3 months of the worst service you could imagine (a...

Question

I initially placed an order for BT broadband back at the beginnning of Feb 2015, placing the order online to take advantage of the offer including a discounted period, free BT Sports and a Sainsburys voucher (the offer expired the next day).
After a few days I was contacted by BT to say there had been a problem with the order and it would need to be cancelled and they would place it agian - I asked if the terms of the order (ie the offers) would be the same as the end date would have now passed and was told that it would.
The order was clearly not placed correctly as I had selected to pay the 12 months line rental up front to take advantage of the saving that offered. However, I saw that I was being billed. Yes, they had cocked it up. I then paid the 12 months rental and was told I would be refunded any charges for this and also for the Internet up to the date it was sorted out as I was not receiving the service I was paying for.
Additionally, I saw calls being charged for as the order was placed with weekend calls and I wanted eveing and weekend calls. Again, this could not be resolved now as the order would have to be completed first.
Next came a long period of being told that the account was setup, although my Internet connection was only providing me with anything between 0.5 and 1.8MB downloads (1.8 was a rarity).
I was contacted every 3-4 days to be told that there was a problem that was being worked on and would be resolved soon - they would contact me in a couple of days to udpate me.
Before the Easter weekend I was called to say it should all be setup and could I test things. When I got home I rebooted the router to find that I now had no connection at all - not even the painfully slow one I had been suffereing for the last couple of months. When I called to report this I was told that in fact there was still a problem and I should not have been told it was sorted - also, nothing would be looked at for 5 days as it was the Easter weekend.
After this I started to get some different stories about why things were not being setup properly. Apparently there was an issue with my account which meant that the broadband services could not be attached to my phone line so it did not show up as active and would not let the engineers completed tests (I have had sit through the generic scripts and tests so many times it is beyond belief).
I was told that the order would need to be cancelled and a new one placed so that a new account would be generated to allow the broadband to be setup correctly.
No problem for me I thought, so long as this gets sorted out.
But no, BT could not do that as there would be charges for ending the contract early!?
Next step was to send an engineer to the house. Finally someone who seemed to actually know what they were doing - he is the ONLY member of BT staff that I could recommend to anyone else. He saw first hand that my fault was real and fixed it.
He replaced some old cables that he said could be causing a problem, but he also ran into the account setup issue when trying to get the line speed enabled. However, he said that the people he was speaking to on the end of the line were able to do this in a different system.
BINGO! We now have 8MB (well, almost - but a lot better the the averge 1MB we were receiving before). We can finally view iPlayer etc.
With the order now complete I decided I would call to get my charged refunded and follow up on the voucher that was part of the offer I signed up for.
Another 40 minute call to the braindead customer servuce staff in the call centre proved fruitless. I was asked to tell them the date and time of the call in which I was told that I would be refunded the charges. What? I guess I've had over 60 calls with BT over the last 3 months, many of them leaving my frustrated and stressed out.
She said that as there had been usage on my broadband that there was not a problem (I'd heard that one before when I was told there was not a problem) and that I am therefore not entitled to any form of refund or compensation. Sorry but 0.5MB (or no access at times) in no way consistutes a broadband service.
What I want to for someone at BT with a brain, the ability to read the the long history of the issues here and the authority to actually carry out the required actions to deal with this. I cannot call the customer service line again without going insane!
I've cancelled my dorect debit so no more money can be stolen from me; of course I instantly received a call from BT to ask why and be told I had to set a new one up - I also got an email from the mythical Libby Barr (but sorry, I no longer read emails I cannot reply to).
So BT, find someone who will sort this mess out once and for all and let me stay dealing with that one person until there are no more problems.
The moderators should have my email address (which is the same for my BT account) so you know how to contact me or pass on to a useful person within BT (I assume there must be some somewhere!).

Answer 1

I have asked a moderator to provide assistance, they will post an invite on this thread.
They are the only BT employees on this forum, and are a UK based team of people, who take personal ownership of your problem.
Once you get a reply, make sure that you are logged into the forum, then click on their name, you will see a screen like this. Click on the link as shown below.
Please do not send them a personal message, as they cannot deal with service issues that way.
For your own security, do not post any personal details, on this forum. That includes any tracking number you are give.
They will respond either by phone or e-mail, when its your turn in the queue.
Please use the tracked e-mail, to reply, not via the forum. Thanks
This is the form you should see when you click on the link. If you do not see this form, then you have selected the wrong link.
When you submit the form, you will receive an enquiry number, so please keep a note of it
There are some useful help pages here, for BT Broadband customers only, on my personal website.
BT Broadband customers - help with broadband, WiFi, networking, e-mail and phones.