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

surveys

dub45 wrote:

Thanks for that but all it displays is mindboggling incompetence and lax financial controls and more bother for customers. How any supposedly responsible company could demand deposits from customers without having the appropriate procedures in place defies credulity.

And hey three cheers! Produce a letter of receipt for a deposit?? what a magnificent technological and procedural achievement:rolleyes:

Are they only asking customers awaiting refunds to contach them via boards or are they actually pursuing this with those affected customers?

And will they actually be answering freephone1904 anyway promptly????

Ummm. Why don't you ask them. ? Then you can post their answers on here. ! Would you like a direct contact number or email address. ?
Surely if it is of so much concern to you, and for such a long time, the thing to do is ask. ? Not me, them. ! Its so '****' easy to make comments on here, but so much more difficult to do something positive. Or is it. ? The greatest 'non achievement' in this 'rip off' country of ours is to complain but do absolutely nothing constructive. !

dub45

surveys wrote:

Ummm. Why don't you ask them. ? Then you can post their answers on here. ! Would you like a direct contact number or email address. ?
Surely if it is of so much concern to you, and for such a long time, the thing to do is ask. ? Not me, them. ! Its so '****' easy to make comments on here, but so much more difficult to do something positive. Or is it. ? The greatest 'non achievement' in this 'rip off' country of ours is to complain but do absolutely nothing constructive. !

That old 'positive' argument is wearing a bit thin now no?

I think it is pretty useful if not constructive to point out to people how poor a company like BT are and their consistently appalling behaviour towards their customers over many many years.

BT are of concern to me because I hate customers being treated appallingly. I hate lousy business practise, and I hate the fact that a company like BT can continue to operate in business with impunity without any fear of sanction from anybody. BT's shoddy business practises reduce effective competition n the BB market because in spite of having apparently a consistently good bb product I feel that they are unrecommendable - as recently as the week after Christmas people were reporting here that they were simply uncontactable. A large multinational uncontactable by their customers????

As for asking BT about the deposit I have detailed questions for any prospective customers of BT to ask:

from a post in February last year:

Ask them for a statement as to what the deposit is actually for.

Ask them in what circumstances it can/will be forefitted (for instance will you find it has mysteriously vanished in the event of a disputed bill - not a remote possibility by any means!)

Ask them how it will be refunded (and what timescale is involved) in the event of an account cancellation

Get all of the above in writing.

Ask them for a guarantee of a signed receipt in advance of paying the deposit

and a wise person who took my 'constructive' advice was posting within a day or two:

setup an order with BT and got hit with this. Rang them up and was asking the questions posted by Dub45. They were unable to answer when the deposit would be forfeit and said it was not company policy to issue a terms & conditions on the deposit. Not satisfactory at all.

So thats BT's answer: give us your money and don't ask any questions!

And now we find how long after introducing this deposit lark? 18 months? 2 years maybe? They are managing to issue a receipt to new customers - marvellous stuff indeed!

And if I recall correctly (although I may be wrong) I think you pointed out in one of your posts that BT read boards. I am sure we would only be too delighted to get it from the horse's mouth - what's stopping them answering our questions here?

Sponge Bob

dub45 wrote:

T
And now we find how long after introducing this deposit lark? 18 months? 2 years maybe? They are managing to issue a receipt to new customers - marvellous stuff indeed!

It got BT Ireland Sucks .com started did it not , thats being relaunched shortly I hear

Blackace

Let me explain my problem here in the UK then you might understand where I am coming from. It might not help you guys in Ireland but it might just give you a few ideas of how to deal with them there.

I have been a BT customer for over 4 years enjoying a constantly increasing internet speed that peaked at 2mB. I had few problems and those I did have were resolved very quickly by BT, all in all a satisfied customer.

Then about 3 months ago I ordered BT Total Broadband. The equipment arrived and it all worked fine. In fact I was more than impressed because the package included an internet phone handset that, as an existing customer I was really required to pay extra for (£80), it was only available to new customers on a free basis. But after ringing them to complain that I as an existing customer wasnt getting the same deal a new customer got they sent me one for FREE, so I saved the £80.

within one week of installing the router I noticed that my internet speed had dropped and was fixed at 512kB. This was of course immediatly noticable.

I phoned the Indian call centre and after many such calls I realised that BT had in fact rewired my connection to the minimum speed. the technical helpdesk told me that was because I wasn't a customer something the accounts department and my direct debit defiantly proved I was. The technical helpdesk would not help me, they simply insisted I was not a customer.

After many calls and increasing frustration I was eventually told BY BT of their high level complaint resolution team.

BT GAVE ME THE NUMBERS FOR THE CHAIRMANS OFFICE.

They told me that the chairman's office was in fact a call centre in itself dedicated to resolving complaints that were at a deadlock.

I was told they would elevate the complaint and monitor its progress.

As soon as this happened things changed, I got calls from many BT departments trying to help me, there was a flag on the ticket that meant if the problem wasn't resolved in 30 days there would be hell to pay for whoever was assigned the job of resolving it.

Over the last 2 days I have had 2 phone calls from a techi who explained he had found the problem, I had my speed dropped because no one had actually ordered my high speed connection and therefore it wasn't showing me up as a customer.

Today at last it has been restored to its correct speed, nearly 2 months after making my initial complaint.

So the chairman's office is not some kind of dark lord, they are there to help you, it is part of BTs NORMAL fault reporting process and they will give you the numbers if you have exhausted all other means of resolving your issue.

I know the reporting route may be different in Ireland, but I am also sure that there is either the equivalent service there, or that the UK chairman's office would also deal with your complaint.

I hope that explains where I was coming from, when i read this thread I just thought that this information might be of use to some of you.

Sponge Bob

Hi,

Blackace wrote:

I phoned the Indian call centre and after many such calls I realised that BT had in fact rewired my connection to the minimum speed. the technical helpdesk told me that was because I wasn't a customer something the accounts department and my direct debit defiantly proved I was. The technical helpdesk would not help me, they simply insisted I was not a customer.

and thats the great thing about call centres, once they decide something based on incorrect information there is no shifting them .

BT GAVE ME THE NUMBERS FOR THE CHAIRMANS OFFICE.
They told me that the chairman's office was in fact a call centre in itself dedicated to resolving complaints that were at a deadlock.

just like the eircom chairmans office in fact. and BT Ireland have the same chairman as BT UK .

As soon as this happened things changed, I got calls from many BT departments trying to help me, there was a flag on the ticket that meant if the problem wasn't resolved in 30 days there would be hell to pay for whoever was assigned the job of resolving it.

jolly good. this is equally applicable here.

So the chairman's office is not some kind of dark lord, they are there to help you, it is part of BTs NORMAL fault reporting process and they will give you the numbers if you have exhausted all other means of resolving your issue.

eircom won't do that :eek:

I hope that explains where I was coming from, when i read this thread I just thought that this information might be of use to some of you.

Now that you put it that way its very useful. Bt Ireland are a paragon , a veritable beacon, of administrative incompetence and lack of care for thei r customers The actual technology and support normally works exceptionally well by Irish standards but I hear they are sending some of that off to India. This bodes ill and Chairmen should be told of ill bodes like this .

Ironically the outsourcing of customer facing BT jobs in the UK was started by none other than the current chairman of eircom (then head of BT Retail) Pierre Danon himself. Shortly afterward we all first heard that famous "Computer Sez No" sketch which is a tribute of sorts I would think

Thanks for the info and clarification Blackace.

surveys

Blackace wrote:

Let me explain my problem here in the UK then you might understand where I am coming from. It might not help you guys in Ireland but it might just give you a few ideas of how to deal with them there.

I have been a BT customer for over 4 years enjoying a constantly increasing internet speed that peaked at 2mB. I had few problems and those I did have were resolved very quickly by BT, all in all a satisfied customer.

Then about 3 months ago I ordered BT Total Broadband. The equipment arrived and it all worked fine. In fact I was more than impressed because the package included an internet phone handset that, as an existing customer I was really required to pay extra for (£80), it was only available to new customers on a free basis. But after ringing them to complain that I as an existing customer wasnt getting the same deal a new customer got they sent me one for FREE, so I saved the £80.

within one week of installing the router I noticed that my internet speed had dropped and was fixed at 512kB. This was of course immediatly noticable.

I phoned the Indian call centre and after many such calls I realised that BT had in fact rewired my connection to the minimum speed. the technical helpdesk told me that was because I wasn't a customer something the accounts department and my direct debit defiantly proved I was. The technical helpdesk would not help me, they simply insisted I was not a customer.

After many calls and increasing frustration I was eventually told BY BT of their high level complaint resolution team.

BT GAVE ME THE NUMBERS FOR THE CHAIRMANS OFFICE.

They told me that the chairman's office was in fact a call centre in itself dedicated to resolving complaints that were at a deadlock.

I was told they would elevate the complaint and monitor its progress.

As soon as this happened things changed, I got calls from many BT departments trying to help me, there was a flag on the ticket that meant if the problem wasn't resolved in 30 days there would be hell to pay for whoever was assigned the job of resolving it.

Over the last 2 days I have had 2 phone calls from a techi who explained he had found the problem, I had my speed dropped because no one had actually ordered my high speed connection and therefore it wasn't showing me up as a customer.

Today at last it has been restored to its correct speed, nearly 2 months after making my initial complaint.

So the chairman's office is not some kind of dark lord, they are there to help you, it is part of BTs NORMAL fault reporting process and they will give you the numbers if you have exhausted all other means of resolving your issue.

I know the reporting route may be different in Ireland, but I am also sure that there is either the equivalent service there, or that the UK chairman's office would also deal with your complaint.

I hope that explains where I was coming from, when i read this thread I just thought that this information might be of use to some of you.

As I already posted elsewhere, when I was recently cut off completely for 2 days, no internet, no telephone with which to call BT Ireland, my wife contacted the CEO (Ireland) Nothing was done by him to rectify my being completely cut off, so as he is the 'top dog' in Ireland I don't see the validity of Blackace's arguments. ? A chairman. ? A chairman in Ireland doesn't exist. ? So, has anybody in 'Ireland' with a problem, telephoned the chairman in UK ? If so, what was the result. ? It might be a case of a customer in UK being in a position to telephone a chairman's office, (In the UK) but not here in Ireland. So my original argument still stands. "why publish numbers on here, for the UK, which are of no use to us". ?
Might as well post the numbers for - BT, Singapore. Just as much use. !

dub45

surveys wrote:

As I already posted elsewhere, when I was recently cut off completely for 2 days, no internet, no telephone with which to call BT Ireland, my wife contacted the CEO (Ireland) Nothing was done by him to rectify my being completely cut off, so as he is the 'top dog' in Ireland I don't see the validity of Blackace's arguments. ? A chairman. ? A chairman in Ireland doesn't exist. ? So, has anybody in 'Ireland' with a problem, telephoned the chairman in UK ? If so, what was the result. ? It might be a case of a customer in UK being in a position to telephone a chairman's office, (In the UK) but not here in Ireland. So my original argument still stands. "why publish numbers on here, for the UK, which are of no use to us". ?Might as well post the numbers for - BT, Singapore. Just as much use. !

Why not publish them? After all given that your 'file' was mysteriously intercepted and redirected to Dublin and it was addressed to London someone here in BT must care about London finding out how disastrous BT can be.

And most mulitnationals surely care about their corporate image so it can hardly do any harm?

surveys

dub45 wrote:

Why not publish them? After all given that your 'file' was mysteriously intercepted and redirected to Dublin and it was addressed to London someone here in BT must care about London finding out how disastrous BT can be.

And most mulitnationals surely care about their corporate image so it can hardly do any harm?

I think I need to clear up something. Not necessarily for you, but probably for others, although I don't know if 'others' would be interested at all ? (well except for 'polly' )
The dossier was never hijacked. ! It was sent to Dublin immediately upon receipt in the UK. ! Dublin kept it and did nothing until they read my post on here. (yes, they are avid readers of Boards). What Post prompted them to contact me. ? The one where I said I had contacted the Garda who had helped me over the D/Debit fiasco and got it sorted immediately. !!
I think, although nobody can know for sure, that it worried them, and made them decide to do something to avert a possible 'calamity'. ?
someone here in BT must care about London finding out how disastrous BT can be. I don't think that is true. I don't think they care very much, so thats another presumption shattered. ! In my view the PR Manager cared (cares) very much about BT Ireland's image here in Ireland, and when that Post appeared I think it was too much to stomach. ?
So 2 and 2 make 4, in that the Guy who compiled all that monster Dossier, which included masses of postings from Boards, is the Guy to contact. !
'Butter' him up and hopefully he will report back to Boards in a favourable light. ?
Why not publish them? Why not indeed.
But as I said in my PM, why don't you do it. ? You have two 'high up' contact details. ? Would that not suffice. ?
Incidently, I will not participate in a 'slanging' match on here. ! Any 3rd degree questioning will not be answered. Although I am not adverse to PM's.

dub45

surveys wrote:

I think I need to clear up something. Not necessarily for you, but probably for others, although I don't know if 'others' would be interested at all ? (well except for 'polly' )
The dossier was never hijacked. ! It was sent to Dublin immediately upon receipt in the UK. ! Dublin kept it and did nothing until they read my post on here. (yes, they are avid readers of Boards). What Post prompted them to contact me. ? The one where I said I had contacted the Garda who had helped me over the D/Debit fiasco and got it sorted immediately. !!
I think, although nobody can know for sure, that it worried them, and made them decide to do something to avert a possible 'calamity'. ?
someone here in BT must care about London finding out how disastrous BT can be. I don't think that is true. I don't think they care very much, so thats another presumption shattered. ! In my view the PR Manager cared (cares) very much about BT Ireland's image here in Ireland, and when that Post appeared I think it was too much to stomach. ?
So 2 and 2 make 4, in that the Guy who compiled all that monster Dossier, which included masses of postings from Boards, is the Guy to contact. !
'Butter' him up and hopefully he will report back to Boards in a favourable light. ?
Why not publish them? Why not indeed.
But as I said in my PM, why don't you do it. ? You have two 'high up' contact details. ? Would that not suffice. ?
Incidently, I will not participate in a 'slanging' match on here. ! Any 3rd degree questioning will not be answered. Although I am not adverse to PM's.

3rd degree question? for God's sake will you cop yourself on?? If any of the mods felt there was 3rd degree questioning going on they would make it known I am sure.

As for your statement on the dossier being sent to Dublin immediately that is a major change of attitude on your part from your previous posting on the matter:

12 June 2006:

surveys wrote:

For all those who are interested in the BT farce and have contributed elsewhere here is a general posting for all to see.
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...................

15 June 2006:

surveys wrote:

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.

It is ironic that you felt desperate enough yourself to try the London route and now you are consistenly criticising someone for simply posting some BT telephone nos in London.

surveys

It is ironic that you felt desperate enough yourself to try the London route and now you are consistenly criticising someone for simply posting some BT telephone nos in London.[/QUOTE]

:rolleyes: Desperate. ? :rolleyes:

dub45

surveys wrote:

It is ironic that you felt desperate enough yourself to try the London route and now you are consistenly criticising someone for simply posting some BT telephone nos in London.

:rolleyes: Desperate. ? :rolleyes:[/QUOTE]

When someone feels that they have to compile a dossier and sent it to London I think it is reasonable to describe that as ''desperate:''

surveys wrote:

Myself and some others have agreed to send a 'dossier' to the Director of european operations in BT HQ in London. Anyone interested in joining please contact. Esat has caused so many nightmares, we have to do something about it. ............

Sponge Bob

dub45 wrote:

When someone feels that they have to compile a dossier and sent it to London I think it is reasonable to describe that as ''desperate:''

It was a jolly good idea at the time and would be a jolly good idea again right now.

I am disappointed in your constant sniping at surveys who , after all, is probably the only person in recorded history who got BT Ireland to listen to their customers ....even if only for a few months....and got some longstanding grief sorted for various Boards peeps. God knows many have tried in the past and gotten nowhere with them .

I am equally disappointed that BT have let matters slip abysmally since about October. Overselling beyond their systems capability is the reason for that.

I am thoroughly disappointed that the messenger is getting shot at here. Please stop the constant sniping Dub45 because its pointless and counterproductive . Surveys never misbilled anybody or misrepresented anybody or anything and got off his arse and to my enduring amazement they listened .....for a while anyway. Had you yourself got off your arse and gotten the same transient result out of BT Ireland I would equally defend you from the begrudgers Dub45....just so you know.

Sponge Bob

NE ways Back to basics. This Lad got his bill from BT Ireland one day and opened it .

arctictree

My sister ordered BT broadband 3 MONTHS ago and the router only arrived yesterday.

AND the box was missing a DSL splitter

AND she ordered a wireless router and was sent a wired one

Rang support and they said "if you have a PC then you need a wired router. Only laptops work with wireless routers."

Err - Duhhhhhh......ever heard of a wireless USB dongle.....

A

dub45

Sponge Bob wrote:

It was a jolly good idea at the time and would be a jolly good idea again right now.

I am disappointed in your constant sniping at surveys who , after all, is probably the only person in recorded history who got BT Ireland to listen to their customers ....even if only for a few months....and got some longstanding grief sorted for various Boards peeps. God knows many have tried in the past and gotten nowhere with them .

I am equally disappointed that BT have let matters slip abysmally since about October. Overselling beyond their systems capability is the reason for that.

I am thoroughly disappointed that the messenger is getting shot at here. Please stop the constant sniping Dub45 because its pointless and counterproductive . Surveys never misbilled anybody or misrepresented anybody or anything and got off his arse and to my enduring amazement they listened .....for a while anyway. Had you yourself got off your arse and gotten the same transient result out of BT Ireland I would equally defend you from the begrudgers Dub45....just so you know.

I agree wholeheartedly that it was a good idea and I have never disputed that - what is wrong with pointing out that it takes a fair degree of desperation for people to be driven to produce such a dossier?

I am not sniping at Surveys. He has changed his version of what happened to the dossier considerably and I believe what happened to his dossier was incredibly revealing He criticised severely someone who posted London numbers here hopefully to help people and I believe that criticism was totally unwarranted. (and I would have posted on it no matter who the criticism came from)

I am not a customer of BT so I am obviously limited in what I can do but I have time and again to the point of tedium, I accept, pointed out to people the inadequacies of BT particularly in relation to the deposit lark in the hope of making people think about BT's appalling behaviour and what they would be entitled to as customers of a properly run business.

I believed at the time and I still believe that Surveys was wrong (and he is aware of my view it is not new) to adopt the role he did because I felt BT would use him - what better tactic than to neuter your biggest critic (as in promote the shop steward etc etc).

It would appear that Surveys has now been dispensed with by BT as their purpose has been served.

surveys

Sponge Bob wrote:

NE ways Back to basics. This Lad got his bill from BT Ireland one day and opened it .

Hey 'bob' your joking of course. !! Somebody 'doctored' that bill. ! :mad:
38,000 for BB at 'say' 45.00 p.m. is about equal to 844 months = 70 years. !! hahaha.

Sponge Bob

Thats not the scary bit surveys, its the fact that they will not refund you promptly by cheque if they successfully DD it out of your account thats scary.

( BT Ireland policy is no refunds but a credit note will do fine , still the case non ??:p)