I give up - but trying this as a last resort with ...

Question

To whom it may concern, 
I would be grateful if you can look into the following issue. Please don’t stop reading at any point, it does get interesting, it’s not boring.
Broadband issue – Chain of events Telephone  – Mr. Alastair Paterson,
I first rang on the 14th Aug to say that broadband was not working. I spent nearly an hour on the phone checking the sockets and filters as well at 6-7 minute line test with a call centre person. The line was tested and was advised nothing was wrong with the line. I agreed that I would give it a day and see if it came back.
15th Aug – rang again. I had to go through the whole process again with testing the sockets which I explained I’d done, testing the line, but did it all again. It was agreed then that I would require an engineer.
I was told however that if the fault was inside the house I would be charged £99.00. This I disagreed with as I was a BT customer. However as my contact was over a year, I was now out of contract. I discussed the matter in length and was advised I would be ok, if I re-signed with BT. I was then put through to sales without be asked. I was put on hold and then I arrived in Sales, where I was subject to a sales pitch. I declined the sales pitch at the time.
I was now left in a situation where I couldn’t have the internet fixed for free unless I re-joined BT. I rang BT faults again, went through the whole line and filter thing again and finally agreed for an engineer to visit my house as I was confident the fault wasn’t in the house.
16th Aug – If by magic, I was able to now get back onto the internet, I thought this must have been something to do with the calls I had made. I then called the number I had received a text from detailing the date of the engineer who was arriving and cancelled the Engineer’s appointment.
2 hours later I lost the internet again. So I was now in a position two days later, back to square one.
17th or 18th Aug – Thinking it may come back, but it didn’t. I rang again. Again I had to go through the whole issue with testing the line, testing the filters….. I explained that an engineer had been booked and cancelled, but this meant nothing I had to go through the whole thing again. I was also told again if the fault was inside the house, the engineer if booked would cost £99.00.
Now I was starting to think that the fault maybe in the house. So I rang BT sales to save myself the £99 and advised them of the problems I was having and a new package was agreed and due to the issues, I managed to get BT vision in the deal, basically the same price as I was paying before. The BT vision engineer was then booked for September 10th between 13.00 and 16.00. I thought this was enough time for BT to sort the internet problem out.
Between the 20th Aug and the 10th September I spend numerous hours trying to get the internet sorted and another engineer out. I was told I wasn’t allowed an engineer to come out to me as the phone number was on a new account as I had changed packages and that the line would not be fixed until the 7th/8th September. I was therefore a further 17 days without broadband.
The 7th September was 3 days before the engineer was to arrive to fit the BT box. This was the day of the new contract started. No matter how I explained what had happened before, I couldn’t get another engineer out before. This was absolute madness, I was now without the internet still paying BT for the internet on my existing account, but it wasn’t available till the 7th September on the new account. The original fault was given on the 14th Aug. Despite ringing several times to try an escalate this, I was hitting my head against a brick wall, at one point I was on the phone for 1hr 40 mins only  to be finally cut off after waiting 13 minutes in the faults department, they just ignored me, I wasn’t abusive, just very cross.  
Every time I rang to speak to someone, they made me go through the whole testing of line and changing of filters. I kept advising that they just needed to read their notes and to put me through to someone who could make a decision. I spoke to several people and the last person said that the engineer arriving on the Monday 10th Sep with BT vision would be made aware of the fault.
Finally the 7th September (the start of the new contract) came and 3 days before the engineer was to arrive hoping the broadband would be fixed as this was now a new account. It wasn’t, nor was it on the 8th. I was advised my BT Vision box would arrive the 7th; I stayed in all day for it, not to arrive. It didn’t arrive on the 8th either which was a Saturday.
Monday the 10th I rang the number for BT vision problems number to say that the box hadn’t arrived. I advised that I had received two texts informing that the box would arrive on the 7th. I was advised that it was in fact wrong and that the engineer would be coming out with the box, I asked them to contact the engineer again to advise that my broadband still wasn’t working despite him turning up, I spend 20 minutes explaining the whole situation again this but wasn’t confident that they would get in contact with him, but they said they would.  At least he had been contact twice now about the broadband fault.
The BT vision engineer Shaun arrived exactly on time on Monday 10th Sep. I explained the difficulty I had had over the past few weeks and he duly advised me that he knew nothing of the fault; he was only there to fit the BT vision box. As you can imagine, I was then at a point where I could go nowhere, apart from scream.
Please don’t get bored…it does get better…………………
Shaun kindly tested the line and advised the fault was outside of the house (thank god) and nothing was wrong with the socket or connections within the house. His laptop confirmed this. It was the BRAS sync speed that he couldn’t do anything about it except report it to BT wholesale. It would take 48hours to fix. Shaun was very helpful and left without leaving the BT box as it wasn’t going to work. The speed he reported to me was less than 0.25kb, it should be 3,000kb. The line speed was at 3.5 – 4.0
One hour later after Shaun had gone I tried to make an outgoing call, I was unable to do this. I could receive calls but not make them. Clearly the wiring was now wrong after the engineer had looked at it.
I left it till Wednesday 12th (48 hours later) when I called to say that not only did my broadband still not work after 48 hours I could no longer make outgoing calls. I then had to go though the whole testing the line again and changing the filters, this must have been the 6 or 7th time I had done this since the 14th Aug. You must understand my utter frustration by this time and speaking to a call centre that are very difficult to understand at any time, to top it off,  they were not aware of the report the engineer had put in.  I was back at square one again, for the centre to say they have no record of the report the engineer had made was unbelievable. I watched Shaun the engineer type the report and send it.
It was agreed that another engineer would be send out; this was arranged for the Friday.
Friday arrived, still not being able to make outgoing calls and without broadband. Steve arrived in the afternoon as agreed and after a chat and a cup of coffee said he was only here to fix the problem with the telephone line faults, he was nothing to do with broadband. I was about to go into orbit…….
Steve fixed the issue with the outgoing calls, and was very happy to try and help me with the broadband issue, but this was not his area, despite having knowledge of it. He made this clear; he was not told about the broadband problem.
Stay with it…it gets better…
I then proceeded to ring the BT call centre again when Steve the engineer was there and explained the situation, they again asked me to go through the whole line test and filter process, despite explaining the whole situation, beforehand.  I passed the engineer to the person in the call centre and he explained to the person (Rubel) what the fault was.
 Shaun had come to the same conclusion that it was the BRAS speed. He explained this to the call centre operator who then asked him to test the line and check the filters, so he could do a test.  I could also see Steve getting angry, but he was very professional.  Finally after 40 minutes it was agreed that I should wait another 48 hours for the BRAS issue to be resolved. This was after the same person asked me to test the line, and as he put explained,” he was forced to ask the question”.
On the Saturday I re-arranged for the BT Vision engineer to call again as I was confident that finally the issue had been identified and it would be sorted. I knew it would be over a week before the BT Vision arrived. The engineer was book for Saturday 22nd September.
On Monday 17th Sept, Yudish rang me to say that the fault had been resolved; I challenged this as I was still unable to get on. I told him it was the BRAS sync and not the line speed and he went away and checked and then agreed with me it was running at 135kb, yes there was a fault. He would speak to BT wholesale and get it resolved, he couldn’t do it on-line and that it would take another 48 hours. Now this time I was just beginning to laugh to myself. All of this was explained by the engineer and me the previous Friday, yet nothing had been done.  Yudish would ring me back again on Wednesday 19th at 09.30am as another 48 test needed to be done.
Yudish did ring on the 19th Sept all be it at 09.43, he rang to say there was still a problem with the BRAS and that he needed to send any engineer. By this time I very sorry I got very irate. He advised me that the engineer would be going to the exchange as well as my house as the fault had to be fixed manually as it couldn’t be done remotely. He advised me that if the fault was in the house I would have to pay £99.00, this despite now being a new BT customer. I put the phone down. The engineer is arriving Monday 24th September between 08.00 and 13.00, the txt said I received.
Today is Thursday 20th September and I now have an engineer coming Saturday for BT vision and Monday to hopefully fix Broadband. I’m not cancelling the Saturday engineer because I want to keep the BT box and fit it myself if the fault is not fixed Saturday or Monday. If the fault isn’t fixed Monday, I will be cancelling all ties with BT and contacting offcom.
I’m not confident that I will get a response, however I will pursue as long as it takes.
I do want some serious compensation for the total lack of service, as well as not being able to use broadband since the 14th Aug, not being able to make outgoing calls and generally the stress and 3 day holiday’s I have taken off to be in when an engineer or BT Vision box is to arrive.
Yours sincerely
Alastair Paterson

Answer 1

Hi Alipat1,
Sorry to hear that you've been having an awful lot of trouble with your BT Services.
Firstly the call out charge of £99 is a charge Openreach (the company that the engineers work for who fix and maintain the lines for all communication providers) is passed onto BT Retail (your communication provider) which will then be passed onto you if there is a fault within your property or equipment.
Openreach, a division of the BTplc Group, but who are a separate company under the BTplc group due to Ofcom rules, have many different types of engineers for specific problems.
Openreach maintain and fix the lines for all communication provider is the UK. BT Retail do not get any priority or special treatment from Openreach as Openreach treat all isps/communication providers equally.
As you have had so much trouble trying to restore and setup your BT Services then would you like to contact the BT Care Team by clicking on the link below.
Contact BT Care Team
The BT Care Team are a BT UK Based specialist team who have a good reputation for solving customer problems.
Once contacting them they will reply either by phone or email within 3 working days, however you will be given a tracking number immediately after sending the request. Please take note of this.
cheers
I'm no expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong