I Hate BT!!! – Comment and response…

Someone who appears to work for BT has made a reply to my “I Hate BT!!!” post. As their comments are so entertaining, I’ve decided to give them (and my response) a post of their own. Paragraphs in italics are selected quotes of the comments posted by someone called “Lord Huggington”. The complete post can be found on this page….

Thanks for your post. I am going to assume you work for BT based on what you wrote. You’ve made some interesting points, so let me comment on one or two:

Hahaha, i found a small corner of BT complaints.

Actually, no you haven’t. What you’ve found is a blog page containing a rant because I’m so dissatisfied with the lousy service (over and over again) from BT.

I dont feel pity for you.

And I would expect nothing less from BT. Why change now?

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

Who said anything about “perfect service all the time”? What I would like is good service most of the time or even some of the time. I don’t think that’s unreasonable. So far, that hasn’t materialised. If you look after customers you get on the line, I applaud you. The majority of the drones I have spoken to in the past certainly don’t. So, keep up the good work! Thanks for the email address, but it’s a bit of a waste really. Why send a rant to that address when I’ll simply receive some stock answer from someone who couldn’t give a toss? Nah, I’ll stick to the blog thanks. It’s much more fun.

you can generally get through to us within 2 minutes if there is a queue.

Us? Which dep’t do you work in?! Not in my experience! I’m sorry if that’s the company line or the case in your particular corner of the organisation, but from a customer perspective it’s absolute nonsense. In all the years I’ve had to deal with BT, I don’t think I’ve ever managed to speak to someone within 2 minutes consistently. It’s the exception rather than the rule I’m afraid.

Maybe if your fed up being transferred to other departments, call the correct department!! Ask any agent and they will give You the number you require as standard.

Well, thank you for that constructive response. Excellently argued. Did you even bother reading my post or are you simply trolling? How do you know which dep’t you need as a customer when BT staff can’t even get it right?!? Priceless. If you do read my original post, you’ll see that my problems stemmed from being put through to the wrong dep’t by BT staff and eventually to the right dep’t that I’d never heard of and didn’t know the function of anyway.

Have some logic people, what company doesnt screw up?

Erm, all companies screw up. Just not as much as BT! That’s perfectly logical to me anyway.

A complaints website is just sad, it will get no issue resolved, contact the email address above.

See comments above. This is a blog, not a complaints website. I’ll pass on the email address, but thanks for the effort.

Never call up to have Broadband immediatly switched on, its not allowed, as regulated by Ofcom for all service providers to promote healthy competition.

I didn’t call to have it switched on immediately. I called with lots of time to spare and an overlap in order to minimise or negate the lead time. BT staff screwed up and I lost several days as a result. Good grief, you really didn’t read my post did you?

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.

Ahhh, the good old “provisional” argument. Sorry, not good enough. When a customer takes time off work and waits all day for an engineer who doesn’t turn up and for a company who doesn’t bother even letting you know they won’t be turning up, that’s just a piss poor excuse. Nobody tells you it’s provisional when the appointment is made! Just how often do your engineers have accidents and break fingers? Crikey, you have some unlucky employees. Remind me never to apply for a job! I guess the best place to find BT engineers is Accident & Emergency then? Thanks for the tip. Next time I need one, I’ll pop down to the local hospital instead of spending hours on hold. I hope you are taking notes dear readers? Aside from anything else, why can other companies manage to get employees (be them engineers, repairmen etc.) to your home on time and on the day promised? Pull the other one, it’s got bells on!

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.

I didn’t say anything about needing it for business? I said, I need it because I’m setting up a business! Can’t you read? Besides, I don’t use BT for broadband. I use a real ISP with proper human staff and everything.

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.

I haven’t lost business! I won’t be using broadband for business, merely to set up the business….never mind, I know I’m wasting my breath!

Broadband is not just a flick of a switch and *poof* its on.

Well, it should be. Is “poof” a technical term? As I don’t work in telecommunications, I’m not sure what that means. Could you clarify please?

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.

Let me reiterate…I would NEVER, EVER use BT as an ISP. Why? Because BT are crap and couldn’t organise a piss up in a brewery. Is that clear to you now? Have you not read my posts on this site? I do use a different provider. I only ever used BT once and that was very briefly for dial-up. Never again!

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.

Your point being? I don’t care who I speak to in BT as long as they don’t pass me off to a different dep’t, do deal with my problem professionally, politely and competently and actually do their job properly. I know this is a pipe dream, but I live in hope….one day.

Enjoy

Enjoy what?

Thank you so much for your defense of BT. It didn’t work because BT are still crap, but keep trying.

Jim

Rant: Customer service, call centres and telephone menu systems (and BT again)!

Here’s an article I wrote some time ago about what I think is inherently wrong with using call centres, which companies I’ve had the misfortune of having to deal with in the past and why I won’t ever use them again unless threatened at gunpoint…yes, British Telecom (BT) get another mention. I wonder why?

Funnily enough, last time this article appeared on a website, I received a complaint from someone who works as a customer service adviser in a call centre! How is that for irony?!?! Needless to say, I transferred them.

The lousy service we all receive regularly from organisations is not going to go away, but we can do something about it as consumers. The best form of advertising is word of mouth. A flashy and expensive advert in a magazine for a product or service that appears wonderful is not going to influence me to buy if the company cannot follow this up with good customer relations (oxymoron?). The bigger the company, the worse they treat us in my experience, because dealings become exponentially more impersonal as you go up the scale. Large companies need to wake up to this. Losing one customer is perceived as irrelevant. Maybe so initially, but don’t forget that the single customer has relatives, friends and work colleagues who are all willing to lend an ear when personal recommendations are required. What was one lone voice in the wilderness suddenly becomes a crowd of people with money to spend and choices to make. People talk, they pass on information. How many times have you heard someone say “Don’t use that company, I know someone who was treated badly by them”. I’ve heard this many times over the years, and it does influence my choices. Then there’s the media. There are lots of consumer programmes on TV who are eager to follow up on cases of aggrieved customers. Newspapers and magazines quite happily print stories about how poor Joe Bloggs was conned by some large organisation which should have known better. What I’m saying to these companies is: don’t be so complacent! You man have a virtual monopoly status now, but when the competition arrives and all your customers disappear because you’ve ridden roughshod over them all these years, you’ll have no business left. Will you be mourned? Nope.

I think half the problem these days is that many large organisations have chosen to install the dreaded call centre. Surely these don’t work well for anyone except the company in question? Call centres are incredibly impersonal and simply increase frustration levels of customers for a number of reasons. Gone is the day where I knew my bank manager by name, as a person who I could sit in an office with and discuss my finances. I now have to make a telephone call to some disembodied stranger (usually on the other side of the world!) who frankly couldn’t care less. I yearn for the good old days. Ok, so it wasn’t as good as I’m implying, but it was more preferable to the way things are now in a lot of cases. You’ll find my list of annoying things about call centre’s and their staff listed below. How many of these do you recognise? Can you add any more? I have experienced each and every one of these, more than once in most cases:

* Standard Menu – Press 1 for this option, press 2 for the next option and so on. Irritating!
* Nested Menu – You listen to six options when the phone is first answered, pick number six in the list and are presented with another menu containing another six items to choose from. Very, very irritating!!
* Unusable Menu – None of the items in the menus (and you listened intently to each one) mentioned by the recorded voice apply to your requirement. It becomes a lottery instead. Pick any number and pray!
* Queue type 1 – “You are in a queue. A customer service representative will be with you shortly”. The definition of “shortly” varies enormously, and seems to be inversely proportionate to the cost per minute of the call, how full your bladder is at that moment or how little time you have to spend waiting on the phone. It can be anything from 30 seconds to 3 hours, but you don’t know how long until someone actually answers.
* Queue type 2 – “You are number five in a queue. Your call will be answered when you reach number one”. Again, if the four people in front of you talk for 15 minutes each, you’ll be on hold for another hour. Meaningless bollocks.
* Queue type 3 – “You are in a queue. Estimated time before one of our representatives becomes available is now ten minutes”. Forty minutes later you are still five minutes away from speaking to someone. Someone’s watch stopped working perchance?
* Musak type 1 – “On hold” music so quiet you can hardly hear it. You desperately want to put the phone on loudspeaker because you need to visit the loo after waiting 2 days for someone to speak to you. You take the risk, miss someone answering the call at the precise moment you park your bum and are promptly cut off.
* Musak type 2 – “On hold” music played very quietly, punctuated every 30 seconds by some robot shouting “You are in a queue….”. Aaarrrrrgggghhh!!!!
* Musak type 3 – A “jingle”. This is a ten second rendition of something resembling a three year old playing with one of those cheap toy keyboards. It is played in an endless loop, so by the time someone answers the call you have lost the will to live or are on the way out of the front door with the nice men in white coats. You then spend all day humming the tune to yourself.
* Musak type 4 – Nice classical or decent chart music (oxymoron?) played for ten seconds between adverts lasting twenty seconds for “today’s special offer” which was recorded at precisely 120 decibels. Just enough to cause permanent damage to your hearing. The opposite of subliminal advertising?
* Technology – “I’m sorry, our computer system is down for maintenance today”. It’s so plausible I almost believe this one. What they really mean is “I’m not sorry and I don’t want to interrupt my game of FreeCell to sort your mess out”.
* I can’t help you – You finally manage to speak to someone in customer services (oxymoron! especially from BT), spend a few minutes explaining your problem and they reply: “I’m sorry, I can’t help you I’m afraid. You need to speak to someone in another department” (BT!). At this point they put you on hold again. Cue the queue. When someone else does answer you have to repeat everything again as they have no idea who you are or what you’re ringing about. They then say: “Oh, you’ve been put through to the wrong department, I’ll just transfer you to…” (BT). One of three things will now happen: 1. You will be passed back to the drone who you first spoke to who doesn’t actually remember you (BT). 2. You will be passed through every department in the company listening to excuses from drones who can’t be arsed doing their job and just want rid of you (BT!!!!!). 3. The phone goes dead in mid transfer. Yep, they’ve suddenly developed problems with their telephone system! (Oh, this is a real fave with BT!!!).
* I hear what you are saying, but… – This has to be the most patronising statement the customer service (oxymoron) drone can make, and they all do it! You make a perfectly reasonable case for complaining about a cock up they’ve made and they come back with this. How helpful! You just know they are going to follow it up with some other scripted drivel about how it’s not really their fault because they were short of staff etc. etc. Whatever!
* Can’t be arsed – This is the clone customer services (oxymoron) drone who just doesn’t give a shit about you, your problems, their job or the company they work for. They are on a crap wage, so why should they take the flak for a mistake made by someone else? Usually speaking in monotone they won’t budge from “company policy” and use the scripted and insincere phrase “I can only apologise” every other minute.
* Angry – The drone who got out of bed the wrong side this morning and has had a really bad day listening to other idiots like you making endless complaints. They have finally lost their patience and become confrontational with you because all they want to do now is shout at someone. You react in one of two ways: Either you become equally angry and shout back at them, ending up slamming the phone down or you are so shocked that you feel guilty and make desperate attempts to become their best friend. Stockholm Syndrome anyone?
* I’ll just go and check… – You explain your problem and become quite annoyed on the phone, the drone gets a little sick of hearing your whining and uses this effective technique to pacify and give you time to calm down. They say something like “I’ll just have to go and speak to a colleague..” and put you on hold while they make a brew and visit the toilet whilst laughing like hyena’s with the other drones because you are on the other end of the phone thinking they are doing something constructive. You didn’t seriously think they would try to help did you? Don’t let them put you on hold!
* Promises, promises – I’ve lost count how many times I’ve heard this one!!! After ringing the drones, you actually find one who appears to be completely human with a modicum of intelligence (ok, so that’s a slight exaggeration, but you get my drift). They listen to your grievance and make all the right noises in the right places without making you more angry or sounding patronising. Yes, they really care about you. “I’m making notes on the system about this and will have it sorted out for you this afternoon” they say. A few days later, you ring back because nothing seems to have been resolved. The drone you spoke to previously is absolutely guaranteed to be either on holiday, in a meeting, off sick or has left the company. You ask the shiny new drone why this issue hasn’t been resolved. “What issue sir?” they enquire, to which you politely and confidently ask them to look on their computer system which contains all the details. After a lengthy pause whilst they wait for the “slow computer system” they say: “I’m sorry, but there’s nothing mentioned in your file about this and it doesn’t look like anything has been followed up from the other day. I can only apologise. I’ll just have to go and speak to a colleague”. You would happily commit murder at this point.

What follows is a (currently small) list of companies I will never be a customer of again and my reasons why. If I have no documentary evidence to back up what I have written, the company name will not be mentioned until I’m confident I can do so without being hauled into court for libel!

British Telecom (BT) – The worst case of bloated bureaucracy I have ever encountered. One of the most infuriating experiences I ever had was trying to speak to the same person more than once in BT’s customer services (oxymoron!). You wouldn’t believe how hard this actually is. When I moved house some time ago (around 2001/2), BT screwed up on the installation of the telephone. The man I spoke to in their “customer services” said that an engineer would be at my home sometime between 1pm and 6pm on a specific day. At 4:30pm I rang to check that this would still be the case. He told me that as it was getting dark outside, the engineer would not be visiting as they aren’t allowed to work in the dark. Why then was I told to wait in until 6:30pm??? No answer! As I wanted to take this further I asked him for his name, which specific department he belonged to and a telephone number I could use to ring him back. I had reason to return the call a few days later and asked to speak to him. BT’s response?: “Which part of the country is he in?”. As I had failed to ask him for this information they told me it would be impossible to trace him. So, the largest telecoms company in the UK is unable to find one of their staff unless the customer has the foresight to ask for their address? Pathetic!

My second and equally annoying encounter with BT’s “customer services” relates to my Internet access. When I moved into my new home (again, this was the move in 2001/2), I was unable to receive broadband and had to make do with dial-up. I signed up to BT’s “Anytime” service where you paid a fixed fee per month to be able to access the Internet “anytime”. So far, so good. After some weeks, I received an email from BT informing me that I was using the Internet too much and must reduce the amount of time online. Pardon? I’ll spare you the gory details, but my complaints that I’d signed up to their “Anytime” service fell on deaf ears. According to their “Terms & Conditions” they were so fond of quoting to me, any user found to be online for more than 12 hours in any 24hr period is basically breaking the rules and in danger of having their account suspended. I received this warning a number of times and eventually told them to stick the account where the sun don’t shine. So much for “Anytime” Internet access.
My opinion: BT are number one on my list of companies to hate. I have no choice but to use their telephone service (for now!), but will get rid of them at the earliest opportunity. Never again!

Un-named Company (who are no longer trading, woohoo!) – We were moving house (2001/2) and booked un-named as the removal company. On the morning of the move, there were some delays while the Solicitors signed off the paperwork and exchanged contracts. We were not legally allowed to move into the new house until this had been done. So, we rang the removal firm and told them not to turn up too early as we probably wouldn’t be moving until later in the morning. No problem. We then rang them at 11:00am and said we’d be ready to start within the next 30 minutes. No problem. They were in a local cafe and would wait for our call. At 12pm we got the green light and made the call…or tried to. Un-named had switched off their mobile phones and the office number was unanswered. We never saw or heard from them again and spent a frantic afternoon trying desperately to find a removal firm willing to stand in literally at the last minute.
My opinion: They simply do not deserve to be in business!

De Agostini – This is a UK publisher of fortnightly magazine series. Early in 2003 they began a Lord of the Rings series based on the Games Workshop models and game. I purchased issue 2 and placed a subscription order immediately. Since then I heard nothing. I tried to ring De Agostini many times to enquire about the lack of contact. Each time, I was unable to get past their automated message service which simply stated that due to unprecedented demand subscribers will have to wait a bit longer. I also emailed them a number of times asking for information, with one response. Their email reply basically stated that they couldn’t continue with the support request from me until I provided them with my full name and address. At the end of their email, they quoted mine. Guess what? Yep, my full name and address were there too! I replied once again, explaining the situation but never heard from them again. The page containing the email form on their website stated that they respond via email or telephone (depending upon which option you choose) within 3 working days. Rubbish!

They also ran a series some time ago about building yourself a remote control car from a kit provided with the magazine subscription. I tried to contact them again to ensure they’d follow up on a subscription. Guess what? I couldn’t get anyone to answer the phone or reply to email. Perhaps I’m on their spam list?
My opinion: Customer service? What customer service?!

Palm Inc. and UPS – Yet another customer service failure. I ordered a pack of screen protectors for a Palm handheld from their online shop. A few days later I checked the UPS website to see why the order hadn’t arrived. According to UPS, it had been delivered. I contacted Palm to say it hadn’t. Palm responded that according to UPS it had. And so began a lengthy argument between us. Palm wouldn’t budge. I then contacted UPS. They took over 2 weeks and numerous calls to tell me that they had a new driver who had screwed up and delivered the package to the wrong address. They would send a claim form out to me. What infuriated me most was that while my wife was explaining yet again on the telephone to UPS what had happened, the guy she was speaking to said he’s transfer her to a colleague. As he was in the process of making the transfer, my wife heard him say “cut her off!”. Which they did! Unbelievable.
My opinion: Two companies who in my experience have absolutely no clue how to treat customers!

I hate BT!!!

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