And so it begins... (another BT complaint)

fluppet

Despite all of the complaints and horror stories about BT, I decided to try my luck with them, but so far it looks like I haven't been very lucky.

I originally tried to order BT Broadband and Talk online when they were offering free connection (a saving of Eur 45) for online orders. I wasn't very impressed by their online form (it asks you marketing questions such as 'how long have you been with your bank', 'how long have you been living in your house', 'what is your occupation', etc. and actually says that answering them may help to speed up the installation process. It then has two check-boxes - beside one is says tick here if you want BT to send you marketing information, and beside the one below it it says tick here if you do not want BT to share you details with third parties - they have reversed the questions so you have to tick one and not the other which seems very sneeky). I spent quite a while very carefully filling out the form and then got an e-mail a few days later saying my form hadn't gone through correctly, so could I please post in an application instead. I've heard that this happens to a lot of people. I was so unimpressed that I decided to give-up on BT.

Then after a few months (at the beginning of February) I decided to give them another go (the price is very attractive). This time I called (the free installation offer was over anyway). It all seemed to go quite well. For the name of the account holder I specified that it was spelt 'Marian' (otherwise they always spell it 'Marion'), and I said the telephone and account numbers slowly and clearly and I believe he repeated them back to me correctly.

The next business day I got a call saying that they wanted a Eur 125 deposit. I know all the stories on here about the deposit, but I didn't have a choice so I had to agree to it.

Several days later I got a letter with the terms and conditions. To my annoyance the letter was addressed to 'Marion' so I called to correct it.

Two weeks later I got another letter. This time it said that the telephone number I had provided did not match the account number. Both the telephone number and account number they gave were incorrect (the telephone number was completely mixed-up and the account number had one digit wrong). I once again called them and corrected the issue.

The next day I received a letter from BT addressed to 'Marian ...'. The letter body then started 'Dear Marion'. This time it was to thank me for choosing BT Broadband and Talk and that the target date for my broadband to be activated is 10/3 (a Saturday, which seems a bit unusual).

It's a bad start...

mhoward

I have been with Eircom since they first released Broadband and the price never went down I was paying 54.99 a month plus the extravagent line rental charge which is 42 ! So I decided enough is enough.... I looked for Broadband and BT was the best deal so i said hey ill sign up with them.
So I did and the guy (who had less english than my 2 year old slovakian neighbour) took my details.... He said they would write to me and that was that. 3 weeks passed and nothing, then I get 5 letters in the door at once from BT my address was very wrong! But my name was right.... I guessed everything was ok it was a confirmation letter. Then my internet got cut off on Friday of a bank holiday weekend, so I rings BT and they tell me to log in and they give me the details. My name was wrong on their system and my login was like mikey or something (my name is mark). Then they said if I change the details I will have to start again and wait another 3 weeks... Heres a question.... How can somebody get my name right on an envelope and wrong inside a letter ?? What kind of people work there.... Anyways im using BT now and its cool, nice, fast and reliable... MAYBE ITS A TEST!

fred funk }{

BT have the WORST service possible, I have BB and phone with them for the last few years. The BB has been excellent until last week when I needed to contact them as it wasn't working. The first day I waited for nearly two hours before giving up and the second day wasn't much better.
I then decided to divert my call to their sales depart instead of technical and guess what?.......I got talking to someone within 10 seconds. I asked her to put me through to technical where I waited for another hour before getting through.

I'm seriously thinking of changing ISP, Is there any company's out there that provide a decent service?

BT's bills are a complete mess also, they're forever getting mine wrong, under charging, overcharging. I'm sick of it.

zilog_jones

BT are grand as long as:
1) You never get any non-Eircom related connection problems
2) They don't get your billing wrong

Even before they did BB and it was still Esat Clear their billing was erratic at best - sometimes we'd get nothing from them for months, then one big bill! And changing packages always ended up with things going wrong. Our voicemail was also broken for some time when we switched over to paying them for line rental (instead of paying Eircom directly). Since our last package change (and getting that corrected after the first wrong bill), we haven't had any trouble. We MOVED HOUSE in 2002 and somehow they got that right!

However, service-wise the broadband is great. The only times I've ever had trouble with it was when our line got damaged (fixed pretty quickly by Eircom, though I'd say they were so prompt because it was b0rking our phone calls as well), and when the exchange in Roches St. went to shít one day for some reason (it affected all ADSL users in Limerick).

Sam Vimes

fluppet wrote:

Despite all of the complaints and horror stories about BT, I decided to try my luck with them, but so far it looks like I haven't been very lucky.

I originally tried to order BT Broadband and Talk online when they were offering free connection (a saving of Eur 45) for online orders. I wasn't very impressed by their online form (it asks you marketing questions such as 'how long have you been with your bank', 'how long have you been living in your house', 'what is your occupation', etc. and actually says that answering them may help to speed up the installation process.

those are credit checking questions. as an example, all the mobile networks ask those questions when you're signing up to them. they have nothing to do with marketing