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Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

EdwardO — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 17:59:20 GMT

Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT? We have an intermittent fault on our line, which we first reported 11 months ago. Openreach has been out numerous times since then. They have changed everything at the exchange. They have rewired from the pole outside the house to the house and internally. BT has provided a new homehub. None of this has fixed the problem. Openreach engineers that have been to the property and BT call centre staff have suggested it therefore must be an issue with the copper wiring between our house and the exchange (we are a rural property so no fibre in our area yet). I get that clearly Openreach does not want the expense of rewiring to our house given its rural location, but surely there is some duty of care to solve the issue? We have noise on the line, our broadband is unstable, it drops often and particularly when someone phones, we have speeds of a mere 0.4Mb download and 1.2Mb upload. Over the last month, I have called BT 6 times (25 Feb, 5 Mar, 9 Mar, 12 Mar, 23 Mar, 25 Mar) and on each occasion I was given an appointment for an Openreach engineer to come out to the house. Frustratingly, no Openreach engineer has ever come out on any of those 6 occasions and no explanation is ever given. On 27 March I phoned again to ask for an update, and was told that there was something wrong with the system. BT phoned back later that day and on 29th Mar to make an appointment for me, but the system did not allow. I was told they would phone back. That was a week ago and still 11 months on I am paying for a phone and broadband package which is not fit for purpose. I anyone else experiencing such appalling customer service? Any advice on what I should do, other than the obvious "finding of a better provider"?

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

imjolly — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 18:10:52 GMT

Does your phone work?

Another provider unless Virgin would use the same phone line so would not solve your intermittent problems

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

PaddyB — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 07:26:49 GMT

Hi @EdwardO,

Thank you for posting. I can understand your frustration and I'm sorry that the fault on your line hasn't been repaired. If you send me your details, I'll be able to give you a hand.

I have sent you a private message with instructions on how to contact the team. You can access your messages via the envelope icon at the top right of the screen, or click on this link, Private messages

Thanks,

Paddy

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

Firefox1701 — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 09:24:47 GMT

As correctly observed elsewhere, all other providers except Virgin use the same outside equipment which would therefore be subject to the same fallibility, and to the vagaries of Openreach who are ultimately always going to be responsible for repairing and maintaining that equipment regardless of which provider you pay your bills to. Based on my own experience, yes, BT Customer Service is, by and large, shocking; but it's entirely hit-and-miss whether you'll achieve any better elsewhere, not least precisely because it all comes back to Openreach in the end. At one time, changing providers represented somewhat ( although even then, only somewhat ) of a threat to any given provider; nowadays, if you threaten to change provider, they're basically laughing up their sleeves at you because they know you may well end up as bad or worse off. This, of course, is to say nothing of the fact that one of the two most prevalent causes of complaint on this forum is the porting of numbers between providers; if that's part of your equation, I would definitely think twice before jumping ship, as dire as BT Customer Service is.

Two things, I think, bear thinking about. Firstly, if Openreach ( as opposed to BT or any other single provider ) were held accountable, by anyone, for anything, ever, it might all be a very different story. However, for all practical intents and purposes, and for whatever reason, Openreach are effectively invulnerable.

Secondly: to give credit where due, the moderators on here are, for the most part, helpful in these matters, and can sometimes succeed in resolving issues where the standard BT Customer Service channel has failed ( sometimes, as in your case, spectacularly ). ( Due attention being paid to the words 'for the most part' and 'sometimes' ). I myself have benefitted from such intervention on one occasion. However, what does it say about a multi-million-pound company such as BT ( a ) that their normal Customer Service channels are so bad that it falls to the moderators on a public forum - which not everyone even knows exists - to step in to resolve an issue; and ( b ) that despite the fact that this has been the case for a very long time now, still the Customer Service complaints come pouring in and still the level of that service doesn't improve?

"Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT"? Spend some time thumbing through this forum, and then as our American cousins have it, you do the math.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

EdwardO — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 12:01:55 GMT

Thanks imjolly - unfortunately as I suspect it is a phone line issue and Virgin does not supply to my postcode yet, I am stuck until Openreach sort it out...

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

EdwardO — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 12:03:00 GMT

Many thanks PaddyB - that is helpful of you. I have sent you a private message.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

EdwardO — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 12:08:12 GMT

Many thanks Firefox1701 for the detailed message, which has confirmed my fears - as Virgin does not supply to my postcode yet I am at the mercy of Openreach... I have phoned BT again this morning as they once again closed my Fault on Sunday (easier to do than to fix, and prevents it from clocking up too many days as being unfixed) - they said they would send another engineer as they can see that my internet drops out daily, multiple times. Let us see if they come out this time...

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

licquorice — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 13:12:18 GMT

Leave it to the mods now, you will only muddy the waters if you make further contact with customer services. The mods will pick up your case when it reaches the top of their queue and will stick with it to resolution.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

pompey1898 — Tue, 06 Apr 2021 15:43:29 GMT

Hi @EdwardO ,

To answer your question, there is clearly another person having bad service as there in evrything.

However, bear in mind the relatively few people commenting on problems here compared with the millions of customers BT has and it paints a totally different picture.

I had cause to ring BT over two queries recently and both were answered almost immediately and both resolved immediately. I suspect many customers get this response and never have any cause to come to a forum like this.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

JohnC2 — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 12:44:15 GMT

Hi @EdwardO, thanks for taking my call earlier today and confirming that the engineer arrived this morning and repaired the fault. He had located a joint that water was getting into and fixed this.

Cheers

John

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

S4Brains — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:03:08 GMT

Oh yes. Just "upgraded" to "Full Fibre Halo 3+", bloke comes and does the bizz. Tells me before he goes that it will take about 1hour 30 or so to synch in and get up and running. Gets no joy there, still out 3 days later. Going loopy trying to get things sorted, landline not working but getting internet via the "Hybrid" setup. Trying to get answers, they know the landline is down and will not be seen to until 15th, this from 9th. Not happy, started looking round the site for help. Questions like what equipment I've got. Looks on the backs of the boxes and there's no labelling at all even though some of the setups are similar. Figure out I've got Halo2, starts looking a the leads and bit of paperwork I've got and see that the "red lead" should go in the red port, I know that the red lead is still in the box. So I got it and ferreted around and got the red lead into the red port etc and lo and behold the Halo 2 Box synched up and looks like I've at least got broadband but still no landline (we're in our late 70s so to me that's a no no anyway). Remember the OutReach guy had set up the system in the first place and it was only going to be 90mins or so. BT insists it can't do anything before the 15th and blaming Outreach but my point is that it's BT who taking my money and they should sort it. Why wasn't the "red lead" put in place if it's so essential? I couldn't get my Sky Q either until I'd done the red lead bit so that sorted that problem out too. I went Sky for TV in the first place because BT kept breaking up on the screen, my guess was something to do with the outside lines but they wouldn't have it. Starting to look like I was correct all the time. Used to be in Signals trade doing analysis many years ago so have a little bit of clue the way things go so why haven't BT got any idea????? Am I experiencing shocking customer care from BT???? A resounding YES. Am I a bit hacked off???? YES and I still haven't got a landline.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

S4Brains — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:10:18 GMT

The reason there's no more people complaining on here is because it is not exactly an intuitive site and easy to find get around. I've been dipping in and out for a few years now and still find it unchanged. BT customer service and OutReach getting round to alleviating problems are both lamentably poor. Already sacked BT TV and gone to Sky because the picture kept breaking up, they won't admit it's on the line but even now my landline phone has dropped out and still waiting to get it sorted. Me and the missus in our late 70s and shouldn't be left without a landline for obvious reasons but does OutReach give a monkeys??? No. Does BT give a toss??? No.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

StuartH — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 13:20:08 GMT

Hi @S4Brains

Thanks for posting. Sorry to read about your experience since upgrading to Halo 3.

I can have this investigated for you to try to get some answers. I've sent you a private message asking for some more details to help. You can access your messages via this link, Private messages

Thanks

Stuart

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

S4Brains — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 16:16:51 GMT

Finally got round to having a look and have answered. Such bad experience on the net since the 9th I have been avoiding it. Hopefully someone coming and sorting it tomorrow but not holding my breath. To actually find a cable which should've been fitted by the engineer and wasn't is just one strange occurrence. A catalogue of ill fortune that's for sure. Hope you can sort something out, still not got a landline, digusting. My kids have been trying to get in touch and worrying over no contact, not right.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

S4Brains — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 10:13:12 GMT

Sorted at last and back on full comms. Copper lines not installed properly, outside not in I think. Can now talk to the kids and check up on bro's health. Tks

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

Emma05 — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 10:29:07 GMT

I am experiencing this right now.

Last month they found damp on the cable outside, it was replaced and the problem of the noise on the line and internet dropping was fixed in a week.

However for the last 3 weeks i have again been having these problems with noise and internet and nothing has been done about it. I have phoned multiple times and all they do is book an engineer.

I was told a fault was found at the exchange and it had been fixed, but the noise is still there. Then i was told an engineer would come into the house, but none came.

BT operators have been blatantly lying to me about things i know to be untrue. Multiple saying they will phone me back, but never do.

I work from home and have been unable to do so for 3 weeks, can't facetime family properly either as internet keeps cutting out

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

S4Brains — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 09:02:44 GMT

I've found you have to keep at 'em, and at 'em, and at 'em. Some of them don't even know what you're talking about. This I've found through conversation with them. Used to be a Comms Analyst, long time ago though, but I understand signal paths, modulation, bandwidths, inputs and outputs etc etc and they try and flannel you with things they don't understand themselves, this includes some OpenReach engineers. My perseverance eventually paid off but at what cost to my mental stability I don't know. Keep at it until you get someone who understands is the only way I can describe it. Good luck. P.S. At one time I did a Fibre Optics installation course as well but like I said, a long time ago.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

Emma05 — Thu, 22 Apr 2021 14:17:21 GMT

I've been on at them on an almost daily basis, i bet they love me lol.

I've had some operators telling me they can't communicate directly with open reach or their line managers, both of which i know to be untrue. When i insist on staying on the line, they put me on hold for 20 min and then come back and say 5 more mins , another 15 mins later they miraculously have contacted the necessary people.

I understand if they aren't sure of how to help, its the lying that's really bothers me. The last person i spoke to from BT said they would set a reminder to phone me the next day, he of course never phoned and i just happened to randomly get through to him the next day. I knew his voice and told him i never got his call, he said it wasn't him and i must be mistaken. To his credit though, he phoned me back and apologised.

I have been contacted by a mod today on here and i am hopeful he can help. Keep your fingers crossed for me.

Re: Is anyone else experiencing truly shocking customer care from BT?

S4Brains — Fri, 23 Apr 2021 11:09:39 GMT

It seems to me like the Mods are the only ones who can get any joy from this setup. Like I said, I know how signals work but obviously that's not enough. Give the Mods their due they do seem to be able to get things done. When you look at it overall it's a **bleep** system, simples. Good luck anyway, I really, really understand your frustration.