BT Ireland-Poor Service and Debt Collector threats

CelticMan2009

Hi All,

I have been a BT Ireland customer for a few years, but now find myself been threatened by BT with a debt collection agency...let me explain further,
In April 2009 I started getting very poor performance and severe lag on BT Ireland broadband service at peak times. I decided to call BT support. After several attempts I failed to get through to a BT technician. Hours of time and credit wasted. I then decided to go down the email route. At last a response.

I emailed them the results of a ping test..which showed poor results..ie see a sample below

Pinging www.l.google.com [66.102.9.104] with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 66.102.9.104: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=246
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.102.9.104: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=246
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.102.9.104: bytes=32 time=30ms TTL=246
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.102.9.104: bytes=32 time=31ms TTL=246
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.102.9.104: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=246
Reply from 66.102.9.104: bytes=32 time=32ms TTL=246
Request timed out.
Reply from 66.102.9.104: bytes=32 time=28ms TTL=246

I have a degree in computer science and I work in the IT area.
I know when a broadband service is poor.
My dialup connection was even better than my BT Ireland broadband connection at peak times. :mad:

By June the service had even got worse. By this stage it was totally unusable at peak times. I was getting so stressed with BT that I decided to cc comreg on the emails. Another Month finding BT support to be very very poor, and realizing that while all this was going on I was paying BT for a service that was not working, :eek: and looked like was not going to be fixed, I decided to cancel the contract.

I cancelled my direct debit with BT also. They then rang me, looking for payment of my final invoice. I asked BT for some sort of refund (even a token gesture would do.) BT toke the hard line and are not agreeing to any sort of refund. They claim to have fixed all problems..(a def lie as it was unusable at peak times)

I could not believe this... but thats BT's position. I was a loyal customer for years that never missed a bill payment.....Now I find myself threatened by BT ...with a Debt collection agency...

What are other people’s views on this.... Is it reasonable to expect a broadband service to be better or at least as good as dialup at peak times ? ..... What about the debt collection agency threat?

thanks

dudara

We won't discuss the technical aspects of the problem here - that's best suited to the Broadband forum.

When you cancelled the contract, you were required to pay the final bill. Withholding payment leaves you liable to be persued. Personally, I would have paid the bill, but continued to persue them.

You say that you've cc'd Comreg, but have you actually lodged a complaint with Comreg regarding all this?

CelticMan2009

Only contacted comreg via email, but they have replied saying they gonna lodge a formal complaint with BT. I have discussed this with the BT Complaints officer. The complaints officier said that his gonna just tell comreg that all my problems where fixed which is clearly not the case.

The odd thing is that he appoligised for the poor service but still would not aggree to a token refund.

Do you still think I should pay the final bill. And if I do how can I pursue them ?

ps I think your right about this being in the broadband section ..is it possible to move the thread?

jhegarty

dudara wrote: »

When you cancelled the contract, you were required to pay the final bill. Withholding payment leaves you liable to be persued. Personally, I would have paid the bill, but continued to persue them.

+1

Pay the bill today , lodge a case with the small claims court tomorrow.

The service isn't been provided , but this really is the best course of action.

dudara

CelticMan2009 wrote: »

ps I think your right about this being in the broadband section ..is it possible to move the thread?

The technical aspects of this belong in the Broadband section, so feel free to start another thread there about that. However, the consumer issues aspect of it belongs here and will only be bounced back here if moved/discussed elsewhere.