Broaband Supplier. Customer Support - Tale of Woe

pleuraXeraphim

Hi Folks

I have been subscribed to a Broadband supplier (Major player but wont name them) in this country for a number of years. About 9 months ago the trouble began.

<Long Rant>
Having been with the company for 3 years at that point, for some reason my direct debit failed. I contacted the bank and they could not detect an issue on their side. I rang up the Broadband supplier several times in an efort to get my direct debit set up, each time getting a different employee who took details of the issue, and updated my direct debit details. All was supposed to be working and the balance was paid.

Two months later I get another threatening letter in the post threatening to disconnect my my service and saying I owed rental for 2 months. Again I went through about 15 calls and eventually they went through the process of re-setting up my direct debit. I asked them to log my calls and details. I got a letter in the post confirming that my direct debit had been set up and all was okay. Great.

Two months later I got another letter in the post threatening to disconnect me and saying I owed rental. I again had to go through several calls. This time I asked them to disconnect my service as they obviously were incabable of resolving this issue. I wrote a letter to them instructing them to disconnect my account and I settled the full amount owed and giving them 2 months advance notice which I paid for by CC. For a week afterwards I then received 3 calls from the company wondering why I was disconnecting. I told them to check my call records and that they were incabable of sorting out the billing on their side so I was going disconnect. They tried offering me packages and reductions if I was to stay with them, however I told them they were missing the whole point.

Anyway about 2 weeks ago, I again received another letter from them threatening to disconnect my account even though my account should now have been terminated as requested. I rang them up and again you get nowhere with the operatives in Credit Control. I complained and insisted in speaking to to the manager. I complained to the girl (team Lead) that after 9 months and over 80 calls, no one has resolved the issue.

She viewed my account and says she could see the issue in the system and that there was a fault on their billing system which was causing the problem. I made it clear to her that I wanted a quick resolution to this considering the expense of all the calls I had to make and the stress involved. Of course there was no apology but she says they would be back onto me withing 24 hours. Thinking that I had now discussed all this with a team lead I had hoped might get some action.

But obviously no answer within 24 hours. I rang back every day after and they would not put me on to the team lead, each time they would say that they would handle my request but nothing would happen. The last few times I have rung I was told that they have a 48 hours callback system and that I would just have to wait. This was never mentioned in the 9 months about this before but suddenly they start using it . Of course there was no phone call within 48 hours or indeed the past week.

To make matters even worse. When looking for IT support on the account they get it mixed up with my parents account. These accounts have seperate Physical locations, different phone numbers, account numbers everything. When they would go to ring me up they would ring my parents instead using their number and threaten them. My parents are furious as have nothing to do with this and I dont live at home for that matter.
Also to note I have on at least 5 occasions instructed them with which number was to be used in contacting me and no other. And still they ask me what number I want to be contacted on and they still get it wrong. No matter how times I have tried to resolve this there has been no response from them other than it should not be possible to get the accounts mixed up. So you can imagine the frustration when you ring up their tech support about a fault on my line and they start telling me that I am mistaken and that the line is working. All becaus they are looking at a different line. No amount of explaining can seem to get through to them.

My parents have also experienced similair woes. Their broadband has died twice in the past 4 months with the same supplier and you get no where in trying to get back up and running.

And finally I have repeatedely asked for them to send me out my statements which they have not done. So I have no idea when the bill is due or how much for.

</Long Rant>

Has anyone any advice in getting this issue resolved. No matter how many times I ring I have always been given the run around.

Can I complain them to Comreg ? Or should I talk to a solicitor ?
Is there some other way of getting this closed off finally ?

Cheers

ShooterSF

Any chance you kept a copy of the letter you sent? If you did I'd just leave it, you want the service cut and they will cut it.
That's why I always send email cancellations so I can dig back up a copy if someone tries to take a direct debit or claims I owe them money.

pleuraXeraphim

Thanks ShooterSF. Unfortunately I didnt send by registered post so I have no way of proving that it was sent. I did insist each time though that details of the calls were logged to the system on my account. Not that I have even been able to establish that end of things yet.

Under the freedom of information act can I obtain that information which should be on my account? Surely it cant be too hard for them to check the call details and act on it.

The company in question is BT.

Cheers Dave

Cabaal

Given its billing problems I'm going to say that this is about BT

[EDIT] Just read your post above just now, I knew it!

Under the Data Protection Act you can request any and all information they have that concerns you including account records.

Call or write to them requesting details of how to request this procedure, if they refuse to give you this info or refuse your request report them to the Data Protection Commisinor

ShooterSF

Actually dropped BT myself a few months ago. Right pain they are. Numerous emails telling me I'd have to talk to "customer options" with me responding let them email me so you have my addy

I rang them two days before the cancellation date I requested and reminded them. Let them know the direct debit was cancelled and the email forwarded to CC company.

I'd say go the data protection act route so but after that I'd let them chase you and not the other way round. Don't sit on hold for hours trying to reach them.

Cabaal

I had a BT Buisness ADSL package with them for about two years odd, cracking service with about 15min downtime in that whole period...however any time anything billing related came up they made a complete balls of it.

Luckily it helps to complain to people high up and got it all sorted, the two times I had billing issues with them

Now with UTV Internet as its the best package I can get where I live (price wise and options wise)

pleuraXeraphim

Thanks for all the replies. Glad to know it not just me so :-)
Is there any way I can get to someone higher up the chain to help get this sorted. Dont know of anyone who works there.

smelltheglove

I have BT broad band only a couple of months and so far so good, hopefully it stays that way.

I was going to say UPC as your whole thread sounds like threads I posted in the last few months about UPC, the person on the other end of the phone always knows best and there is no need for a manager garbage!

After the hassle I had with UPC I ended up just leaving it and letting them chase me. After a bout 2months I got it all sorted and thankfully never have to deal with them again. I recommend you do the same and hopefully your new supplier will be fine, I just wouldnt recommend upc. I hear eircom never fails.

jkmanc1974

Try ringing them and asking for Colm O'Brien, he is head of Consumer for BT Ireland and very helpful indeed.

Brgds
Johnny

jor el

pleuraXeraphim wrote: »

The company in question is BT.

Why does that not surprise me? Probably because I had very similar issues, if the direct debit doesn't set up the first time, they are incapable of doing it from then on, no matter how many times you set it up.

What you should do, and it worked for me, is email the CEO, Chris Clark
chris.clark@bt.com
and outline the problems.

I copied Comreg, Joe Duffy, Conor Pope, and the CAI on mine. Got a response within hours, and the head of consumer division was onto the case within a day. Account was closed, and I got a refund of nearly 150 euro in total (50 or which they actually owed me).

All in all, it took 8 months to get to that stage, and has taken nearly another year to get to the bottom of the debt collector issue. Is it Credit Solutions Ltd that are after you too? I complained to the UK Information Commissioner (data protection) as they refused to respond to my information request.

Also note that BT's cancellation notice period is 2 weeks. If you've paid for any more than 2 weeks after you first canceled the service, they owe you all this back. Don't let them away with it. The only way they'll learn is if you take back all the money they ever made from your account.

Other emails: joe@rte.ie, cai@consumerassociation.ie, pricewatch@todayfm.com, Consumerline@comreg.ie
NCA Contact page

pleuraXeraphim

Hey there folks:
Just a quick update on this:

I followed jor_el's advice and emailed Chris Clark and cc'd the list of people as below. Got a reply within minutes from Chris and the issue was solved withing 24 working hours. Cheque is in the post and account now finally closed.

Comreg even rang me as well and were investigating. So relieved that this is now finally over.

Big thanks to all of you, for your suggestions and for taking the time to write here. You definitely helped me out big time.

Cheers Dave

Cabaal

pleuraXeraphim, good to hear you got it sorted out

eth0_

pleuraXeraphim wrote: »

I followed jor_el's advice and emailed Chris Clark and cc'd the list of people as below. Got a reply within minutes from Chris and the issue was solved withing 24 working hours. Cheque is in the post and account now finally closed.

It's a very sad state of affairs that you had to go that far. I worked for Esat BT about 6 years ago and their billing system was a complete mess even back then (around the time ADSL first came out), I cannot believe they haven't fixed things 6 years on!

I work for a festival organisation in Edinburgh - one of many in the city - and they regularly bill us for the phone calls of OTHER festivals simply because it says "Edinburgh" and "festival" in their business name...rather than billing based on account numbers associated with OUR company name or postcode! Every quarter they do this, every quarter we have to correct them, and they have to credit us for the next bill.

Totally unsurprised to see BT posting massive losses lately.