BT nightmare - advice needed

damomeasa

almost 2 months ago i moved into a new house and decided to go for a digiweb broadband/phone package. internet was connected and is fine but when i phoned eircom to have the existing phone line disconnected i was told we had an existing BT broadband connection (from the previous tenant) and i would need to have it disconnected.

long story short, after numerous phone calls, letters of proof that old tenant had moved out, etc, BT still havent disconnected the phone line. their customer care office has now TWICE told me that they were disconnecting it and it would take a few days, etc, but neither time did they actually do it (in fact they told me different information both times which meant that one of them was completely lieing). so now im paying line rental to two seperate phone companies and it's all because of BTs stupidity. it's almost too depressing to face an hour on hold ringing them to be told lies, etc.

is there anything i can do? march into their head offices? small claims court? any advice much appriciated.

Sponge Bob

hmm!

some of this is obviously the fault of the previous occupant not BT .

escalate now to complaints@btireland.ie to get it working.

jor el

damomeasa wrote:

so now im paying line rental to two seperate phone companies

I'm a little confused. Do you have two seperate lines in the house then, and if so how are you paying BT when you never had a contract with them? The previous tennant had but you don't.

Anyway, as Sponge says, escellate to complaints@btireland.ie as nobody else in BT actually do anything. You could also contact Comreg about the whole affair, not that they'll do much.

Sponge Bob

Comreg would **** a perfectly formed canary out of their earholes at the thought of helping the Irish Consumer, the most obvious victim of their complete incompetence.

The BT complaints department was beefed up earlier this year and can actually sort these things out and/or explain how they came about as well.

Trumps

I doubt you will get any assistance from BT, and contrary to current opinion I do not believe they have improved. I think its more a case of members getting fed up with writing things about BT and writing them off, than BT actually improving their services. ! Plus they got a lot of help with clearing up their problems with Boards members, but I don't believe they have changed much at all. Somebody should perhaps start a new thread asking for postings from people with BT problems. ? I bet there are still masses out there. ? I think that email address 'complaints' is just a fob off. !

Sponge Bob

The properly functioning complaints@btireland.ie escalation team was the only concession they really made to Boards.
. If you can read an internet BB you can surely send an email too.

If that escalation team stops delivering as it should then BT are back to their old ways , most of which were baaaaad

CS is a disaster since BT launched those juicy bundles of theirs . Sadly their tech support which was always the best functioning section in BT Ireland has also disimproved since the bundles were launched.

Nevertheless, in fairness to BT, most people have a working product at a great price .

Zynks

damomeasa wrote:

so now im paying line rental to two seperate phone companies ......is there anything i can do? march into their head offices? small claims court? any advice much appriciated.

One of the line rentals surely is not in your name. If that's the case, just don't pay. Send a registered letter to the company with the invoice returned and copy Comreg in the letter (make sure there is a highlighted cc:Comreg note.

Sponge Bob wrote:

Comreg would **** a perfectly formed canary out of their earholes at the thought of helping the Irish Consumer, the most obvious victim of their complete incompetence.
The BT complaints department was beefed up earlier this year and can actually sort these things out and/or explain how they came about as well.

I used Comreg against Eircom before. The issue was resolved before Eircom acknowledged receiving my letter - I think operators have a team handling stuff that comes through Comreg.

Trumps wrote:

I doubt you will get any assistance from BT, and contrary to current opinion I do not believe they have improved.

Had my problems with BT also (I've been with them for almost three years) about incorrect billing, but they eventually fixed about a year ago and no problems since, great service overall.

Where I am getting at is that in spite of the frustration there is light at the end of the tunnel. but the biggest mistake is to pay for something you didn't order. Make sure you always take the names of people you are dealing with and keep a log.

damomeasa

thanks. for the help.

to clarify, we arent paying BT, we're paying eircom (the old phone providers who wont disconnect our line because the BT dsl line is still connected) and digiweb (who we still havent even rang about getting the phone service working even though we've been paying them for two months).

Sponge Bob

I fail to see HOW Digiweb can provide any billable service on that line from your description of the problem, the rental belongs to eircom and the bb belongs to BT ...so what exactly can Digiweb bill you for ????

Digiweb should refund you in that case .

Trumps

Zynks wrote:

One of the line rentals surely is not in your name. If that's the case, just don't pay. Send a registered letter to the company with the invoice returned and copy Comreg in the letter (make sure there is a highlighted cc:Comreg note.

I used Comreg against Eircom before. The issue was resolved before Eircom acknowledged receiving my letter - I think operators have a team handling stuff that comes through Comreg.

Had my problems with BT also (I've been with them for almost three years) about incorrect billing, but they eventually fixed about a year ago and no problems since, great service overall.

Where I am getting at is that in spite of the frustration there is light at the end of the tunnel. but the biggest mistake is to pay for something you didn't order. Make sure you always take the names of people you are dealing with and keep a log.

One's own personal experience with BT is undoubtedly going to influence how one sees BT, but thats only one experience, and from what I have heard now that Boards has 'let up' on them BT are not particularly worried about anybody else. ! After all, all those customers not on Boards, (the vast majority) have nowhere public to complain, so BT was only really interested in getting their act together "for" Boards members, therebye resolving their horrendous PR image. (On Boards)...! ! If there were a spate of complaints about them on Boards again, I think they would 'get to work' to rectify them, but all the time Boards is quiet- "thank you very much".

Zynks

Trumps, if you are an unhappy BT customer (are you?), I totally support you to start a thread outlining your case and inviting others to add their views.

My point is that most of the time you will get the unhappy people posting, while the satisfied customers stay quiet (after all, complaining is one of the easiest things in life) and I thought it is valid to bring a bit of balance to the whole thing. In my case, I am totally satisfied and do not see better value for money elsewhere in the market and I know far more satisfied people than unhappy with BT.

Trumps

Zynks wrote:

Trumps, if you are an unhappy BT customer (are you?), I totally support you to start a thread outlining your case and inviting others to add their views.

My point is that most of the time you will get the unhappy people posting, while the satisfied customers stay quiet (after all, complaining is one of the easiest things in life) and I thought it is valid to bring a bit of balance to the whole thing. In my case, I am totally satisfied and do not see better value for money elsewhere in the market and I know far more satisfied people than unhappy with BT.

Surely its all about percentages. ?
How many BT Ireland customers actually use Boards. ? 1%.? Less. ?
And how many of that 1% can actually be bothered to complain or even know that there is a place to complain. ?
Taking the law of averages, if 10% of Boards members have a bad time, then 10% of non Boards customers also have problems. ! That totals up to a great many BT customers. ?
Every member who complains on Boards, has 10 more compatriots around the country who are also having a bad time. !
Those are very conservative figures too.
This kind of 'public' complaining is always difficult to quantify, but as it 'is' Public then BT are obviously going to be concerned about it and want to do something to repair their battered image.. ?
As far as I am concerned the 3Mb I signed up for, and am paying for, has not been delivered, and BT have admitted this. So, how many others around the country, who signed up for a certain speed, be it 1Mb, 2Mb, or 3Mb, and are paying for it, are not actually getting it. ? 10% ?
Please don't tell me to complain to BT 'Tech'.:) I have done that countless times, and in the end they give up and state its Eircoms fault. So if its Eircoms fault that they 'BT' cannot deliver, thats not happening to me alone, but happening to thousands of others too. ! My connection on any one exchange is not the only one. !

Big Chief

every telecommunication company is going to have a few disgruntled customers, people also always remember the bad and never the good as its human nature to do so.

And as previously stated...

My point is that most of the time you will get the unhappy people posting, while the satisfied customers stay quiet

never a truer word said

quite why you are paying for a service your not getting im not sure, would tell em to start playing the banjo and sing for it personally if they wanted money from myself for providing you with nothing.