Private message which is spam

[busterboy1]

Can I join the party.

____________________________________________________________________________________

Hello busterboy1,

You’ve received a private message in the BT Community.

Subject

Blink and it is gone! The best luxury reward offer for December, 2020! Today is your lucky day! Get it now!

From

Wildangell

Date

13-12-2020 5h17

[Anonymous]

I don't want to get into a bunfight about all this and I'm absolutely not wanting to beat up on anybody - the help of NeilO and others is very much appreciated, more so now I know they speak with proficiency and authority. But speaking as someone (and there may be others like me) who knows nothing about this forum, it would not be obvious to me that because someone is labelled 'moderator', it follows they will be a BT employee.   Something in their profile / signature (even better, if the technology allows that) would help.

As said, BT can hardly be responsible for a scammer creating an email using their 'headed paper', but it should be of concern to them to the extent that they are checking on activity and proactively dealing with and advising forum users where someone is fraudulently using the name/brand/images etc to scam their customers. And as one post has said, could not the forum at least do some kind of probationary restricting of new members.

It is reasonable to assume that although this is a public forum, many on it may have joined because they believe it exists to allow customers to talk to BT and/or be advised by them and other BT users. I say this because as a logged in customer I found the forum under the BT 'Help' section and labelled 'Ask the BT Community' so that, quite reasonably, I expected it would be a resource for bona fide  BT users. If in fact it is a public forum for anyone to use, I'm asking myself what exactly its purpose is. 

There seems to be a huge willingness to defend BT on all this. I'm not sure it is entirely deserved. I'm not sure also if whatever benefits might come from being in the forum aren't outweighed by the risks/overheads. I've had a rather wasted time trying to make what seem to me valid points to BT (others have too?) so I'm inclined to leave it at that and move on. Life is too short! I'll wait in hope instead to hear back from BT's complaints people.

[stereohaven]

This spammer is clearly better at communicating directly with customers than BT have been this past year, they should hire them. 

[Anonymous]

Ha ha you may be onto something there, sterohaven (poacher turned gamekeeper etc).

By way of an update, I got a quick response to my complaint to BT, but the response was depressingly familiar. The caller listened while I talked, repeated that BT value their customers and my points would be noted (they had clearly been on their 'how to manage a frustrated customer' training course). They were very pleasant and listened to me patiently before speaking from what sounded like a rehearsed script - you know, as well as valuing customers, BT always listens etc etc. They then moved on to explaining (from their training course script?) that BT received a high satisfaction rating from customers, hadn't had many complaining about the service etc etc. They also explained what we now know - that a moderator will be a BT employee - but didn't seem to grasp/accept that forum newcomers had no ready way to know that. They said it will be shown against the moderators profile, and I said yes but you'd have to know enough to go looking for that plus when I looked I could not  see that against the moderators profile anyway. They offered no reply to that. They then explained that 'public forum' did not actually mean public, just that it was public for BT customers. I started to get really confused at this point as it was all starting to sound like the Newspeak George Orwell describes in his novel 1984. I wrapped things up by explaining that as both a  (retired) brand manager and a designer of IT systems for use by non IT people, I was trying to give BT feedback for their benefit and not just to get a complaint off my chest. When brands fail, a lot of customers may not complain but  just leave, quietly, in hope of finding a better place.  He didn't seem equipped to discuss any of this, but as the conversation closed I was struck by his eagerness to get my agreement that the complaint could be closed.  I was left thinking again about the  corporate script and employee targets. You know 1)  Pacify the patient by listening patiently and showing you care 2) Innoculate the patient with a healthy dose of How Much Customers Like BT and What BT Are Doing For Customers 3) Get Closure from Customer to tick box of 'You Spoke, We Listening 4) Be able to show at your regular appraisals that you have dealt with and satisfactorily closed X thousand complaints per month.

I feel very old. I was brought up to keep trying to make a difference, but I feel more like King Canute trying back to hold back the tide.  I am sure BT employees work very hard, and I thank them sincerely for the good work they do - all this is no criticism of them and they have to live with todays corporate culture just as customers do. But it was interesting to listen to the news yesterday that the calls are increasing for the likes of Facebook to be held accountable for failure to protect users. I think large organisations do a lot of chest beating, wringing their hands, showing they support charities, invest in people, don't tolerate bullying and discrimination etc etc. And yet, somehow, the reality feels a distance away from that. It would be great (for all) if that could be fixed.

Meanwhile, to the Moderators, could you just check your profiles (and if possible enhance your signatures) to ensure it is blindingly obvious to newcomers that when you post a helpful reply, it comes from a qualified BT person and can be relied upon. And if a spam email is spotted, maybe sent an alert to forum users about action to take. You might also want to put below your signature a strapline saying something like 'The BT forum is public but access is limited to  bona fide BT customers'. And you might want to consider some way of policing/vetting/limiting the activities of new joiners. Thanks in hope.

I'll probably leave this forum now so that I don't get tempted to waste more time on it ha ha. 

[WendyBourne]

What a thoughtful posting. I completely agree with the points you have made. That PR overrules customer service is certainly not limited to BT, and I don't expect improvement from them. But you have at least clearly articulated the frustration of the consumer faced with a large corporation.

Thank you

[Anonymous]

Thank you Wendy and apologies for the typos - I was rushing to get on with the day and I never seem to spot them until too late ha ha! You kind of bear out what I suspect: that there's lot more people unhappy with BT than may be letting them know (they have the sense to know that bashing your head against a brick wall only damages the basher!). BT should be concerned about all this but whether they will I doubt. They seem to be living in a hall of mirrors admiring how good they look, while outside in the real world..........

But I wish their employees well and thank them for their hard work - they are as much victims of corporate hubris as we are. 

[gg30340]

The following link which is posted by the forum moderators states what the forum is about and who are the official BT reps on the forum.

https://community.bt.com/t5/Announcements-Guides-Community/Welcome-to-the-BT-Community-Forum/td-p/15...

There are other posts from the moderators at the start of this board that gives guidelines and rules of the forum. 

It is expect that new users to the forum would take time to have a look through them but for some reason it rarely happens.

[Anonymous]

"For some reason that rarely happens." There's a clue there. I'm also a pilot and when there is an accident due to pilot error, every effort is made to find out why it happened. This is especially so if more than one accident seems to have been caused by the same or a similar pilot error (Boeing 737 Max might be a recent headline making example). And then the regulatory authorities, plane maker etc look at how to redesign the plane so that that pilot error doesn't happen again. There was a time many eons ago when pilots were told they must be more careful, but that is long in the past, back in the dark ages.

Also of course, it helps to remember why people might join the forum. If like me (and others?) they are not 'gifted forum pilots' but joined because they were encouraged by their BT Help page to do so in expectation of getting help with a problem, then the BT culture should be to 'reach out' (a very trendy expression lately amongst young online companies) to help that new and 'ignorant of procedure' customer.  For experienced users instead to pile in on them with messages that imply Why The Way Its Done Here Is Right and You Need To Do Your Stuff Better amounts to something close to cyber bullying.  As a minimum it will probably just drive them away from the forum.

I have long experience of being a 'mystery user' on forums and frankly, a chauvinistic attitude won't wash if a forum is to flourish. Sorry to be blunt, and its not meant to be personal, but it needs saying.

[gg30340]

As the forum is apparently not meeting your needs and you would appear to be wanting to have a rant about it I will leave you to it. Sorry to be blunt and it is not meant to be personal, but it needs saying.

[Anonymous]

Well I'm sorry that you feel I'm ranting. I thought was trying to make cogent points about why the forum is not meeting my needs (or those of some others it seems?). Your reply (sadly) illustrates whats wrong with the forum I'm afraid and whilst my words were meant in good faith yours clearly are intended to be sarcastic. So I shall indeed be off and leave you to it. You've done a good days work, by your standards.