HELP! Unable to reinstall SmartTalk. Appalling tec...

Question

I think SmartTalk is a great app, but unfortunately like much of BT it is built around the most user-unfriendly systems and processses on the planet.
I've been trying to reinstall SmartTalk on my daughter's new phone for over the past week and it still refuses to work . I have contacted BT's SmartTalk technical help (which seems to be based in India) and so far they have failed to fix the isssue.
What really annoys me is the fact that everything seems to take 24 hours for something to happen due to the inadequacy of BT's systems. If you make any changes to SmartTalk it seems to have to go through an order system that apparently takes 24 hours for anything to happen - so if you make a change and want to check if it works, you have to wait 24 hours. Last Thursday morning I was actually told that I would need to wait until midnight on Friday before any changes went through their system. I was also informed that it cold take 5-7 working days for somebody from BT SmartTalk technical team to call me back!
This is crazy.
I also find it unacceptable that there appears to be no urgency in speeding things up or in findding a solution on an acceptable timescale. For example, yesterday I was speaking to a 2nd level supervisor , who told me that “some people are happy to wait months for a resolution because then they have a SmartTalk that works and they are happy with it”. I find it totally inexcusable that there may be an inbuilt expectation that users may have to wait months for a resolution.
Also it is impossible to find someone to complain to about this appalling standard of service. According to the technical people they can't talk with or transfer calls to complaints (and this is in one of the world's largest telecommunications companies! ) and it is impossible to find anyplace to contact via the BT website. (I tried, and got through to somebody who said that I needed to call the SmartTalk team in India - again!).
It has been a totally frustrating and demoraliing experience.
Can anybody help?

Answer 1

Part of the problem has finally being resolved - though I think I managed to solve most of the problem myself.
The problem is due to the fact that there were 3 iPhones involved (and no they weren't called Diana, Charles and James). A while ago my wife got a new iPhone and so we deleted her SmartTalk ID and set up a new one on her new iPhone . My daughter, who also had an older iPhone, then inherited my wife's old iPhone. Even though SmartTalk was deleted from my wife's old iPhone and I then deleted my daughter's old SmartTalk ID, it refused to install. So when I was getting nowhere with BT, I deleted my wife's new SmartTalk ID and also deleted the app from her new iPhone. After 24 hrs, I tried installing the app on my daughter's new iPhone (my wife's old iPhone) but got a message indicating that it was blocked. I then unblocked my wife's ID (removed it from the block list, but it was still not on the active list), waited and then tried reinstalling it on my daughter's new iPhone - success! All I have to do now is get it reinstalled on my wife's new iPhone.
So somehow there is a lag or error in the system that retains a memory of the previous phone and you have to remove all traces of this (even those relating to the ported number on a new phone) before it can reinstall.
I should add however that towards the end of this process I did finally get in contact with somebody in the BT SmartTalk UK design team who agreed with what I was doing. However this only seemed to occur after I had emailed BT via Facebook - I got a response within an hour; previously all attempts to get hold of somebody in the UK had failed.
So the problem appears solved (hopefully re-installing it on my wife's new iPhone will work). It is just a pity that I wasted hours on the phone and days (over a week) in waiting for systems to update to get to this stage. It was a very frustrating process that i hope others do not have to go through.
If anybody from BT is reading this please:
1. Update the BT SmartTalk portal to provide more information on what to do when changing SIM's or phones.
2. Provide a remove button to quickly delete other users on an account (at the moment you can only remove the main account holder or block (and then later unblock) other users; you cannot remove them.
3. Do something with your systems so that SmartTalk users don't have to wait 24 hours for "orders" to go through. There must be a way of speeding this up. You should not have to wait 48 hrs to block/unblock = remove somebody from the list. It should be almost instantaneous (an hour at most?)
4. Provide an email or telephone number for SmartTalk service complaints. This should be separate to the BT SmartTalk technical team (and please also provide a direct contact for them as well).
5. Provide a general complaints contact (not one for each BT silo) - customers shouldn't have to go through Facebook or this forum or write direct to the CEO to get a response.
6. Get rid of the mentality that customers will be happy if they wait months for a resolution - they won't!
I hope this helps others who may encounter this situation.