Re: Bizarre Broadband Service from BT :(

Question

BT Service, don’t go there.
After being a loyal customer of BT for over ten years this is the saga and what you might expect if you reporting a fault.
It all started over three months ago when I first reported that I was having problems with my broadband signal dropping connections. At first things seemed to go well and after going through the usual tasks like changing filters changing Ethernet cables resetting the home hub and several other tasks all that did not make any change in the situation they said that they would send an engineer out, but I was informed that it would cost me £99 if the fault was found to be on my equipment. It turned out that it wasn’t and it was put down to an outside line fault. The engineer said he would try to switch my connection at one of the boxes and this seemed to work for a while but I was still having problems but I was now getting used to them and although they were irritating I was beginning to live with them as BT seemed to have no answer.
Then came the switch over on BT Vision (Oh yes I have everything with BT my phone, my broadband and my TV) I had been advised that the switch was coming and did as I was asked leaving my Vision box on although I was going on holiday. Sadly when I returned from holiday I had no TV.
I rang BT service the usual 20 minute wait till young lady in a call center in India (Or some other Asian country) came on the line. I explained my position to her then my post code, telephone number. Mother’s maiden name, and account number.
Conversation went like this.
BT. “How can I help you?”
Me. “I have no TV my BT vision doesn’t seem to be working.”
BT. “Have you tried resetting your vision box?”
Me. “Yes.”
BT “It might be your cable can you change your Ethernet cable.”
Luckily I had one so we did that
BT. “Is that any better?”
ME “No it’s just the same.”
BT “Is your vision box connected by an Ethernet cable or a Scart lead?”
Me. “A Scart lead.
BT. “Can you change that.”
Luckily I had one of those as well so we did that.
BT “Is that any better?”
Me. “No it has made no difference, may I ask you something I understand that BT vision as changed  recently could it need resetting or something.”
BT. Silence for a moment “I don’t think we have made any changes.”
Me. “Well I had a letter before I went away to say the BT vision was changing don’t you know anything about that?
BT. “No I haven’t been told anything about that?”
Me “I’m sorry but I don’t think you know what you are talking about can you put me on to someone who can help me.”
BT. “I’m sorry there is no one here who can help.”
Me. “Well I need someone to sort this mess out can you get someone to call me.”
And with that I hung up.
I went on the BT web site (the one they always try to get you to use) to try and find out how to reset my BT it was hard to understand unless you have a degree in IT but I did find out that my Vision box needed reprogramming and after some difficulty I managed at last to get a program.
The following morning I received a call from BT.
BT “Good morning I understand you are having problems with your BT vision box.”
Me. “Yes I was but I think I might have got it sorted.”
BT. “How did you do that?
Me. “I did a channel scan.”
At this point he asked me what I had done and I explained as well as I could and then he kindly offered to go through with it again. Nice man I thought, very helpful. But that was the start of my problem. He told me what to do and I followed his instructions to the letter but when we tried to rescan it refused to do so.  So again we checked leads changed filters restarted the vision box all to no affect.
BT. “Well we’ve tried everything I think the problem is with your Arial.”
Me “No way the Arial is working perfectly on my other set.”
BT “Well it can’t be anything else; it’s defiantly your Arial.
Me “look I’m sorry but I want and engineer to come out and sort it.”
BT. “If we send an engineer out it will cost you £100 for is visit.”
Me “You’ve got to be joking; you caused the problem I had it working now it’s up to you  to sort it out and I will not be paying anything.”
At this stage I was put on hold for several minutes. Then he returned.
BT. “I have spoken to my line manager and he says we will send an engineer out and you won’t be charged.
I thanked him very much but the problem they couldn’t send an engineer out for a week so I would have 7 days without my BT Vision.
The engineer arrived week later, within minutes he found my Ariel was working perfectly with a very strong signal but the vision box was faulty. He tried doing a factory reset on it and did manage to get it working. He said he wasn’t happy about it and if it went again I should ring back straight away if it went again.
Sadly it did go wrong and I rang BT explained the situation and they said they would send an engineer out to fit new box but earliest appointment was one week away. That would mean 2 weeks without BT vision.
Appointment day and time arrived but no engineer waited in all afternoon until 4.30 then rang BT after 20 minutes I got through. Apparently the engineer had called and there was no one in so he said but he thought the bell might have been faulty. I asked why he had not rung me as he had my number all engineers do have this on their job card. Answer “I’m sorry I don’t know we’ll have to arrange another appointment.” “When will that be?” I asked in trepidation.
Yes you’ve guessed it yes in another seven days.
And at this point I’m sorry to say lost my cool, and after some argument we managed to get it down to a couple of days.
Happy days at last new box installed everything working well, very nice engineer asked if there were any other problems, so I mentioned about my broadband signal dropping out, he checked my router asked how long I had had it, I couldn’t really remember I thought about eight years or so. His comment was this could be part of your problem you need to get a more up to date one because you won’t be able to get HD with this one anyway so it wants changing.
Following day rang BT service another 20 minutes wait to get through explained the situation but was told that I couldn’t have a new router as I wasn’t in an area that got BT infinity, I explained that I wanted infinity as soon as it was available but that wasn’t good enough was told that they would sort my old router out.
So here we go again changing cables switching box on and off checking my extensions the lot took about 30 minutes, and then was asked to install my router to the main telephone in box so that they could run a 24 hour test on it. Had to remove it from the computer to do this so I had now no internet connection, I was told to ring if the connection went down. Within one hour I had the connection drop twice rang BT took 35 minutes to get through after going through the third degree I was told that they were still testing and they would ring me the following day ad 9 am with the result.
I explained that I would not be in the following day so they offered to ring me on my mobile at 9am I received no call but sometime during the day I was contacted by text to say they had called and I was to ring a certain number and a pin but they would close at 9pm.
Called BT at 20.10 was on the phone for almost 1 hour all I got was “sorry we are very busy we will connect t you to an operator as soon as possible” at 21.05 decide not to bother any more as the place would be closed anyway
Rang again following morning again a 35minute wait, BT. “Sorry can’t tell you anything we are still checking apologized for not calling but said we will for definite between 16.00 and 18.00 today.
By 18.10 no call had been received so I  rang BT again 35 minute wait again and lo and behold we are back in Asia going through the third degree again telephone number (which he couldn’t grasp must have been slightly dyslexic) account number, mother’s maiden name, post code and all the rest, had to go through all the story again after 15 minutes he said I needed to go to higher level and  said he would transfer me and I was back to 30 minutes of “I’m sorry we are very busy” again.
Finally another Asian name I couldn’t get “Hello can I help you?”
Good start someone wants to help, Me. “Are you from the higher level.”
BT, “No”
Me “I’ve been transferred to speak to someone of the higher level.”
BT. “Well you’ve come through to me, what is your problem?”
We go through the whole story again,
BT. Well I’m sorry but I can’t help you you need to speak to someone on the higher level I’ll transfer you.”
At this point I’d been on the phone for 1 hour and 15 minutes and I was tired, frustrated and getting more annoyed by the minute. I told the gentleman that I had decided at that point that I needed to cancel my contract and try another supplier and I put the phone down.
After taking a deep breath and relaxing over a cup of coffee I decide to ring sales and see how I was fixed with my contract, what a brilliant move that was I got someone with intelligence and consideration, I explained my situation he was appalled by the way I had been treated, and apologized on behalf of BT he said he would check on screen to see if he could help in anyway.
He saw that he could see that everything I said was correct and surprise, surprise (as Cilla used to say) there on the screen was the answer to my problem, they had checked thing out and the reason and cause of my problem was a fault on my line that had now been passed over to Open Reach, Why didn’t the other operators know this and why wasn’t I told this before, why had I had to spend over 4 hours on the phone, why had I had to be without my broadband for three days.
I’ve had over two weeks without my BT vision and now three going on four days without my broadband, but what can you do about it  there is no one you can call to complain to, no customer service department no one to give  apologies, no offers of refunds for service not received and to rub it in you have to watch costly adverts on TV and in newspapers  saying how good BT is and how wonderful their new router is (according to the TV it never drops a connection) not like mine. You can believe this if you want to but I’m not happy with the service I’ve received from them over the last few weeks.        

Answer 1

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