Now I'm cross :(

[JamezF]

Last month (actually starting at the tail end of January) all three of our phone lines (home, in-laws, my office) stopped working properly, becoming so noisy that it usually wasn't possible to have a conversation and our internet connection wouldn't stay connected for more than a few seconds. I reported the problem to BT and after a lot of messing about, partly because the initial rep hadn't recorded the full details despite me making them very clear, the problem was fixed about ten days later. I then received a completely unprompted call from BT offering me compensation totalling about £170 which I accepted.

Now I've received the bill, there's a much smaller amount of compensation shown (about £40), so I phoned them to ask what was going on. After an hour of faffing about talking to a customer services rep who clearly had to ask someone else for every piece of information, they basically claimed that compensation wasn't actually due and, well, tough, basically. So I asked for a written explanation of why they offered me the compensation in the first place, why they'd not bothered to inform me that they'd changed their minds and what they were going to do to put things right. "No, we're not allowed to do that" was the eventual response, at which point things went downhill rather rapidly, though I was at least not offensively rude, just very blunt.

Many years ago BT used to be an amazing business and some of the engineering guys working the wires still are, but as a whole the company utterly stinks now. And they know they can pretty much treat their customers like dirt, because where else are they going to get a phone line?

James

 

[Murox]

You are correct. BT have taken a big nosedive in customer relations generally. It took me several months to persuade them that I didn't use their piece of copper wire for the internet (I have a very fast and reliable private satellite source) simply because their computer said I had a connection via them.

 

[JamezF]

Quite. I did point out the irony of their initial recorded message suggesting that they strive for the best possible customer service when they'd basically just told me "We got it wrong, but we couldn't be bothered to tell you and it's not our problem".

I do feel slightly sorry for the reps who might be in a position of having little choice but to take a job where in all likelihood they find themselves having to defend what any reasonable human being would find an indefensible corporate attitude. It must be pretty soul-destroying.

James

 

[Anduril]

Why not make a blunt statement on Twitter about your treatment, if you have a Twitter account. It may or may not embarrass them. I've seen it done with other companies and they end up bending over backwards. My brother-in-law had an electric item give up the ghost the day after the warranty expired. Dealing with them directly they didn't want to know, embarrassing them on Twitter he had a result.

 

[Murox]

Quite. I did point out the irony of their initial recorded message suggesting that they strive for the best possible customer service when they'd basically just told me "We got it wrong, but we couldn't be bothered to tell you and it's not our problem".

I do feel slightly sorry for the reps who might be in a position of having little choice but to take a job where in all likelihood they find themselves having to defend what any reasonable human being would find an indefensible corporate attitude. It must be pretty soul-destroying.
James

that seems to be a very apt description of uk current affairs.

 

[The Poot]

Having had problems with BT, mainly customer services who didn’t have a clue and pretended to be British, when in India, I changed to Plusnet. It was a good eight years ago. A much better service all round and customer services are really quite good and are genuinely based in the UK.
However, you can imagine my dismay when BT acquired them. So far though I really would recommend Plusnet.

 

[JamezF]

Ah, I wouldn't go anywhere near BT for my internet connectivity. Much prefer to use a small company who I know I can rely on and who will connect me to someone who actually knows what they're talking about on the rare occasions I need to call to report a problem.

James

 

[JamezF]

Why not make a blunt statement on Twitter about your treatment, if you have a Twitter account. It may or may not embarrass them. I've seen it done with other companies and they end up bending over backwards. My brother-in-law had an electric item give up the ghost the day after the warranty expired. Dealing with them directly they didn't want to know, embarrassing them on Twitter he had a result.

That might be worth a go. I haven't felt the need to twit before now, but perhaps this is just cause.

James

 

[Arfermo]

Having had problems with BT, mainly customer services who didn’t have a clue and pretended to be British, when in India, I changed to Plusnet. It was a good eight years ago. A much better service all round and customer services are really quite good and are genuinely based in the UK.
However, you can imagine my dismay when BT acquired them. So far though I really would recommend Plusnet.

Have used Plusnet for last 23 years after previous ISP (V2 I think) went belly up. Very few if any problems mother than cost but can't be bothered to change.