This topic

Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:32:43 GMT

So far I have to say I'm extremely unimpressed with the service I've recieved from BT.

I moving away from Virgin after 7 years as BT are finally offering FTTP in my area.

I made my order on the 21st Nov and was told that I would be able to be connected by the 21st Dec when my Virgin connection gets disconnected. It's now apparent that was a complete lie just to get the sale.

Since tracking my order it's become clear over the last few weeks that none of my dates for each stage were being hit and it's now incredibly unlikely I'm going to be connected by the 21st Dec.

I decided to phone BT and they are now claiming OpenReach (groan) have a backlog and they're not even going to reassess when I'm going to be able to be connected until the 19th Dec - two days before I'm disconnected. None of this was communicated to me, I had to find this info out for myself.

I also work from home and need a good upload/download speed for work so I'm going to be left in a difficult situation.

Compound that with my kit being sent by Royal Mail - who are striking this week and have told me there's going to be delays in receiving it the whole sorry situation is a shambles.

I forgot that most non-Virgin provider are at the mercy of the mighty OpenReach as it's their infrastructure and they aren't answerable to anyone.

I'm pretty close to cancelling the whole thing and staying with Virgin and have a complaint opened before I've even been connected.

An absolute joke of a situation so far that will unlikely be resolved this side of Christmas.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:49:20 GMT

If you want to move to BT then just keep the Virgin connection alive until the BT service is up & running. Worst case you'll have a month of overlapping charges but won't have a period of no connection.

As for raising a complaint, you may as well address your issue to Santa & post it up the chimney... 😁

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 12:58:37 GMT

So the solution is to pay for two connections because of BT/OpenReach incompetence? That hardly seems like a fair resolution to this situation.

So I have to go through the faff of contacting Virgin - cancelling my cancellation order - I'm sure they'll then claim I'll have to start a new contract if I do.

The onus on me and BT just twiddle their thumbs.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 13:20:41 GMT

Fair or common sense I'll leave for you to decide. I'm simply suggesting a way to solve your issue. But cancelling one service on the same day another is supposed to go live when you work from home seems reckless to me. For the exact reasons you're now experiencing.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 13:35:49 GMT

So you're saying it's my shortsightedness then? So how long before my 30 days cancellation period should I have ordered my new connection? 6 weeks? Two months?

Is a month an unrealistic timescale to get connected with a new provider?

The average time is 2 weeks for a new provider to connect you.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

Anonymous — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 13:35:30 GMT

It's called a contingency against an imperfect world. There are any number of reasons why a new installation might fail, unforeseen problems with the infrastructure, Openreach engineer calling in sick on the day, problems with activation, etc.

When you need the service for work, it seems sensible to cancel the existing service after the new one is running.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 13:42:03 GMT

Ok Mr Contingency. I guess you've got money to throw away.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

garybs29 — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:10:52 GMT

If you cancel a cease with Virgin it has no need to start a new contract should just move onto a monthly rolling contract on current terms.

Also the connection date won't have been a lie purely to get the sale, sounds like theres some work needing done that wasn't anticipated hence the change of dates unfortunately

Re: Unhappy New Customer

gg30340 — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 14:16:49 GMT

Are you dealing with the "normal Customer Service" or with the FTTP Team on 0800 587 4787.

If you are not dealing with the Fibre Team give them a call to see what they can do to help. They may be able to give you a 4g Mobile Hub to tide you over until you are connected.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

-Richie- — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 19:24:08 GMT

@petenicewrote:
So the solution is to pay for two connections because of BT/OpenReach incompetence? That hardly seems like a fair resolution to this situation.

Not that it helps much but BT won't start charging for the broadband until it's installed and activated, keep your VM service live until you no longer need it so you don't go without.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

fikys — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 21:56:02 GMT

I switched to BT last month after 9 years with Virgin. I made sure that I have a week of service overlap knowing from my previous experience how things could go wrong. BT installation has been done on time and yes, I paid for two services for one week but it would be a disaster if things did go wrong.

Also, I was offered a very good deal from Virgin (nearly identical or even better financially than the BT's one) only AFTER I notified them of cancellation. They phoned me about a week before the scheduled installation (two weeks before cancelation with them) and offered a fixed price for 18 months (no annual increase). So, in your case it could be worth waiting a bit and see if you get a good deal from Virgin and then cancel BT installation if you are happy with it.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 21:56:55 GMT

I have a week overlap of service on my original start date from BT with Virgin. I've also been offered a similar yet slightly more expensive deal after cancelling but at much slower speeds.

I'm interested in the upload speed from BT that is considerably quicker than Virgin who pretty much have the worse upload speeds on fibre out there.

I'm not going back - over the last 7 years Virgin have increased my contract from £32 to £56 (£44 with discounts) per month for 100mbps down and 10 mbps up - an absolute rip off for pretty much zero improvement of service over that time.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

fikys — Tue, 13 Dec 2022 22:14:04 GMT

I was in a similar situation - interestingly the offers I was made while contacting Virgin were all higher than from BT for the same speed (M500). But when Virgin eventally phoned me themselves after the cancelation has been scheduled the price was a bit lower than from BT and without any increase for 18 months. The BT's price will increase each March (twice during the 24 month contract) and it could be a substantial increase because of high inflation. For me the upload speeds are important as well and yes Virgin offers 33 Mbp for M500 while BT gives 70 Mbp. I was tempted to accept Virgin's offer but I am too tired of their lack of customer service and issues I had to solve myself (e.g. purchasing my own router to have stable internet connection over the house).

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Mon, 19 Dec 2022 15:35:30 GMT

Just had an update from BT now saying it's going to be another 20 days until my next review to even get step one completed. So that's a 50 day wait - and there's no guarantee in 20 days time it won't get bumped again.

Just an absolute shambles of a service - I'm seriously questioning whether this is all going to be worth the wait.

So far just an appalling introduction to being a customer - dealing with CS reps who really couldn't care less - they must be thankful to have OpenReach to absolve their responsibilty.

Awful.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 11:51:02 GMT

Yeah thanks for the mini hub - amazing speeds - really worthwhile.

Perfect for those large files I need to upload for work.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 11:58:12 GMT

Review date again from OpenReach today and just received a text to say they've bumped it again to review on 3rd Feb.

That's it - I'm done. I'm going to cancel this **bleep**show.

How BT also has the audacity to have a broadband sale on when OpenReach is in meltdown is contemptuous beyond belief.

Absolute shambles

Re: Unhappy New Customer

imjolly — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 12:12:07 GMT

@petenice

have you tried phoning the FTTP Team 08005874787 as suggested earlier to see if they can give you an update and more important the reason your installation keeps getting delayed. if you get diverted to CS because FTTP busy then hang up and try again later

unless you move to an ISP that does not use openreach network then you will encounter the same delays

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Tue, 10 Jan 2023 12:20:57 GMT

That's who I'm speaking to. OpenReach are blaming it on 'national delays'.

I don't care what the reason is it's not my concern.

I shouldn't have to wait 3,6,8 months to get connected while BT and all other providers continue to sell services that OpenReach can't get connected in a reasonable time.

They can stick it.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

petenice — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 10:02:51 GMT

Cancelled. So long suckers.

Re: Unhappy New Customer

garybs29 — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 13:35:05 GMT

Lol, "I'm not happy so i'll just put myself at the back of the queue again"