets put on the line!!!!!.

I will also be passing this complaint to ofcom

David Britch

Cheryl Hazlewood 3 years ago

I've been a BT customer for the last 10 years. Up until I moved to a new house in January 2008 I had no complaints whatsoever. I've been in my house for 11 months now, & I've had nothing but hassle since we've been here.

Before I moved I informed BT of the new address. They told me that there was no existing BT line at the property so I'd have to pay for a new installation. At the time I was a single parent, & I was told that the installation fee could be paid for by being split over the first 3 months of billing. 1 month after moving in I received my bill, icluding charges for my calls, & the full installation charge, being £155.66 inclusive. I rang BT customer services & was told that I had been wrongly informed & that I would need to pay it. I managed to find the money to do this & hoped that my problems would now be over. How wrong could I be?

In June/July 2008 my BT Homehub stopped working. I phoned the Broadband helpline (in India), & was told that a new Hub would be on its' way. 2 days later I received the Installation disc, expecting my new Hub to arrive shortly. 1 week later, still no Hub, so I phoned back, to be told that there was no record that I'd requested a new Homehub. I requested (again) a new Hub & was told that it would be with me shortly. 1 week later, still no Hub. I wrote a letter of complaint telling BT that I wouldn't be paying them for the month that I'd had no Hub, detailing my phonecalls. I received a phonecall from an adviser telling me that my Hub would arrive 2 days later, & that they wouldn't charge me for the previous months' Broadband.

June & July 2008 phone bills were fine.

In August 2008 I received my 'monthly' bill for the amount of £142.86. I nearly fell off my chair when I saw it. The breakdown showed that from July-August I had an excessage usage of 155Gb '&' an excess usage of 160Gb on my 8Gb Broadband account. I queried this bill, as my family don't download anything we shouldn't, but I decided to pay it to get it out of the way.

Septembers' bill came to £69.95.

On receipt of October-November 2008 bill, I find that my bill is £136.81, including an excess usage amount of 152Gb. Where the hell are these amounts coming from? My partner is in I.T. & says that for that much overusage we'd have to be downloading approximately 300 movies per month. My household has a laptop which I use for my emails & ebay. We have a P.C. in our living room for the kids, which has a password which only I know, & they have no access to without my knowledge.

I'm sick of arguing this out with Customer Service, & being put through to people who I don't understand, & they don't understand me! As far as I'm concerned BT are only after your money. They don't give a monkeys about your customer experience or when things are going wrong. I've disagreed my billing until I'm blue in the face, & I'm determined I will not be paying this new bill for excess usage. I DO NOT sit on my computer all day every day downloading whatever it is I am supposed to be downloading.

BT need to pull their socks up, give us english speaking advisers, get rid of their useless automated services, & get with it. We cannot afford to pay for these hash-up bills, & I for one will not be taking up a new contract with them when this one expires, & I will certainly not be recommending their services to people I know. Virgin Media, here I come.

Jane Stanley 3 years ago

Yet another horrified BT customer! I first logged a fault on the 28th October - along with all other residents of our block of flats (although I didn't know this initially). They tested the line, no fault, re-tested and found one. Engineer came out the following day and said our cable had been disconnected inadvertently at the exchange and we were now re-connected. Wrong. Many, many calls (mostly to Indian call centre), and an Engineer was booked for Monday as they insisted they'd tested all else and found the fault must be internal to us. Waited in all day and no engineer turned up and no-one called to say why. Tried several times to complain and get answers but I'm told something different each time.

The latest is that they've dug the hole to fix in the wrong place (they did that on 4th November) and now won't dig the next hole until 10th November. They still don't know what's wrong with all the lines being out (including several elderly residents being without a phone). I can't get any explanation or apology from BT - each call centre person is rude and unhelpful. And they refuse to escalate this fault.

I have no idea when I will have a phone (and obviously broadband connection). I'ts been over one week and still no light at the end of the tunnel.

How dare BT treat their customers so appallingly? I often need to work from home during weekends and evenings, but now I'm unable to do this. BT have no urgency to fix this issue - even when I told them of the elderly residents, the call centre "person" said "So?!" I was horrified.

Both myself and my husband have spent a total of around 8 hours on the phone to BT - will we get refunded for this ? I doubt it.

happy 3 years ago

We moved house on the 26 Aug 08 and my partner set up Phone bill & DD with BT. 13 Oct and the bill arrives, except its quarterly and that wasnt what we wanted. So I phoned them (in India) and requested the invoice be cancelled and reissued as a monthly invoice.. This took over 20 minutes and much explaining that I was not 'Mrs' anything and that I also wanted my name on the account. I was informed that this would take upto 10 working days for the re-issued invoice to reach us.. simple.. hmm

23 Oct and I receive a call from the same individual I spoke to previously. BT had taken the original invoice amount from our bank account 3 days before the actual DD date.. I. Hit. The. Roof!! And after 10 mins of not understanding what was being said to me, I asked to speak to his manager. The manager said that the BT had approached the bank and the bank had said that it would be ok to TAKE the money.. What right does a bank have to give this permission! BT then said that what I had been told previously was Wrong but they would refund the money back to us excluding the quarterly rental charge! And said they were doing us a FAVOR.. (bollocks) They weren't losing any money by doing this..

By 5 Nov, the money had still NOT reached our account. Once again I spoke to someone in India, asking why this money was missing. After having to arrange a call back as their system had crashed, I still didn't get a clear answer. 10 mins later, I asked to have my name put onto the account agai(!) and she said that I had to have permission from the account holder. Put my partner on, I asked him to get a Query Log Number (something that should be created everytime a query is raised) and he was then told that the money was being held onto and would be used to pay off the next invoice...

They could have told me that 15 mins before or even (shock horror) on the 23 Oct.

Going to complain officially. Shame that we all seem to be having so many problems when it should be so simple to resolve. (Plus, I would like to speak to someone NOT reading from a script and who is in a British call centre)

Sushil Golecha 3 years ago

Order Ref No - 14359480537

I had placed this order and owing to some had to rearrange the engineer time to Nov 6. When no one turned up, I called the helpdesk at 13:20 approx. A gentleman answered and kept me on hold for 20 min. Then he called on my cell and claimed that line disconnected where I was on hold on the other line. He stated that the order has been cancelled and I need to place a new order. I tried explaining that I had arranged for a new time and asked why was the order cancelled. He was rude and not ready to accept. He only wanted me to put a new order. When I did not comply, he disconnected the phone. Is this professional. I wait for 10 days for a phone and I am treated like this.

I again called the helpdesk, this time Ms Rajshree answered and she stated that the order is still open, she can see an engineer appointment for Nov 6.

I can be reached on 0798564 8976 if you really address complaints and care about your customers.

Regards, Sushil

Steve 3 years ago

I work in an out going call centre abd when you get a number wrong, a tone SCREAMS into your ear! I want to ring up BT and just say the same thing over and over again so tehy can see how irrating that tone is!

How can we get BT to be more customer friendly instead of aggresive??

Cheers

Steve

Carlos 3 years ago

I have been writing to BT (Julie Howarth 'executive customer complaints & the CEO Ian Livingston) back and forth for over a monthv regarding over-charging on my mobile and landline bills. Ignoring their patronising an unapologetic attitude, i felt massive relief when i was told i could cancel my accounts (broadband and landline) without incurring extra charges (i would only have to pay call charges) and a sum would be credited to my account for the amount I had been over-charged. Apparently this was just the beginning of yet more farcical back and forth emails after receiving my final bill and being over-0charegd for sdrvice charges & calls by a further £70. They are actually quibbling over that amount and refusing to take ownership for thei mistakes. Absolutely no apology was forthcoming from their CEO in fact quite the opposite - in response to email below:

"I have looked at the bills sent and online and have noticed various errors again. Please find my amendments and final total payable of £88.69.

I will pay this amount by card once confirmed – even though to be frank I think BT should draw a line under this episode considering it’s taken 23 days to each a complete unsatisfactory outcome.

Otherwise, I would like a hold put onto the bill so that this case can be reviewed by the ombudsman.

It would be appreciated if Ian Livingston – to whom I have been directing this correspondence - would contact me with an explanation as to why I appear to be over–charged again and again even in my final bill and why his customer service team treat customers so appallingly.

I received THIS:

I have not responded as I can see that Julie and the team are dealing with this and handling the case. Ian ian.livingston@bt.comI am soooooooooo fed up and at a loss as to how I can further this. Would an ombudsman listen? I have about 50 emails - all sent during work time which is just ridiculous. I want to scream!!!

Annette Jones 3 years ago

I have been a BT customer for 3yrs, must admit not too many problems until I have to call the customer service dept. I am being charged £50.50 a monthy direct debit, when in fact it has been worked out that i should only be paying £15 !!! I was over a £150 in credit and they refuse to give me back my money by cheque and correct my payment !! Twice they tell me that they'll give me a couple months in lou of payment and each time I still way in credit !!! I am once again over £150 in credit and once again they tell me they will not repay it !!! I would rather get my credit back and start paying the correct monthly amount but oh no they continue to take £50.50 off me !!!!

Advice PLEASE - How can I correct this !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Surely I have rights to my money !!!

Katie  3 years ago

this is the actual letter i'm sending to bt

I am writing to draw attention to the appalling treatment received from your staff and company as a whole. I do not like to do this but after nearly 4 weeks of speaking to a brick wall I feel this is necessary. I made an online order for a line with yourselves on the 13th of October, I received an e-mail back staying my order has gone though and everything was ok, I then received another e-mail the next day with order number VOL011-14019158298, stating that “our records indicate that there is already a telephone line at your premises. However, we have not received notification from the outgoing BT customer that they intend to cancel their service. Therefore, to connect this telephone line to your name, we need to give a notice period of 11 working days. During this time, we will contact the outgoing customer to verify that they do wish to cancel their service and that the line can be transferred over to you. The line will be transferred in your name on 31/10/2008 providing the current customer agrees to the transfer. Your telephone number will be 01913868551, please note that I cannot guarantee this number until your line is connected. Your telephone number will not be listed in the telephone book and it will not be listed in directory enquiries”.On the 15th of October I received a phone call from your customer services stating that my line will go live the following Tuesday 21st October, whist on the phone the operator asked how long we had resided at the property and who lived there? I advised me, my husband and our son, he the asked if a Mrs Sandiford lived there or at number Lund avenue, I advised not to my knowledge and the previous tenant at our property was a Mrs Janet Luke, he then said something which I could not understand and asked if he had helped with my queries I said yes thanks.On the 16th of October we received a letter stating that our line will go live 31st October and what our new telephone number was. When it came to 31st of October my phone was not on I called in the morning and spoke to your call centre in India. Who advised me to wait after 12pm when the line would go active. I waited until 14:30 and called BT back where I spoke to a call centre again. Who advised me to unplug my phone and plug it back in, I did that and nothing happened he then advised a fault was on the line and he would have to send an engineer out, asked how long this would take and he told me that you aimed to have it resolved by Monday 03 November 17:00pm, about 20mins later a technician came to the door and asked to go on my roof, he then looked at a telegraph pole and drove off. An hour later I called you repair centre and spoke to a man called Mason who was not helpful at all he talked to me in a very unprofessional manner and when I asked to make a complaint he would not log anything and told me to put it in writing, he also stated that my line had a local fault on and would not be fixed until Monday I advised him that I want my bill re calculating to the day it actually goes live, he said he cannot help me at all and the technicians don’t work weekends so call back Monday for an update, his manner was totally inappropriate on the phone and he just did not care or want to help me.Saturday 01 November I received a phone call on my mobile whilst out visiting a sick family member, asking me to come to the house so a technician can have a look at the inside of the house, the technician spent 3 hours at our property and finally realised that the line supposed to be live was actually ringing at 2 Lund court, you have my address mixed up with Lund Court, Mrs Sandiford at Lund court has received letters from yourselves stating you are taking her line off her and giving it to me as she no longer lives there, she spent 2 hours crying on the phone to your customer services centre trying to explain her situation and no one even bothered to help her at all which I find totally unacceptable the woman lives on her own is 85 years old and needs her phone for emergencies. The technician also realised that our old line going to 2 Lund Avenue has been split in 2 and given to different houses. The technician on Saturday logged all this for us in details and explained to us what he was going to do, he also drove to Mrs Sandiford’s address and helped her try to sort out her line, which he did not have to do, the technician explained that he will have to put our fault to the planners and they will have to come and find a spare line for us and this may take some time. On Sunday Nov 02 I received a text message stating that the line was fixed, again I tried the phone and no dial tone or anything, so I called the faults dept again and spent another 40mins on the phone to someone who obviously cannot be bothered to help anyone, I explained the whole situation again to him and he stated he will get in contact with the planners again. Monday Nov 03 a phone call from the planners in Newcastle again I went through the whole story he said leave it with me and he will call back with an update.On Wednesday Nov 05 I received yet more mail for mrs Sandiford at our address, so I called the repair centre again and spoke to Moira (I think this was he name as she would not speak properly when I asked her name or where she was based) who I think was based in Milton Keynes, she was adamant that our line was working and was even shouting at me and constantly interrupting me saying that she was actually testing the line whilst on the phone to me, I was in tears at this point as it seems every time I speak to someone from BT I get abuse and attitude, when I asked to speak to a manager she hung up the phone on me. By this time I was extremely upset with the service received or lack of in my case. I called the repairs number again and explained to a lady called Lorraine who was based in Milton Keynes the situation, she was very helpful and probably her and the technician who came on Saturday are the only two people who have helped and wanted to help.Lorraine’s manner and helpfulness was brilliant, she checked the notes and said that the notes from the technician on Saturday had been ignored that’s why the fault was showing as fixed and she could see that the fault was not fixed, she offered to pass the details onto her supervisor and call me back either the same night or the next day. She called me back Thursday Nov 6th and said she was going to put me through to Julia who is based in Middlesbrough customer services to help me with my situation.Julia came on the phone and said they can put a line in for £125, I explained that I have a letter confirming that I would not have to pay for a new line at all and this is BT's fault as you should have checked the lines before you offered me one, again another one of your staff with an attitude problem she was constantly interrupting me and would not listen to any of the situation which had arisen, she then put me on hold for 10 mins whilst she spoke to her manager and came back saying BT were willing to pay half the line connection fee. I explained again that this is unacceptable as it is your fault I’m in this situation, checks should have been done on the line before this happened and tried to explain to her the hassle I’ve had from many members of our staff, she then said “that’s not her problem, she’s here to deal with my line connection not anything else” her attitude again was unacceptable and rude.When I asked to speak to her manager she refused and put me on hold for another 20mins.She then came back with BT will credit my account with the £125 pounds connection fee, I asked to speak to her manager again to get this confirmed and she said no I’m dealing with this you don’t need to speak to a manager. I told her the best times that either me or my partner would be available as we both work full time jobs, she stated that we would need to be at the house and BT don’t work weekends, (so if you don’t work weekends why was a technician at my

Ben Keeton 3 years ago

The following is a letter I sent to; BT, Ofcom, Otelo and BBC watchdog:

Dear Sir/madam at OFCOM

I am writing in regards to the “service” that BT (British Telecom) have “provided” to me (I used quotation marks as they are neither providing me with anything, nor giving me a service).

I have had problems with BT since day one of my (supposed) connection, when they claimed they were going to connect me on a certain day and failed to do so. I called one of their many numbers several times throughout the day and was numerously told it would be connected by the end of the day.

The next day, when I was still not connected, I contacted BT again and I was told there was no connection to my apartment and that an engineer would have to come out, for which I would be charged and would also cause me to have the day off work.

Whilst the engineer was in our apartment he told us that the problem was a fault on BT's behalf as the previous engineer, who had been called out before we resided there, had incorrectly installed the line.

While BT did not charge us for this call-out, our contract still started from the original supposed connection date, and we did not receive even an apology and it took several calls to BT to sort it out.

All the calls I made were from a mobile phone and ended up costing about £20 in calling credit due to trudging through their amounts of different numbers and menu selections then being transferred to and from various people who could barely speak English and kept asking me to repeat myself, adding more time onto an already expensive call.

After the line was finally repaired, I got kept getting strange calls in the middle of the night, which after answering, would continuously beep which I'm presuming is a fax machine. This happened several times a week, and as well as these, constantly getting calls asking if our business wanted to buy this product or that service. This is a home phone and I have never, nor do I intend to ever run a tanning salon! All this and my number were supposedly ex-directory! Not to mention the 1571 service I requested, and which never got activated.

When I subscribed to BT they were doing an offer of Phone and Broadband for £15 for the first three months, so naturally I was shocked when I received my first bill of £70+. I made more calls, ploughed through more menus, and got transferred to different people several times because it was both a Broadband and Phone problem. Neither Broadband office nor Phone office believed it was their fault so I kept getting bounced between the two. The people I did managed to speak to didn't understand even the simplest things I was telling them and kept feeding me stories about why I had received this bill, they each have a different explanation! For example, telling me I receive this ridiculously high bill the first month, and then I would be credited a little each month after (false advertising too, surely?).

Every time I called I received little help. I kept requesting to speak to a Manager or Supervisor, the call handler would put me on hold each time for approximately 5-10 minutes per call, and each time came back with excuses and more stories, not the authority figure I requested. I finally got through to the only pleasant person in the entirety of the company who quickly resolved the problem and sent out an amended bill.

Although all of the above was annoying to say the least, I put up with it. As apart from sporadic bills that seemed to arrive when they chose, constant disconnects and an appalling wireless range I didn't have any other problems. Until I came to move apartments.

After again trudging through numbers, menus and unpleasant and uncaring call handlers I finally got through to someone to change my address, except (according to them) there was no line connected to the apartment. This would cost me £120+ to get connected, even if it only means an engineer spending 5 minutes at the outside box and not even entering the premises. (Surely if it's something at the box, then it's a fault with BT and definitely not worthy of the £120+ charge). I asked if there being no line connected came under the part in the terms and conditions, which it state “if BT can't provide a service where I am moving then I can cleanly break the contract with no repercussions”. Apparently it doesn't. After biting my tongue I begrudgingly agreed to pay the fee on direct debit over a 6 month period. I informed BT of my new address, got a day for re-connection and arranged a day off work.

The day was getting later and later, and I still hadn't been connected. After the supposed arranged time had passed I decided to brave the menus and unhelpful call handlers (again on a mobile which cost around £30 to date, as I obviously had no landline). When I finally got through to someone I explained I hadn't been connected. They told me that the job had been cancelled. The call handler couldn't tell me why, and wouldn't put me through to anyone who could. He just kept telling me that they no longer had contact with the engineers. He wanted to arrange another day for connection but I refused as I'm not taking another leave day from work only to be stood up again. Frankly, at this point in the call, my anger was boiling so I hung up. I wasn't angry because of the fact that the job had been cancelled, but because I had waited in all day in case the engineer needed access to the property and no one had the decency to inform me that the job had mysteriously been cancelled and nobody knew why. And I can almost guarantee that the £120+ will still disappear from my account.

I know in their Terms and Conditions they have a part about “if they can't be connected then I can break the contract”, however I think they missed out the part about WON'T connect me. I would quite happily walk away from BT, if not for their £400 contract cancellation fee.

As it stands right now I have no broadband or telephone as I cannot bear to contact BT’s shoddy, unprofessional, uncaring and demeaning attitude towards their customers again. I am currently paying a temporary subscription for wireless internet with another company until I receive some satisfaction, with BT or otherwise.

The only reason I went with BT in the first place is because they appear to hold a monopoly with phone lines, and I laughably presumed it would be easier to get broadband with them too. I'm on the verge of blocking all future direct debits from BT, as the bailiffs would cause less aggravation than them!

My Requests are this:

I expect at the very least compensation for my mobile calls and missed days at work, and to finally be connected.

preferably I would like a free termination of my contract (and an end to the stress!) from both phone and broadband as they have not supplied the service they promised, hence breaking their end of the contract

Ideally an investigation into how BT handles its bills and customer service dept, as it's like a second job just trying to the simplest of information from them, and I have heard numerous complaints of the same nature from several people.

Yours Sincerely

Mr Benjamin Keeton.

This letter has also been copied to:

British Telecom

Office of the Telecommunications Ombudsman

BBC Watchdog

This letter, and any replies I may receive will be made available in the public domain and all future calls made or received from BT will be recorded and forwarded to the above.

Scott Davies  3 years ago

What can i say BT are a total waste of space, after moving in with my partner I took out broadband and a telephone line with BT, unfortunately me and my partner split up and we were forced to sell the apartment.

i phoned BT and told them to disconnect my phone line they explained to me that i would be charged for 18 months as i entered a contract of witch i agreed to pay and told them my forwarding address.

Months later i was still receiving bills i phoned them up and they informed me the contract hadn't been cancelled and the Indian women promised me the line had been closed and a final bill would be on its way within 2 weeks.

after 8 weeks i still hadn't received the bill so i phoned them up to chase the bill and they said it would be with me in the next 2 weeks, of witch the bill did arrive the bill was for £333.23 i phoned them up and said i would pay them when i got my wages around the 18th, and they agreed to this.

When i went to pay my bill they said they had passed the bill on to a debt collection agency as i didnt pay within 28 days, and now i have been charged court costs and the embrassment of having a bailiff turning up at my door.

i honestly cant belive BT they dont have a clue about customer service, I can promise I will never in my life use BT again id rather go without.

Brendan 3 years ago

BT have been using every tactic possible to prevent me leaving their broadband and phone service... I negotiasted a deal, was mis-sold a number of times... was continually offered BT Vision (although I have it and it's just a set top box really) ... they sent me round in circles for hours on end... giving details time after time to so amny people, here and in India... they have frustratingly redirected my calls, slammed me AND refused to let me go! An open issue was "open" for 3 weeks... Every time I have to phone I end up exhausted by frustration and annoyance. I have been deliberately cut off after eventuially getting through to people.

Immoral buisness practices like this and dishonestly claiming that I am within a contract of their making in order to not let me go... surely there has to be a quicker way of these idiots being scrutinised and regulated more thoroughly.

I am so disappointed with them. One thing is for certain - I do not care how much the competition are... whenever my next window of opportunity comes along.. it's goodbye for ever!

No matter what they offer me!

Helen  3 years ago

Copy of complaint just sent to BT (08.11.08)

Over 3 months ago me and my partner experienced problems with our phone line. We was getting a crackling on our line (firstly intermittently, but then continual) that was so bad we couldn't use our landline and broadband. Me and my partner firstly did on an online test (at work) to see if there were any fault on the line, it came back no fault had been detected. A couple of days later we requested another line test, it again came back no fault detected. My partner called on his mobile and spoke to one of your colleagues and explained the problems we were having, when he mentioned that we had broadband with another provider you quickly blamed the broadband provider and explained that the problem was not BT but my broadband provider.

After contacting my broadband provider, they did tests on the broadband connection and the phone line, we unplugged all of the broadband equipment and tested other phones and the phone line was still crackling. My broadband provider explained that if all of the broadband equipment was unplugged then there is definitely a fault on the phone line and not the broadband equipment. Where do I go now, when both of you were blaming each other!!!!!!

My broadband provider passed me to a technical department who made me do the tests over and over again over the passed couple of months on the phone line, the connection box, unplugging the equipment, plugging different phones in, it was getting beyond a joke and each time they said it is definitely a BT issue.

Eventually, after 3 months of trying to get the problem fixed, my broadband provider arranged for a BT engineer to visit my house and check the phone line and all connections - guess what he found a fault on the phone line!!!!!!!! the engineer quickly mended the problem and the phone line is usable again!!!!!!!

WHY OH WHY wasn't this picked up from any of your "fault tests"???? and WHY did it take my broadband provider to arrange your engineer to fix the problem??????

This fault has caused so many problems for us:

* Using mobiles to call premium rate telephone numbers to get the problem fixed

* Using mobiles instead of using the landline, which has made the mobile phone bills high.

* My partner using other peoples computers for work because the broadband connection wouldn't work as the phone line was so bad.

* Still paying for a service that could not be used, BT rental and the monthly broadband payment

* The waste of time it has taken trying to resolve the BT problem, which you quickly passed the book on.

I hope look into this incident and compensate me accordingly for all of the trouble it has taken to sort your problems out. If you look at my recent phone bills you can see I have hardly used the phone line and paying for something I can not use really annoys me.

I should be grateful if you respond as soon as possible

Rory Westfold 3 years ago

Letter sent to Durham, no response. Email sent:

"Apologies but, I had originally sent a letter which has not been answered so I felt it prudent to send this.

1. I have received two bills in September dated the 15th and dated the 16th. Which bill is correct since the latter states £38.70 and the prior states £225.95! A big disparity.

2. I moved address on August 16th 2008 and spoke to an adviser prior to that to discuss moving the service. I was informed that should I want to cancel BT's service and use another provider in the new house, I would be charged £147 disconnection fee but, a transfer of your service would not carry a charge and would continue as normal. However, the earlier bill appears to have the one and same charge! I would like to point out, I am still with you!

3. When I use my home phone to contact people, it is still dialling out as an 01227 code instead of 01233. Why is this. The telephone team have been notified on several occasions but this still has not been rectified.

4. Almost two weeks after I had moved out of the previous house, the tenants contacted me saying they could not transfer their BT lines because I had not transferred my lines. I had been using my new home phone for all of that time and it was confirmed twice to me by your telephone team that everything had been completed correctly your end. This may have some way to explain, 1. the charge 2. The wrong STD 3. The generation of two bills.

5. To cap it all off, the BT Home Hub Phone occasionally to frequently crashes and resets itself with a high pitched whine when being used to dial out or answer a call. This is extremely frustrating.

Basically, I am fully prepared to pay my bill but, I would like the bill to be singular, for ONE account only, and be correct. As soon as you can do this and either email me or mail me with those details, I will make the payment. I appreciate your time and understand some of these are complex. Please can you get the bill to me as a priority as I do not wish to have poor credit for someone elses failure to complete a task correctly.

Thank you.

2 responses, one day apart - one says they will deal with complaint. Next one says that I cannot email directly to that email box (which is different to the one I sent to!)

ARE BT JUST PLAYING GAMES AND AVOIDING RESOLUTION? It now appears my phone line is disabled for calls and still noone has come back to me! I work in an industry where your credit worthiness means your ability to do the job and it is affecting me. I assume that I have the right to sue them for loss of earnings because of this if I can no longer work in this industry? I am also expected to reply within 5 working days of a complaint with some acknowledgement it is being looked into! All I know is they received the email but no idea if it has been looked at or rejected by the faceless corporation!

james curran 3 years ago

The lack of service provided by BT is terrible, I have made many calls to them to sort out my bill. I do not receive a bill from BT as I am on pay and call package. Within a week I called approx 4 times and was quoted an amount outstanding for my account which was paid, I then waited the 24 hrs to reconnect line. This farce continued throught the week with me making 3 separate paymentsd to BT in order to reconnect my line. I have now recently called BT AGAIN to find they are now quoting me yet another figure to reconnect. My patience has now worn thin I have now sent a letter to complan. To which I await a response. But yet at present still no line!!!!! Now I am not disputing that I was in arrears with my account which resulted in my line being disconnected but this level of service where I have made 3 different payments is ridiculous.!!!!

Lyn Mountain 3 years ago

Despite requesting BT to ensure that all mail, bills etc be set to my home address and not the installation address, guess what? They are sending all correspondence to the installation address which is occupied by students. I don't seem to be able to rectify this and this is before the installation has been completed. I have tried to speak to someone (anyone) in the UK but always get someone in Asia who is always apologetic but nothing gets done! If you interupt them in their answers they have to start all over again, I guess they are reading from a prearranged remit but can't help.

Heather Sheen 3 years ago

I am writing on behalf of one of my customers who has recieved appalling service from dispite ringing and writing her problem regarding her bills have still not been rectified & yesterday to crown it all she recieved a bill for June which she had all ready paid . Mrs Hooper is due to go to New Zealand in late November and does not want her phone disconnected again for late payment she is an elderly lady who could well do without all this hassle which is causing her great distress.I don't know wether it is possible for you to compensate her for all the hassle but as a company it would be a nice gesture. Her name is Mrs Muriel Hooper account no GB03106127

kay 3 years ago

Can anyone explain my BT phone bill to me. Customer services are ignoring my questions.

I am on BT Anytime plan which costs £16.45 per month incl VAT. I get a £1.25 incl VAT discount per month for paperless billing. This covers all my georgraphical calls the only extra I pay for is 0845ectc and mobiles.

First is £16.45 per month incl VAT the total cost or is the £1.25 taken from this. Or has it already been taken to make it £16.45. If I didnt have paperless billing would the charge be £17.70 incl VAT.

Unfortunately when they send my bill in it is listed as follows.

Cost of calls 0.45 (this is for 0845 call)

Your Benefits -3.22 (for the paperless billing excl. VAT)

Rental charges 45.19 (excl. VAT)

VAT 7.43

Total £ 49.85 Incl. VAT

No where on BTs site does it give the cost of BT Anytime without VAT.

I cannot work out how they get the rental charge of £45.19 excl VAT any way I try to work it out I cannot match the figures on the bill.

Incl VAT it should be £16.45 x3 = 49.35 quarter minus 3x £1.25 =£3.75 total

£45.60 This is including VAT. If I add 45p + VAT for the extra call it comes to 53p

£45.60 plus 53p it comes to £46.13, how do they make it £49.85 it seems to me their figure for rental without VAT is too high.

Please help someone.

Gary 3 years ago

I am not sure whether anyone is particularly interested in my lengthy but frankly futile efforts to ensure a basic level of broadband service with BT. Following endless conversations with friendly folks in India, running through the same 'drop down' menus of problems solving I find myself sat with a 'Broadband' service that manages a massive speed of 123kbps - FANTASTIC.

My conversation this afternoon inspires no greater confidence as I have been assured "the faults department will address the issues that are affecting your service". I can only assume that these are the same engineers who "corrected the fault" four weeks ago and had the dramatic effect of actually reducing the speed even further.

The question of what to do is a complex one. I have discussed with the pleasant man in India about possibly pushing my home 2km closer to the exchange but that would mean living in a less pleasant area. Sadly sarcasm and irony are lost through the very long and obviously fast phone line to India. Actually it might be worth BT digging that up and using it to help some of us many poor unfortunates who have poor services and dreadful experiences with them foster some degree of faith in them once again. No come to think of it - don't bother - your products are lousy and your service despicable.

Catharsis is quite a pleasnt feeling isn't it. I hope one day I'm in a position where someone from BT needs something from me... sadly I'm too professional for that though.

Emily  3 years ago

Hi,

I have recently moved to a new flat and needed to move my phone line, so 3 weeks before my move in date I called BT to arrange this.

During my first call to BT I was told that I could not place the order as I didnt know if the property had a line installed so i was told to try and find out and call them back. I did this, the next time I called I was told they didnt know which phone line belonged to which flat in the block so they could not tell if the line was active or not. Because my estate agent didnt know this information I was told to wait until I got into my flat and plug my phone and see if there was a dial tone. A week later I got a letter through the post to say 'we hope the move when well and there will be an engerneer attending my property on the 30th Oct (I hadnt moved by this piont) so i called them to explain there must have been a mistake and to cancel the order. This was dealt with easily (or so i thought!)

On moving in to my property I pluged my phone in as requested and there was no dial tone (suprise, surprise)

I called BT again to activate my line and was told they copuldnt do this because I had an order outstanding on my account and was put through to customer services again to cancel it. I was on the telephone for over 45minutes which over half of that was time I spent on hold. Finally I was told that my order had been cancelled and I would be able to call on the 30th Oct and reactive my line.

On 28th october i recieved a text message to say and engerneer would be attending my property on the 30th Oct!! I still have not ordered or arranged anything with BT at this piont!!! So i called bt to make sure they were not sending anyone, they then told me that I had an order for activation and I needed to be through to customer services to cancel it. After another 20mins I was told this had been done and to call back on the 30th.

30th oct I get a call from bt open reach saying they are here to active my line. I sent him away because I hadnt ordered anything or arranged payment.

on the 1st November I call Bt to start activing my line.......and was told again that there was a order on my account. and was put through to customer services to cancel it. After explain to the man that this was my fourth time doing this and that I was getting very annoyed he canceled the order straight away and i was put through to home movers to process my new order.

I arranged for an engineer to come on the 12th Nov (today) but then was told I would be working that day so I called last monday to move the appiontment to Friday. I was told this was fine.

This morning I got a call from the BT open reach engineer to say he was on his way. I explained to him that I has moved this appiontment to Friday and was going to work. He told me that it hadnt been changed on his system and he couldnt come again for anothe couple of weeks, so I left my keys with the sercuity at the flats and asked him to let the engineer in for me.

I have just recieved a call for i lady at BT saying that I have requested to change my telephone number (which I have not!!) I told her this and that i wanted to keep my current number. she says that is fine but it will take up to 4 working days and they will call me when it is done.

Why have they done this? Changing my number was never mentioned!

On top of all this I have my calls through SKY Talk and I recieved a letter off them telling me BT had asked them to cancel my subcribtion, because i hadnt changed my address with sky the letter took a week to get to me by this time they had cancelled my acount! why did BT do this, they have no right canceling my subcribtions!!

How did the final man manage to cancel the order on my account straight away but it took 4 phone calls before this??

How are they getting away with this bad service?

If I could have opened my phone line with anybody else I would have.

I am sorry if this message doesnt make much sense I am very mad with BT!

Emily

yev 3 years ago

Traffic shapping! it is now beggining to pee me off! i understand fair usage policy and all BUT cap torrents or emules or whatever, stop capping game server ports! games should be a priority yet it seems everyday after 6pm the nightmare starts, cant stay connected to any server for longer than 5mins. getting on my nerves.

ppl if you find yourselves stuck in a contract there's a way out!!! ;)

Miles Atkins 3 years ago

Most of my spam email isn't even addressed to me and it appears their server(s) are doing a partial address match so if the first few letters of the address are correct, it gets dumped in my inbox. I've sent a formal complain to BT but don't expect much from their useless support staff. I wonder if I could sue them for time wasted sifting through hundreds of these in case there is legitimate email in amongst all the spam. The percentage of spam correctly addressed to me is tiny.

Wayne Richings 3 years ago

What can I say about BT apart from nothing good at all...I have never experienced such rubbish customer service..If I wanted to go on a merry go round I would go to the fair...I have tried in Vain to get accounts closed, and bills paid only to end up having my broadband disconnected...When you do speak to a "muppet" advisor they cant help you and have to transfer you all around the world only to speak to the final person the floor manager who assures you that they will do everything they can to assist and to ensure that your account is back up and running and apologise sincerely for the mistakes and incompetence of there colleagues...We will call you back we promise i hear from them.,....Not a single call back....What an absolutely and pardon my French Shiite company thank god all companies do not have the same read from a page if the answers not there I can not help attitude....So that being said screw you BT i will arrange for another ISP to provide me with my broadband and pray that there service is not as shockingingly awful as yours!!!!!!!

If only it was as easy to close your account as it is for you to close mine.....

Phone calls well what can I say i reiterate the merry go round as that is all you get from one person to another who all have the same level of understanding and that is Nothing right hand has no idea what the left hand is doing..far to many divisions and far to many "quite possibly underpaid and therefore underskilled staff" you pay for a monkey and thats what you get...Apologies to any member of BT who actually does have 2 brain cells

Chris Lomax 3 years ago

Changed from virgin to BT as my girlfriend moved in and it was cheaper to transfer her BT phone, what a mistake!!

They then took £270 out of her bank for disconecetion fee even thou we just transfed the line and we have now spent the last month being shiped from one bad speakin english person to the next. We have logged two offical complaints and still gettin no sence out of them really wished we kept virgin and paid disconection fee that they took anyway!! O well only 8 months to go then there contract runs out and back to Virgin.. And trying to get thru to customer services is like getting money out of BT (impossible)

Martyn Pass 3 years ago

Can anyone give me a tel. no that's answered by humans [ i use the term loosely ] who I can attempt to sort my bill out with . It's reassuring that I'm not alone but i can see me paying a £270 bill for something i've never had . Any help much appreciated . email martyn.pass@firstfinancial.co.uk

mr d harrison 3 years ago

4 mths ago a trench was dug in back lawn earth was scatterd over lawn without any sheeting this totaly destroyed our lawn.we complaned three times with no results.could someone please contact us to resolve this problem.

17,overton walk,blandford forum,dorset. dt117tr tell:01258453956 /mble.07790720216

John Borg  3 years ago

I moved home 4 mths ago and was at that time with BT for about a year having the phone and broadband package.

On the 9th we had issues with the internet, off and on all the time, so i sent a mail to BT for help, reference number VOL011-14717876497.

As we use the internet to contact China we need to use this at strange times, 11pm to 2am and 6am in the morning before i go to the office, so when this service is off it effects me and my business so much.

I got a reply as standard from BT, with tips and leter i did try to change the channel on the hub and after some time was much better, but on the 12th Nov the internet went off complete?

I called them on the 13th and asked why this had happened!! the first error is the number BT use in the error web page when you can not connect, its a chargable call number and then tell you to call another number for Free!! great start!

I was told to wait for about 30 mins to fix the error, then later was told i owe them money? but i pay D/D and have done this since the start of the contract with BT!!

I was then passed to so many people and after 1hour 10 mins put to a customer service member, she said its not my fault but BT, they failed to take the internet money from my bank BUT took the phone via D/D, so all i seen on my account was a BT figure taken out so never thought of a problem.

BT never sent me any warnings that money was to pay or even on the paper bills shows as Broadband!! the facts are i went to BT to get the complete package phone and boradband and pay from my bank, so where have i gone wrong?

Now they said i have to make a new contract with the broadband service and have to wait a week or more to get the internet back, so now my business and sales have a great effect from this, this is at the worse time for me, so i wanted to stop the service and then tell me i have to pay the full contract if i want to leave!!

They fail to provide me this serives and now want me to pay them the complete price per contract

But to top this i still to date never have had a reply from BT, !!

BT your service is so poor, and you don't care about your customers and this shows with my case, i have set up D/D for my services to protect this situation from heppening and yet my service is off and i have to suffer and don't know whats going on next.

Zoe Ross 3 years ago

Seriously BT have a lot to answer for - They are making me ill!!!! I have been seriously ill and had leukaemia only 18 months ago. My family moved to Australia 6 months after my bone marrow transplant, so every time I am ill the only way I can get some family support is via webcam on the internet. For the last 3 months my BT internet service has not been working.

I continued to pay for this service despite it never working. After speaking to many, many, many people (around 10 hours approx ) spent on the phone, after dealing with extremely rude members of staff and actually being threatened by a "Customer service" person. I was at the end of my teather, I cancelled my contract at no charge, escalated complaints said they would of course cancel my contract after the way I had been treated.

The same day ironically I received my new BT Home hub, so and after speaking to another broadband provider who couldnt provide me the facility because my BT account was still running, I called BT again and said just set me back up again. I simply want my internet to work- Is it too much to ask to be treated courteously? It still didnt work however and caused me more stress and time to speak to Bt agents again and again. After another 3 weeks, my internet is finally working. So I have paid 3 months invoices by direct debit, despite being continuously treated like dirt by some of the staff at BT.

I had this weekend finally managed to speak to my family in Australia and felt reassured that everything woyuld be ok. I truly felt I never want to speak to BT again after the discraceful was I have been treated but at least I had my internet service.......

The next day I opened a bill from BT - A £370.63 Cancelation charge. This company is beyond belief. I have a lot of stress, but I would like BT to know that should I fall ill again I would consider that they as a company have contibuted to that!! - I am a young woman with her own business and am not easily upset, but the stress that this has caused me is unacceptable and I hate to think that there are other people out there being treated like me. I feel like they had a total monopoly on me and my custom and felt I had no option but to keep my account with them or I would be charged and not be able to see my family.

I was lied to several times, had the phone put down on me and as I mentioned before I was actually threatened by one "advisor" and I use this term in the loosest possible sense. I like most of BT's customers am an honest person who always pays my bills, my business accounts are actually with BT which makes me sick!!! I expect to get decent service from a company to whom I give my valuable custom- I feel abused by BT- Sorry to sound dramatic but that is how I feel- Something must be done. Can I do anything that will make a difference?

herman 3 years ago

I WANT TO COMPLAIN ABOUT THE ADULT CHATLINE ADDICTION I HAD AS A CHILD AT WTON. THE BILLS RAN INTO THOUSANDS AND I WAS NOT STOPPED OR SUPPORTED AND IT RUINED MY LIFE. WAS THIS A PLANNED RUINATION? DONT YOU PEOPLE BELIEVE IN GOD AND HELPING FAMILIES AND NOT DESTROYING THEM? I BECAME ADDICTED TO SEX AND PERVERSION IN A HORRID SM ABUSIVE WAY. IT RUINED MY LIFE RELATIONSHIPS, BODY , PERSONALITY AND CAREER AND DREW ME TO GET HIV. I WILL SUFFER BECAUSE OF IT FOREVER. I BELEIVE YOU WILL SUFFER IN HELL FOR YOUR EVIL PROFIT MEANS. THERE WERE COUNTLESS FIGHTS IN MY HOME BECAUSE OF THIS. I DONT CARE IF IT IS A ROYAL ADDICTION. I WANT THIS CASE BOUGHT INTO THE OPEN AND DOMSTANTIAL COMPENSATIONS FOR ME AND MY FAMILTY, AND YOUR COMPANY AND AFFILIATES DESTROYED FOREVER BY GOD. YOU SHOULD BE MONITORING THESE EVENTS AND INCEDENTS AND SUPPORTING CHILDREN AND FAMILIES. I ALSO NEED A FULL REPORT TO RECOVER IN MY HEALTH. YOU SHOULDVE HELPED ME STOP THIS ADDICTION BEFORE IT GOT TOO FAR. I EXPECT YOUR RESPONSE.

donna moss 3 years ago

my phone is not working so i reported fault from work only to be told i must ring from home but phone is not working HELLO

Nigel Hogben 3 years ago

I moved to a new property with my Partner she was already with Sky and arranged transfer of phone and broadband to the property. I relised that we needed another line so I contacted BT and this was arranged. I was given the date of 8 Septemnber 2008 on the 6 September I received a call from Indian stating confirming the 8 fine and on the 8 line installed great! NO!NO!

The Indian lady had said she had checked records and found another number connnected and that it would be simplier if I transferred this to BT (I did not say it was Sky) Istated not interested as phone not in my name she stated it must be as I was "the man of the house" I stated that in UK this was incorrect. Call was finished.

On the 10 September I received letter I received letter from BT welcoming me back to BT on the old number. I rang them and they stated I had agreed to transfer explained it was not my number to transfer and had they informed the supplier no was the reply I stated that I was not paying any they stated that I had set a Direct Debit how by lifting the details from the new number. On taking advice I have had to open a new Bank Account nand close my old one with all the time etc that takes to do. I then started a long an friutless waste of time with the Chairman's office staff which ended with the advice to close both number down and reapply for new numbers and lines. Reason being numbers were now on one account and cannot be separated. BT charge for cancel and reconnection £660 Sky cancellation £275 and no phone for 8 weeks and no Broadband for 12 weeks plus tied to BT for 12 months. My Partner is still paying sky for no service as if she cancels she will be hit by cancelation charges.

BT SERVICE!!

k.kerr 3 years ago

BT dont make me laugh,,,

waste of spacers

Tim Hedley 3 years ago

Having received my last BT bill, the cost was huge. Considering that only a quarter of the bill were calls and the remaining line rental & Broadband. So having been with Sky in the past I rang and asked them for there best deal and to my surprise they can offer a full package of Broadband, Anytime telephone calls and no line rental for 12 months for only £15 a month. So I rang BT for the MAC code and of course BT say how sorry they are that I am leaving and what can they do to make me stay. I said match the offer from Sky and I'll stay but of course they could'nt do that because they would be losing out. SO MUCH FOR BT LOYALTY TO THEIR CUSTOMERS. It is quite ironic that a Sky are able beat the price for a service that BT are providing.

Chris 3 years ago

Ofcom should really do something about BT. I have never ever experienced such dire and abysmal customer service and lack of duty of care. My problems started on the 4th of November 2008.

Due to personal reasons, I asked BT to change my telephone number on my landline. I was told this was very straightforward and no interuption to my BB service would happen as all they would do was do a porting of numbers in the exchange. I was told that this was not an immediate "fix" and would have to wait until the 6th Nov for this to change over. No problem I thought to myself, before terminating the call to the BT representative I asked for complete clarification that no interuption would happen to BB as I worked from home alot. I was assured that the BB service woudl remain active.

Well, at midday on the 6th I rang my old number and it had been deactivated so all was going well. I then rang my NEW number and low and behold...nothing! Not for another FIVE days!! and surprise surprise, my internet connection ceased to work. Having had a massive problem with BT before when I had my business line set up in my work premisies (I should have known better yes?) - I was straight on the phone to BT, having to ring from my mobile as the phone line was now completely dead. After having to put up with the usual passing from pillar to post and halfway around the world, I was assured that it would all be back up and running again in three days, as there was a problem on the line. When asked what the problem was, they could not provide me with an answer.

Three days went by and still no phone or BB service. I knew at this point I was in for along ride with BT yet again. When ringing them again I was put through to yet another call center somewhere in the farthest reaches of Outer Mongolia and was told...wait for this - "That my BB service was now in course for provision" !!

This basically meant that now I was having to go through all of the rigmorole again of having a new BB service activated on my line. When challenged that a rep from BT said and assured me that no interuption would happen, I was told they should not have said this and they were not in a position to do so. OK, next step, I then contacted BT again, after an hour on hold, I asked for a record of the conversation with the person who assured me no interuptions to BB service to be made available as "All calls TO BT and BY BT may be recorded for training and monitoring purposes" - I was told no record of the conversation took place. Hmmm....How come my number has been changed then? Was this carried out by magic? Are you [BT] clairvoyant enough to know that I was going to ask BT for a number change but you prempted me and did it anyway? What a farce!

So, back to the problem. I am now told by BT that I cannot expect BB on my line for another five days. Five days passed and still no little green light on my router informing me that BT are keeping to their promises. This time after ringing yet again and speaking (or trying to shoudl I say) to a person who I could barely understand who couldnt even speak my language and understand the problem I flipped my lid, and rang the Chairmans Office.

After explaining my problem I was told it would be escalated via the relevant departments and although the Chairmans Office was fairly on the ball, it has taken yet another four days to sort out.My advice is this, cut out their stupid automated answering service, cut out being passed halfway around the world, having to put up with "call center reps" who cannot even speak our native tongue to understand the problem etc, I am not racist but this drives me nuts! Cut out all BT call centers and inudate the Chairmans Office with your problems and see if they act then!

I spoke to a lovely woman in the Chairmans Office and even she knew that BT were having big problems with their over seas call centers and lack of duty of care to their customers. BT as far as I am concerned are a shambles and have been for some time.

In closing, I considered using BT Vision as an alternative TV provider as Sky is full of repeats and adverts. I agreed to take on BT Vision on a trial basis for 14 days with the option to return the equipment. I was told that my BT BT Vision box would arrive within ten working days. Two months have now passed. What a surprise.

john Warner 3 years ago

Whom do I write to in respect of a BT post in my garden. I have a problem as the wires are running throudg a tree that need to be cut doen.

Thanking you in anticipation

John Warner

LEE  3 years ago

on the phone hours trying to get the right number which one person palms you off to another person that has not got a bloody cllue who then palms u to another !!!!!! BT HAVE NOT GOT A BLOODY CLUE ABOUT CUSTOMER SERVICE!!!!! Now trying to cancel but still they dont even know how to do that !!!!!!!!! i now have about 10 numbers to ring !!! MONEY DOES NOT GROW ON TREES UNO!!!!!

M Botham 3 years ago

I recntly had my first dealings with BT and it has been a long running nightmare. My job means that I can work from home but I do need the internet. On arriving at my new house in Oxford we had no operational internet connections. BT were contacted and we agreed to take on a broadband account with them, despite it being overpriced, because we could not go down the cable route with someone like Virgin due to our location. Weeks later we still had no broadband and a disfunctional hub. Many phonecalls occurred speaking to people who seemed to have absolutely no idea about anything related to BT and who passed you from one useless person to another with nice long periods of hold inbetween. The outcome every time was that it would be fixed by the following week. It took 2 months before we finally got any sort of connection and even then we experienced problems actually getting onto the internet. The phone line itself also took over a month to be installed. Customer services were and remain about as much use as a chocolate fireguard and we have recieved multiple bills for services we have never recieved + charges for late payments. In trying to rectify this, customer services finally agreed to revise the bill but still want to charge for late payments? They never once aplogised for their absolutely awful service and the inconveniences they have caused and have not been persuaded that we should be offered some discount or compensation for the 'service' they have provided. We are now obligated to stay with BT for at least a year, but in all my life I have never had such a tormenting time with one company and would highly recommend avoiding them if at all possible.

Gordon Findlater 3 years ago

We decided back at the end of September to transfer back from Talk Talk to BT after receiving a 'cold call' from a BT sales representative. We were told that this would take 10 working days and that we would keep our same number. After two weeks had passed and I had heard nothing, I contacted BT to find out what was happening to be told that they had no record of my order. They apologised and arranged again for the transfer to go ahead. After a further two weeks (and after a mail shot asking would I not consider returning to BT!) and another 'phone call to customer services it looked like the transfer was actually going to go ahead. In the meantime Talk Talk had cut us off from making outgoing calls; we could still get incoming calls, so someone had obviously informed Talk Talk of the transfer but no one at BT seemed to know anything about it. I then got a letter to say that due to a technical problem the transfer could not now go ahead until the 13th November; in the meantime we still had no outgoing phone service. Last week, on the date of the transfer, we could no longer receive incoming calls but could actually make outgoing ones! I phoned customer services last Friday evening at approximately 8 pm and got put through to a call centre in India. They were extremely polite and sympathetic but in attempting to transfer me to someone 'who could help' me, I was cut off. This happened repeatedly for the next hour and a half. At one point I was put through to a faults engineer who on testing my line told me there was nothing wrong with it which was, as I pointed out, not entirely surprising since I was talking to him on it! It transpires that BT had allocated us a different number but had somehow managed not to tell us what that number was. To cut a very long and exasperating story short, they agreed to try and reallocate us our old number and placed an order for this to happen. I was told that this may take up to two working days. I phoned just now to find out why this had not yet happened only to be told that it would not now occur until Tuesday 25 November. I have absolutely no confidence that it will happen then but if it does it will mean that it has taken near two months to 'simply change back to BT' (their words) and in the meantime ........... I have received my first bill from them for advance payment of line rental. I also received from them on Tuesday 18 November 2008 a letter posted 30 October 2008 informing me that our BT service will start on the 13 November 2008. I wish!!!!

Happymama 3 years ago

I've an ASUS Eee and tried to turn it on, my home page is Google and I can't shift the BT FON page that is being loaded in it's place, even when I check what my proper home page is meant to be - it's Google, as it's supposed to be. Of course, the phones aren't manned when I need them. why would they be?

I can't even load any of my bookmarks. I'm at a friend's house now because I urgently need to pick up my emails.

I wouldn't mind but I've been a member of FON for years, long before BT got their wholly incompetent hands on it, and have no need to visit it when I'm at home picking up my emails!

I've been with BT almost a year and I'll be looking for another broadband provider who won't hijack my laptop willy-nilly, causing me deep inconvenience and frustration.

And I'm very glad I've not set up direct debit, to be frank.

HN.

Stacey  3 years ago

Where should I begin!

From the very begining it has been poor 'service'. I had arranged to pay the connection fee of £129.99 in monthly installments as I am on benefits with two year twin boys. I received a letter from them stating when an engineer would be round to install my line, and had to sign a copy of the form which stated that I would be paying the installation charge by monthly installment and not 'whole monthly' bills. I promptly signed and returned it to BT in the envelope provided. Well when I received my bill stating how much and what date my bill would be direct debited from my account I was shocked to see that they would be debiting £140.00 (the whole installation amount and call charges). I phoned up to find out what was going on, I was given no resonable explanation and was told it was too late to cancel the payment coming out of my account, so I inevitably received bank charges for a returned direct debit and having an unauthorised overdraft. I was told to call back the next day and they would be able to set up a monthly installment plan but I would have to pay £50.00 over the phone in order to do this, so begrudgingly I called back the next day hoping to have this problem dealt with and out the way. Ha, I was told that he could set it up for me, no problems and no mention of paying £50.00 upfront was mentioned and was told that a letter confirming this would be in the post. I received the letter which was a bit confusing but I eventually realised by my next bill that no monthly installment plan had been set up once again and that all he had done was set up a direct debit with them which I already had!!! So once again they tried to take money out of my account, this time the amount being much higher and once again I received bank charges, may I just mention that they did not attempt to make money out once but twice each month. I cancelled my direct debit with them only for them to again try and take money out of my account. I was also sent a letter by BT stating they had cancelled my direct debit agreement yet they still attempted to take money out of my account causing more bank charges on top of the previous ones. Once again I called to cancel my direct debit and was assured this was done only to receive a bank statement a couple of days ago showing another returned direct debit. I have phoned up and complained and have tried to have this matter rectifyed with their customer services team on so many occassions over this past year, I have been in tears, I have had sleepless nights ... I am fed up!!! the second to last time I called I was told I would be contacted by one of their managers ... weeks passed and I received no phone call back. 3 month later I received a statement requesting full payment of £500.11 I sent emails, I made calls ... no one seemed to care that I could not afford this amount in one go or that I have being trying to sort this matter out for just under a year because of their failures in communication and customer satisfaction. I have not heard anything from them for a couple of months and quite frankly i now refuse to pay them a penny. I have not payed my bank charges and now i am receiving threatening letters from them, So I will be writing to BT's complaints department for my bank fees and will be letting the bank know.

I decided to get Sky installed and switch my calls over but my BT line rental would be payed through Sky. Well BT decided to refuse to let sky handle my calls and so my sky calls and my unlimted internet was cut off. I can not ring out or recieve calls on my phone yet have been told by friends that the phone rings on their end. I tried to change to tiscali for calls and broadband but was told that they could not provide me with there services as basically, BT were blocking me from going with anyone else!!!!

I feel trapped, stressed out and do get bolts of suicidal feelings, I have lost weight going from a size 10 to a 6-8. I feel trapped in a never ending cycle of incompetance. So much more has gone on that I can't even remember most of it but have every letter from BT and every bank statement, so I will attempt to compalin via letter this time as phone and email got me nowhere.

astrodilemma 3 years ago

Hi everyone,

A few days ago I ordered a new line into our home as we have added an annex so want a new line for us. Yesterday I received a call from BT saying they cannot carry out the installation as it would cost £3,815 +VAT to dig a cable back to the main road.

I live in a village but this is a high population area in the South East, there are ten properties in our road, only two have been added in 30 years. Most importantly our cabling is overhead, not underground. So what I can conclude is the exchange is at maximum capacity and they want me to pay to upgrade it!

I am absolutely flabbergasted that in this day and age BT cannot install a new line in a high population area, as well as expecting a single client to cover the cost of upgrading their outdated system.

Now I have to try and find an alternative, and have no idea where to start, not to consider the time this is going to take.

Emma

Jonathan Staker 3 years ago

This is a letter sent to BT and highlights the sheer extent of their poor customer treatment:

Dear Sir,

I am writing to you in the hope that you will help resolve an issue which has affected my life for 10 months and one with which I can go no further.

I moved into a new home in January 2008, and signed up to BT in February. As a new customer, I was put onto the wrong calling plan (perhaps my fault). Around 4 or 5 days later, I called BT to change the service back to the option I realised I would need, and as your agreement declares that I had 14 days in which to do this, I was well within the cancellation bracket.

This was accepted by the service advisor, and the correct plan was allocated. I was pleased with how this was dealt at this point.

Upon receiving my first bill in March, I was alarmed to notice that it now included a cancellation charge of around £140.00 for the changed service. I immediately contacted customer services and they quickly apologised and assured me that it was a mistake and would be removed. I then checked my online account around 7 days later and noticed that the inflated balance was still showing, so I called again, and once more was assured that the mistake would be rectified. I then received my April bill from BT which STILL showed this balance, so once again called to resolve it and was told that the removal of charges had not been activated properly in the first instance but that it would be removed this time and apologies were made.

It was not removed and so I called again, I was then told that the charge would continue to show because of how the system works but that it would not apply so just to ignore it.

I ignored it until I checked my bank account on 16th July and found that BT had debited £158.00 from my account dated 14 July. I also found that because I was a first time home buyer and run my accounts tightly, this had caused me to run into unauthorised overdraft and subsequently I was charged £266.00 in unpaid item charges (evidence of this and the fact that BT caused this can be supplied).

I immediately rang BT and after around 30 mins explaining the situation, the advisor realised that the debit had been unlawful and advised me that a cheque would be in the post for £158.00 and that the bank charges I had incurred would be returned to me by way of credit onto my BT account. I was not happy about this but realised that this would be the best way in which to get my money back.

The cheque never came, and to my horror I found that on 1st August, I was debited a FURTHER £158.00 from my bank account. I once again incurred unpaid item bank charges to a total of £76.00 this time. Once again I called BT and once again spent a further 30 mins with an advisor explaining to him why I DID NOT OWE THIS MONEY, and eventually he proceeded to tell me that the previous information given would have been false in that a cheque would not have been sent out and that BT would never be able to credit charges incurred from my bank due to the unpaid charges BT caused, and that instead I would need to raise indemnity claims with my bank. I proceeded to do this, and on 6 August my bank refunded £316.00 for the 2 unlawful debits.

They did not, however refund the charges incurred as a result which now totalled £342.00, but I was by this time so distraught that I could not face anymore and decided to move on from that resolve.

At that point, fortunately I decided that I did not trust BT with a direct debit facility and cancelled it. Upon doing this, I received a bill for £301.35 (F005 2 Y). I immediately called customer services once again and spent at least 25 mins explaining the situation and in fact arguing with the female advisor who was adamant that I owed this money and that I should pay it. Obviously I knew that I did not and continued to argue my case, instructing the advisor to check her system for the account history. Eventually, she conceded that she had in fact been wrong and had found that I did not owe this money and that the account would be ’CLEARED’ and that I should not worry. I then asked at this point, not believing that it would be resolved, if I could have a copy of all the correspondence or ’notes’ on the system relating to this incident. I was refused and I was also refused a letter of apology.

I was, however, given a unique code to use in case of this happening again which I am told indicates that the issue has been resolved by BT’s accounts. The code is VOL011-14198361188.

To my shear horror and disbelief, I then discovered not long after this, that my telephone line had been disconnected. And this happened at a time when my fiancee’s father was in hospital undergoing chemo-therapy treatment for cancer. She was not able to stay in touch with her father when he needed her most and is now in a state of depression for which she has been prescribed medication to deal with.

I rang BT again and asked this time for a ‘Team Leader of Manager’, and was put through to a team leader, and once again after quoting the previously mentioned code, she apologised and resolved to reconnect my line within 7 days and had the cheek to ask whether I would like my own number back. When I asked if she felt I should be allowed compensation for this, she said: quote, “Normally you would be charged for the re-connection of your line, but given the circumstances, this charge will not apply”.

I was disgusted that this was how customers were treat and that BT did not even consider any compensation or even official apology for this horror myself and my family have been put through.

My line was re-connected and my number re-instated within 10 days, but it was too late for my partner to speak to her father when she most needed to. BT stole that from her.

I still continued to receive letters stating that my account remained unpaid and I continued to call over and over and state my code which each time was resolved with a big apology and a promise of an end. I then received a letter stating that I would be referred to a debt collecting agency if my account remained unpaid. I called again and explained the situation and the advisor told me that no action was required and that the only outstanding payment was that of £38.00 in line rental for the quarter which I happily paid on my maestro card. She apologised and said that this would be a certain end to it.

Unbelievably, I then received an identical letter requesting £40.00 (for the upcoming quarter) and that I once again would be referred to a debt collecting agency.

Before I had time to even deal with this, my line was disconnected once again on the 25th November, to which I broke down and cried at my kitchen table and had to have my father come and console me. This may sound pathetic, but I had finally broken down under the stress and pressure of these events.

BT have put my family through 10 months of torture and torment, resulted in my partner’s depression due to the neglect of her father, caused me to suffer £342.00 in bank charges, affected my ’Experian Credit Rating’ directly resulting in the refusal of a mastercard and almost a re-mortgage. I might add that my credit rating has been clean for 25 years and I had never incurred a bank charge from the Nat West before this.

Having been threatened with debt collection, I require a resolve immediately and ask that you give me full vindication and full financial reimbursement for this.

I am shocked and disgusted at how BT operates and in my opinion, it uses bully tactics to obtain money from its customers.

I will not rest until this matter has been resolved and this letter has been sent or emailed to Ofcom, Otelo, The Yorkshire Evening Post newspaper, BBC watchdog, my local MP (Colin Burgon) and an independent solicitor.

DWDB27 3 years ago

OMG! Thi site is so refreshing!!! All of these people have had the same saga of shit from BT or Bloody Terrible, as they should be known, as I've had... If I detailed the whole thing it might crash the internet. I despair of British firma!!

To summarise I have been a hot potato shuffled from Broadband to Phone line departments and after 2 months onto billing for a credit. No department has been satisfactory with lost calls, lies, calls not logged and plenty of other shit besides...

Finally, nobody will take ownership of the fragmented nature of BT and my complaint is 'unmanageable' under their system, although it does ensure they can only ever have 'small' complaints to deal with! Stupid system!!

Thanks for letting me blow off steam!!

Jason 3 years ago

I am writing to you to complain about the incredibly poor service I have received from BT.

Some time ago I contacted you to have my BT Broadband and phone connection transferred to a new address which appears at the top left of this letter from my previous address of 2 Stamford Gardens Rugby Road, Leamington Spa, CV32 6DB.

Initially, your staff were very helpful and I was told the line at the new address had been checked and was suitable for use. The equipment was despatched promptly and arrived soon after. However, when I came to set up the router and modem I was unable to get a connection to the internet. I duly contacted customer services who ran me through a cursory troubleshoot exercise to check for any loose wires/connections etc, but this did not solve the problem. Instead I was informed that an engineer would need to attend my address and check the line in person.

An appointment was made with ‘between times’ but by the latest time set no one had attended. I was unable to wait any longer because of work commitments. (My partner and I both work full time) When I returned home I found a card on the doorstep from an engineer instructing me to call him to make another appointment, however he didn’t leave his contact number so I had to ring customer services again.

A second appointment was made only this time my partner adjusted her rota to stay home and wait. On this occasion an engineer did attend and the connection was fixed.

However, we were only able to get online for 2 days before the connection failed again. I contacted customer services to explain and again I was put through a troubleshoot exercise which didn’t identify the problem. An engineer was called out again and as before, despite the fact that I had adjusted my work schedule accordingly, no one turned up until well after the stated maximum time.

Yet again I contacted customer services and incredibly I was taken through another troubleshoot exercise! I was told this time an engineer would call me directly to save me waiting around at home. I gave my mobile number and was advised I would be contacted 30 minutes prior to an engineer attending giving me time to get home and let him or her in. I received no such call.

As you can imagine, by this time I was thoroughly frustrated so I called customer services and stated I wanted to end the service with BT. I was reminded that I had entered into a contract and was told I would have to wait for a call back from the appointments team. After several weeks I received no contact whatsoever.

A short while later I cancelled the direct debit with BT as I was effectively paying for a service I was not receiving. I then left the matter in the belief that I would be contacted sooner or later by someone wondering why they hadn’t been getting my money. Some time later I received a late payment reminder threatening charges of £7.50. Having received this I phoned on the number given and explained my frustrations and extreme disappointment at the level of service I had been offered. Unbelievably, when I was mid-sentence the call handler hung up on me! I believe this conversation would have been tape recorded?

What remains for me to say is that I will not be paying further monies to BT. The overall level of service has been utterly appalling. I believe you are in breach of your contract to me and as such I am not liable to make future payments to you. I consider the contract to be null and void.

I would also ask that I am refunded monies paid for the period I was paying for a connection but not receiving one.

This whole experience has been incredibly disappointing given I enjoyed several years of excellent service from BT at my previous address.

I await your response.

Regards

Jason Paul Martin

michael 3 years ago

How is it that no Goverment department have the powers to controll Bt, BT have the attitude that they can stamp all over the general public without any body bringing them to boot break contracts with people and still nobody in goverment or the goverment set up ombidsman will do a dam thing about it,

all british telecom,s C.E.O and chairmans office do is head a bunch of thieves

time BT changed their name to show wot they are BLOODY THIEVES mi

michael lee 3 years ago

I have had enough of BT and their shite customer service. I am paying for their top end broadband package and constantly lose internet connection which is meaning i cannot do some of my work so am losing more money.I have complained several times and keep getting shifted around that it is the phone line not the broadband and so on but still nothing changes. I have had promised return calls from them which havnt happened. I have done speed checkers on their broadband service and dial up years ago was quicker and more reliable!

I have spent ages on hold every time I call which just adds to my frustration.Then the other day they even had the audacity to say they could send an engineer out to check the lines,etc but I would be charged for it. I have come to the end of my tether with them as nothing changes regardless of how many calls I make. How they get away with such a crap service I dont understand. I am paying for a service I am not getting which is now really pissing me off

Fernman 3 years ago

My broadband connection failed in the small hours of Sat 29 Dec. I did all the checks I could and later that morning I spent 45 minutes on the phone to BT's call centre in India which resulted in an appointment for an engineer to check mt line on tues 2 Dec.

The eng came 24 hours early, no complaints there. While checking, he kindly replaced the front of my BT wall socket because the lip that slides up when you plug a phone in was broken. He concluded by process of elimination that my broadband modem had failed. I checked the phones with my mobile as he left, and one wasn't ringing so I called the guy back. He fiddled about with the socket some more, after which all phones rang OK.

I then phoned BT to order a new modem. This took 3 calls, one to someone in India who couldn't help me, one to a woman in England who skillfully fobbed me off, and one to a guy I must praise, Chris in Sales, one of BT's few stars, who effortlessly ordered a Home Hub which I received the following morning.

Later that afternoon, I found out the hard way that my fax machine was not receiving anything. I phoned to report this, which is when I discovered that BT has seperate departments dealing with broadband and telephones. Neither of them, however, was interested in doing anything about it. On my 3rd call to BT I got so sick of being told, "We can't help you" in spite of my explanation that everything was working OK before the engineer's visit, that I ended up losing my rag and screaming at the guy, who cut me off. (I might add that when I used to work as a field service engineer, until 2003, if we had a recall we had to go back that day, as an extra call.)

Trying again in the evening when my blood pressure had gone down a bit, I demanded to speak to a manager and, after about 30 minutes wait, I ended up with the broadband special help team who seem to be the only caring and helpful people in BT. An appointment was made for an engineer to call the following morning, Tues 2 Dec.

This eng thought he had come to install the new home hub, and explained that he could not touch phone wiring. I persuaded him to have a look at the sockets, which he did, give him his due, but he still refused to do anything to help me. I felt it was being insinuated that I was trying to pull a fast one by claiming that I'd only had the problem since the previous eng's visit.

My son and I installed the home hub that afternoon, it couldn't have been easier. The speed however was appallingly slow, we had 2.5 meg before but now only half a meg. I called the help team and something was done at the exchange, our profile was changed I was told. To date, this has resulted in terrible interference on th phones and no increase in broadband speed.

Meantime, there was the fax machine to sort out. I know nothing about phone wiring but I have 28 years of experience as a domestic appliance service engineer. My setup is I have a double socket coming in, which supplies the computer and the fax machine, and another one next to it which connects 3 phones to the ouput from the fax machine. What I found the 1st eng had done was to run 3 link wires between the 2 sockets!!! My setup should have been obvious, from the main socket to the fax, and from the fax to the phones, and this guy had linked the 2 sockets together! I removed the unnecessary wires, sat and worked out how the wires to the furthest phone should be connected, after which fax and phones all worked perfectly, just the way they used to.

In summary, I am just amazed that the dearest and best-known company can give such uncaring and unhelpful customer care (with the exception of the ones I mentioned above) with telephone staff extremely adept at getting rid of you, coupled with engineers who are either incompetent or very ready to tell me it's my problem, not theirs. (Again, this goes against the grain of my work experience, when the unwritten first instinct of all of my colleagues and me was to help people.)

alison ward 3 years ago

for over a year I have been trying to get my elderly aunt's name correctly printed in the phone book and on her bills. shocking attention.

K.Fahey 3 years ago

Like everyone above i am totally disgusted at the treatment that i have suffered from b.t.I have made 228 phone calls, lost 3 days off work and easily have lost at least another 3 days man hours on the phone.I can honestly say that i have never seen or heard of anything like the experience that i have endured.So far i am still waiting to hear from b.t as i sent them an e mail to complaints dept. that they ignored.Tried phoning them to be told that they do not have a complaints dept!!!!!After all that my line is still no good-i cannot hear on it and they are still taking money out of my account.I signed up for the vision package beg. of October and havnt seen sight nor light of that either.Something should be done with this Co.

Sean 3 years ago

For your entertainment...

Needless to say this issue to follow is still unresolved. I'm moving away from BT as they are not worth the hassle... but I would like a response from them - are is the company now being run by brain dead zombies.

Here we go then...

-------------------

Hello, Regarding the issue logged further on in this email, I am stillwaiting for a reply. Our Vision box was out of action for nearly amonth. When the engineer did come to fix the problem by replacing theVision box, we were told that the saved media on the original box (someof it un-viewed), could be transferred onto the new box for us to viewat a later date. We never heard anything else about this and would liketo know whether this will still happen or not. Whilst the kit is goodwhen it works, I'm very disappointed at the time it took to resolve the belowissue - almost a month without a working Vision box, and also the lackof response to my above question. This, along with very sporadic/poorBroadband performance at a premium price, will more than likely sway meto go to a cable solution when my contract is up with BT. I look forwardto your advice. Thank you, Sean Russell.

From: Russell, SeanSent: 08 December 2008 09:50To: 'BT Customer Services'Cc: Russell, SeanSubject: RE: BT Vision - I have a technical enquiry [Incident:080818-002378] [Incident: 081202-004031]Importance: HighIt has now been 6 days with no reply from yourselves. The overall timefor this issue has been going on since August - 4 months.What a very disappointing and shockingly bad service you are providing.As you do not consider my queries, or custom of any importance, I willbe cancelling all BT services and moving to Virgin Media.Yours Sincerely,Sean Russell.Customer (Sean Russell) 12/02/2008 05:42 PM Incident created due to reply to expired incident 080818-002378.Hello, Regarding the issue logged further on in this email, I am stillwaiting for a reply. Our Vision box was out of action for nearly amonth. When the engineer did come to fix the problem by replacing theVision box, we were told that the saved media on the original box (someof it un-viewed), could be transferred onto the new box for us to viewat a later date. We never heard anything else about this and would liketo know whether this will still happen or not. Whilst the kit is goodwhen it works, I'm very disappointed at the time it took to resolve the belowissue - almost a month without a working Vision box, and also the lackof response to my above question. This, along with very sporadic/poorBroadband performance at a premium price, will more than likely sway meto go to a cable solution when my contract is up with BT. I look forwardto your advice. Thank you, Sean Russell.

DISCUSSION THREAD RESPONSE (JENNIFER CONVERY) 08/19/2008 09:55 AM Dear Mr Russell,Thank you for your e-mail dated 18/08/2008.I understand from your e-mail that you are experiencing problems withyour BT Vision box.BT take Health and Safety matters very seriously and it sounds like theV-box mechanics are defective. In this case I recommend contacting theBT Vision Technical Helpdesk directly on 0800 111 4567. This departmentwill arrange for an Engineer to visit your premises and install a newV-box.To ensure you reach the correct department, please enter your BT phonenumber when prompted for 'the telephone number you are calling about'.This will automatically transfer you through to the BT Visiondepartment.Before contacting the department, I suggest performing a factory resetof the V-box. This is just part of the replacement process and is arecommended step (from the Helpdesk) before sending the case to theEngineers. The V-box factory reset process is as follows: **Warning: This will delete any recordings stored on the Vision Box**

Ruth 3 years ago

I rang to cancel my broadband, phone and landline service on 26th November and unfortunately got talked into agreeing to stay with them for another year. I then rang back on the 27th to confirm that on reflection I did still want to cancel. I received the mac code via post and text and believed my instructions had been carried out but then on the 3rd December I received a new black BT homehub. I rang BT the same day to arrange its return and was told no cancellation request has been received. I protested strongly to a Mr Hugh Bissell and despite further hard sell tactics was told I would be rung back within 5 days after they had listened to the recorded conversation of the 27th and checked why a cancellation had not been actioned. This did not happen so I have rung again today and been advised that a cancellation of my services has been requested today the10th December. I am now being threatened with cancellation charges though despite ringing only 24 hours later to cancel and again following this up on the 3rd December.

Bob Hutton 3 years ago

I asked BT to send an engineer to fix my line and was advised that if the fault was outside the house there would be no charge. An engineer fixed the line and said it was outside. However, they are now charging £323 for the line repair. I have made a complaint about this but am concerned they may take me to court, or at the very least, to cut off my service. What can I do?

bobhutton62@hotmail.com

George Rodgers 3 years ago

I'm having problems with BT customer services in regards to sorting out my direct debit. How is it I'm always transfered to an Indian call center and when you write to the complaints department you get no reply.

George

martin fox 3 years ago

Does BT actually know what they are doing? When I complained I was told it is not BT but Open Reach. If thats the case maybe when I get my BT account I will pay open reach. Cant pay someone who is not willing to take responsiblity. That would be wrong. I think if they cost you money you should black list their directors on the credit buro as they at the end of the day are responsible for the actions of their staff.

Big tom 3 years ago

Can you people please get a life, I have read with interest all your post and there are even eejits calling for the monoply to end- get a life BT was deregulated in 2007 - there is no monoply - BT Retail is a call provider - if you dont want the service just go some where else - All Communication providers in the UK can now provide you with service this is common knowledge wheather they do or not is thier choice - However the constant complaining on the blog makes me sick - How in the name of GOD did people manage when there was no V Box and NO Broadband and NO Telephone - just stop crying and remember that telephone is not a RIGHT it is a privledge - perhaps you all should remember that

Katherine Steward 3 years ago

I got bt about a year ago and tried to cancel it before the cooling of period, which all companies must have, this is the length of time you have to cancel your contract without being charged, but they wouldnt let me cancel and told me i would be charged. well i decided just to stay with them despite that because i dont want to be charged £200. Now i got a letter saying someone wanted to take over my line and if i didnt phone that it would be cancelled, i phoned and told them not to cancel it and they done it anyway, MY line went to my new neighbours because bt couldnt find my address on their system, despite being with them a year. so i spent about 20 hours on the phone being moved from on place to the other and told them i didnt want my line back, they re-instated my line anyway and then had to phone them and tell them to cancel it because THEY Breached contract. Now i have to write to

bt uk customer billing,

po box one,

correspondence centre,

durham,

dh98 1bt

To see if they will compensate me for me paying for my neighbours line and the bank charging me for bt trying to take money out my account that they shouldnt have been doing in the first place.

I hate BT

Kim Santana 3 years ago

I was disgusted to receive a £7.50 'late payment charge' added to my quarterly bill this month simply because my husband and I paid on the red bill last time as we never received the original. As our call charges usually average under £10 and yet our bill is usually £60+ due to the inflated rental charges they add how can they charge us for late payment when we are paying rental charges and calling features in advance!

Antonio Santana

lesley965@hotmail.co.uk 3 years ago

My Mother and Father moved into a care and residential home 20mths ago,and paid over £120+ to have the land-line activated.My Father unfortunately died last Christmas Day.My Mother has now been moved upstairs in the care home as she needs more care,but needs the land-line moving from downstairs to upstairs,as my Brother who lives in South Africa, it's his only way to speak to our Mother.After being on the phone to BT for over an hour and being pushed from pillar to post and being cut off several times,a very aggressive man told me that my 88yr old Mum will have to pay another £120+ to have it moved from downstairs to upstairs,frankly i think it's disgracefull.My parents have been with BT for absolutely years and this is how they treat a sick old lady,NO wonder customers leave in droves.

adam creaby 3 years ago

BT are the worst business ever..the amount of calls, and the amount of stuff they get wrong i cant believe it......i actually hate them

SE Box 3 years ago

We changed to BT for phone, broadband and vision last September. BIG MISTAKE.

Since then I have been constantly on the phone to them - being pushed from person to person, being cut off and having to start again from scratch with a new person. They never take proper notes to pass on to the next operator. Also I have often been cut off and despite having my number no one ever rings back......and you have to start again.One day I was on for 3 hours and got nowhere.

It took weeks to get the Broadband connected - it resulted in having an engineer call and having to take time off work to let him in.I was told by an operator that they would not charge me for the time I received no service but of course that was only words. I have received 3 hefty bills - one for each of the services. Why on earth can't they lump them together like Virgin does. I have had to ring three times to set up Direct Debit Payments. I only realised this when I had a pink bill for my 2nd billed account as I thought one set up dealt with them all. No doubt I will receive a late payment charge later! They all say "I'm sorry" - thanks.

Oh, and by the way - the system keeps going down!

chris millington 3 years ago

I have been with BT for many years paying by direct debit monthly. In march, some neighbours moved in with a similar address (different house name, same house no.) Suddnely my phone was cut off. It turns out that in their incompetence, BT had given our account to the new neighbours and we no longer had an account. After much phoning and holding and being passed from one dept to another the line was re instated. After this I recieved no correspondance from BT, not even a bill and they cancelled my direct debit. I phoned and phoned and holded and was passed around different international departments and was promised I would recieve a bill. They then informed me that my account and address did not exist. I kept calling them to to make sure I could recieve a bill but after many promises......nothing. This went on for many months. Then about 3 weeks ago the line went dead again. I called and they said that our account did not exist and had not done since march even though I had used the phone from March to December. After 6 hours of calls I was eventually told that because the account did not exist then I had not been billed for any of these calls. This did not sound right. I questioned this again in my disbelief and asked them to check that those details were correct. The gentleman confirmed that there was no bill and joked about how all my calls had been free because of their mistake.

Eventually I spoke to a gentleman from BT who informed me that there was a bill for £400 and they would send it out to me and re connect my line while I made provision to pay. I was also told I would recieve a compensation form for the inconvenience and loss of business through the internet.Two weeks later....no bill... no phone line..... no compensation form. I then rang again to be told they kept no record of my previous calls to them so had to go through the whole story again. I was again told that I had held no account with them since March. I was again assured that my line would be connected in 5 working days. I waited....no phone line. I called again, this time totalling up 8 hours of calls. I was again told that there was no account in my name. I was passed on to customer services who told me that there was a bill for £400 but the bills had been sent to my old address where I had not resided for 2years.. This makes no sense as prior to March, before my origional problem with BT I was recieving bills at my current address. I was then told that my line had been terminated. I insisted that they reinstate the line and send me the bill (been here before.) They told they could not reinstate the line until the bill had been paid in full and apologised for the mis-information. I explained that I could not afford to pay the whole amount at once and was asked why I hadn't made any payments. Without the bill and account number, I explained, I could not pay the bill. I also told them how I had spent several hours on the phone asking them to send the bill to the correct address and not my old address.

This has caused me much stress and wasted much time. Why can't a company the size and wealth of BT actually be consistent in their advice and service? They as good as told me I had been lied to by other members of staff to whom I had spoken to at BT. Their constant apologies sound as if they are taking responsibility for their mistakes but their actions, or failiure to act speaks very differently. I am now waiting for BT to call me back tonight on my mobile to discuss this complaint further as the customer service advisor promised, but I have been informed in the past that they cannot phone a mobile back. I questioned this information and she assured me that I will recieve the call. I wait and see...........will update when I hear further......

g singh 3 years ago

dear sir, i am not very happy with the service you have given to my business . i order the broad band 10 days before install ,but the moderm was not delvered on time ,plus the lady who took the order put the wrong address on the order .this mistake has cost me six of no inter net and no contact with my clinet .bt has cost me appox 1500 pound to 2500 pound ,,,please ring on 07941625827 to sort this problem .............thank you line number 0115 9764044

Chris Millington 3 years ago

...............the phone call never came. Back to square one. How can such a large telecommunications company be so bad at communication? Another promise broken by BT. No bill has been sent to me again as I was promised. Next stop, the citizen's advice bureau.

george bagshaw 3 years ago

i am bt broadband and i have nothing but trouble iam paying 22pound for nothing when i ring up isay dont put me in india but they do so i am changeing my broadband next year i have one year of bad look

I Thomson 3 years ago

On my recent bill I noticed that I had been charged £5.14 for BT Caller Display, which I have never had or asked for. I rang and complained and was assured that the charge had been removed. However I just checked my bank account and the money was still charged. I rang and complained again and have been assured that the service has been cancelled and the money will be refunded. I await with baited breath!! Is it coincidence that this happened after I reluctantly went onto Direct Debit to avoid the rip off charge for a paper bill? How many others have gone to Direct Debit to avoid this charge then BT add bits on in the hope that people won't check their bill online (especially as their page doesn't always load.

Chatting in the office a work colleague said he noticed his mothers phone bill when he went to visit her and it turned out she was being charged for all these services she didn't want.

iram jameel 3 years ago

i was with XLN and came back to bt in October, yet i have not received no letter confirming this or giving me an account number. when i rang bt regarding this i was told that YES i am now with your btnd i will receieve a letter within 3 working days. its been almost 2 weeks. but ive not heard from bt.

on top off that, i've recieved a bill from XLN for november, they claim that they are my service providers. WHY?

I was told when i rang to chan ge providers that bt will sort everthing out with my old provider and switch my line over to BT. therefore i want answers!!!

im sick of ringing and being put on hold.

Jacob 3 years ago

I have recently contacted bt regarding my broadband service i am on option3 this is suppost to be 8mb but alll i get is less then a mb.I then rang up for assitance with this they carried out checks etc.and then they said that it is my laptops wireless card i contacted my manufacturer about this there isnt anything wrong with it my homehub disconnacts from the line it slows down i have had enough

Paul Johnson 3 years ago

I signed up for BT Option 3 in September 2008 and was led to believe that this package included unlimited anytime calls.

I have subsequently been billed for calls that I have made between 0600 and 1800 because these have been made via Broadband and not through the landline!

I explained to BT that I only have the hubphone and do not possess a separate landline phone. They offered to rent me one.

No matter who I talk to or e-mail about this I cannot get a simple answer.

HELP!!

Rob Jansen 3 years ago

Having experienced the Nigtmare that BT is!! and having spent the last 4 weeks communicating with the sales Dept. I feel that if only 1 person reads this and doesn't sign up to what only seems to be a nightmare, then its served its purpose.

BT YOU ARE SH@*

BT YOU ARE SH@*

BT YOU ARE SH@*

BT YOU ARE SH@*

BT YOU ARE SH@*

BT YOU ARE SH@*

BT YOU ARE SH@*

BT YOU ARE SH@*

Rachel 3 years ago

Since signing up to BT last year I had endless problems, firstly they set up to the wrong room in my flat (halls of residence so the room they set up to was important) luckily I knew my neighbour so I could still use the line.

As I wasn't in the property for 12 months I had to cancel before the contract ended, fair enough I knew I would be charged (couldn't let the contract run out as someone else was moving into the room), phoned up on 3 separate occasions to be told 3 different prices to cancel, all very vague about the cost. Final time I phoned I was quoted £50 altogether to cancel, I accepted this then got final bills of £120. I then started getting bailiff letters, as they took the broadband bill out by direct debit but not the phone bill (god knows why.)

The service was constantly slow inconsistent which meant I spent most of my exam period in the pub revising on their wifi as I just couldn't get online (all study materials were online) The call centre constantly cut me off (even head office!) When I first tried to order (after an hour on hold)the woman told me "You could have ordered online!" Yes I could have..if I had internet!

Rod 3 years ago

BT employees are taught to lie as part of their basic training. How many BT customers like myself have changed to other ISP’s leaving only their line rental with BT, then to find they continually get ‘Courtesy Calls’ from their ‘BT Account Manager’. These are ‘Sales Calls’ trying to persuade you to return to BT, and are not stopped by registering with TPS as BT get around the legislation by calling them ‘Courtesy Calls’.

Kevin Nicholls 3 years ago

I recieved my first BT broadband option 1 bill yesterday and am now suffering PTSD! £98 for a £28 service.

After reading through the bill, one service caught my eye, "BT IT service £48" Im sure I didnt ask for this service, so I went looking for a phone number on BT's website what a mistake, could'nt find one anyware but I persisted and got one.

"Thank you for phoneing BT"

1 hour later, on hold, 3 customer advisor's who i struggled to understand and then blamed me for the service I never asked for, I got a reference number and told some one will phone me in 10 working days, really.

If any one can help me get through to the correct dept that can resolve my issue I would be greatful.

Merry Chrismas

Oh 1 last thing who get's the intrest on money we pay for the service, in advance?

Elaine 3 years ago

I ordered reconnection service over the internet. A bt bloke called to arrange installation date and take £25 deposit from my debit card. 2 hours later, I received text messages from the BT bloke on my personal mobile from his personal mobile. He was harassing me all day with phonecalls and texts asking me to be his friend and that I had a wonderful voice etc. If he has written down my mobile phone number did he write down my debit card details? I had to cancel my debit card 3 days before Christmas and am now left unable to withdraw cash over the festive period. Breach of BT privacy and security policy. Lets hope it is dealt with properly.

Mrs E Hall 3 years ago

My goodness I did not realise how much frustration there was out there with BT so I am going to add another. Back in the beginning of October I contact BT to update my business details and was informed that I could not because there was already a telephone number using my company name and company registration number. Panic set in - fraud - contact was made with my bank putting an alert on my accounts, company house was contacted, the police were contacted. Alarm bells rose somebody out there was using my name within my industry fraudently I have been in business for 18 years with an excellent reputation all these years of hard work could be distroyed. I was put in touch with the fraud dept of BT given reference number, was told they would look into it and come back to me, no one did, I rang day after day eventually 7 days later I was told that they were contacting company house and the situation would be passed onto another dept someone would get back to me no one did. Again after making many calls to BT I eventually 3 weeks later was put in touch with some one else (stress levels now in serious danger levels). I tried to contact complaints dept could not speak to anyone I e-mailed 2 different addresses got replies with more ref numbers and someone would get back to me no one did, I got an e-mail saying that they were unable to assist and passed onto another contact. More telephone calls on my part eventually got a verbal message to say it was an error on BT's part all I requested was for them to put this in writing so I could send a copy on to my bank, of course nothing has appeared. All I wanted was a simple letter stating it was their fault this could have been sorted within a day or 2. I feel that BT have treated me unfairly putting me and my staff under immense pressure which was totally uncalled for. The pressure and stress that BT put me under was immense and the many hours spent on the phone this blocking my incoming calls so stopping orders coming through.It has been nearly 3 months now and I am still trying to talk to someboby in some sort of authority at BT is there anyone there? BT have had many years of business from me but maybe its because I'm not a multi-million £ business for them that they ignore me. I offer the best customer service I can with my business and we have the reputation for that but if you don't get the back-up of the communications systems which are an essential part of anybodies buiness your business fails. I have not been able to offer the level of service that my customers expect because of BT.

Clive Cook 3 years ago

I lost my broadband for 18 days..each day spoke to at leasst one BT advisor told it would be fixed next day.Must have been made so many promises and given so many lies just to get me off the phone that you wouldn't believe. registerd complaint after complaint as it was obvious they just didnt have a clue what they were doing. Spent over 20 hours on the telephone cut off at least 8 times, Had at least 10 promises of call backs which never occured except once when someone called me back to ask if i would do a survey...obviousely they were not prepared to carry on the survey when they heard what I had to say!My broadband was eventually back on after a second engineer had visted and after inspecting the sub station which is 400 metres from my home was told the reason why I had no broadband was because an engineer must have crossed an input and output cable. BT had no comment to make on this and I was eventually told after making numerous complaints and receiving a bill ( which I was not prepared to pay) that they would contact me in 4-5 days regarding an amount of compensation...this never occured and would you believe a week later they suspended my broadband......I have had to pay the bill as they then threatened to cut off my phone and have since offered me £10.00.....Can you believe the sheer callousness and conceit of this company BT.

Paul Honeywell 3 years ago

I cannot believe that BT survive with outrageously bad customer service. I needed broadband in my house - a simple requirement in 2008. The friendly sales people were only too happy to take the order. A new line was installed as my other lines cannot be used for broadband as they come into a system box (we have a large house and have several lines and an internal phone system). The new line was installed, the hub box turned up, but the internet service did not work. Hours spent on the phone tapping in different codes - no joy. They eventually sent out a line engineers, who said that the line was fine - and that I should get the broadband engineer from Openreach. They turned up - and said that the line was faulty! At least 10 more calls to the useless "press 1 for x, 2 for y" system, and eventually - lo and behold - the two engineers turn up at the same time (line man and Openreach). They then agree - broadband cannot be provided on this line. So now I have to contact BT to cancel the service. After 5 attempts I get the broadband bill cancelled and "service" terminated. Was this the end? Noooooo. I now am the proud owner of a new line - which has a minimum term contract on it!!!!!!!! Bills arrive, I complain, nobody does anything, now my account is in arrears. This has still not been resolved, so I expect to have some form of debt collectors coming. This is such an utter disgrace and waste of time.

Next, I was "sold" a Fusion Phone that would work over the internet and at all BT Openzone Hotspots. It arrives, and does not do this - it only works in the immediate range of the Hub in my office, nowhere else despite having the right passwords, and not in Openzone Hotspots. So, send it back?? No, as it arrived just as I departed for Australia and now, as I try to use it and find it hopeless, I am "in contract" as I have had it for 14 days!!! A series of phone calls and emails elicit sympathy and promises of action - a month later, nothing - apart from the ludicrous £35 a month charges, which I must pay or again my whole system is threatened.

What a hopeless, hopeless shambles.

Tina 3 years ago

Having just returned to BT not through choice, but through geography I was sold the Broadband and TV package only to discover several weeks later that I will never be able to receive the Vison package as I dont have 2mb on my line and almost two weeks after receiving my home hub we are still no nearer to actually getting on line. I am constantly on the phone to them asking NOt to be put through to India as these people are all inept rude and sometimes just downright stupid, constantly asking us what lights are on the hub and is it turned on and this is the Technical advispry team! one woman i couldnt even understand. we are still no nearer to resolving this problem, yesterday i finally got to speak to a manager all be it in India who said he would take control of our problem and could be phone him at 3pm today. This we did only to be told he didnt start work till 3.30..... Im loosing the will to live.. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Miss C Thorne 3 years ago

Stay clear from BT Viss-ion. I orderd this on 10th Decemeber, it was delivered on the 19th, but my viewing card had been deliverd to another family member at another address (we have the same initials). She rang because she had not ordered BT Vision and despite BT's security measures, she was able to cancel MY account. Although the viewing card had gone to her address I received the equipment at my address, and not knowing what had occurred set it up. Obviously i got nothing, but it was not until my 3rd call that they told me the order had been cancelled, but they would reinstate it. Then I was told it had been cancelled and not reinstated. 1week after pluging in the equipment, i have no sevice and still no viewing card (3 have been ordered so far). I have a ten day cooling off period which i will take as I going to cancel the order now....but know I will have to pay to return equipment. What baffels me is how they 1) sent out 1 order to 2 seperate address, and 2 allowed someone with different postcode and account number to cancel my account. Not only breach of confidentiality but just negligence on Bt's Part. I have spent over 3 hours in phone calls trying to sort this out, transfered from department to department and country to country, and told something different by ever person I have spoken to. This is not the 1st bad experience I have had with BT its just the latest. When an alternative is available in my area I will defo be leaving.

Colin Martin 3 years ago

I changed from dial-up to broadband on the 2nd October, but BT failed to update my account and I have been charged for both services for 4 months! I have been unable to get BT to rectify the situation and don't know what to do next. Bt are completely useless.

j.morton 3 years ago

Just a word about the speed of bt internet where i live in the rhondda post code cf39 9ne it is agonisenly slow its like watching paint dry!! i am getting 0.5mg its pathetic it took me an age to get to this site to voice this opinion.Ijust feel i am paying good money for this crap service oh how i wish i had stopped with virgin!! i thought i was going to get a better service with so i thought an impeccable company oh how wrong can you be now i am stuck with this crap service on a 18 months contract.B.T.SHOULD STAND FOR BLOODY TERRIBLE!!! As for customer service i spoke to someone with a scots accent and he was as helpful as an ashtay on a motorbike!!he had all the charm of a dead donkey,if your thinking of changing to bt DONT DO IT!!!

j.morton 3 years ago

B.T PHONE HOME!!!!

shafii 3 years ago

The is what i also intend to send to BT

Over two years ago and when I used to be a member of BT broadband , I reported on numerous occasions of a slow connection speed and having a intermittent connection, it took me nearly 6 month in getting a BT broadband engineer out to my property.

After spending a few hours at my property he agreed there was a problem and he would try to resolve it. The engineer told me, there was most likely a problem with a old BT broadband, double filter socket, containing both telephone and ADLS connections,( which was installed over 10 years earlier by BT engineers and on behalf of home choice which was similar to BT VISION video streaming ) he assured me he would resolve the problem, which he did. However he told me he would have to move only the BT broadband wiring not the telephone wiring to a extension socket, however when he left I went and checked the wiring because the extension socket was under a trapped slide, so when I checked, I noticed that the lid had not been closed and could not be closed until a wire was detached from the socket, and as a consequence since then the wiring is still hanging out.

Now a few months later I changed broadband service provider because of these problems.

A few months after that I got problems with my phone service as my ringers did not ring when someone tried to call.

This time I had a ordinary BT engineer come to my house to fix the problem after a hour or so he still could not fix the problem, at this stage I explained what had transpired earlier with BT broadband and I showed him the extension socket and asked him if he could close the socket but he told me that it was not his job and that these wires were not connected to the phone socket but only the broadband and as such only a broadband engineer could close the open socket

After some more time he expressed his concern that there were five difference lines coming into the property and perhaps these lines were causing interference.

I told him that not all of these lines were in use anymore and as such, those lines that were no longer in use could be removed.

After some more time he told me that the problem had now been fixed, and left. but when I tried to use my phone, it did not work I immediately contacted BT using my mobile phone and later the engineer called me and told me by phone that he had to change the main socket to a extension socket and as such my main socket will no longer work, and neither any of my extensions except for the open socket which was the socket that the BT broadband engineer used to correct my broadband service.

I was shocked at this statement, but was given an ultimatum that if I did not like what had happened then he could come back and put thinks back.

That in summary is what happened but what happened afterwards was worse as I have been trying to convey these facts, but I now except that this should have been put in writing, earlier so as to point all of the surrounding issues. Furthermore, after speaking to a fault engineer, I was told that indeed the old double socket filter box was probably the cause of my problems.

Today that very same double socket filter is still where is was when initially installed over ten years ago i by your engineers but instead of removing it the engineers have by passed it.

I have spoken to so many different people, from BT regarding these issues and at every stage people have either lied, or not done what they had promised to do so and when I have asked their names I, was only given a first name and as such cannot hold anyone to task, this in turn led to disconnection putting at risk the only means of communications of my old invalid and housebound mothers life at risk. In addition I had offered to pay twice my other charges but was told, on both occasions that I should wait until an investigation was carried out.

However, after assuring me twice that i would not be disconnected, yes I was disconnected and then blackmailed into paying over £200 pounds, and this was done on Christmas eve, and as a consequence I paid BT to basically destroy all of my telephone wiring.

I stupidly believed BT ,CUSTOMER SERVICES and as a result now demand full compensation, risk to life and all of my wiring corrected to where it was before this entire debacle started

Keef 3 years ago

Spent a week without one number then another week without another following a request to swap my call-sign numbers over.

BT just don't seem to want to answer questions on why this happened or what they are going to do to compensate me. :-(

Finally got both numbers back, but the main number isn't reconised by BT's competition so I can't transfer. :-(

Why are they allowed to sell this technology if they don't understand it?

Maureen Cook 3 years ago

Having returned to Bt in October I asked for caller display to be activated. After many,many calls I have been told that a problem has been identified with the new computer system. I frequently have been made to feel stupid by being told that it has been activated and it must be handset/batteries etc at fault. The latest is that I may not be able to get this for the forseeable future. The service provided is substandard. Why advertise something and then get irritated when a customer complains. I dont know what to do to resolve this

Lynda Wilsdon 3 years ago

I want to change from BT broadband because im lucky if i get 25 kbp/s download speed. This is very frustraiting and not very professional of BT, especially as the quoted downlad speed is much higher.

Paul S 3 years ago

I moved to a new flat last year, the whole process made more complex by the total inefficiency of BT. Firstly cutting me off over 6 weeks too soon from my previous address,and then taking five attempts to get a service engineer to the correct address of my new place.Eventually the great day arrived and it was obvious that the engineer had no idea what he was doing. Apparently the employ contract staff, probably gathered off the street with no training!

Anyways after he left i found that i could phone out, but nobody could phone in, and my sky didn't work properly. I had changed all my broadband and phone to sky, which despite BT has been great.

So i phoned BT, and told them they had to come back and connect me correctly, i had taken off the socket covers and confirmed that the engineer had in fact wired the whole thing INCORRECTLY.

That will be another £90 please sir....ER.!!! NO IT WONT BE...your engineer mucked up and i have the PHOTOS TO PROVE IT!!!!

I was told by some snot nosed Indian that it was dangerous to work with HIGH VOLTAGE electricity, but he soon shut up when i told him i was an Aircraft Engineer. Its all very low voltage stuff by the way...I re wired everything and its worked perfectly ever since....So STUFF BT...

P

Lynsey 3 years ago

After a whole year of complaints to B.T. Finally! finally! I was refunded monies owed to me, which should never have been taken from my bank account! 43 e.mails 8 hours and more! by phone, trying to talk to people who cannot speak english properly! arguing with me, putting me on hold etc-etc-etc. I was determined not to let them have MY money!! So folks if you are dealing with B.T. do not let them get away with it .... grit your teeth and dig your heels in !! you will win. Good luck to you all. Lynsey.

550martyn 3 years ago

Dear Sir / Madam,

Please find enclosed a copy of a letter I received from my bank informing me of unauthorised overdraft charges of £28.00 and a fee of £35.00, thanks to the inept and incompetent service from BT.

The charges were a result of BT charging me for a callout in September.

You’ll see from my BT account that I had problems with my broadband line disconnecting which began in June. The fault re-occurred in August and again in September, these weren’t one off issues, the line was disconnecting almost every day, or the hub phone went dead, the BT Vision box kept turning off, or reset its self every day. I had a problem with the landline phone, people on the other end being unable to hear what was being said – even your BT staff.

Before I rang BT, I unplugged everything, or reset the hub and still the problem appeared, as well as a pathetic broadband speed of 2.7 Mb, instead of being nearer the 8 Mb.

In September I asked for a BT engineer to come and check my line. After tests were carried out down the line, the fault advisor agreed to send an engineer out – explaining that if the fault was a result of faulty equipment in my home then I would have to pay for the callout.

I informed them that all the equipment in my home was new – Hub2, new phone, Vision Box, even the landline phone is a BT phone. All I wanted was reassuring that the line to my house didn’t have a fault.

The engineer rang me 10 minutes before he was due to arrive and asked if I still required him to call. I replied that there was still a fault and yes of course I wanted him to check the line – he was only 10 minutes up the road from my home.

When he arrived the first thing he said was, “I can’t see there being anything wrong with your line, there are some on the same pole that have been up for about 40 years, judging by the colour of the cable”. I said, “Before you say anything else, I’ve lived here since the houses were newly built 25 years ago, all the lines were put up at the same time”. In other words he was trying to bullshit me.

He tested the line from the junction box in my home and said he couldn’t find a fault. He could see all the equipment was new and said there’s nothing wrong with the junction box, but because it was of the old type he installed a new one. He then advised me to ask for a BT Broadband Engineer to come out and do some tests, as they have more equipment for different tests, he told me it was “dropping out”.

I rang BT again and told them what the engineer had said. The advisor told me they would run a series of tests and that it looked like a problem at the exchange.

BT rang me back and told me the issue had been rectified – he didn’t say what it was. Later that day a more “senior” technician rang me and said, “I’m told you’ve got a problem with your broadband disconnecting”, I told him it’s been going on for a while, repeating myself as I had to all the other technicians / advisors, then abruptly he said, “Well I can’t find anything wrong with it” and started mocking the other technicians, saying “They don’t know what they’re talking about, they are in the front line, I’m the one who sorts these things out and I can’t see a fault”. I told him not to get stroppy with me, there was a fault and it seemed that it had been rectified before he rang me. I said the speed was up to 7.7Mg. His reply was, “You’ve had a new terminal box fitted, it’ll be that, they take up to 3 days to settled down”.

“Bullshit”, I said, “They either work or they don’t – like a light switch. I don’t know what point you are trying to make, but there was a fault and the other technician told me it was at the exchange end and now it’s O.K.”

Last week I viewed my bill online and discovered I’d been charged for the call out. I rang 0800 3289642 on Sunday 23rd Nov and explained the situation, they told me to ring 0800 800 151 the following day as they couldn’t view paperless bill accounts. I rang the number on Monday and again explained the call out charge and said if it goes ahead I will go overdrawn. They told me the charges would be dropped and the direct debit would be cancelled.

The charges weren’t dropped and the direct debit wasn’t cancelled, hence the charges I’ve incurred. I’ve also had put more money into my account to prevent further charges being incurred whilst BT sort it out.

The people I spoke to were: Neha, Mamtha and Garima.

It all probably sounds like a saga, how do you think it feels for me? frustrating, inconvenient, repetitive, unable to understand what the advisors are saying, and time consuming, to say the least. I hope the calls I made were recorded, because if there are any further issues I will be asking for a transcript of the conversations and take it to OFTEL.

I trust at this time you will give this matter your undivided attention and resolve the situation by:

Refunding the call out charge including the V.A.T. = £116.33

Reimbursing the bank charges £35.00 + £28.00 = £63.00

Total = £179.33

I’ve been a BT customer for 25 years and I feel the service when dealing with issues and customers is far from satisfactory.

David Britch 3 years ago

On 27th November I ordered a phone line for my new build house, online. An engineer visited on 12th December but was unable to carry out the line installation due to someone at BT having altered my postcode (I have an email confirmation to prove that I supplied the correct postcode). During the course of many phone calls to BT (> 12) during the period 12th December to now BT operatives have hung up on me mid-call (usually while transferring to another department), have told me that I'd be called the next day (which never happens), have told me that my line in fact works (which it still doesn't), and have cancelled my order without my permission.Many phone calls later (> 12) I've been told that an engineer will visit on 20th January to attempt to install the line, but to be honest I don't hold out much hope that the second visit will be any different to the first. Despite all that, tracking my order online shows it as still being cancelled.BT advertise a 2-15 day service for getting a phone line installed. Providing that I actually receive a phone line on 20th January, it will be close to a 2 month service, which I feel is completely unacceptable. As someone who works from home permanently, the delay has resulted in a very expensive bill for mobile phone calls and mobile broadband access.I have complained twice in the past about this, but never received any response, despite a two day response service being advertised. I am absolutely shocked and appalled at the service I have received, and if I could switch to Virgin I would, but there's no cable down the street.

nicholas stanyon-tall 3 years ago

i have been with bt for under a year i have had nothing but problems i have to ring you every month to set up my direct debit has you dont take the money out of my bank then you have the nerve to cut me off all together then you switch me back on after a lot of hassle then two months later you do the same thing because you have cocked up my account then you have the nerve to switch my broadband off.i ask you for compensation and all you offer me is one months line rental free WOW i want this to be investigated and compensated

smesforever 3 years ago

I really wish that I had found this site before I signed up with the horrendous company that is British Telecom. I think I must have called BT close to 100 times in 3 months that I have been a customer of theirs and every time I call up I get lied to and promised things that never happen. They took money out of my account for BT Vision even though I had cancelled it after 3 days. 4 weeks later, after 8 phone calls, promises of calls back, being cut off about 4 times and being asked to wait 5 working days for the 3rd time now, I have only got £40 back but no-one can tell me when I'm going to get the rest.

Now I am also trying to get compensation for my broadband crashing since New Years Eve but apparently I'm not entitled because it was a connection problem (even though today I was told it's due to something else) and because an engineer hasn't been out. Was waiting for a phone call back at 6pm tonight to try and get it fixed. Nearly 2 hours later and surprise surprise, I'm still waiting!!!!!!!

I'm so frustrated!!! How can such a large company provide such bad customer service. I secretely hoped I was the only 1 but this company should be shut down.

alison edwards 3 years ago

For the last few months my 85 year old father & myself have had calls when answering are disconnected. I rang 1471 to find out it is a call from b.t. saying the have been unsuccessful in speaking to me but should they still wish to speak to me i would be contaced at a later date. This is causing my father great distress as he is not aware of using 1471 & thinks someone is checking to see if he is at home & when they don't get a reply they will break into his house and find him there and he fears he will be attacked. I am appaled at this practise by b.t. if they are such a caring company perhaps they could take a minute of their precious time and put them selves in my father shoes and feel the distress he is being put through on a regular bases

Marta Ugarte 3 years ago

On the 30th of January 2008 I moved out from my property in London to Manchester. I cancelled my account with BT on the telephone on the 30th of January. The cancellation was not done properly and in June I was still being charged for my London account. I have contacted BT on 5 occasions asking for a refund of the charges made in error and I still have not received them. Whenever I speak to the BT staff on the telephone they explain that the cancellation or the refund was not done properly by the previous member of staff and guarantee they will do it properly themselves. It is no nearly one year and I haven't managed to get it sorted.

Tim Hembry 3 years ago

This account is in my sisters name Annabel Hembry .On 3rd or 4th of December I informed you we were moving house on 20th December from 72 Leander Road SW2 2LJ tel 02086781776 ,to Flat 9 , 128 Dalberg Road SW2 1AP , you gave me a date of 19th December p.m to install my Landline and Broadband . a week later you then informed me it would be 20th January as that was the next time Open Reach could install anything and would cost 120 GBP . I found another Service Provider to do the installation on January 5th . You have now sent me a Bill for 273.39 GBP for cancelling your Service . What service ???? There isnt one as you are in breach of contract by not giving me a Service for that month . How does this sound , I go into a restaurant order what I want they then give me no food or drink and then present me with a Bill for 273.39 GBP , I take my car for a service which they dont do and give me a Bill for 273.39 GBP . The examples are endless . Would you or anyone you know pay for the above . At 19.33 yesrtaday we had a call from 08000285085 telling me we had to pay for cancelling the contract of Services provided , again , what Service ??? No matter how many times I told him you werent giving us a service he insisted you are as you gave me a date you would REINSTALL my Service , therefore admitting that I was not getting a Service at present , if by giving me a date for Service in the future constitutes me having the services reconnected why not just say September 11 th 2028 and make me wait until then . Absolutely ludicrous .I needed it asap as I am not well and at anytime may need hospitalisation so need a phoneline and I can only work from home in order to earn any money , I am happy to supply the names of the Doctors / Hospital concerned . We are now left with a few options , you forget the cancellation charges and we all go off in our merry waysYou dont and we will end up in courtYou dont and I will use a very close contact in the National PressI pay enough of a basic charge for another month until my 1 year is up , thus avoiding the cancellation charge , but why I should do this is beyond me .In my opinion your Customer Servives Department is reminiscent of Playground Bullies and your Customer Services is in fact Customer Disservices especially when they put the phone down Customers thus forcing another phone call and another ad infinitumPlease deal with this ASAP so the stress you are giving me is over as I dont really want to end up back in Hospital

barry gorman 3 years ago

Briefly what happens, and has happened since day one of my broadband installation, is that the broadband drops out every time there is the ring-in for an incoming voice call. As I have had numerous visits from BT personnel, most of the obvious potential causes have been eliminated.

Close observation shows that the upstream CRC error rate normally is very low, except when there is ring-in, in which case it ramps-up dramatically until the broadband drops sync. This is indicative either of the ring tone have an interfering component, or that one is generated by other equipment in respose to the relatively high voltage of the ring signal. Theoretically this should not occur; but it does and quite demonstrably repeatably too.

ISP says call BT. BT says call ISP...

Adam Stanley 3 years ago

Hi All, I am glgad i am not alone - thank you for this website - it will definitely help me as i pursue my case further.

Please see me details below:

I am writing to you to detail the numerous occasions I have experienced frankly appalling service. I have detailed below the numerous occasions I have been charged twice for the same service as well as the numerous occasions I have been lied to. All of the detail is below and I have attached a basic chronology including all call durations and times to the relevant telephone numbers plus all of the dates and amounts I have been billed. These are extracts from my phone bill and statement – if you would like to query any of them I can produce the originals.

I have been assigned a number of customer numbers which have no relevance to me whatsoever so I have listed them below for your reference:

XXXX

XXXX

XXXXXXXX

XXXX

XXXX

The current telephone number for my address is 0207XXXXXXX.

If you can review the below and reply to me as soon as possible with the solutions requested at the base of the letter I would greatly appreciate it.

In April 2008, I moved in to a house with new housemates – we needed to set-up the internet and phone in the house and as advertised in the paper, BT worked out to be the best value over a 12 month period versus Tiscali and Virgin.

I signed up with BT Broadband, Vision and landline – I agreed to all payments being billed monthly as this was the easiest way for all house members to manage cash flow. I was told that I needed to make a payment in advance of £20 which I paid over the phone – this would come off the first bill.

The service was set up and we received all the equipment, my first payment of £33.92 was deducted from my account at the start of the following month. In total, with the £20 advance payment, this came to £53.92 for the first month service. On the bill it stated that the first bill will normally be slightly higher than expected, which it was. The monthly charges for all three services totalled £42, this is what I would expect to see on the following bill and I did.

One month after I had moved in to the house, we were all unfortunately forced to move due to a landlord who was not paying his mortgage – finding a new house one month after moving in to avoid homelessness was a stressful time however I still ensured that BT were phoned and made aware of our need to move the contract to the new address. I was told during the conversation with BT that their system was not working and to call back the following morning (10th June).

On this second call to transfer the service, I was asked for all of my current details, then I had to provide all of the new address details and told that I would need to pay £120 as there was no BT line in the new address.

After this, I was told that the cancellation of the line had been completed at the current address, however the system was playing up and that the rest of the transfer service would need to be completed by them offline as they have all details they require and BT would not like to keep me waiting on the line.

The following day I called again to confirm everything had been completed, as soon as I called I needed to provide all current details, then provide all of my new details as they could not find the current details, then I was told I would need to pay £120 as there was no line in the new address.

It appeared that your colleague had made no note of my move request and had just wasted my time and lied to me, he in fact did not complete the order offline. After providing all of the details again, I was told that this would be completed offline as to avoid me wasting more time – again, I felt that this was the least that a customer service representative could offer and I thanked them and hung up.

Two days after this previous call and the day after I moved in to the new house (13th June) I made my 4th call to BT to confirm that the services you are billing me for, had been transferred to the new address as I had been told that they had been.

I was deeply annoyed and frustrated that after being told by two different representatives on two separate occasions, the services still had not been transferred to the new address. I had now twice been lied to by BT.

At this point, I explained the about the previous attempts to transfer the service and she assured me that it would be completed by her. I was told that she would raise the point with her supervisor and call me back in the morning of the 14th June with confirmation that the request to transfer the service had been completed – for the 3rd time I provided all of my old details, and my new details and was once again told that I would have to pay £120 to install a new line in the house. I asked for the Woman’s name (which I have unfortunately lost at this time) as I wanted to make sure I had a reference point when she called me back in the morning.

The following day I received no call from her. The day after, I also received no call, the day after this I still received no call. After waiting 7 days without the courtesy of a call from BT as promised, I decided to call back. I quoted the woman’s name only to be told that there was no woman of that name who worked in the department. This woman had now lied to me twice, making a total of 4 lies from BT by 3 different members of staff.

These lies preceeded my being told that for a 4th time that there was no record of my request to move house. Your rep also then took nearly 5 minutes to unsuccessfully find the current details for my services. According to BT now only was there no record of my request move my services, there was allegedly no current contract with the company. I then finished the conversation with the BT employee.

It was at this point called again and navigated through the switchboard to speak to the cancellation department. I advised them of the previous attempts to switch over my service to a new address and that there was no apparent record of my contract at the previous address and no record of trying to switch the service across. As a result this led me to believe that according to BT records I was not a customer and therefore I wanted to notify BT of this as I planned to switch over to Virgin Media.

At this point the customer service representative kept me on hold whilst they “checked my file”. After nearly 30 minutes on the phone it appeared that BT did have a record of my custom, however due to “faults with the computer system” my transfer of the TV and Phone had gone through, however there was no note of the transfer request for the broadband. After 49 minutes on the phone, the customer service representative finally transferred the service over to my new address.

This process took 7 stressful and frustrating phone calls to BT totalling over 90minutes. I was lied to four times by four separate people, I had to repeat my information to the customer service reps 5 times and was expected to wait approximately 4 weeks where I had no service from the original date of calling to transfer the service until we had service running again. Until this date I have not received an apology and have not been refunded the money paid to have service during this time.

After moving in to the new house and once the service was up and running I was disgusted to receive a bill which included international calls to mobiles from our landline. The calls were made after the request to have our line terminated and before the service was up and running in our new address. I phoned up BT customer services again to explain the situation and I wa

S.Uttley 3 years ago

You are an unbelievable company to deal with with NO customer service skills at all. Do you train your staff to lie and be stupid !. A full complaint and the catclouge of disasters is being prepared.

karen keenan 3 years ago

I was really glad to find this site as i thought i was going off my head!! Definetely thought i could be the only human to be treated in such a manner!!

Cant even be bothered to go in to the nature of the complaint just want to say BT are idiots and i never ever want anything to do with them!!

Catherine Tipson 3 years ago

Yesterday I called BT to activate a phone line I have in my house as I am now the new tennant. I called 0800 800 150 and selected option 1 which was the only option that seemed to cover what I was looking to do (discuss an interest in BT services.....god I wish I hadn't). I was through to sales and asked by a very bored sounding male advisor if I had ever been a customer of BT before. However he asked this question in a very confusing way. I asked him if he could explain what he meant. He then gave a long sigh down the phone and sarcastically read the exact same question again. I told him there was no need to be rude and that I just hadn't understood the question. He replied "clearly!"... and then hung up on me!!

He made me feel small and stupid. I called back and went through the same option and told the lady that answered the phone that I wanted to complain. She would do nothing about it as she said although she knew he would be in sales she wouldn't have known who he was and assured me she would not be rude to me like he had.

I was not satisfied with this response at all. He just got away with it. And to top it off, as I still had to get my landline connected, I had to go ahead with the order and give them my custom!!!

mr h c hay 3 years ago

bt are the worst telephone company,i have ever come across, they have taken four hundred and 97 ,pounds and 74pence. from my account, there error i might add, ive spoke to them regarding my money back into my account,they tell me not to worry, it will be dealt with, within the next 48 hours, that was on the 6/1/09, i have been a good custumer for years, i think its discusting, i will never deal with them again

freyjasmith/ben hepworth 3 years ago

Firstly, I ask you to please respond ASAP.I would like to tell you my story of joining BT. I cannot remember all of the exact dates but they are roughly correct.I signed up to BT over the telephone in April 2008. I did not have a phone line installed at my new address so this was the first thing which I needed to arrange. I booked an install date for the line and it was arranged for over three weeks later. I was given the option of the engineer to arrive in the morning or the afternoon. I had meetings in the afternoon so I agreed for the engineer to arrive in the morning.On the day of the install I was up at 8 and awaiting the engineer. He was due to come between 8am -1pm so I waited until 12.30pm before contacting BT. After speaking to several different people at customer services (CS) I was told that no-one knew where the engineer was and someone would call me back. I waited until 2 o'clock but hadn't heard anything, so again contacted BT. Again, after waiting over half an hour to speak to the right person, I was told someone would call me back. This went on for the rest of day until 6.30pm when finally I was told the engineer was not coming. It was arranged he would come first thing in the morning and that I needed to be in.I woke the following day and awaited the engineers arrival. I rung customer services in the morning to find out if he was definitely going to be coming and I was told he was. Again I waited until lunchtime and no one arrived. After attempting to contact CS and being transfered, cut off and generally waiting a long time, I was told no one could get hold of the engineer.After three days of this an engineer finally fitted the line,to the incorrect address.After long arguments with your CS team an engineer finally came out 1 week later to install to the correct address.I moved house 24th Sept and informed BT 3 weeks before so that all my services could be moved to my new address.BT cut off all my services early (2 weeks early.)Then it took 1 month for the services to be up and running at my new address(which i had to pay £120 installation charge)I was also charged a cancelation fee of £96 when i didn't cancel my account i simply moved house.BT also placed me on an new 18 month contract when i moved without consulting me. Scraping my old account which was a 12 month term 6 months served.I have been having issues with my account for over 9 months now and no one had been able to assist me. It was even a problem for over 6 months that my name couldn't even be spelt correctly on the database, even though informing over 20 different people at BT.I have also sent three recorded delivery letters to the Correspondence Centre to which I have had no reply.Finally, after speaking with Mohan, some of my issues appeared to be resolved.I had recently received a letter from credit solutions asking for an outstanding balance of £72. This was from an account which had been closed over 3 months previously and also, over the phone, I had made the final bill pament. I had made a final payment and closed the account back in October so this was ridiculous.My girlfriend spoke to Mohan (India Billing Services) 2 days ago, he agreed to pay back a credit that was outstanding to me and also a disconnection charge you should not have charged me when I MOVED MY SERVICES FROM MY OLD ADDRESS TO THE NEW ONE.I have this morning received a phone call from Credit Solutions asking why the payment hasn't been made. After contact BT, the customer services advisor told me that I still had to pay the amount and it was outstanding for a final Bill. Apparently there was no note on the computer, it was only after I repeatedly asked to speak to a manager that she came back with the response that it would be paid by BT.My main issues of concern were from when I moved address. I had agreed to the new installation charge of £120 for the new phone line. After thatFor these inconveniences I am to bill BT for my time on the phone, days off work and loss of services.Time on phone = 20 hours @ £20 = £600Days off work = 2 @ £120 = £240Loss of services = 2 weeks = £200Bank Charges =4 x £38 =152Money we are in credit on phone account=£220Refund due for canceling when we only moved house= £96TOTAL =£1508!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!On the 7th January 2009 my partner managed to speak to one of your managers, Mohan from the India customer services who was very helpful. I would like to thank him for doing all in his power to resolve some of my issues but even his attempts have done very little.13.01.2009 A further £123.50 was taken from my bank account, no bill! After i had instructed BT to cancel all direct payments until all the matters were resolved. I have occurred further bank charges! £38.Also on the 13.01.09 your agent would not put me through to a manager, when i finally got through after requesting so 18 times your manager hung up on me!Please also note that several letters have been sent to BT with no response.I have also sent a copy of this letter to the ombudsmen for which I am awaiting a reply. As you can see, I have very much been inconvenienced by BT.I await your response.

Annoyed Customer 3 years ago

BT are a total waste of time, i signed upto their option 3 broadband package, the top one i might add costing me 25 pound a month, and the claimed upto 8mb is non existant. I joined at the start of october and uptil now, after many visits from engineers and phone calls with their international call centres they still tell me a specialized "complex" team is working on it. I get less than 500k download speed a somewhat 7000kb+ short of their advertising. I should have never gone with BT, More than 3 months of misery and unresolved speed issues.

Still in the process of demanding my money back for the cheek of charging me for a service they cannot promise to provide. CHEAP, POOR and UTTERLY HOPELESS company.

gigglemal 3 years ago

BT Business seem to prefer to either dilute an issue, by 'buck-passing' & diluting a complaint, or to call a customer's bluff by using deadlock/otelo as a strategy...... discusss.....I've had the misfortune to have to complain to BT twice, and both times it's been like pulling teeth out with a nutcracker. I'm sure they rely on wearing a customer down, never mind loss of goodwill - it's more of an exorcism.From both incidents, it seems to me that their failures have parallels - lack of ownership, dilution of issues, lack of Quality Control/auditing, and relying on the customer to keep momentum.The very fact they've a High Level Escalation team suggests demand/compaints is high, and whilst certain staff members deserve credit, the senior management rely on either calling a customers bluff & demanding a level of compensation, or they make a measly gesture offer & jump to deadlock - ignoring the customer's motivation and resolve to find an amicable resolution.In my latest incident, I was mis-sold a service at inception IMO, or at best, mis-directed. I explained that a business connection was required for a back-office, and if ever there were any problems with my account/business to ensure we had a discussion over the phone (reasonable request for a communications firm I'd suggest?). My reasons for this was we'd experienced problems previously with BT in their methods of communications (relying on autodiallers) that I was seeking to avoid in future. Therefore I signed up to a phone connection with broadband on the understanding if ever there was any problems with anything, we would ensure a human to human conversation over the phone so that we can address any problems, as the office was only occupied infrequently.Unfortunately, I was quite ill and off work for several weeks, and being the only person likely to access the office wasn't aware BT had wrote a few times to explain there was a billing problem, and ultimately disconnected the line.On discovering this, I managed to address the reconnection and was told the broadband would still be 'live'.However, BT processed the order to reinstate the business phone number and then I discovered they'd patched another company's number to my phone line. BT had not realised this, I had to inform them of this, and this led to another delay whilst another order was processed.Eventually, they reconnected the phone line, but for some reason my incoming business number was then directed to residential home, cue more day's delay. Once again a fault was identified and several days outage ensued.Eventually, the incoming phone number was corrected, but in this time, the broadband account had been terminated by BT (despite promises otherwise). Once the broadband was activated, several days later, it then transpired that this activation wasn't actually 'physical', in that it showed on their systems but wasn't connected at the exchange (or something like that) - which took another few days to resolve.Once this fault had been restored, it then took two days for them to realise the passwords issued were incorrect.In summary, I hope this is the exception and hope any other customers don't face similar episodes.The matter is currently with their complaints team, and whilst I cannot fault their effort I am concerned that they make compensation/reparation offers as a strategy with a view to deadlocking complaints, in the hope customers don't follow up through Otelo. I suggest this as in this case, and previously, it's been indicated during conversations that they base their compensation/goodwill offers as commercial consideration, and NOT scaleable to any level of failings. I compared this approach to an insurance company offering a quote to repair a damaged car without inspection of the damage. I suggest this as an offer of 'goodwill' was made by BT by someone who admitted they were not aware of the details/scope of the case (who's manager has since contradicted by suggesting he didn't feel they should make ANY offer of goodwill), but would 'look into it'. In the interim, he acknowledged there 'was a lot more to the case' but couldn't improve his offer without managerial intervention.I've suggested a few options other than deadlock to BT and emphasised my intention to find some 'middle ground', but they are determined to go to deadlock stage. Just to 'flesh out the issue', they offered £250 for a broadband based complaint previously, despite there being no 'SLA" for compensation.In this latest debacle, which has involved something like 30 hours of input from myself, some 25 calendar days to restore a service, about 20 emails and involving around 8 BT staff, and at least 5 major failings, they've offered two quarters line rental (approx 88) - despite BOTH phone and Broandband being disrupted. The manager offered to improve the goodwill to 3 quarters (approx 130) and then asked what I was looking for; however, he could (or would) not confirm how he quantified the offer value.Seems to me they like to treat their customers like fools, and then play liars bluff with them?

Mrs N 3 years ago

No dialing tone in december so reported fault to BT and redirected calls to my mobile. 3 days later phoned by engineer who was at my property ( we were both at work and Bt had not informed us of engineers visit!) The engineer said he needed to get into the property to test the line ( no mention that we could be charged) My neighbour let him in he tested the line said it was ok (was there for all of 1 minute).

This week get phone bill have been charged £99.00 + vat for call out and £85.00 for work undertaken ( none) and informed that BT will take it out of our direct debit!! ( which i have now cancelled so they wont!)

Phoned BT took ages to get through told that i would have to pay although i had not been pre warned about charges and that if i didnt they would send the debt collectors round! then asked to speak to her manager told this would take 2 days. manager phoned 2 hours later and said this was a problem when fault had been reported over internet. The manger didnt have the authority to sort it out so was refering it to her manager and guess what 2 days later still waiting for the phone call.

the BT questions and answers section on their web site clearly states that if a charge is involved it will be discussed and agreed with you first !!

Can not stay with BT now whatever the outcome this is highway robbery

Jim Cadogan 3 years ago

I'm so glad others are having problems with this horrific company!!

not only did BT change my tariff, add an extra chargeable service to my account and renew my contract with them, they CONSTANTLY charge me 2 different kinds of payment fee's and this time around... they've charged me for NOT using my phone.

Theyre fucken horrific, i am going to enjoy complaining about them in every way possible for the rest of my day!!

jazz chilcott 3 years ago

I hate b.t. with a passion! I have spent a total of 23 hours on the phone and thats how long it took to get my internet back on after they made the mistake. Where are consumer affairs on this?? I am in a contract and there is nothing i can do they are the worst company i have ever come across! My phone stopped working and everything that has gone wrong has and will! When you do ring up someone trying to sort the problem nobody knows what they are doing and just pass the call down the line to more idiots and you just end up going around and around and around, and around, and around! Something really has to be done with this! Also i had to pay for my broadband 6 months in advance for there mistake to turn it back on and they sent me bills after that saying i hadn't paid and turned it off again! The stress i have been through i have lost so much time with these rats! If you really love your loved ones you will make sure they have nothing to do with B.T. what so ever! I hope B.T. burn in this credit crunch!!!!!

Mr barnett 3 years ago

The worst company in the world to deal with. period.

Croash Robinson 3 years ago

I am a business user of BT. Last April 2008, I moved premises, to the office next door to 22 from 23! BT did all the work, including installing 4 extra lines. They cancelled all of the old accounts except 1. This has an outstanding amount of £105.67.

On the 3rd December 2008 I received a red bill for £105.67. Despite calling several times complaining that it was for an old service, VOIP service at 23.

Since then I have called 3 times and given 3 reference numbers with a promise of a call within 48 hours to resolve the matter. I have not received one call, except from the debt collection team.

The debt collection are not able to deal with the 3 complaints as it is a separate dept.! If my business run like this I would not have a business.

If anywhere of any spine from BT reads this, these are the references I have been given:-

VOL011-15728070344

081217-000431

LC2878 L7903

Abysmal.

Chris 3 years ago

I recently spoke with BT billing as I wanted to transfer my line rental and broad band over to a new provider. I asked if there where any charges for doing so and informed no as I was in the last month of my contract. I was transfered to disconections and issued a MAC code. I then got a bill for £124.97. On contacting BT I was told this was due to a change in my call plan I had made last September, which ran for 12 months and I was being charged for the remaining months. I stated I was not informed of a tweleve month contract and had no letter from BT to this effect. I was told I would have had one. I then asked even if this was the case why was I not informed on requesting cancellation of ALL my services that I was stiil in a contract? The suspervior apologised as I should have been but there was nothing he could do. I finally got him to agree to me paying half of the amount. I am still £62 out of pocket and I am hoping the final bill reflects this. Otherwise I will have more calls to make. From now on I am recording all my calls to custoemr services and will inform them. So at least I have proof of what was said. Otherwise they make you out to be stupid and a liar. Please avoid BT.

S Osborne 3 years ago

I have had awful problems changing the line into my name when my ex moved out. finally sorted it after much complaining and costs. There was one decent manager in the broadband dept who sorted it all. On set up i requested just to be connected to both, i didn't want any packages etc. I now find out that just by adding my name to the line BT have locked me into a 12 month contract. When you complain you get told that someone from Bt would have informed me or in writing- all a bit amazing when you get cut off from the line for 5 working days and then find Bt have no record of the request. Bt are too thick to realise that you can't use your line for calls to them or look at their web pages, but they still tell you that's what i should have done. I will be complaining further and i think everyone else sholu pursue their complaints. There are a few decent people working in Bt.

ian 3 years ago

after making a few calls to bt to request a mac and being given the 'run around' my calls are now being ignored .awesome!?!. they really don't know how persistent i am!!

Garry Johnson 3 years ago

Below is a copy of my last complaint, there have been severa.

Dear Sir / Madam

I am dissatisfied with the speed of my Board band connection. On several occasions I have had cause to contact you organisation regarding my connection, the fault with the line was dealt with quickly and professionally, however the engineer carried out a line test while in my home and informed me that I could receive a connection speed of 2mb.

After waiting several days for the line to settle down my speed was .5mb. I called your company to enquire why this was the case. I was informed that the engineer was mistaken and that my line could only handle a maximum speed of .5mb.

I have since conducted numerous speed tests using your own diagnostics which show my download speed to be an average of .75mb; obviously this shows the people in your call centre to be wrong. Speaking to a neighbour last night they informed me that the lowest speed they have been receiving is 2mb and often their service is much faster than that. They are on a BT landline and there internet connection is provided by virgin.

I would like an increase in the speed of my connection or a reduction in the cost of the service you company provides. I can be contacted this weekend or in the evenings after 5pm.

Many Thanks

Garry Johnson

Stephen J 3 years ago

Wow, my complaint pales into insignificance compared to these horror stories!. All I wanted to do was ask for a simple task to be done - cancel my direct debit. November - phoned up "I'd like to cancel my direct debit please", "no problem" December - "I'd like to cancel my direct debit please", "no problem" January - "I'd like to cancel my direct debit please" - "It was cancelled in November" , "Oh?,What is this Direct Debit for £40 on 15th Nov, Dec and Jan entitled BT Group on my bank statement", "Oh, that must be your Broadband account", "No, that would entitled BT Direct Debits, which comes out a later date", "It must the BroadBand Account", "No If you check your records the previous Direct Debt for this land line account was £158" . At which point the phone was hung up in the Indian call centre. I have taken great pleasure in cancelling the direct debit though my bank, well worth paying the £4.50 BTPS fee a quarter not to have a totally unaccountable monopoly have access to my bank account. Contrast this experience when asking my bank (NatWest) to cancel the direct debit. Phoned up the BRANCH (not call centre) on Saturday afternoon - phone answered after 5 rings by a human being. A few security questions asked, Direct debit cancelled. Process took about two minutes. Checked on internet banking, yes BT Group Direct Debit cancelled, there BT, this is a concept known as "CUSTOMER SERVICE". I think this is a really good web site, don't let BT get away with it, eventually they will get their just rewards.

Mr had enough 3 years ago

I cant believe what im reading! How can a company get away with this. They obviously employ robotons. Have been charged 200 quid for one mins work yep just a line check, didnt even know the engineer was comming and guess what he left no pater work saying what he had done and no invoice either. Miss Robot at BT said this was usual you dont need to know whats been done! She had an answer for everything but had to admit she hadnt read the complaint letter or seen the attachment!! BT said the website clearly defined the charges but it didnt when I reported my fault! Anyway, going to virgin media they can stuff there line up there a..... They stand to lose more in the long run, cos they havent got my buisn and I m on the case to advise everyone I know to change if with BT. Good luck all dont let them get away with it.

Edward Desouza 3 years ago

I signed up for a BT broadband + telephone line package on the 16th of dec 08.I got a bill in the post saying that my telephone line was activated but did not get any broadband equipment from BT . I called up BT one month after the order was placed asking them to cancel the order since I had not received any equipment . I was transferred to 4 teams and was on the phone for 1 hour with following teams : sales, support , billing , sales . I was informed that BT had forgotten to send me the equipment but they could not cancel the order since my account was active. The only option provided to me was to have the equipment shipped to me.

I cant find a postal address for BT support ( The Ofcom site recommends that I send BT a written formal complaint ) however, without a postal address, I cant do this. Any suggestions ?

Edward Desouza 3 years ago

I signed up for a BT broadband + telephone line package on the 16th of dec 08.I got a bill in the post saying that my telephone line was activated but did not get any broadband equipment from BT . I called up BT one month after the order was placed asking them to cancel the order since I had not received any equipment . I was transferred to 4 teams and was on the phone for 1 hour with following teams : sales, support , billing , sales . I was informed that BT had forgotten to send me the equipment but they could not cancel the order since my account was active. The only option provided to me was to have the equipment shipped to me.

I cant find a postal address for BT support ( The Ofcom site recommends that I send BT a written formal complaint ) however, without a postal address, I cant do this. Any suggestions ?

Robbie macmillan 3 years ago

i started my broadband with bt on the 26th of november 2008 and it didnt take long to realise it is a dud..i was told that the wireless range of the new hub was a grand 50m and within 20m well its just the best thing since deep fried mars bars,

the truth?? my broadband dies if i leave the room the signal goes from very high to very low when i take 5 paces from the room...this im told is to do with the thickness of my walls..or microwaves (i dont even have one)..or other excuses

when i told bt that i wanted out of my contract , stating that they could could not live upto their end of our aggrement (this is after countless tests and a replacement hub)

i was told that bt will not guarentee the strength of any wireless connectivity

how convenient of bt

the onky problem i have posting this is that im talking to people that have already been touched by bts rubbish "service" and not alerting anyone else before they buy into this

Abaya 3 years ago

Installation Charge - When there is no Installation

BT Charged me for installation – when mp premises already had a connection. When phoned customer service on THREE occasions, they told me it will not be charged. And Over email too they confirmed that it will not be charged.

But when I got the bill, and checked the bank account – no surprise it was charged.

Is it a scam? I mean the customer service? We phone up some 0800 number, which gets answered in some remote corner of the world > we say some thing > they say some thing > we feel good and > they do nothing! Rip-off cwicks@gmail.com

cora livesey 3 years ago

HOW TO WASTE HOURS

Want to waste an hour or so? Raise your blood pressure? Try complaining about slow Broadband speed to BT in India.

First call is put through to a woman in Chenai, India who cannot speak or pronounce English. After a dozen unintelligible sentences I say I cannot understand her accent and say goodbye. I try again. This time connected again to India. The man on the other end of the phone has good command of English but has no idea what he is doing so technical helplessness is really more of a description.

Three times he gives the wrong instructions to access BT webpage and when on fourth attempt it is accessed he is clueless and puts me on hold while he asks for help. He comes back just as clueless as before. All Clueless can do is repeat my name to me. I know my name, I don't need to hear it every sentence. I need technical help not a name check. More time wasted.

Over 20 minutes has passed and I am nowhere. I ask to speak to a supervisor and am put on hold for another five minutes. Clueless comes back on the line again, with no supervisor, and I say I will wait for one more minute for a supervisor before I make a formal complaint to BT. I wait nearly three minutes, nothing but recorded music and I hang up.

So, I make my formal complaint with another phone call and more time wasted, although at least this time the man taking the call is in the UK, speaks English and knows what he is doing. And as I have found your website I'm publishing it here too. BT GET COMPETENT ENGLISH SPEAKING STAFF IN THE UK TO DEAL WITH BROADBAND ENQUIRIES OR GO BUST ... i am contacting Tiscali for a move to fast and unlimited broadband ...

Barry 3 years ago

I had no problem with Bt or my braodband until I cam home to find it was blocked saying I hadn't paid my business bill, I am however a residential customer and not a business. 1 hour and 29 minutes of calling many different people, none of whom understood my prediciment or spoke enough English to understand what I was telling them and they cut me off. The next day after 45 minutes of being on hold and requesting a UK operative, they still don't understand the concept, it's really quite simple: BT have suspended my broadband for none payment, however they have obviously typed in the wrong number as I am not a business. Accept you made a mistake BT it's really that simple.

Claire 3 years ago

After coming home to find my phone not working, I did a line check through the BT website - only to be told that the line was fine. BT's advice was to purchase a new phone and try that instead, so I did exactly as I was told. I plugged the brand new phone in and yet again it did not work. I went online and had to report the fault again, but BT assured me that there was no problem with my line but said they would send out an engineer. The engineer arrived and assured me that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the line or the wiring and so there is a fault with my brand new phone as well. And then for the best part this piece of information has set me back £200 plus the cost of the new phone that I bought, where the shop is now telling me that the phone is not faulty. So where do I stand now. How many phones do I have to purchase before I find one that actually decides to work with my phoneline. I am disgusted that BT can get away with charging such extortionate prices for their work. If only I could earn £200 in such a short space of time!!

CHRISTINE GIBBS 3 years ago

THIS COMPANY LEFT MY MOTHER IN A NURSING HOME WITHOUT A PHONE LINE FOR 7 WEEKS.THEY MANAGED TO CANCEL A LOCAL RESIDENTS PHONE WHO HAPPENED TO HAVE THE HOUSE NUMBER WHICH CORRESPONDED TO MY MOTHERS ROOM NUMBER IN A HOME IN THE SAME STREET.MY FATHER WHO WAS DEALING WITH THE STRESS OF A WIFE IN A NURSING HOME SPENT 5 HOURS ON THE PHONE TO BT.WAS CONTINUESLY TOLD ALL WAS WELL AT THE EXCHANGE AND NO NEED FOR AN ENGINEER,DESPITE BEING CHARGED FOR CONNECTION WITH AN ENGINEERS VIST £200+.AFTER DEMANDING AN ENGINEERS VISIT IT TOOK 5 MINS TO DISCOVER A FAULT AT THE WALL CONNECTION.-HOW DARE THEY CHARGE MY FATHER FOR A SERVICE THEY TOOK 7 WEEKS TO PROVIDE!!

Joan Strong 3 years ago

That inane Tinker Bell replacement for the Speaking Clock is an insult.

alan p 3 years ago

This what isnt to the chairman waiting reply

BT Group plc, BT Centre, 81 Newgate Street, London EC1A 7AJ

Dear Sir Michael

I am very sorry to be writing this letter to you, I had been a long customer with BT some 25 years, so 18months ago I moved to TalkTalk, because it was cheaper. I recently moved home in December 2008 and decided to go back with BT, well what a nightmare!

When I phoned to get a line put in everything was fine very pleasant chap to speak to very helpful (I thought), but the nightmare started today I rang up to BT technical services to let them no that my internet was very slow, they told me my line would only take 500kb this is why the internet is going slowly and also it being to far from the exchange, so I needed some questions answering.

I got moved onto various departments which took 2.1/2 hrs in total by which time they explained the problem.

I was told that I did not listen to the salesmen when I ordered BT and that it was up to 8mg down loads, I was moved from pillar to post again and was then told to upgrade to option 3 which would cost £36 +.

But why would I want to do this when my line can on take 500kb?

Do I see this as being miss-sold?

With this I am really frustrated and upset that I have been mislead and miss-sold this broadband package as when I signed up to this contract, I signed up to receive 8mg.

Under the trade discretion act 1968 it clearly defines;-

False Trade Description

The fitness for purpose, strength, performance, behavior or accuracy of any goods.

I feel I was Miss-sold 8 mg, as I actually only receive 500kb.

To be an offence the indication must be false to a material degree. It is not enough for it just to contain a quite insignificant inaccuracy.

To which in this case is a big inaccuracy.

All this being said in an oral statement.

I therefore wish for you to either;-

1. provide me with a reasonable amount performance speed

2. or cancel my contract without incurring any penalties or fees

I look forward to hearing your reply within 7 days of the date of this letter.

Stuart BAker 3 years ago

All I'm trying to do is get a receipt for some Powerline adapters I have received from BT Shop. Apparently not possible! 7 calls and 2 emails on - still no progress.

Nick 3 years ago

Hi all, last year 2008 was a bitch for my family, 5 deaths in the family and also including extended family, long story cut short, i was at my mums house "Deceased" i tried to use the phone but it went straight to a bt message, stateing limited service, so i went and found a part paid bt bill in mums draw, it was dated November 2008, got on the phone, to British Telecom and ended up speaking to a None BRITISH Telecom Person, "Woman", i said sorry for the late payment, No problem she says, after payment was made She said that the phone would be back in Normal service within 24hrs, today we find the phone has been cut off, they want £140 to recconnect a line that was already connected,

BT Wants To Be Closed Down, And All Illegal Charges Returned, All Staff Sacked With No Pay or Benefits, Due To Incompitance

Tina 3 years ago

TO Claire and Christine. BT have charged me £200+ for 2 mins work and did not inform me that I would be charged although they claim there website clearly states it although i think you would rem,ember a click on the response agreesing to over £200!!. Also the engineers report which I do not have a copy of is complete fabrication lies and lies. When I complained BT have not provided me with the evidence I need to prove my claim but have put the complaint straight into deadlock! I have refered the matter straight to OTELO I would advise you both to complain to BT first, then when they put you into deadlock which they will cos they want your money go to OTELO. Im also telling the office of fair trading as this amount of charging is extortion. BT are obviously in trouble and need to make money wherever they can. Im changing to virgin media as this does not involve any line rental to BT. I will NEVER go back to BT.

Kay Jackaman 3 years ago

I feel almost envious when I read of the Broadband problems experienced here. We are in a rural area and seven miles from the telephone exchange - so no BB here then! I work from my home office on a dial-up connection, heaven help me, and since the beginning of December the connection speed has dropped from its previous fairly steady 40kbps (I know, I know) to around 20kbps. I am therefore paying £16 a month for the privilege of driving 18 miles every day or so to pick up e-mail from a wireless internet cafe and send the large documents I need to send.

After a blood pressure inducing month endeavouring to persuade BT helpdesks in Bangalore or wherever that the noise on, or lack of, our telephone connection was not our equipment but their line (it finally proved to be a squirrel attacking a connection a mile away) I wroteto the BT UK Customer Correspondence Centre. Well, I couldn't e-mail and had no faith in trying to contact anybody sensible by phone! That was on 12 January; needless to say no acknowledgement, no response and no action. I threatened to cancel our direct debit and pay half the bill for half the service we are receiving, and look forward to doing the same in the near future.

Robbie McFarlane 3 years ago

I have been a BT customer since Oct 08, both the line and option 3 broadband. For the first few months the broadband speed has been fantastic with about 7.5MB.Since the beginning of Jan however, the speed has dropped to about 250kb, or 0.25MB.

I have spent hours on the phone to BT Support trying to troubleshoot the issue. Finally they have admitted the issue is related to a 'VP' at the exchange - something like a traffic jam for my data. Simply, they have to upgrade the hardware and i'm away again. For now though, they are unsure if they are going to do this or not...

I am hugely dissapointed in their customer service, they have failed me on every level from Support to Customer Care of my issue and failed to call me back on hundreds of occasions. I am now seeking to cancel the contract on the grounds of BT failing to meet the terms of the service.

If anyone has any suggestions about escalating this, I would be more than grateful.

Kind regards

jackie 3 years ago

Elderley next door neighbour could not make calls on his BT phone but was able to receive them. As he is not very good at this sort of thing I went round to help him out. After trying several of the BT numbers and pressing 1 or this and 3 for that etc, I eventually got through to a very snotty operator who interogated me as to why I was dealing with it and not my neightbour. I explained and stated that actually getting through to talk to someone was a marathon in itself. She requested to speak to my neighbour but I could hear her being quite abrupt to him and she was confusing him.

She requested to speak to me again and advised me that he hadn't paid his bill in December and that they had also sent out two reminders in January. Now the gentleman in question is roughly 75 but by no means ga ga. Therefore I advised he that had he received a bill it would most certainly have been paid and that he had not received any correspondence from them whatsover. She repeated they had been sent - I repeated that they had not been received and that I thought there was something wrong with their billing system. To which she promptly suggested that the post office should be contacted. Now 1 or possible 2 letters going astray but 3!!! He's not had problems before with his mail so why should he now - oh I know why - it's BT we're talking about. The operator was not a very nice person and a few lessons in customer services wouldn't go amiss. When asked how long it would be before they sent out another bill I was told it would take 5 days to be sent out!!

This is not the first time I've know of this happened. A male friend of mine had the same thing happen. He hardly ever used is landline so when he had problems making a call he just thought there was an error on the line although he was still receiving calls initially.

He tried several times to get hold of BT but couldn't. It was only because I'd kept getting a continual line when trying to get hold of him and mentioned it to him he tried and eventually got hold of someone at BT to be told they'd cut him off because he hadn't paid his bill. When asked how he was supposed to pay a bill that he'd never had he was told that they didn't usually send reminders anymore and that they would send him a new bill. The new bill arrived, the bill was paid but the phone remained unconnected. Upon enquiry he was told he would have to pay a reconnection fee - £100+ he therefore told then in no uncertain terms where to stuff the phone - hence he uses only a mobile phone now.

I don't know how the bills are generated but I suspect it is an automatic system somewhere or people sit at computers generating these bills and it is presumed that they are all printed off without any way of checking them off against customer records. There's definately something wrong somewhere with their billing system.

Terry  3 years ago

Hi every one..well it seems we all in the same boat, and it's a rotten one. me and my partner rent a Hse, we've been given notice to leave as owner is selling up. (bummer.) i contacted BT asking if can suspend my account till we find alternative accomodation, for now she with her parents i'm with mine and we got boxes every where, they said NO. and we will have to pay the remainder of our contract.. (which we never signed) £180.. i explained to the guy on phone we would need all our funds to pay for new accomodation once we find it.. he was not bothered as i think he was a robot. if/when we find new place i've since found out that we'll have to pay yet another £124.99 for reconection..!!!! IS THIS REALLY LEGAL? and can any one tell me what wpould really happen.. if we just moved after cancelling. and never bothered with this CRAP COMPANY EVER AGAIN. YET ANOTHER PAIR OF VERY UNSATISIFIED CUSTOMERS.. WELL DONE BT.. NOT...

550martyn 3 years ago

Just an update on my frustrating saga with BT regarding the callout charge I was landed with due to their incompetence.

I found an e-mail address on another gripe site - ian.livingston@bt.com. Copied and pasted my letter and diary of events. The following morning, (Saturday), I received a call from his secretary, (High level complaints), apologising for everything and promising she'd deal with it personally.

Last week I received a cheque from BT for £119.

It pays to persist and I thanked her for sorting it out.

Like a lot of other customers recently writing in about slower Broadband speeds and "dropping out", I too am still having the same problem. Whilst on Google I noticed an announcement from BT that it's upgrading it's exchanges to provide speeds of up to 20Mb.

This is a de ja vue. I remember when the internet ran on 56k modem and the speeds dropped when they introduced broadband at 1Mb to get people to sign up. In effect we paid for almost the same speed as the orignal modem because you couldn't get the full 1Mb broadband speed. "They couldn't guarantee 1Mb, just like they can't guarantee 8Mb now. I believe they are slowing the present speed so people will fall for opting for the new "Up to" 20Mb and will probably end up getting 8Mb which we should be getting now.

Nicola 3 years ago

where do i start with my complaints against bt!!

we have spent hours on the phone to bt the last 2 weeks.. firstly they cut our broadband off without even sending us a bill then demanding we pay £48 for it to get reconnected! finally managed to set my account up online and paid the outstanding bill thinking there would be no futher problems as they said our phone line and broadband were up to date!!

imagine my suprise when i try to make an important phone call to my sons consultant when i find my house phone has been disconnected...... so i ring them up they then discover i have a bill for £400!!! urmm from where id like to know!! they have agreed i can pay it over a monthly payment plan and reconnected me later wednesday night! so i go to make a phone call this morning to find i have been cut yet again! got my friend to ring me and find that i have been barred from any sort of calls! my father has tried to ring them to no avail as yet!!

when i spoke to them on wednesday they informed me they had only transferred my broadband account to my new address so why did i have a landline aswell????

my theory the new tennants at my old address have cashed in on the fact that bt have messed up and connected 2 lines 1 at my new address and 1 still at my old address and have not told bt we no longer live there and who does the massive bill fall back onto... us of course as its our name on the account! despite cancelling the old address phone line! our phone bill for the 6 mnths they have messed up should be £150 not £400!! im now wondering which lines to go down to deal with this

im very angry and will be changing suppliers asap!!!

P Jones 3 years ago

Today, 30 January 2009, I dialled the operator to report a) a faulty pubic payphone and b) a fault on my account. The operator (Terry) talked over me and slammed the phone down on me before I could even give details. I spent over 20 minutes hanging on the phone trying to contact Customer Services who, when they finally answered, instructed me to ring the operator again! This operator, again, slammed the phone down on me (Barry or Barratt – he mumbled). I am disgusted. I suspect I will soon be hearing about mass redundancies at BT.

Rachel 3 years ago

Asked BT to install a phone line into the new build flat I am living in. After 6 phone calls, all of which had to be made outside because I get no mobile reception inside, they agreed to come on the following Saturday. I phoned back over another matter and confirmed the date that evening, so I took the day off work. Come Tuesday night I get a voicemail saying they have changed my appointment from Monday to Tuesday. I phone back saying WTF, because I have already taken the day off work. First call centre worker I speak to tells me the engineers don't work on the weekend. Bullshit I say, and ask to speak to his manager. He says there isn't one. I contest that and say there will be one. He confirms yes and hangs up on me. I call back again, now pretty livid and speak to another call centre worker who says its all a mistake and Open Reach will be coming on Saturday. Fine I think. I send a complaint anyhow about the rude call centre worker.

Wednesday comes round, and I get a voicemail from Open Reach confirming they will be coming next Tuesday. I phone up to enquire whats going on and sit on hold for 40 minutes, before hanging up to check a text message. When I call them back,I find their offices actually closed 20 minutes before- leaving me on hold! I call them back on Thursday morning and they tell me that they haven't had free Saturday appointments in weeks. I then call back BT in the afternoon to ask why in the hell they confirmed an appointment three times that was never free to make, forcing me to take a needless day off work. The woman tells me again that engineers don't work on a Saturday, then when I contest that as a blatant lie, she puts me on hold and says there is a problem with my local exchange which is why they changed the appointment. Odd since open reach hadn't mentioned that mere hours before. The best she said she could offer me for 4 hours spent out in the street on hold was one months line rental. I said this wasn't enough so she gave me their complaints address. I wrote to it over a week ago- no response. On Saturday I then got an automated text from BT saying I had an appointment on the Monday, which I then had to call them again to say are you sure- after contacting Open Reach, they admitted again they were wrong.

I also emailed my complaints, including the record of 16 calls I had had to make to 02 totally £12.50 in mobile charges to set up ONE APPOINTMENT. I never got the same complaints advisor replying and they had the audacity to email me their customer services guarantee link- which is DEAD. They also kept trying to call me, even though I had pointed out I have no mobile phone reception so can't speak to them if they call unexpectedly. Then they stopped replying to my emails. Am quite tempted to send the chairman of BT a glove with a note saying "slap yourself with this, I demand satisfaction".

kayc3660 3 years ago

With regards to the free 0870 and 0845 numbers, it was said that BT were going to absorb any loss on this but no! they are putting up the rental price by £1 per mth £3 per quarter. I and everyone else will have to pay this extra regardless of whether we used £3 per quarter on 0870 and 0845 numbers. I didnt. Therefore BT are not giving me anything, they are charging me more. The 0844 and 0871 numbers which we really want to get rid of unfortunately are till charged at extortionate rates. My Doctor uses an 0844 number. There is a public consultation going on about this. If anyone wants this practice stopped they should contact 084consultation.dh.gsi.gov.uk or go to www.saynoto0870.co.uk and follow the link there. It seems that no one has actually told the public about this so how can we give our opinion. Please give your opinion and get this practice stopped.

andy of gloucester 3 years ago

we have a phone line broadband and bt vision. the vision is a joke. the remote has a soft touch feel to it which is wearing off. the red button does not work as there is an apparent "software problem". we have to reset the machine if we want to see any text images or bbc i etc. i have rung many timers over the last year all to no avail and usually get left listening to the horrid muzak. oh yeah i forgot if you turn off the machine at the machine on off button you cannot then turn it on again using the remote. also you cannot receive on demand films/tvprogrammes when the moon is in the wrong area of the sky and the ides of march are in ascendance, or so it seems as bt have no answer why it happens and once again i am left on hold.............twits.

jane 3 years ago

despite numerous phone calls to staff regarding my phone bill, I have requested that it is sent to me using paper as I have a problem with it accessing it on line.

One phone call to India was for 45 minutes and the woman deliberately hung up on me and then after two hours of requesting such an item I am still waiting for my bill to be sent so that I can pay it. No doubt they will be with holding my calls when they realise I haven't paid it yet. How Can I Pay What I Cant See????

george hayles 3 years ago

I am only one month into a complaint against the gangsters of BT, But I was already starting to weaken, this site has renewed me.Don't let the bastards beat us.

Kabeer Ahmed 3 years ago

I have been a BT land line ONLY customer as BT Broadband issues are a UK well known issue. I have been with BT for over 23 months. I moved my home just two streets away 5 months ago. Since the move was within the same exchange, BT first promised me with the same number. Then they called me again and told me that I will have to go with the new number.

Now after 5 months, I thought I will get rid of BT completely but they say that the new land line has a contract of 12 months. They say that with every new land line I have a new contract. They are also billing me for evening and weekend calls when I had told them clearly during the move that my calls will be taken over by AOL Talk. AOL Talk has confirmed to me that they are providing me calls on the new land line. BT customer service executive now says that I have to pay BT £113 to get rid of them.

Whoever moves home, this is NEW BT strategy:

Change their number first

Get them stuck into another year's contract

Claim false services on the land line like weekend calls

And get money from customer if he/she wishes to trash BT.

I will send my complaint to OFCOM.

Tajdar 3 years ago

I have moved in London from Reading in Dec-2008. After moving in I learned that the area is not covered by Virgin and now my only option is to get BT line for TV and Broadband services.

I have ordered the BT new landline from their website, and since then facing the issues with BT to date.

BT activated the line on my property as per their email within 6 working days. But the number they gave me in email was not the actual number I got. Well this was not a issue with me. But as soon as I contacted Virgin to transfer my services on this BT number I came to know that my number is not eligible for BroadBand.

This where the whole story starts, I called BT needless to say how many times and speak how many people and put on hold for how long. But the issue was never resolved all they did was to raise a new order for me which then get rejected after 2 working days.

Finally after a month when I escalated my complaint I was informed that my number was with Tiscali and I am only paying BT the line rental. And that I should contact Tiscali to transfer my line back to BT in order for BT to activate the BroadBand facility on it. I called Tiscali but they refused and right so because I was not the owner of Tiscali account.

I again called BT that why in first instance they issue me a number which was held by some other provider, and why should I contact them to transfer the services back to BT.

All I wanted is that I should get a fresh BT line on which I can have TV and Broadband services from Virgin.

This was going on from past 2 months and it is not getting anywhere because of worst customer service from BT.

I have raised it to many forums and Blogs but it seems like everyone is just helpless when it comes to BT.

I am still expecting that BT should provide me the fresh landline which should support the broadband on it.

I dont know how long it gonna take and whether BT going to resolve this issue or not? Now I am in a situation where if I wanted to cancel services with BT they threaten me to charge for a year. So cannot do anything just they make me live with a landline from which I can only able to receive and make calls and cannot have TV or broadband on it.

Regards

TJ

Gary Mansfield 3 years ago

Today 5 Feb 09 at 12.45hrs my daughter was walking to work down Swadlincote Road towards Swadlincote when a BT Van came out of the telephone exchange headed down the road to Swadlincote and instead of missing all the slust and water drove through it and COMPLETELY soaked her to the extent that she has had to walk back to get changed!! All her shopping bag was soaked, phone, papers and other things all need to be laid out to dry. Can BT trace this driver and sort him out or do we need to go to the police? Everyone else missed all the slush and water!!

mariola 3 years ago

at least you are a bt customer i'm not . i'm talk talk customer but i receive bt bills for around 1800£ . I've been told that account have been opened on October last year to be honest without any request from my side and also my real phone number is completely different than one on the bt bill. Now i'm paying my talktalk plan on 17,00£ monthly and they pretend me to pay somebodies bill. I call several times bt customer service , i've been told the line is going to be disconnected but after that i receive another bill so i'm sure they haven't done nothing. i send a letter to durnham, nothing, no answer. the worst thing is that all my personal details on bill are correct even, they have my bank details and they set direct debit without any permission from me. When i saw my bank statement i found a new d/d on it i was surprised because there's been a charge of 113,00 taken from account . .. i don't know what to do ...

Trev 3 years ago

I am quite depressed reading all these comments,I own and run a 24hr taxi service and returned to BTand yes you have guessed it....no phones and for my business that is a death rattle..twice in two days now and they state they cant divert the phone for me..or is it they wont..I have signed up for a three year contract,well I had,I think that might be changing quite soon

Michael (West London) 3 years ago

Here’s an account of my experience with BT. I should say at the start that I am a lawyer and consider myself reasonably well aware when it comes to knowing my rights as a consumer. The following story, however, shows that it doesn’t matter how savvy you are, you just have no chance in dealing with these jokers. Nothing in the following account is exaggerated or dramatised in any way. Indeed, given the length of it, I have deliberately understated the frustration of spending hours and hours on the phone to under-educated, deliberately obstructive, ill-trained and mendacious call centre staff.

I had a landline and a broadband account with BT. I’d opted in for paperless billing and regularly checked the status of my account online. Back in May 2008, I noticed an alarming charge of £441 on my VOIP account for one call in excess of 10 hours duration commencing at 10 p.m. at night. Although I recognised the number as one that we called occasionally, there was obviously no way that anyone in my house had made such a call. Indeed, given that the talk time on the BT Internet phone is probably only around 3 or 4 hours, it would seem to be physically impossible to make such a call.

So, three days after the charge appeared on my account, I emailed BT to report this unusual activity. Naively, I expected that they would be grateful to me for pointing out the anomaly and move quickly to correct the problem. How wrong I was!! What actually happened went something like this.

First, I got an email from BT telling me to call customer service, which I did through the dreaded 150 number (you know the score, “we are very busy at this time …”). Eventually I managed to get through and the drone on the other end acknowledges the issue and promises a response within 18 days.

Well, I certainly get a response, but not the one I was hoping for. Instead, I get a call from high value accounts department (at 8 p.m. in the evening) demanding payment forthwith (even though the bill is not yet due) failing which the service will be disconnected. I inform the representative that the charges are disputed but she cannot or will not take any notice. The very next day, I wake up to find that the service has in fact been disconnected – this despite the fact that all previous billing charges, including advance line rental and calling package charges for the current quarter, have been paid in full.

So, I call customer service again, who now change their tune and tell me that the call charges cannot be disputed at this time as a call charge can only be disputed after a bill has been issued, and the bill is not due until July (it’s now late May!). They agree that the service should not have been suspended. And so for the next couple of days we go into an endless spiral of calls (all on a mobile of course) to various call centres and pointless discussions with Rajiv, Rose, Ghie (who barely speaks any English at all), Marithua, Timmy, Shishir and others in what seems to be an endless feedback loop between high value accounts (God knows how these muppets treat low value customers!) and customer service. A few nuggets of comfort emerge, such as Lorraine (allegedly a senior customer service manager) assuring me that it must be a “system error” as unattended calls would normally cut out after two hours and that service would be restored within 24 hours (it wasn’t!). At the other extreme, the extraordinary Marithua at the call centre in the Philippines clearly viewed her mission as a personal crusade against the customers and refused point blank to put me through to a senior manager, only relenting after about 20 minutes of sheer bloody-mindedness. (Incidentally, for an interesting account of exactly how these call centres work, and how illiterates are trained to recite stock phrases in assumed British or American accents, read Paul Theroux’s latest book).

Finally, 9 days after my first call to customer service, the lines spring to life again.

Having somehow resolved what should have been a side issue, I now try once again to deal with the substantive issue – the incorrect £400 charge on my account. So I write a detailed complaint to BT, demanding an acknowledgement of the complaint and disputed charge and a commitment to a full and proper investigation. This is sent by ordinary mail to the correspondence centre in Durham, but it may as well have been sent to Timbuktu. No acknowledgement or response is ever received.

On 1 July, I receive the quarterly bill. In view of the advice I was given earlier, I contact BT again to dispute the charge. I receive an acknowledgement by email with a reference number. A few days later, I receive (for the first and only time) an email which is not a standard response, from someone by the name of Shishir Kumar, telling me that “after a thorough check of our records” there is no record of my query under the reference number provided and would I kindly provide all the details again. I do so, and receive another form acknowledgement with another reference number. That is all I receive! There is no substantive answer.

Since the bill is now due, I now cancel my direct debit instruction and send BT a cheque for the undisputed amount of the bill, with another letter reiterating my original problem and explaining why I am unable to pay the disputed amount. The cheque is promptly cashed, but once again no acknowledgement or response to the letter is ever received.

Towards the end of August (five weeks after my response to Shishir Kumar) I get an email from BT acknowledging my complaint and stating that the disputed charges ( £517 including VAT) are under investigation.

Finally, in September, I get a letter from BT telling me that an investigation has been carried out and the call charges are accurate. This letter itself is worth studying, because it starts off as follows:

“Thank you for your enquiry regarding the calls listed on your telephone bill. I am sorry if this matter has caused you concern and I welcome this opportunity to respond to you. I would have liked to have spoken to you personally but I was unable to contact you by telephone.”

Now I don’t know what BT is thinking of here. How do they expect me to take the letter seriously when it starts off which such a blatantly false statement. Unable to contact me by telephone! That is so obviously a lie. I have a BT line. I have BT 1571. They didn’t even try. Now I’m sure that BT has lots of very clever people working for them, so what on earth possessed them to be so insulting to the intelligence of their customers.

The rest of the letter is just a lot of blah blah about how the machinery in the exchange is calibrated and accurate and billing errors are impossible. In other words, “computer says no”.

On to Phase 3: I respond, pointing out that BT has failed to deal with the substance of my complaint at all and that their response is wholly inadequate.

What do I get? You guessed it. Another form letter, the first paragraph of which is identical to the first paragraph of the previous letter. They would have liked to talk to me personally but were unable to contact me by telephone! It’s almost laughable. This time, however, there is a difference in the rest of the letter. This time, they have apparently decided that the excessive charges are caused by a rogue internet dialler (I know that it cannot be, because as I have told BT, I recognise the number on the bill). This bizarre assertion is then followed up by two pages of advice on how to avoid such charges when using dialup internet lines.

Good one! If you hadn’t noticed BT, I was using your own broadband service (BT Total Broadband 3) with a BT hub and BT anti-virus and security software.

By now, I have studied the BT Code of Conduct (which interesting is very, very difficult to find on the BT website) and OTELO guidance and can see that I am no

Paul 3 years ago

They are a complete joke.For a company based in the area of communications its laughable its so bad.

Any company that keeps its customers at arms length deserves to fail........and I for one hope they do.

I wont go through the endless agony of detailing my unresolved complaint with them,suffice to say I hate them with a passion!

Paul 3 years ago

They are a complete joke.For a company based in the area of communications its laughable its so bad.

Any company that keeps its customers at arms length deserves to fail........and I for one hope they do.

I wont go through the endless agony of detailing my unresolved complaint with them,suffice to say I hate them with a passion!

john clark 3 years ago

i have been a bt customer for 15 yrs with no problems at all THEN i bought a new house there was a bt landline in so i asked to move my original number because of my buisness.

bt said that i couldnt because it was too far away from the old exchange, the line to the house was damaged i reported this only to be told i was responsible as the line was attatched to the building, i could not make or receive calls, my bt broadband would not work and my bt vision would not work, i made that many calls to complain only to get a patronising woman from india who did not understand any thing i said and i couldnt understand her, bt wanted 120.00 to have an engineer call out to repair the line yet the engineers said it was bt's responcibility up to the main phone box in the house, this went on for 6 to 8 weeks eventually i had enough and cancelled it all the line, broadband and vision i was cut off immediately then they sent me a bill for 249.00 cut off fee which im not going to pay if they had done what i said and repaired the faulty line all would of been fine.

i switched to sky they reactivated the line and within 3 days had line replaced by ironically a bt engineer and all fine

why dont BT listen and keep the call centeres in england or at least get people who can speak fluent english to man them

15 yrs of loyal service throwed away by bt they dont deserve to prosper they are a total bloody discrase

Moe 3 years ago

I've set up an account with BT in Nov2007, when they were offering packages: BT landline, Bt Broadband, BT vision. But they failed to provide me with both the broadband and vision, and when I asked to cancell it, they tried to avoid it as long as they can, Everytime I call, who ever pick the phone doesn't actually provide with any helpful answer, as if they just have a peice of paper inforont of them and they just read from it. They then sent me a letter from the debt collectors and asking me to pay around £500 which include the cancellation fee. I had to chase them for a couple of weeks, until spoke to one employee who found out that BT did a mistake. I didin't even get an appology.

My landline and BT vision still wasnt cancelled after all that headache, which ment i have to chase BT again. finally begining of Jan spoke to an employee and her manager, and I was told 1. The services are fully cancelled. 2. They will deduct 4month worth of my final bill for the landline, which wil be sent to my new address which will take upto 14days max. But instead i recieved a letter from a debt collectors AGAIN asking me to pay the bill which gone up £30 more and threaten to come to my house.I've sent an email and was told this will be handled and am still waiting. it clear they won't do anything to try and solve it...and am truly baffled and lost with what i need to do now, it is really ruining my credit rating. What else is there to do??

Stuart  3 years ago

Hello again complaints department...this is the second day in a row I am contacting you. Today I received a text saying my fault was fixed at 10am.I checked at 10:42am and it wasn't. Our 'smart divert' still fails to work - since November. So I spoke to Tristan again, the 'supervisor' at your faults department. He checked and found that it wasn't fixed, apologised for the text and said he'd get someone to call me to confirm what time the engineer - that he promised us yesterday - would be round today.16:30 - no word from Tristan. No call from an engineer.So I call up the Faults department again and am told that Tristan is on the phone with another customer and therefore 'Mark' would help me. Mark is not a supervisor - so far the supervisor is failing to deal with it, now he's palming me off on to a front line call handler?...Mark decides there's no way I can speak to Tristan until he's checked the fault - now bearing in mind I've wasted 25 minutes yesterday with Marks supervisor trying to sort this out, and my employee's have racked up over 6 hours call time on the phone with you trying to sort this out,. So Mark is either a genius BT engineer, who should be promoted - or he's going to waste another 25 minutes with me, to find out it's not fixed as per usual, and that an engineer will need to come out...From experience of BT's obvious training abilities with their staff, I opt for the latter. I tell Mark, no I refuse to go through it with him and am annoyed that he feels he can fix this after six months of people trying, especially as his supervisor was failing to fix it. Mark is unhappy with this and decides he wants his go... oh and if I talk in this manner he'll hang up?I tell him if I'm talking too quickly I'll slow it down. He say's he can handle the speed, but not the manner...Now, I wasn't losing my temper before, but his complete ignorance at the fact he's talking to a customer, clearly unhappy, who wants to deal with his supervisor, with a 5 month fault history... this is trying my patience.He refuses again to put me through to the supervisor, I tell him I'll call back tomorrow. It may be 'good to talk' - but not to Mark. That's not good talking at all.So today is another day you have lied. No engineer. No call about an engineer. And a text saying it's fixed...That's a lot of lies. No wonder Tony Blair thought he could get away with lies about Nuclear Weapon, with the sheer number of porkies you've been telling! - And you're complaints page say's you'll get back to us as soon as possible? Really? Is that for comic effect?You have annoyed me again. You're staff do not have to put up with customers talking in a 'agitated manner' but I have to put up with their ignorant inabilities to do their job???My fault is still not fixed.Wasted time on this today 1 hour. I'll only charge you £100 for this hour. Let's hope this is sorted tomorrow, as this with 6 hours of my employee's time at £6 an hour, now sits your bill at £136. All I can say is it's lucky it's a freephone number I'm calling.Will call you tomorrow - unless you call me first, which is I believe unlikely.

Richard 3 years ago

BT are a joke ,as we all know where in a crisis and my businees has failed due to drug addicts making my life and employees hell with no police response.

anyway to cut a long story short i owe bt just over £250.They have been offered what i can aford but will not accept , they are going to send to a debt collection agency.

My bank which i roughly owe the same to have accepted less and there the ones in trouble , not forgetting i have employed two people for two years .

They are now using bullying tactics to try and get more of what i havent got .

A

Chris Shelton 3 years ago

Broadband cut-off in mid sentence,call faults to be told they will check it and call-back within 45 mins.No call.Ring next morning and speak to landline faults who check the line and find no fault,then speak to Broadband and go through all the socket tests,unplugging all the extensions,rebooting the router and resetting it.Only to be told its a line fault,ring 151.More time wasted,waiting for someone to answer,then check name and address and more waiting for line to be tested,to be told its OK do the socket test.After 1 chour NO Progress,Start again and spend 3 hours last night talking to 6 different polite Indian representatives who were incapable of helping.Had to get angry and now an engineer is coming

halima 3 years ago

Halima Akhtar

!5 Mable Royd

Bradford

BD7 2PF

Dear B.T

How I would I start this letter I don’t know, if you ever had a dissatisfied customer and wrote a complain letter in. first thing I would like to know is what is the procedure to deal with it.

15 January I rang B.T at 6.10pm put an order down to come back to B.T provider I was satisfied by one of your customer service person that my line will be changed in 5/7 working days so I was happy with that.

19 January I made the second call to B.T providers to let them know they have changed my number, so kindly can you change my new number to the old one I was told from this person

That ok we can do this in 5 working days taking all my details and putting my order through.

26 January I contacted B.T again to ask why it was taking so long he started taking my details and told me there was no order placed so I need to place a new order to bring my old number back with B.T so as I was very angry at this time but still I made new order and told them I need the old number back as soon as possible because I have home business that only runs through internet so please treat my order very urgently I was told madam you would not have to contact our department again I will make sure this order is dealt with (ASAP).

2 February I made another call to B.T asking why is my order taking so long to take place and I would like to speak to your line manger I spoke to the line manger in complain department he went through all the details again and told me I would have to wait few more days as my order has been placed and they are waiting for the number released from the other company so I was fine by that few more days that’s it he said.

11 February I made 5th call concerning change of my number I told them to put me through to complain department by this time I was sick and tired of putting new orders in every time I called the B.T department as I have mentioned at the starting of my letter I have home business running through my internet I take all new orders so I need internet running all the time, cutting the story short, I hard very harsh words with the customer services person in complain department as I was very upset, so 1.45 min to this call to complain department he told me that every thing will be done by Friday 13 February just call back in the morning on this number 0800 800 313 and talk to customer option team tell them that you are putting new order in for 01274575437 this is my old number that I wanted back in use, this number is not in use so I had to go through 150 again.

13 February I made a call at 8.15am just before I leave for work, I told her the entire scenario and told her word to word what your manger had told me to say, first response she told me this is not possible it dose not work like that I said why not its your manger I am talking about who said every thing is fine know so deal with it I got same answer again no its not possible it take at least 7/5 working days to deal with this kind of order I was really upset about this and I put the phone down as I was getting late for work.

So I hope you read this email and reply back to me and I request you not to say sorry to me because you’re sorry dose not helps in any why to bring my business back and the damage that it has cause me the loss that I have to go through the problems that I have faced I am a 9/5 working class mother with 2 children do you think people that work out side and run very successful business from home has time to make so many calls to your department, I hope you will think what kind of service provider you are and how dissatisfied your customers are.

I just hope you learn your lesion and stop messing about with people like me who have been with your company for last 5 years.

And give more training to people that are just sat there in your department knowing nothing about customer service please.

Very unsatisfied customer

Halima Akhtar

kevin t 3 years ago

6 weeks ago i asked bt for a copy of my phone bill i needed it for i.d. it cost me £4 which i didnt mind. they said i would receive within 3 days. ten days later no bill. I phoned bt they said its been posted give it two days. five days later i sent a letter of complaint,two days later i got a phone call from bt its on its way give it five days. during this time bt phoned asking if i was pleased with my phone bill i said that i havnt received it they said give it 10 working days. i have tried to complain but nobody cares . i now cant wait to leave bt they are rubbish.

Marie Therese Hayes 3 years ago

I contacted Bt at the nd of January as I wanted to come off paperless billing. I cancelled this online ut when I went to print a copy of my bill they had deleted it. As I was questioning the bill I phoned and asked if I could have a paper copy of the bill sent. I was assured I would get a copy within seven days. A month and 3 emails letter all promising I will recieve the bill I am still waiting. They suggested that I go onto paper less billing or check with the post office as to why I am not getting my bill. All my other mail is getting through why is it just BT that have the problem. They have been completely useless in this and as soon as my contract is up I a, out of there,

Yvonne Callow 3 years ago

I have moved out of my parents house so therefore phoned BT to cancel my broadband connection (18 month contract is up at the end of April). I specifically told them that they were not to terminate the landline as it was still required by my elderly parents. I spent 3 hours on the phone to BT, was put on hold for an average of 30 minutes and was cut off twice. I attempted to speak to the complaint's department, I was told there was no need for that and then when I insisted I was put on hold and then cut off. I have made several more calls to them since. They assured me that they had only cancelled the broadband, that the landline would remain. Several days later they cut off the landline leaving my parents in a very vulnerable position. BT then refused then to speak to me and said my father would have to phone, I said how can he, you've cut him off.

Louise 3 years ago

I inherited a bodged job of a telephone line in my house. The master socket was hanging on with one screw (now fixed but musn't let BT know) and the whole lot is thirty years old. However it works so I lived with it. Now I find my local exchange is being upgraded to ADSL24 so I invested in a new router. I know the extensions in the house don't help my broadband so I plugged the new router into the master socket. It was then I thought it would be good to try out the BT I-Plate. However this only fits the NTE5 socket and not my decrepit LJ2/1A. I emailed BT as I couldn't get through on the 'phone and a few hours later someone 'phoned me back. Which was good. I explained that I wanted to upgrade my old master socket thinking that a decent company would do this sort of thing so people could buy their new gadgets which need the new sockets. I was told it would cost over £160 to fit one socket which probably costs about a tenner. After some discussion I was put through to Faults on the grounds that my socket is ancient and probably isn't much good. Before I could go over it all again I was cut off. I phoned 151 and went through it all again and was more or less told that if it is working don't bother them or stump up the £160. So I left it. Amazingly the same woman 'phoned back a few minutes later to say she had talked to her supervisor and they agreed I should talk to Customer Services. She put me through and as I was explaining the situation I was cut off. I phoned them back but was cut off again. Even with my old line I think the last time I was cut off during a call was a good few years ago so I'm thinking three times in one day to the same company, and a telephone company at that, can't be a coincidence. Someone will have to work hard to convince me it's not deliberate. So if I want to pay for a BT product to improve my broadband experience it's going to cost me £160+.

Sylvie Foxworthy 3 years ago

Contacted BT at least a month ago to give new address and move my line.Stressed v important as have 4 children and work (very hard) from home..my own business, self employed.Explained house was new and pelase check if a line would be available.Moved in Weds 25th Feb, BT arrived to do the line..scratched heads and said "not looking good" Apparently no line in new house so would have to go back to "planning"Was not pleased but was polite and accepted they would call me with anticipated timescales.Called BT to ensure phone was not disconnected from old property.Was assured it wouldnt be.

Today I find it has been disconnected and the only way of having my number back is to be charged and reconnected with a new line.

I am so furious about this..got CUT OFF 4 times tonight and spent over and hour calling them from my mobile.

Its their mess up and they cant deal with it...

Dont know what to do now...no phone, no internet..no contact

dai jones 3 years ago

btyahoo it seems are playing games, when i send some emails a stupid thing comes up asking me to key in a set of numbers and letters that it seems are moulded into one another, and tell me it is for security reasons, so i went to there website to complain, and kept getting more rubbish off them, this has only happened since i have been using a hub they sent me, dai.

Kevin McManus 3 years ago

Three weeks ago I called the Home Movers dept and organised to move all my BT accounts (phone, broadband and Vision) to the new address. On arriving at he new property on the 21/02/09 (the swap-over was due on the 20th) the phone and broadband were active, but having been told that vision would not be available for a couple of days, I was not overly concerned that the vision service was not active on my arrival.

When, on the 23rd of Feb, I still had no vision service I rang the number displayed on the Vision box screen and after 2 hours on the phone and being cut off twice, I was eventually told that there was no order in place and a new order was put in place. I was promised, faithfully, that the service would be available two days later................. I waited three days. Still nothing.

So I rang again.

Eventually (after another 2 hours or so, and numerous cut-offs, on the phone), I was told that there was still a problem with my order and that another would be put in place and that, no matter what, it would be online at 8o/c the following morning and that someone would ring me to let me know the issue had been resolved........ They didn't and it wasn't!

I was unsurprised to find that, on my return from work, I still had no Vision service.

So I rang again.

This time, after yet another 2.5 hours on the phone, I was told that another order would have to be placed (allegedly all previous orders had been placed against my old address??????????). This, I was told, would take another 5 days to resolve. I said that this was unacceptable and that I needed to talk to a supervisor. I was told that he would not put me through to a supervisor because they would not be able to do any more than him, but that he could put me through to the Customer Services dept. This he did at 2102hrs so that I could listen to the recorded message that told me that the office closed at 2100hrs and then cut me off.

So I rang again.

I explained to the person that took my call what had happened previously, so, they passed me on to the Customer Services dept so that I could be cut off by the automated answer phone.!!!

So I rang again!

This time I managed to talk to someone who could understand the issue and put me through to the Vision Technical dept (again). They informed me that there would be nothing that could be done until the morning (28/0209). I called it a day at that point.

The following day.......................... Guess what?

I rang again!

I spoke, eventually, to the Vision Service dept who informed me that I could never have had the vision service because my line only supported 1Mbps (I pointed out that local speed checks reported speeds of 2.8Mbps and this, apparently, held no water at all). I asked to speak to a supervisor and was told that there was no point. I pressed the issue but was not allowed to be put though to someone higher up the food chain.......After arguing the point I terminated the call (a revelation to me as normally I get cut off).

So I rang again!

Once again I was put through to the Tech dept and I broached the subject of broadband speed. They checked my connection and told me that my local connection supports 2.5Mbps, more that adequate for BT Vision. He then put me through to the Vision Support. They told me that I only had 1Mbs and it wasn’t!!

I was then told that, yet another, order would be placed and that a note would be placed against it that would show that the line WAS capable of the correct speed. I asked when this would happen and was told that she had no way of knowing if it would happen at all! Once again I asked to speak to a supervisor, and again, was told that I could not as there would be nothing that they could do.

That brings us up to date... I am extremely frustrated and angry by the lack of help I have received. It would seem that it is easier for staff to pass problems on to another dept than actually deal with it and no one wants to take responsibility for anything. It also would appear that none of their departments talk to each other. I am none the wiser as to when, if ever, I will receive the service or not. I don't hold out much hope. I have just been out to the local super market and bought a Freeview box for £20, the price of which I shall deduct from my next BT bill! Somehow ironic that I can get a TV service from m local grocery store but not from the UK's largest communications company (who I am paying to provide it)!

I still don't know what is going on and if I will ever receive this service. I may just give up and ring Sky.

clinton fisher 3 years ago

BT are absoultley out of their depth!!! I have been paying BT £45 a month for a while now , or so i thought!! i looked at my statements today and for some reason my payments are now £71? This is strange i thought as i havent been contacted by BT to let me know about the sudden bump up! When we spoke to them on the phone they said we are so many £££ in credit but when we asked them why we have been paying so much all they had to say was that we would have been informed!! well we havent been informed at all because if we had then we would of told BT to shut our phone line off!! So anyway the point im trying to get across is that someone in BT has got in to OUR account and changed the payment scheme!! which is absolutly outrageous knowing that they can enter what ever ammount they feel like and get away with this! Im going to take this all the way BT it is not your god given right to enter personnal accounts and take honest hard working peoples money away from them!

damianflynn 3 years ago

I HAVE had a complete nightmare with bt- its the worst company ever!!

I joined up with BT last june. When i rang up, i initially wanted to just get broadband installed, as i already had freeview and didnt really need a landline. But after advice from a bt service advisor who told me it would be more cost effective to get a package, which included BT VISION, BROADBAND AND LANDLINE, I ended up goin with this. The price i got quoted was £4.95 for the first 3 month and then £26 a month after this. Which i fort was reasonable.

Altho i wasnt quite sure what bt vision was, and asked the advisor what additional services you got over freeview, which i already had. And i was assured that you got a lot of extra channels with bt vision that wasnt available on freeview, so i agreed to have bt vision on this advice. I was also informed that if after 28 days, i wasnt happy with the bt vision, i could cancel it.

I signed up for the package and was informed that all the landline and broadband services would be available the next day as there was already a bt phone line to the property. However, the bt HUB for the broadband would be dispached and would arrive in 2 days (wed) and bt vision would be available the following week.

My landline was up and running as promised the day after. I took wed off work to wait in for the Bt hub to be delivered. I waited till 4.00pm and it had still not arrived so i rang up bt to enquire where it was. After being on the phone for 1 1/2 hours, being transferred from department to department, i was informed that the order had not actually been processed and they would have to re-order it. and it would be delivered fri. So i took another day off work and waited in and agian- NO HUB.I contacted bt again and was informed the order had been done wrong again.

This time i was asked if i had purchased the HUB. I

Annoyed 3 years ago

Otelllo advised me to request that BT put my debt on hold whilst they investigate my complaint against BT. I did this but a few weeks later BT sent another bill requesting payment. So yet another call to complaint services at BT and was assured that the amount in question was put on hold and that I would not recieve further bill until OTELLO had concluded there investigation!

HOWEVER 1 week on yes Ive recieved a final demand informing me that if I do not pay a debt collecting agency would be instructed to recover the money! and I could incur more charges! I phoned BT again and the same operator could not believe that the hold had been lifted and her notes had been ignored. She has made more notes on our account and has hopefully reinstated the debt on hold.

I have of course refered this further complaint to OTELLO as this constitutes Harrasment! They also advised me that my services could be affected if the bill is not settled. Are they stupid we have changed to Virgin media I will never have any further contact with BT and I tell my story to all others I come into contact with. BEWARE OF BT.

Johan Balslev 3 years ago

Review of BT Call Centres.

Most people need to contact BT for one or the other reason from time to time, perhaps when moving house and need a new number, query the account, getting a line or phone repaired etc. etc.

The telephone directory gives the numbers covering fore all kind of eventualities eg. Line faults, House moving or business, Bill enquiries, etc, ignore that as you usually are transferred anyhow, just phone one of them.

The introduction to all this services in the telephone directory starts with a picture of a very happy lady holding a hand set, each page have pictures of very happy people indeed.

According to BT, moving house, the telephone bit is stress less and only takes a simple phone call.

Let us put all this to a test , but be aware that you have to do below exercises from a draftee telephone boot as your house telephone is not working and that your mobile that day might not pick up a signal. Also be prepared to talk to somebody from Bangalore or Bombay, this is an advantage, becourse they are usually friendly and you can somehow understand them contrary to talking to somebody from Scotland whom you can not understand and is root and be prepared to spend several hours at least.

1. When you start phoning you might be smiling like the lady on the picture, but you can be sure that the smile will not last long, you get the ring tone and 6 options are given press 1 press 2 etc. then you are told that BT is very busy and that you will be put on a queue and you may wait and wait and wait, and nobody have managed to phone BT when they are not busy, eventually, if you have patience, a live person answer and ask what your problem is and beforehand you have the privilege of being recorded for training purposes. When the problem is explained you are usually told that you need to be transferred to another department and you expect that you will be connected to another person, but no, you are being put on a queue again.

2. You may be lucky that they, by mistake, transfer you to the sales department, then you get an ever so friendly person and if you are that lucky then place an order for all their gadget like total Broadband and whatever, but with the promise that they do not put you in a queue again.

3. If you manage to get everything sorted by talking to less that 12 people, consider yourself lucky.

4. When you finally have managed, BT will give you the options of payment eg. Direct debit monthly or quarterly or others, just say anything as they will likely get it wrong anyhow and then live with whatever they do, be course you will not have the energy to contact them by telephone again.

5. Do not think that this experiences is only happening to you, it happens to everybody, but most people do not talk about it as they are now just happy that they have a working telephone and do not have to contact BT again until something goes wrong which they do not even dare thinking about.

If I am not wrong the BT Chairman and general Director receive bon

Dean Hatton 3 years ago

Great site. Glad to hear that I am not alone. I have just lost a weekend to these idiots, trying to sort out my recently acquired broadband. Frankly I struggle to understand how such competence exists. I have every sympathy for the people working in India as clearly the job is beyond them. It is BTs fault for putting their technical call centre in India on the cheap and giving us a service that simply does not respond to anything close to what we would expect. I now have wireless broadband that I have to plug in. Not the end of the world I suppose, but not what I agreed to pay. I dont think I have the energy to try and talk to these people anymore so am stuck with wires around the housefor another 17 months. The first question I will ask my new internet provider is "where is your call centre based". Reading the comments on this site, I await my bill with interest.

Simon Tipper 3 years ago

Were the hell is my order ive been without mobile access for a bloody week now due to the crap service im recieving. im sure if bt lost connection to their customers they wouldnt be happy nevermind the loss of revenue not all of us have deep pockets get it sorted next stop watchdog then the press

Simon Tipper 3 years ago

Were the hell is my order ive been without mobile access for a bloody week now due to the crap service im recieving. im sure if bt lost connection to their customers they wouldnt be happy nevermind the loss of revenue not all of us have deep pockets get it sorted next stop watchdog then the press

Samira 3 years ago

I very much expected to see that there are many others in the same track with me in terms of this ongoing problems with BT.

I receive a new bill in the morning and my whole day is ruined. Cause there is not much really that I could do about it. I ve been charged hundreds of pounds extra over 5 years and I didn't realise it until after the first 2 years.

Their customer service is unbelievably disgusting, I really got to find a way to get my money back average £120 on each bill makes it nearly £480 over a year just from one household!! God knows how much ther still overall, without people even realising it!

Judi Evans 3 years ago

Cancelled BT Broadband as sick paying over the odds for zero help from people on another continent.Got a MAC code by email together with the following statement

"Your BT broadband service will be automatically cancelled on the date that your service is transferred to your new supplier, you do not need to contact us again to cancel the service after you have given your new provider your mac code they will apply to us with the date of migration."

Subsequently received bill with full month's broadband charge and when I checked my account broadband service had not been stopped. Rang up, got passed from pillar to post, sat on hold usual appalling customer service and finally got a cheeky young lad who clearly hadn't been trained correctly, gave me incorrect information and kept trying to insist I had to pay another month's broadband charge. Finally with some determination got through to Supervisor who admitted the guy had given me wrong info and had 'training issues'. She said she'd get the matter passed to the resolutions team and it would be credited on my next bill. Yeh, their mistake but I wait a month for the refund.

Next month comes and although the pro-rata refund is on there - so is an additional unexplained charge for £15.75 - after more ringing up and being messed about eventually get someone to admit this charge is unjustified and says he's going to credit it. I ask for compensation for my time and trouble (almost 2 hours of time by this stage) and get told compensation is not possible.

They are an arrogant company who provide appalling customer service and don't even care.

avril 3 years ago

To cut a long story short on Saturday 14th March IN EROR I signed up on-line for paper-free billing. Since I don't own a computer, (am using on at the library), this form of billing is of no use to me. On realising my mistake I tried to cancel my action, - both on Saturday and today, Monday. However I keep getting told that removal isn't possible via the site's removal facility but that I must phone BT on the subject.

Incidentally does anyone else find the content of bills' 'destination' column pathetic? These include '0870' number, '0845' number, and special service. '0870' and '0845' are included in the telephone number column, whilst special service is meaningless jargon. The name of who owns each number would be far more useful.

avril williams 3 years ago

To add to what I said yesterday. In December 2008 I received a phone bill for an ordinary landline, (NOT connected to the Internet), which was twice what iy usually is and peppered with 'special service' and '080' n umbers in the 'destination' column. Fearing that I might have been charged for incoming, (mainly nuisance), calls i naively wrote to BT asking for a list of who owned all the numbers phoned, Two weeks later a telephone message informed me that I'd been partially disconnected for non-payment of the bill, whilst a letter threatened full disconnection. Luckily the gentleman I made contact with, by phone, in ?India, understood instantly when I explained the above situation to him and I was reconnected within a few minutes

However, despite another letter to BT it wasn't until 10th March that I received a written repy. This informed me that the bill was correct. I then spent two days busily trying to deduce who all the telephon numbers on my bill belonged to - and succeeeded with the exception of 6 mobile phone and 3 '08' numbers. I realised that my bill was higher than normal, first because these days workmen's mobile phones tend to be connected to answering services, and, second, because of the 'you are in a queue' situation that exists within many big organisations. One also gets charged for being told that 'the number has changed'.

Amyway, the letter I received from BT on the 10th March was actually dated 24th February. On the 12 March I found that my phone had been disconnected. Given that it had taken 14 DAYS for BT's letter to reach me, on receipt of that letter no way could a cheque get from me to BT and into my account in time to avoid that disconnection! Yet now I face a late payment and reconnection charge. (I have sent BT a vheque and am now waiting to see how long it takes for the money to be to get taken out of my account )

The above letter had NO ADDRESS on it. Since it was written by a somone with a foreign name perhaps it came from India??? I replied - to the London address written in small print in the bottem right hand corner of the paper. Paralleling this I inestigated BT's 'view you bill' site (on a library computer - I don't own one.) in the naive hope that the owners of numbers phoned, rather than 'special services' and '0870' numbers etc might be in the 'destination' column. Too late I reaqlised that during the process I had IN ERROR signed up for paper-free bills. Given that I don't own a computer these are of no use to me. HOWEVER BT's SITE WON'T LET ME CANCEL ON-LINE - although publicty on various sites says that one can do so. Instead it gives me a phone number to ring....(probably in India). However my phone line is disconnected and I DON'T possess a mobile phone! (Yes I know there are public phones - cramped.) The problem is that unless one cancels within a pecific time limit one gets charged for cancelling.

Trevor Barton 3 years ago

You do know, don`t you that the link on your BT blog site that supposedly takes you to the BT complaints escalation guide shows a BT page saying " this page no longer exists or has been moved elsewhere" ...hmmmmm wonder why ?

teranick 3 years ago

Hi Surfer

I have read most of the comments here. Many of these mirror my own expereience of trying in vain to deal with the apalling manner in which BT attempts to avoid reasonable responsibility for wrongfully charging customers for repairs which they (the customers) have not asked for.

Despite writing to them, asking for an itemised invoice of works supposedly carried out. I have never received a written reply. So I have not paid the part of the bill which purports to relate to repairs inside my house.

I have, however received bills and a number of vaguely threatening 'phone calls from many different BT 'employees' including some which I suspect are based in the Indian sub continent. I have not had more than one call from each person as far as I know but the result of these verbal communications has been the disconnection at the local exchange of my facility to make outgoing calls. No notification of intent to disconnect was given either by 'phone or in writing.

My wife and I are both OAPs and my wife has a pacemaker and two hip joint replacements. This means frequent calls to our doctors to make appointments and order medicines etc.. We live in a comparatively remote rural area and this is most inconvenient.

I intend to write to my MP about this asking for his advice as a QC on how to get BT to rectify the situation without being ripped off with more trumped-up charges, and without waiting foer what I am told is the statutory three months befoe contacting the Telephone Ombudsman or woman.

M Haworth 3 years ago

Broadband account for past 24 months. Nothing but problems. No connection for long periods. Often connection speed as low as 4 kbps. Their marketing/adverts are basically lies based on my experience of the product. Constant calls to technical support result in nothing more than a feeble apology and "we will check the line". 3 visits from engineers with last one blaming aluminium in the soil. Would prefer BT to admit that they are happy to keep taking payment for a service that is not fit for purpose than keep fobbing this customer off with excuses. I can only conclude that their infrastructure is simply out of date.

David Dorman 3 years ago

My local area of Cockernhoe and Mangrove Green - villages 2 miles from Luton International Airport - have been cut off from broadband service for the past 6 weeks.

Running a small PR business with a need for a good broadband connection, this extreme disruption is causing chaos to my business.

BT locally acknowldege there is a problem but seem to lack any urgency in trying to solve it. There was an engineer up a pole a day ago and he told me I should try the line later, but nothing has happened. Today, there is no-one to be seen doing anything to fix this problem.

As with other complainants to this site I can find no easy way to register a complaint, let alone find a way of updating myself with 'progress' on how the issue is being resolved.

If anyone has any suggestions I would be most grateful.

David Dorman

Jon Fairclough 3 years ago

Glad to find I'm not alone; horrified to see how badly BT thinks it can treat people and get away with it. The poor service I experienced was most evident in getting things set up - after that things ran fairly well but the high bills and knowledge that it would take so long to fix a problem if anything went wrong meant I could not wait to change at the end of the 18 months.

They called me in December to try and persuade me to conver to a new 12 month deal but I said no as I knew then I wanted to change to talktalk. Guess what I found out when I did change earlier this month? They had only put me on the new deal anyway and are now charging me £200 in cancellation fees! I have refused to pay and await to hear from their complaints dept but if anyone has any advice, I'd love to hear it.

Jon

PS- how's this for service- one of their replies to my e-mails on this issue was signed Mickey Mouse!

Andy Lane 3 years ago

We paid our bill back February, only to get a red letter saying we haven't paid!

Called them up & was told that it wasn't in the account & it will be investigated.

Then we receive a letter confirming our acceptance to defer payment!!! (this happened two weeks in a row after calling them to say we weren't deferring payment as we'd already paid it)

We sent a copy of our bank statement (twice!) and still they can't find the payment. We received another letter today saying to call them within 7 days to enable them to investigate further, or the case will be closed.

We seem to be going round in circles & saying the same things on the phone every time we call them & now are at a loss as to what to do (apart from cancel the phone line with them when all this is sorted out!!!)

Sol Pickwell Nicolaou 3 years ago

I find the level of service provided by BT horrendous!! They are broadband providers for 3 of my sites and it came to light back in November that we were being charged for an account in London too.

All in all, BT owe my company £820. They claim the cheque was posted out at the back end of November, a time when I was on honeymoon in Mexico. When finally getting through to them again and explaining I had not received this, they said it would take 10-12 weeks to investigate this.

Throughout this whole issue, I have had no correspondence from BT at all. I called them again recently, 10/3/09, to be told that information as to where the cheque had been cashed had been posted to me. I have never received this letter. To send a duplicate letter could take a further 10-12 weeks!! Outrageous!! A further comment was that they have sent the cheque and it has been processed so as far as they are concerned they have done their bit.

I am now at the end of my tether. Frustrated is very mild to how I feel. I never get a straight answer, it takes forever to get through and they are failing to communicate with me. This may well be a case for the police but I cant even approach them without details of where the cheque was cashed. 4 months down the line we are still on with this and making no real progress. They are however threatening to cut me off if I dont pay my recent bill!!!!!!!!!

Margaret Rennie 3 years ago

margaret Rennie // April 02, 2009

I was going to change phone companies and then changed my mind i had till 6th Feb to change my mind so cancelled on the 5th Feb BT went ahead and took the line and calls. Complained to the hi level complaints department in BT and was lead to believe that they were going to help us sort it out they admit that they should not have taken the line and calls. they returned the calls but refuse to return the line. It is 2nd April and they say we have had enough time in which to have it returned but they have left an open order on the line in which another company cannot get the line from them also hi level complaints only deal with the bill not the service. we are at our wits end as we keep banging our heads against a brick wall and getting nowhere. Anyone considering BT as supplyer should have second thoughts. As we are disgusted at them as they think that they can do what they like. As no one can stop them.

j mc kenna 3 years ago

CRIMINALS,,,,,,,,,,,I got my phone line connected by bt after a survey which i paid 75 pounds for, they told me broadband is available, so i went ahead and got it connected which cost another 125 pounds, they told me it would be up to 21 days before the broadband would be connected, phone line worked but was very bad quality, got new phones 150 pounds still the same, 2 months later still no broadband, after weeks of never ending phone calls they tell me they cant supply me with broadband, but were charging me for it, i tried to cancel ,, no result, no refunds, just bils after bills, in the end it cost me over 500 pounds to get them of my back,

j mc kenna

Robert Hazell 3 years ago

my B/B crashed new years eve 2008 i phoned bt on new years day. my b/b has now been cancelled by bt despite over 60 calls to bt passed through hundreds of departments and being accidentally on purpose disconnected i have been told that after 5 years as a broadband customer(4 years with bt) i cannot get broadband and bt are not going to do anything about it i am the only person in the village that is unable to get b/b bt wont even send me a deadlock letter even though i have submitted 5 official complaints through their own website i have been given every excuse possible by the incompetent tech help department lied to by the engineers and even been connected to a different telephone number for a week the last engineer said he was not allowed to climb the telephone pole.

Michael Collins 3 years ago

This was an e-mail that I sent to Sir Michael Rake following my experience with BT Digital vault. It was returned as the address that I had been given was not recognised. I did also have my contact details enclosed at the bottom.Dear Sir Michael, You may or may not be the person that I should be speaking to, but after four and a half hours on the 'phone being passed from one department to another and then back again, I really have nothing to lose. I and my family have been loyal customers of BT with 'phone lines, broadband, digital vaults, mobiles etc. I am now at the end of my tether with regard to your organisation. I ask for help and I am put through to the 'appropriate' department only to find out I need another department, only after giving my details on each occasion. This has occurred to me in excess of 25 times today. The help centre takes all my details then tells me I need some other department, then they ask me if they can help me with anything else, which just seems ironic seeing as they have not helped me in the first place. I found that I was like the character in the film 'Groundhog day'. Despite asking for a supervisor on several occasions not one of the 'Helpers' would oblige. Customer Services/Complaints Department would take a Sherlock Holmes to find. All I want is a BT Technical Expert (like we used to have) to contact me and show that old spirit of being a problem solver and not a buck passer. I don't even know whether I am actually going to have my missive read, let alone anything done, but if there is anybody out there. Hopefully Michael Collins

akar 3 years ago

I have experienced a problem with my BT home hub wireless router. After talking to the 5th advisor at BT I have given up. All they do is to forward you to another person. I never wanna deal with BT 's costomer service again. Worst service ever.

Stuart Farr 3 years ago

I moved house on 3rd April 2009 and had contacted BT to transfer my line/Broadband from my previous property to the new house I was moving to. I was told this would not be a problem and it would be done on 3rd April with no charge.Come the 4th April and my number had still not been transferred so I had to call BT on my mobile. Eventually I got through to someone who promised it would be done on that day. After being passed around various departments I'd been on my mobile quite a while and so requested a refund of the call. I was generously offered £1 on my bill!!!

By the Sunday 5th it had still not been set up and BT's 'Customer Services hah!' department were closed.

On Monday 6th I attempted to contact BT again, after being past around more departments and being left on hold for 10 minutes at a time I was told it would be sorted on the day. Well surprise, it never happened!

Today (Tuesday 7th April) I have spent 45 minutes talking to somebody with limited English vocabulary who said that there is no record of my transfer request and that I will be having a final bill (with a credit cheque) sent to me in the post. And I still do not have a phone line or Broadband in my new address!!!

A simple thing like transferring a telephone number and line to a new property must be one of the most common tasks BT have to take, if they can't handle them then what are they doing!? For a company which is supposed to deal in Communications BT really takes the p*ss and I will not be using them again.

root 3 years ago

3 weeks ago i moved into a rented apartment in a development which is 3 years old. BT told me the line was not *activated*. It took a week to fix it and cost me 120 pounds. As to my complaint. I am ex directory and i registered for the tps. BUT. I immediately began receiving endless sales calls. Often from the type of company which sells products to neww householders. The only sensible conclusion is that the fucking morons at bt are selling our numbers to these sharks. They are just spivs.

Mike Gates 3 years ago

I regularly get E-Mails from BT telling me my latest bill is on-line for viewing. No suprises here, waste time logging onto the site only to be told there are no bills to view, try later. Oh my god, cant this bunch of no hopers get anything right, where the hell is their CEO??? does he ever test the systems? Doesw he ever try getting through to his own complaints depertment? Or is he too busy banking his goddamn bonuses

Gary 3 years ago

I tried to make a complaint to BT only to find out that I could not talk to the complaints department and that only the BT staff can. How is it that the only people that can start the complaints procedure are the same people that you are tring to complain about.

K Bahra 3 years ago

I have a fault on my line which BT has not been able to fix and yet have a Bill of over Gbp900.00. A siingle reported fault has had around 6 visits frob BT.. the same fault not fixed .Line out of order for nearly a year (same fault).The broadband side is fine but the telephone has a problem in that any new telphone instrument I fix blows after a day or so . Ihave gone through 10-12 phones including 2 from BT engineers!BT have sent different Engineers (via Openreach)who have done standard checking of line (the line is working as there has been no problem with the Broadband side).. they plug in the phone ans as i have told BT iT WILL ONLY WORK FOR A DAY thet have said job done.. phone working and charged Gbp 250.00 only for me to find the same problem that my phone is dead... the caller finds no one is answering.

I am not getting anywhere with the correspondence centre as they only send out standard letter saying the charges stand and legal action will be taken.On the last correspondenc when I tried to talk to the person who had signed the letter inviting me to telephone she denied ever writing to me as the correspondence did not appear on her sreen,I have changed the line rental to my broadband provider as it is Free but due to the nature of fault and charges raised by BT the fault remains unsorted

Can anyone guide me please?

Richard 3 years ago

Ok once again ii have lost an hour of my life due to the incompentent Indian Call centre staff

I moved into a new home 6 months ago got the phone line connected free of charge luckily due to the very thoughtful last tennent who kept it acctive till i moved in so we just swapped the names

The problem started whe I ordered broadband, I got the router eventually yet the wireless capabillity did not work, so i called up explained the problem then asked for a new routerm being a techy with an advanced physics degree the workings of a wireless router are not beyond my comprehension.

After an hour of having some BT guy VPN my pc he told me exactly what I had told him an hour before at the start of the call, unfortunatly their system wetre down and he could not order me a new router so asked to call back next week. Due to travel I called back a month later to be told sorry sir but the are no notes on the system we have to run the diagnosis again!! i explained this had alredy happened ect but due to the systems down at their end I new one has not been ordered

"Sorry sir but if their are notes I have to go through the procedure again, which also means loading BT's spy software on my pc which i don't want as last time it slowed eveything down

After a heated discussion of 10 mins asking why can't you send me a new router I was then passed onto a compliants manager who I had to explain the story again 3 times, she then said i had to go the fault finding procedure, not wantng to waster another hour of my life I then basically gave them an ultimatum, you eitheer get me a new router by the end of the week or i will cancel my contract. Apparently i will have a new router by the end of the week

My question is wy do I have to threaten to leave a company jjust so they can give me what i want in terms of customer service, if I was not IT savvy then would have had to waste more time with badly trained indian call centre staff, something I would rather not do

David 3 years ago

Despite many 'phone calls to BT, my 93 year old Father-in-Law has been without a 'phone, aansd consequently his personal alarm system, for a week. This has caused him great distress.

Brigid-Mary Oates 3 years ago

COPY OF MY LETTER TO bt i AM ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTED WITH THE SERVICE AND THE CUSTOMER SERVICE OPERATIVES WHO APPEAR CLUELESS AND PATRONISING!!

Michael Rake

BT LIMITED

81 Newgate Street

LONDON

14TH April 2009

To whom it may concern

AC NO: GB 0639 5788

I am writing to complain about your extremely poor service, I am absolutely disgusted with the way in which your organisation has behaved towards me.

My husband ordered BT Total Broadband and BT vision and spoke to a Rick, Gary and Jack. At this time we were told the dates which the telephone line would go live and that a BT hub would be sent out on Thursday 9th April, and my husband was asked to be available to accept the Hub, the hub did not arrive and later that day I was informed by the owner of our previous house (which we have not lived at for over one year) that the Hub had been sent there, I had to go and retrieve the Hub.

I uploaded the Hub to my computer and as the instructions informed me that it may take 24 hours for the Hub to connect to the internet, I was not too concerned that my broadband was not up and running. On Saturday 13th April, I still did not have the internet. I then proceeded to telephone BT and was met with the most unhelpful call centre assistants. I was passed from one department to another and then to India and back again, being cut off twice, put on hold for long periods and. BT assistants did accept that BT had made the mistake and I was initially told that my internet connection had been set up at my previous address, then this changed and became that my new address already had a “TAG” on the line from a previous Internet Supplier, I spoke to an Anne Marie who was not in the least bit sympathetic and appeared to put me on hold then delightfully tell me that to take a “TAG” off of the line could take up to a month!! Anne Marie advised me to contact the previous owners of my house to ask them to telephone the previous internet providers to take the “TAG” off of our line, what rubbish!! My husband then spoke to a David in sales department, who told him that the “TAG” would not take up to a month to come off and that he would speak to the engineers, David then confirmed that the engineers were working on it and the “TAG” would be removed that day. We were given a direct number to telephone in the event of the internet not being activated. This all resulted in me being on the phone for two hours, all because BT had sent the Hub to the wrong address and set up the service to the wrong address and telephone number. At this time I was informed that my correct details were now on my account.

On Sunday we had internet, the blue lights were active on the Hub which had not been there before.

On Tuesday 14th April I telephoned the department to activate my BT Vision, when Esther at Durham call centre checked the line she could not find any details on my account, again put on hold several times, I explained about the previous Saturday, however Esther was confused and put me through to a Gemma Wirrals at Doncaster, who continued to ask me questions and inform me that I shouldn’t have the internet on as BT records were not showing I actually had internet, and there was no record of anyone ordering BT Broadband, again put on hold several time, I assured Gemma that I was actually on the internet as we spoke, Gemma then went on to inform me that she would put me on hold to find out more information, however she did not do this and put me through to a assistant in New Delhi who could not understand what I wanted, again put on hold several times, I am very upset that this woman did this, I would like this to be investigated, Gemma was not interested in my query. I asked this assistant to put me back to the Durham department, however, I was put through to Nathan in New Delhi who told me that he couldn’t help me, I asked to speak to a supervisor/manager, again put on hold but was told that it wouldn’t make a difference who I spoke to, I was then passed back to a Victoria in the UK who again confirmed that there were no records of anyone ordering the Broadband, again put on hold, this is ludicrous as my husband had ordered the service two weeks ago and w e had spoken to BT the previous Saturday, spending two hours on the phone!! And as I was updating my facebook at the time of the phone call, seemed ridiculous to suggest I did not have internet!! Victoria then put me on to Susan in billing who was very understanding but put me on hold several times she was probably the first person to actually apologise on behalf of BT; Susan then explained that I would still have to re-order the Broadband!! I was then put on to Simon who again put me on hold several times, and still insisted that there was no record of anyone ordering the broadband, this was really disgusting, I had spoken to all these people to be told the same thing, however, nobody was actually doing anything about it. I insisted on speaking to a manager, again put on hold for a long time, Simon came back on line to tell me that there was nothing he could do and that we were not receiving our internet from BT, until the “TAG” was taken off there was nothing BT could do, again I explained that I was on the internet, Simon proceeded to insult my intelligence by enquiring if I actually had a cable plugged in from my BT hub to my computer, how extremely rude. I then asked why I had not been put through to a manager; Simon did then put me through to a manager allegedly called Justin who informed me that he was based at Canterbury. Justin continued to put me on hold several times for very long periods of time, insisting he was speaking to the engineers, I informed Jason that David had done this on Saturday, Jason told me that was impossible as the engineers did not work on Saturdays, Jason then told me that “100%” I was not receiving my broadband from BT, I informed Justin that my husband had just telephoned Orange (the previous supplier of internet to the previous owners at my address), Orange confirmed that the account was not live to my house and had previously been cancelled. Justin insisted that I was still receiving my broadband from another supplier, I then informed him that it had taken some time for the broadband to become active from when I had uploaded BT’s hub, therefore if the house already had internet there would not have been any delay!! We only started receiving broadband after the telephone call with David from your sales department. I asked if the BT hub would be compatible with another internet supplier and Justin informed me that it would!! I asked Justin to confirm this as I was recording this call; although Justin was reluctant initially he did confirm and proceed to tell me that the BT hub could be used with any internet provider. Justin at this stage began apologising but previous to me informing him that I was recording the call had not been helpful at all!! Justin then told me that as BT had no record of my order then I would still have to re-order the broadband, I find this amusing as I was still on the internet at that time, something which Justin seemed to have a problem understanding and acknowledging. I was then informed that when the “TAG” was taken off my account I would lose the internet until I ordered it again from BT (something I have now done three times). Justin then went on to tell me he would be personally sorting this out and he proceeded to take my contact telephone numbers, informing me that I would receive a phone call from him personally at 1pm tomorrow 15th April 2009.

I cannot believe how poor and unprofessional your service is, your employees at the call centres do not appear to have a clue what they are talking

peter johnson 3 years ago

To all those account holders with BT that have fought the fight to get the objectionable and breach of contract £4.50 payment processing fee removed; I have fought on since the start to have it removed and today Liam Murphy from the BT Directorate Office (yes another office) threatened me if I did not pay the oustanding charges on my account (I have deducted fees charged), my line will be disconnected.

I pointed out to him that they had refunded four quarters £4.50 charges so far and by doing so had obviously compounded their error in charging it, in fact conceded it is wrong. But the threat of disconnection was repeated........With the consequential cost of reconnection.

I am keen to learn if there is a site which is taking on the fight collectively, so anyone reading this please advise me if there is one to peterjjohn@tiscali.co.uk , as I view that after 50 years as a customer with BT they are in breach of contract with me in applying the obnoxious charge, which I view is nothing more than "money grabbing" by blackmail...............

Peter Johnson X

Enugin 3 years ago

One thing is clear from these complaints (and I could fill half a book with my dealings with BT over the last 20 months) is that you should NEVER NEVER NEVER lose control of your finances by setting up a direct debit. They call it 'a simple and easy way to pay' - which it is for them. My grouse is that BT refuses to follow the guidelines OFCOM (their regulator) has laid down about payment charges.

Has anyone ever got a straight answer to a straight question from BT? I did once, but everything they said later either ignored or contradicted it. Welcome to the modern Alice in Wonderland world!

Stefanie 3 years ago

Dear all,

I sincerely hope that you will be able to get somewhere with this. BT are the giants in telecommunications and the catalogue of disasters which I could list would fill hundreds of internet pages so I wont. Suffice it to say that it began in 1996 when I had to be paid compensation for a line going in a week later (into a remote home, me disabled and needing the ability to phone) to a 36 hour marathon which, eventually, got me screaming but also saw me claim for £400 in wasted time and shabby treatment.

BUT the reason I am writing today is that I have an elderly friend who is completely alone (sadly she lives 45 minutes from me and I cannot just pop in to check on her), has been very ill over the last year and whose landline (and with that her community "panic" button) and mobile phone have been cut off.

When telephoned BT told me (lovely Indian girl... I grew up in India yet she couldn't understand a word I said. I speak even more clearly than I write) that my friend owed them £500+ and that she could still make emergency calls. Also that they would make sure that she was listed as a vulnerable person (because of the panic button) and that someone "superior" (to my lass) would telephone me to discuss assistance/clarification.

I have not heard from them, the panic button does not work and no calls of any nature can be made from that line. BT are still taking regular payments from my friend's bank account by Direct Debit. :/

BT now claim that she owes them over a thousand (how is this possible? They told me it was £500+ and with her phone cut off she is hardly likely to be have been able to accrue any more charges..?) and she is left at home with no way of speaking to anyone.

HOWEVER- they did phone her and sold her some fancy new package which gives her free evening and weekend calls through her Broadband...

And are taking payment for that quite happily. Only without a telephone she cannot make use of what they sold her. Never WAS able to as her phone was already cut off and the lad who she spoke to said he'd sort it for her (as he agreed that she must have her panic button).

So- knowing that she had no landline BT sold her something she cannot use.

Then I find a message from BT simply entitled: "BT Broadband Talk Softphone - Hub Cease"

And now I am stotting- are they going to cut off her Broadband as well? Even though they are still helping themselves to her money?!

Come on BT- get the staff properly trained, don't out-source your customer relations staff and have the courtesy to deal openly and plainly with people approaching you for information on YOUR products/services. No lying, no passing the buck to "supervisors" and a little more commitment to the truth.

Without some serious adjustments in customer training BT will continue to be a joke.

If my friend falls and cannot drive herself to a doctor, she may not be "found" for a week. THAT is shabby.

AFMB 3 years ago

Here is my latest email to BT which I expect will be treated with the same contempt all my others over the past year have been:

Today I note you had taken my latest bill by direct debit. I am disgusted with BT's behaviour.

My BT line was installed in April 2008. On receipt of my first bill I realised I was being charged a low usage cost for NOT using 1571 which I understood to be BT's FREE answerphone system. As I did not have a telephone plugged into the socket, I emailed and emailed to cancel this service and over a period of many months, received no reply beyond an automated one.

I plugged a phone in to see if I could use the service to stop these charges as I could not get a response from BT. I then discovered it was not set up on my line.

With persistence, I finally received a voicemail and email from a Naseem Choudry and we spoke on 30 January when Mr Chowdry agreed I had been unfairly treated, not clearly informed and wrongly charged and that the money would be credited back to me for the whole amount since the line was installed on my next bill.

My bill was available for me to view online 4 April 2009. Not only had NO credit been made but in fact this low usage charge had now increased to 7.50.

I emailed again. I waited for a response again and, after yet another chasing email, in which I expressed my willingness to temporarily suspend the direct debit, only pay what I actually owed and to report you to OFCOM, did I get the courtesy of a telephone. I say the courtesy of a call, because little or no courtesy was given to me during the call.

I spoke to Nicola Brooker or Brookes - she was not happy to give the surname and did so not terrb=ibly clearly, on 8 April. She was intransigent in her persistence that I did not deserve my credit, suggested I was not offered it and only offered to refund the 7.50. When I said I was not satisfied with her offer, wanted my original offer to stand and to talk to someone more senior than herself, she very rudely told me that if I insisted on taking the matter further she immediately would withdraw the offer of 7.50 and told me, very curtly, that some one else would call me within 24 hours.

I never received a further call from anyone.

BT's Customer Service has been totally disgusting. The corporation comes across as completely complacent in its size. It nows very well it holds the power to withdraw services if a customer queries a bill and yet we cannot easily get hold of anyone to resolve queries and cannot get resolutions to problems actually implemented.

I wish someone to call me on my mobile number 07895 499989 to sort a satisfactory settlement. In the meantime, please note I have forwarded a copy of this email to OFCOM, Watchdog and btcomplaints.com. If this matter is not resolved, I will temporarily suspend my direct debit when the next bill arrives, pay what I believe in good faith I owe and if BT suspends the service for any reason, I will take it to court.

I also would like to know what reduction online billing is supposed to be given to BT customers, because I see no clear discount reflected in my bill.

Gareth Carter 3 years ago

My complaint seems in no way unique, sadly, but that does not detract from the depth of frustration engendered by BT's crass ineptitude.

I have no interest in using my BT line for making phone calls; it is merely a means to an end. It's a requirement of having Sky Broadband that you have a BT line. I simply want a functional line into my house, for which I am happy, delighted, stupendously over-joyed to pay a fair amount.

Four times in the past five months Sky has called me to inform me that my broadband service will be cancelled within two days because BT has informed them that they are disconnecting my line. Nothing one says to Sky will prevent them from taking BT's word on trust and my broadband is repeatedly switched off.

BT has not once, not ever, contacted me prior to writing to Sky to have me cut off. After innumerable lengthy phone calls to Mumbai that re-define one's concept of Kafkan absurdity, the profound misery of experiencing customer service of such deplorably low quality has all but broken my spirit.

BT are not only completely incapable of explaining why they insist on cutting me off, but are blithely ambivalent as to why this may be happening in the first place. Despite my exasperated explanations, operator after operator pedals some increasingly unbelievable drivel, at no point showing even the slightest understanding of the problem. And within a fortnight of being assured all is well, Sky will be on the phone giving me the bad news that, once again, BT have seen fit to disconnect me without bothering to get in touch. Inevitably, I will be on the receiving end of another 'reconnection fee' despite repeated assurances that this won't be the case.

I want to pay my bill, I'd be happy to have a 12-month rolling contract with BT, I would be ecstatic just to pay my bill and be left in peace, but the odious incompetency with which BT handles any type of problem has convinced me that the true human cost of being a BT customer is too great to bare.

BT, it should be a source of constant embarassment to you that you can set yourself such low standards of competency and yet still manage to fail so spectacularly to achieve them. BT's service is so cynically poor that it is almost too much to say that one utilises a BT service - one 'endures' it.

The incompetence is so engrained, and prevalent throughout each strata of BT's management, that it would inspire pity, were it not for the cretinous indifference and unhelpful, cheerless, lack of ability that BT exudes. All I wanted to do was give you money BT, and you have forever ensured that I will never ever do so again.

Nee A BT customer 3 years ago

In these times of 'change supplier and keep costs down or bust' after years of being a BT customer, changed to Sky talk to complete the TV, Broadband, Talk package. After a month or so I had a bill for £160.95 for a cancellation charge. When I phoned to ask what this was exactly as I was sure I'd never signed a contract, I was told that it was a rolling contract and it was renewed, possibly over the phone, each year. I'm sure a lot of people don't know this. It doesn't state in the terms and conditions that it is a binding contract, more a case of 'if you like it you can continue'. I'm now in dispute with them. I thought these unfair rolling contracts had been deemed as unlawful!

martyn 3 years ago

you put a new line in next door to me and i think they got on top of my porch roof however the line is 3 foot above my porch and it is right infront of my bedroom window so not only do i have to look at it when i go up on porch to do repairs and trip over the line and fall of the roof and possibly kill my self then what. you need to change it.. asap...

Eddie 3 years ago

I recently have had an intermittent crackling on my phone line so i checked all of my own equipment as Bt told me that they would charge me if they found the fault to be on my side of the phone line so i did and even used their test socket.the problem is the crackling is not their AL the time some times it will be fine for days and others it will be their all the time any way a bt engineer came out and of course there was no crackling but he said he would change the main socket for a new one as he said that the old one was a bit on the old side any way he went away a couple of day went by complete silence and then it was back . i also got my phone bill and i could not believe it bt billed me £113 for doing nothing as the crackle is still there what gets me is that i did tell them right at the beginning that it was intermittent they obviously were not listening maybe it was the crackling on the line.

Squirrel 3 years ago

For the past year BT have demonstrated that they are staffed by a bunch of incompetent imbeciles. Where I live I have no alternative to BT for landline and broadband - we don't even have mobile phone coverage down here in rural Cornwall.

After a massive setup cock-up (don't have the energy to go into details) they proceeded to take payments out of the wrong bank account (sadly also one belonging to me, else I might have left well alone!) and despite 5 phonecalls they still haven't managed to refund this or transfer it to the correct account. This is not helped by the fact that none of the helpline operatives has a proper grasp of English. I don't even have a Cornish accent as an excuse for them...

Added to this, all my bills were being sent to a different address, which BT refuse to disclose to me. Not amused by my personal information being sent to some random stranger. I'm so weary of the entire process that if I could I'd give up on a landline altogether. Sadly work won't let me do that so I'm stuck with them. I also have no alternative to direct debit as work takes me out of the country on a frequent and irregular basis, so I remain at the thieving g!ts' mercy. How joyous for me.

Sshear 3 years ago

When I had to have my BT line connected in my new build property and called BT I was quoted £120 for connection. I argued with the woman at the time that I wouldn't even need an engineer so what was I paying for and she told me there was no other way so I paid the money and left it at that. I also spoke to her about setting up BT broadband after going through everything with her she told me that her system was down and she could not put through the broadband order, someone would call back. I then recieved a leaflet in the post saying that if I took an 18month contract with BT I could pay £30 for the connection. Something that they don't advertise! I called back and spoke to someone very helpful and she said that they would change me to an 18m contract and credit the difference back to me if I called after I'd recieved my first bill. I asked her about the broadband and she told me that I would have to set this up after the line was active. I then recieved a text message saying that there was no need for an engineer to call to set up the line (surprise surprise) and was given a date when the line would be active. Ithen recieved a text saying my broadband was on it's way. What? I hadn't ordered broadband. I called BT and spoke to someone - they had no record of my broadband order. The day came when my line was suppose to be activated. No phone line. I called BT 'Check again tommorow, if there is still no dial tone call back' The following day there was no dial tone. Eventually the line was connected and I called to see when what was happening with the broadband. I was told that there was an order on my account. As I had not finalised an order with anyone yet I wanted to know what package they had me down for but she couldn't tell me. I then spent 2 hours being passed around various offices while they tried to find out what broadband package I had ordered but no-one could tell me. After spending so long being passed to verious departments I asked to speak to a Manager. I was told someone would call me back in 48 hours! No-one did. I called back spoke to someone else who was very rude wanted to go through the whole story, when I asked to speak to a manager I was told agian, 48hours. No-one called back! Phoned again. This time cancelled broadband and went with O2 with no problems, was up and running in days. IOnce I recieved my first bill a few weeks later, I called BT to sort out the credit for my account, the guy I spoke to told me that this would be credited on my next bill (3 months later). When I recieved my next bill there was no credit. After all of the previous problems I had had with BT I decided to send an e-mail complaint instead of dealing with thier call centres. A week later I had no response to took my life in my hands and called customer services. I immediately asked to speak to a manager. 'Can I have your account number' - I told him he already had this - I had entered it on the automated system 'I need it again to access your account' I gave him the number 'What seems to be the problem' - I asked him if he could see the e-mail complaint I had sent and he said he could. I asked him to read it 'If you could just explain to me the problem' - I told him to read it on his screen! Eventually he did. He told me that there was a credit of £95 on my account - so why was it not in my bank account? Apparently a Manager has to authorise this. I asked him how I was supposed to know this being that I am not capable of clairvoyance or telepathy! He told me that he would credit my account in 10 days. He then told me that he needed to know why BT were crediting me this money. I told him that this should be in my file and he could see for himself. 'I need to know from your own mouth' - I told him that I did not want to waste my time going through the whole story when the information was in front of him and he could read for himself. He replied that he had to hear it from me. When I refused to recount the whole tale he told me 'well if you don't know why you are getting the refund then you can't have it' At this point I repeated once agian that I should not need to waste my time recounting a long story to him when the details were on my file and asked to speak to his line manager 'I am the highest person here' he told me - I replied that I did not believe that for one second 'well I don't believe you for one second' - at this point I was very annoyed. I demanded once again to speak to or know the name of his manager. Her put the phone down. I was livid and scoured the internet for a number of a UK call centre. A few websites made suggestions but none of them worked. Finally I found one, and it worked, and I spoke to a real person, and she appologised, and said she would refund the money immediately, and appologised again. Why couldn't I have had this type of service from the beginning. It is so frustrating talking to call centres (particularly the ones in india) where it takes so much longer to really talk to someone about your problem as they can only use the scripts in front of them. I have never been spoken to quite so rudely by people at one company so many times. I've been mis-informed, messed around, passed around offices, hung up on. And meanwhile I am paying them money. It seems like they should be paying me for all of my wasted time and money speaking to them! Moan over - I feeel better. Whew!!

karen hughes 3 years ago

dear sir or madam please would you remove a phone cable from my back garden your company has put there to feed the houses in mount field queenborough kent i own a property 10 yevele close queenborough sheppey has this cable is hanging in my property and my tennants children will not go out in the garden because of this cable and i feel you put this wire on my property that i have paid for not you if i find this cable is not moved from my boundry within 28 days i will be in touch with watch dog and take court action so please replace your phone cable to the new propertys not hanging over my garden yours faithfully owner ms k hughes 07946816910 email shcholidays@live.co.uk

Mrs P 3 years ago

I used to have BT line and BT broadband and BT online security (Norton). I cancelled the broadband went to moved to TalkTalk but kept the Norton which I paid for monthly from my Egg credit card. TalkTalk also took over the line rental payment. Now the fun starts! I want to cancel Norton so emailed BT with the details I had. A very nice man in Mombai tried to help (for 20 mins) but couldn't find my BT account. I told him I didn't have one and he put me through to someone else who took the same details from me but again couldn't find my account, even though they take money from me every month. I tried to complain on BTs website but as I don't have an account I couldn't send the form. So I wrote to Egg to stop the payment and they said I can't stop the payment, BT have to, but they can't find my account. So I closed my Egg account and wrote to tell them. They said they couldn't guarantee to stop the payments but would try??!! This is my money. I'm thinking of visiting maryn (above) and tripping over his wire. BT - your customer service is the worse I have EVER known and if there were any way out of using your line, I'd be at the front of the Q.

Jason D 3 years ago

Here are 2 email complaints I have sent to BT and have yet to hear from them: -

Hello,

I am the partner of Ms G and am contacting you on her behalf as I am also affected as I live with her. The details are: Ms G, she is unable to contact you herself due to:

a) Not having a phone line to call you

b) Not having received ANY of the promises of a call back on her mobile from your call centre

c) Not having access to the internet due to a) Not having a phone line so she can connect to her AOL provider to receive a broadband service.

Ms G contacted you to have an installation of a phone line as the property we have just moved into does not have one and it is needed for us to receive a broadband service from AOL.

She was told that someone will be round to install the line between 1pm to 6pm on 3rd April. No one turned up. She called, on the Friday, to find out why, after ages of waiting, she spoke to someone who then cut her off. Not very good for a communications company I may add! She than called again, and after another wait, managed to speak to someone who said that there was an issue with the order and will call back within an hour.

The next day, Saturday, Ms G called back to see what was going on. She was told she will get a call within the next few days.

On Thursday, or it could have been Friday, Ms G called back again and had the usual wait before speaking to someone.

Please bear in mind that all of these "free calls" are only "free" if made from a landline. As ours is not installed, all these calls are made from her mobile (of which the bill will be sent to you to be reimbursed).

Ms G was told, in this latest phone call, that someone will be round on the 17th of April.

Seeing as how Ms G took the last time off work, and how annoyed she was wasting a days holiday, I offered instead to take the day off.

I waited, between 1pm-6pm on the 17th April... Bloody nothing! Ms G called yet again and (after the usual wait, don’t worry, we will send you the bill) was told the same thing as before that the order had failed... I was shocked.. Really? I hadn't noticed! Neither did you guys! We were also told that there was extensive notes regarding our case and someone will call within 24 hours. That was Friday 17th April. We have heard absolutely nothing from you.

So that is why I am emailing you, from my place of work.

As a result of the failure of having our line installed we have:-

Wasted 2 days of our holiday entitlement

Paying for broadband to which we can not use

Paying for a telephone line which we can not use

Ms G is incurring an ever increasing phone bill making calls to you

We are getting increasingly annoyed with the level of service from a company that is charging us £140 to install a bloody line and not turning up.

I want the above issues to be looked over and have a suitable reason behind what’s been going on within the next 14 days, either by letter, email, or a phone call (you have Ms G’s number on file, she is available all week after 5pm)

We are giving you a chance to remedy the issues before we go elsewhere.

Thank you

Letter 2:-

Hello,

I am writing, once again, to complain about the ridiculous service I have received from you.

I emailed a complaint to you a week ago today and have still not received any reply. To be fair though, I did give you 14 days to reply so you have 7 days left in regards to that.

What I am writing about is the telephone service provided by your lack of “contact centre”. I had to go through a maze of departments to get through to speak to someone that could “help” on Friday 24th April at 4.50pm.

After speaking to this chap about the lack of a phone line, he seemed adamant that our line is working and that we don’t need an engineer to come round. I would like to disagree with this, as I live in the property I am in the prime position to confirm we do need an engineer. Our line may very well be working fine from your point of view; however, this seems to be redundant from our point of view as we don’t have anywhere to plug the bloody phone into. I would be more than happy to “have at” the nearest telephone pole and knock a hole in my living room wall and do it myself, although I am pretty sure our landlord and my neighbours would not be happy with this solution.

After explaining this to the chap on the phone, he went away for a little while, phone went silent whilst on hold, I started to think he hung up. May I add the suggestion of adding some sort of hold music or a brief message to suggest you haven’t buggered off and you are actually doing something? He came back after a while and said he needs to speak to an engineer to find out what is going on and would like to take my mobile number to call me back on.

At this point I told him that we have been promised call backs and not received them and that we would no longer be proceeding with BT if we did not get a call back that day (on Friday 24th April) as we have been promised call backs and have received none. The reply I received was a very sarcastic “oh, I am so, so sorry” which basically cemented the idea that we wouldn’t get any bloody call and gave the guy my girlfriends number just in case he could be bothered to do anything.

Nope, no call, no email, no reason what-so-ever for the engineer not coming round (twice) and no reason for not having a single call back when promised. Basically, you are crap!

As I previously worked in a call centre, I know calls are recorded and monitored, so I want you to listen to my call from Friday 24th April at about 4.50pm/4.55pm. The account details are in the name of Ms G. I want you to listen to this call and I want confirmation of what I said, and confirmation that I was very clear as to what I wanted done and when by and what would happen if we were not contacted.

I would like to take this opportunity to just let you know I work in the media and within my field of work I write about services in which I receive (or in this case, don’t receive). I do not want this to give any added priority to this complaint as it will not give a true reflection of the services you provide, so please take your time in responding; it will give me more to write about in the long run.

Your number one fan

James 3 years ago

I have my bill paid with BT via automatic Debit Card Payments.After attempting to dial a number from my phone, I was transferred to BT, saying that 'due to the lack of payment, my service has been restricted. Having plenty of money in my account, I immediately logged on to my BT account online. My account stated that ALL bills were paid, and that no bills were outstanding. Puzzled, I made a quick complaint to BT via their online form.I was called back, and it was explained that payment could not be taken from my card, as it had expired. 'Why does my account say I've paid?' I asked. 'I'm not sure how that has occured.' was the reply. !!!! I logged back into my account, registered a new (valid) card, and used the BT phone system to pay my bill, check that it had indeed been paid, and used their system to confirm to BT that I'd paid the latest bill. I was informed by recorded Robot, that my service will be restored WITHIN 24 hours. 32 Hours later, I still have a restricted service.I think I've worked out now why BT do this 'trick'. It's because they charge you to have your full service restored.Every other business/company I've dealt with via recurring payments by card, ALWAYS warn me if a card that is registered with them is coming up to being expired. Let's be honest - how many of us constantly have on our mind the expiry date of one of our cards!?This is really heavy handed treatment by BT, and I'm convinced that this latest 'trick' has been introduced to generate more revenue.Either way, the BT system is telling customers via their online accounts, that all bills are paid, even when there's been a problem.I know for a fact that BT read these complaints, but to be honest, I couldn't care less!In all the years I've been with BT, I had nothing but trouble and a run-around if anything goes wrong or needs sorting out. The years I had Broadband with them was an ABSOLUTE nightmare!!!.

Jan K 3 years ago

I am not suprised at the number of complaints about BT - We have had problems with our land line for over two years and have made so many calls to BT I have lost count . We live in a rural area and any repairs to cables would involve closing a major A road as we live in the narrows. One engineer , who did seem to know what was going on, traced our fault back to damage under the road but needed another man to sort it. The next day two different engineers came and said the previous man did not know what he was talking about and we were back to square one. We have had several engineers out to check our line over the past two years and have had all the excuses for poor internet connection and crackling line i.e. filter problem, router, wiring, ISP provider - anything but them sort out the problem. Recently on the 2nd April I foolishly changed to them for broadband option 3 , thinking well maybe it is our ISP . Our line test said we could take 3.7 mb - as yet we get a download of only.16 mbps - worse than dial up. At least we had 1mb with Tiscali even though we often got cut off due to line interference. We have phoned BT help line 8 times this month so far and each time we have to go through all the details again and are brushed off with filter problems etc. It is causing so much stress and frustration ,not to mention inconvenience. I am still waiting for another engineer to come out but don't have any faith that things will change. We are basically paying line rental plus £24 a month for a crackly line and worse than dial up connection. Surely BT should be regulated and not get away with treating their customers like this. They should be called British TeleCON.

pamela jack 3 years ago

I am shockd and appalled at the recent terrible service I have recieved from BT, a company I have been with for well over 50years.

I am a recently widowed 76 yr old woman who now lives on her own and is very reliant on the use of my telephone.

last week without any warning my phone was cut off, meaning I couldnt make any outgoing calls or recieve any incoming calls. In a panic I went to a neighbour to use their phone in an attempt to contact BT and find out what was happening. I was informed that my phone had been cut off as I hadnt paid an outstanding bill of over £150, this left me shocked as I had never recieved said bill and as my husband has recently passed away I am extra careful when dealing with my finaces (which my daughter often assists me with) and would have made sure that any bill I had recieved would have been paid straight away.

I then asked if i could be sent another bill to which they responded yes but it would not arrive for another 7-10 days and only when i paid the bill would my phone be reconnected. The only other option was to pay the money directly over the phone in order to be connected with 24hours-all this for a fault that was not mine.

I became quite upset and distressed and through speaking to customer services realised there would be no apology or understanding of the circumstances and that my only chioce would be to pay directly on my credit card. After i paid the 'phantom bill' my phone line was eventually reconnected and i hoped to put all the hassle behind me with reassurance it would not happen again.

Three days later i went to make a phone call to my daughter and realised BT had cut my phone off AGAIN! Amazed and discusted I went round to my daughters house (luckily she only lives round the corner and I am still able to drive, I am sure some other elderly people who have also suffered at the hands of BT are left feeling isolated and afraid as we are not all able to leave the house so easily). My daughter spent over an hour trying to speak to someone who understood the problem, eventually she was informed that the line had been cut off because BT were changing the name of the account from my late husband's to mine. I was NOT informed at any point that this would involve my phone line being cut off yet again.

I was told that the phone would be reconnected at 8o'clock that evening but it was not connected until 10am the following morning.

In the event of an emergency I would have been left alone unable to contact even emergency services let alone family members.

I am pleased you are running this website to make others aware of the terrible treatment many are recieving from BT. I hope justice will be done and in the future nobody will have to suffer this kind of blatant error and appalling service.

David Batty 3 years ago

I complained to BT on March 30th this year about some repairs done to my master socket and how I had called out the Engineer twice to rectify the same problem (that something on the master socket kept shorting out our phones) and how the problem still persisted; and most importantly how BT had subsequently charged me for 2 call-outs at £184 each time. The fact is they shouldn't have charged me as it was a master socket problem (BT's responsibility) and in any case they hadn't even fixed the problem. I also asked them to correspond with me ONLY in writing as I have had several past problems with BT and trying to get through to them on the phone is completely hopeless. So guess what happens...I get a phone call from the complaints department, full of apologies and saying they will cancel the charges etc. And a promise that they will phone me back in 10 minutes to confirm all charges have been dropped and give me a reference number for my complaint. That was over a month agao and I haven't heard a peep since, either by phone or letter. Except of course for those really annoying digital answerphone messages trying to bully me into paying. BT is a national disgrace and should be abolished/broken up/sold. Unfortunately we are too far away from a cable line to get our phones that way so I am stuck with their maintenance people.

Jorge 3 years ago

Hello all hope u can help me clarify what are my options on this...

Past feb I moved in with a flatmate and college, I transfered my phone and internet line over to the new house to which he agreed uppon, although i was out for 2 weeks and during this time the line should have been transfered within 5 working days. Later on when I arrived, the line had been transfered with no problems at all. Although, 1 week ago due to some disagreements which are not relevant for this I had to move out, to my surprise when i go to transfer my BT account, I found out that my "dear" flatmate had called so many times to BT that somehow he managed to put his name onto my contract, WHITOUT MY PERMISSION!!! Now BT tells me that they can't do anything without his permission, in other words, I can't cancel or transfer my acount to my new address without his permission, I was wondering if I can cancel my contract, considering that they added someone to my account/contract without even talking to me.

Kerry  3 years ago

I am in a student house and our landlord got us the BT Home Hub, without the phone. When we first got online it would always randomly stop connecting, stating that this is normal for a new set up and it will resolve itself after a couple of weeks.....9 months on and it is STILL an issue! there appears to be no reason for it, it is happening on all the pcs and laptops in the house so it is definately the hub!! The BT Home Hub is awful, and i suggest everyone considering getting it should go to another provider! As soon as I move out i guarantee I will not be going back to BT!!!

Rod urquhart 3 years ago

After several phone calls and numerous letters to Bt complaing about the extotionate monthly payment that they were taking by direct debit on my telephone bill.I have not even been contacted by them.

So as far as I am concerned Bt are a communication company that does not wish to communicate. a communication company full of broken promises.

When they learn to communicate within thier own departments maybe then they will be able to communicate with the customer base that they have evolved on false pretences

Annoyed 3 years ago

I had an appointment booked with BT for a month to have my phone line activated. The confirmed time was between 1pm - 6pm. Before the appointment, on two seperate occasions I called BT specifically to advise that I be contacted on my mobile 30mins prior to the engineer turning up at my doorstep, as taking a full afternoon off work was difficult. On both these occasions the BT representative confirmed my mobile number has been entered in the system and the engineer will call me 30mins before arriving.

On the day I was able to finish work early (with difficulty) and wait at home for the call. At 5pm I called BT to confirm if the engineer was on his way and the representative again said the call was open and I was due a call from the engineer anytime soon. Then at 630pm I called again only to be told the engineer had updated the call saying he visited my house twice (at 1pm and again at 3pm) and that my mobile number had not been entered on the system and there was no note advising the engineer to call me.

Furious at BT’s incompetence I asked to speak to the manager. I was then transferred to Kerry Richardson, team manager who apologised profusely and promised to get everything sorted and give me a call back first thing in the morning with a rescheduled appointment.

So the next morning I waited for a call and heard nothing. Eventually at lunchtime I called for an update and demanded to speak to a manager. I spoke to someone in India who advised he can see Ms. Richardson had updated the call in the morning and was working on it and to wait for her to contact me. I asked for her direct number and was provided this.

I called the number provided and someone called Rob answered. When I asked to speak to Ms. Richardson, Rob advised she had not been in the office that morning and he didn’t know when she would be back. I was furious at this point as not only had my simple instructions of a call to my mobile not been followed but I had been lied to twice. Firstly by Ms. Richardson who promised she would call me first thing in the morning (she must have known she wasn’t at work in the morning/all day) then again by the person in India who said he could see Ms. Richardson working on the call.

I asked Rob to leave an urgent message for Ms. Richardson to call me back and three days on I’m still waiting.

I rely heavily on the internet and was patiently awaiting an active line so I could be online again. I am without an active phone line for over a month now which also means no internet. I am absolutely appalled by BT’s customer service and how I have been treated during this time.

He who knows more 3 years ago

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Today it became apparent just how important protecting consumers is to BT. BT has a specialist department called, "BT Security and Investigations" which deals with corruption, bribery and security breaches within the entire group. It is a small group that is vastly under staffed and with a work load to last a life time. Logic would dictate that during a recession it is more likely that people are more susceptible to being corrupted or bribed.

So what is BT's response to this threat?

Make members of this already under staffed department redundant - that is the level of service you can expect. This demonstrates that any bull fed to you is purely lip service.

Anyone reading this should make their views know to the chairman's office as they are the only people who can stop this!

Soon to be ex-bt customer 3 years ago

I'm disgusted with the service I've received from BT in the short time I have been with them. I set up an account with them last month after moving house. About a week later I received a 'REMINDER' bill for almost £60 (no idea what it was for, the person I spoke to when applying for a line didn't mention having to pay anything). Also this was a 'REMINDER' bill even though I'd received nothing before ... as far as I know to be reminded of something you have to been informed in the first place! Despite this shoddy service I still paid the full amount via my online current account using the sort code and account number BT quoted on the bill. My bank account statement shows the amount being paid to BT on the same day. I heard nothing more from them so assumed the payment had been processed. Three weeks later I tried to make a call from my landline and found I could not call out, hearing instead an automated service telling me to contact their customer service number. I called this number and was on hold for a ridiculous amount of time. The first person I spoke to was very polite but then proceeded to put me on hold twice before I was eventually passed on to someone else. I then had to speak to the worst representatives I have ever had the displeasure to speak to in my entire life. He was curt, condescending, patronising, talked over me numerous times and held me to ransom by threatening to cut me off whilst at the same time not listening to me and refusing to pass me on to a supervisor. He told me in no uncertain terms that BT had disconnected my landline with NO PRIOR WARNING because I had not paid this bill. I explained to him that the bill was paid and I had proof it was paid and therefore BT had no right to disconnect my service and was told I was wrong, he told me I must have paid it to a different bank account. Only after going online, checking the details of my payment and reading it out to him did he concede that I had in fact entered the CORRECT details, but then still said I had to ask the bank for this money back and pay BT again! I tried to explain to him that it was impossible for me to get this money back as it had already CORRECTLY been sent to BT. After receiving no help or advice from him whatsoever I asked for an email address to email BT my bank statement as proof of payment and was told he could not provide it. I then asked for a fax number and finally he relented to provide me with one. I asked, once I had sent proof via fax this evening how long it would take before my landline was reinstated and he said four days. I asked if I would get a four day rebate from my line rental and he merely replied "no" - no apology, no explanation ... just a curt "no". So, after being with BT for little more than a month, I'll be leaving their services at the EARLIEST opportunity and obtaining a landline service from a company who knows how to treat it's customers. BT service is atrocious and clearly so is their staff training.

Martin Littlewood 3 years ago

Friends and Family withdrawal.

Am I missing something? BT advise that Friends and Family was to be withdrawn on 31 March. So, my mother received her quarterly bill at the end of April and had received no discount at all for all the F&F numbers she called during the month. She had no option to do anything before the bill was received and so missed out on the discount. Can I assume that this will be the same for all other BT users? This means thousands of customers missing out on discounts for F&F until such time as they get on to BT to select one of the new options

fire and fireplaces 3 years ago

i have not been without a phone line for 3 days my bill was not recived and phone line cut off .i paid on friday the bill and was told it would be up within 24 hours it is now saturday at 1.15pm still no linewhich is conected to my credit card machine which is not working as a business in this current climate this is not good anoth

Kristina Gustaityte 3 years ago

I am absolutely shocked and appalled at the service I have received.

I moved to a new flat and ordered a BT line and got the line activation date. After we noticed that the line hadn’t been activated, I had such an appalling experience trying to get the case sorted and later chasing for the update.

It appeared that one of the BT engineers cancelled the order but later after chasing that up the line was reordered. But it still didn’t work. So 3 weeks later after the line should have been active I rang BT and no one could give me the answer or solution to get the line working. I had to talk to hundreds of operators explaining myself again and again, and each conversation ended by a transfer to another person waiting on hold for minutes. When someone sounded more reasonable, the line got cut off (I have no idea whose fault was that).

I tried again, got throw the different operator who starts again from the beginning, I requested to talk to the last person who new the case but she refused and eventually hung up on me. Within that awful experience of trying to get the answer I even went in tears because it got so irritating when everyone is just dropping you to a different person who also has no clue what so ever. Moreover everyone was telling me a different story.

Like today, perhaps the fifth person I spoke to told me I needed to get a new order, so he transferred me to the sales department, someone different answered, he took all my details, did some checks meaning me waiting for like 5-7 min, and then transferred to another person to continue the ordering. The next person did have no idea about the case, so I had to explain myself again and request the urgent line installation; he said that first we needed to get it ordered. When all the details were taken, he said it couldn’t go throw because the original order wasn’t cancelled as it was still active (I spent almost an hour talking to other operatives who told me different stuff) and then he couldn’t help because he was just taking the ordered but not other operations. So he had to put me throw the admin again – who he said will sort all out for me – so I found myself at the same stage where I spoke to the fist person again – perhaps different one as I had to explain all over again. I started crying – believe me or not but I was, as my nerves couldn’t handle that ridiculous system and the most useless service anymore.

Do you a BT line? – No thank you. But can I get compensation on the money spent and time wasted?

D.patterson 3 years ago

on 27th April I paid my telephone bill of 340.00 and I was told my phone would be connected on 28th April, I found that the phone was not connected and I was told that the line was disconnected so I had to re-apply for the line with my same number but I had to pay £50 which I did then I was told that everything was fine and my phone would be connected on 1st May, this did not happen and then I spoke to a manager who told me that the previous staff member didn't complete the order. I then got told my phone would be connected on the 12th May which is still hasn't been. I have been on my mobile for nearly two hours trying to find out why the phone has not been connected, while being on the phone I got shouted at by an adviser in the sales team and I have tried to speak to a supervisor who sent a message via an adviser that my service will now be in service on the 15th May right now I am still trying to speak to a supervisor. I hope this does get looked into because it seems bt is stealing people's money and not delivering the service promised. I will be contacting trading standards about this issue and watchdog.

Frank Donachie 3 years ago

Ref ss3780838. I have been trying for four days to resolve some issues I have with the service I'm receiving from BT at the moment. I had a call from one of your sales team and agreed to sign up for the service he had offered. Recently I recieved a bill from you for advanced charges, This was never mentioned. I have been on the telephone for four days trying to resolve this, I have been promised a call from one of your supervisors three times, I have waited in and as yet have never had a call from you. I will be cancelling my account and arranging for another service provider. My number is 07786020874 should you wish to call me and discuss my concerns. From the tone of this message you can assume I am very unhappy with your service centre and the staff there. I do not want to spend another night on the phone getting nowhere so can someone call me please as a matter of urgency.

Regards

Frank Donachie

My email address is frankdonachie@hotmail.com

disgusted BT customer 3 years ago

I have had a ongoing dispute with BT for at least one year now. I was convinced to purchase BT broadband talk, but after receiving my first bill, which was a ridiculous amount, I started to query the calls which were supposedly being made from my line. I soon realised after requesting an itemised bill that all calls charged to me were wrong. I live in Scotland in a local council house and all calls made were to English numbers i.e. various companies, lawn tennis clubs, private schools, farms, interior designers and various up market shops. Obviously these calls are being made by someone running a business and who happens to be rather affluent. It is so obvious I am not making these calls, and this matter has went as far as ofcom and otello, who can't seem to see the obvious. I am now owed approx. £600 in overpaid bills, a sum I can least afford, meantime the affluent business person as far as I can make out is not being charged, no wonder he can afford to call lawn tennis clubs and interior designers, because I am paying his phone bill?????? As far as BT is concerned the bills are correct, there is no fault and Otello has made their final decision in favour of BT. HELP!!!! I am at my wits end and don't know where to turn next.

Bernard & Anthea Cunningham 3 years ago

We recently decided to review our telephone & broadband provider & decided to switch from BT to Talk Talk. BT were charging us £40 per month & Talk Talk offered us a better package at only £21.74 per month. However, BT offered us a similar package, reduced line rental, broadband & anytime free calls for £22.78 per month so we decided to stay with them. However, on our next quarterly bill we found we were being charged full line rental & full amount broadband even though we had 2 letters from Nigel Stagg Customer Services Director, stating that credits would appear on our bill for the reduced line rental & broadband. To cut a long story short, BT renegued on the deal we were offered & a letter of complaint was sent to Nigel Stagg at Durham. No reply received as yet (13/5/09). We are now consequently in the process of switching to Talk Talk and are absolutely disgusted with BT for going back on an agreed offer. A copy of our letter to Mr. Stagg is available upon request. A/c LC20139147 - tel. 01254 886747

Malcolm 3 years ago

BT Get Aggressive on Keeping there customers who have justiable cause to cancel their contract.

This was shocking, I went back to BT form Tiscali, thinking the sevice would be better and there advertised promise to give you the maximum bandwidth your line can take. So after recieving 8mb+ because I am only 100m away from the exchange, it dropped to 6mb after joining BT.... I know some people would say, "what are compaining about, 6mb is great" but you must think if you where getting 2mb and your line is capable of delivering 4mb and you now only get 1mb... But it was the Bullishness of the BT cancellation team that astounded me, They said if your recieving broadband at all, then you will not be allowed to cancel under any circumstances even if i only got 125kb (dial up speed)... They are prepared to rob you of £16.00 pm for a inferior sevice to the one you had, and your stuck for 18months before you can get out or pay your contract off... I hear people say "Stop paying them" well they have got you by theshort and currlies and there not prepared to let you go. The more I asked about cancelling the more agressive they got, preaching the contract I was in.... Shame on you BT you big bully. Think Twice before going to BT. Think Contract!!!!!

MRL

Fed up 3 years ago

I accepted a 12mth Phone,Broadband & BT Vision package for £24.45 per month in February from the BT saleswoman with online billing. I have since checked my online bill & bank statements and find they are taking much more. I phoned BT to discuss & was put through to a total of 7 different departments.Finally established they have put me on an 18mth contract & it's not even the package I accepted! Everything was done on the phone & no paperwork has been signed or sent to me to confirm so I have only the girls name as proof. I was told they can trace the original call & I would be called back within 5 working days.....I'm still waiting.

Andy Anderson 3 years ago

I live in a rural community in North Devon and I rent my line from BT in able to receive Broadband. I am well aware that due to the fact that i live quite a way from the exchange I cannot receive the full 8mb of service that my ISP can provide but i can only get 1MB on a good day. this really annoys me as I pay the same line rental as a person that lives in a city and there are no apparent plans to upgrade the exchange ( there has only been broadband in this area for about three years) I called an engineer out to examine my lines to make sure they were ok he said my equipment was ok and that there could be a fault anywhere between here and the exchange like branches on a line!! for this BT tried to charge me £100 which i appealed against saying just because you cannot locate the fault does not make it my fault . I am totally fed up with the monopolisation that BT has and wish there was another telephone line provider if there is I would love to know

corrie 3 years ago

I have a Bt land line for my phone, is it legal that Bt lets someone have a BB account coming down the same line?

Very Annoyed 3 years ago

Apparently I have a TPON line which means I can't get Home Broadband with any other provider than BT, how convenient!. I don't want a TPON line (what ever it is) and I don't want BT Home Broadband as it is a rip off! So I have spent in excess of 5 hours being bounced from one department to another or have had to listern to the most annoying 'on hold' music in existence, all in an attempt to get retify a BT cock up!

I'm still no closer to a soloution and so still don't have Home Broadband!

Anyone got any suggestions?

Confused 3 years ago

For the past 2/3 years we have been received post addressed to someone unknown to us at our home address. We have returned all the post to BT, we have phoned, emailed and written to BT to numerous occasions to inform them they have the wrong address for this person but still it comes. What do we have to do to make it stop. Surely its not difficult to remove someone from a mailing list.

Viv Samuels 3 years ago

I signed up for BT Total Broadband opton 3 which states costs £24.46 a month. I have just received a bill for £107 for a quarter which includes 2 months in advance as well. They lied & said that my bank had arranged a quarterly DD, which my bank strongly denies.

I Phoned BT again and they say they have changed the DD to monthly but they said they cannot confirm the amount or the frequency in writing. I would only know the amount when I receive my bill. I asked to speak to someone in authority (ha ha!) or the accounts dept. I was told that BT do not have an accounts department, only the call centre, which appears to be in India.

They are also accusing me of defaulting in my payments for the first 3 months, although they had all my Bank DD details immediately I signed up.

I hate BT!!!! 3 years ago

I moved house in May last year and as I already had an existing BT landline account I decided to also use BT as my Broadband provider at my new address, what a mistake that was!!!!

There was a problem when I set up my broadband & I had to get an engineer out. Apparently there was a BT fault but BT still charged me £100. Since last May I have had extremely limited broadband service and some days have either had to reboot my hub up to and over 20 times a day or in some cased have no connection at all.

I have rang, emailed and wrote to BT over and over again. I have never been able to speak to anyone in the UK and once when I was actually put through to a UK advisor they hung up on me before I could even give them my details.

In the end through sheer frustration I have moved to a different provider for landline and broadband as I had no choice as BT refused to help me even though they were quite happy to take my money every month.

BT then tried to charge me over £200 for leaving before finishing my contract. I’ve managed to get this reduced after much wrangling to £81.80 but have been told that because there was nothing wrong with my landline I will still get charged for breaking my landline contract. I’m very angry as I wanted to sever all contact with BT but don’t know what else to do. If anyone should be paying money out it is BT to me in compensation and also to pay all the money back that they have taken for a service I’ve been unable to use properly.

BT are leaches who were only interested in me when they through that they would not be getting money from me. When the shoe was on the other foot they couldn’t care less!!!!!

Mark 3 years ago

After 6 months of frustration at trying to get a better broadband speed and having opted for an internet phone that worked when it felt like it, I gave up and told BT to stick it all. I now use a mobile phone and mobile broadband, not convenient always, but it gave me great pleasure to tell BT to stick it.

During the long saga I made 10 or so email complaints to BT, most of which remained unresolved or were fixed for a few days and then failed again. After I terminated the service, BT emailed me to offer me keeping my BT email address, this suited me so I agreed, it was about £1.50 per month. Within a couple of days I received another email telling me it was £2.50 per month. I immediately emailed them back instructing them not to take any money from my bank account a I did not agree to the change in price. They took £2.50. This is contrary to their direct debit agreement. The money isn't the point, it's the principle. I made a formal complaint about the poor service as well as the direct debit change. That was 11 weeks ago, I have written again but have not had a reply. I have though had a couiple of bills for around £200 for early termination of the service and recently had a letter from a debt collector.

What a wonderful example of how arrogant and complacent a once great British company can become with the wrong people at the helm. I hope they take me to court, I'd love to air all of this in public!!

G Man 3 years ago

We have moved home (some 500 yards up the road ) and we wished to transfer our number from the old house to the new house.We had to wait to place our oder with the home moving team even though we contacted BT on the 5th May as we were told the lady whose house we were moving in to had to have placed a stop on her line. We tried again on the 10th but were still told we couldn't so we had to do it on the 14th May at which point we phoned BT immediately to request the transfer.We were advised it would be switched off on the 18th May and enabled at our new house on the same day. Late on the 18th we rang to be advised by the automated service that it would now be activated on the 4th June. I was understandably frustrated so phoned and asked to speak to a Manager in customer services, I then spoke to a chap called Alan Johnstone in India who phoned the engineers and brought it forward to the 21st May.Come the 21st May and the line was still not activated so again I rang to be told I had to speak to customer services - not the home moving team, the second time this happened. This gentleman based somewhere abroad told me it would be another 48 hours. I could not understand him nor him me so I asked to be transferred to someone in the UK. I spoke to a moving home agent, to be passed back to customer services in India, to be passed to a home moving agent in the UK before being passed to India again. I wasted an hour of my time doing this. The manager I finally got to speak to (again in India, not a complaint against Indian people BTW, simply a desire to communicate effectively) told me the date was now the 6th June and couldn't be moved. He wouldn't speak to anyone else nor refer me and I had no right of complaint.Simply put this is the worst customer service I have ever experienced. I do not want compensation (although that would be appropriate) I simply want my line installed so I can get my broadband ordered with my current provider. It's that simple. A delay of nearly a month is simply not acceptable, my broadband is critical to my work, BT have caused me to have to work away from home and my family as a result. We have been misled four times as to the date we can have our line and I can order my broadband. As soon as I can, I will be leaving BT.

Terry in Essex 3 years ago

Terry in Essex

I think I WIN the losers prize !!!

Three years paying for a Broadband service that I have not receivied, two new computers, upteen BT engineer visits to my home (threatening to charge me for their visits), two new BT routers, 1 new wireless router. 2 changes of the inernal master socket inside the house, achange of line outside the house, two letters of complaint with no response.

All i want is an addresswhere i can complain and someone will DO something.

Derek 3 years ago

My first visit to this site - I was searching for details of BT's chairman so that I can send him/her a complaint direct, out of sheer frustration after month's of incompetence by BT staff. No one at BT seems to be accountable for their actions (or inactions!). Some butts need to be kicked - I would soon be sacked from my job if I was as inefficient as some of BT's staff. I can now see that I am only one of hundreds who have experienced similar problems. Problems started in November 2008 when I was preparing to move house. Trying to get the phone reconnected in my new home was a nightmare. Orders were placed then cancelled by BT without my knowledge. Each order, there were 4 in total, gave me a different telephone number. Trying to speak to someone at BT who could give me a sensible explanation was impossible. Hours spent on hold, being transferred to wrong departments or receiving conflicting information. Sometimes I felt I was deliberately cut off because the problem was too difficult for the person to deal with. When an engineer turned up - I wasn't expecting him but he hadn't been told by BT that the order had been cancelled by them - he checked the line, went back to the exhange, and I was connected in half an hour. He even connected the original telephone number for the line, something that BT has said wasn't possible which is why they gave me 4 diiferent numbers. The engineer was not surprised by my story - an all too frequent cock-up by BT. Then there saga turned to getting Broadband set up - another nightmare. 6 months later I am still in dispute with BT about bills I should not have been sent - when will it end? Hence BT's chairman is the next point of attack.

Bryan Henes 3 years ago

I recently transfered from BT to Sky and closed my BT account. I subsequently received a final statement fpr £0.95. I have now received another acoount for £169.80 for cancellation charges for free evening calls!!!!

Why was I not informed of this cost when I cancelled my account and when was I informed of this extra cost?

Why does it cost so much?

Bryan Hen

01234 341641

Robert 3 years ago

I have been called by a company - be very carefull as start by saying there BT - there a company called bt customer street. it took 10 mins talking to the chap how was aking for credit card details to pay my bt bill ... i had to hang up phone as i always pay my bill Direct Debit.

Lakeside Coffee Shop 3 years ago

We have been set up with BT Broadband at the the above address and this should not have happened. We are being charged two lot's of broadband at two seperate address. Please can you sort this for us. We should only pay for one BT Broadband as it is only at one address. I look forward to hearing from you.

FedUpWithBT 3 years ago

Letter to BT-

To Whom it May Concern:

Further to your two letters dated 15th May 2009, I would like to bring to your attention a series of faults and mistakes that have come to be, and as a result BT is charging me £227.30 without justification or breakdown and in doing so breaking the direct debit guarantee twice at cost to myself.Issues arose with my internet connection when the filters used at the plug kept on burning out, upon further investigation with the help of my ISP (Sky), it was determined that it was the BT plug that was broken. The troubleshooting investigation that lasted several days concluded that the 8 filters that were blown at 1 day intervals were not down to the equipment provided by Sky since we changed the modem twice and we used 8 different filters, the filters stopped burning out when Sky Technical Support asked me to use the service plug behind situated behind the face of the BT plug box face, i.e. behind the main plug. They informed me that they could not resolve my problem in the long run and that I should call BT to have the plug repaired.I called BT and was told there may be a £120 call out charge if it is deemed that there was no fault on the BT line to which I agreed.When the technicians arrived at the property they carried out two tests which failed to identify any problems but changed the plug box anyway, the filters have not burned out since. They informed me they would be charging Sky for the call out charge.I had not heard anything else on the matter until I received a letter on the 20th of May dated the 15th of May informing me that BT was to debit my account for the amount of £227.30 on the 21st of May 2009. Upon further investigation BT had tried to debit my account on the 05th and 13th of the same month without so much as a phone call or letter to advise me of this, and as such I incurred two £30 bank charges.I called on the 21st of May and was told this figure was down to repairs done at my property but was unable to receive a breakdown but was told it would be posted to me (it never arrived), I asked them to cancel my direct debit.I called again on the 22nd of May to seek a resolution to the problem but was passed on to the technical department who informed me that the technicians report stated that- “Fault with costumer’s wiring”, this is clearly not the case as explained previously this was not the cause of the problem, I am not a technician and I cant tell you what the problem was, only that it was obvious the problem was with the BT plug. BT Technical support were unable to help me further and suggested that I write in. Since this is not an isolated incident with the service BT provides (this is a common occurrence as stated by other costumers) I have since arranged for a different telephone line supplier, I will be forwarding this as a complaint to Ofcom and wish the following action from BT-1. I reject the amount being charged in full unless justified, as such I want written confirmation that it has been written off.2. Please forward to me a cheque for the amount of £60.00 to offset bank charges.3. It would be nice to get an apology but from what I gather from other costumers who have faced similar direct debit problems it seems BT will remain unrepentant.Please note that in lack of BT’s procedural integrity I hope to have the points addressed by no later than the 10th of June 2009 or I will have no other option but to issue a county court claim against you.

Denis Scaife 3 years ago

I have BT Vision and have complained to them that I cannot get Teletext. Along came an engineer and promptly blew up the signal booster to my telly. I grant them they paid for a new one but since then they have not returned to fix the original problem. I am so tired of the sloppy service from these people. It is alway consistent though......crap!!!!

Louise hates B.T.... 3 years ago

I dont know were to start.... I've made over 700 calls to BT and paid over £1100 GPB since Feb 09 and its May 09 now.

When a engineer came out in Feb to sort out a problem, he made things worse and erased my ANTI-VIRUS and the next day a virus took out the hole of my computer. I was without my computer for a month and after so many calls to BT I still had to pay for my broad band for that month and the £110 call out charge for that engineer. Early this month (May 09) I got my bill through and BT had put an extra line on my account and it said on the bill that I had made over 300 hundred unitimised mobile calls, there is only me, my husband and 2 children. I got two lots of call charges to one line. I use only one line to make and recieve calls and they are trying to say its a vertual line through my broadband and I'm making calls through my broadband. That is inpossible without a phone in a socket, I have one phone line , one phone socket so why two usage charges for two numbers.. This new number has only apperied on this bill, not on any other bill I've had. They put a call package on my account I didn't ask for also. I've had three home IT visits and not one of them solved my problem.. I've sorted every problem from wiring that a trained engineer couldn't do. The equipment they installed was faulty and was to fast for my computer.. I paid for a laptop wireless adaper that wasn't compatible with my computer and then went on to be charged for the right one. I'm moving to Talk Talk as I feel there customer services is better. Last week I paid a £110 phone bill, that same weekend I got £400 worth of call charges for this new line and then £239 for a disconnection fee. As I said at the begining over £1100 in 3 months.... Now thats a piss take.

I'm going to take them to a court for stress, neglect and breech of contract for adding the extra line. I'm not paying the bills that came at the weekend because I know Im in the right and I haven't done anything illegal but BT HAVE...

D M BATE 3 years ago

I have not received a paper telephone bill for past 4 quarters since May 2008. Each quarter my telephone is cut off because I have "not paid the bill" - difficult when I have not been sent a bill. Eventually using mobile phone I am able to contact Indian call centre to pay via credit card.

In February 2009 BT admitted over the phone they were sending my bill to an another customer and different adress 100 miles away. I was asked to sign up to e-billing - this doesnt work because BT insist that the email address on their records is correct - its someone else's email adress - NOT MINE.

Spoken to several people in Indian call centre who say my address is correct, but still not sending me a bill through the post or via email to me.

Have written formal complaint to address on the back of May 2088 bill, but BT have never responded to my letter.

I am now distaught, causing me great problems and I cant get to speak to anyone who is able to sort out the problem that I have. I have no idea where to turn to next, even OffCom website doesnt offer me advice on my problem or where to get help.

D M BATE - Pembrokeshire 28th May 2009

Paul Evans 3 years ago

In December 08 my current contract with BT for phone and broadband came to an end, paying over the odds I decided to leave and was trying to get my MAC code when a helpful operator said" because your a long and loyal customer (23 years) we have a special deal to keep you with BT". The deal basically was £15.99 a month, great, the only problem in the following months is I have only been charged the new amount (£15.99) once, the rest of the time it's the old rate. I know I have a contract with BT but they have not honoured it so am I free to leave. I have contacted BT 3 times and on the final call I was assured the problem was sorted - NOT!

Do I contact ofcom? I feel like a little fish in a big pond trying to talk to someone who actually cares in a faceless company

HELP!

Michael Hoey 3 years ago

Hi there

Great to find this site and an opportunity to let off some steam about the truly appalling charging practices of BT. I have been a customer for over 30 years with no kind of bad payment history but my latest experience has left me reeling and determined never to use this dreadful company ever again if I can help it.

I left my last address in February and am in the process of buying another flat so don't have my own BT line at present. After paying what I believed to be the closing account I cancelled my direct debit and was surprised a few weeks later to get a demand for a further 109 pounds. On phoning their call centre it was explained that this was for the unexpired period of my Broadband contract. I could see that there might be a small charge for early termination but to charge the entire cost of a service I had not receieved seemed way over the top. I reluctantly agreed to pay when I was assurd that I could carry over the unexpired months when I took on a new line. I immediatley sent off a cheque witha covering letter and went abroad for a few weeks. Not only did i get no reply to my letter but i had another bill to which a late payment charge had been added. It appeared that my cheque had not been cashed. When I phoned to point this out it turned out that the bill had now grown as another bill for 113 pounds had been added for early terminatio of the free evening and weekend call package I had taken out. I had not even received a bill for this and when one did arrive it was dated 7th may, nearly 3 months after I had quit the line. I was told that the software to generate this even more dubious bill had only just got running. On looking at the agreement I had apparently enteredd into it appeared that althought the savings being offered were said to be worth 2.70 a month the penaly charge seemed to be the entire line rental - far in excess of the cost of the calls I wasn't now going to make. To add insult to injury I was also told that I couldn't now carry over any benefits or unexpired Broadband time to a new line as it was too late.

It is hopeless trying to contact BT. They don't answer letters. If they call you back they invariably haven't read and digested the complaint and their email responses don't answer the questions raised about the legitimacy of the charges. I have very reluctantly paid this bill but would be very grateful for any advice about the legitimacy of these charges and whether they can be challenged. It is truly appalling that in a supposedly civilised country people can be treated in this outrageous way. I can imagine a vulnerable person committing suicide in exasperation!

My email contct is michaelhoey47@yahoo.co.uk

michaelnes 2 years ago

I had a lot of problems with BT last year when I feel I was missold services on broadband that I didn't want, and wasn't aware I had, so I cancelled the contract, and went to another company for broadband. Unfortunately I still have my telephone with them, and they are at it again, by distance calling, using a tele-sales operator whom one cannot hear properly, and who rabbits on continually. My advice to anyone recieveing a call from them is to hang up immediattely, as this is what I think is a really bad company to have anything to do with.

Glynnis Newboult 2 years ago

At 5.55pm today I received from BT line 08456021111 SMS voice messaging service from 07704801515. The message asked if I would sell *******(unable to hear what) for £1,000. I am now being billed for this message by yourselves.

However, I want you to take note that in March of this year I elected to have both my name and telephone number, together with my address added to both the Mailing and Telephone preference services. I opted for this for a reason - it was NOT with a view to receiving pointless, rediculous or annoying mail or phone calls.

Please note that I do not wish to have my leisure time wasted. Will you therefore inform the owner of this number I DO NOT TAKE the kind of phone calls I have just received. Will you also take note of the above - that I am now on the mail and telephone preference services lists. If I should received such annoying calls in the future, or BT should elect to ignore this message, I shall have no other recourse but to make a formal complaint to the relevant ombudsman.

asp plumbing 2 years ago

We are absolutely fed up being bombarded with sales calls from one of your companies! U Find Us. They phone and phone and phone and phone and phone. The fact we are not interested makes no difference. If this continues we will cease all further business with your company. The behaviour of U Find Us ( who claim they are BT) is completely unprofessional.

barrie hunter 2 years ago

Help i have just taken a bt broadband package i was with tiscali and so far i have had nothing but problems i cant use the wireless connection after 2 hours on the phone with an engineer he told me that if i was prepared to subscribe to another technical help line £8.00 pluss per month "he thinks they may be able to sort it out" as soon as bt took over again my phone stopped taking incomming calls bt say their line is ok and its my equipment, i have tried a different phone after following their guide and removing the main connection socet, this made no difference they then said if an engineer called i would be liable for a bill £100 plus, the fault only manifested its self after i changed back to them this only took place on 19/05 and as yet i have had to use an ethernet conection and no incomming calls, i agreed to an engineer call and was told this would happen today 03/06/ guess what its 16.35 and no one has been yet!!!! they must surely have to uphold their end of the contract and do as thie sales teams and adds say if not i surely can cancell my contract,as they must be in breach of their terms and conditioins

nakul sharma 2 years ago

i have never had any trouble from BT until recent when i found out my broadband was running at less than 1mb when i called BT they said there was nothing they could do? after all the money i have paid them over the years and the amount of service i have provided this is the answer i recieve.Well if BT wants to play it that way then i can switch over to virgin cable which costs pennies in comparison what the heck is the point of BT its technology is completely outdated

Chris 2 years ago

My broadband got switched on in oct...it took until the end of dec to get it working properly.It is now the start of june snd its fucked,basically.It started mid may.My router keeps switching off then on....then off and on.I play online games and also study online.Unless i tell them im switching providers they just fuck me about!Ok,anybody thinking of going with B.T DO NOT...THEY ARE SHIT!!!I SAY AGAIN>>>>>SHIT

Mr David Brooks 2 years ago

As a small business the e-mail and phone is my life line. The mobile phone supplied to me is far too complicated for my needs and I can't seem to get the internet on it. I am being charged £40 a month for it yet the BT advert claimed it would be £30. BT have never replied to any of my emails I spent an hour on the phone yesterday trying to talk to someone but with no success.

Now my Broadband connection keeps being interrupted as I no longer have BT's security pack which would cost me an extra £5 a month and I could buy a perfectly good security package for £25. Also, my computer comes with a Norton security pack.This means that I cannot conduct my business and we can't use our normal emails. I am becoming increasingly frustrated as I am tied into a two year BT contract which it would cost about a thousand pounds to get out of.

Has anyone got any suggestions as to how I can sort this as BT won't help.

Please email me at: hometest@hotmail.co.uk

Claire James 2 years ago

I have been with BT for a year and in that year I have been wrongly billed and now have been robbed! I phoned to make a payment of £20 towards my bill, the customer service adviser took £176.00 from my bank account and cleared my bill which I didn't want/couldn't afford to do! I am now left with no money to get to work or eat. When I learned of this mistake I contacted BT and was told that it was a terrible mistake to have happened and that a form was filled out and waiting to be signed off so that my money would be returned to me....nearly a week later and no sign of my money, contacted BT 'again' and was told my account was closed and there was no credit due to me. I

Mr David Kiff 2 years ago

Any help with this saga would be appreciated this has to be read to be believed .I,m still in shock that BT can run as a business....

8 days ago we asked BT to change our residential line to a business line and to keep the same number ,as my wife was and has opened a hair salon though still no phone.........we were told that an engineer would visit the premises at the earliest three days after we were open to sort it...so to enable customers to phone us io put a answer machine on my residential line giving all our mobiles allowing customers to phone us ...the very next day BT cancelled that line leaving us no way of comunicating with anyone....i phoned for eight hours that day and managed to get a divert put on that line to the mobile as to reconnct the line they cancelled they wanted to sign me up to another years contract..even though i pointed out they had never been asked to cancel the line in the first place. two days passed and the business was open but we recieved no calls i checked the landline to make sure the divert was on and low and behold the line was dead again .....another six hours of being passed around the BT OFFICES AND THE DIVERT WAS REINSTATED............THE DAY THE ENGINEER WAS COMING CAME AND WENT NO VISIT,ON CHASING THIS PROBLEM UP THEY SAID THEY HAD BEEN UNABLE TO GET ACCESS though having a shop that was open 12 hours that day still with no phone ..it turns out they decided to visit next door to my shop instead ....another god knopws how long being passed to everyone and repeating the same story i eventually managed to get them to rebook the engineer for next tuesday ( yes my shops still open with no phone at this time) today my stylist phoned to say they hadn,t had any callls again so i checked the divert and yes you,ve guessed it it was a dead line again.........today i,ve repeated my story so much i,ve had enough ...eventually at 3pm the divert was reinstated ...........to late for my bookings now though..so far i,ve had three wasted newspaper adverts with a number that doesn,t work and a salon full of stylists with nowt to do thank you BT for your help so needless to say i wait with antisipation for the engineer to come this Tuesday and even if he does i,ve been told the phone number they allocated isnt the one we asked for or the one a advertised.....you can tell by now i,m at the end of my tether........so when tuesday does come i,ve to phone and get the divert stopped then request a transfer which will take another 48 hours this is some way to run a business its cost me thousands and apperently i cant complain till they got my business line conncted if they ever doooooo PLEASE HELP

THIS HAS BEEN A NIGHTMARE

any help please e-mail davidjkiff@hotmail.com thanks for reading this saga

MET Steel Ltd 2 years ago

We are a business in Mallusk Northern Ireland and for the past three years we have been charged for a broad band service which if you look at your records has never been used. This has only been brought to my attention recently as all our BT bills are direct debits and because we have so many of them its hard to keep a trace of every individual bill. We are hoping that can maybe look into this and refund us some of the money which we have paid unnecessary over the years.

Many thanks

Angela Foxton

02890837311

Margaret Rennie 2 years ago

Hi, I posted a complaint about 2 months ago. It was about BT just taken back our line and phone calls without permission and they have admited this they took the line 12th Febuary 2009 we have been tring to get them to give the line back to our supplier but they keep telling us that there is no problem with our old supplier getting the line but our old supplier has tried 6 times and keep getting turned down and that we have got to phone BT to find out why.

When we phone BT they say that there is not any reason for this that it is the company that we are trying to go back to that has to sort out this problem. They have tried too but are not getting anywhere. They got the calls back. but not the line.

we were told by a complaints person Dale Elliot that it would be sorted to our advantage OH WAS THAT A LAUGH.

We had a bill this month from BT of £93.00 Plus they have also £10.13 Plus £25.00 and cant remember what else they have had.

I really dont know why they cannot give back the line the same way that they took it but that seems to be impossible too.

One of the last times that we phoned them we were told that we were under contract to them and that is the reason that the line is not back but then when we ask why we are told that that does not make any diference so what do we do as we have tried everything and getting nowhere we have even been threatened that they are going to cut us off and then we just do not have a live phone line so we would just be without a phone. My partner is dissabled and we stay in the country 13 miles from the nearest town and an hour away from the hospital we pay our bills on time we cannot even use a mobile phone as we live among the hills and do not get a reseption on them so our hands are tied and we have just got to keep paying BT THE MONEY THEY ASK OR GET CUT OFF.

I have written to the address in London but that has not helped.

SO WE ARE WITH A COMPANY THAT WE DO NOT WANT TO BE WITH AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT WE CAN DO.

There is a lot more that has happened but i have just gave up know as it is a pure waste off time and we really Hate BT and when we do get away from them we will never ever use them again even if they gave us all our services FREE

Jacquie Clayson 2 years ago

I had to contact BT today requesting my phone to be cancel on friday 12th due to a house move. The BT telephonist reliterated the date and stated it would be done. All well and fine!!! You would think!!?? I went to use my phone a few hours later to find my line had already been cancelled. I contacted BT, having to use my mobile!!! expensive ten minutes later I spoke to a very nice guy who confirmed the line had been cancelled but couldn't re connect until the following tuesday! Which is of no use to me as I wouldve moved!! I asked to speak to supervisor to make compliant and I was put through to compliant line. After another ten minutes on my mobile I got through to a male telephonist who after i explained the problem seemed totally disinterested and hung up on me!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had problems with BT before and choose to give them another chance!! I will not be using BT ever again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! due to this response has annoyed my family as they were trying to contact me, they are now changing providers. It has cost me alot of money to get to the point of complaining and then i was hung up on!!!!!! Total lack of customer care and respect!!!

John (Bradford on Avon) 2 years ago

I moved home on 5th June and arranged to have my phone account (using the same number) and Broadband facility transferred to the new address. I was advised that Broadband would be activated by Saturday 6th June. When this didn't happen I was advised when I phoned there had been a problem but it would be active on 9th June. Of course it didn't happen. When I phoned again they could find no trace of my account. I advised them of the account details and after a long delay I was advised that for some reason the account had been closed. I assured them I hadn't closed the account as I was on a contract that ran until October 2009. After a further delay I was phoned and given an apology. For some reason they had closed the account. However, I was assured that this was now sorted and that Broadband would now be activated, but as the account was being re-commenced it could not be activated until 17th June. No explanation was given as to why it would take a further 7 days to switch it on, on a BT telephone line. This isn't f.......... rocket science, it's incompetence. I shall be seeking another provider. So BT "You're fired".

Mrs. P. F. Knight 2 years ago

I am employed by Bromley Building Services Limited in Greater South East London, and today, June 11th, we received a text message over the office telephone system, from the BNP. This text message used extremely foul language, and I am surprised at B.T. accepting instructions to send this message to telephone systems in general. I do feel sympathy for the poor woman who had to read this message as she obviously has to transmit it in its original foul language form, as this is what she is paid to do. Is there no system within your organisation to refuse to transmit a message on the grounds of its language or subject content. This sort of message should not be broadcoast over national telephone systems.

If you have any reply, please send to bromleybuilding@btinternet.com

martyn Fuller 2 years ago

Let me vent...

It started just over a year ago we ordered BT Vision and got the infamous BT Vision Box. We quickly discovered that the on demand service was reluctant to work. Movies would not play, Music videos stopped part way through, odd charges appeared and someone was apparently getting up in the night and downloading content. (I'm the only adult male in the house and despite my wifes gentle leg pulling I still deny downloading the Tatu video).

A call to the "helpful" BT engineer revealed.... nothing, no thats not a fault, your broadband line is fine your box is fine.... despite my protestations to the contary that I couldn;t watch movies I was paying for.

The phone calls to BT became a weekly event. I would say it doesn't work. BT would tell me it did or tell me that I had to wait for my broadband speed to settle down.

Finally I had enough and asked for the BT vision service to be cancelled and for my money back at which point they lost all history of my persistant complaints. They then switched my landline off and cancelled my broadband service.

They now won't return calls when agreed but seem to think that crediting my cancelled account with £15 is compensation.

Next stop- Dan Marks and Gavin Patterson.

nicola 2 years ago

Just wanted to share my complaint letter!!

I am the administrator for a preschool that recently tried to order broadband service. Six weeks ago I placed the first order, on 21st April, and was told that a hub/modem would be sent out within 5 working days. By the 5th May, no such equipment had arrived, so I called BT to chase the order. Apparently the first order had "failed", no indication as to why, but the operator took the order details again, and as previously, I was told the modem would arrive within 5 working days. On the 14th May I called again as we were still awaiting the arrival of the equipment. Yet again I was told the order had "failed", the operator unable to give me any reason why or any way it could be avoided again. For the third time I gave the operator our details, she placed the order once more and, yes you've guessed it, I was promised the modem would arrive within 5 working days. By the 2nd June, you can imagine we were getting quite frustrated that nothing had arrived. Various promises and guarantees by BT staff were not met, no explanation was given as to why we were kept waiting so long. I called and spoke to another of your operators. He looked at our account and again told me the order had "failed" but could personally assure me that the equipment would be with us in (oh, it's getting boring even to type it now) 5 WORKING DAYS. At this point I told the operator that if the equipment had not arrived within that time frame I would be cancelling the order - although, in retrospect, that seems rather ridiculous seeing as the order appears to have cancelled itself by magic in the past. He also informed me that the internet had been "live" since the 21st May. Not much use to us without the equipment to get online. 9th June - any idea? Let me tell you, no modem. I call to cancel and your operator asks me if I would reconsider cancelling if she could "GUARANTEE" me the modem would be with us in, wait for the change here - 2 working days. At this point I suggested that as a gesture of goodwill we should be given the first two months free - seeing as, by this point, we have been waiting for 6 weeks. After some deliberation with her line manager this was agreed and I then asked to be put through to the customer services department. At this juncture I was given a call reference number to confirm the two month free charge. The operator said she could now see the order I had just placed but was concerned that it was not going to go through because the original operator hadn't followed up on the despatch time of 2 days. She assured me at this point I would receive a call from that operator the same day, after she had emailed her with her concerns. Now, I won't give out any prizes for guessing here - but I heard nothing. Today is the 11th June. We have no modem. And, until an hour ago I had heard nothing from BT. This phone call was someone from the customer services department who had somehow flagged the order as problematic and decided to follow it up. According to her, our modem is, again, guaranteed to arrive on Monday 15th June. I wait with bated breath. This escapade has become somewhat of a joke for staff and friends of our preschool. It seems almost unbelievable that in 2009 a company can so willfully neglect it's customers, as well as be so shockingly incompetent. A simple order. A simple request. Over six weeks of time has elapsed and I have spent over 3 hours on the telephone with your operators trying to rectify their mistakes. Truly mind boggling. I have listed below the details of my dealings with BT, maybe it will make me feel better to see it in black and white - and maybe you will be able to pass it on to be used at the next training event to illustrate how not to business and alienate people. Thank you for your time

Rob 2 years ago

I have been having a dispute with br***sh te***om regarding the condition of the phone line coming into our property (and who is liable to repair/maintain it), which in turn is causing problems with our broadband, bt vision box and the phone service itself. I regularly find myself complaining (or being cut off when I try to complain) and during this time, I have normally had to speak with someone who sounds like they have a pillow in their mouth, who can ALWAYS promise they will resolve your problem. I have, like many people on here complained in writing (and sent photos of the problem) to the bt complaint address in Durham. Alas this looks like a waste of time.

The last time I complained, I got punted around a few numbers and departments by bt and thought (by some miracle) I had actually got to the bottom of the problem. I spoke to someone in faults and explained about the poor condition of the line and ancient master socket in the property, which is not a modern plug one, it is one of the wired ones from the 70`s. As we pay line rental to bt, would it be fair to say they are responsible for the condition of the line into a property up to and including the master socket?

Anyway the helpful, lying c**t at bt arranged for an engineer to call and resolve the line problem. "Will there be a charge for this?" I asked, "No" replied the aforementioned lying c**t on the phone.

Engineer visits, has a look, turns to me and proclaims "for fu*k sake mate, I have never seen anything like this, I am surprised your phone works!"

At this point I ask the same question regarding being charged and receive the same "No Charge" answer. Unfortunately for me, it appears that the engineer had also attended the "How to be a lying c**t with a straight face" course ran by bt for its employees.

Bill hits doormat for £218.37. This is a "one-off charge" Priceless.

Do not intend to pay the lying, thieving c**ts a penny and will be contacting the relevant ombudsman if they do not resolve this.

What saddens me most is reading some of the entries on here. How can a company, a once reputable institution like bt allow its customer service and contempt for people to plumb such depths? It is pathetic.

In the grand scheme of things there are worse things going on in the world, but I now count the days until our broadband contract ends so I can cancel all our bt "services".

Good luck to all currently banging their heads against a brick wall with bt.

Graeme 2 years ago

owed BT £26... we'd fallen behind cos i lost my job. the next bill had come in. now owed them £80... got a letter saying that the £26 had to be aid by such and such a date or my line would be terminated. so i rang and asked if i could just pay the whole amount at the end of the month... "that's fine" said the nice lady. two days later... off goes the line.

so i call them up and pay the whole £80 only to be told they can't reconnect the line unless i give them an extra £50... "no way" says I putting the phone down and calling Virgin.

A week later Bt send me a final account statement... £60. I've overpaid them by £20... i call them and ask for a reimbursement in my wife's name (she's on the account) but they need to issue it her new married name. "can't do it" say BT, "We have to send it out then you need to send it back with a letter..." and they send out a cheque in the wrong name.

four months, cheques returned and a LOT of phone calls and time later... guess what? We're still waiting for our £20 to be reimbursed. thieves... the best bit is that now they insist i paid £60, they didn't send out a cheque and my wife and i have imagined the whole debacle...

but i always get a giggle when i ring BRITISH telecom and get the INDIAN call centre. you couldn't make it up!

David 2 years ago

How do BT get away with it??! We called BT who were unwilling to help with a fault of slow broadband and noisy line and blamed it on our equipment. BT then quoted us £115 callout and £99 per hour (or part hour even!) - utterly crazy unless you are a millionaire!!! If it wasnt for a local independent engineer we would have been stuffed. The Independent engineer who we found on google (Landline Man - http://www.landlineman.com) who came was brilliant and diagnosed it as External Fault (when BT said it wasnt), BT came out a few days later and lo and behold it was external and they fixed it for free. So motto is dont believe BT if they say its internal and never get them to come for a fault as you could be looking at a bill of £200 or more just to tell you where the fault is! David - Monmouth

mrs k holmwood 2 years ago

i have been paying money onto my b.t card every 2 weeks so that i don,t have a big bill every 3 mnts but it seems they are saying they have not got this money because they sent me a bill for the full amount, i tried to talk to someone at b.t and all i kept getting was a machine, can someone please tell me who i can talk to about this matter

Chris 2 years ago

I placed an order on 30 May 2009 for a home move of my account I had with BT to move to new premises which had an existing working line. The order was accepted but then subsequently cancelled by BT a few days later saying the line does not have a cease order.

I phoned the people moving out of the premises I wa moving into about this and they said they were told by BT to call on the day they moved as they were taking their phone number with them and moving to a different provider at the same time. After telling them that I could not place an order until they had, they then phoned BT and requested a move order be placed on the 4th June 2008 and were moving out on the 6th June (oddly the fact is that they could have placed the order well before they moved out of the premises even though they were moving providers but were given the wrong information by BT and they subsequently did not get their phone transferred till well after the move date). On the 5th June BT accepted an order for the phone line in my new premises and subsequently provided a date of 22nd June as the activation date and also provided me with an order number on 5h June. On phoning BT as to why this was so long given that it was a working line they said that it is because they must send a letter to the persons moving out for them to confirm the cease order on the phone line. (Oddly I never received any such letter myself when I placed a home move order on my previous phone line). This letter is in spite of the fact that the cease order cannot be placed unless you give all sorts of security information about who you are to verify you are the account holder and the cease order will go thru even if there is no answer to the letter. After many phone calls to various people, BT agreed that there was no reason for such a long delay and agreed tp moved the order to 15th June. It was then subsequently found that they cannot move an existing order and had to cancel it to place a new order to bring the order forward and not only did they have to cancel the order but it would take 24 hours for the order to cancel before they could place a new order (incredible as that may sound in the 21st century where BT is supposed to be a technology company). Eventually they said that OpenReach could not bring the order forward and so I accepted that the line would be provided on the 22nd June 2009. The date came and went and no phone line so I phoned on the 23rd and BT were unable to give a reason why the line was no installed and would get back to me ... they never did so the next day I phoned again only to receive exactly the same information and the same promises. I phoned the next day again and was finally told that there was a failure with the order on the OpenReach side and no reason was given. I asked to lay a complaint and was told to go to the OpenReach web site to complain to OpenReach but the OpenReach website states: If you are a member of the public and would like to raise a complaint or enquiry that is related to: the provision of telephone or internet services, engineer appointments, faults, or compensation, it is important that you raise this issue with your communications provider (whoever bills you for your telephone or internet service). Your communications provider will then raise the matter on your behalf. You can find more information about the relationship between Openreach and your communication provider here. Although I was promised a call back it never did happen once again and and called again the next day to find that according to BT my order had only been placed on the 24th June 2009 and that the line was scheduled with OpenReach to be installed on the 29th June. NO HISTORY OF MY ORDER PLACED ON THE 5th JUNE 2009 EXISTED AS FAR AS THE BT PERSON WAS CONCERNED. They were able to show more than 10 calls to BT over the period from 1 June to 25th June 2009 but seemed to think it was nothing unusual that my order was only placed on the 24th June in spite of many documented phone calls. Somehow, that original order number had also been cancelled on the 24th June and a new order number was placed on the 25th June 2009 with a delivery date of 29th June 2009. Once again I requested that they lay a complaint against OpenReach but this person pointed me to the OpenReach web ite again and in spite of informing the person what the OpenReach website stated, I was told that they cannot lay complaints against OpenReach on my behalf. All attempts to have the person give me a reasonable answer as to why things went wrong failed. All I was repeatedly told is that it failed and they do not know why and my asking why it failed was not helping. I was told that they were "sorry" about my problems and that the line would be provided on the 29th June 2009 and that this information was confirmed by OpenReach yet nobody could give me a reason why the same promises about line delivery had failed. There seems to be:

no accountability for problems within the context of BT Retail and BT OpenReach (attitude seems to be that problems happen but do not bother to work out why... its not important) no person in BT able to give a proper answer that makes sense (simply accept broken promise after broken promise with the answer that "there was a problem" and no other information and without complaining)no path place a complaint against BT OpenReach

Mrs J Kennerly 2 years ago

My mother has mild Alzeheimrs Disease and is also disabled. She recently went through a strange fase of not realising she had a big clock near her chair in lounge or phone at the side of her bed. This resulted in her ringing the '123' facility hundreds of time and at .just a little over 25p per call she rattled up a bill over over £200.00 (her usual bill would have been about £40.00 or so). I contacted BT and struggled with the callcentre in India who made mention of the fact that Social Services would help her!! Then I asked to be transferred back to Britain and spoke to a lady in Newport I believe...again little was done or offered to help. I do not expect the bill to be wiped out but the level of the bill is two months food and electricity for my mother. I was astounded that they would off NO clemency or understanding. When I asked that my mother's phone please be barred from making calls to the '123' time service I was met with a response that 'oh no, if you do that all outgoing calls would be barred'! I know for a fact from BT engineers in the past that it is quick and easy procedure to prevent access to such. My family used to work in the GPO and I am astounded at the company that BT has become now! I cannot watch my mother every minute of the day and I am shocked at their response. It is blatantly obvious that all my mother's previous bills have been at or around the same level but to have suddenly more than quadrupled was a shock. What do I do now ....'Ask Emma' what a joke that is leading us to our own self help menu when we are paying for a service where we SPEAK to people! It is obviously not 'good to talk'!

Disgusted Daughter 30/06/09. Perusing Ofcom Regulations

Nathan Cox 2 years ago

Where do BT get these people from...Or maybe the question is why do they employ them?

Since opening a BT Onebill account in Oct 08', i have been very busy on the phone, in fact non stop.....Calling BT to attemp to sort out thier incompetence.

These people really don't care (the majority) there maybe some good employees left, but sadly, they have never been on the end of my phone.

Promise after promise has been broken, lots of flanel spun.

All i want is to pay the sum of money to then..I want to give them money! But the correct amount!

The whole company is a sham..I am being polite seeing as this is a public forum. I wonder how BT exists...Oh i have got it now...No apologies...don't give any answers to customers...Customer care is null and void...beat the customer into submission by thier own defeat...Is it a new marketing strategy.

I am an entrepeneur in my 30's who would like to think that i have manners, decorum and until now vast pockets of patience.

I cannot believe how a company nearly knock those hopefully, good points of social skills from my very body!

BT -leave communication to someone else... It's obviously not for you!

I could stay on here all day complaining about the company i am now passionately lovin to hate..

Bloody Tragic (BT)

Nathan Cox 2 years ago

Where do BT get these people from...Or maybe the question is why do they employ them?

Since opening a BT Onebill account in Oct 08', i have been very busy on the phone, in fact non stop.....Calling BT to attemp to sort out thier incompetence.

These people really don't care (the majority) there maybe some good employees left, but sadly, they have never been on the end of my phone.

Promise after promise has been broken, lots of flanel spun.

All i want is to pay the sum of money to then..I want to give them money! But the correct amount!

The whole company is a sham..I am being polite seeing as this is a public forum. I wonder how BT exists...Oh i have got it now...No apologies...don't give any answers to customers...Customer care is null and void...beat the customer into submission by thier own defeat...Is it a new marketing strategy.

I am an entrepeneur in my 30's who would like to think that i have manners, decorum and until now vast pockets of patience.

I cannot believe how a company nearly knock those hopefully, good points of social skills from my very body!

BT -leave communication to someone else... It's obviously not for you!

I could stay on here all day complaining about the company i am now passionately lovin to hate..

Bloody Tragic (BT)

Abdullah 2 years ago

billing account number GB 06694573

a month ago i called BT people and i had new contract, they give me an appointment at 29/6/2009 from 1-6 PM. before one or two days of this time they also send massage that they will come at that time. I`m a new student in this country at Dundee University, because of this appointment i lost half day of education.unfortunately, i have waited infront of the window and the door for 6 a hours, but no body come. Then, i called BT by my mobile and was in queue until my the charge of mobile finished then i went to BT telephone at street, I have called BT again, i have stayed with them about 1:30 a hours in bad weather with out any benefit,then they promised they will call me on mobile soon,but until now no body call. My neighbors advised me to take Virgin offer because BT has bad customer service i didn`t believe them. Why? I don`t know. but it is clear from first deal.

finally, Who will recompense me about that? when they will come and install my telephone? I'm not optimistic.

if you have answer please call me on 07552326879 E-mail joud55@yahoo.com

A Tebbutt 2 years ago

Since dec 2008 I've been try to get my BT account changed to BT Basic which I'm entitled to as I'm blind and claiming the right benfits to qualify.The first form never turned up so I asked for another to be sent in large print so I could fill it in.(as per reasonable ajustment detailed under the DDA act ) it turned up wrong print and I had seek help to fill the form in and sent back in early 2009. They then called for additional information which I provided. I followed with a complaint 12 weeks passed and no reply and I 'm still waiting for my account to be changed and I'm now view that I have been over charged for 6 months due to this not being done. This is a very poor service as if I wanted to change to a premium account this would be do with in minutes not months. Come on BT you are judged by how you treat the poorest vunrable people. P.s next step Otelo

Louise  2 years ago

All we wanted was a telephone line at our new home !

When I originally called the home move department to tell them I was moving I was told there would be no problem - I was even given the new number for the new house. Then, after moving and wondering how this two week transfer progress was progressing, I was told it had been cancelled. I had to call them to find that out - they would have just left me wondering and waiting ! With no BT line I have no broadband (I'm with AOL broadband) and I work from home. Hours of calls later and goodness knows how much on mobile phone bills, and pay as you go mobile internet, I was told an engineer had to come out to switch the line on and that he couldn't come out for another 3 weeks and it would cost me £122 ! Sky came out within a week, fixed a new satellite dish to the roof of my house, drilled holes through walls and connected my TV service all for FREE !

Two weeks ago, BT told me that I had a credit balance of £60 and that they would send this to me within 5 days. Upon calling them today, they tell me I wont get my money for 21 days ! AND after living in my new home for 4 weeks, I now discover that BT haven't even switched the line off at my old house !

Their customer service has, at best, been useless, they have lied and been rude to us and we have been customers for years, all I wanted was a phone line - is that too much to ask?

I'm writing them a complaint letter today although I doubt very much whether I'll even get a reply.

Tomas 2 years ago

billing account number GB06131885

established phone line with BT in march09.

Was told that all 0870/0844/0845 numbers are free to call after 1800 hours, or all day during weekend.(calls not to exceed 60 minutes)

Have called them again to recheck if my understanding is correct. This was confirmed, and amendment made that public holidays are excluded and understood as day when call charges do apply.

Then I received my bill. 0870/0844/0845 numbers were charged for, although

- there was no public holiday on the day calls were made

- call was made after 1800 hours or during weekend

- no call have exceeded 60 minutes.

Still I was charged.

When called BT, I was suddenly explained that some

0870/0844/0845 numbers are excluded.....

Well here we go...

BT got another angry customer.

If the companies would be controlled as needed,

BT managers would have already offered their

voluntary resignation, awaiting further charges. Wouldn`t they?

Garage Business 2 years ago

We have 2 business BT lines one being connected directly to an MOT Testing Station, On July 21st at approx 3 oclock one line went off followed an hour later by the second one. After several phone calls to BT by mobile costing an absolute fortune and being told to unplug this that and the other we insisted an engineer called as we cannot do anything without the phones (customers calling,internet, fax)our business stops. We were told that if they sent an engineer it would cost a certain amount plus £70.00 per hour

AND they wouldnt be able to come for 2 DAYS. What are we supposed to do for 2 days. When the phones are connected again the first thing we will be doing is showing BT the door.

Dave H 2 years ago

In brief, My daughter wished to change from BT to Sky -Since this time she has been cut off twice.had her number changed and been charged fees for two new lines.When she tries to contact BT she is met with no understanding from a call centre.Staff who lie to her saying they will contact her!She cancelled her direct debit and BT reinstaed it which is hihly illegal and took money out of her account.I am taking this on now as I feel so angry for the way my daughter has been treated.they have literally stolen over £300 from her.If this was a person not a company they would be arrested for theft!

Tam 2 years ago

I have had numerous problems with BT and it has related in terminating my contract and being left very angry with the company that initially cut me off and then wouldn't do a line check or a technical equipment check and are now accussing me of not contacting them. I only have contacted different members over 12 times and been sent from pillar to post and got nowhere. I am in the process of writing anopther letter to which I will send copies to watchdog and all other bodies of concern. AGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!

Geraint Williams 2 years ago

BT Slammed my line - then refused to talk to me as I "was not a BT customer" - of course BT had to reconnect my line and now I am a BT customer against my will. I have no faith in their customer service department - so what is my best bet? OFCOM? OTELLO? WATCHDOG?

Darren 2 years ago

I have tried (unsuccessfully) to switch from a BT Business Broadband package to a BT Home Broadband package, roughly the two were the same cost but with the Home Package I would get the home hub and free evening/weekend calls.

BT accepted my order gave me a switch over date which came and went with no switch. Spoke to the Business team they said speak to the Residentail team, spoke to them and they said speak to the Business Team. In the end I was told it was not actually possible to switch from one BT service to another and that my only option would be to cancel my BT service and switch it to another supplier, which I am duly in the process of doing for my broadband and phone sevice now. I cannot for one moment imagine a situation where I would advise one of my clients to switch to a competitors service, I would do everything I could to hold onto them and meet their requirements, but the BT staff appeared not to care one bit.

Ray Grinney 2 years ago

On 24th July I phoned BT to pay my bill. The operator took my bank and card details, but said he was unable to complete the transaction and I should try again at a later date. I phoned on 25th July made a payment and set up a Direct Debit agreement. I checked my bank account on 28th July and discovered that BT had made two withdrawals from my account. They made an unauthorised withdrawal on 25th July and the agreed withdrawal on 27th July. I phoned BT on 28th July and was told that the money they withdrew without my permission would be returned to my account within 7 working days. The money was not returned after the promised 7 days. The operator told me that I was misinformed and that it would take up to 14 working days from 28th July. I was promised that the money would be in my account by then and I was given a Payment Verification Number. After the allotted time I checked my bank account and discovered that the money was not there. I phoned BT and was told that there was no record of my conversations with them. I told the operator that I had taped the calls and had been given a Payment Verification Number. In gave him the number and, low and behold! the missing information returned to his screen. The operator promised that my money will be in my account within 3 to 4 working days. I told him that that was not good enough, I had already waited 14 days. They stole the money from my account in one day, why can't they return it in the same time period? I asked to speak to his supervisor. I was kept on hold for 7 minutes before the supervisor spoke to me. He said that I was misinformed and that the money will take between 5 and 7 days, not 3 to 4. He gave me another Payment Verification Number.I am still waiting. Should the money not be in my account on 20th Aug

I shall, armed with my tape recordings, take the matter to the County Court. I have already written to Ofcom, but I am not holding my breath.

Judy Evans 2 years ago

Contact saevans27@hotmail.com for account reference

I have never been so frustrated!!! After having to go through the whole story of problems for 6 and a half hours to numerous departments, BT have blown me away with their utter pathetic customer service. I am embarrassed my son is planning to take up an apprenticeship with them.

Firstly, the problems started 6 months ago when we reported a fault with the Home hub and phone and intermittent broadband connection. Since then we have been unable to use the Home hub as the reception is so bad. Meanwhile we have paid every month for unlimited calls, however as it was unusable, we have been phoning from our home phone and subsequently charged up to £80 a month for phone bills.

After months of trying to sort this problem, I decided yesterday that if I didn't persevere, we would continue to have horrendous phone bills. BT Technical checked the hub and phone and clearly advised that they needed to be replaced. But, as the contract had now ended, would not replace them until we signed up to a new contract. So they put me through to another department.

I was cut off from BT 5 times, at all times told I would be phoned straight back if we were cut off. I was never phoned back. Even after demanding to speak to a manager, who assured me she would phone me and make sure this got sorted out. I therefore had to keep phoning and go through the whole rigmarole again. Hence 6 and a half hours later, was finally given a quote for a new contract.

I was appauled by customer service, being told again and agin 'not to worry - we'll sort it out' when clearly it was not being sorted out!

On the other hand, I phoned Orange for a quote, they were friendly and helpful and gave me a better quote. I have been with BT for 20 yrs and don't want to leave them, but we have been messed around for so long, I am appauled with their service, and this has caused a lot of upset for myself and time wasting.

Softie42 2 years ago

I am due to be transferred to an option 1, no minimum term, line rental only contract with BT. After calling customer service on 0800 800150 and choosing the option to AMMEND my order I have now spoken to 2 very good BT customer service people and they have told me that engineers have committed to the transfer, the existing line has been tested and there should be no cost to me and no problems at all!

However, the reason for calling BT CS was that I was called by HCL out of the blue in the first place. I know it was HCL (they told me they were BT) because of the message I received when I called back their caller display number 0800 028 2272. HCL (on behalf of BT) told me I had no "Stop Line" and would HAVE TO pay £122.80 for the transfer, or they could put me on a new tariff with an 18 month contract! I asked HCL for "more technical information" as they were calling me on the line I wished to transfer and I was only doing the transfer for cost reasons. They then gave me a new number (above) which was the real BT CS! A quick Google search "HCL on behalf of BT" explains all the problems. HCL are an outsourced customer service unit in India.

My advice to BT: don't allow any company to impersonate your customer service teams (including HCL et al). Outsourced service agents may not have all the necessary information at their finger tips and will be trying to do things on the cheap.

My advice to you all: know who you are talking to. Just because someone says they are BT doesn't mean that they are or should be treated as such!

MIKE 2 years ago

I USE A BT LINE AND VIRGIN MEDIA FOR AN ISP...THE 2 COMPANIES ARE POINTING THEIR FINGERS AT EACH OTHER OVER AN ISSUE I HAVE WITH MY SLOW STONE-AGE INTERNET...BT HAS DOWN IN THEIR RECORDS THAT I CAN ONLY GET 250KBPS UPSTREAM..AND VIRGIN BELIEVED IT FOR A MOMENT..THEN VIRGIN TOOK A LOOK AND SCANNED MY LINE AND SAID THAT I CAN GET ALMOST 5MB OF SPEED...AND I CALLED BT TO LET THEM KNOW WHAT VIRGIN SAID AND THEY GAVE ME SHIT....WELL I HAVE TO SAY IM NOT BRITISH IM AMERICAN AND WE ACTUALLY HAVE BETTER SERVICE FOR THIS KIND OF THING...IF I EVER SEE ANY OF THOSE I SPOKE TOO THEY WILL GET A GOOD ASS WOUPIN'...IM FUCKIN SICK OF THEIR FINGER POINTING..GIVE ME WHAT I PAY FOR IT'S ALL WE ASK....BUT BT YOU CAN FUCK OFF AND VIRGIN MEDIA CAN TOO..YOU BOTH DESERVE A BULLET IN THE HEAD...FUK U

Ron Evans 2 years ago

I asked for a Telephone Ring Ampilfer, was assured I would be sent one by your call center in India, But I have been sent A Large Bell, which I do Not want. Who do I return it to? and when can I expect a telephone Ring mplifer?

Regards R Evans

M.A. Savitski 2 years ago

BT Yahoo keeps charging me a fee for which I have any idea what it's for. I want them to stop charging these fees and reimbursement . I refuse to pay for anything I don't have a need for.

bob hazell 2 years ago

Do not trust BT what they say and what they do are Totally different things.After complaining to BTs chairman i was passed to one of his team who was to try and resolve the situation . So i waited patiently and eventually my Broadband came back on line,

I then talked on the phone with the assistant about the difficulties involved including the length of time without B/Band,and having to use payg,

we agreed a goodwill guesture/compensationary package.which was 6 months free B/B. line rental and a refund of my BT payg charges this has not been honoured by BT.So be careful and get any agreement in writing. by the way the repair was short lived and i am going through the same proceedure again

Bob Johnson 2 years ago

Once again BT have made promises on the phone when wanting me to agree to a new contract, yet when the documents arrive they are different to what was promised.

I have written to the Chairman and my MP today because this is illegal.

Does anyone else have a similar story?

Rob  2 years ago

This is the rather angry letter of complaint I've just emailed to BT;

FOR THE SECOND TIME THIS YEAR I HAVE A SERIOUS COMPLAINT ABOUT THE SERVICE I AM RECIEVING FROM BT!!!! I AM COMPLETELY ASTOUNDED BY THE LACK OF COMPETENCE DISPLAYED BY SUCH A LARGE AND RESPECTED ORGANISATION. AFTER AN UNSATISFACTORY RESOLUTION TO BT'S PREVIOUS MISTAKES WITH MY CONTRACT, (AND I MIGHT ADD THE ONLY REASON I DIDN'T TAKE THE MATTER FURTHER AT THAT TIME BEING DUE TO FEELING COMPLETELY EXASPERATED WITH THE WHOLE SORRY AFFAIR) FOLLOWING A COLDCALL FROM BT, I HAVE NOW BEEN COMPLETELY MISSOLD A PRODUCT WHICH I NEITHER WANT NOR REQUIRE!!!

I HAVE RECIEVED A LETTER TODAY (DATED 10TH SEPTEMBER 2009) STATING, AND I QUOTE; "Thank you for choosing our Friends & family Mobile deal for at least 12 months."

I CHOSE NOTHING OF THE SORT!!!! I RECIEVED A COLDCALL APPROXIMATELY 1 MONTH AGO FROM A GENTLEMAN FROM BT WHO, (AS HAS ALMOST ALWAYS BEEN THE CASE WHEN SPEAKING TO ANY SO-CALLED ADVISOR FROM BRITISH TELECOM) HAD ONLY A VERY BASIC UNDERSTANDING OF ENGLISH AND DID NOT APPEAR TO UNDERSTAND NOR HAVE ANY INTEREST IN ANY OF MY QUESTIONS. THE SOLE PURPOSE OF THE CALL APPEARED TO BE MEARLY TO OFFER ME CALLS TO OTHER UK LANDLINES AFTER 6PM DURING THE WEEK AT NO EXTRA COST TO MY MONTHLY BILL, (RATHER THAN PURELY FREE WEEKEND CALLS AS WAS PREVIOUSLY THE CASE.) THERE WAS NO MENTION OF ANY "FRIENDS AND FAMILY MOBILE DEAL" AND I WENT TO GREAT TROUBLE TO EXPLAIN THAT I WANTED NO EXTRA COST TO MY MONTHLY BILL WHICH I HAD PREVIOUSLY SET TO THE CHEEPEST, MOST BASIC DEAL OF NO MORE THAN 12 POUNDS PER MONTH. THE ADVISOR ASSURED ME THAT WHAT HE WAS OFFERING CAME AT NO EXTRA COST TO THE MOST BASIC BT CONTRACT WHICH I WAS SOPPOSED TO BE ON AND MERELY ALLOWED ME TO MAKE FREE UK LANDLINE CALLS AFTER 6PM DURING THE WEEK!!!

THE LETTER ALSO STATES; "Your contract started on 11 sep 2009. Since we're already providing your service, you no longer have the right to concel."

THIS IS AN OUTRAGE AND I WILL NO LONGER TOLERATE BT'S INEPT AND FRANKLY ILLEGAL SALES TECHNIQUES. AS I AM SURE YOU CAN GATHER I AM TOTALLY INFURIATED WITH BT AND I WILL NOT BE SATISFIED UNTIL BT RECTIFY THEIR MISTAKES. REST ASSURED, THIS MATTER WILL BE TAKEN FURTHER IF BT FAIL TO TAKE THE REQUIRED ACTION TO RESOLVE THIS SITUATION AS A MATTER OF URGENCY.

THE ONLY REASON I AM REGISTERING THIS COMPLAINT VIA EMAIL IS DUE TO THE TOTAL DISATISFACTION AT THE INCOMPETENCE I HAVE ENCOUNTERED DURING PREVIOUS ATTEMTS TO RESOLVE BT'S ERRORS OVER THE PHONE.

I AWAIT YOUR URGENT RESPONSE TO THIS DEPLORABLE SITUATION.

RTGIVANS 2 years ago

I called BT customer services (INDIA) as I had moved house and had managed to get my line up and running the problems began when I tried to change the house name I called twice and each time the operator said the account was changed, but kept getting bills with old house name so called again

I have to point out that much of the call was taken up by constantly repeating my self as the Indian opperator cant understand me.

Then another bill arrived so I called again to go over it all again and this time I asked to register a complaint as my wife had recieved a call on her mobile from the call centre (INDIA) more or less accusing us of returning bills unpaid, but when my wife asked what address they were sending the bill to the opperator read out an incorrect address which explains why the bills where being returned.

When my wife informed her it was the wrong address the opperator kept asking are you sure, Now I think we know where we live, after this I called India again asked them to change house name again complained about opperators attitude and payed bill on phone and asked that a complaint be registered about her attidtude. so again they were told the correct address.

And then another bill drops thru the door for the bill which I have already paid and again the house name has not been changed, it might not seem like a big deal but its like water torture. So again I travelled down the yellow brick road to BT "CUSTOMER SERVICES" and whent thru it all again at this point I asked if there was anything on the system about my complaintsand was informed no. Why doesnt BT have a complaints department? or is that a silly question. I have now tried to complain thru the online feed back and had a few replies and been told they have tried calling but we were not available,, Not true in one instance they called and let the phone ring 3 times not

enough time to answer the phone.

I would dearly like to cut off altogether from BT as I have absolutely no faith in the indian call centre and detest having to call them at all and am looking into cutting the service altogether.

Michelle and Keeley 2 years ago

We had a problem with our line so called bt and they sent out an engineer who dug a hole in our hallway which had just been layed which cost us a few thousand pounds , he then said oh i didn't have to do that as the problem is outside so We have had to have a new line installed as the old cable from the property had perished. We dug a trench in the driveway which was in the process of being renewed at that time, and were told that the new team would be over in 48 hours to make the connections. After 1 week of waiting and several calls to BT later (on one call they said "you don't need to call us anymore, we will call you") we have just been told that it is the customer's responsibility to make the connection in the road. I asked for instructions on how to connect a cable to the main box underground as there are quite a few wires there, but no one at BT seems to be able to help. Any ideas anyone?? Didn't realise I needed a degree in engineering just to make a phone call, but hey, thats BT for you!! I am still holding the line (strange expression that!! :) ) while she either gets me some instructions or she's gone for a cuppa. Oh yes, the music is driving me crazy - been listening to it for about 2 hours now.

All I wanted was a phone line.....

Ben Roberts 2 years ago

Disgusted with BT. Twice in a year they have decided without informing me to take advantage of my direct debit and take more out then agreed. This is without any form of communication as to why. On BOTH occasions it took over an hour to get through (as you cannot complain online??) and both times apologised and told it would be sorted. Guess what, on BOTH times the next direct debit NOTHING had been done so again I had to spend mymoney and time chasing it. I am disgusted by this Company and the way they treat their customers. WHO doesnt have a complaint system?? A business that doesn`t care!

carolinethorne 2 years ago

BT have taken over one year to repair my broadband and phone fault. I've made over 200 calls and emails but they refuse to fix fault. Now they are trying to charge me £300 to leave as i'm still in contract for another year. i've been paid no compensation for the lack of service for one year. i've been threatened with bailiffs.

Rebecca Heald 2 years ago

Has had no phone working at all for nearly 4 weeks! Takes forever to contact BT, they say will fix it by 5pm.....get a text in evening to say it is fixed and but actually still not working!

get up the next day and have to re log it as a new fault and exactly the same. STARTING TO FEEL LIKE GROUNDHOG DAY!

Just to make it worse we have no mobile signal at home and last week the dishwasher caught fire and coulnt call 999.

Why cannot they give a separate number for people with on going problems!!!!!!EEEEERRRRGGGGHHHHH starting to go mad now!!!!!

Helen 2 years ago

I was bt customer for 30 years and got into difficulty with them after I dared to question £60 added to my bill. I spent 3 hours on the phone one morning trying to sort it out and all I got was a rude horrible person insisting that I owed the money and that was that. I was so upset that morning as I had always paid my bills and kept everything up to date. I can never ever remember being treated like this by any company and so I contacted ombudsman who advised me to write them a letter of complaint. Anyway cut a long story short I had phonecall several weeks later from bt customer complaints dept informing me that I didn't have to pay the £60 and her attitude was like they were doing me some big favour. (ha Ha) What a crowd of b--------....

I do understand how people would feel so intimidated into paying up just to make them go away, but take my advise and don't do this.

I joined post office home phone and broadband and I'm very happy with the service I receive now....

All you people need to stop your direct debit with bt and just don't pay them any more money and change your service to another company who will show you some respect. This is the only way to teach these arrogant thieving bastards a lesson.

James 2 years ago

I won't go into the enomous problems i had with BT. However i was sick of being in call queues for hours (on my mobile as my landline was cut off) and being cut off repeatedly by call centre staff whilst 'transferring me'.

I called Ofcom and made an official complaint against BT. They gave me a special 'Ofcom dedicated complaints referral number' - 0800 7312762. It got answered immediately by someone in the UK who had more than two braincells and, after giving my Ofcom complaint reference number, he sorted the problem within 24hours.

Why does it take these lengths to get half decent customer service??? I urge people to official complain to Ofcom (BT get a slapped wrist if too many people complain) and vote with their feet by leaving BT (if you can as they have a bit of a monopoly).

Luckily i am emigrating, and will hopefully never have to be a BT customer again. A truly dreadful company.

Steve Riley 2 years ago

BT called me today saying my account was overdue and I owed them £74.

I was stunned as I only have BT Broadband with them and only normally pay £21 per month online.

It turns out that BT in their own usual dominant manner have decided to change my payments to upfront quarterly payments without informing me first. All of a sudden I have to now start paying on a quarterly basis...

As it is I was without broadband for over a week in early september due to an exchange issue and it took me 3 days worth of calls to get the problem fixed. They even had the cheek to charge me the full monthly amount even though they had promised to credit the amount to my account and I then had to chase them when they sent the bill for the full amount.

So now Im facing a bill of £74 made up of £19 for september and £55 upfront quarterly charge.. Can they do this without informing me???

Like many people we are trying to stick to a strick monthly budget.

Laura Knight 2 years ago

Below is the complaint letter I have just sent off to bt follwing 2 months of infuriating mix ups.

Tuesday 06th October 2009

Dear Sir / Madam,

Re: Account number: LS73794414

Supplying address: 133 Coleraine Rd, Blackheath, London, SE37NT

The below is an account of my experience of bt over the last 2 months. It is infuriating, unnecessary and plain ridiculous. Please take note of each point and you will be as exasperated as I am at the end of it. I have never experienced such inadequacy of service and overall incompetence.

• 05/08/09 terminated contract by telephone.

• 05/08/09 spoke to numerous departments regarding the return of deposit.

• 05/08/09 was told various dates by numerous depts. For when I should receive deposit back varying from 6 months after start of contract to 6 months after termination of contract and all manner of suggestions in between these dates.

• 05/08/09 was finally advised to send in bank statement covering 14/03/07 to show that the deposit had not made it from bt back into the account it had come from.

• 14/08/09 written confirmation sent in to terminate contract. Bank statements sent in covering the period of a month including the date of 14/03/07 – the only date required. The statement sent in was 05/03/07 – 05/04/07 to encompass the 14/03/07 - the date bt said the deposit was sent back to me. I also sent the bank statement highlighting the payment leaving my account in sep/oct 2006 statement.

• Numerous conversations on numerous occasions questioning the whereabouts of deposit, but was told on many occasions the letter and statements above have been received and bt were unable to trace the whereabouts of the deposit. The matter was with management who were investigating.

• 02/09/09 called again regarding deposit’s whereabouts, managers still investigating but was advised the deposit should be with me soon.

• 07/09/09 called to confirm new address and check again on whereabouts of missing deposit. Was advised the deposit would come to me in the form of a cheque and it would come to my new address which was taken down on the bt system.

• 08/09/09 moved out of property at above mentioned address.

• 18/09/09 Called bt again to confirm deposit was on it’s way back and instead experienced a tiring 3 hour conversation with bt, being passed from department to department, from staff member to staff member within each department. During this conversation various members of staff contradicted themselves repeatedly, leaving me to repeat my story over and over again at least 9 times to as many different staff.

• In this 3 hour conversation I was told not so much about the return of my deposit but that my line had been connected again – despite the fact I had left that address nearly a month ago, and given the initial notice over 6 weeks ago.

• There was no mention of the deposit and the information above seemed to have been wiped from bt records. Had bt invented a time machine and transported me back to 2 months ago?

• I was asked over and over if I would like to end my contract, I had already done so 6 weeks ago.

• Another member of staff then demonstrated her ability to pick up a telephone and dial a number and deduced from her research that not only was the phone line at Coleraine road still connected, but there was nobody home. Well im no psychic but I had told her there was nobody home as I do not live there anymore. She should perhaps conserve her special powers of picking up a telephone for when they are actually needed, and showcase them to someone who cares.

• Later in the 3 hour conversation after explaining the above to 5 people already I was asked if I was moving house! I should have thought that would have been clear from the start.

• I was then asked why I was leaving bt. This should be self explanatory to any animal, vegetable or mineral.

• As the conversation went on, the member of bt staff on the phone plainly refused to terminate the contract. He told me he would not disconnect the phone line. I was livid. A line which I had already agreed with bt to be disconnected over 6 weeks ago was not only connected again but threatening to be connected for the rest of my life.

• Coming closer and closer to strangling myself with the telephone wire this procedure went painfully on . . .and on.

• Until finally! A member of staff seemed to be on the same planet as me, I was not dreaming, bt had not invented a magic time machine. He could see all of my above records on the bt system, they had not been wiped but just ignored by the various other people I had spoken to. The name I was given was Sajesh. He gave me a reference number to quote for this conversation: 40363073LS. He seemed powerless to undo the reconnection of the line but proceeded to disconnect it for me. He told me the deposit would be on its way to me soon with a final bill. I was forced to accept the final bill, including for time I had not been at the address, months after I had cancelled the line. Sajesh told me not to worry about it any more I would not need to contact bt any further. It would all come to me.

• 22/09/09 I received a final bill, but alas no mention of the deposit. The total of the final bill is less than that of the deposit which bt will be sending me shortly. I will leave this matter in your hands.

I have spent more than the value of the deposit in man hours, calling bt, writing to bt and wasting hours of my life during a house move and with many other things going on.

I can waste no more of my life on this.

Should you wish to contact me further, do not bother unless your staff can:

1 – understand the words I am saying to them.

2 – listen to the information I am giving them and not just say ‘yes’.

3 – act on the information accordingly.

Rob 2 years ago

I wanted to purchase BT Broadband so I went to their live online chatroom. Having got ------,I spare her name! I asked a few questions about the home hub and after a protracted typing session where she sounded a bit bored with my questions I decided to purchase. She directed me to a sign up page while she waited online. At that point I had a caller at door so typed to her that I would come back and complete form when they had gone. With that she typed " thanks for wasting my time" and cut off! Seeing red I connected back to get another operator tell me he didnt know who she was and that she must be in another department. I compained to BT and got the standard `sorry for falling below our normal standard of service` reply and that they couldnt trace the person involved. Im in the process of leaving BT and have been told by a surly operator that Il be charged £75 to leave as I had been signed up automatically for a cheap call discount which is free ( which I hadnt noticed made any change to my bills! )This is obviously done to scrape back some cash when someone leaves.Customer service in my experience is appalling, glad im gettin rid of them!

Mark Purnell 2 years ago

I never realised BT were so bad. I recently added Enhanced 1571 which according to the web site was £1.47 a month.

To cut a long story short I phoned them on about 10 different occasions, being told it would be active witin 24 hours and I would receive a letter confirming this. 3 weeks later when I called I was advised that this service no longer exists and was now called call minder or something like that, Enhanced 1571 service was stopped 4 months ago, WTF. Apalling miscommunication, so inept. BT suck big time

I've ended up buying an answering machine !!

gill  2 years ago

i have been having problems with bt for almost 14 months . i have a land line and broadband but its been faulty for months we new what the problem was ,it was a bad conection 13 mt outside the house but bt wouldent send an enineer because i said i wouldent pay as the problem was out side so i have been paying a direct debit for no service ,however i finally got an engineer this morning it took him 30 seconds to find the fault and five mins to fix it not only that he fixed next doors as well. my gripe is 14 months of bad service at 40 quid a month and they have given me a months free line rentle as compensation.i have found there service dissguting and i would recomend people to go elswere if they want a good service because you wont get service from bt.

GERRY 2 years ago

AT THE MOMENT I AM IN UTTER SHOCK AT THE LACK OF RESPONSIBLE BUSINESS ACUMEN AS DEMONSTRATED BY A COMPANY SUCH AS BT.THE COMPLETE DISREGARD FOR CUSTOMER NOUS I FIND BEWILDERING TO SUCH AN EXTENT THAT IN RETROSPECT MY CONCLUSION AS TO BT'S INVITATION TO THE WORLD OF HOPELESS INSANITY MEANS THAT I WILL NOT BE PHONING FAULTS FOR A THIRD DAY IN A ROW.HOW ON EARTH CAN A COMPANY DEMONSTRATE SUCH A TALENT FOR REGRESSION?

Brian 2 years ago

I have always had problems with BT and my family, especially my Grand parents. Even after they moved away from BT they still received bills which made no sense what so ever. They were insisting that they broke a contract but after having the telephone line for 20 years they couldn’t understand how they were in one. Luckily my uncle was able to sort it out without having to shell out for a penalty charge. No apology but didn’t expect one. There a nightmare!

My advice is that if you are not in contract with them just move, simple as. Read comments about other companies online. I currently have my telephone line through Consumer First Telecom. My family gets free calls between each other because we are all with them. Funny thing is after they were recommended to me I looked at there website and there prices were not that much better than BT but when I rang for a quote it was much lower than what was detailed on there website? weird but Ill not complain. Maybe that is fixed I’m not sure. I’m saving o I reckon about £160 a year which is good news because with this recession I just couldn’t afford BT’s bills. I have had no problems with them and whenever I do have queries they are sorted quickly and efficiently.

There are so many better companies in the UK and they are all smaller then BT therefore I'm assuming its easier for them to provide a better customer service? I wouldn't use any company that uses foreign call centers as my mum had a terrible time with a company that seemed to be based in India.

All the best to everyone I hope all your problems are sorted out. GREAT SITE!

Mr Robinson 2 years ago

I recently set up a 12 month contract with BT. The sales adviser informed me of the one of charge of £122.50 however they explained that in my case where internal and external wires already exist, the only work the contracted Open Reach engineer would have to do is flick a switch in the green box at the top of the road, in this case I would receive a maximum call out charge of £30. Sure enough 2 weeks later the Open Reach engineer spent less than 10 minutes reconnecting our line. He then informed me of the work he had done and it was a case of flicking a switch.

As soon as the engineer left I called BT to confirm the engineer only had to flick a switch, the BT employee confirmed for me that I wouldn't have to pay an installation charge as "nothing was installed." He then informed me that a note would be put on the system and that was that.

Or so I thought I received my first bill two days ago, the bill was for £110, this was due to an installation charge I was told on two occasions I would not have to pay. So I called BT immediately to complain about the mistake. The woman I spoke to at first recognized the mistake and told me she would transfer me to the right department to resolve the issue. I spent over 45 minutes on hold and ended up hanging up after realizing I was wasting my time.

So I called another number issued by BT, the guy I spoke to agreed with me and explained to me that I had been sold a piece of false advertisement, seen as BTs Policy is of a standard connection charge of £122.50 whether the Open Reach engineer spends 10 minutes or 10 hours setting up your connection. I explained to him that I had been told otherwise by two of his colleagues and another that had agreed there was a problem with the charge. He basically informed me that I have been misinformed, by three different employees in different departments? I don't think so. After this he put me on hold so he could speak to his manager, when he came back he said he was sorry but there is nothing he could do, so I asked to speak to his manager, I was told that his manager was a very busy person and he couldn't speak to me for 24 hours, actually it took him over 38 hours to get back to me.

When the manager finally called me he was very rude, I informed him his employees had basically falsely advertised there service, I was surprised at his response as he told me I was a lying and that the charge would stick and I must pay it immediately. I told him I'm not paying a charge I was informed I didn't have to pay from several times, because of the way he handled the call I am going cancel my direct debit and they won't receive a penny until they resolve the incorrect installation charge, further I plan to report this issue to Ofcom, Trading Standards, watchdog and the National Papers.

After seeing how many complaints there are on this page and others there is obviously a serious communication problem within British Telecom.

Chris Armour 2 years ago

I'm tired of always dealing with a person in a foreign country. No offence to the staff but they struggle to understand the problems I face with my call and internet package.

john tucker 2 years ago

hi i am the charman on the comittee for a playgruop in july the comittee had a meeting and we went to bt for phone and internet now we wish we hadent the phone is ok but the broadband in six months we havent had any broadband now we still dont have any broadband so i have rang bt and asked for the mac code and they have said that they will have to charge us £24.00 pounds for this how can this be right when they are not giving us this service but still billing us we have not payed so they have suspended it now to what is the problem with bt have they got to big or do they think that thy can get way with any thing what do we do now they are a ripoff

from john tucker

Lewis Clark 2 years ago

I switched from B.T. 11 moths ago to Sky and was over £100 pounds in credit. Since then they have sent me a bill every quarter and clawed it all back and now they say I have to pay more finaly after 11 months of phone calls to them they say they have canceled the no existent charges but I cant have my money back because their records only go back 6 months ????? what a bunch of *****!

No wonder people are leaving them in droves!

Noel H 2 years ago

This really is a terrible BT story...read on...

A friend of mine , A private Chriropodist has had his BT business number for over 30 years, he wanted to get a sky TV package recently, Sky asked him if he wanted their telephone service, he spoke to BT about it and they said as it was a business line he was under contract to BT so he accepted that and told Sky that BT would continue providing his phone line..end of story...no ! 3 days later his phone line went dead...BT had cut him off without warning or aurthorisation and now they will not talk to him as they say he is no longer a BT customer any more and his old BT number is no longer available, Sky know nothing about it, he now has to phone BT from his neighbors phone to try and sort the problem out but BT just push him from one department to another then he eventually gets cut off...this BT C**k up has cost his business dearly as no clients can make appointments anymore, his old number is in telephone directories, on his building... BT suck big time...aviod at all costs.

Recent eamil sent to BT....incidentally they NEVER reply..

I have complained before reference my Chiropractor Mr Dave Hawnt and have heard nothing ?....He has been trading on the business line 02392 811395 for close on 30 years and suddenly after he made a general enquiry to you if Sky could provide his phone service you cut him off and you did that without any authorisation from MR Hawnt....WHY !

He now has no phone to recieve his clients calls sufferring a loss of businees just before christmas too, his telephone number 02392 811395 is on his invoices , letter heads, on his building and telehone directories ect and you go and destroy his buisness at the flick of a switch...well done BT....no doubt this email won't get answered as much the last one did....Sorry BT but you REALY need to sort your mess out.....just look at what you've done and think about it, are you so big that you can just detroy people's business and income and not have a care ! it certainly looks that way and its just not this case either is it !... On looking into this BT disaster regarding MR Hawnt I see he's not alone...your continuing incompetence is well documented on this web site

http://hubpages.com/hub/BT-Complaints

I am recommending to everyone I know to steer clear of your phone service and this incident is being used as a prime example as to why...idiots !

paula 2 years ago

I am writing to complain in the strongest possible terms about the utterly unsatisfactory service that I have received from BT in the last month.• In October, as a Tiscali customer (for Broadband/landline, paying £14.99 per month), I was contacted by a BT ‘call-out’ centre, to try to persuade me to come back to BT. I was initially not interested in what was offered as Tiscali is much cheaper. However, after being offered a revised package of a 12-month contract, BT land line, BT broadband and BT Vision (with free box) for £24.24 per month, I agreed (during a second phone back conversation) to transfer back to BT.

• On receiving the paperwork for this new contract, I saw that the only thing that had been processed was for me to transfer my landline (no mention of the other services). I immediately phoned BT and was told by the first representative that there was no record on the computer of the package I had been offered. After speaking to no less than 5 unhelpful BT customer service representatives (who seemed to just transfer me to another department as they did not know what to do), I told the fifth person that I wanted to cancel my order completely due to the unsatisfactory service. I particularly asked this person whether I needed to do anything (i.e. get in touch with Tiscali etc) to make sure I kept my landline with them. He assured me that BT would do everything and the order had been cancelled.

• On 23rd November (the day the change of landline had been scheduled to take place) I received an e-mail from Tiscali about being a ‘new broadband’ customer. This alerted me to the fact that something was wrong, so I phoned them and was told that my landline HAD been transferred to BT. I was still with them for Broadband. I was furious, realising BT had not cancelled my order and asked them how I could get my landline back to them. They said I would have to sign up for an 18-month contract and pay a £30 re-connection fee. I was not prepared to do this, as it was BT’s mistake and have since then (Nov 27th) been trying to rectify the situation with BT.

Due to BT’s mistake I am now paying £14.99 a month for Tiscali broadband

and for a BT landline, i.e. practically double my previous contract.

• I reported this immediately to BT (Nov 27th), was again transferred to 3 different people until the third person told me the only thing she could do was to report it to the ‘resolution’ team who work ‘off-line’ and would take 5 working days to get back to me.

• I waited for 5 working days and despite giving my landline, mobile and e-mail address, received no response.

• I phoned again on 3rd December at approx 2pm (after the 5 working days), was first dealt with by a completely incompetent person who took no interest in my problem and transferred me to the ‘new broadband customer’ department. Secondly I spoke to an apparently helpful person (Kelly-Ann) who explained my situation to her manager and ASSURED me that the off-line resolution team would get back to me by 5 p.m. She also said she would phone me every hour to update me on the situation. She failed to phone back, and I did not hear from anyone at BT at all. I then phoned again at approx 5.30 and was told by the person that there was nothing they could do, he could not tell me anything and I would ‘just have to wait’.

• On 4th December at 9.40a.m. a BT representative (Will) phoned and spoke to my mother (I was at work). He told her he was calling to ‘resolve all the problems’. As I was not at home, he told my mother that he would call again at 3.45p.m. and if I was not at home, he would phone me on my mobile to arrange a convenient time to discuss and resolve the matter. Yet again, he failed to phone back and has not done so either today, Mon Dec 7th.

I am utterly disgusted with the lack of care, professionalism and responsibility that ANY BT employees have taken over my situation. This was 100% BT’s mistake and yet NOTHNG has been done to resolve it. The fact that there is no ‘complaints’ department to phone leaves me frustrated, as I cannot resolve this situation and feel I am being ignored and treated abominably.

Catherine McBride 2 years ago

To whom it may concern

After speaking on the telephone to two of your colleagues today - with regards to the charge to disconnect the broadband service. I have been advise to go online to your complaints dept. ( which I intend doing) Now, I understood that the term of contract was 12 months and not 24 months otherwise, I would have cancelled this SERVICE sooner. i.e. when I spoke to another of your colleagues approximately 10 months ago when I had intended cancelling the service then, though she advised me that the tariff that I was on was too high for the amount of usage, and subsequently changed the tariff to a lower rate. Now, as you can see from the amount of usage we do not use this broadband to justify the costs. Therefore a simple request to cancel the broadband service is now turning into a NIGHTMARE! Please HELP HELP HELP

Catherine McBride

for PP FR McKelvie

Susan Prothero 2 years ago

Thankfully I am with Plusnet, not BT. However the lines belong to BT so Outreach had to be involved. I had no telephone line for a week (I am a pensioner living alone). The fault was originally caused by Outreach Engineers working in the area. I pointed this out to Plusnet but the Engineers who had previously worked here were not contacted. Two days later I was told an Engineer would call, and then in the evening I discovered that the Engineer had reported that he had called at my house but was unable to gain acces. I was in the house all day (I do not have a hearing problem and could not in any way have missed him). My fault was then put back on the list which meant I had no phone for another three days. For BT information, my complaint is that when one engineer causes a fault, that engineer should be sent back to repair it - if he is not aware he has caused a fault how is he to improve in the future? I also object to BT engineers telling lies to avoid doing their work and thereby causing even more inconvenience to the public.

johnponsonby 2 years ago

Dear sir or madem I have received a bill for the sum of £167.31 I do not know what this is for I am getting reaily fed up with BT as I have always paid my bills on time I need BT to go back to the way that I used to pay £37.50 per quarter line rentel and £48 for my internet connection I have to get this sorted out this is getting out of order letters Emails and phone calls all to no avale I have t0 think about leaving BT as I dont seem to matter to BT anymore I am not going pay this bill untill I reaily am satisfied so will yous get all this mess sorted out as soon as you can as Im not to happy with the that I have been treated I hope to have a reply from someone soon thankyou John Ponsonby

Kenneth O'Callaghan 2 years ago

A number of these complaints concern customers who have transferred from one property to another, only to find that it is not possible to simply transfer their telephone and broad-band. I moved from a property at which I had a Tiscali (now Talk Talk) broad band and telephone account. I simply wanted to move the arrangement I had with Tiscali to a new address in a different county. Initially my problem was with Tiscali, who were completely unable to discribe why I apparently was not able to simply transfer the account to the new address. But eventually, after numerous "customer service" conversations, it became clear that BT would force me to begin a contract with them at the new address, even though I did not want any new contract or want to change telephone or broad band providers. I now have to pay both companies to provide me with a "service". It's the ultimate scam. I am forced to continue to pay for a service that the telphone providers cannot by definition both provide. I pay Talk Talk to provide me with telephone and broad band services, despite the fact that they cannot provide them, with BT being the compulsory provider at the new address. I aim to move again before the year's out. I am already informed that when I move it will be compulsory for me to begin another BT contract, even though I don't want one. I aim to leave BT as soon as possible and never return to them again but I am not allowed to do so on my own terms. So much for the principles of free-market, freedom and democracy. Big companies it seems don't really want competition after all, despite their CEOs no doubt lobbying government for more freedom to operate in competitive markets. BT is a disgrace and it seems to me that it gets much of its business by forcing people who already have legally-binding contracts to unwillingly open new ones with BT. Canceling either contract then results in a penalty charge. This means that customers cannot shape the market by taking their business to the most effective provider. I suspect that if customers were allowed to do that BT would sink.

darren sims 2 years ago

ive been a loyal broadband customer of bt for approx 8 years and i started with thier first ever 256 kb broadband and thier crappy router that came with it

for the last 3 weeks now my "8 meg" yeah right broadband has been messed up they did a remote accesss to my 5600 quad core pc the "idiot" on the other end reset all my internet options deletd my history folder and then tried to access my documents in my main hard drive at that point i stopped the access he then phoned me back to ask me why i stopped it i told him he had NO RIGHT to be in my documents

he then said "ur pc is to slow for the broadband" yeah

right oh whatever this has happened 3 times now ive had them trying to access my pc by remote access i decilne it every time im paying for upto 8 meg BT promise a MINIMUM of twenty of that which is a minimum of 1.6 meg im for the last 3 weeks ive been getting 800 kps which is 10% i depened on the internet for doing website and looking for work for family and so on when it takes 5 minutes toaccess a web page then its a piss take and u think BT will compensate me for my conenction and thier lack of basic customer care i dont think so they just got some rajid singh in india going yes sir no sir three bags full sir

who can we complain to about BT lack of customer care

if anyone knows please email me welshdarren@live.com

any help would be appreciated

yours sincerly a well pissed off "soon to be EX" customer

3 month in advance billing! 2 years ago

This is outrageous - BT is forcing people to either get into the Direct Debit with them (and then good luck getting your money back when they screw up again!) or pay 3 months in advance! This means that you as a customer pay in advance for the poor service that you haven't even received yet. Calls with BT of course led to nowhere and I was hanged up on twice by their customer service representative in India.

pete 2 years ago

so sum people get replies, what are they royalty ?

bt never replies on principle to anything in response to letters, phone calls or e-mails ...... total arrogance!!

Dave Matthews 2 years ago

BT have proven the following to me:

o Unable to execute orders

o Unable to decide whether I'm on a 12 month contract otr not

Its so bad I actually believe BT have been hacked and their database screwed around with - thats what it feels like.

sam turner 2 years ago

totaly incompetant, false promises, rudeness, hours and hours on hold, incomprehenible accents, lies,[calls cut off when they get fed up]

all i wanted was to move my broadband and bt vision to my new address and i foolishly aranged my moving date to suit! B.T. BLOODY TERRIBLE.

peter 2 years ago

marvellous to think bt is to provide upto 100mb broadband in London while run down council estates in the North have to put up with such slow speeds we can't even use the bt vision box which requires only 2.5mb to work, and to rub salt in the wounds we have to pay the same prices,good on you bt , keep robbing the poor to pay the rich

colin 2 years ago

Moving shop across the road so as I needed 2 new lines contacted Phone Coop for 1 and BT for the other.

BT were advised that I just wanted basic business line and offered contracts of 1 year or more . Stated 1 Year and stressed Basic Line only as I would not be using BT for calls. Engineer arrives with connection data for 'Feature Line' (dial 9 for outside line F****** useless). Told I would have to pay £130 charge if he connected or walked away. Seemed oblivious to my anger (seen it several times today). Connected and eventaually appologies from BT (UK)

about how I had been allocated this stupid package. I will never ever use BT in any shape or form..

When the 12 months is out I will terminate ...

Have had the same problem with my domestic line on moving in.. unable to connect at due date so.. gave a new date but tried to charge for a connection that they couldnt connect and then after supposedly removing the charge sent a heavy letter.. then a cap in India sorted for me .

Horrible people (BT UK I mean)

mr pearce 2 years ago

to bt aka assholes why am i recieving 1mb because i signed up for 8mb you need to sort this problem out oryou will loose a customer. helo virgin media

Graham 2 years ago

I returned to the UK in September 2008 and moved into rented accommodation. I tried to get a residential line set-up but was told that it would take 4-6 weeks to do so because it would need an engineer … even though the line was all set up. The previous residents had taken the number with them, when they moved out less than a month before I moved into the premises. I was advised that the Open Reach engineer would have to come to visit the premises to work on it and that I would be charged 125 pounds for the privilege of this service. I noted that I strongly suspected that this was necessary and that all was required was to flick a switch in the exchange.

On the day the Open Reach engineer was scheduled to come, he did not, so I called BT. I was told that the work order for Open Reach engineer was then lost by BT (who claimed that because I had queried whether I really needed an engineer they had assumed that I did not want the service after all) …so I was at the back of the queue again and would have to wait 4-6 weeks. I was in desperate need of email to contact my office in India and the only way of getting a marginally quicker appointment was to ask for a business line – so I had to do that. It is more expensive and totally inappropriate for my needs, and BT Have locked me into a 5 year contract, but I was absolutely at my wit’s end and had to get in contact with my office.

2 weeks later, the Open Reach engineer came, spent 30 seconds in the house and said, “I just need to flick a switch at the exchange and then I’ll call you to make sure the line is working”. 20 minutes later he did exactly that, the line was working and I was charged 125 pounds.

In January 2009 I moved house and wanted to take line/number with me. Once again I was told that the job would need an engineer and to pay 125 pounds for the privilege. I noted that the previous residents had moved out taking their number with them and that all that was necessary to do was flick a switch at the exchange. I was told an engineer was essential and that an appointment would take 2 weeks to arrange. Two weeks later Open Reach engineer came, spent 30 seconds in the house and said, “I just need to flick a switch at the exchange and then I’ll call you to make sure the line is working”. 20 minutes later he did exactly that, the line was working and I was charged 125 pounds.

So I am not a great fan of BT or Open Reach – I feel that I have been charged for no readily apparent reason … and the delays around the service are simply unacceptable. I am still seeking a rebate of my 250 pounds because the Open Reach engineers did absolutely nothing at all on the premises – and cannot have worked more than 5 minutes in the exchange.

James McDonald 2 years ago

I ordered a BT phone line last June 2009. I got letter from BT saying it was connected but the phone still wasn't working. I phoned their customer services from a phone box and was told that if i called an engineer out I would be charged £115 call out fee and £99 per hour repair charge if the fault was found to be inside the house.

Question 1: How does anyone who knows nothing about telecoms or wiring work out in advance if they will be liable for the £115 call out fee.

Question 2: My BT telephone point says 'this is the property of BT' Why then am I liable for repair charges on internal wiring?

Question 3: The engineer was in the house 20 mins so why then am I charged for the full hour?

I took them to the small claims court which is still on-going. However, their debt collection unit didn't even know this was going on and attempted to collect the debt even though the matter is still going through the courts.

Oh yeah! They also gave a me a £200 cancellation charge. Wasn't that nice of them?

Alison Greer 2 years ago

I know that this is going to be of no practical help to me (except possibly to alleviate my frustration) as all I want to do is to help an elderly lady in a rural area in Norfolk to get her phone fault fixed.

How does one get past the bland, non-specific, time consuming customer services department?

This lady has been without a phone for 2 weeks now and I'm getting no further forward. She does not posess a mobile phone and NEEDS her landline. What if she falls and connot summon help?! Will BT feel guilty? I doubt it- but I will!

I have been fobbed off so many times since I took up her case and am currently awaiting YET ANOTHER phone back. I have tried to speak to managers in order to escalate her complaint but as yet with no success. Promised 'phone backs' at this level do not appear to materialise..

We are both reasonable people, she more patient than I.

If only BT would realise that with decent communication explaining what the ACTUAL problem is, as opposed to the bland, meaningless reassurances we get from customer services, then we as patient British citizens, would be endlessly forgiving.....!!

PS I departed from BT 5 years ago and trust me, am in no hurry to return as I await my next 'call back'!

steve  2 years ago

BT are really at the forefront of communications, or are they pushing it a bit too far.

After 3 separate attempts and 3 seperate phone calls to explain my father had died and to close his account and sort a final bill out I was asked on the final call if I could put him on the line?

Each time I end up speaking to someone who simply cant speak English. I eventually got fed up and e-mailed them but the response was no better even when written, they cant even spell my name.

Lynn Tennant 2 years ago

Having glanced at the may complaints you have on your website, I can empathise with nearly every one. I am fed up with not being able to sort our problems for my elderly mother, we moved her back to BT when she moved into an apartment last year - what a mistake. I have spent the best part of this morning trying to contact BT, I cannot contact them by phone, email or via their complaints section. I have taken part in a pop-up online survey, and thereby managed to reduce my blood pressure by letting them know I am not at all satisfied with the service provided.

P Denholm 2 years ago

For the 4th time in 3 years my computer phone number has been allocated to other people . I have just recieved another bill with phone calls made by the last one and I am being charged again. They did deduct the charges 3 mths ago but I warned if it happened again I would take it further and Im hoping someone can tell me the best way to go about this

qurrah 2 years ago

I HATEEE BTT, I was with virgin before and without my consent BT switched my line from virgin to BT, I was very annoyed about this, and when asked , they were like, it was a error were very sorry blah blah shit, it took me almost 3 months for them to cancel my line and for virgin to take over, that's only because I had to ring in everyday, otherwise they would have took longer, and now they have sent me a bill for almost 400 pounds asking me to pay it for something that was their error, while I was with BT I used the house phone less than I would with Virgin, and still the bill came 5 times more than I would pay virgin. I've made them aware that it was their fault for switching the lines over as they did not have my consent and I needed to use the house phone as I would normally, they women I spoke to someone who sounded foreign, after I told her about the situation she told me that you don’t need to pay for anything and I will remove all costs from your account. After that I didn’t contact them until the next bill came, therefore rang back in and told them about the last call I had and she said she’ll remove all costs from my account, and deceitfully they claimed that there is no note on the account and the charges will still need to be paid, I’m distraught after the tragic service they have given me and they are still want me to pay 400 pound for something that was their mistake, they expected me to deal with their error and on top not use my house phone for the whole 3 months, which is impossible for me as I need to use the house phone at times due to personal reasons. I am not going to pay for the bills because of the deceitful and tragic service they have provided me and also mainly because of the fact they switched my telephone lines over without my consent and caused me so many problems throughout quarter of the year, it came to a point where I had to make like 2 or 3 calls each day. I would never recommend BT to anyone and I mean ANYONE, I can never trust BT again.

Nalan Kucuktuzun 2 years ago

please see below my complaint email and actions that were taken by BT

Re: Phone services - Phone lines - I want to make a complaint [Incident: 100127-013458]

Tue, 23 February, 2010 18:14:42From: Nalan Kucuktuzun View Contact

To: Residential Services

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The phone engineers turned up only to tell me that I needed a pole put in place. I am still out of phone and pocket. It is now my 4th month without a line.

The engineers put a pole up on the 16th of february and I received a text to call BT.

Today I have spoken to a total of 4 advisers. After a 20 minute telephone conversation, the first adviser was processing yet another order when my phone went dead as I have very little reception in my home.

I waited for 5 minutes and waited for a call back as they have my number, when this did not happen I called again.This time I spoke to a male with a Scottish accent. he also kept me on the phone asking me exactly the same questions when he eventually put my call through to your india help desk withput alerting me.

I have had to explain my sittuation again and now they are telling me that their is a problem with my order and they have to put me through to the sales department.

I was fortunate enough to leave my office a few hours early buit am having to spend most of that speaking to your advisers.

First of all I demand the recording of my conversation with the male adviser who could not be bothered to deal with me. i demand an appology from him and he be put under a disciplinary. i work in the service industry and can say to you that this sort of behaiviour is unacceptable.

the compensation that you have offered is certainly not good enough. Please re read my initial email and let me know what you can do. A cheque payment to cover the cost of the last 4 months is better suited than 6 months credit of a £15 line rental charge. I know my rights and am not stupid!

I would really like to know how you retain customers. i realise that you have the monopoly on new proporties, I did call Virgin etc but how do you expect to keep me and others like me as your customer?

As you are a PLC,please let me know the the turnover of existing customers.

Another thing, I will ensure this email is posted on the Which website, GMTV and all related forums etc.

By the way, I am still on the phone!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Residential Services

To: kucuktuzun@yahoo.co.uk

Sent: Sun, 31 January, 2010 7:59:00

Subject: Phone services - Phone lines - I want to make a complaint [Incident: 100127-013458]

Recently you requested personal assistance from our on-line support centre. Below is a summary of your request and our response.

If this issue is not resolved to your satisfaction, you may reopen it within the next 7 days.

Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you.

Subject

Phone services - Phone lines - I want to make a complaint

Discussion Thread

Response (Navya Durgaraju) 31/01/2010 07:59 AM

Dear Miss Kucuktuzun,

Thank you for your email dated 27/01/10 regarding the services from BT.

I am extremely sorry for the delay in providing the services to you.

I have checked your account and I can confirm that the appointment has been re fixed for you on the 15/02/10. The engineer will visit your property between 13:00 and 18:00 hours and install the line for you.

I understand that waiting until the 15/02/10 is not fair but unfortunately this is the earliest appointment date available as the engineer’s appointment are fixed by open reach and this is the earliest appointment on the open reach data base.

I have arranged for the line rental for a period of six months to be credited on your initial bill as compensation for the delay in the provision of services. Hence there will be a total credit of £92.70 on your next bill. The reference number for this is 1-D64QINI.

Please wait until the 15/02/10 for the line to be installed and this time for sure the line will be installed for you without fail. I will give a call on 15/02/10 to check if the work has been done for you or not and personally will make sure all is in place for you.

Thank you for your patience. Please contact me, if I can help you with anything else.

Thank you for contacting BT.

Yours sincerely,

Navya Durgaraju

Digital Care Advisor

This email contains BT information, which may be privileged or confidential. It's meant only for the individual(s) or entity named above. If you're not the intended recipient, note that disclosing, copying, distributing or using this information is prohibited. If you've received this email error, please let me know immediately on the email address above. Thank you. We monitor our email system, and may record your emails.

British Telecommunications plc

Registered office: 81 Newgate Street London EC1A 7AJ Registered in England no: 1800000/

Customer (Nalan Kucuktuzun) 27/01/2010 08:40 PM

I am absolutely appalled at the service that I have received since November.

I have been waiting for engineers since the 15th of December and after 2 failed attempts and an engineer who did not wait for my partner to walk down 3 flights of steps, I called your Bangalore call centre and demanded to speak to a manager as I want an answer.

Praveen Reddy from Billing and Enquiries deartment who apparantly is a Manager was only able to tell me what any advisor would tell me.

I requested a call back but he has advised me that he would be unable to do that tomorrow as he has the day off.

I work in retail and am fully aware that when someone requires a call back and you are off, your collegue will make that call.

All Praveen could say was that he was sorry. I have been waiting for a line since December and even timed my move accordingly so that my partner who requires the internet for his business and my daughter who uses it as homework can have immediate access.

Instead, we have spent a fortune on telephone bills, using our mobile phone and I have bought a Dongle which eats up approx £15 over 3 days.

On top of this, my partner had to take 3 days out of work resulting in a loss of £1500.

Whils I intend to get some compensation, the least I could have would be a call back tomorrow.

If there was another company who I could use to install a line, I would immediately cease using BT. This service is unacceptable.

helen 2 years ago

3 years ago, ended up in tears myself waiting for BT support to actually sort out problems!!

Have now gone with another supplier TT and it is fantastic! I stronly recommend it!! you won't be disapppointed!

ashley 2 years ago

In my opinion BT is scum! Originally stolen from the British people by that evil harridan Thatcher (may she die in extreme pain) and her sub-human ilk, BT has come to represent the very worst that modern Britain stands for. For a company that is supposedly a 'world leader' in communications, BT manages to repeatedly display a singular lack of understanding when it comes to what the word 'COMMUNICATIONS' actually means. Furthermore, BT has consistently failed to address the many thousands of complaints it receives every year whilst falsely claiming that customers are flooding back. LIE LIE LIE!!! Thousands of people are leaving BT every week and for good reason too - they, like I, are sick and tired of being lied to, cheated, swindled, robbed, treated like second-class citizens and just plain ignored when we dare to expect what we have signed up for in the first place.

After a year (2009) in which I was overcharged (several times), repeatedly billed for services I neither ordered or used, twice illegally threatened with court action for 'unpaid bills' and then ignored completely when BT was proven to be in the wrong YET AGAIN; BT then refused any compensation for the inconvenience of having been without a telephone line for over 6 months - I have absolutely no compunction at all in calling BT absolute scum. I have made it my avowed intent to persuade as many people as possible to leave BT or never to approach it in the first place. I am delighted to say that in the past six months alone I have been responsible for approx 100 people leaving BT and that many of those have, in turn, spread the good word to others.

I have now gone wireless and am delighted that I now have a connection that is TWICE as fast as the pathetic excuse for a Broadband service with which BT tried to palm me off . I will NEVER use ANY BT product ever again in my life.

In my opinion, the BT management responsible for policy towards its customers have forfeited the right to be considered human beings. They are, from now onwards, fair game!

Come on BT....Sue me. I dare you!

donald walker 2 years ago

ut my bt phone line box. My wife who is disabled has a stair lift with she cannt use properly because the engernia has put the box up high on the wall were the stair lift needs to stop for my wife to get on and off it,She has to try and get up about two steps to get on it my wife needs alot of assisstaces with this and myself and my wife told the engernia that the box was no good there I wish to teell you to come and move the box as this is starting to have major affects on my wife.

Caryl 2 years ago

Hi;I have had an ongoing problem since July with BT which has resulted in me losing both my internet and calls 5 times, each time I speak to someone I am told that to stop my problems I must repay the bill that I have already paid,

In June my bill arrived; paid it by cheque early July £204 roughly, however I was told that it never arrived, I checked with my bank etc and contacted BT; on my bank statement it shows payment took, but I was told that this was not proof, so I contacted my bank and paid to get back the cheque, this was verified as being received by BT once I received a copy of the cheque which I got from my bank at a cost, this took me to the middle of September, during which time my service was cut off 3 times, each time I rang I was told that my service would be reinstated and a missing payment case would be opened and investigated. I rang customer services again as I was due to go on holiday, I said that I had received the cheque from the bank, and the person I spoke to asked me what was on the back of the cheque, I read out what it was and was told that it showed that the cheque had appeared to have been paid into someone else’s account, I told them that for the next 2 weeks I would be away on holiday and I was assured that as they were happy that the cheque had actually been received and that I would suffer from no more restrictions to my line, which was good as I was going to be away and I did not want to leave my children at home with the worry of them not having a working phone, I sent the cheque to BT in a letter to be signed for along with a copy of my bank statement so I could make sure it arrived to show proof of payment etc, 3 days into my holiday my son sent me a txt saying that the broadband and phone had both gone off, not even to incoming calls only completely off.

As soon as I returned home I contacted BT, from a phone box as I could not even ring BT from my landline, I was told that still no trace of my missing payment and to get my line reconnected I must pay my bill again, I explained that the copy of the cheque to prove payment was sent to them recorded delivery and that I have proof that the letter was received by BT and still no payment, however I was told that my broadband and landline would be reconnected, which it was, ( at this point I have received my bt bill fro sept - Dec, and was told that I have until the 18th Oct to pay this) I was told that once my service was reconnected that I would be contacted by someone as a trace had been put on this missing payment, well yet again no contact and still BT are saying no payment received, then today I wake up to incoming calls again, ring BT yet again have to go through the whole explanation again, was told still no cheque received, even though my letter was received by BT on the 23rd sept. I was told that my line was restricted due to my bill just received and not my missing payment, I then asked about moving provider, its then I was asked why do I wish to move from bt, I explained that in the beginning when I joined broadband with Bt I was told that I could pay for my broadband monthly by DD, a form was filled in and sent to BT for this yet it was never used, and for my whole contract with Bt broadband I have been billed on one bill, for my landline, my hub calls and broadband, on complaining have been told that I cannot pay seperately, yet other people do,

anyway I was given an offer to talk to the options team about my broadband bill, but declined as the offer they gave me a week ago was I can have my service for a £1 less a month, On again ringing BT I was told that my service would be reinstated yet I am still on incoming calls,

My june bill was paid in time yet still payment missing, I have been told that there is a missing payment case open yet since July I have heard nothing except when I get through to call centres where I have to go through what has happened over and over again, I have also been told that due to me not paying my sept Bill my line is due to be disconnected completely, and I have been told that I cannot have more time to pay this bill as even though my June bill was paid ontime, as yet BT have not received payment. I have also sent a copy of this to the charmans office, please assist me as yet since july I have had no help whatsoever except when I attempt to cancel my service with BT, then somone is alays willing to say they are helping even if they are not. I have also been told that to stop any further action of restriction on my line that I must send the cheque again, I am sorry but surely someone must have realised that when you get the cheque from the bank that its the actual cheque not a copy, stupidly I did not copy it as we were due to leave to go to the airport, but sent it signed for, which showing the tracking number shows that it was received by BT, I have been told that I must have sent it to the wrong address, that I must have forgot to put the cheque in the envelope and that I must have done something wrong, the last person I spoke to stated that if no payment is traced that I will continue to have problems as my june bill remains unpaid and kindly suggested that I pay it again, I must say that the call centres are completely useless, and give BT a bad name, I have been a customer of BT for a very long time, bu to be honest this is not the first problem I have had and it doesnt appear to be the last or as I was told, I did hang up on the person I spoke to as being told that I have to repay my bill is not an option, sorry for rambling but this has been going on for so long I am totally fed up putting it lightly,

Since my complaint has been sent in nothing has happened, the payment is still missing, yet during my e-mails to the person dealing with my complaint they suggested I go back to the bank to see what they could do for me, I did this at some point in Dec, at the bank I was offered to open a payment dispute, which I did however I noted in my e-mails that this could take 120 days, for an outcome to occur.

I have only just come home from hospital, yesterday I received an e-mail from the person dealing with my complaint which asked a number of questions, one of which was

“June bill - we have not received anything from the bank relating to this bill. Please can you let me what their progress is “

I am sorry but this appears to be that they are still waiting for the bank to trace this payment, it is me waiting on information from the bank not them, I have already now on 2 occasions sent in information concerning the payment I made in June by cheque, that cleared from my account the cheque that I paid to get from my bank to prove payment, the cheque that I gave the number on the back to who ever I spoke to at customer services, which was also posted to BT along with the statement from my bank showing the payment leaving my account .

I have been assured that my complaint and the missing payment is being dealt with, but it has took so long, and if it is being traced as I have been told why are they still waiting for the bank, all the bank have done is opened a payment dispute as obviously my payment has gone onto someone else’s account and not mine. The person dealing with my complaint on contact with them does not appear to be in office every day, and another matter is due to the restrictions that have been on and of my line since this missing payment complaint started, I decided enough is enough and due to our broad band affected by this missing cheque, decided to change Broadband providers. I requested a Mac code early dec, and after being left on the line for over half an hour I asked the person looking at my complaint for assistance, A mac code was given to me yet it did not work, each time I tried to move I was told mac code incorrect contact provider, which I did, I was told that a further mac code could not be given to me until the 6th Jan, and Fri 15th in an e-mail I received another mac code, however yet again it does not work, I totally give up.

I have also been told that a payment sent in 3 weeks ago for my September bill has not been received, howe

margaret wayling 2 years ago

My mother aged 75 has been a BT customer for many years, her plan was incomming calls only which she paid about £11 a quarter, she only needed outgoing as she has an emergency call button that requires a landline. BT decided to change her call plan in November to £12.95 per month incomming and outgoing calls with an increase of nearly £30 per quarter. (I offered to pay this and ended up upsetting my mother as she is fiercly indepenent) They said that a letter was sent to inform her of the changes as that they no longer provide that plan, and had given her the next best appropriate plan that would suit her, No such letter arrived, the first indication that something was wrong is when she got a bill for £61.18 As she is still very independent she called BT and spoke to an advisor herself to find out what was going on, she ended up so distraught and confused after the call that she paid an extra £13 thinking she had missed a payment. Then she received another letter saying that now a £7.50 charge has been made on her next bill for late payment, as well as the bill now £50.42. She asked me to call them for her as she is now extremly upset. I spoke to Kieron 1st who told me that yes the plan was changed and a letter would have been sent to her, i asked when the letter was sent, he said he did'nt know! i then asked to be be put through to a manager which he did. I then spoke to Mr Ram Krishna who i presume was a manager as he did not confirm this! He assured me that a letter would have been sent to my mother, i equally assured him that no letter was received. My problem with this is he then offered a plan that is nearly identical to plan that my mother has had for many years, for a small increase of about £2 per quarter she could get the same plan outgoing calls only! I asked why she was not offered this plan as an alternative as this is clearly more suitable to her needs and is much more appropriate! I was told that this plan is only given when requested, it is not offered. well i did not REQUEST it as i had just been told they had given her the most approapriate plan and did not know this "other" plan existed until he OFFERED the plan to me! £13 a quarter is very reasonable as its not much more than what she pays now, so i was feeling quite relieved that this was going to be resolved, i asked him when can her line be reconnected as her panic button cannot be operated without a live line, to which he promply replied "when she pays the outstanding balance" now what i find unreasonable is that thay changed her plan with no prior agreement (she did NOT recieve a letter), she has not signed anything to say this is agreeable, thay increase her bill by nearly £30 a quarter (which may not seem a lot to many people but to a pensioner on a budget and who does not want to be made to feel she is being a burden on her family it is a lot), they cut off her telephone line which means they have cut off her life line as her panic alarm now is useless. what i would like is that she be reconnected immediatly, that she goes on the £13 a quarter plan and that the so called outstanding balance of £39.66 be squashed and the £13.00 that she overpaid as a result of her conversation with the so called advisor be credited or taken as her 1st payment on the new appropriate plan of £13 per quarter.

I hope this can be resolved ammicably and speedily

I Await an urgent response

Regards

Margaret Wayling

Richard Fletcher 2 years ago

Before Christmas 2009 I was called by one of BT's third party retailers to interest me in the possibility of switching from a domestic to a business account. Before going ahead with this I asked to be sent some information so I could make an informed decision.

Without any authorisation my two lines (split line one for voice calls only, one for broadband & fax) were switched to business accounts. I then started to recieve invoices with almost every post - closure bills, start up bills and call bills.

Since January 2010 I have been trying to sort this mess out. I have spent hours trying to call someone in BT. It seems nobody has any authority.

I've tried to call the number on the bills - I get New Deli and no help. I've tried to call billing, no help though my “query will be logged and someone will call me.” They don't!

I've called the debt recovery people. They understand and say they will log it as "disputed"

I've called Ofcom I am now the proud owner of a reference number.

Today I was called by a business BT outstanding account chaser. "Are you prepared to settle the outstanding amount now?" "No I'm not. You should have my dispute logged on your system." " I will have to transfer you to billing as I have only limited access to your account." The line is live but no-one picks up. After seven minutes holding on I hang up.

I've spoken to the third party retailer who originally called me back in December. He didn't authorise the changing of my account. I know this because the BT area manager has told me. He is also trying to sort this out for me and heavens if I can't and a BT employee can't and the third party retail person can't I'm speechless.

I'm also a BT shareholder.

Lydia 2 years ago

My problem with BT began nearly two years ago now. We signed up to pay through BT's direct debit system, which was working fine until a problem with THEIR system meant that they did not take payments for a few months. We were unaware of this, until be started getting letters from BT everyday, some days 3or 4 letters, each asking for different amounts of money. There didn't seem to be any logic to the system, as one day we would be told we owed £700, the next day that we owed £200.

Naturally, we decided to try and contact BT to discuss the problem, as we both thought it unfair that we were expected to pay the full bill which had built up in one go, and were confused as to how much we really owed, as they didn't send us a letter outlining exactly what we owed. Needless to say, we were connected to various different people after wasting hours in total waiting on the phone, none of whom were able to actually speak English, or help us with our problem in any way.

This went on for months, during which we were disconnected from our phone line and broadband (despite there being no problem with paying for our broadband service) several times. Since BT's mistake had been brought to our attention, our direct debit system had continued, so we were paying for our current service, leaving only the outstanding sum which had built up unpaid. However, they continued to disconnect us, which meant hours more spent on the phone, with people on the other end of the line promising to reconnect us straight away, which didn't happen in reality. We eventually cancelled our service with BT and got Virgin Media instead, which has offered us excellent service.

We never said we were unwilling to pay the money, as we thought we had been paying it anyway, but we wanted to arrange to pay it in segments which we could deal with, rather than in one go, which with our financial situation we simply couldn't manage. But, of course, being unable to ever get a logical response to our queries, the problem was left unsolved, and the money unpaid for months. In addition to the outstanding sum, we were now also being fined for not paying the money.

Eventually, we received a letter threatening debt collection if we did not pay, still having received no contact except through letters we didn't understand and phone calls to India. At this point, we payed the full amount we owed, with difficulty, in order to prevent the involvement of debt collectors.

Feeling thoroughly annoyed and cheated, as BT never even tried to talk to us and we never received a letter outlining exactly how much each of the payments we missed were, we thought the situation was sorted.

However, this week, we got a letter from the debt collection service which had threatened us if we didn't pay BT, and they were asking us to pay the fee they charge customers in return for their letter. So, in total, we have now payed our BT bill, a series of fines for late payment, and we have payed for the privilege of being threatened by debt collection.

BT really are a wonderful company aren't they?

Tom 2 years ago

I cancelled an account with BT and provided a forwarding address for the cancellation charge. I recieved nothing from them for the best part of a year. I phoned them up and thesy said they had sent letters and final demand letters to the address I provided. I paid the bill over the phone. Then I started having weird phone calls that kept hanging up. They were a debt collection agency. I phoned BT and asked about the agency. They said they did, but told me they would cancel the debt collection agency. The debt collection phoned me up the next day and rudely asked my name and date of birth before they even introduced themselves. They didn't care that I had paid the outstanding amount and they had also been sending bills to an address I lived at 2 years previously. I complained to BT who cancelled the debt collection agency and refunded me a tiny amount.

Matthew 2 years ago

I have been having problems with BT from day one of setting up my BUSINESS telephone line with on the 28th November 2009. Firstly the "technician" came and "installed" the line and left two wires hanging out connected to the little white thing you plug your telephone line into with the box to hold it in place at the wall which when i then had to call an electrician to fit one for me. Then i attempted to pay a bill a couple of months later with a typical foreign call centre (you know which i'm talking about) and they claimed that my card was not being accepted!

So i called my bank and asked what on earth was wrong with my card, they told me that NOTHING was wrong with my card, the typical call centre had entered the wrong expiry date of my card so hence the payment would not go through.

Then i phoned BT again to sort out the outstanding amount which went through, whilst being referred to a British SALES centre to get a better deal than i was currently on. I was assured that it would save me money on my calls and also that it would not cost me anything to change. Now i have received a bill for cancelling my contract with BT even though i have A) stayed with them and B) being assured that it would not cost me anything by the British sales person. So i called up BT to call again to say i am NOT going to pay this cancellation charge because it is completely unjustified. They then claimed that the amount was justified and nothing could be done to rectify this. I was then given a telephone number to pursue the issue further which rings 2 or 3 times then goes to some internet modem bleeping noise then cuts off after a minute or so. Have a try!! its 0845 8509362. Being soo frustrated i found this website to let off some steam and hopefully get something done about this complete mess of service which BT makes millions of pounds off of us poor people for breaching their terms on conditions. Cheers BT you have made trying to running my business about 100x harder.

Jay Warring 2 years ago

BT what a joke,I have been with bt less than 2 months now,and all they have done is cause me problems.

They dont send me correct bills,and when they do they are red ones,charging me an extra £7.50.

Thankfully im changing provider now on everything including line rental.

Today i got a letter telling it will cost me £70 to end my contract early,they can get lost for the money!!!

If bt provided a "proper service to customers and not just trying to fleece people out of pocket"then i would not be changing anything.

Im completely in support of people on this site who have been ripped off by bt.

bt customer service are crap as well,i found they just talk down at people or"dont understand what you are saying"

its funny though they understand when they are asking for money!

BT SHAME ON YOU, YOU ARE RUBBISH AND WILL ALWAYS BE RUBBISH

Jonathan 24 months ago

Thankyou for affording me the forum to vent my spleen against BT .... the brief history of my ongoing battle :-

We live in a remote rural location where access to broadband has been non-existent. Following some work last year supposedly to upgrade lines, I entered our postcode into the BT Broadband website which advised me that we could (allbeit only just) receive a very limited broadband service. I therefore went ahead and ordered it - following endless and pointless conversations with their "customer services" it became apparent that I would never receive this "service" - a fact later confirmed by a visit from an Open Reach engineer who took one look at our lines and told me that it would be quite impossible to supply ANY kind of broadband to us. I therefore cancelled the order.

Lo and behold I find a charge for the "service" on my next bill - after spending many many hours being shuffled around the many "help" lines BT (reluctantly) agreed that these charges be removed from the bill (my comparing it to asking them to pay for a holiday in advance that they knew they would never be able to take) - I paid the balance accordingly.

Since then BT have disconnected our phone on four separate occasions over the last three months, without any prior notice or warning. The latest lasting (thus far) 10 days.

On each occasion I have called their "Customer services" and spent hours explaining the situation and on each occasion have received immense apologies, assurances that all broadband related charges had been removed and a promise that this would not happen again.

So my latest bill arrives - STILL showing broadband charges, and now showing broadband cancellation charges, as well as charges for disconnecting and reconnecting our line.

I have again dedicated the better part of a day speaking to the call centre overseas where once again they have admitted full liability and have agreed to write off all these charges and promised me that it will not happen again

.. and yet our telephone line (as I said, now 10 days later) still has not been reconnected.

A number of points come to mind here :-

1: BT sold me the original broadband package under false pretences as it was quite apparent that they would never be able to provide us this service - a fact later confirmed by the engineer.

2: The call centres have crib sheets of supposedly appeasing comments and actually make no effort to relay the complaints onto the billing or any other department within BT

3: I am now of the opinion that they are deliberately mucking me about because I have made such a nuisance of myself and I get the distinct impression that they are denying me our telephone by maintaining the disconnection

merely out of spite.

They are an appalling organisation and it galls me that they spend such huge amounts on advertising their so-called services when they fail to address the raft of existing dis-satisfied customers ....

Rant over

ian nicholson 24 months ago

This is a complaint as i am at my wits end - your response system is a mess and the 'technical' help is through people speaking english as a second language, often hard to understand and once a question is off script they are useless. I feel sorry for them but it is a waste of time.

For nearly a year at least i had a buzz on the phone line and broadband dropping off intermittently. Whenever I rang I was told to change the microfilters and that if an engineer came out and it wasn't your fault then we would be charged over £100. we were also told there was no fault on the line.

Eventually we actually got an engineer visiting last week and he checked the line and there was a fault which he fixed quickly. Apparently noise faults don't get picked by the technical tests from india! Great!Nice to know. He thought that the Broadband would also now be sorted.

The line is clear now but the broadband is no, better dropping off 3 or 4 times a day so i rang again. apparently now the line is fixed we are back in the Broadband maze and wasted another 50 minutes going through the same script with a nice lady who barely spoke intelligible English. Questions were ignored because they confused the script. eventually she told me that hard rain and hot weather can cause signal to drop off but it was nothing to worry about! i asked if it was now fixed and was told 'its fine don't worry about it..' I knew it was not but i had lost the will to live and hung up. its just as bad.

I have given up on phoning and will now email you, any complaint sites i can find and watchdog.I await being rung or visited by someone who speaks english as their first language, preferably in my own home who can intelligibly answer the technical questions one of your customers has

alan kilburn 23 months ago

I returned to bt from virgin i placed the order with bt mid may 2010 and was told i would be up and running on 1st june come that day i got all the equipment plugged it all in to fine i had nothing i phone bt on the 2nd and was told the phone line was not correct they would have to send an engineer the next day 2nd june, he came and fixed the problem and i now had the phone line but still could not get the tv or broadband i phone bt agian and after a 20 min wait i got through only to be told because i had not connected up on the 1st june the boardband sevice had been cancelled to try and cut along story short the next 6 calls to bt gave me nothing and today 15th june i am still without tv or boradband and they cant tell me what the problem is i now wait for the next phone call tomorrow for bt to act in this way is (WELL I DONT KNOW WHAT WORD OR WORDS TO USE)

Isabelle Harrison 23 months ago

I have been trying for 6 weeks now to get a bt email address- i have spent over 1 hour on phone calls,on numerous occasions - i get cut off - i get promised a resolution - i am still waiting

Andy 22 months ago

Following a referral by my local job centre plus team, I contacted your BT Websites to enquire about setting up a website and domain. The initial telephone discussion resulted in me agreeing to talk to an expert to see if the BT Website would meet my needs. The next day I emailed BT Websites with a concern of how much capacity the website would hold (I had no reply).

The next day BT called me and we had a short 2 minute call where I questioned if the site would meet my needs, we agreed I would send a powerpoint of my needs to see if it would be covered I the £149 offered, it did not.

The next day I received a bill for £149!!

I have spent in excess of 3 hrs trying to resolve this without any success. I am unemployed and being taken advantage of, I have bought NOTHING, received NOTHING and had NO service.

jean a leather 22 months ago

I am grateful to have somewhere to write my complaint about BT. They have stopped all my outgoing calls because I have not paid and this is true cannot get a bill to look at. I had this probem in March and it took two weeks to resolve I was on paper free billing but could never see it so decided to go back to paper but BT cannot cope with this now I cant see my bill either online and they refuse to send me a paper copy well not exactly refuse people keep saying they have sent it but three weeks on still no bill. And all the time I have restricted service because they apparently according to one person put my account onto a different server and said by mistake I wanted ebilling but anyway I cannot see my bill on the website. On there it says my next bill is due in september. So who knows but now it is all too much I need it resolved BT says I should pay anyway even if I have not seen the bill, is this reasonable?? All suggestions gratefully received.

Edward Bartell 21 months ago

When I asked BT for a phone line I was told that I must keep it for a min of 12 months about 4 times. That was the only item I was asked to agree to when I asked for a BT line. I've never been asked to sign a contract or to agree to any other terms and conditions.

Yet BT seem to think that they can add charges onto my account as and when they feel like it without any kind of contract or agreement in place. Ive stood my ground and every bill they have credited the charges. But as I don't pay these charges I lose use of my phone while they sort it out. Then out the blue I receive a phone call from someone who can barely speak English asking me to pay for a bill that I had not even received!! Yes your reading right could I pay £168 for a outstanding amount of £27.00 which I'd withheld while they sort out a credit. This company goes from one blunder to the next. So far I've been on incoming only for a month and yet they expect me to pay line rental and call plan charges for a service they have withheld. This BT customer is digging in this month for a battle of battles with BT. Any help or advise anyone can give would be great.

Margaret {Powell 21 months ago

Beeen having problems with my broadband connection every time the phone rings I lose internet and the wireless connection to my laptop is totally erratic. After numerous call and so called tests from their end BT broadband decided that the fault must lie with my home connection and arranged to send out a technician between 8am-1pm today Wendesday 25th August. When he didn't arrive I rang and first of all the guy I spoke to said he had definitely arranged the visit and would check what had happened and get back to me in 5 minutes. When I rang back 20 minutes or so later the woman I spoke to denied all knowledge of the arrangement and said the exchange were dealing with my problem and would ring me back at 5pm. It is 22:38 and I'm still waiting for that call!!! I hate BT!!!!!!!!

michael andrew 20 months ago

on the 12th of august 2010, i paid all my outstanding debt of about £262.00, and had my services restored on the 13th of august 2010.

then another bill dated 6th september 2010, for £164.81. came, asking me to pay immediately!

i was forced to call bt and spoke with VIPUL; and bt gave me up to 27th of september to pay the bill.

yesterday, 20th september. i received an email from bt informing me my 'broadband' services had been suspended; and today, my telephone service was also restricted. all this because of demand for advance payment for services still to be rendered - over the period 25th august to 26th november 2010!

i have now come to the end of my patience with bt's untrustworthiness & letters of threat and unnecessary harassment.

therefore, please take this letter as notice of my intention to cancel my contract with bt.

please, let me know what my actual bill for services rendered up to date is, and terminate the contract.

thank you.

michael andrew.

Howard Kettle 20 months ago

I decided to give phone cards a try as a cheap method of calling America regularly.Post Office Uk & International cards seemed to be as good as any other,so I set about using them for the best part of three months,under the reassuring illusion that my calls to the US were being charged at 2.5p per minute from my BT line and on my BT Basic scheme.But I was shocked to find out,upon receiving my next bill,that these calls were charged at 4 times that amount.

Naturally I called BT to enquire why my bill was so huge,but all they kept telling me was that the calls had been charged at 10p per minute and the calls "have to be paid for".No understandable explaination,just a blunt demand without any noticeable nod towards customer care.

So,apparently,BT are making a profit from these cards that are supposed to save people money on calls and they don't appear to care who gets duped in the process.Beware!

Keif 20 months ago

This summer I decided to use Post Office International Phone Cards as a supposedly economical way of calling America on my BT land line.I wish I hadn't bothered!The cards promised me a rate of 2.5p per minute,so I went ahead and used ten of the £10 cards with all good faith and confidence.I was shocked,however,when I received my BT phone bill,to discover that these calls had been charged at 10p per minute,therefore quadrupling what I expected to pay for my 128 calls to the USA.

Naturally I called BT to enquire upon what they were playing at,only to be told that,"the calls have been made and must be paid for".That's all these faceless human machines appear to be programmed to say.It's like talking to a brick wall or some,similarly dense,inflexible and unmoveable object that has no apparent feelings or human consideration.

So,beware and don't,as I did,fall into the card-trap and unknowingly run up hundreds of pound's worth of unexpected bills,and don't let BT (bare-faced thieves)rake in the profit from any more innocent and trusting customers.

D.E.Thomas 20 months ago

Summary of BT CEO correspondence up to 28.09.10

6.

Dear Mr. Livingston

Once again I have to thank you for you for your e-mail of the 27th. September. I remain genuinely impressed with any CEO of a large corporation, such as BT clearly represents, who is prepared to enter into any dialogue with his company’s customer base at the individual, as opposed to corporate client, level.

Further, I would expect any manager worth even a grain of salt to defend his staff, if not behind closed doors, at least in public, so you have no need to apologise to anyone (as you have not done so) for publicly abstractly defending your staff. And so, for the record, I am happy to refute your suggestion that I disagree with this general tenet which you have repeatedly put forward, although you need to be a little cautious here, as the too much repeating of the same sentence may elevate you into the same category as Shakespear’s Lady, “who doth protest too much”!

I do not disagree in any way with your request that your staff ought not to be insulted by your customers. Apart however, from using a term that you appear to have latched upon in a way a group leader of a socialist collective kibbutz where all the participants are equals, would naturally latch upon, I do not believe I have insulted your staff, either semantically, or even literally, and I can assure you that many other BT customer “victims” use far worse adjectives than I to describe BT and its various staff members!

Or are you suggesting BT is such a socialist kibbutz - like collective? Do you think the barely understandable Indian - through no fault of his/her own, but every fault of his/her mammon seeking BT management masters! - call centre operative who can achieve nothing except the extreme annoyance of the average BT customer who has been forced to contact such a resident of that impressive sub continent as the “default setting” of BT’s customer “services”/complaint set - up is nearer to your corporate “equal”, or to your corporate “liveried manservant”?

Since however, you will always disagree with the above viewpoints, I am happy to apologise to the entirety of BT’s staff if I - normally, I believe, an exemplar of traditional English politeness - have ever, in the sheer frustration of being so often faced with some of your staff’s arrogant attitudes* in the past, been motivated to apparently insult any one of them.

*[“On this occasion only, Mr. Thomas, we may consider your complaint against the imperious and arrogant way we play with your telephonic and economic fate, but first you must accept the fine we have imposed upon you (as no other similar company so imposes) and also our extra “Thatcherite” levy on those least able to pay, as a direct result of your daring to continue to resist our various pressures not to continue with a traditional payment method, and we would, therefore, like to “suggest“ that in future, in order that you might avoid such punitive treatment, you might like to reconsider signing up to a direct debit … now!, or else …!“]

The other problem is that you have repeatedly and vigorously defended your staff, and their right not to be insulted by customers, at least partly in the manner, I believe, of a classic “displacement activity” calculated to remove my (and everyone’s eye) eye from the real ball, the real issues at stake, which is why customers such as myself feel obliged to repeatedly complain to BT in the first place, issues you have not only in no way addressed during our brief dialogues, but have not even referred to, even, tangentially! Merely saying “I am sorry you are upset” is a pretty anodyne, neutral, and equivocal statement to make (which could, therefore, be interpreted in more than one way, the most likely way being for people to read: “I am sorry you are unreasonably upset about BT”) when in reality you were actually requested to explain yourself, and the very unpopular policies the company you head up continues to insist upon employing, despite the massive long - term customer resistance BT continues to encounter by doing so. It is these essential questions that, in focusing exclusively upon your staff’s welfare, you have singularly failed to address! Have you ever considered becoming an M.P.?

Also, I would further observe that in focusing only upon my apparent attitude toward some of your staff (which, as I said above, I am, in the light of the immense amount of distress this issue alone appears to have caused you, happy to apologise for) instead of upon BT’s actual modus operandi, you have not in any way I can detect reciprocally apologised for the various ways BT insults its customers on a fairly regular basis!

I would, therefore, ask BT, via yourself, not to insult its customers in the way it regularly does.

Yours sincerely

David E. Thomas

.........................................................

5.

fromian.livingston@bt.com

tosam.skittle@ntlworld.com

date27 September 2010 19:53

subjectRE: Robber Barons

hide details 19:53 (14 hours ago)

I make absolutely no apology for asking you to not use insulting terms for staff as would be understood in general usage. I am sorry that you do not think it is proper for any manager to make that request.

Ian

.........................................................

4.

from skittle Sampson

to ian.livingston@bt.com

date 27 September 2010 15:51

subject Re: Robber Barons

mailed-by ntlworld.com

Dear Mr. Livingston

Thank you for your e-mail of the 25th. September.

You deserve to be congratulated for the fact that, uniquely in my experience, on the few occasions I have been forced to directly contact anyone such as yourself due to the manifest failings of their company’s normal complaints procedure, you are the only CEO or, as it were, “top of the pile” manager of a large concern I have ever received a personal reply from. It is, however, a pity that that this praise may not be extended any further to cover your other BT doings.

I emphasised the words “the few occasions” above because I want you to be quite clear in your mind that I am in no way some sort of inveterate “trouble maker”, which I strongly suspect you will already have firmly decided I am. I am far from such, however. It is only the normal, “silent majority”, far - too - stoic, British public’s way of putting up with amazing amounts of maltreatment at the hands of seemingly faceless corporate behemoths without uttering a squeak of complaint that makes those relatively few UK customers, such as myself, who can be bothered to object when they are being stepped upon, appear, by contrast, to be radical complainers.

In the consumer - not provider - led USA, and throughout continental Europe (where the British approach of “going repeatedly around the houses in order to, at all costs, avoid directly confronting the issue” is seen as a quite bizarre one, and ultimately, as a very serious failing and a grossly time wasting impediment to progress) I would, in fact, be seen as an entirely normal everyday consumer of goods and services who’s entirely logical and entirely factual recent observations made to yourself would not be considered in any way unusual - given the manifest facts contained within them, - nor particularly insulting. And certainly they would not in any way be considered abusive elsewhere than within the strange zeitgeist of contemporary Britain!

In fact, as far as your comments concerning my alleged abuse of you and your staff are concerned, one can only say: what a lot of nonsense! Although there are undoubtedly many long - suffering BT customers who firmly believe that BT does indeed richly deserve constant abuse - for why else would there be out there on the internet for all the world to see, an immense number of blogs, complaint forums, etc., and indeed, at least one specialist website entirely devoted to constantly publicly criticising BT, and to collecting, in one place, as many of the many complaints about the rank treatment routinely dished out by BT to their customers as they can, but no websites whatsoever dedicated to praising the d

Deborah Snape 20 months ago

Have been battling with BT all week to get dad's (87 years old) number back on after they disconnected the line last Tues 28th Sept 2010. This was by mistake as we had written and requested that the service was no longer required from 25th Oct...Due to moving to NZ. We were politely letting them know in advance and trying to make sure the bill was going to be paid before leaving the country.

So, after many hours on the phone, with lots of begging and pleading I managed to get the line reconnected Wed, but they could only give him a temporary number, 513542 (area code 01793). Since Tues after an hour and a halfs phone call to service people they have been promising that they would get the original number back on. First I was told it would be Wed (24 hours). Then the next day when I found out the original people had done nothing and he was still without any line I managed to speak to a man from Newcastle who after much pleading and begging I asked to speak to his manager who got advice his manager said there was an emergency service to reconnect the line, only with temporary number though, but the line was magically put back on after they contacted 'Openspace'. His original number I was told it would take 3 days because they had to order it. Yesterday I was told (I'd given up to be honest by then cos that was about the fifth call and by then I'd been on to BT in India for over 3 hours. Today 1/10/10 anyway the man in India PROMISED catagorically that by 6.30pm dad would have his old number back quoting ref number I-L7L954J39491500845 the same number that a supervisor in India Kumar Hiremath said had been guaranteed to work the previous day. But hey guess what I was just sat here thinking our problems were almost over when a woman from BT in the UK (with scottish accent) rang to say she had replied to my email (of 2 days ago as I had also tried that route) and had ordered that dad get his old number back, and it would be 6th Oct!!!!!!!!!!! Can you believe it? It was 5.30pm and she had to finish work so there was nothing she could do, and the manager was gone so nothing could be done til after the weekend... I am totally and utterly amazed. To have been lied quite blatantly to by several service operators who each time have said oh we're so sorry to hear that, we will fix the problem and then have done absolutely nothing. Apparently according to the lady I spoke to today (Selena) the order number given by Kumar and the other man earlier today was for the other number the temporary one. I was also told my dad could receive £10 credit for the inconvenience, their definately having a laugh at our expense. I wonder if they have tried to move home after living in one place for over 40 years and face having their lifeline cut?

Dave Jelfs 19 months ago

is the email address ian.livingston@bt.com actual and real ???? and could this be the only person in bt who will answer 'customers' i have been trying 'customer options'(only option is to hang up every now and then when i need to shave) online chat (except that i get kicked off as soon as i get to No 1 or 2 in the que) Customer complaints(best of all, 'we will be in touch with you shortly' i would have thought 1 week and 5 complaints would be enough for any company who 'values its customers') even refusing to pay has no effect, you can feel them smiling and thinking 'ok baby come on bring it on' i now need a real contact with someone inside bt who cares about their customer base....... if that animal exists

Dave Jelfs 19 months ago

as an addition to my last frustrated note i can state that Ian Livingstone does actually exist and i can only thank him firstly for being the first person in BT to answer my emails and secondly for putting his team on to my problems, at last it looks as though i have achieved more in one day than in the last month trying to use the normal channels

david parry 19 months ago

Dear All

I moved into my new house just two months ago and unfortunately cancelled my sky service at the old house in favor of a full BT Broadband, landline and vision package at the new house.

From the outset it was installed two weeks after BT had sent me a letter telling me it was already installed - it was not.

Multiple phone calls to various members of the BT Call centres in India each lasting at least 40 minutes and eventually I had a phone line, broadband and TV....

...or so I thought

Two months on I have never yet been able to watch a movie from start to finish without a disruption in the service, BT have sent me two replacement adaptor plugs and yet I still have the same problems.

This evening the engineers told me to go through the same routine of taking out the plugs and 're-syncing' them side by side (yes I now know this routine well) and then re-connecting everything and hey presto..no service!

The engineers response - wait 12 to 24 hours and it should get better. It is entirely preposterous that I should be expected to wait in this manner before being able to watch a programme that I have paid for.

I rarely have the time to take an evening out to sit and watch TV in the first place and of the 3 or 4 occasions that I have tried to do this since starting with BT Vision, I have ended up with the same problem ending up spending my evening calling BT

Now, when I tried to complain this evening that this was a service that I pay for and it is (nor ever was) 'fit for purpose' and that I would like to cancel, I am told that I will have to pay a cancellation fee!

Will someone please tell me how to get rid of this dreadful service without incurring penalties? I have already incurred the cost of a new aerial and the installation fees let alone the cost of movie rental.

If Sky would like me to represent on their behalf why a customer should not switch to BT, then I am their man!

Yours in absolute frustration

David Parry

salma  19 months ago

My family moved back to BT in December 2009 to get their broadband deal. From the first bill we could tell something was wrong as the low charge wasn’t so low after all. The internet usage according to them had exceeded the limit so I tired to sort it out making sure no one was using the net so much at home. Months and months went and we were still going over and it wasn't making me happy as 1 GB over is £1 extra. Some months they said we went over by 40 GB! Finally the three laptops that we had connected to the line became two and I was hoping this will reduce the bill rate. But I was wrong as it was still the same maybe even more! I then had even bigger problems as one of the laptops stopped connecting to the broadband. The connection was there but the page just wouldn’t come. To make matter worst 3 days into this new month BT sent an email saying we have reached our limit for that month. I was totally shocked as with one laptop and hardly any activity on the internet I couldn’t see how this was happening.

I downloaded two internet monitoring system to see what I am exactly being charged for. These systems were recommended by BT themselves. To my shock I found out that as soon as the laptop is turned on the system monitors this as internet usage. That was because my WI FI button was on! When the WI FI button was switched off the charge stopped. I was absolutely frustrated that I was being charged tremendous amount simply for turning my laptop on!

I spoke to an advisor on the BT chat who told me that she will get someone from the Tec team to call me back as she believe that this is a problem with their security or something. So when the Tec person finally called I was happy that this was going to be sorted out once and for all. But how wrong was I!?

The lady on the phone was not interested in what I had to say at all and in fact kept telling me ‘well you’re using it all up that’s why you’re being charged.’ I kept trying to explain to her that I am not using it and the monitoring has been wrong.

To which she replied “What you’re trying to tell me you don’t download DVD, songs, use you tube, Watch BBC iplayer and play games on face book?”

I said “No I don’t, the most I do is use the email and face book occasionally but not for the games” Her response to this was quiet shockingly…. “Well I guess your internet has been hacked into then”

She then went on to say the monitoring system is wrong and when I asked her okay how you do you suggest I monitor it she said very rudely “Watch what you’re using!” She wouldn’t admit that maybe they should looked into their monitoring of what I have used and when I asked to have a breakdown of what they are charging me for she said she couldn’t do that as its is breeching some privacy. I laughed at this point at how ridiculous this all was because at the end of the day she is saying I am using the net so whose privacy is it that they are breaking by providing me with this information?

I knew I wasn’t going to get any where with talking to her so I asked for her name to which she refused to give her surname and only provided her first. Finally though she gave her surname in a very rude way.

I cannot believe the way they treat their customers, not even trying to find a solution and rather rude and full of attitude. If this is what they call customer service, it’s a JOKE!

Magazulu 18 months ago

Right then this is what happend: A few weeks ago when I was Playing COD4 online, my wife went on facebook and as soon as she did my game started to lag. I did not think anything of it at first and this went on for a week. Then on Wednesday 27/10/10 I wanted to download 3 updates on aps (IPhone) I thought that I would leave it running over night and in the morning it would be done, I was wrong. So I called BT on Thursday 28/10/10 when I was at work and they told me that they would need to do some troubleshooting when I was at home, so she would call me back at 17:30 to sort it out. At 18:30 I called BT so get the problem fixed I was told to change the router as this was the problem and that when it was changed I would see an increase in speed I told them that the Black BT hub does not work and the guy agreed with me saying that their hubs were faulty and that they had stoped selling them and issued BT customers with the 2.0 hub and I would get one in the post on Saturday Thankfully I had a new BT hub in my shed so I installed it and it did not fix the problem I was still getting less than 260kbps. Satuday came and went no BT hub (good job I had one in the shed) Sunday 31/10/10 Early morning called BT for an Engineer I was told one will be on the way and I will receave a call before he arrives. At 16:30 I get a call and was told "we will check the phoneline and call you back in 20 mins" Monday 1/11/10 I get a call saying an Engineer will be with you today between 1 and 4 you must be in he came and checked everything and said there was a fault on the line. Tuesday 2/11/10 I get a call from BT and was told that the fault has been fixed my BT line was capped and it has now been uncapped and I will see a difference in speed ( up to 1mb ) within 2-3 hours. Four hours later I went home and did a speed test I was still getting 260kbps so I called BT I was then told I will never get a good broadband speed as I am too far from the exchange server (rubbish lie) I was then told my line will only support half mb why was I told I will get 1mb in 3 hours I was then told I will see a difference in 48 hours. Who and what am I supposed to beleive? Wednesday 3/11/10 I want to cancell my BT contract only to be told that I will have a £100.00 cancellation charge. Thursday 4/11/10 I get home and I am now getting 5.1mb on a line that a few days ago was told that would only support 0.5mb they seem to have fixed my problem. Monday 8/11/10 went to download a file that during the weekend of halloween took 3 days for less than 2gig of data to download it will now take 3 hours checked my speed and it has droped to 2.5mb BT can not even give me a decent speed for more that 2 days I called to see why my broadband speed has droped again I was told that I am getting over 5mb as I told them I can do the math if I was getting 5.0mb or more it would not take over 3 hours to download 1785mb of data and the speed test in fromt of me says the same so now I am a lier. I have asked for an engineer again to check things over and as I am writing this I am still waiting for the call to say they are on their way. I find that the service I have receaved is SHIT. No one on BT will take respocibility for this they are not interested in the complaints or the problem. I want to cancel my contract and go to Virgin (the reason for Virgin is that they do not use a BT line like everyone else so I do not need a MAC code and will not face a problem that would involve two companies) But if i leave before May 2011 I will have a charge of £100.00 or more. Now if I did not pay my BT bill they would cut me off in a heart beat I have also hasd a vision I have been told by EVERY ONE in BT that I have spoken to that I will receace compensation for this when it is over and the fault has been closed . The reasopn they say this is that they all know it will never close or be over so I will never get my compensation.

Disgusted in Croydon 18 months ago

BT are SCUM.

There are no two ways about it. They are complete and utter FILTH.

I ordered theit Broadband Option 1 and it was installed on July 2nd. When I got the first bill, I was staggered, and decided to go for the Unlimited Usage Option 3 package. They assured by text, email, and letter, that my package had been upgraded. My monthly usage on Option 1 comes to around £85, whereas Option 3 (unlimited), costs a total of £41.50.

I have now ordered the Option 3 upgrade THREE times, and each time they have assured me I am now on the upgraded package, yet every month they sent me the bill for Option 1, because it means money for them.

When I ring up to complain, I am eventually put through to someone in New Delhi who put me on hold, and eventually the line goes dead.

I now intended to use my BT Broadband and calls package to run up the bill to the very maximum possible. I will allow my Asian neighbours to call home, since BT like putting us through to India), and talk to their friends/relatives for half of what BT normally charges. Will I pay the eventual bill? Not a chance. I am going to screw BT in this manner for years, and I am even going to rent bedsits which I will use only as "calling centres". Let's see how they like that...

What total SCUM they are.

Chris Eckett 17 months ago

We are doing a chain of stores in the UK, which require new telephone lines or a transfer of customer.

Every day in our office the BT "Thank you for holding, we are Busy" mantra runs almost nonstop in the background (secret services should try this as a more "humane" alternative to waterboarding- it soon leads to near hysteria)

Sometimes we wait way over an hour to get through to someone who is usually clueless and transfers us to the next hopless operative who if you are lucky then cuts you off or transfers to a number that is never answered.

Orders get cancelled mysteriously without anyone informing us that the cancellation has occured- oh yes and of course no one knows why the order was cancelled......We waste days and days of working time trying to deal with a simple connection request. Our clients (a german firm) are not able to understand why we always fail to get phone lines in place on time.

BT is obviously internally copletely out of control and unable to offer any meaningfull kind customer service to their customers.

The sad thing is that the timeline of this blog and my own experiences in 2007 show that this is a longstanding chronic problem which the company obviously is not interested in dealing with.

It is no wonder that the UK is going down the pan with such captains of industry at the helm.

Berlin 08.12.2010

Jamie 16 months ago

I had the same problem put me on a package i didnt need i switch to landline reviews and they have been brlliant i even have my own personal accunt manager so if your gonna switch id advise them 0845 86 204 86 they are excellent

Margaret 16 months ago

I am not alone in being disgusted with BT it seems.

I find that is strangely comforting, I have gone through the different stages described on this blog, (gripping the phone while trying to get on with life, for it eventualy to be answered by India "it will be fixed in twenty- four hours" or "not my department" in a more local location). India answered quicker, but did nothing, "not my department" took longer to do nothing.

I ended up paying a local man to sort it.

Why???

Jackie Hewison 16 months ago

On dec 18th I posted my cheque to BT at Luton Airport. It was snowing I was trying to get a flight to Istanbul.

I have the cheque stub and a witness to that posting

On Sunday the 23rd Januart 2011, I realised my phone was diconected and an automated service informed me that it was for lack of payment. I established that my cheque had not been cashed. I immediately used the automated service to pay by direct debit.

No notification was ever made by BT of lack of payment. After 45 minutes of waiting to speak to customer services,(which was only acheived by refusing to press any of the required answer buttons) I dicivered that they had made an automated call to my number on 26th January tellin me that no payment had been received.

Why cut off my service on a Saturday when they do not work on a Sunday?

Why are they not obliged to tell me of non receipt of payment?

Why are they allowed not to reconnect for over 2 days and then charge me £12 for doing so?

Dean 15 months ago

My troubles with BT began last July (2010). At this time I had my BT Vision and broadband only,my phone being with the post office. I had been paying £15 per month for each of these services in separate DD payments. BT decided to combine my bills into "one easy payment" which I didn't ask them to do. The single payment was not of £30 but £63 per month. After approximately 18 phone calls, on none of which they had been able to explain why my charge had gone up I decided to leave BT. They had refused to acknowledge my complaint, had cut me off on a dozen occasions and promised callbacks on the others which unsurprisingly didn't happen. They had accepted on each call that my monthly charges were £30 but insisted that the computer calculated my bill as £63 per month.

I backed up my calls with three letters to BT, thelast one sent by registered post. They have denied receiving any letter from me.

When I called to leave BT I spoke to someone in England, the only such call I've had. They said that my payment was too high and would be reduced to £26 per month. I was also told that if I returned my line to BT I could have all three services for £30 per month, including free off peak calls and anytime calls to my "friends and family" numbers. I added Sky sports 1 and with a bundle discount was told that my monthly payment would be £36 per month. I asked them to check this number twice.

Imagine my surprise when I received a statement saying that my monthly payment was now £75.50.

I called to complain on 12 occasions, getting the usual mix of being cut off, usually whilst on hold, and being promised a nonexistent call back.

I was finally told that my bill would be reduced to £56 per month, better than nothing but after one month they again began taking £75.50 per month.

At this point I stopped my direct debit. Within 2 days received a rude and threatening phone call saying that if I didn't settle the outstanding amount within 48hours I would be cut off and placed on a blacklist barring me from having a phone line for 2 years. I am not easily intimmidated especially when it is obvious that someone is making empty and probably illegal threats. When I asked how much was outstanding I was told that I was £98 in credit. I asked how I should pay this and the BT operative said "f**** smartass" and cut me off.

I attempted to complain about this on several occasions but after being cut off whilst on hold four times realised that they had no interest in hearing this. I was even told at one point that the relevant department has no phone line so is impossible to contact. I found no one willing to hear the complaint in four calls of 1.5 to 2 hours each. I again sent a letter outlining the complaint by registered post but have heard nothing from them. They deny receiving anything from me.

Instead of a call relating to a previous complaint, I did receive a bill saying that I owed £223 and had 3 days to pay. This related to forthcoming charges and apparently there is now no credit on my account. I was told by one member of BT staff that " when you stop your direct debit sir, any credits you have are lost, that is why we advise people not to stop their direct debit". Although this has since been denied they deny that I have built any credit despite overpaying for 6 months.

In addition my calls bill for 3 months was £80 instead of the usual £3 or £4 per month. The bill lists the numbers called but not call times so cannot be checked. A full bill would cost me £50 apparently. In addition I was told that they haven't had a "friends and family" discount since 2008. Due to misinformation from BT when placing my original order my monthly phone bill has risen from £18 per month with my previous supplier to £40 per month with BT. I was told that it would be cheaper.

The last straw was today when the person I spoke to said they would listen to my original order before putting me on hold for 30 minutes. I could hear them in the background talking about cricket for this time, even at one point saying that it was a waste of time people calling them. They then came back on the line and said that I was mistaken about my original order and there was nothing he could do.

I said that I thought he was extremely rude keeping me on hold for so long and then lying about listening to my original order (he hadn't asked when it was placed or the order number). He then said "well you'd better try someone else then and cut the line.

My patience is exhausted at last and I will be moving to another supplier who have UK call centres and may have more respect for their customers.

This has been the worst customer serive experience of my life by some distance. I have registered my complaint with the ombudsman and will pursue this to the bitter end.

If anyone from BT management does read this, I would like to ask them why they feel the need to treat their customers so shabbily, and why they systematically ignore any complaints from customers.

I would also like to express my utter comtempt for the company as a wholeand for the management of the company who devise their policy in particular.

andrew mckenzie 14 months ago

bt cant tel me if my line fault is in or outside my house,if i get bt engineer out i will have to pay £130.if the fault is my fault......am well mad rarrrrrrrrrhhhhhh

Paul Corcoran 14 months ago

I contacted BT with regards to a problem with our client having problems with their Broadband. The online 'Support Assistant' came across very unhelpful and then I was uncerimoniously disconnected from the conversation. Worst customer service I have ever experienced!!

Jennifer 13 months ago

We have had the same problems as Mrs Cooper - unexplained international calls. BT are expert at not responding and passing the complaint from dept to dept and so called customer help manager to another. Their online forum is a joke - as so many people have similar problems there is clearly a problem - and they must have the experience to assess this properly.

D Cage 13 months ago

Why does BT make it so difficult for someone other than the line renter to complain about faults on the line? When the line has failed my daugher's only option is an expensive mobile call and a lot of time when as a retired person I can call BT. They demand the account number on the web site when all they need is the line number.

I am convinced this is a deliberate method of ensuring that only a tiny proportion of faults that fail to get fixed for four or five days are recorded.

If this was an isolated fault it would be an inconvenience but as the fault seems to be once in two months I am sure this does not meet the grade of service they are supposed to provide.

Richard Smales 13 months ago

I ordered a new phone line installation and a broadband package for a recently refurbished flat I am renting that is above a shop. The shop has an existing business line that was renewed within 2 days of calling BT. Which seems like good service. Here is where the nightmare began..

The account for the flat was opened on the 27th of march, and the first engineer appointment was booked to install a new phone line on the 8th of April. After patiently waiting until 7th of April I received a text message saying that some delay had occurred and I would have to wait another week for the engineer to come, I was given a date for the 16th for the line installation. After waiting another week the 16th rolled around and again another no show by the engineer and no communication as to why he hadn't appeared.

I called the helpline only to speak to some Indian man who barely spoke English, couldn't understand half of what I was trying to explain. He just gave me the standard responses they're trained to give. The best part is that I asked him how much he is earns, turns out he is on a monthly salary of 10,000 rupees: which equates to £137..lol

This is disgusting! BRITISH TELECOM - what a joke. I also learnt that the customer service dept closes at 8pm weekdays, yet the SALES dept is open until 9pm! shows where their priorities lie!

After spending around 45 minutes going through everything on the phone for the 3rd time I was given another date for my phone line to be installed by an engineer: 21st of april.

21st came and again no show..

Im now waiting to be called back within 24/48 hours by the specialist dept due to how long i have had to wait, I am not holding my breath because they have promised this before and you just don't hear anything back, unless you call back and then you're put back into the loop again.

poor customer service and very little communication.

I think I will be looking else where for my phone and broadband once I finally get this phone line installed after waiting nearly 4 weeks and 3 no show engineers

too long didn't read version:

first called BT: 27th march

1st engineer no show: 8th

2nd engineer no show: 16th

3rd engineer no show: 21st

No im waiting to hear from them, which will inevitably result in nothing, and I will have to call again to book another engineer appointment and then an additional 5 days activation period for the broadband after the phone line is finally installed. IF THEY SHOW UP.

Very frustrating and annoying when you're taking time off work and waiting in for someone who doesn't turn up nor are you told why. you're just left in the dark.

So after spending probably 4-5 hours on the phone to the 'customer services' dept, 3 no show engineer appointments and nearly 1 month. I am no closer to getting a phone line than I was in march, ridiculous!

James 13 months ago

Here is a new one if it hasn't already been submitted, well besides BT deciding to change the Direct Debit dates per month when they feel like it, they also when it comes up to a public holiday i.e Easter, they take the money in my case which I'll go in to more detail about.

Well BT is supposed to take the money from my account on the 26th April 2011 and is noted on the bill as such, except for they had decided to take it out on the 22nd April 2011 instead (three days in advance.)

Now to me regardless, in my experience with using other companies with Direct Debit, they always take the money on the exact date or just just after, so I would say this is a dirty tactic on there part using public holidays as an excuse, so in that regards when my contract runs out they will lose a customer.

Sunita 12 months ago

BT are terrible bullies. I have been treated so badly by them and despite several requests to issue a deadlock letter so that I can take the matter to the ombudsman their customer care managers make excuses as to why this letter cannot be issued. I am shocked that these organisations can get away with overcharging customers which is criminal and yet when several complaints are lodged they do not seem to understand English despite being a UK customer care team. Shocked and surprised they continue to get away with this.

Douglas 12 months ago

We asked BT to install a new line to a new-build house. When the engineer finally arrived to do this he explained he would also be transferring our number and broadband service to the new line on that day. When I told him the house is not yet ready to occupy and that at present we only want the cable connected he said he would have to cancel the job and return when we are moving in. At the end of the day I went home to where we currently live to find BT had disconnected our line and broadband.

After five separate phone calls over eight days, each mobile phone call lasting over an hour, and each with an Indian call centre operative who denied any record of any of my previous calls, I finally got the line reconnected but with a different number. I had to get very irate before the broadband was reconnected four days after this.

A week later and I received a bill for £125 from BT for calls made from the new build house (to which there is no phone wire) and for cancelling my contract with them.

An hour on the phone this evening included twenty minutes convincing them there is no phone line connected to the new build house, and the rest of the time getting some sort of acknowledgement that I haven't cancelled any contracts and that, in fact, they owe me compensation for having no service for eleven days.

At present I don't have the energy to go through the trial of telling them I'll be moving to the new build house next month.

a mogaji 12 months ago

we have been with bt for about 7 mounths

since then every bill they have sent out to us has been over charged, they have charged us for the usage of sky sports which in actual fact we have not used, they have done this 4 times!!!!!

we have called their center numerous times and have been unable to speak with people that can help...when we did get through they call the line they have promised to call back on countless occasions which they never did

just recently they sent us a bill claiming that we have made a call out for one of the members in their team which was incorrect, and for this they charged us £130, i have put my foot down and i refuse to pay this money. the level of service they provide is disgusting, and if they carry on like this their company's name will be destroyed for good!!!!

kellyrbinson 12 months ago

BT are the biggest bunch of cow boys i have ever come across my bill was due the first of june which for 1 month they are trying to tell me totals to £207 what a joke but then to also find that i have been turned of by them and i have 2 days left to pay the money so now they can swival and are getting nothing for me i will use a diffrent company xxxx

Telltruth 11 months ago

I have spent hours and hours on the phone for three days and I'm having a nervous breakdown trying to get away from BT. It gets very complicated and this isn't the whole story. I was on anytime calls until the other week yet, I have been getting high bills from BT all the time - some for £50+ and some for well over £90 and one for £93 which is itemised; usually they are not, or not much.

Now get this. On the itemised bill it showed £44 for one 'Operator' call on a number I have never seen before (0125000000) nor ever rang! They said that it was because someone rang me through an operator and did a transfer charge. The liars, no such thing happened!

After ringing 0800 800 150 yet again I finally got that £44 call charge canceled but they are still advance charging me for the Internet up to July, when I was already with Orange for the Internet in May.

BT have told me that I'm still with them but I can't be, because we can't have two ISP's on the same line. They are not telling the truth and I proved it, because I can't send emails via BT but the Orange one works just fine.

I tried to ring BT this morning about the advance charge for the Internet but after going through the menus which is an ordeal in itself, it says they are closed until 8 AM yet on my bill it says there's 24/7 support.

They are squeezing every bit of money out of us they can - by being dishonest and having us running around in circles - apparently in the hope that we give up and most people eventually do. A friend of mine gave up the fight and payed a whacking big bill for his efforts.

Today I will be getting my phone through another company. Now what? Are BT going to continue sending me phone bills from them as well for the coming months or years? I suspect so.

When I first went onto BT it was less than £10 the Internet but it went up in stages. Now it says £17 for the Internet on my bill. An agreement is an agreement, it should work both ways and I didn't make any agreement for £17 for the net.

I phoned my bank and they tell me that in May, two lots of money (only 20 days apart) were took out for BT and they total up to over £90 and that's not all the man at the bank told me but I was very tired and didn't write it all down.

So the next day I requested for BT to send copies of my bills going back to 2009 but they tell me that it would cost about £4.50 per bill, so it was kindly suggested that I view them online. Good idea, I thought.

After several tries with several temporary passwords, I finally get to see my 'bills' online but there was only one bill when it said we can view previous bills going back 15 months. I took a look at that bill but unlike the paper version it isn't itemised, so what good is that?

Aaaargh!

And it's not only me, I discover that the scam has been going on for at least three years. http://hubpages.com/hub/BT-Complaints

Telltruth 11 months ago

@kellyrbinson

The real 'fun' begins when you try to leave BT. :(

Ally 11 months ago

At times I think there's no point in wasting my breath over BT. Thankfully my contract has ran out and I quickly moved to orange.

The problems started September 2010,when one day the phone line cut out. After ringing from another landline and telling them there was a problem which was external they said they will send someone out. The engineer arrived solved the problem which he found ON THE ROOF and told my Mum that there would be no cost and the main box was fixed. If we did want the extensions fixed he would have to charge us and he said that it would be better to go to someone private, as a cheaper option.

Two months later a bill arrived with costs of £250, only to see that the engineer cost was on there and he had filled in the report as the problem being in the house. After myself and my sisters calling and speaking to the manager, she said "As a good will she will knock off 150" Good Will on their part more like robbing us of 100 quid, we later said to her that we would cancel the direct debit and wait for the Giro to come through to pay. However again 2 months later we had another bill with yet again another problem.

Moving on this problem lasted till February, each bill had a incur charge from the previous bill and every bill I had to ring the Indian call centre people who are unhelpful and ridiculous. Thankfully May arrived and it was coming to the end of the contract. Once again I rang the call centre about previous costs and said that I wanted to cancel,which would mean not renewing contract, i thought?!? however,this was followed by a rudeness where the guy said ok and goodbye which I then hang up.

Now June 16th i received a bill with a cancellation charge and the contract renewed. After calling AGAIN today the guy mentioned that it would take upto 2-3 weeks and they would listen to the recorded phone call and call me back. Now the wait happens.

The end of the contract, BT was supose to refund me £40 instead the cancellation fee is making me pay them £25.

I don't expect to get my money back, even though i would be very happy after months of headache. I definitely know I will NEVER be going back to BT, 35 years-WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!!!

many 11 months ago

recently i paid talktalk £80 for canceling a contract and move to the all new bt infinity optical line, bt gave 15 days wait for the engineer with then was delayed for a further 4 days after, i took the day off work and the engineer arrived started saying he couldint get a port, back to base back and forth, only to realize that bt addint made the change over, leaving me with no broadband noor phone line. he said they would call me at no avail, so i called using the cellphone, they made me wait ages spent over £9 only to tell me that i would have to wait another 11 day, leaving me devastated,with no broadband.

B 10 months ago

Where do I begin with our BT ordeal? 4 years of poor line condition, patch repairs, confusion and misery and I have spent the last month or so dealing with the Chairman's office as a result of me writing down every complaint I have had. This includes being lied to, being cut off, being passed around India, being billed wrongly, being disrespected, being neglected, receiving an intermittent service, and generally being treated like a pest rather than a customer. Their answer so far has been to send out 2 completely separate, ill informed engineers at short notice, then pull them off the job because "they have spent too long on it" - without resolution I should add. They have installed a 'temporary line', promised to fit a permanent one, then simply left the job. I have records of conversations, letters and complaints going back several years and still get an intermittent, slow, unreliable broadband connection. The point is that they simply do not care about their customers. In the last week I was assured (and I mean absolutely assured) that a senior person from Openreach would contact me within 72 hours and this would be followed up by the chairman's office to resolution. What's happened in a week? Precisely NOTHING. BT eipitomise bad service in my experience. They represent all that is bad about large companies with unmanageable processes, the wrong metrics, a commercially driven mindset and an arrogant, internally focussed attitude. Absolutely, totally and utterly useless in my experience - not to mention being seemingly deliberately inpenetrable.

Mr adams 10 months ago

Well I will try not to repeat what is a very serious issue regarding BT, but just briefly I have moved house and everything got swapped on the correct day and was looking very organised.

However my broad band speed was 0.26MB download which I complained about. I was told that it takes 10 days to stabilise which in the 21st century is ridiculous.

The problems have really come to a head as speaking to Mupits in India is just not working.

They are reading off a script and have no idea, which is proving too stressful for me.

I have repeatedly asked for an engineer which is clearly needed but I continue to be stoned walled by Indian help desks.

I can't complain to BT in the UK and can't speak to BT in the UK unless I wish to leave, which I am activly pursuing at the present if nothing else, than to relieve the stress from banging my head against a policy to farm everything out to India.

This is the biggest problem with BT by far and I feel sorry for the UK employees of BT as they will suffer as more people leave and go else where.

To date I have not had any engineer and no resolution to my phone line and will be giving them another 24 hrs to resolve this otherwise I am gone, probably to my mobile operator to keep things simple.