My BT broadband nightmare... turns out it should never have happened

surveys

You really MUST have a look at this !! The wrong thread of course, but really worth seeing. !
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/1/hi/technology/4964860.stm

surveys

A response from BT 'at last' ! Had a call today from Priscilla O'Regan. We talked about the dossier and the BT problems. Apparantly the dossier had been lost. ! That there are 5 Andrew Greens in BT London. ! Anyway apparantly it has surfaced in Dublin and is now with Danny McLaughlin the CEO. Priscilla has promised to arrange for Danny to call me and discuss the issues. If this proves to be fruitfull there is the possibility of a meeting. I will keep you all informed as things develop. Apparantly BT and Priscilla in particular are watching Boards.ie and taking note of what is happening. She appeared fairly clued up with the posts on here. ! More later. If anyone has any thoughts or suggestions please post or send to me..

Sponge Bob

Well done again surveys.

Hopefully they will engage properly and start to appreciate the damage they are doing to themselves as well as their infuriated customers.....not to mention all the customers they have lost over the last while and those they failed to acquire as a consequence of their system failures.

Get a delemagation of your 'dossier' people together for a chat on IRC and have a good meeting.

surveys

I will start this off by saying this. I appreciate that a lot of guys have had serious problems, and that BT should have resolved these problems long ago, and that there is a great deal of anger (rightly so) being shown on boards about BT and its terrible failings, BUT, when talking to them its important to keep one’s cool, and remain ‘on track’ and keep the emotions bottled up ! Dealing with them is an angry way and ‘barking’ at them would have achieved nothing, except to have them cut off the connection. ! The “proof of the pudding, is in the eating” so the taste will either improve greatly in the near future or the taste will go sour if nothing or only half measures are actually carried out. ! Its my experience from a lifetime of management that throwing Bricks only hurts oneself, and one’s cause. The bricks were thrown in the dossier in no uncertain terms, so it is even more of a useless excercise to keep throwing them now. ! Certainly there are big question marks as to how the Dossier ended up in Dublin, from its original route to the CEO in London, and this is a question that I also have misgivings about, but pursuing that avenue to the detriment of trying to achieve results now that it has ended up in Dublin would be self defeatist.

Anyway, had a good discussion with Danny McLaughlan and Priscilla O’Regan and Eimear Kennedy. To condense it all it appears that BT have already implemented a plan which I proposed, to set up a dedicated ‘complaints’ department with an executive head so as to handle all complaints properly, speedily and separately from all other business. I asked that details of this be published on Boards.ie and on their web site which they agreed, so hopefully this will be done.?
I though that the CEO had been briefed very well and he appears to be a genuine guy with a real interest in resolving the problems and establishing satisfied customers and getting rid of the current fiasco of inter-department confusion. He is apparently aware of the ‘billing’ fiasco and DD shambles and said they are all working hard to eliminate them. He confirmed that he has only been in the job for 9 months and has therefore had insufficient time to resolve everything, but was emphatic that most things will be resolved in the near future.
They have agreed to look into the possibility of installing a dedicated telephone and fax line to deal specifically with complaints and promised to publish such numbers as soon as they are available.
He informed me that he has recently ‘beefed’ up the ‘team’ so as to improve efficiency and improve response times and get a quicker turnover of problems.
He also said that they have been in contact with the ‘consumers association’ ‘comreg’ and other relevant bodies and explained their plans for improvements and eradication of all serious problems.
There was also an explanation given about the billing fiasco’s and this relates to the accounting system that they inherited from ESAT which they say was totally inadequate. That it has been a massive task to try and improve this outdated system !
I pointed out that BT bought out ESAT years ago and would appear to have had ample time to eradicate faults and also stressed that BT’s vast recourses might have been used to overcome this problem earlier with the appointment of a dedicated and knowledgeable systems accounting organisation but the CEO said that this had not been possible due to the complex nature of automated billing systems and also that requests had been made to actually implement their own BT worldwide billing system into Ireland, but they had been advised against this by the parent company in UK. !
I expressed the view that some of the information on Boards suggested that the DD implementation and its use for some customers could almost be construed as fraud, and it was agreed that too many errors had been allowed to creep into the system and that this was being given priority treatment.
The CEO also expressed his desire to have customers actually visit the BT premises and provide some constructive criticism as well as giving important customer feedback. He said he would actually like me to visit but this has yet to be finalised as I personally feel that I might not prove to be sufficiently knowledgeable in IT systems at the higher level. The CEO admitted that there have been and still are serious problems but they are working hard to eradicate them and he accepts that BT will be judged upon what they deliver.
My own feeling is precisely the same. The talk was extremely informative and worthwhile and conducted on a very friendly but efficient basis, so the ball is now in their court to see what they actually deliver, and if their stated objectives are achieved and in what timeframe they achieve them. ?
They singled out some people on Boards, who they consider to have serious problems, and with whom they would like immediate contact, so I will write personally to those three members. If anyone else would like to contact BT about their specific problem which has not yet been resolved and is long outstanding, I hope to be able to post an address here shortly.

oflahero

Similar experience also, one got the feeling that the BT ops on the other end of the phone were flipping a coin every time they were contacted, "heads I'll actually use the system, tails I scratch my arse." I got the runaround treatment for two months also, culminating with the demand for the nutjob deposit, which finally drove me into the arms of UTV, who had me up and running within a week of first contact (with no deposit.)

Great benefit was had from the advice doled out from some of the regulars on here, top one.

bullpost

I've had a billing dispute with BT for over three months. Had given up on them and was going to cancel my contract with them. After reading this post yesterday I decided to give them one last try. I sent them an email yesterday and, hey presto, got a reply this morning. Not only that but the complaints person said they'd take personal responsibility for sorting my account out and would have everything fixed within a week. Bear in mind this is only the second time in three months that they've contacted me - even though I had comreg involved for quite a while.

surveys

Seems like we might be wasting our time. ?

BT Ireland revenues up 26% to €470m
http://www.siliconrepublic.com/news/...yid=single6462

With these kind of revenues how important are we ?

I am going to do some 'research' - will report back here after getting some answers.

Sponge Bob

Not if they now actually have people in complaints to deal with complaints.

Has nobody noticed the slight drop in BT complaints this month , the glacier may be moving ??????

esperanza

About to order ESAT BT myself, but all these horror stories are making me afraid. Have they improved somewhat recently or is there still long waiting times and mistakes in their bills?

Sponge Bob

They have improved. Look at how quite the complaints have gotten recently. Surveys is currently about 75% of the way to becoming an official "Legend Of The Boards " IMO .

If nobody posts a juicy recent BT story by end August I hereby announce that I will be unrelenting nice to them for all of September and October ....no matter what flavourings that Ken Shabby fella threatens to sauté my privates in.

Dirk Gently

Sponge Bob wrote:

If nobody posts a juicy recent BT story by end August I hereby announce that I will be unrelenting nice to them for all of September and October ....no matter what flavourings that Ken Shabby fella threatens to sauté my privates in.

I heard a rumour from a reliable source that Esat BT managers go around the maternity hospitals in the dead of night stealing new born babies and they train them how to fog off customers complaints. At the age of 5 they put them working in the billing department and customer service. My reliable source also says they round up homeless people and put them in giant blenders to make fruit juice out of them and then charge their employees 10 euro per bottle of hobojuice in the staff canteen. Any staff member who doesn't buy a bottle of hobojuice everyday gets put in the blender and served to his former colleagues the next day. :eek:

surveys

Sponge Bob wrote:

They have improved. Look at how quite the complaints have gotten recently. Surveys is currently about 75% of the way to becoming an official "Legend Of The Boards " IMO .

If nobody posts a juicy recent BT story by end August I hereby announce that I will be unrelenting nice to them for all of September and October ....no matter what flavourings that Ken Shabby fella threatens to sauté my privates in.

Thanks sponge Bob. ! Im sure that 'Fella' is currently saute'ing his own seeing as 'his' campaign has been such a dismal failure. ? ! Isn't it about time he removed that silly web site "sucks", or at least changed the wording to "BT Ireland 'Used' to suck ?? One mans failure is usually another mans success ??

Sponge Bob

surveys wrote:

Isn't it about time he removed that silly web site "sucks", or at least changed the wording to "BT Ireland 'Used' to suck ??

Oh God NO :eek: !!!!!!!!

They have sucked for so long and so hard that the site should continue to exist as a penance until at least 2012 and should be incorporated into their training manuals for their billing staff as well. Not only that but BT should graciously send the cheque to pay for teh domain registration so far and for the next 6 years too. BT, one recalls, have owned ESAT for over 6 years during which they did nothing to fix their billing system or put an escalation department in place. They should not be allowed to forget that for at least 6 years lest we find ourselves back at square one .

ESAT and then BT may now be showing some due consideration for their customers but given what they have done in the past there are an AWFUL lot of people out there who will not touch them.

Not only do they have to fix these billing cockups and be SEEN to have fixed these billing cockups so they will never return but they must then figure out a way to reach out to these people who have sworn never to go near ESAT BT ever again and to touch hands and feel the hurt.

That bit will be difficult Surveys. The first steps are

1. Stop it happening in the first place, standard GIGO principles.
2. Deal with it pronto when it happens and ensure it does not recur across billing cycles .
3. Apologise to these people properly, they ARE still your customers after all .

I feel we are getting through stages one and two and that three must be dealt with next . Stage three is most important BECAUSE these are the people who will be relied upon by BT to assure the Irish public that ESAT BT has mended its ways ...permanently and irrevocably so . This is important to me and you already know why.

As to how to start to win back the myriad hurt and mad and utterly bewildered ex customers from their recent past !!!...well I don't know where to start really ????? . Next year maybe.

surveys

Sponge Bob wrote:

Oh God NO :eek: !!!!!!!!

They have sucked for so long and so hard that the site should continue to exist as a penance until at least 2012 and should be incorporated into their training manuals for their billing staff as well. Not only that but BT should graciously send the cheque to pay for teh domain registration so far and for the next 6 years too. BT, one recalls, have owned ESAT for over 6 years during which they did nothing to fix their billing system or put an escalation department in place. They should not be allowed to forget that for at least 6 years lest we find ourselves back at square one .

ESAT and then BT may now be showing some due consideration for their customers but given what they have done in the past there are an AWFUL lot of people out there who will not touch them.

Not only do they have to fix these billing cockups and be SEEN to have fixed these billing cockups so they will never return but they must then figure out a way to reach out to these people who have sworn never to go near ESAT BT ever again and to touch hands and feel the hurt.

That bit will be difficult Surveys. The first steps are

1. Stop it happening in the first place, standard GIGO principles.
2. Deal with it pronto when it happens and ensure it does not recur across billing cycles .
3. Apologise to these people properly, they ARE still your customers after all .

I feel we are getting through stages one and two and that three must be dealt with next . Stage three is most important BECAUSE these are the people who will be relied upon by BT to assure the Irish public that ESAT BT has mended its ways ...permanently and irrevocably so . This is important to me and you already know why.

As to how to start to win back the myriad hurt and mad and utterly bewildered ex customers from their recent past !!!...well I don't know where to start really ????? . Next year maybe.

But they have improved SpongeBob, dramatically. ! Why should all the PR repair work fall to them. ? Complaints are now almost zero, and 'all' complaints sent through Boards have been dealt with and customers satisfied, and in some cases delighted with the results. ! A gesture by the 'fella' in at least changing the wording of his 'silly' site (not that I care a hoot about it) would also perhaps give BT even more reason to improve ? Not that I think anybody of any consequence takes heed of such a site by a disgrunted 'ex customer' - After all, the past is the past, and if we were all so preoccupied by the past mankind would perish. ! 2012 is really quite silly and as for incorporating his site in their training manuals - Well, it would at least be a little training into "how not to do things" (his site) After all he achieved absolute zero ?..
That BT should pay for his site registration ? Oh, come on spongeBob, your not serious ? He runs a hosting company so the registration and site cost him nothing. ! Can you imagine that it would be there if it 'had' cost him money. ?:) ""during which they did nothing to fix their billing system or put an escalation department in place."" But its there now, in place, and working, so why do we have to be so preoccupied with its past failings ?
We have succeeded, is that not enough. ? ""to these people who have sworn never to go near ESAT BT ever again and to touch hands and feel the hurt."" Are you serious ? What about IBB. Eircom. Smart, and all the other
suppliers are are probably worse than BT ? BT's actual broadband supply has beaten the competition into the ground. ! Lets be realistic SpongeBob, what big organisation would care a hoot about ex disgruntled customers ? The aforenamed companies. ? An Post. Irish Rail. Bus Eireann. All the Banks. ? 99% of all these large organisations would not move a finger. ! BT Ireland have gone out of their way, in a big way, to rectify their shortcomings, and have gone way past what could be expected of any organisation in this country. None of these others, together with most other big companies, don't care a hoot. "Take it or leave it is their attitude".. The standard of service by such organisations is actually downright scandelous and they are doing nothing and never will do anything to rectify it. ! Credit where credit is due, BT could have just gone on the way they were. Ignored all this 'irrelevant' stuff and got on with making big profits, which they do make by the way. ! The proportion of Boards 'complainants' compared to BT's total customer base must be about 0.001% ? That leaves tens of thousands of other customers, so why should BT allocate so much of its resources to satisfy 0.001% ? What about all those tens of thousands of satisfied customers ? do they not count. ? We should try to get all this into proper perspective. !
No's 1 and 2 of your 'steps' have already been completed. No.3. is quite unrealistic and will never be done. ! How would they track all these 'ex' customers anyway, even if they did want to 'lure' them back with what you call 'apologies' ?? Most people move on anyway, both literally and metaphorically, and get on with their lives, and anyway if BT did tried to lure them back they would be guilty of trying to steal customers from others. ?
""BECAUSE these are the people who will be relied upon by BT to assure the Irish public that ESAT BT has mended its ways ."" Come on now, you can't really believe that ?? What do they have to do ? Crawl down O'Connell Street on their hands and knees begging for forgiveness. ?? !!

Sponge Bob

Surveys

I refuse to fall out with you over BT and I equally refuse to fall out with Ken over BT . Its simply not worth it (especially with you already 80% of the way to legend of the Boards status as "The Man Who Fixed BT Ireland " )

I will dredge up this bit however lest anyone think that memories are that short

BT Ireland have gone out of their way, in a big way, to rectify their shortcomings, and have gone way past what could be expected of any organisation in this country.

and rephrase it a tad to how I would put it.

BT Ireland have gone out of their way, in a big way, to rectify their shortcomings, and have finally brought their Billing and Complaint handling up to what should be expected of any large organisation of comparable turnover in this country.

I would additionally remind you (and the readership ) that there are a lot more ex BT Ireland customers in Ireland than there are live BT customers in Ireland . Fabulous Pricing alone will not win some of these back but good word of mouth from existing customers will certainly help to rapidly melt the glacier.

I strongly commend to them, yet again, that they must not only fix their processes but that in their case , and with their history, they must be SEEN to fix their processes.

I for one shall not make it more difficult for them given the strides that they have made so far....but you know that Surveys.

As for Ken! ......that pedigree labrador bitch I sold him last year appears to consider ovulation to be an optional extra so as you may guess we are deep in very delicate negotiations about stuff that we really could fall out over assuming anyone can tell him how I could possibly have known this at the time.

SoldierForce

Don't worry I hope to come up with a complaint against BT soon I've just given them another 24hrs to resolve my problem! Will let you'll know what it is if they don't answer soon enough! I have been waiting for their answer for almost 2 weeks now and seems their Customer Services Reps are back to haunt us all!

GregusManus

surveys wrote:

Complaints are now almost zero, and 'all' complaints sent through Boards have been dealt with and customers satisfied,

Surveys,

This is not quite true. After over 3 months down time with BT in relocating my phone and BB service only yesterday did i finally get active BB. The issues is not closed until i see all bills resolved....which were pending the BB activation, hopefully in the next week or so that will be sorted. I was due a bill on the 8th of August but its not online yet, perhaps due to the fiasco the has surrounded my BB connection.

surveys

GregusManus wrote:

Surveys,

This is not quite true. After over 3 months down time with BT in relocating my phone and BB service only yesterday did i finally get active BB. The issues is not closed until i see all bills resolved....which were pending the BB activation, hopefully in the next week or so that will be sorted. I was due a bill on the 8th of August but its not online yet, perhaps due to the fiasco the has surrounded my BB connection.

You were always welcome to PM me ? I would have taken it up immediately.

surveys

SoldierForce wrote:

Don't worry I hope to come up with a complaint against BT soon I've just given them another 24hrs to resolve my problem! Will let you'll know what it is if they don't answer soon enough! I have been waiting for their answer for almost 2 weeks now and seems their Customer Services Reps are back to haunt us all!

Looking forward to it. I'm sure it will be dealt with speedily.

SoldierForce

CONGRATULATIONS BT! Problem dealt with within 20 minutes after I posted and emailed complaints! Inspite of them saying to wait 24Hrs! It's grand now! Cheerz BT n Three Cheerz Surveys!!


The last obstacle now is the billing which I hope goes well! Will keep you all informed!
Cheerz

Dr. Dec

Sponge Bob wrote:

If nobody posts a juicy recent BT story by end August I hereby announce that I will be unrelenting nice to them for all of September and October ....no matter what flavourings that Ken Shabby fella threatens to sauté my privates in.

Not sure this qualifies as juicy, but it is recent.

I made an order for Broadband Option 3, Line Rental and Talk. Have to say that I am less than impressed with the service so far. My order was made on July 25th and while I'd be happy enough to accept a three week wait if I was informed of this from the start, there have been several other issues. I registered my order with BTs website so I could track it's progress. I managed to log into this system perhaps twice before it stopped working. The error message at login claims I've entered an incorrect phone number. Odd considering the login does not ask for a phone number. If this is a billing issue, it has certainly not prevented BT from taking money from us.

Having had no contact with BT for about a week following my order, I rang customer services and was told that my broadband should be online by August 9th. On August 2nd, a garbled email confirmation of my order arrived and told me exactly nothing. I asked them to send this again and received a reply another week later informing me that my broadband should be online by August 17th. In the meantime, the tenant deposit was charged twice. This was spotted and fixed following another call to customer services. A phone call to BT today (the 17th) reveals that my broadband is up and running but that someone forgot to send out the self-install pack. To give customer services fair credit, they were very apologetic and have sent this pack out today. They suggested I track the progress of this online but the website still will not allow me access.

Taken in isolation, one of these issues would not bother me. All together, it's extremely frustrating. It seems that come Monday this will all be fixed, I'll update then.

dub45

Dr. Dec wrote:

Not sure this qualifies as juicy, but it is recent.

................

Taken in isolation, one of these issues would not bother me. All together, it's extremely frustrating. It seems that come Monday this will all be fixed, I'll update then.

As a matter of interest did they give you a receipt for your deposit or give you the conditions associated with the deposit>

wingnut32

Forgive me if this is brief...I ordered broadband from BT on the 17th of May..didnt get the self install pack till 12th of June because they added a 93 in my number a month earlier. Today after 3 routers 3 line tests the internal wiring checked (only two minutes from the exchange) and a guy from eircom out blaming my third router because the dsl light on his modem didnt blink when mine did...I still have no broadband. The poor BT salesman that knocked my door last week to sell BT braodband got an awful time...

Anyway today BT have elevated the problem to their second level team after near three months............................................................................................................................................hitting head off desk!!!!!!!

surveys

wingnut32 wrote:

Forgive me if this is brief...I ordered broadband from BT on the 17th of May..didnt get the self install pack till 12th of June because they added a 93 in my number a month earlier. Today after 3 routers 3 line tests the internal wiring checked (only two minutes from the exchange) and a guy from eircom out blaming my third router because the dsl light on his modem didnt blink when mine did...I still have no broadband. The poor BT salesman that knocked my door last week to sell BT braodband got an awful time...

Anyway today BT have elevated the problem to their second level team after near three months............................................................................................................................................hitting head off desk!!!!!!!

Hi.
If you would like to send me your account number, of you don't have one your full name, and I will get your problem resolved asap.
Cheers.
Ray.

Dr. Dec

dub45 wrote:

As a matter of interest did they give you a receipt for your deposit or give you the conditions associated with the deposit>

No conditions and no receipt that I am aware of. The letter simply stated that the deposit was required for all tenant clients. Really, if I were so dishonest as to intend to leave without paying my bills, surely I would also lie about my tenancy on the form... it's paid anyway.

My BT website access is up and running now, thanks to Surveys

dub45

Dr. Dec wrote:

No conditions and no receipt that I am aware of. The letter simply stated that the deposit was required for all tenant clients. Really, if I were so dishonest as to intend to leave without paying my bills, surely I would also lie about my tenancy on the form... it's paid anyway.

My BT website access is up and running now, thanks to Surveys

That gives great confidence in their professionalism and integrity - give me an interest free loan and I dont tell how or when you will get it back!!! A used car salesman would be more honourable:rolleyes:

surveys

dub45 wrote:

That gives great confidence in their professionalism and integrity - give me an interest free loan and I dont tell how or when you will get it back!!! A used car salesman would be more honourable:rolleyes:

Except most likely the car will have bald tyres, and a gearbox that doesnt work, and burning oil like a fuel tanker, and seat belts nackered, and a hole in the radiator. etc.etc. And of course your not told anything - its all covered up, but "guaranteed" a great car. !

dub45

surveys wrote:

Except most likely the car will have bald tyres, and a gearbox that doesnt work, and burning oil like a fuel tanker, and seat belts nackered, and a hole in the radiator. etc.etc. And of course your not told anything - its all covered up, but "guaranteed" a great car. !

Given BT's behaviour in relation to a certain dossier I think that would be the appropriate term ok not to mention the cover up of a lousy accounts and billing depratment being allowed to operate for years without any explanation to customers whatsoever - cover up indeed!!!!!!!!!!

No reputable company would ask a customer for a deposit without (a) a receipt
and (b) full details of what exactly the depoist is for;how it would be forefitted and how it will be refunded. And of course in lots of cases they did not even tell the customer that a deposit was required - it was only when customers inquired about the long delay in installation that they were told a deposit was required:rolleyes:

surveys

dub45 wrote:

Given BT's behaviour in relation to a certain dossier I think that would be the appropriate term ok not to mention the cover up of a lousy accounts and billing depratment being allowed to operate for years without any explanation to customers whatsoever - cover up indeed!!!!!!!!!!

No reputable company would ask a customer for a deposit without (a) a receipt
and (b) full details of what exactly the depoist is for;how it would be forefitted and how it will be refunded. And of course in lots of cases they did not even tell the customer that a deposit was required - it was only when customers inquired about the long delay in installation that they were told a deposit was required:rolleyes:

As I have already said elsewhere, I think your description definitely fits eircom, (eircon ?) smart, IBB, Ebay, and an absolute host of others, the only difference is they don't give a hoot, will refuse to accept that there is anything wrong, and have an attitude of "take it or leave it" ? BT's only problem now is that they have an 'enemy' on Boards, and Boards members are 'following the leader'. It would serve most people better if this preoccupation with BT was transferred over to the aforementioned crap institutions. ? At least BT is trying very hard to rectify their situation, the others don't give a hoot, and never will. ? :rolleyes:

SoldierForce

I agree with surveys! I was fed all cock and bull about BT and not 1% of what is spoken against BT is true! I signed up for BT and in 3 weeks broadband was set up! Received a letter stating deposit of 125 was received. Was only charged for broadband from the day it was enabled and not when my line was transferred. what more should I say!? So far I haven't had any problems other then I was told my broadband activation will be delayed by 24 hrs, I emailed complaints and was enabled in the next 2 hrs down from 24hrs! It shows that they really can and will go out of the way to deal with complaints! Here surveys is helping out everyone who has a problem for nothing in return all it requires is that he be informed! But seems some on boards would rather like to make a mountain out of a molehill and post all rubbish then inform surveys or email complaints! But even after the problems are resolved I have seen very few people come up with a good word for BT because maybe the poster feels better to be in a dominating position against BT then give credit to BT! Well done surveys! I don't think you need to give any explanation to anyone for BT! they themselves will realise and see some sense even if it takes time!


P.S I myself was at a point against BT after all these horror stories and used to post here at a drop of a pin the moment I THOUGHT I was nearing the same problem! It's just after surveys posted above about having an 'enemy' on Boards that I thought its time to support his claim!