Yes, I detest the company British Telecom (BT) with all my heart. As far as I am concerned, they are the Microsoft of the telecoms world! No, that’s not true. Microsoft don’t even come close to this lot.
Their service is p**s poor and I will be sacking them in the near future. I don’t suppose they really care, but it will make me feel better and I live in hope that one day they wake up and realise that losing customers in droves due to their crap service for so many years is perhaps not a good business model after all!!!! The mighty have much further to fall than the rest of us.
Here’s the first example of the cockups and ineptitude of the so called experts in telecommunications. Pleeeeease! I will post other examples soon…
I’m moving house this week. In plenty of time, I have ordered a new telephone number for the new house. As we have access to the house before we move out of the one we’re selling, it gave me more time to get my broadband order in time to negate the “7-10 working day” delay between ordering and it becoming active. I’m trying to set up a business and am studying for a qualification, so cannot do without Internet access. So, BT very happily set up the new number, which went live on Friday (it is now Monday). Great stuff.
I spoke to my ISP on Friday once I’d had notification from BT that the line was live and said I’d like a new account setting up for Broadband. Nope. “Sorry sir, the line isn’t showing on our system yet. Please wait up to 72hrs for activation. We’ll try again on Monday”. Hmmm. So I can use the line and make calls, but nobody can flick a switch and activate broadband for 72hrs?!?! Ok. So, I rang my ISP again this afternoon (Monday, 75hrs later) and…”Sorry sir, the number is still not showing up!”. What?! So, I rang BT. I got their very efficient sounding automated line checking service. It said the line wasn’t showing up as active (erm, really?!) and as there was a long queue, would I like a free call back within 45 minutes? Yes please. I gave my mobile number and sat waiting. I’m on the pooter with my mobile in my shirt pocket. 45 minutes later, the ringer went off for literally a fraction of a second. Missed call from an 0800 number. I rang it…”we have tried calling you back, but there was no answer”. Pardon? I’m human. If I’d been sat with my finger on the answer button, I would have missed the damn call because it rang for such a short time! So, I tried again. Guess what? Yep, exactly the same. So, BT have a record of their system ringing my number. From their point of view, their job is done. Tossers.
Right, so I was a bit miffed by now as you can imagine. All that preperation starting to unravel. I then decided to ring the line fault service and speak to an actual human. Now, BT have this amazing menu system that keeps you in an endless loop as soon as you start picking options that suggest you are getting closer to speaking to a person. It’s designed that way (I suspect!) to keep you from doing so! So, I then rang the operator. I told them that I was stuck in this loop and they put me straight through to a person in the line fault dep’t! Wow! So, I started telling this polite lady called Anna what the problem was. She said, the line won’t show up with my ISP and is listed as “inactive” because the “order is still open”. Erm, sorry what? She put me hold while checking something and cut me off. Great. Back to the operator. Back to someone different in line fault dep’t. He said: “Yes, your line is inactive because the order is still open and you need to speak to customer services”. Oh, great. Thanks for your help! He put me “straight through”…
After 25 minutes on hold, waiting for customer services (oxymoron!), I got someone on the phone. Yes, an actual human being. They could speak and think and everything! Anyway, they said: “Oh, right. Well you need to speak to the line testing department because the order is still listed as open”. I lost the plot at this point and got a tad annoyed. Her explanation was that only the “line testing department” could close the order and she put me “straight through”.
I got another person on the phone. I patiently explained the crap I’d gone through so far and she said “Well, why did you speak to customer services?”. “Erm, because that’s who I was put through to!”, I replied. “No. They can’t deal with this as it has to be us!” she said. So, after almost 2hrs, I’d actually managed to get someone in BT to take responsibility for something. Bloody amazing.
She explained what was going on. Are you ready for this? I still don’t quite believe it……My new line was “activated” for calls on Friday lunchtime as promised and as per the text message I got. Great, still with me so far? The reason the new number/line wasn’t showing up with my ISP or with BT is because the line wasn’t activated for Broadband! This is what “the order is still open” means! Ahhhh. She then said: “The reason the order is still open and that the line isn’t activated for broadband is because you haven’t telephoned our department to tell us that the line is working correctly”. What the f*&k?!??!? Are these people taking the p*ss?
So, I’m supposed to develop super paranormal psychic powers and automatically know that as a customer, I am supposed to ring the company who are providing my telephone line and tell them that it works. Whereupon they will “activate” my line for broadband!?!?! OH. MY. GOD! What planet are these people on??
She further explained that she could not “close the order” because I had not plugged a phone into the line at the new house, made a call and confirmed that it works!!!! She wouldn’t budge on this. But, hang on a minute…BT are a multi-billion pound, international telecommunications giant. I, as their lowly and insignificant customer have to get in my car with a telephone, drive to the new house we are about to move into, plug the telephone into the socket and make a call to confirm that the line is working. BT can’t do this remotely?!?!?!??!! Incredible. I am truly amazed.
Oh, yes…To add insult to injury…because I didn’t ring them until today and because the line wasn’t activated until today, I have now lost three days lead time on my broadband order. As there’s a seven day lead time from order to activation, instead of waiting until the middle of this week, I now may have to wait until the middle of next week. I’m in the process of studying for a new qualification and need access to various websites. I am also right in the middle of setting up a business and cannot do anything without Internet access. Which is precisely why I spent so much time and effort last week setting up a new telephone line and new account with my ISP. Talk about snafu and fubar!!!!
Yes, BT have to take the biscuit for being the most incompetent company in the world. By far. They eclipse Microsoft by an order of magnitude, and that is a major achievement! My congratulations.
I am still reeling as I write this rant. I have spent 2hrs of my life today…two days before I move house, like I have nothing better to sodding do, speaking to six different people in six different departments and locations across the UK in order to find out that one thirty second phone call on Friday afternoon could have saved me all this trouble! Unbelievable.
Once again, BT have proved their ineptitude and incompetence and general lack of consideration for customers who spend fruitless hours upon hours trying to get some effective action to be taken. It’s pointless.
Jim
The Rant Man 
Jim,
“Thank you for holding, we ARE very busy at the moment, and apologise for the delay. You call WILL be answered as soon as possible.”
“This means whenever, after hours waiting we feel like it.”
“We lie about less busy times, just to get you of our line.”
————-
Microsoft are not perfect, but light years better.
Spent this week 5 hours waiting in queue on the phone, on two occasions a transfer got disconnected.
Trying to pay my bill with a foreign credit card (even accepted at Asda) is not allowed – because they’re British, one of their members told me. Had to pay cash at Post Office.
Spoken to 6 people already today.
Broadband and Line are sending me from pillar to post.
Would rather like to go to a store and just stand there.
Frans
how would you know if bt had a queue??? coz they are open. you all seem to think your the only customer that they have on the line… oh and of course i bet you sat there moaning to the advisor for ages about the q didn’t you ??? which is why it took so long to get to you !!!
Hi Frans,
Yes, they do lie and their staff just want you off their line and passed onto someone else. It’s just human nature I guess.
Microsoft have a very slick telephone service. The only issues I have with them (apart from being Microsoft) is that you don’t get to speak to an engineer unless you have a tech support article number or your credit card handy. It’s been a few years, but you used to have pay something like $200 for a chat with an engineer on the phone.
I don’t use BT as an ISP. Their fair usage policy is a joke, their paltry bandwidth limits make the broadband speeds pointless and their customer service is appalling.
Thanks for posting.
Jim
Hi Jim,
I hate BT too, and BT Openreach, and all subsidiaries of BT Group PLC.
I honestly thought Telewest and NTL were incompetent, but they have yet to earn their scouts badge in idiocy compared to BT.
I was told that my line would be active by 6am the following day when I placed my order (not a new line, just a reconnection “switch-flick”). Imagine my glee at such a prompt service by such a polite chatty sales person, who it turned out was either a complete liar, grossly misinformed, or just plain stupid. Maybe all three.
I have spent hours on the phone without even any hold music! Just the repetitive “ring ring” interspersed with the BT woman (whom I also now hate) telling me that they’re “very busy”…. THEN GET SOME EXTRA STAFF!!!
I have tried threatening to cancel my account (they nearly did it until I said “no, I just want it sorted!”).
I have tried being nice (“I don’t want to shout at anyone, I just want to know when my line will be available, if that’s going to be another week, fine, I just want to know”).
I have tried emailing their complaints department (“This is an automated response. Thank you for your complaint, it will be dealt with and someone will be in touch” – Still haven’t had a response after over a week).
I have been waiting for the statutory 10 days now, but can’t bring myself to dial their number again and go through the 2 hours of pain, increased heart rate and utter anger. Maybe it’ll all be OK on Monday…
The worst thing is, I’ve tried feeling sorry for the poor b*&”£%ds that have to answer the phone to angry BT customers all the time, but after a few calls, you soon lose the sympathy.
Perhaps I could sue them for the stress and mental torture they have put me through, not to mention the callouses that have built up on my ears from being pressed against the phone all week!
I hate BT. Pah!
get extra staff ???? im sure you’ll want to pay extra for that then… oh and by the way bt are a free phone number… unlike virtualy every other call provider
Hi Dan,
I really do sympathise. It’s absolutely typical of sales to give you a spin like that. The drone gets a sale and it matters not what happens after that because you’ve signed up to your 12mth contract! They have got you off the phone and it’s another one to tally onto their target for the month. All very neat and tidy for them.
Not to mention the fact that this monolith organisation employs people all over the UK and none of their departments seem to communicate. Ironic, isn’t it? What was the company again? British Telecom. Ahh, yes. The experts in talking. It’s quite scary when you think about it!
Of course, the employees don’t give a crap about you or your problems, as long as you aren’t shouting at them and/or they can pass you to someone else in some other department to deal with. I think that’s the part of the BT business philosophy!…Initially, pass the customer round and round the automated telephone menu system. If said customer is persistent or intelligent enough to manage to actually speak to someone, they automatically qualify for “pass the buck” onto another department. Eventually, with enough calls to BT, you will manage to find the needle in the haystack member of staff who can do something with your request…Or, should I say, who will convince you that they can deal with your request! I suspect you would do well to put some numbers on the next lottery on that day.
After the experiences I have had over the long years of misfortune having to deal with BT, I would have to say it’s a condition of employment that you must be a good “liar”, have expectations to be grossly “misinformed”, and “stupid” always helps.
I also found the deafening silence whilst on hold rather disturbing. Have I been cut off? Do I put the phone down and call again, wasting the hour I’ve already spent waiting? Or, do I take a gamble and hang on for another few minutes, which turns into another few minutes and another…? Yes, the woman who’s voice you occasionally hear is irritating in the extreme. If they have such a long queue, they need to sort out their crap service so that they don’t get as many calls and employ enough people to actually deal with the call levels. Again, it’s ironic that British Telecom (the alleged experts in their field!!!) can’t get their act together!
Threatening gets you nowhere. Been there and done that. The problem is that the drone you talk to doesn’t give a shit about you. They don’t give a shit about their job or the company. They hear people like you and me all day, every day and it’s just one more pain in the arse customer. So, you’ll close your account? Who cares. BT staff certainly don’t. They have nothing invested in the company which still thinks it has a monopoly on the business. How niaive.
In the end, you have to just grin and bear it. Eventually, you will get your line sorted out, but not until you have suffered. Check the small print of your 12mth (seems like a lifetime!) contract with them. I’m sure I saw something about the customer always comes last, after a very long wait interspersed with pain and suffering.
Keep your chin up Dan and don’t let the bastards get to you. They aren’t worth it. Hark at me, Mr. chilled!
Jim
I feel for anyone who has the misfortune of having to deal with BT, and as for the lady saying *we are very BUSY* in, I must say, a very harsh tone as if you deserve this fate they have dealt you, was a rare relief for me to hear, as after 30 minutes on hold this was disconnected and there was just endless ringing for one hour more, at least when BT lady was telling me that I was going to have to wait in limbo for further hours i knew I was actually on the phone to BT, I agree with the comments about the lack of hold music, I was not prepared to put the phone down and start again but I was afraid that I wasn’t actually ringing a number in the company anymore.
At the end of all the hellish nightmare that is trying to find someone who can actually deal with my query (after being told that my account was new and so was locked and unable to be accessed by the lady, a human one non the less, and put on hold to another department….*sigh*) I was still on hold at 8pm, this I thought might lead to a call back, or at least a system for end of day, nope, I was wrong it does get worse, they DO just cut me off….
Now I work for a company that supplies broadband (for the moment) and hosts domain names, and we take a lot of calls from irate customers, but at the end of the day we are NOT allowed to cut people off or leave them hanging until God knows when, and we are a small company in comparison!
It’s gone from being a small problem with them cancelling the engineer to fit our line, to being a huge issue because they refused to deal with it in the beginning, it’s a shame I cannot just leave them, but being in a small place called Lancaster limits everything and so cable is not available! I have also emailed the complaint line and got an automated response saying they were having a lot of emails due to the floods!!….yet another excuse for poor service…
Don’t you just wish there was some come back!!
Hi Sarah,
Thank you for your post, fellow Lancastrian!!! I now live in exile over the Pennines, but I hark from the wonderful county of Lancashire in days gone by. Born and bred. Oh, how I miss butter pies, steak and kidney puddings, chip shops that open after 7pm, barmcakes, parched peas, Preston market, the dulcit tones of the loverly Lancastrian accent. I could go on and on….but, back to the subject! Sorry.
Yes, you should be grateful to BT for being there to help! Amazing isn’t it? Not only do the staff talk to you like you’re their worst enemy, but the on-hold recorded voice makes it perfectly clear that you, as a customer, have no right to complain and should shut up and go away. Who do you think you are?! Hmmm, frustrating isn’t it?
Your account was new and locked? What on earth does that mean in English? Ahhh, hold on….I think that’s BT speak for “Nope, sorry. You’ve come through to the wrong department. Please wait while I put you on hold for two hours and eventually, someone in another department will probably answer and you can proceed to explain everything again. Thank you, please hold the line…”….silence. Yes, “pass the buck” is what that term means Sarah.
I wish there was some come back too. Some way of knocking the most arrogant company in the UK (Europe, the World?) off their bloody pedestal. I suppose offcom (spelling?) is one method of complaining. But, my suspicion is that you’re still a lonely voice who will make little or no difference. I know I’m cynical, but that’s my experience with companies like BT. By the time you’ve gone through the rigmarole of contacting the ombudsman, it’s taken so much time and effort to get anywhere that it’s probably not worth it anyway. What will happen? You’d probably end up with a pathetic excuse for an apology letter from some drone who’s simply opened one of BT’s generic letters in Word and added your name.
The only solution to this problem is to completely destroy BT’s monopoly and make them work for a living instead of sitting in their ivory tower laughing at people like you and me. Until that happens, nothing will change.
Take care,
Jim
I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT. I HATE BT.
I’m not sure what BT have done to you, but it must be very bad to feel that strongly.
Are they really worth getting so upset about? If so, why?
Jim
I dont hate BT……..
Detest them – YES
wish foul evil diseases upon them – yes
mourn the day I even contemplated having an account with them – yes
but hate them – no.
it all seemed so simple all those weeks ago………
move house and get bt line reconnected – get broadband and live happily ever after.
now for reality
1. when you can eventually get through to reconnections after several different numbers and time on phone you get reconnected although you have to pay £50 deposit ( which they failed to say doesnt get put on you account and so put you in credit – it just goes somewhere to reappear later)
2. a month or so later you get a overdue bill reminder saying you havent paid your bill
this is the bill for the account where you have had NO paperwork from BT so NO account number and so no way of paying.
3. you try to ring BT to sort it out but you get passed around again to a number where lord lucan and shergar man the phones ( ie you wait for at least an hour at a time on at least 6 occasions to wait to speak to a human.
4. Just before you lose the will to live you try to register on the website for online payment – guess what the site errors and you cant pay there.
5. while chewing your own elbow in dispair you ring the automated line to be told you need to speak to an advisor and then cuts you off.
6. you manage to a junior idiot at BT by mistake who suggest you ring the GB accounts team at 7.30am and hold on till they get in at 8am so you are higher up the queue.
7. when you ring at 7.30am it says you are already in a queue and you wait.
8. and you wait………
9. and by mistake BT actually answer the phone (result!!!!)
10. (NO.)
11. the person on the phone fails to grasp the simple idea that i wish to pay my bill but I cant get them to accept my money.
12. eventually admit defeat and just pay the bill and accept that my phone which has become disconected to all voice calls during this process should (HA! ) be reconnected within 24-48 hours.
13. Get home from work to find a bill from BT saying you now owe them £123
14. Calm down and realise that BT have decided that the Free international calls I make over my orange livebox which had been working perfectly should be charged at full cost of nearly £2 a minute – but only for 3 days during the month – the rest of the month it worked ok
15. Lose the will to live realising I’ll have to ring up BT again.
To be continued…………………………………….
Hahaha, i found a small corner of BT complaints. I dont feel pity for you. BT total broadband has several million customers and you expect to have perfect service all the time? Get a grip. I mean the reason that it takes so long to get to an agent on the phone is because were not robots and we must look after the customers we do get on the line. Any complaints you do have about BT you can send them to – complaints@btinternet.com
At BT total Broadband we have to maintain a 90% and above service level, thats damn good for 4500 calls a day and no, thats not call, after call, after call. There are breaks in between were not always busy, yes you can generally get through to us within 2 minutes if there is a queue.
Maybe if your fed up being transfered to other departments, call the correct department!! Ask any agent and they will give You the number you require as standard.
Have some logic people, what company doesnt screw up?
A complaints website is just sad, it will get no issue resolved, contact the email address above.
Never call up to have Broadband immediatly switched on, its not allowed, as regulated by Ofcom for all service providers to promote healthy competition. Another good reason for this is that an engineer is required upon every broadband order to go to the customers local exchange, 5 working days is generally enough time to have work completed, or at least evaluated. Remember – millions of customers, please be patient.
Further engineering work may be required on your line so every date that BT gives to customers is PROVISIONAL, it cannot always be counted on e.g the engineer that was on his way to your local exchange to get your broadband installed and crashes his van on the way/ family member dies /traffic problems/assigned to much work for one day/breaks his finger/gets electrocuted. What im trying to say is that the list of variables is almost endless. All dates are provisional.
Never call up and complain that your broadband has been switched off and you need it for business. This is a break in your term and conditions and BT can reserve the right to disconnect your broadband if they so wish and hold you to term.
You will never be compensted for losing business on a residential line, dont even attempt it. You can be compensated for the calls you do make to BT.
Broadband is not just a flick of a switch and *poof* its on.
If your broadband is not active by the date its supposed to be then you have entered into no contract with BT and BT do not owe you any form of service, although you may choose to go with a different service provider.
Almost all ADSL service providers use BT Wholesale, you will never speak to them but your SP will. Bt’s engineers will always be used unless they hire an outside contract to have work completed if it is unusually busy. All service providers rent BT’s lines so when it comes down to it, BT have to deal with it anyways.
Enjoy
Have been trying to activate my telephone line now for 2 weeks and a half…the wole think was meant to take 2 days to activate…been spending every lovely morning on the telephone listening to the usual BT waiting f**king tone….i hate them…if they had a store i would go there and wreck the place…f**king cu*ts…..bt i hate u forever and ever amen!
I had exactly the same issue. I went to madasafish who confirmed the order without the 72 hour wait.
I feel you pain however if you checkout http://www.thefifthrace.com I posted details about how to contact BT HQ on my blog
I have had a BT phone line and broadband package before this one, I had so meany problems with them and no help.
so I stopped paying them that got a reply. 2 missed bills = cut off & dedt collectors.
My broadband was more like dial-up and poor sound on phone line.
Tech help = Your service is fine.
Faults = Your phone line is fine.
I spent 2 mouths getting the run around. you need this department no sorry this one and so on and so on.
Want they don’t like telling you is they will restrict your service with no notice if they think you are a high user of the broadband, OW want joy.
BT should say in there AD’s “Welcome to the slow age with no help”
BT is like Wild Hogs “All the gear and no idea”
This is the third time with BT Less than 1 mouth in and you geust it rerun Slow speeds and no help.
I get more help from Google. Type the problem in run a search and most of the time a link to a solution if only BT was this easy.
Now microsoft I had to reactivate Windows XP after a crash it took the hole of 8 mins.
Hear is a break down.
2 mins on hold
6 mins talking to a human (Dave)
All I had to do was put a few numbers in and I was done and dave asked me to run a few things before letting me go just to check it was done.
Hears is a break down.
Full shut down and restart
run microsoft update
After doing this he said you seem to be fully unlocked any problems just phone back. Had none so far.
All I can say Jaime is: Use a proper Internet service provider. BT just play games and aren’t worth handing money to.
Sack them immediately! 🙂
Regards,
Jim
I hate BT too – they are an absolute shower of shite. When I was moving house and trying to sort out a number port I had to wait for hours on hold, was regularly internally transferred by one BT person to another who didn’t know what I was talking about. I’ve been trying to set up a direct debit on-line for two months now with repeated website errors. Jesus I hate them. When this contract is up then I’m off to a company that doesn’t leave me hanging on hold for hours.
BT I f*cking hate you you w*nkers!!!!!
Incompetant, useless time wasting idiots. Never has a company riled me so consitantly and so considerably on so many occasions. This department, that department, sorry we can’t deal with that problem, let me put you through to someone who can. We waited 2 months for a line to be “connected” – once that day had arrived and passed, still no line, I trotted off back to the phone box on the high street where i’d already spent an hour of my life arranging the connection – only to be told – sorry, you called back and cancelled the order request?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? WHATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT?!?!?!?!?!? Why would I cancel an order which had taken hours of my life and many grey hairs to set up?!?!?!?!? We can book you in for another connection date but I’m afraid the first time we can do is 6 weeks away. At this point I actually swore at the poor Indian man – but he stuck rigedly and annoyingly to his pre-prepared script… We’re now moving again and are currently on hold trying to sort out the next line…. I will self destruct in approx 2 minutes…
I HATE THEM…………
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
Giving BT money is like handing your money directly to Satan.
I ordered a new phone line from scratch In May 2007 (£125 installation). I got it in November 2007. That’s 6 months later!!!
Every time BT told me an engineer was coming on a particular date, he didn’t show. My flatmate gave up 5 shifts from work to wait for an engineer that didn’t show up. On 2 occasions he showed up on a date different to the one we were told.
Then we got our bill which we paid by phone. BT’s computer system is too stupid to recognise this and they took the payment from me again by direct debit a week later. I’m still waiting for my money back.
I have sent them 3 complaint letters now and every single one has been ignored. Not so much as an acknowledgment of receipt. Nothing.
So I’m going to the local press about this. And the ombudsman (Otelo) and Ofcom. Probably won’t get anywhere but I have to try. I won’t let that evil empire bully me. My blood is boiling now just by typing this.
If BT were just one man, I would have smashed his face in by now.
DON’T GIVE BT YOUR MONEY!!!!!!
Absolutely the most incompetent, infuriating company to deal with. One department does not know what another department is doing. They can’t even speak to each other because they can’t get through. They mix up orders and turn up at the wrong address. They try and sell you things that you expressly say you don’t need and they lose orders that they should have actioned days before. If there is one company that deserves to be broken up into tiny pieces it is BT!
Further to my earlier comment…
Finally gave up on BT so called The Phone Co-Op…
Call answered within minutes – filled in an application form on-line (admittedly a bit of a problem if you don’t have a phone line but managed to do it from friends house)… placed order last Tuesday, have phone number allocated already and engineer is coming next Weds to do final wiring.
Sorted.
Call them, there’s no comparison…
Thanks for the heads-up Heather. I have never heard of The Phone Co-Op before, but will consider switching to them if I can find a bit more about them.
For anyone else interested, their website is: here
Regards,
Jim
Hi all
I would like to give you an small insight into working for BT if you will permit it.
I always try my best to help everyone I speak but I do agree that BT does not make things very difficult. From the inside BT is a mess Call Handling Time “CHT” is king but also at the same time we have to remember and get every stupid BT statement into a call (ever wondered why the person you are speaking to says sorry a hundred times?. they get sacked if they don’t) but you better meet your targets. I am sure you see the mentality of this. BT also employees a large number of agency staff I have no problem with this but these poor guys and girls are given two to three days training and put on the phone. Have a heart some of us really want to help but are bound by the devil that is BT
Hi Jim,
Well, some honesty and openness makes a refreshing change, I have to say. My heart goes out to you poor buggers who have to sit listening to us customers rant and rave.
However, as long as BT treat people like dirt, we’ll continue to ring up and return the compliment. I suppose they employ agency staff due to problems with retention? I wonder why that might be?
It’s plain to the customer that the people we speak to are using a script that probably has little to do with helping us and more to do with crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s. Whatever happened to real help on the phone?! As you say, it’s all about stats at the end of the month. Nothing to do with actually providing effective help, but number of calls and people you can get on and off the phone. SLA’s aren’t appropriate in all circumstances.
There are still some companies out there who do have people able to think for themselves and help the customer rather than being told not to deviate from a script. That’s why we ring in the first place, to speak to a person who can help us with our individual problem. How different would things be if we could ring BT customer services and be put through to the correct person in the correct dep’t the first and every time we have to ring. That person then follows the call through to its conclusion, ensuring the customer is happy with the resolution! Ownership! Accountability! Is that so difficult a concept for BT management to comprehend? Other organisations manage it, so I’m sure BT could if they really wanted to.
Anyway, I appreciate your post Jim, it’s nice to get a handle on what things are like on “the other side”. Please post more and keep me informed. You’ll always get a sympathetic ear with the pragmatic approach rather than toeing the company line, which we all know is utter rubbish.
Kind regards,
Jim
Nice to see all your rants but lets just put a new perspective on it shall we? I have worked for BT via agencies and I can honistly tell you that the customer is always wrong (in their eyes).
Us poor buggers really wont have to listen to customers for much longer because BT have started a major relocation of its services to guess where??? You got it INDIA!! So if yo uthink you are all pissed off now just wait until the end of ’08 when the other barriers you have are language.
And yes, if I do sound bitter its because I am one of those poor bastards who had now lost his job. Try walking onto your floor in one of the BT callcentres (UK) and seeing 80% of it full of Indians who have come to the UK, been given the golden handshake, their own laptop and treated with kid gloves…..BT IS THE DEVIL!!!
Bt is a lush company to work for. they look after there staff and i will think that u will find that if u havent had ur problem resolved then u are to much of an arrogant angry arsehole who chooses to talk to Bt’s staff like they are nothing more than the scum from ur gums. talk to us with a bit more respect and u will probably find that u will get your problem sorted alot quicker.
BT boy,
I’m an arrogant angry arsehole who talks to you with no respect eh? Fair enough, it’s a free country. But, at the same time, I wasn’t aware I’d spoken to you personally or that you know me well enough to provide the reader(s) of this blog with such a well considered character analysis of yours truly. If you’d provide me with your name, I’d be happy to confirm our acquaintance.
I am actually very impressed by your use of English vocabulary, grammar and punctuation. If all BT employees are so well educated and able to wax lyrical in such terms, it is incredibly surprising to me that there are so many customer complaints and problems with the service. I really don’t understand how such obviously caring and professional adults could possibly warrant such diatribe and vilification from disenfranchised customers. If I have upset and misrepresented you, I am truly sorry.
Jim
Hi,
I see i joined a site that loves bt as much as me lol..
My experience with BT is very dissatisfied why:-
The day my line went live i phoned and canceled it got into an arguement with some arogant person (english)..Never told me i would be charged..
I then went on holiday came back to a bill rang again told them about the arguement and found out he didnt cancel the line got put through to 4 different departments finally got to speak to someone there and he canceled line and told me no charges would be sent to me …..Low and behold today i get a bill for £161.94 ..called them again told them what the man had said gave them my GB number and also the VOL number and told them what the man had said but no i got to pay for the to sit on there backsides stealing my money
The only constructive thing i got to say is :-
Thankyou Mr Richard Brandson and Virgin Media and DICK TURPIN was a desent man he wor a mask when he robbed people
Hi mermaid,
Another satisfied customer eh? Join our club. All are welcome 🙂
Jim
So far my latests issue with BT has generated 187 pages of computer-gereated clap trap.
The two promises of phone calls at specific times have not come ( maybe their phone is off) .
Simple question: which is the best operator to switch to – local and international phone and broadband?
Thanks, MS
The Register ran a very entertaining story about BT’s recent debacle with them being unable to issue new numbers. It’s well worth a read and the second to last paragraph (about monopolies) had me in stitches 🙂
Go here for the story: Another BT cock up hehe!
Jim
in respect of the last post , yes the systems were down , very inconvient but just an insight to this system that affected some accounts , this system by 2010 will be used by all service providers , not just bt therefore hang it out with bt . we have been using this system for over a year now and we are constantly updating it to make it easier for staff and our customers . by the time we have compleatly mastered this system our competetors will have only just begun to use this therefore the problems we are ecountering now will be solved by the time our competitors are just starting to encounter there problems .
I’m not one to big up BT, I am a former employer for the Business Broadband side of the company. I understand the frustration that gets caused waiting on someone to answer the phone and it causes more frustration if you are already annoyed, however you do need to consider the person you are speaking to. We are happy people, getting easy money for sitting around all day having a laugh with our friends. When a call comes through, we reluctantly answer, then do what we have to do to get you off the phone, we will cut corners, lie and hang up on you if we find it the easiest way out! BUT, if you come on the phone, remain calm and do not shout then we will try to help, because you have giving us no reason not to. As soon as you shout or complains about how Broadband is the ruler of your life then you’re a short speech away from the ‘RLS’ department (Release), the journey will start again. So people, no matter how annoyed you are, remain calm, explain your problem in a polite, considerate manner and i guarantee someone will try to help, even if it doesn’t sort the problem, the person will still try. Understand, it isn’t the person on the other end of the phone that makes the rules or causes problems, it is the company!
Post number nine wishing death and illness on the people who work for BT. That’s sick. Blame the company sure but there isn’t a single company on planet earth that doesn’t have disatisfied customers. My wife worked for BT and she did what she could. She wasn’t satan or evil, as described here. Just an ordinary person doing an ordinary job like the rest of you. I bet not one of you works for a company who doesn’t have disatisfied customers. My wife was diagnosed with cancer in 2005 and continued to work for a year after it and was daily told by the good old public that people would kill her or they wished she would die etc. Guess what great British public. you got your wish She died a few weeks ago. The moral is to get your life in perspective. Its a fucking telephone computer or whatever. Your alive. Remember next time that the person on the other end of the phone is a human being and their problems could make yours look tiny in comparison.
Steve,
Firstly, I’m sorry for the loss of your wife and truly wish there was something I could say make things different for you.
Please let me point out that post number nine here doesn’t wish death on anyone and this is not a sentiment mentioned anywhere, unless I misread the post? The comment wishing “foul evil diseases” on them isn’t targeted at any individual, but the company itself. I’m also certain it was a turn of phrase borne out of frustration rather than a literal wish or curse upon any person. If I thought otherwise, I would delete the post.
Your wife was also not described as satan or evil anywhere on this blog as I simply wouldn’t tolerate anything remotely like that. Personal attacks are not acceptable here.
I agree that some perspective is in order. However, for as long as BT as an entity continue to make people miserable, then we’ll hear complaints like all those above and I will continue publishing them. The individuals on the end of the phone may care, but they are still powerless to change the mismanagement which is the root of the problem. It’s never nice to be at the thin end of any wedge.
My thoughts are with you.
Regards,
Jim
I’m sorry but I have always hated BT even when they used to be Post Office Telecommunications, and sent an engineer out to fix a modem but needed to be shown what it was (He got thrown out of the Computer Room).
I have a BT Phone line and I have changed it to a new plan. No problem.
At the same time I changed my BT Option 3 Broadband to option 2 and a week later a nice letter appears to inform me of the regrade. Seems OK so far.
Now as I hate BT I do not use their site for anything other than checking my mail when away or going through Spam (Just in case something’s valid). I had a quick look at my account and there it is Option 3 in ‘My Account & Billing’ three weeks after the changeover.
I thought I had better make sure all was OK and you know what happened, the standard rubbish of two hours of on hold, wrong department, ‘dropped lines’ transfers to other people without informing you, managers who are useless, denials etc.
I actually had BT telling me that I was Option 2 and to ignore the ‘My Account & Billing’ page (but I had the suspicion they would bill me for both) and then someone else who said I was Option 3!!! At this point I asked for a Manager and he basically admitted that the screen you see is not actually linked to the billing system but is done manually.
So here it is a rarity, a result. BT has amended the page and my ‘My Account & Billing’ page matches the service I have. Even rarer I have rang the manager and thanked him and will do so again now. Thanks Sutil.
Still can’t see why my phone account can’t show my Broadband as well……
wrong bill, 3rd quarter in a row. complained again. they agreed compensation. but it would have to go on the next bill, as they cant adjust it after print. paid bill against better judgement.
next bill also wrong. called to complain.
was told ” you havnt called before”
was told “you were never promised compensation”
was told “these charges you mention are not on your bill” despite pointing out the page, line etc of each wrong charge for the last 9 months. and i did it politely was called a liar then hung up on.
incidentally, i usually have to call 3 times, as i get hung up on a lot. ON 2 OUT OF EVERY 3 CALLS! that actually IS illegal. in the uk……
besides which, i am impressed we have a thread from a uk customer services worker. i didnt realise we had any left, as i havnt had a call routed to the uk for at least 18 months.
anyway, got a callback from a supposedly very senior person at bt. was given my compensation, and more besides to make up for the insult. except……it will appear on the next bill.
Guess what just turned up! now guess if it was for the right amount. called back. no record of my previous conversation.
gave up trying to connect by wireless many moons ago.
I take grave offence at the post from the bt staff member who suggests my rudeness caused all this. firstly, massive incompetence occurred BEFORE i was rude. why do you think people are rude to you? Yep, its that ridiculous attide that bts problems are the customer’s fault.
besides which, i was not aware that calling people c*nts could actually
lower their iq’s,
change my bill,
and delete correctly typed recordsor prior calls.
my voice holds more power than i realised! although to be fair, i was not aware you could lower the iq of a bt worker at all.
R!
I work for BT on the sales dept. 7 hours a day it’s call after call with no break other than lunch, sitting at the same place, staring at the same screen and trying not to walk out due to sheer boredom/desperation.
The only reason I work there is that jobs are pretty scarce at the moment but I pray that something else will turn up as I (and many others) hate the job with a passion (although there are those that love it….)
Every day is a new nightmare, I suggest anyone complaining should try it themselves for a week. I’ve been there 6 months come March 15th and if I didn’t have a 10 month old child or car insurance I’d quit right now.
I can’t think of any positive attributes about the place. Treated like children and if you so much as put a toe out of line then it’s to the agency (Manpower). I’ve got about 4/5 disciplinaries already for trivial things as have many of my co-workers.
I hope due to the credit crunch I get made redundant, that day cannot come soon enough.
Why doesn’t this company wake up and smell the coffe. Customers aer leaving in droves – and i’m not surprised.
I recently moved to a new build and gave BT plenty of notice. I wanted to keep my number and transfer my broadband. Simple. Well. er no actually. After 3 hours of expensive calls from my mobile (as landline not connected), what seemed like millions of conversations with morons who didnt have a clue, i finally got my phone connected. However, 24 hours prior to being connected, i was told by a call, and a text to my mobile that i had to be on the premises when the engineer called round. So I took a prescious days holiday from work, only to be told at 5.00pm on that day that they had done it from the exchange!! It then took a further2.5 weeks, and again what seemed lik emillions more irate exchanges,to connect my BB, which i need for work purposes. WHY???
I was sent an email when it was all up and running and promised ‘something for my troubles’. I have tried for 2 months to get that ‘something’, but never get ant response to the emails.
I have now transferred to another providr and am saving a fortune and getting a better deal. I am normally a very placid person, but BT could make a Saint commit murder.
I HATE THEM they don’t deserve any customers.
Transferred to Virgin from those BT knob jockeys -so much better. One thing that I really hated about BT was not the accents of the call centre staff (usually okay but sometimes unintelligble – I’d still rather speak to someone in the UK) but the fact it was always such a crap line. Useless twats – you are a communications company so don’t have a really crap line. That and being passed from pillar to post. I don’t think there’s anything that could persuade me to become a BT customer again and I wouldn’t recommend them to my worst enemy. Useless b*stards.
this will be my last BT keystroke
I worked for the ba***rds for 13 years. I hope the god forsaken excuse for a company crashes and burns.
The way they treat staff is disgraceful. They would treat dog shit on the bottom of their shoes with more respect.
To BT Managers, staff are liabilities with no value whatsoever, there to make as miserable as possible, blame for their magamanent inadiquacies, and manage out of the business where possible.
Hate the lot of theme with passion.
Have had enough of BT. Poor inefficient service, can’t carry out a straightforward home move. When you actually do get through to a human, they cannot deal with anything and a high percentage are rude. Further, they then attempt to threaten you with “penalty charges” etc when you say you want to end your contract despite the fact they admit they have not set up a phone line!! Then when they claim the phone line is set up (and it isn’t working) they say that there may be an engineer call out fee, despite the fact that they have admitted that they completely messed up the order over the course of over ten days. I’m leaving them.
my broadband was activated 3 days late.
could not log into yahoo or download the antivirus supplied with option 3, paid for with my money.
call centres while polite just kept switching me between departments no responsibility accepted by anyone
totally inefficient
waste of my time
Hello
I am ready to leave BT for good and TODAY, so I can’t wait until tomorrow to call customer service to ask if I can use my BT Home Hub or if I need to order a new one. Do you happen to know it? I have the black, newish one.
By the way, I am switching through War on Want: http://waronwant.co.uk/support-us/other-ways-to-help/phone-packages
Thank you!
Paula
Hi Paula,
The hub will only work on BT broadband. You will need to get a new one.
Most providers, such as Talktalk supply a wireless router to new subscribers.
Also, check your contract. BT now charge a cancellation fee if you leave before the minimum contract period you signed up for. I got stung for £125. They don’t tell you this when you cancel. I had half of Mumbai phoning me threatening legal action and all sorts!
regards
Gary
I used to work at BT – trust me the crap is on the inside for the workers (bully culture) as well as the customers(awful service)…but just a bit of info…
Did you know that if you are loyal to BT and just sit happily paying the bills the price just keeps going up – they call it ‘harvesting’ – because you’re a loyal customer – they assume you’ll keep paying no matter what – that you simply wont notice. So much for rewarding loyal customers ey?!!
Going through the same thing just waited 20 days for an activation and now it dosen’t work there was a working line there 1 month ago so it shouldn’t be anything in the flat, they keep insisting that its working, but when i call the number ( my number) its going to someone else’s voice mail. I am going to try again tonight lets see if they help. I had an awful time 2 years go with a similar situation i was trying to have a line installed and it took almost 4 months of constant calling and in the end i just had to get one of those dongles and give up on a landline. of course then they sent me a pile of bills, luckily i didn’t have to pay in the end.
nice to se the site here….. I despise BT… the way they booted the arse out of the market when they had sole control. theres nothing on this earth would make me go back to them…. even if they paid me to use their service.. I hope the company collapses n dies
Oh!… and the latest tv ad… like the feckers invented broadband.. a.holes
All the phone companies in the UK are the same… BT is just the worse. Its a huge CARTEL that needs smashing to bits.
BT Infinity – super speed broadband (according to the flashy and expensive ads). Got it installed this morning. Now my phone line has a constant buzzing noise, and the “highspeed broadband” drops out every 30 seconds. Every person I speak to tells me I may have to wait 5 days to get it fixed (3 working days plus the weekend). And they may decide to charge me £130 for the engineer to sort it out. I have spent almost 3 hours trying to get some sense out of somebody. Incredibly poor customer service.
Informed Bt that I was moving (3 weeks prior to move) and asked for my line to be cancelled as already have a line in new house. Find out that the old line is still active 3 weeks after the move. Arrogant arsehole I spoke to was reading off a script and therefore useless. Asked me if the new tennant wanted my account????? What? I dont even know them. Have to pay large sum for cancelling broadband and am paying rent on a line that I am not using. Have been told it will take 2 weeks to inactivate the line. Why? Only took a day or 2 to activate it. Scammers
I think you are going to find this hard to believe in the 21st century but the following is all true. We moved here 6 years ago and have yet to have 6 months of a working phone. The one thing I hear people say is change provider but all of us need the phone cable and if BT can’t supply a cable then we are stuck. Our telephone cable is laying on top of the ground around the edge of a field and every time a tractor or sugar beet lorry drives over the cable it gets damaged. Running repairs are made and we are left with a cable with an assortment of those plastic connectors used for joining cables together, these are then just left laying on the ground to either soak up the rainwater or to be driven over and broken.
We have had so called help from the BT Chairmans office, Offcom and a variety of so called officials yet not one has fixed the problem. Yet again we have had no phone for over a week. This might not seem bad for some folks but my mother age 94 years lives here and can’t use a mobile phone so if we go out she is alone with no way of calling for help if needed. My wife is disabled and also could need to call for assistance if I am not home, mobile coverage is not brilliant here. Our nearest neighbour is 1/4 mile away, the next is a mile away so shouting help out the window is not an option.
BT do not give a damn, it is all well and good suggesting to be calm when phoning the call centre but it costs us stacks of money using our mobile phone when for every two hour call to BT we actually get to speak to a human for less than half that time and even then I can’t understand 50% of what they are saying and they often say they will put us through to a department that can help and either hang up or the person answers and says it has nothing to do with them and then hangs up. We then have to start the whole process again, small wonder we get a tad annoyed but we never use swear words (just think them).
We have tried contacting people who have attempted to put things right, for example Jane Sherlock at The Chairmans office but all numbers we had are now disconnected and BT say there has never been anyone with that name working there.
We now have 3G for our internet so at least that sort of works in parts of the house.
All we want is a working phone, anybody have any suggestions of what, where or who to go to next to get our wishes met?
BT are absolute morons, when I first ordered broadband from them I informed them it’s main use would be for online gaming. I changed to BT because they were the fastest connection for my area.
On activation I set up the router etc and low and behold my connection was poorer than my previous providers. I tried opening the ports used specifically by my console. the GUI for the router was poorly designed and didn’t give very good affordance.
I eventually gave in and contacted BT broadband technical department.. I explained that I knew what the solution to the problem was to open the correct ports but was unable to do it myself although I have done it on other routers many times. The person I was speaking to had no idea of the basics of how the router worked whatsoever didn’t understand basic terms like port forwarding etc. now these are what I’d expect any TECHNICAL! department for an ISP to consider basic knowledge. I was then told there was a TECHNICAL GURU DEPARTMENT but to use them I would have to pay a 3 month subscription to use their service. What ? are they crazy ? they gave no instructions as to how to use the functions of their router and want me to pay them extra because they haven’t any intentions of treating their customers with respect this is now clear to me.
just to put this in perspective they also gave me a viewing box for their TV package. INSTRUCIONS were present even how to use the remote control. Great!! as you can imagine I like most people don’t need instructions for using a remote but we get them anyway(just incase). then why not for a router?
Anyway back to business. after ending the call I called back BT customer service. I explained the BT technical department had no BT technical knowledge and couldn’t help me with this basic task. Also that I was told only the subscription based technical gurus could sort this issue out. I demanded that the issue be resolved without any further charges to my account. they agreed and subsequently offered to sign me up to the gurus but refund the fee on the bill. the guru I spoke to took remote control of my PC to access the router within seconds the issue was resolved and I watched as they did it.
3 hours was spent trying to resolve an issue which should have taken next to no time at all.
1: if the technical department had ANY technical knowledge.
2: if there was a simple manual provided with networking equipment.