Phone fault: call centre staff seem to be making u...

Very frustrated. We reported a fault with our phone (affects broadband also of course) 10 days ago. Huge amount of crackle on line, so bad we can't hear the other party, and piifully slow BB speeds or no connection at all. Line tests done by BT confirmed a fault 'between the exchange and the telegraph pole'. Fair enough. Told fault would be fixed by 2nd Feb. This came and went with no fix and no contact from BT. Phoned again. Was assured problem would be fixed 'that day'. Call centre phoned back a day later 'just to check the fault had been fixed'. No, it hasn't. How could it be? We live on a small island, we know when the BT engineers are about and nobody has been near us.
Phoned again yesterday. Was again assured phone would be fixed that day (6th Feb). Again, it didn't happen. Phoned again today (Saturday 7th) and was told the reason it hadn't been fixed was that there had been a 'huge disaster locally'. Absolute piffle. I think we would know if there had been a disaster, and our neighbours' phones are all working fine. It's actually a lovely sunny day today. We have, however, had a lot of snow and rain recently and since our phone cables run along the side of the road there are often problems with 'weak joints' where the rain get in. We even know where these places are, and are 99% sure that it's a connection box at the top of our drive that is the location of the problem. It aslways is: we get this same problem several times a year.
Was then was told that even if I couldn't see engineer's van on the road this would be because they were working in the local exchange. Absolute piffle: husband and I drive past the exchange several times a day. There hasn't been anyone working there today at all. There rarely is on a Saturday. Was assured that phone would be fixed by 1pm today. It was 12.40 when I was told this. Needless to say, there has been no progress.
Why can't they just tell us the truth? I would rather they said they were short staffed and couldn't get to our fault for a few days, or that (more likely) the wiring from exchange to pole is in a dreadful state because it's been patched up so many times, and it's now a nightmare for the engineer to isolate the problem.
And it would, of course, be nice to know when our line really will be fixed.
I'm due a call back tomorrow between 12 and 1pm. Any suggestions of what I should say/ask when the lady says she's 'just checking that the line is working properly'??

Hi gterry,
I'm sorry about the problems with your line. Please use the 'contact the mods' link in my forum profile under the 'about me' section to send in your details. You can find the link by clicking on my username.
Thanks
Neil
BTCare Community Mod
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Similar Messages

Insulted by Call Centre Staff

I wanted to post a copy of a complaint email which I have just sent to Warren Buckley. Still can't believe the customer service I received:
Hi,
I wanted to make a complaint about a call centre team member who was phoning from 2touch on behalf of BT. I recieved a cold call at approximately 8:20 to 8:40 last night (23rd Oct) and was in the process of working through a telephone / internet quote with a team member named James. When he asked me for my phone number to confirm my expected broadband speed I noted that surely he already had my number, after all he phoned me on it. He responded that they need to take personal details like phone numbers, addresses, etc. At this point I was concerned that this could actually be anybody phoning me and trying to steal my personal information, and I pointed this out to him.
Then, under is breath I heard him say to someone else, "This guy is a **bleep**" - clearly referring to me. I expect he thought that he had muted the call so that I wouldn't hear him.
I proceeded with the quote for a little while but was too shocked to carry on and eventually asked to speak to his manager. Adam came on the line and said that he would listen back to the call recording and take appropriate action. I received a call back from Adam at 12:40 today (24th Oct) and he offered his apology but refused to say what action had been taken. From what Adam said, I feel like this has just been swept under the carpet.
Please note that Adam did confirm that the original offensive sales call was recorded by 2touch and I would expect that you should be able to obtain a copy of the recording to confirm this.
I am very disappointed with the level of customer service I have received here. Both being insulted by one of your representatives and subsequently not even being told what the result of the follow up was - if there even was one.
It is most disappointing as I was considering switching to the package that James had been discussing with me - I was even thinking of spending more on BT Vision. But I can safely say that this is the most appalling level of service I have ever received. I can not understand why you would outsource these sales calls to a company which insults your customers.
Regards
Ryan McGuinness

Hi Ryan,
Welcome to the forum, I am really sorry about this.
If you'd like me to look into this please feel free to send in your details to us. You can get our "Contact us" link by clicking on my username, under "About me".
Thanks,
Stephanie
Stephanie
BTCare Community Manager
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Call centre staff paying for plastic cutlery???

Good god....I know exactly where they could stick their plastic fork! It never used to be like that at o2. I wonder how many leave for work in a morning...keys-check, wallet-check, phone-check, knife and fork-check......

Scrooges. Mind you I was more interested in this worrying statement in that article"As we revealed yesterday, Capita is up to its old tricks again, putting 700 workers at the Bury and Glasgow call centres at risk of redundancy, with a view to bundling 350 out of the door by October. Others are expected to leave before the end of the year and some early next".

BT call centre staff under trained

Hi,
I wanted make an enquiry whether BT held a certain information of mine and I wanted to speak with someone who handles customer data under data protection act before sending the fee. When I contacted the customer service, two of the staff and the manager told me that BT doesn't have a department which handles such information even though BT is registered with ICO in which case there should be a data handler. I won't name names here since there is a forum guideline but I have a recorded telephone conversation if anyone care to listen. I think BT should train their staff propery.

Hi beetymaybe
I am sorry that you have had some trouble with this. It sounds to be like there has been a slight miss-understanding on our part. What the managers and advisors probably mean is that there is no customer services contact number that can discuss this in detail with you.
However we do have a team that can help you with requests like this. Have a look over the following link:
http://www2.bt.com/btPortal/application?pageid=pan_privacy_policy&siteArea=pan#policyNo3
There is not a great deal to discuss when it comes to the claim, the link above outlines the how we collect data and will hopefully answer any questions you may have about this. Then its really down to a decision from you if you want to submit the request or not.
How can I find out what personal information BT holds about me?
If you want specific information ie.:-
copies of fault reports
copy invoices
then you must contact Customer Services.
If you are asking for a full subject access request then put your request in writing, enclosing a cheque for £10 made payable to BT plc and send to British Telecommunications PLC, PP M3042 DSAR, Colindale House, The Hyde, Colindale, London NW9 6LB.
You will also need to provide the following information so that we can process your request:
The relevant account number/s
The relevant telephone number/s
The relevant address/s
The date and time if requesting a call recording? (see also note below)
If you have any information such as reference numbers, dates and times of contact then please include them in your request.
(BT does record some calls for Quality and Training purposes, however, not all calls are recorded. Calls are only held for a short period of time. If you want a call recording it is essential that you provide the information requested above, otherwise we will not be able to proceed with your request).
Once we have all the relevant information we will process your request within the 40 day time limit allowed under the terms of The Data Protection Act.
I hope this helps
Cheers
Craig
BTCare Community Mod
If we have asked you to email us with your details, please make sure you are logged in to the forum, otherwise you will not be able to see our ‘Contact Us’ link within our profiles.
We are sorry but we are unable to deal with service/account queries via the private message(PM) function so please don't PM your account info, we need to deal with this via our email account :-)”
td-p/30">Ratings star on the left-hand side of the post.
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Mislead by call centre staff

Hi all,
When I placed the order for my phone line and broadband from BT, the chap stated only option 1 (10gb limit) can be taken with 3 month free offer.
Howver now I see that is incorrect and I should have been given the correct info by the sales staff at BT. Can any staff here assist in changing my boradand to unlimited 3 months offer please?
Thanks.

Hi this is a customer helping customer forum the only bt presence here are the board moderators you could email them or phone bt sales again and get them to change your package
If you want to say thanks for a helpful answer,please click on the Ratings star on the left-hand side If the reply answers your question then please mark as ’Mark as Accepted Solution’

How do you complain when your Indian call centre staff refuse to assist you and abuse you. We have the calls recorded and they are in the hands of the police

We have learnt that Adobe do not allow complaints. We have lost our business computer due to adobe and have legal documentation for them to appear and compensate me. How do i get to speak to someone in head office other than the rude and abusive indian staff

Hi,
We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
Please let us know what issue you are facing so that we can help you.
Regards,
Rave

Poor Customer Service - BT Call Centres

I have been having problems with my phone line and broadband for over a month now. The Call Centre in India (whilst staffed by very nice people) is completely inadequte. There is no follow through, they do not appear to make notes when there is an ongoing issue (unless of course they are getting me to repeat myself for the fun of it!), conversations get lost in translation, they promise to call back and then don't, and then you have to start fresh with another member of staff. They work to a scripted conversation, any deviation from this and they can't cope.
I am not a complainer, quite the opposite but I have been driven to distraction by the process of contacting a Call Centre in India when you have a technical problem however, when there is a sale to be made you can speak to someone in a Call Centre in the UK. The carving up of BT services has not been done for the benefit of the consumer. The disjointedness has, in my view, led to a complete inability to provide good customer service. As a result, I am considering putting in a formal complaint and sending a copy of a letter to OFCOM or the likes.
Can anyone on the forum help in terms of a name to direct a letter to and whether OFCOM is the appropriate body? I have tried emailing BT Complaints but no response and don't want to send a letter off without someone to contact to follow through. Below is a not so brief timeline of events to date! Many thanks in advance!
w/c 25 June
Started contacting BT as problem arose with quality of my land line (e.g. crackling) and broadband loosing connection.
A number of calls ensued taking me through a scripted conversation and many line tests. Each time I was told I do not have a problem. Eventually insisted (after being patched through to a level 2 supervisor) that an engineer visited my property.
4 July
An appointment was made with an engineer between 8am – 1pm. As no one had showed, I contacted the Call Centre and was informed that an engineer was working on a problem with the main junction box. Engineer arrived at 4pm, did not examine my phone line but said problem is now resolved It was not.
5 July onwards
Many calls to the Call Centre, all operatives assuring me that there is not a problem with a line and they can fix the problem I am having within 24 hours. After many line tests, rebooting, resetting of broadband etc. I eventually persuaded them to send another engineer.
12 July
Young apprentice visited (lovely young man and we wrote a very nice email to his line manager as we were impressed with his attitude).
He did not however resolve the issue, he completely renewed all of my broadband equipment and left.
W/c 16 July
Started phone calls again to Call Centre. They kept running line tests and telling me there is no problem. Had to explain the term intermittent and there was indeed a problem.
Eventually got through to a level 2 Technician who ran a special test that only he could do and he could see that there was indeed a problem but that he could fix it within 24 hours. He could not.
A few more phone calls, and I eventually got them to agree to send out another engineer.
31 July
Wrote a complaint regarding service on BT website. Incident number 120731-003877. No reply received however did get an email about how to improve my broadband speed! I live in a rural area, anything about 1mb would be a miracle.
Early August
Received a phone call from a nice young lady based in London working as part of the BT sales team offering me a discount on my broadband package if I agreed to sign a 12 month contract. She did not know anything about the issues I have been having. In the hope that the conversation was indeed being recorded I explained everything!
No follow up. As a gesture it would have been nice if someone from sales had phoned me back, offered sympathy and perhaps the discounted package with immediate effect (without a contract requirement) seeing as I have effectively had no internet for a month and possibly the lowest connection speed in the country.
9 August
Another engineer arrived with 35 years experience and excellent member of staff. Conducted a full line test and low and behold, problem found with line 83 meters from my property (exact location where we had an issue the previous year and that I had been trying to tell the Call Centre staff about).
On examination, the engineer confirmed it needed replacing. Also that the space between the telegraph poles was 75 meters and should actually only be a maximum of 63 meters hence, tension on line which has caused the problem.
He called for assistance and both he and a colleague were about to replace the line when he was called off the job by his line manager. Something to do with Health and Safety. hmmmm..... he did have a colleague, a Hiab and all specialist equipment. I did wonder whether cost was a factor as we are the last house on the line.
10 August
Further phone calls to Call Centre, told again that they needed to run a line test and that they could get my phone working in 24 hours. Informed them that it was very improbable.
11 August
Level 2 supervisor finally returned my call as promised and confirmed that a new line was needed. She gave me the telephone number of the telephone line faults department to phone to enquire when this would be done.
13 August
Phoned the telephone faults department to ask for a date when the line would be replaced. Level 1 technician wanted to run line test and assured me that he will be able to solve my problem with a few simple steps and that it would be fixed within 24 hours. I informed him that it would be impossible. I asked to speak to a level 2 supervisor. He put me on hold for 10 minutes and then informed me that a level 2 supervisor could not help me. He agreed to book an engineer to come out and repair the fault (he had never done this for any other customer before but as I was a special case he agreed to do so!). I had to provided him with exact details of the fault. I requested that he refer to the report given by the last engineer that visited but no, he wanted the details from me, slowly, so he could type it out.
I have an appointment for Thursday 16 August between 8am and 6pm. Not hopeful.
I requested the number of a telephone complaints department or any member of staff I could speak with in the UK. He could not find a number for me.

Hi,
Your line and exchange is maintained by Openreach and not BT Retail (your communication provider). BT Retail do not get priority over other communication provider as Openreach treat all communication providers/ISP's equally.
If you would like to contact the BT Care Team they will be able to look into your account notes and to help you get it resolved. BT Care Team are a UK Based BT Specialist Team.
Click here to contact BT Care Team
They wil contact you by email or phone within 3 working days. You will be given a automated reference number please make note of this.
cheers
jac_95 | BT.com Help Site | BT Service Status
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Moving the Call Centres to back UK?

There were a number of suggestions a while ago that BT were likely to move at least some of the call centre work back to the UK. It seems to have gone quiet about this.
Having just had a long tussle with some of our Asian friends on behalf of a client (there was eventually a satisfactory outcome after a number of calls when I eventually got to speak to someone in the UK who solved the issue in a couple of hours), I wondered if anyone knows whether it is going to actually happen . . . ?

jjgraphics wrote:
You must have been very lucky with the BT Indian call centres.
Possibly, though I've only ever delt with them as a customer, and apparently not as often as you have. I can only speak as I find, as do you.
The quote from Sir Keith Watson, although historic, typifies the daft attitude in many businesses that price is the most important aspect of any service. It is not. Efficiency is most important and efficiency normally leads to lower costs. It is crazy to outsource these jobs to another country when we have people unemployed in the UK, many of whom would be pleased to have a call centre job.
My view is that if people could understand the call centre staff better and if the call centre staff were properly trained to do their job so that each problem was dealt with more efficiently and in a shorter time, far fewer staff would be needed and there would be no need to outsource the service to a country where a significant number of the staff are simply script readers have no real idea what they are doing.
All true, but all business owners/managers/company directors would disagree with you - the one's I've met anyway. Especially when it comes to price, and keeping business costs down, especially the costs of employing staff, or for that matter the costs of actually manufacturing a product in this country!
The key problem in this country has been that call centre jobs, like so many other jobs, are classed as a low paid, minimum wage, **bleep** job that no one really wants to do. Combine that with shift working, or unsociable hours, and you have a lethal cocktail that no UK worker will touch unless it's extremely well paid, their desperate to work, or the DHSS are forcing them to take the job at gunpoint! £5.80/hour simply won't cut it, and all you'll end up with is a high turnover of staff. And in that sort of working environment you can forget staff training! The people who are supposed to train either won't bother or only give you 5 minutes of their time and then watch you sink or swim. I mean, if this person is only going to stick around until they can get another job, or get pissed off and leave, or until they get knocked up by their spotty boyfriend and end up becoming a single mother living on benefits, what's the point in wasting the companies time, money and breath training this person? Plus, on top of that, you would also have to pay the UK employees national insurance, probably provide them with some sort of pension, maternity pay...
I saw this first hand, 15 years ago, in the electronics industry. This is why so many UK jobs have gone abroad. Employers simply can't get the quality of staff they perceive they want at the right price, plus the costs associated with running a business here are considered to be too high.
Sad, but true.
Does anyone know anything about the move of the call centres back to the UK?
Have you tried directly asking the moderators this question?

Slow Broadband Slow Call centre Slow Everything......

Where to begin..Like many people I use my mobile more than my landline for making calls.
So, when my landline was making a terrible noise it was not the end of the world. Then Broadband went a bit Pete Tong on me acting slow..No probs just explain to BT the prob and all should be fine (Simples)..
Day 1.. Engineer repairs Telephone line...Even thou I mentioned Broadband slow not put right.
Day 2 Ring BT to explain nice phone line no Broadband (almost 1 hour on the phone to call centre)
          Done the usual speed test - 13mgb coming to the house then 0.03 from hub to computer..
          Everything points to a prob from line to hub.
          So a new filter was dispatched
4 Days later filter turns up
Guess what? Still the same..Ring Call centre 1 hour later explained prob...Dispatch a new hub...3 days later Hub turns up
Guess what? Same old..Ring call centre 1 hour later explain prob...By now begging for an engineer to come out.I am told if the problem lies my end then there will be a charge..(by now could not care about charge get someone out!!!)
What I should make clear this is over 5 weeks now. I am paying for a service I cant get..
By now 5/10/13 I decided to tackle the prob head on and get my own Engineer from check a trade. (i paid for this service)..A former BT man arrived at my house and did the relevant tests and discovered that my IP PROFILE is set to 0.14mbps.. He was dumb founded to here of my plight...Well, I have passed on this information to BT and lets hope it gets sorted....Needless to say Im not happy with BT

Hi stu61,
Sorry to hear that your having issues with your BT Retail services.
You will either be on the ADSLMax (upto 8mbps) service or if your exchange has been BTw 21cn upgraded you maybe on the ADSL2/2+ (upto 12/20mbps) service depending on your line quality and length.
However these upto speeds may not be the speeds you will get as ADSL broadband connections are very dependent on the distance from your property to the exchange and the quality of your line. The further away you are from your local exchange the slower your broadband speed will be.
To enable the community to help you please see the advice below:
Please see Keith's help guide here: Helping forum members to help you, it will go through some checks that are needed for us to help you.
A summary of the checks are:
1a) Is your router/Homehub connected by a BT NTE5 master socket, Adsl Filtered Master Socket or Extension Socket? Please bear in mind that extension cables and extension sockets can reduce the broadband's performance. If you have an Old LJU master socket then please say.
1b) Have you tried the Test Socket? - if you have one.
2) Can you please run a BT speed test (including IP Profile) http://speedtest.btwholesale.com (not beta version)[Best done with a wired, Ethernet, connection] After Quick Test is done you need to click "Further Diagnostics" to get IP Profile.
3) is there any noise on your line. dial 17070 option2 ,called quite line test, from landline phone. should be silent but slight hum normal on cordless phone.
4) please post adsl line statistics
ADSL Line Statistic Help:
If you have a BT Home Hub like the one below...
Then:
1) Go to http://192.168.1.254 or http://bthomehub.home
2) click Settings
3) Click Advanced Settings
4) Click Broadband
5) Click Connection or sometimes called ADSL (see picture Below)
The direct Address is http://bthomehub.home/index.cgi?active_page=9116 (for bthomehub3.A firmware ending in 1.3)
or http://bthomehub.home/index.cgi?active_page=9118 (for bthomehub3.A firmware ending in 94.1.11)
You will need to copy and past all the adsl line statistics ( Including HEC, CRC and FEC errors). You may need to click " More Details"
If you have a HomeHub 4 then the majority of the ADSL Stats shown in the previous Hubs will not be there.
There are more useful links on Keith's website here: If you have an ADSL connection, please select this link
Don't have a BT Homehub/Voyager?
• http://192.168.0.1 for a netgear router and look for ADSL adsl statistics with information like noise margin and line attenuation, connection speed
• http://192.168.2.1 for a belkin router and look for ADSL adsl statistics with information like noise margin and line attenuation, Data Rate
cheers
I'm no expert, so please correct me if I'm wrong

HT1267 HAVE SET UP AN INCORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS. The call centre set up a new email address as the Username. I am unable to access the new account because the default on my phone is the email that is incorrect. How do I get the correct email as default

I HAVE SET UP AN INCORRECT EMAIL ADDRESS. The call centre set up a new email address as the Username. I am unable to access the new account because the default on my phone is the email that is incorrect. How do I get the correct email as default??

Thank you for your help, much appreciated
Regards
Geoff

BT "customer service" and Call centre processes......

I have been having intermittent drop outs on my wifi network for about 2-3 weeks now. I have a laptop, desktop and two notebooks connected (not all the time). So i took my laptop to a friend to check if it were the PC that was causing the issue, not surprisingly it did not. As the remaining 3 networked PC's also had a common problem, it made sense that a common fault existed. Therefore either the line into the house or the router was at fault. so, I checked the helpful BT step by Step checklist in regards fault finding - all checked out - but then again why wouldn't it as the fault is intermittent.
As we have had no audible issues (checked with neighbours in case the telephone exchange was faulty), I phoned the "helpdesk. Got a nice guy called Abhay, who diligently went though his spiel. After 25 minutes of me trying to explain that the fault was intermittent and that all I wanted was a new reliable router sending out (the current one is 2 years old) we arrived at this conclusion (and confirmed by his supervisor).
1. I would need to be in front of my PC and home router to go through one of his technical colleagues checklists.
2. The fault was recorded on my Call Centre Notes as intermittent and that it may not repeat under test conditions
3. Upon completion of the checklist regardless of the outcome of the troubleshooting, I was to request a replacement router be sent out - a fact also recorded on my call centre notes.
4. It was confirmed that this was the case that the check list would need to be completed but regardless of the outcome a router would be despatched immediately upon conclusion, "as it probably was the router given the fault and age".
I asked then, why it was necessary to call back and waste my time and bt resource ticking a box if the act of ticking the box has not influence on the outcome. All I want is a new router (and a good reliable service) which will be forthcoming after the fruitless box ticking exercise. I asked if he would be able to just send me a router now, he said not. I asked if I could escalate to someone who could authorise a new router, he said not. So I have to phone back and waste more time to get what we all know will be the eventual outcome.
I know there are processes, but why are there not supervisors/managers in BT who can a) think about customer expectations, b) consider the impact on customer’s time and BT resource in regards rigidity, c) think beyond a checklist, d) satisfy the needs of their customers?
I bet that bloke out of "my family" never has this issue - and don't get me started on Infinity....Virgin media is beginning to look more and more appealing (never had a problem with Virgin customer services in the past - holidays, mobile and healthcare - there is a theme about brand evangelists and customer loyalty here. Virgin treat their customers as honoured guests where you (BT) seem to think you have a god given right to provide service and customers are loyally bound to the brand – I have been a BT customer as long as I’ve owned my house (25 years ish), and remained loyal but this is not the way customers should be treated.

These people don't give a hoot. It's not about "developing a customer relationship" or meeting basic expectations.
Customers are treated as problems -- to be palmed off with a line (I have heard multiple stories as to what my oustanding fault is (2 months now and I phone every few days)).
They don't appear to communicate at all with each other -- even if you have phoned up every few days for months they will act as if that is the first time you have phoned. You will be asked the same questions again and again -- what type is your line box I have answered probably a dozen times recently. What is your telephone number when you have already dialled it in. I even went through a month or so last year when they were denying I was a customer. They don't record anything. They are completely disorganised. They go through the motions of a line test again and again to seem to be effectual. The indians are apologetic and you can believe it -- but the British aren't.
I think you've hit it on the head that the culture of the state owned monopoly BT has perpetuated (at least in the UK). They think we owe them a living.

Failed Call Centre Support

Last month, I contacted BT asking if my exchange is getting an upgrade or not, and one of the guys at call centre said that my exchange will get fibre optic today (2nd February).
Today, I've been checking the BT Infinity availability and it says I only can get BT Total Broadband which is fed by the aging cobber cables, speedtesting and checking my exchange information on Sam Knows - nothing have altered. Obviously my exchange haven't been upgraded.
Now, why did the call centre give a customer such inaccurate information?

Because IMHO they tell you anything to get you off the line as quickly as possible..
When I recently joined BT I took a package BB,Vision & Calls, I had confirmation of everything apart from when the calls would be activated so I called the helpline and turns out due to an error the order had not been placed. Fair enough these things happen and a second order was placed and was given a date of 28/01/10 for activation.
This date passed and I was still being billed by Virgin so you guessed it called the helpline. I was told by the helpful advisor oh yes your calls are most certainly with BT now and we are billing you for calls. With this I contacted Virgin to see why they were charging me only to find BT had sent no request to cancel the CPS on the line and calls were indeed still with Virgin.
Another call to the BT helpline confirmed this was the case and a 3rd order had to be placed. So why was I told my calls were with BT by the previous advisor, mistake or lie you make your own mind up.
I have also had problems with broadband but that's on another thread, on one contact to the helpline discussing my IP profile it suddenly occurred to me the advisor had no clue what an IP profile was but was still quite happy to make things up as she went along. After asking if she knew what it was she put me on hold and come back saying there is a fault in my area and that is why I am being disconnected and losing internet access. Bizarre as I have not been getting disconnected or losing internet access at all.
I concluded she did not have the technical knowledge to answer my enquiry so just decided to make this up to get me off the line. How can this be helpful in any way?
I have worked in a call centre and not saying they are all the same but the management seem obsessed with call times, the quicker you get them off the phone the better as more calls are handled per hour/day ect. This pressure feeds down to the advisor and pressure is on to deal with your call as quickly as possible.
This only leads to one thing, poor customer service. The thing is the ones who lie or say anything to get you off the phone have good call times and management are happy. However if like me you actually wanted to help and spent a little time trying to resolve something your calls are longer and you are under performing.
I used to argue the case if you deal with it properly the first time yes the call is longer but it does mean the customer does not have to call several times with the same issue and it is better for the customer.
I think this is what is happening with BT technical helpline and they much prefer shorter call times to happy customers, even if that means telling you what you want to hear because it's so much easier and quicker that way and lets face it there is no chance you will get the same person again and when you do call back angry you will get someone else to speak to anyway.
When I come to BT I knew there were cheaper services out there and the BB is quite expensive compared to some but I assumed paying a premium price I would get a quality service and good support should I need it. Well I have needed it and it sucks!
Apart from the moderators on this forum they are great and will do anything they can to help, shame they can't go to the call centre and teach them some good old customer service skills.

Bizarre phone fault - can anyone shed more light t...

We have recently moved into a rented house and switched to BT from day one as there was a special offer phone/broadband/TV package. But we have an odd phone fault and wondered if anyone had experienced similar?
We have a main socket which is different from any shown on BT website, with two identical slots each labelled "BT exchange line", each with a sticker with a different number (does not seem to be a phone number): the socket looks a few years old and the stickers have an obsolete customer service phone number on them.
We can plug a phone into one of the slots and it works and we have also now plugged the BT hub into the same slot via a splitter - that also works. The other slot is dead, so we assume it might be two separate phone lines.
But the main socket is in our daughter's bedroom so we need to use the various extensions in the house - we also need to connect our BT hub near the TV.
When we plug a phone into any of the extensions we get a dialling tone and can dial but when we get to the eighth digit (always the eighth) of whatever number we try we get "the number you have dialled has not been recognised".
After going through the BT faults site (no use as our main socket is not shown there and there is no reference to a similar fault with the extensions) we rang BT and got the call centre, which was frankly no help. They did not recognise this fault and seemed to have no technical knowledge at all. I asked to speak to an engineer and was told (I quote) "this facility is not offered" - this is clearly unsatisfactory (in fact, utterly stupid), our previous phone company always had experts on the end of the line if necessary and they twice helped us to sort out problems in a few minutes with no need for call out.
But BT said, very unhelpfully, that the only way they could help would be if, rather than a two minute phone chat, we called out an engineer for which we would be charged £129.99 if the fault turned out to be beyond the master socket. We had no way of knowing whether this was the case in advance (neither could the call centre operative enlighten us), given that the extensions DO seem to be connected to the line (as we have dialling tones), just not working for reasons that may or may not be to do with the main phone line or the way BT has connected our number.
Obviously £129.99 is a ridiculous call out charge for what could be two minutes work. It also seemed suprising that BT could not immediately access a record of what sockets were installed by BT itself in the house and that the call centre seemed never to have encountered before the type of socket we have. And that BT then advised us "to contact a local engineer" - should not BT have local engineers, we live near Reading so hardly the back of beyond?
In fact, even more bizarrely, a BT engineer, local or not, had already visited WITHOUT an appointment a few days previously after we had first contacted BT to say the phones were not working properly and phoned us from outside asking for access to the house....but this was during a period when we had notified BT in three separate ways (phone, text and e-mail) that we would be away.....
All in all we are mystified by the nature of the fault - if anyone on this forum has experienced similar, it would be great to hear about it - and equally so by BT's response to it and by its apparent policy that no-one with any expertise should speak to us about it without a £129.99 charge - hardly the way to welcome and retain new customers in what is now a competitive market! After a forceful complaint it seems that we will now be able to talk to someone other than the call centre....but not clear whether this will be a qualified engineer and getting this far has already taken hours of our time.

Sounds like you have a LJU4.... In the early to late 90's when people got dial up BB a lot of them took a second line, so they could use phone/internet at the same time......
To stop people requiring two overhead cables from the pole and two different NTE's BT created the Drop Wire 10b, a 2 pair aerial cable. Orange/White pair 1 and Green/Black pair 2. They then did the double socket, LJU4 so you wouldn't need 2 separate sockets....
I would imagine the LJU4 would be your *Master Socket* and the others would just be extensions off it.... That's just my opinion though, without actually seeing the wiring setup I couldn't say....
Can you get a pic of the socket and a pic of the wiring behind it?

Can a call centre hack my number???

Every day between 6pm and 7pm I get calls from people in the local area saying they have received a call from me. When i say calls, I mean every 2-3 minutes.
Some people who call say they hear what sounds like a call centre, but then the line goes dead. Doing 1471, they get my number, realise its local and call me to find out what I want.
I have to say, the people calling me are very supportive and more pleasant to speak to than the frustrating waste of space that is the BT call centre!
BT have sent an engineer who says there is nothing wrong with the line. He has never heard of such a problem in over 30 years and suggested we try a new phone (which we have and unsurprisingly, that did not fix the fault).
Has anyone had this happen to them??
Can anyone suggest a possible solution??
BT seem totally unable to assist

so many people call me its untrue! i can 1471 most of them but i dont need to really as i chat to most of them to see if i can get any further info to help BT solve the mystery. they are all local people.
this fault is a real hassle :/
it appears to be me that is calling heaven only knows how many people
when the recipients of these calls do 1471, they get my number
sometimes they answer the phone, they get what sounds like overseas people on the end of the phone which then goes dead. when they do 1471, they then think perhaps it is not a nuisance call because they see it is a local number calling - namely me!!
needless to say, i have not randomly decided to make 100s of local calls in the style of a call centre - which is why i wondered if it is possible for someone to get in on my line ... for one hour a day! it is very bizarre.
Keith, i can see with-holding my number would help me to stop getting all the call backs, though would not stop all these people getting what is effectively nuisance calls. It may well come to that though if I can't get it resolved. Thanks

Useless call centre - how can I get an intelligent...

My broadband is dropping every couple of days, often for 5 to 10 minutes. Red lights on the modem and the BT Home Hub splash screen on the computer saying it can't connect to the internet.
I phoned the help number and spoke to a call centre presumably in India judging by the accent and odd use of the english language.
He checked the connection at his end and said it was fine. I repeated that it was OK now, but it had dropped an hour earlier, well as every couple of days.
"Now I have to explain something to you sir. Your hub can accumulate blockages. It is like static electricity they can make your light turn red and block your connection." WTF? He asked me to reset the hub to get rid of the static, despite the fact that I'd told him I pull the power on the hub every couple of days in the vain hope it'll speed up the reconnection (it doesn't).
Then he said again that his computer says there is no problem with the network so the fault must be in my house. So I repeat that the problem took place an hour ago, so the connection is fine now. I asked if the dropped connection an hour ago showed on his computer. "No sir. I can see your connection is fine". I asked about dropped connections in recent days, but he said there had been no dropepd connections.
He then started talking about wifi settings and that lots of devices on wifi can cause problems. So I repeated again that the box has a red light and all my devices can see the homehub interface, but we cannot get connected to the internet.
Then he started on about making sure we have the right wifi channel. So I said I wasn't going to talk about wifi anymore, the problem is with the network, and it happened an hour ago, and it happened on other days. "No sir, your connection is fine, I will email you some details about how to improve wifi in your house."
I then said I didn't want to talk about this anymore and I would end the conversation. I put the phone down.
Then my mobile rung "Sir, I have to tell you about your wifi." I reply "No thank you, I don't want to discuss this with you"
Then my moble rang again "Sir, there are some things I can tell you about fixing your wifi." I reply "No thank you, I don't want to discuss this with you"
arrrrggggghhhhhh !
Is there any way of speaking to a person who understands that a red light on the modem and a homehub that says it is dicsonnected from the broadband might actually be a problem with the broadband connection?
Also when I've had the same thing a few years ago I though the helpdesk operator could see how many dropped connections had taken place? The chap tonight was insistent there was no record of dropped connections.
edit to add: I'm on a Hub 5 type A plugged into the master socket. No other sockets in the house.

1. Product name:
BT Home Hub
2. Serial number:
+068343+NQ34940784
3. Firmware version:
Software version 4.7.5.1.83.8.204 (Type A) Last updated 22/01/15
4. Board version:
BT Hub 5A
5. DSL uptime:
0 days, 00:58:41
6. Data rate:
9995 / 39993
7. Maximum data rate:
11929 / 48683
8. Noise margin:
6.6 / 9.5
9. Line attenuation:
25.6 / 20.4
10. Signal attenuation:
25.4 / 20.0
11. Data sent/received:
8.6 MB / 61.5 MB
12. Broadband username:
[email protected]
13. BT Wi-fi:
Yes

Phone fault: call centre staff seem to be making u...

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