So, a couple of months ago I moved to a new flat. As part of that I had to sort out a BT line. Having dealt with BT before I knew that I wanted as little as possible from them - just the line rental. I’ve already been screwed over by them when I had to move flat last year, half way through my broadband contract. They insisted they had to keep on billing me, even though I had been kicked out the flat where the service was. As I my new flat already had a broadband connection, I wasn’t able to take my contract with me, so I had to pay BT for nothing for six months…. how to lose a customer!
Anyway, so, as I said, I was sorting out the landline connection so I could get Virgin Media broadband and phone (we sadly live about two streets away from the cabled part of Edinburgh). Say what you like about Virgin, but I’ve always had my calls answered very quickly, and the staff are far nicer. What’s more, the staff are actually based in the UK by the sounds of it. While i have nothing against anybody of any race. having to deal with somebody on the phone with a thick foreign accent who can’t deviate from their script is even more infuriating than having to use automatic phone systems.
So anyway, while i was stuck on hold for an hour or so, I typed a little blog update. I only really did it for some mental stimulation. But that little post is now my most read item.
Note the big jump in hits! Now, if only a few of those people would take the time to listen to a few mp3s…
Conclusion: there must be a lot of people who really hate BT.
September 27, 2007 at 8:01 pm
Dear Prospective Customers,
If you have a chance not to be BT customer, then please take it. This is why:
1. Customer services never answer the phone within one hour.
2. If they say they are going to call round at a particular time they do not - even when you have called to confirm a date and time in advance.
3. Customer services, if you do get through, may promise to ring you back. However, this never happens.
4. If you tell them that they have to ring a certain number to contact you, they will ignore this.
5. More often than not, you will speak to someone who claims to be “untrained”.
6. If you write to them by email, they may reply, but never within a week.
7. If you ask to speak to a supervisor, at first they will say that there is nobody there who is in charge.
8. If you insist, and do get through to a supervisor, they will also claim to “untrained”.
9. A recorded message will say “we are busy at this time, call back later”. If you call back, at any other hour or on any other day, the same message is played.
10. At other times, you will be put on hold and a recorded message will tell you that “your call will answered as soon as possible”. This is a lie. You may well be on hold until your battery on your phone runs out - this has happened to me several times.
11. Frequently, you will get through to a call centre in India. Other times, the line sounds bad and the connection is awful but that is when you are speaking to somebody in Stoke-on-Trent!!!!!!
12. Oh, and if you want to complain and your complaint is about sales, a bill or general matters, please phone 0800 800 150 between 8am and 8pm, Monday to Saturday. Good luck!
Claire
October 9, 2007 at 10:43 pm
NOBODY hates BT more than me…..!
October 25, 2007 at 9:16 pm
I hate BT more than You Pamela, trust me…
October 30, 2007 at 1:50 pm
BT’s customer service are an evolutionary anomaly that can only come about from a lack of competition in the wild. It’s the same effect that gave us the sloth and other slow dimwitted beasts.
November 29, 2007 at 6:20 pm
They are AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL, I have been offered £300 to go away…. I am waiting for copies of 3 months worth of phone calls and notes on my file, when I get them I cant wait to post them every where and send to watchdog….awful, spiteful, rude idiots…..I cant wait for my contract to run out and seperatly I have moved all barr 1 of our company lines away from them and will NEVER let the company advertise with them again…..
June 2, 2008 at 4:10 pm
BT ………..WELL IF YOU WERE TO USE YOUR HEAD ….DO NOT BECOME A BT CUSTOMER………..they are possibly the worst company in the uk…….
July 9, 2008 at 5:11 pm
So far my latests issue has generated 187 pages of computer-gereated clap trap.
The two promises of phone calls at specific times have not come ( maybe their phone is off) .
Simple question: which is the best operator to switch to - local and international phone and broadband?
Thanks, MS
August 4, 2008 at 10:49 am
I can’t believe that the largest state-of-the-art communications business in the world has such appalling customer service record as well as what seems to be, at worst, an almost corrupt and underhand business acumen, or at best, a totally inept and uncaring strategy for its customers. The very thing that BT supposedly leads the world in is the very thing that it falls down on, COMMUNICATION. After reporting a fault for almost a year I was persuaded not to call out an engineer because the ‘lady from Bangalore’ seemed more obsessed to advise me that it would cost approx. £189 if the fault was with my equipment (I don’t own any BT equipment except the phone which was not faulty). Anyway, I eventually called out the engineer because the phone kept making annoying sporadic ringing noises and when someone called me it would only ring once (as if they hung up after one ring, but actually they were still there though) it was frustrating.
The engineer at BT Faults came to my house, he new exactly what the problem was (my wife and I have lived there for almost 25 years). The incoming junction box was corroded as it had been there so long and needed to be replaced, it took him all of 10 minutes. He also pointed out that there would be no charge for this as it was faulty BT equipment. Amazingly, on my July bill was a £189.88 billed as ‘variable charge (customer request for fault /damage’).
I called BT and nobody was prepared to speak to me about it, they simply said someone would call me back within three days (lets see).
August 7, 2008 at 9:15 am
I wasn’t even a BT customer and they hijacked my landline and changed the number without notice. 6 weeks later I am still without a landline and now no broadband either. BT insisted the only way to sort it out was by signing a 12 month contract with them. Calls to them take 2.5 hrs minimum and I get transferred from one dept to another and then back again. Then some gormless tw4t tells me ‘not to raise my voice or I will cut you off’. Raise my voice??? I am sad to say it, but I now hate BT with a passion and not 1 penny of my money will they ever get. My phone/broadband provider when all this kicked off was PIPEX/TISCALI. They are no better, possibly worse. My overriding priority is now to use a company with UK based call centres. Cost is a lower priority.