BT customer service, truly dreadful
02-September-2010
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BT customer service, truly dreadful

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Like many other 'gripers' I am a BT customer.  The problems began in ernest when I accepted an email offer for the total broadband package in September 2006.  After numerous calls to BT customer service, where people could find no record of my order, eventually the package 'arrived' at Christmas.

For a year, after initial teething problems, the service was good; then from Christmas 2007 the Internet connection drop off became a daily occurrence.  The engineers visited my property on three occasions and they did everything they could. (If only the rest of BT personnel were as thorough and helpful.)  The engineers identified the problem as a 'long line issue'.  Essentially this means BT have to replace / upgrade 800 yards of distribution cable to provide a continuous signal.  Up to 8MB they offered when I signed up, however, the actual speed I received was 0.42MB at best.

Eventually, after hours of fraught discussions with BT, the technical department agreed to refund my line rental.  Also agreeing that I would not be required to pay broadband line rental until the cable was replaced.

I thought this was very fair of BT. However, the next quarterly bill arrived with no credit against it for the line rental.  More fraught long-winded calls with BT customer service.  As others have described: transferred from to department to department. In the end the matter was sorted out.  Regrettably I have to grapple with the same procedure every quarter to obtain the credit.  I am now on the fifth quarterly session.

BT customer service, truly dreadful

On one occasion a lady in customer service actually told me they are essentially paid to listen and can do precious little.  The BT customer service advisers can remove certain items wrongly charged to a bill, but have little if any powers to authorise any compensation.

I have been a BT customer for many years.  The service has deteriorated since call centres moved out of the UK and in essence the impression gained is this: BT unofficially or otherwise seem to operate a policy of making life extremely difficult for UK domestic users.  I'm sure their customer complaints statistics look quite good.  Probably because there is no clear route to a reasonable conclusion.

If I had £5 for every failed promise and meaningless apology received from BT I could retire very comfortably for the rest of my life.

By: Veo


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dont even get me started on BT, the worse service I have ever received, they made error after effor with me, 12 after I moved away from the property where I held the contract im still being hastled by them. they made an error and got debt collectors involved and now admit it was their fault but im still being bothered by them and no sorry, no letter to confirm it or put a stop to it, they will be losing customers very fast, already all my family and friends are switching to other suppliers. monkeys could do a better job!
*sam  13-Aug-2010 13:23

 
If u r not happy try 24 Talk with 90 days trail period ...that first three month there is no Contract ...???
*Jack  16-Jul-2010 12:14

 
If you think BT is bad try TALKTALK, yep, BT customer service is bad and tech support is just as bad, but compared to TT your in internet heaven with BT.
*Micheal  12-Jul-2010 12:09

 
Veo Why put up with this un-proffessional service there are alternatives you know!
Look the company I use are polite,very very successful,value for money and a no nonsense kind of business.Just go here have a brows you will be pleasantly surprised too.www.bestbillsaver.co.uk
If you know anyone,anyone at all that is having problems with BT,Sky,TalkTalk just send them there too.
These kind of companies need to know that they do not own you and they can't monopolise the situation that many of us face! It makes my blood boil when I hear of such stories who do they think they are!
bestbillsaver
*bestbillsaver.co.uk  23-May-2010 10:06

 
BT broad band is not what it all made out to be I have had it for 2 years now and it has gpne off nearly every month. I have weekend free calls but can not phone out on the braod band phone. I have compained lots of time but they put me onto the callcentre that costs me a lot of money because I have to use my mobile phone. I email and they say there is a free phone number aaaa. It does not hel when I have no voice and have not had a voice for a long time which I have said but BT still phone me. I am looking for a better braodband and will cahnge. Hmmm as im righting this letter my braodband is flashing ready to go off again. so im trying to keep this short before I have to do it all again. anoyed customer.Please dont phone me!!!!!
*heather  29-Jan-2010 18:10

 
BT's own website is extremely slow. Try going to 'Manage Services' but expect to wait all day, if you are lucky, just to get there, which, by the way - may never happen!
*Sapp  15-Dec-2009 11:58

 
Almost exactly the same problems I have had. Also, don't trust the BT desktop help supplied with broadband. It has crashed my PC so many times and once you have it you can't get rid.
BT owe me over £700 in credits which I have proved to them several times over the past year, they keep promising to put my account on hold until it is sorted, then a few weeks later they cut me off again! All because they can't sort their accounts errors out. And never believe them when they say they will ring you back - stay on the line as you'll never get that call.
*BFG  02-Dec-2009 13:53

 
BT Answer 1571. You cannot turn it off temporarily. You either have to have it or not as the case may be. As it can only hold 10 calls - what an honestly feeble and pathetic number, and they charge you heavily [unspecified] if you want to "Retun the Call". As they have discontinued access via Internet or remotely by phone. As it always butts in when you call and the phone is occupied costing 15p on my mobile whether I want to leave a message or not. As ... As ... I am going to have this service completely cut off. It's useless.

BT Answer cost me over £2 in change once when I was trying to get through urgently from a call box and the line was occupied.

Oh La La why do I have to live in a useless land run by useless monopolies, dangerous banks, overprice restaurants, meaningless governments ...?

Jump on the Greedy Gravy Train ...
*La La Luton Land  29-Nov-2009 13:22

 
Hmmm. Interesting reading.
I too have experienced many of the problems mentioned here. A previously working BT broadband service that now disconnects so frequently on some days that it is essentially unusable. Reduced to 1Mb (to solve the problem - but doesn't) - told its a long line problem (but its only 1 mile from the exchange and worked fine before) - finally replaced a damaged section of external line (still doesn't work) - eventually replaced the hub (still doesn't work) - refuse to increase the line speed (they say the line can't carry more - nonsense, I've seen line test results for 3.6 Mb) - call me at any time of the day and expect me to answer the phone within 4 or 5 rings or they hang up (they don't answer so fast - takes more than 20 mins sometimes) - put me on hold for minutes on end - refuse to put me through to a UK help centre (you have to contact BT head Office if you want some UK help) and all in all provide the lousiest Communications Customer Support Service I have ever come accross. I don't blame the overseas help desk operatives - they are just "following orders" - but I DO blame the people who designed and put in place such a terrible system. I will be voting with my feet and going elsewhere for my Internet Service in the future.
*B.  22-Nov-2009 18:01

 
I work for BT Retail and feel I need to point out that Up to 8Mg, is exactly that. It means we will provide the best speed your line is capable of supporting up to 8Mg. The longer your line has to take to the exchange, the more the line stability will degrade and in order to avoid you having a dropping connection problem, the speeds need to be reduced.

If you have had technical problems, I advise that you contact the technical helpdesk again. Tell them that billing have asked for a technical advisor to call billing and authorise the credit to your account for technical problems. They should then do this for you and if billing do place a credit, they will provide a reference number which you should quote to billing if you still do not get the credit.
Since the call will come from another advisor, it will carry more weight in getting billing to actually credit your account.
*BT Retail Business Broadband Technical Support Advisor  27-Oct-2009 22:36

 
I work for BT Retail and feel I need to point out that Up to 8Mg, is exactly that. It means we will provide the best speed your line is capable of supporting up to 8Mg. The longer your line has to take to the exchange, the more the line stability will degrade and in order to avoid you having a dropping connection problem, the speeds need to be reduced.

If you have had technical problems, I advise that you contact the technical helpdesk again. Tell them that billing have asked for a technical advisor to call billing and authorise the credit to your account for technical problems. They should then do this for you and if billing do place a credit, they will provide a reference number which you should quote to billing if you still do not get the credit.
Since the call will come from another advisor, it will carry more weight in getting billing to actually credit your account.
*BT Retail Business Broadband Technical Support Advisor  27-Oct-2009 21:50

 
omg I belived I was the only one . do bt surfpervisers excist are they wired to the moom? not my number!
*peter  23-Sep-2009 12:18


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