Waiting for BT - no contact....

quad_red

Hey all,
After being screwed around by Smart for a month, I signed up to BT broadband online a week ago. I chose self install (i have my own modem), registered bank details etc....

I've heard nothing. No email confirmation, no letter etc. And, as I'm sure alot of you know, BT are currently incommunicado over the phone due to their being one person and a hamster in their call centre.

Should I recieved something at this point? Has anyone else here signed up over their website? Did they recieve correspondence pretty quickly?

I'm worried cos it turned out Smart weren't able to install but never bothered telling me. I don't want to wait around paying eircom line rental for the same to be true about BT.

Cheers,
Quad

dub45

quad_red wrote:

Hey all,
After being screwed around by Smart for a month, I signed up to BT broadband online a week ago. I chose self install (i have my own modem), registered bank details etc....

I've heard nothing. No email confirmation, no letter etc. And, as I'm sure alot of you know, BT are currently incommunicado over the phone due to their being one person and a hamster in their call centre.

Should I recieved something at this point? Has anyone else here signed up over their website? Did they recieve correspondence pretty quickly?

I'm worried cos it turned out Smart weren't able to install but never bothered telling me. I don't want to wait around paying eircom line rental for the same to be true about BT.

Cheers,
Quad

A week is a relatively short time so don't panic yet. However if you follow BT related threads on here it is not unknown for BT to lose applications lock stock and barrel so if you don't hear something in the next few days I would suggest trying to confirm that the application is being processed.

quad_red

Cheers Dub,
Just in case, I called them and went through the holding rigmarole.

And so it begins. My order has been 'suspended' until I pay them the deposit.

Deposit? There was no mention of any deposit in the online registration. I'm supplying my own equipment so it's supposedly free installation. I've received no letters, no word of this.

No. Due to my 'credit status' they'll require a €120 deposit. MY CREDIT STATUS!?!? What the f*pp does that mean? My 'credit status' should be and is as clean as a f**pping whistle. Ten years of ESB bills, mobile phone bills and nere any trouble and I've got 'credit status' issues!??! No, he spluttered, maybe that's not it. You probably don't match our 'credit requirements'.

Which are?? He told me he didn't work in that section so he wouldn't know. He was disinterested and lazy and made no effort to either explain the situation or reassure me.

Now this seriously f*cking pisses me off.

So, we've gone from free install to €120 deposit + 2 months upfront.

He then says I can 'apply to get the deposit back after a year'. I tell him that the package I've signed up for has a 6 month contract. I can get it back then if I leave, can't I?

'Yeah, you can apply to get it back'.

I can apply to get my deposit back at that point?

This doesn't sound good

dogpile

I registerd online also, after over a week I got a phone call saying my details never went through..had to go through the process again, was over 3 weeks waiting before I got online, expect that phone call mate

dub45

quad_red wrote:

Cheers Dub,
Just in case, I called them and went through the holding rigmarole.

And so it begins. My order has been 'suspended' until I pay them the deposit.

Deposit? There was no mention of any deposit in the online registration. I'm supplying my own equipment so it's supposedly free installation. I've received no letters, no word of this.

No. Due to my 'credit status' they'll require a €120 deposit. MY CREDIT STATUS!?!? What the f*pp does that mean? My 'credit status' should be and is as clean as a f**pping whistle. Ten years of ESB bills, mobile phone bills and nere any trouble and I've got 'credit status' issues!??! No, he spluttered, maybe that's not it. You probably don't match our 'credit requirements'.

Which are?? He told me he didn't work in that section so he wouldn't know. He was disinterested and lazy and made no effort to either explain the situation or reassure me.

Now this seriously f*cking pisses me off.

So, we've gone from free install to €120 deposit + 2 months upfront.

He then says I can 'apply to get the deposit back after a year'. I tell him that the package I've signed up for has a 6 month contract. I can get it back then if I leave, can't I?

'Yeah, you can apply to get it back'.

I can apply to get my deposit back at that point?

This doesn't sound good

Regular boards readers will know that I have posted regularly and worn everyone out about this deposit lark:eek: and if you do a search you will see that lots of people have problems with it.

Surely BT are giving you enough warnings in their behaviour so far - do you really want to be with a company that behaves this way?

Is there any other company anywhere that would not progress an order while not actually informing the applicant that a deposit is required?

From what you say the 'credit' reason is a new one normally it is tenants who are 'eventually' asked for the deposit. And don't expect to get a receipt for your deposit too easily either.!

TheDriver

I applied last Tuesday night and got modem in post Friday and plugged it in, all working great from BT.
Got contact on Wednesday confirming.

quad_red

Cheers Dub. And lucky you Driver!

I called them again. They now say that it's a 'standard requirement' for tenants. I ask about friends who are tenants and don't require them and she lists off that it's done on a 'case by case basis'.

This is really desperate I either take a leap of faith (or should I say fate... ) with BT or pay fifty quid per month for a one meg line from eircom.

This f**king country. Choice my hole.

jor el

Cancel the order, then place a new order on the online system. Lie on this one and say you are the house owner. It's none of their business if you're a tenant or owner anyway, and they have no way of checking it.

quad_red

jor el wrote:

Cancel the order, then place a new order on the online system. Lie on this one and say you are the house owner. It's none of their business if you're a tenant or owner anyway, and they have no way of checking it.

Tried it and it doesn't work.

"The phone number you selected appears to already be registered to one of our customers."

jor el

You'll probably have to wait until the current order is fully cancelled. That could take quite some time where BT are concerned.

vibe666

I was an existing customer with BT when I moved from a rented apartment in Dublin to a bought house in Navan. The previous house owners had eircom broadband, so not only was there a working phoneline, but DSL too.

iirc it was 73 days to get the phone working and a grand total of 92 days before I got my DSL back on.

don't hold your breath.

quad_red

I called them up on Wednesday with the intention of paying the poxy deposit. We need broadband and the GF wasn't happy at my apparent need to 'make things awkward'.

So I said feck it. I'll argue over the deposit when the time comes if there's a problem.

So I called them. And offered to pay the desposit. Not once but twice. But instead the girl restarted the registration process, I had to confirm my details with another lad on the phone and then he told me my order was now being processed and that I had seven days in which to pull out.

And I just got a text off BT saying:
"BT Ireland: We're sorry that your BT order is delayed. We're working to activate the service asap"

Errr, that's good isn't it:o

themole

We had a similar problem when we got BT BB in our house.

They sent a letter looking for a deposit. In the letter it said we could pay be cheque or credit card. Since no one in the house (rented house), has a cheque book one of the lads rang up 3 times to try to pay by credit card. Each time they didn't know what to do.

I eventually got my mother to write me a cheque which got it sorted out.

Drogman

Just to add to the various issues with BT.

I tried to signup online in October 2006 with BT. As I tried to signup something happened to my PC, and so it shut down. After restarting it, I attempted to register again, however after entering my phone number on their site, I got the message that "This number is already registered etc etc".

So I contacted them and I explained what I wanted, and I was then advised that even though they can't take my number off their system and that they know its their fault, that I would still have to pay the connection fee. At this stage I just wanted to get the thing in, so I said yeah no problem, its only E40 I suppose.

So went through everything and all seemed fine. Got letters in about a week later saying that the order has gone through and my broadband is activated and I should receive my modem shortly, this was November 14th.

On the 7th of Feb 2007, I received my modem after months of hounding them asking them where it was. I was told lies on the phone and through their e-mail service about where it was and why I didn't have it.

I have also been charged the full amount for usage, which I'am in the middle of contesting as I haven't used their internet service since I ordered it.

The only reason I'm staying now, is because as a mate of mine said, once it's up and running its grand, but if you need to contact customer service then forget about it!

Once, more competition arrives then I'll be moving fairly quickly. I work in a customer service enviornment and I can't believe how BT can get away with such awful service. I mean I know people have been lucky and got their order on time and its fine, but there must be more people out there who have aged 10 years trying to order broadband from BT!!

Anyway rant over.

quad_red

Well, I got the modem myself.

I got a letter yesterday saying the broadband would be enabled next Thursday with the phone packages starting a week after.

So, as they say, we shall see.

Puddles

quad_red wrote:

Cheers Dub,
Just in case, I called them and went through the holding rigmarole.

And so it begins. My order has been 'suspended' until I pay them the deposit.

Deposit? There was no mention of any deposit in the online registration. I'm supplying my own equipment so it's supposedly free installation. I've received no letters, no word of this.

No. Due to my 'credit status' they'll require a €120 deposit. MY CREDIT STATUS!?!? What the f*pp does that mean? My 'credit status' should be and is as clean as a f**pping whistle. Ten years of ESB bills, mobile phone bills and nere any trouble and I've got 'credit status' issues!??! No, he spluttered, maybe that's not it. You probably don't match our 'credit requirements'.

Which are?? He told me he didn't work in that section so he wouldn't know. He was disinterested and lazy and made no effort to either explain the situation or reassure me.

Now this seriously f*cking pisses me off.

So, we've gone from free install to €120 deposit + 2 months upfront.

He then says I can 'apply to get the deposit back after a year'. I tell him that the package I've signed up for has a 6 month contract. I can get it back then if I leave, can't I?

'Yeah, you can apply to get it back'.

I can apply to get my deposit back at that point?

This doesn't sound good

OMG we applied for BT BB last week. We are currently on dial up. We went through the phone call with the verbal contract and so on and he asked us how long we were with our current bank etc; (20 Years).
Anyway he informed us of a E45 set up fee. 3 days later we received a letter asking us for a E125 deposit and if we don't send it within 21 days they will cancel our order. REALLY? Don't bother, we're cancelling anyway. Gaelic Telecom do phone and BB for same price a month and they are only looking for E25 set up fee. They also put 15% of your bill back into your local community. Beat that. BT can stick it. FYI Eircom was E10 dearer a month than BT and Digi web were charging E29.99 a month for BB only. Can anyone get a better deal than this?

My other half rang them again this evening to 'officially' cancel the application due to the deposit required and the customer service guy (Who I ended up feeling sorry for) told us that he was going to get on to the credit control dept and get them to cancel the deposit requirement. He personally thinks this deposit requirement is "Stupid" and its driving people away. He's ringing us back tomorrow so I'll hold my breath and let yiz know asap

Puddles

Ok so we phoned them up this evening at about 5.30pm to 'officially' cancel our application and we told the guy that the deposit required was the reason why. He then went on to say that it's because we are renting our property and that if we would just wait until tomorrow, he's gonna get on to credit control and get them to cancel the deposit requirement. He says its driving a lot of people away and in his own words is "a stupid idea". He's ringing us back tomorrow (allegedly) so I'll let yiz know how we get on as soon as we know:rolleyes:

quad_red

Well, as indicated above, I cancelled my order. Then restarted it on the same day (over the phone) but this time told them I was a home owner (rather than a tenant). And I wasn't asked for a deposit the second time.

In regards to the line - I checked last night and the phone line is now DSL enabled!! However, I can't log on (which is normal as they said my account wouldn't be enabled till Thursday). But still, this is a small breakthrough.... baby steps people.

Puddles

Well our BT rep rang us to let us know that the deposit is "No longer required", but if we have a missed or late payment, we will be required to pay the deposit. Whadyaknow?

quad_red

Well, it's a historic day.

We've got broadband up and running. Everything seems fine on the BT end (lots of computer related crap but that's not their problem).

So, er.

Yeah! (Not gonna cheer too loud less I jinx it)

Puddles

Good stuff! We got our text message 'confirming' that they will get to us on 27/02. Well we won't hold our breath but at least the wheels are in motion. I'll cheer for ya!

quad_red

it's been almost a month since we got BB turned on. And the service itself is ok.

But we haven't been billed a penny yet. After all the bull**** about 2months up front, a 'security deposit' (the amount and reason changing every time I called), not one penny has been taken out of my account.

La la la.

OfflerCrocGod

quad_red wrote:

La la la.

Get in contact with them as soon as possible with them and ask to pay the bills - make sure you get some sort of receipt or proof. BT are notorious for sending out debt collecting agencies after they forget to bill people for a few months.

dub45

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

Get in contact with them as soon as possible with them and ask to pay the bills - make sure you get some sort of receipt or proof. BT are notorious for sending out debt collecting agencies after they forget to bill people for a few months.

This advice cannot be emphasised too much so act on it - there have been many many posts on here about BT letting an account go for up to a year and then hitting an account with a direct debit and cleaning it out. Cover yourself and make some arrangement to pay what you consider the monthly amount to be.

quad_red

Ok - warning heeded.

kaizersoze

BT bill bi-monthly (every 2 months) so you may not have come to your billing date yet.
If you got connected just after the last round of bills then it could be up to 2 months before you're billed. Also bear in mind that the first bill will be bigger than you may be expecting.You'll be bill from your connection date to the bill date, plus 2 months in advance. In theory your first bill could ammount to 4 months subscription.
As advised already, keep an eye on it. Register on the BT website so you can keep watch.