This topic

Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

lividannie — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 14:31:53 GMT

I have an ongoing issue with BT since October 2020 when I transferred from Sky. I have complained 5 times now as the complaint keeps getting closed down with the infuriating message thanking me, and saying "We're pleased we could help". They haven't fixed anything and I'm fuming!

Catalogue of issues: Engineer failed to turn up to appt initially and no courtesy call to let me know, landline number should have been ported but was lost. I've had a completely dead phone for 3 months, apart from a few days of some "spare" number they've assigned which is no use to me at all, and has caused great distress already, not just to me.

I have been messed around throughout the time with promises of another try, leaving me with no broadband or phone, and from the start intermittent broadband and changes of equipment requiring more setting up and passwords etc....

Is there another reason why BT are so quick to close Complaints? Are they trying to avoid owning the problem? I'm getting very suspicious of BT'S actions. Thanks

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 14:38:06 GMT

@lividannie

Welcome to this user forum.

Everyone here, apart from the moderators, are just BT customers like yourself.

Is your current complaint about the fact that your landline number was not ported, or is it something else?

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

lividannie — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 14:55:50 GMT

The agreed criteria for moving to BT were that they would port my number and change the socket.
For some reason we are over 3 months on and I’m still without my phone no of 20 years.

Imagine the people trying to call me that now assume I’m dead?!

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

Keith_Beddoe — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 15:01:23 GMT

@lividannie

Who originally issued your phone number to you, as that provider would own your number?

What do you get if you ring the number from a mobile?

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

Firefox1701 — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 07:34:45 GMT

To answer your original question: what do you think scores more brownie points within the echelons of BT 'Customer Service' - doggedly keeping a fault open until the customer is satisfied that it should be closed ( and in the interests of fairness, not every customer is that easy to satisfy ), or getting it closed ( by which I mean, having the system show it as closed ) as quickly as humanly possible? As our American cousins say, you do the math. If I had a pound for every time that's happened to me, I could open my own telecommunications company and run it properly.

However: to clarify the situation, are you saying that with the exception of the brief period you mention, you've been without a landline phone service of any kind? - or are you saying that you've had a working phone service up to and including the present moment but not with the number you were promised you'd have?

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

lividannie — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:24:23 GMT

Hello Keith,

Thanks for your question. Firstly, yes it was BT that originally fitted and assigned the original number approx 21 yrs ago. I switched and ported the number to Sky (effortlessly) around 10 yrs ago. In October 2020 I switched back to BT, requesting number was ported. I was told there would be no issue doing this. In subsequent conversations with BT they now say Sky are notoriously difficult about handing back numbers.... hmm

Secondly, since October, when I try to dial a number from my landline, for months it has been completely dead with a screen message saying to check phone line, this along with intermittent BB from start.

In the last week, after them closing my account and setting up a new one in order to retrieve my own number, yet again I've been told it's all fixed. Yet calling from my mobile, I can now make calls out from landline and call my landline on the assigned new number, but trying my own landline number I hear a couple of beeps then it gives up on the call. So they STILL have not retrieved my number!

There have been so many attempts to fix this, and not resolved. They sent a fire hazard mini hub leaving me with no bb for about 4 days till it arrived, then all the faff switching and setting up with passwords etc, then a new a/c again with numbers and passwords.... I am just sick of the hassle.

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:38:01 GMT

@lividannie

As you are a BT Retail customer, and your number was originally issued to you by BT, then provided you are still living at the same address, or at an address that is served by the same BT Exchange building, then there should be no problem getting your original number back.

Can you confirm that you are still living in the same exchange area as you were originally?

If that is the case, then I can ask a moderator for help. I have done that anyway.

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

lividannie — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:35:29 GMT

Exactly right Firefox1701, no landline to dial in or out of for months. (apart from a few days here and there while fixes were put in place and then back to zero)

As a goodwill they say they are currently waiving the monthly fees but tell me it will not be addressed with automatic compensation as I'm a new customer and they hadn't provided service yet. Hence they feel happy to leave me with no landline for months on end?

I believe you and I share the same mistrust of what goes on.

I'm rather wishing it WAS you running the company!

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

lividannie — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:38:30 GMT

Yes Keith, still in the exact same area from original set up 21 yrs ago.

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 09:44:49 GMT

@lividannie wrote:

Yes Keith, still in the exact same area from original set up 21 yrs ago.

Then you should get help.

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

Firefox1701 — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 10:08:23 GMT

@lividanniewrote: I'm rather wishing it WAS you running the company!

Thank you. With all due modesty, I don't think I'd make much worse a job of it. To misquote Winston Churchill completely: never in the field of human enterprise have so many been paid so much for doing so little.

@lividanniewrote: As a goodwill they say they are currently waiving the monthly fees but tell me it will not be addressed with automatic compensation as I'm a new customer and they hadn't provided service yet. Hence they feel happy to leave me with no landline for months on end?

I know this doesn't help your situation directly, but I also wish I had a pound for every time I've had to discuss BT's ( and other companies, to be fair ) euphemistic use of the term 'goodwill gesture'. Not charging you for a service you're not receiving is not a goodwill gesture: it's a legal obligation.

@lividanniewrote: Exactly right Firefox1701, no landline to dial in or out of for months. (apart from a few days here and there while fixes were put in place and then back to zero)

It never ceases to amaze me how BT will stand on the fact that if there's a fault which may lie inside your home, they're only contracted to provide a working telephone line up to your master socket; and then - your own case being a prima facie example - they fail to do that. It has been made clear to me along the way that there are certain things you can't post on here, so I won't make the same mistake twice: all I'll say is that the CEO's e-mail address is publicly available via a Google search, and if I were in your shoes, I'd have availed myself of it long ago. Should you decide to pursue that route, whether or not you feel inclined to revisit the subject of compensation is of course for you to decide.

@lividanniewrote: I believe you and I share the same mistrust of what goes on.

Ain't that the truth.

Re: Why is an unfixed complaint rapidly closed by a BT agent then disappears from my page?

DanielS — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 10:15:45 GMT

Hi @lividannie,

I am so sorry to read about your experience. I would like to offer you our help. I'll send you a private message with some information that I need.

@Keith_Beddoe, thanks for flagging this to me.

Thanks

DanielS