Random appointments with BT engineers

hey calm down , I just have been used to it. I made my first appointment for landline in November last year, since I had to go abroad, I delayed it to 15th December, but the engineer didnt come here. After 6pm, I called the BT's customer service, they said sorry and made me another appointment on 26th, no surprise, no one came here, actually I wasnt sure they would work on 26th Dec, but if they dnt work on that day, y they made it on 26th? I told myself is bcoz the heavy snow outside, dnt b mad. I called them after 6pm, and made one more appointment at 11th Jan, 2010, nobody showed up. I called again, they promised me the engineer will come here on 25th, and 2 hours after I hanging up the phone, I got a txt from bt about my appointment is delayed to 26th, exactly today, now is 5:23pm, still nobody hav contacted with me. Actually just 5 days ago, BT's engineer called me to comfirm they would come here on 26th, and I called them back to recomfirm it... I really don't understand that how a company like BT with such 'unique' customer services can survive until today

From our experience with BT your story doesn't come as a surprise: BT seems to have a policy of treating customers with utter contempt. Since we had our BT line installed last summer we've had constant problems with the phone line. About 5-6 times the line has cut off, gone completely dead. Even when it was working there was constant interference on the line. Calling BT (very expensive if you're forced to use a mobile) usually takes the best part of an hour to get through to a human being, at which point they will tell you there's nothing wrong with the line and it must be your fault. Eventually (after having been put through to countless different people) they agree to send someone out to fix it.. but we're usually left without a working phone for a week, there is no apology or explanation for why the line was cut off I the first place, and no refund for the money they charged for the time they weren't supplying a service.
Anyway to cut a long story short, when our phone went dead again on Friday this time we decided we would just cancel the BT line and go with a different company. We had used BT for about 10 years in various homes, but our treatment over the last 12 months has left us determined to never use them again. My advice to anyone thinking of getting a phone line is to avoid BT at all costs.

I ordered BT Vision and got an appointment with an Engineer. I took day off work and he never turned up. Rang BT to re-arrange and was told 2 weeks time. Again, took day off work, engineer didn't turn up. So rang BT AGAIN, to be told the old order hadn't been cancelled, so wouldn't be able to have put another order thro in first place..... this person would cancel old order and re-book for 2 weeks time. Guess what, they STILL didn't turn up (got my Mum to wait this time). When I range AGAIN, was told the original order still hadn't been cancelled, but they would cancel and re-book. By this time, I told em 'No way, cancel it' 2 months later, got a bill for Vision that i'd never actually had!!!! Rang em up and told em and surprise surprise, the original order was still on my account!!!!!. Got it sorted in the end, but then to add insult to injury, they rang me 3 months later asking me if I was interested in ordering Vision cause there was a special offer on!!!

Phoned BT again and they now tell me the system canceled my order, no reason can be given and now I have to re-book. Next available appointment is two weeks times

This as cost me around £300 in loss of income and telephone bills. Their compensation is £10 (OFCOM regulation) appalling service and not once did they call me

BT are just terrible. I went to my empty new home for a Morning appointment. Engineer didn’t arrive so called BT and they told me it had been moved to afternoon appointment. No conformation or nothing. Engineer didn’t arrive in the afternoon so tried to call them again. First the auto answer system cut me off saying I don’t have a valid phone number. Called their sales team who put me through to customer services only to be told there computers had crashed and they would call me back

I had exactly the same problems with BT after 3 half days booked off work (they missed the first two altogether despite sending me a letter AND a text to confirm both!!) and they only offered me a paltry £10 per missed appointment. This is far less than even the minimum wage, so quite how it compensates anyone I'm not sure. I've now taken the complaint further to OTELO. I suggest you do the same. Its shoddy, its unfair and it shouldn't be happening.

This is vintage BT. They are riddled with incompetence, stupidity and they basically don't care. I had an engineer booked for the weekend before last, he didn't turn up because BT had tested the line (externally) and decided it was working - it wasn't, obviously. So I re-booked the appointment and he turned up this weekend, stayed for about 15 minutes then left. When I asked him if everything was working, he said yes but refused to stay for me to test it. Obviously, this is BT, so it wasn't all working, only the line was, the internet was not. I've just called BT now and they've told me that they decided to cancel my broadband order because it had taken too long to resolve (?!?) they didn't tell me they were going to cancel it, of course. I've just spoken to another advisor who told me that they will call me tomorrow and try to resolve it. When I asked her to send me an e-mail to confirm what we had talked about and that someone would call me tomorrow, she told me she cannot because she doesn't have access to e-mails! Ridiculous, I thought but then I remembered that it was, afterall, BT I was calling so of course she didn't have e-mail access!

Sounds like you need to speak to someone who knows about computers, not a Broadband provider. Surely anyone with half a brain cell would know this...... BTW, you don't mention if and how much you would be willing to pay for this service. If you make it worth my while then I might be able to fix it for you with my 1/2 a cell. I may even turn up at 19:00 on Saturday if you pay premium rate. You must understand that I'm very busy during the week trying my best to be incompetent and not visiting when I'm meant to.Working 9-5 is slave labour, I don't get up until 11:00 and am normally home by 14:00. But of course you already know this don't you as all BT engineers are useless work shy tossers aren't they.

nope the problem was that anyone with 1/2 a brain cell (ie not last poster) would see that creating a patch to get the modem working is fine but making it so that you have to download it on the pc you want to get online is idiotic (can not download to another pc for some reason).

Would be useful and reasonable to expect saturday, or till 7pm for that part of the population that work 9-5 (ie most of us)

BT, lets get this straight. You built a new PC and couldn't get your modem to work. So that's the fault of a bt engineer not turning up when you want at 21:00 is it ? Why don't you just **** off to Virgin then, I'm sure that they would send an engineer round at a time convenient to yourself to sort out a problem that you have caused and of course it would be free of charge.

I'm never sure why I am with BT as there unreliable, unhelpfull and a number of words. There engineers turn up days late, if at all.

My favourite was when had built a new PC and installed a new OS. I was having trouble getting the BT modem working (BT services as well). I phoned up the technical help and when they had finished reading the script (eg change microfilters, try in main socket, usefull as modem works with other PC). After a line test and the threat of sending an engineer to look at the line when convenient (as long as between mon-fri 9-5 is convenient).

They finally told me that I had to download and install a patch direct to the PC with the problem and that it would get the modem to work. Got them to repeat this 3 times to be clear.

I had problems with BT as well, I was away working in Africa for some months and didn't require my phone line whilst away so terminated it temporary untill I got back,. When I arrived back home I needed my phone line for my Internet connection but trying to speak to someone about this was trying to get blood from a stone, I waited nearly 3 hours to get through only to be passed from pillar to post by incompetent advisors, eventually my temper flared, I ended up speaking to operator services and getting the manager, I did my research and told the manager BT was acting outwith the Customer Charter and that I was losing money due to losing my Internet connection, and if my line was not active within 3 working days (The standard time they say 5 working days but in the customer charter it is 3 working days)i told them I would start seeking Legal Advice on Loss of Earnings, and trust me the attitudes changed then. My line was active within 48 hours so just got to show you have to be persistent with them, or any company like that. Honesty BT start taking Customer Service Hints from Prospective Companies like SKY who have the best Customer Service out there, otherwise your in the running of supplying the worst Customer Service like British Gas is now.