Over 30 calls to BT Customer Options in 5 days - t...

Question

Here is the email I have just sent to BT - I really hope somebody can help.
I had to post it here in a few parts as there is a character limit on forum posts.
PART ONE
I've been a paying BT customer since October 2010.  I've had a phone line and broadband service since I became a customer - additionally in September 2011, I also took out the BT Vision Essential package.
5 days ago I decided to call BT to place an order to upgrade my broadband services to BT Infinity Unlimited Option 2 as I was unable to upgrade online.
This is when I discovered just how awful BT's customer service really is.
I'm told BT record all of their calls so I'm confident that everything I am writing here can be verified.
Some of the people I spoke to were just incompetent, some were clearly very poorly trained, some were rude and unsympathetic and some even hung up on me or transferred me to another department without warning.  I've also been promised call-backs which have never materialised.
The systems they rely on are clearly poorly planned and implemented and restrict the staff's ability to assist with enquiries. The product knowledge (or lack of) is absolutely terrible and the supervisors and managers seemed to be as poorly equipped as their colleagues.
In total I have made over 30 telephone calls to BT and I am yet to speak to a single person who has been able to help me. My issues are mainly with the sales or Customer Options departments.
It all started with the first lady I spoke to, regretfully I have forgotten her name as I have spoken to over 30 different BT colleagues this week.
I had explained to the lady that I wanted to upgrade to Infinity, I had tried to do this on the BT website but had been given an error message advising me to contact BT by phone.  The lady acknowledged that this was indeed the case due to a technical problem with my existing broadband service.
In March of this year, I had my home telephone number changed after complaining to BT about receiving a lot of nuisance sales calls, despite BT's promise that they would reduce when I subscribed to their Privacy service.  My number was change free of charge at the time as a gesture of goodwill.
It was this number change that had triggered the technical problem preventing me from ordering BT Infinity this week.  The lady explained to me that when the number had been changed in March, my existing broadband service had not been configured correctly and that it was still aligned to my old telephone number.
She then offered to make the changes required and explained that it would take 24 hours for these to take effect and very kindly offered to call me back at 4pm the following day to place my order for Infinity.
After waiting, I did not receive a call so I called BT back myself.  At this point I spoke to a gentleman who told me that he was unable place the Infinity order as my existing broadband was still aligned to my old telephone number - I explained that I knew this but it had been rectified.
He told me that in addition to not calling me back, the lady I had spoken to the day before had not made the required changes.  He then said he would put things right and I would need to wait another 24 hours before we could get the Infinity ordered.  I had no choice but to accept this as his system would not let him place the order until the alignment issue was resolved.
The next day I called BT again, I wanted to see if the technical problem had been resolved and also to check the pricing I had been quoted for the new Infinity service was correct.  I was a little concerned that I may have been given the wrong pricing by the lady who I first spoke to, after all she had not done what she had promised or called me back.
This time I spoke to another lady who confirmed the pricing and actually offered me a slightly better price by way of a recurring discount because I had had these initial problems.  She placed the order for the Infinity and I was happy with the outcome at that stage.  I then enquired about an offer I had seen online for a discounted handset when purchased with a package.  The lady told me that was an online exclusive offer and suggested looking into renting a handset from BT.
I had a look on the BT Shop website at some handsets and decided to call BT again to arrange ordering a rental phone.
I called up and placed an order to rent a BT Graphite 2500 single handset and was happy with the deal I was offered.  I was also told that after 18 months of rental that I could cancel the agreement but still keep the handset.
A little later I went back online and looked at the handset I'd ordered in more detail.  I soon realised that the handset did not have a feature for sending text messages.  I had been given 100 free SMS messages per month with the Infinity broadband and calls package I'd just ordered and decided to call BT back to change my handset rental order.  I wanted a handset that I could use to send and receive SMS messages.
I called back and explained I wanted to change my order and that I would require a handset with the SMS function.  I was advised that the current order for the Graphite 2500 would need to be cancelled first and that the system would not allow the BT colleague to browse other handsets for me until the existing order had been fully cancelled.
I was told to call back in 24 hours.
I called back the following day and was told that the handset order had been cancelled and I asked the call taker to suggest a phone I could rent which would allow me to send and receive SMS messages.  This person told me there was only one handset available to rent on his system and this handset didn't do text messaging.
I asked why this was the case when the person the previous day had read through a whole list of rental handsets. He said it was probably because my BT Infinity order was open on the system.  I was advised to call back in a week or so, after my new Infinity service had been activated.  I questioned this as the person the previous day was able to browse all of the handsets despite there being an open Infinity order on the system.
The gentleman wasn't able to explain and began making excuses about how some colleagues have access to different systems.  I asked whether it was the fact of the open order or the difference in systems and the person wasn't able to answer.  I suggested that the gentleman transferred me to his superior or someone who could answer my question.
I was put on hold for a short time before the line went dead. He had hung up on me.
I called BT back again, now very angry at the way my previous call had been handled.  I eventually spoke to a gentleman who apologised for his colleague and offered to help.  I explained I wanted a handset with SMS function to rent and he very quickly suggested the BT Freestyle 750 - assuring me that I had the SMS functions.
I placed an order for rental of the Freestyle handset.  He also confirmed my previous handset order for the Graphite had been cancelled and I would not receive that handset or be charged anything for delivery or rental.
Feeling pleased I'd finally got the product I wanted, I went back to the BT Shop online to learn a bit more about the handset I'd just ordered.  I was horrified to discover that the Freestyle 750 does not support SMS at all.  I verified this on several other websites and even downloaded the user guide to be sure.  After all, the gentleman assured me that it did have the feature.
So, I called BT back again to cancel the second handset order for the Freestyle, explaining that the information I'd been given was wrong.  I was passed from person to person and had to call back several times to try and find out whether the handset had the features - nobody seemed to have the answers.
Meanwhile I had a call from BT to ask me if I was happy with the Graphite handset I had previously cancelled which just totally confused me.
I'd also received an email confirming my Infinity equipment delivery details and my engineer appointment and activation date.
Having lost track of the amount of times I had called BT, I tried again.  After speaking to another lady who was clearly as confused as I was about everything, I spoke to her manager.
After explaining the problems about the handsets, he eventually confirmed the cancellation of the orders for the Graphite and Freestyle and also that I would receive the handsets anyway as the were dispatched as soon as they were ordered, but that they would be followed by some returns packaging so I could return them to BT.
I was not told about this on the previous cancellation, in fact, I was assured I would not receive the handsets at all as they were cancelled.
I accepted that I would need to post the handsets back if they arrived and agreed to do so upon receiving the return postage bags.  I then asked the manager to find me a phone that would do SMS, he found me one - this was the BT Diverse 7100.
After all of the hassle I'd gone through, I suggested that BT should sent me a handset free of charge - I was told that this would not happen - so I agreed to rent the handset as I no longer wanted to have to speak to people about phones.
He then told me I'd have to wait another 24 hours before he could order the handset due to the cancellation of the previous order.  I got very angry at this stage and told him it was unacceptable for me to have to wait another 24 hours and I was not willing to call back again. It was not my fault that I had been given the wrong information about the handset's features.  
He said that he could place the order today by setting up a separate account, just for the handset rental.  This sounded reasonable as it was the only way of getting around the system and would mean I didn't have to call BT back again, or so I thought.
It was at this point I was told there would also be a delivery charge. I said after everything that's happened I refused to pay for delivery and the delivery charge was waived by the manager as a gesture of goodwill.
Then, unbelievably - he told me the Diverse 7100 was not available to rent after all and explained that I'd have to purchase it for a one off cost of £29.99. This was after he'd already said I could rent the phone and he kept putting me on hold or mute for long periods.
Eager to get off the phone after being on the call for over an hour, I just agreed to pay the one-off cost of £29.99 for the phone - at this point I was seriously considering just cancelling all of my orders, including the BT Infinity.
I was then told that unless I set up a direct debit on the new account, I'd be charged £1.89 payment processing charge.  I told the manager that this was ridiculous after everything I'd been though, it wasn't my fault that I had been badly advised on the previous handset; and that he should waive the charge or I'd like to speak to someone about cancelling all of my BT services. By this point I'd had enough of him constantly muting the phone for long periods.
The manager then explained that it would cost me more if I had my services from another provider, I said that didn't matter as the customer service would be better than BT's.
Shockingly, the manager asked me why I dissatisfied with the customer service I had received from BT.  Clearly he had not really been paying attention for the previous hour.  I told him I'm trying to get a problem resolved and that I didn't think he was resolving it to my satisfaction, he insisted he was doing the best he could.
Then he offered to speak to billing at get the payment charge waived for me, I was put on hold for another good 15 minutes before he finally came back to me to say it was all sorted.
At this point I was very upset with the way I'd been treated when all I wanted to do was buy a handset with the features I needed.  I'd had to spend a long time speaking to a lot of different people just to get a simple problem resolved.
However, this wasn't the end of my problems at all.

Answer 1

PART TWO
 I went online to My BT to see if the previous handset orders had all been cancelled properly.  This is when I saw a message about my BT Infinity order - it said that BT would be rescheduling my engineer appointment and gave me a number to call.
I was devastated that I would have to call BT again if I'm honest, you'll see from your records that the number of calls was now well into double figures.
So, I called.  The first gentleman I spoke to told me that the engineer had rejected the appointment and I would need to speak directly to Openreach, he offered to put me through.
I refused to be put through to anyone else and told the gentleman that I just wanted someone to take ownership of the problem and sort it out - it was not my responsibility to speak to another department, especially after all the other calls I had made previous in that day and week.
I advised him that he had picked up the call and I had dialled the number given to me on the website and that I was not willing to be transferred somewhere else.
The gentleman was quite rude and abrupt so I quickly asked him to transfer me to his manager.
The manager was Daniel at the Warrington Customer Options team.  The only person who's name I remember - this is because he is the only person in the whole of BT who was willing to listen to my problems and genuinely wanted to take ownership and get everything solved for me.
Daniel said he would personally make some calls, liaise with the other departments and assured me that he would call me back within the hour.  He did call me back in good time and explained that he was still waiting for a response but that he would call again soon.
I got a call back later that evening from Daniel.  Not only had he stuck to his word, unlike the others who had offered a callback, he also said he had been phoning around other departments to ensure that the information he was about to give me was correct.  He had me believe he had gone the extra mile and for that I was grateful.
He told me that the engineer rescheduling message on the website was just a glitch, and he'd been told my order was fine and that normally customers would never know about this.  He confirmed that the engineers department would be in contact very soon to either confirm or reschedule my engineer appointment and not to worry because my order had all gone though fine.
Daniel also promised to call me back on the following Monday just to check everything was OK.  I thanked him and was once again happy, thinking everything was fine with my order.
This morning I received another phone call from BT - asking if I was happy with my new Freestyle handset.  I explained that I had not received it and the order had been cancelled.  I was asked to hold while the person checked this and they confirmed it had been.
Clearly the person calling me had no idea about the problems I'd had with ordering a handset so I told the person there to cancel my other handset orders too, I'd had enough.
Slightly confused and very angry at the incompetence of BT's staff and systems, I decided to call BT back to check the cancellation of all of the handset orders - I'd decided that I would purchase a handset elsewhere as I didn't see why I should give a penny more to BT when they have caused me so much inconvenience over the past week.
The lady I spoke to first initially told me that my BT Infinity order had been cancelled the day before.  I was so angry, I could not believe that something else had gone wrong.
She then backtracked and said that all of my handset orders had been cancelled and that she would put me through to the engineers department to sort out the appointment confirmation for the Infinity.  Reluctantly, I agreed to be transferred to the engineers department.
The lady I spoke to there told me that my BT Infinity order had been rejected by their systems.  It had been rejected because my current broadband service was still aligned to my old telephone number.
The very problem that had been identified during the first call I had made to BT.
She told me that she would have to put in a request for BT to update my account and that I would have to wait 5 days before they could even tell me if and when an engineer would be coming out.
This is despite me receiving written confirmation of an engineers appointment and being told on three occasions that the broadband alignment issue had already been resolved and that my order was fine.
I explained that BT had told me they had already fixed the problem and that waiting another 5 days before even getting an appointment was not acceptable.  She advised me that BT had certainly not fixed the problem as they had said, and that they would check again in 5 days time and contact me.
Once again, very upset by the complete lack of competence on BT's part, I agreed it wasn't her fault and asked if there was anything she could do to hurry things up.
She offered to get me a callback in 3 days time instead instead of 5, and assured me that they would try and fast-track an engineer's appointment as soon as the issue was resolved.  She said this was the best she could do.
So, now after 5 days of constant telephone calls to and from BT, I still do not have a date for my new Infinity service.  I have a handset that I do not want (Graphite), I have not received any returns packaging to return the unwanted handset and there's a good chance I will receive a further two handsets which I have cancelled and will be expected to return.
I've called BT over 30 times in 5 days and literally spent hours talking to people who were just not equipped to deal with simple product and service queries and were not able to identify problems without being prompted by the customer.
In addition, I've just received my latest BT bill and there is a delivery charge on there for one of the handset orders that I had cancelled.  I was told when I cancelled the first order that I would not incur any charges.  I have been charged for delivery anyway and have not received the returns packaging to be able to send the Graphite handset back.
I just cannot understand how something as simple as upgrading my broadband and trying to rent or purchase a handset, so I can make use of my free text messages, has turned into such an issue.  This is by far the worst customer service I have ever received in my life.
I really hope that on Monday I will get a call to say that my Infinity order is fine and that an engineer will be coming.
I also want the returns packaging to send the Graphite handset back to you.
I want my handset delivery charges taking off my bill straight away and written confirmation that I will not be paying any rental fee's for these handsets.
In return for the hours I have wasted on the phone to BT (which can be verified by your records), it would be nice if BT were willing to let me have one of the BT Diverse 7100 single handsets free of charge.
Although, after everything this week I don't have much confidence in BT's customer service.
I may still consider cancelling my order for the Infinity broadband and call package, if I don't get my engineer appointment on Monday, and if that's the case I will also cancel my current telephone, broadband and vision services when the 12 month contract expires on 7th September this year.
I really hope BT can redeem themselves this time, if not I'm off to Sky.
Kind regards,
An exhausted, disappointed and confused customer.