Last Saturday I phoned BT to cancel my phone line at the end of February. It seemed to go remarkably well – I couldn’t cancel in on the Sunday I’m moving out but since I’ll be away for a few days before that I wasn’t too bothered. I left it with them that it would be disconnected on 26th Feb. I have a reference number proving that and everything.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I get home on Monday evening to have no broadband, no phone line. I phone up the faults line this morning and they tell me it’s not a fault and pass me on to Customer Services. The chap there tried to be helpful but clearly wasn’t going to be able to fix it for me. He blamed Openreach for actioning the disconnect early and offered to place an order for a new line. No guarantee when it would be done or if I’d have broadband again when it does come through.
I’ve also heard that the @BTCare Twitter account are quite helpful so I’ve emailed them to see if they can help. When I worked for Bluesock, BT were a constant source of problems for pretty much every client – I thought I was past that but no, just when you think something is going well they manage to fsck it up.
This does not surprise me in the slightest. I could write a book based on all the problems I’ve had with BT – and everyone you speak to will tell a similar tale. You have my sympathy!
It all went wrong when they stopped being the GPO. Anthing more complicated than an old lady moving huge brass jack plugs around is beyond them.
They weren’t much better as GPO – for a start why do you think they had Ford build them special vans with rubber mudguards? But at least in those days you could pop round to the exchange and yell at the operator to plug you back in!
When I moved house,way back in 1999, it didn’t have a phone line. I phone BT and asked how much to put one in and hook me up, they said £99 pounds, and it made no difference when I explained I was an existing customer, just moved and without that kind of money lying about. I told them I’d think about it.
I rang Telewest (now Virgin Media). First thing they said “Are you calling from a mobile, sir” I was, they asked for the number and called me back. The said they installation – £9.99 and rental would be £9/month – deal done.
I rang BT back and told them to forget it, I had a better offer from Telewest. They asked me to stay on the line and put me through to a customer service line were I was offered an existing customer deal to reconnect me for just £50. HELLO! I just told you £9.99 from Telewest, phone down.
I see complaints about Virgin all the time but I’ve always found them helpful and proactive. I get “come back to us” letters from BT all the time, and although I never use ‘lol’, I laugh my arse off every time I get one from them.