BT Cloud

[jamieandangela]

@RKM  Said 

Good luck with that, but it is a condition of referring a complaint to either the Regulator (Ofcom) or the Communications Ombudsman that you have first made a formal complaint to BT and given them adequate opportunity to respond.  Since we have made it clear on this forum that we are beta testers of the Client App, both of us would certainly be classed as: "currently working with the supplier to resolve the problem" and thus ineligible to have any complaint processed.  Other's mileage may, and most cases will, differ!

I have never heard so much rubbish, clearly you have not looked at the Ofcom website , where Ofcom exists to serve customers, let’s just start off with this straight from the Ofcom website:-

Automatic compensation

From 1 April 2019, broadband and home phone customers will get money back from their service provider for delayed repairs, missed engineer appointments and delays with the start of a new service – without having to ask for it.

BT Customers have contracts that they have signed up to to include services such as the BT Cloud given the delay in getting a work Cloud without operational issues has gone on for months now, so the Customers are entitled to be compensated. I have had two telephone conversations with Ofcom and they confirm the above and that compensation can be paid to Customers who pay for a paid contract with a bundle of services or if one of these services fails in anyway. BT are signed up the compensation scheme.

[Gratias]

What a pity this is gradually descending to a slanging match. 

What is RKM's role?

As far as I can tell there are only 2 BT employees involved in this thread, the Community Manager SeanD and the Moderator JohnC2. RKM's status is no different to anyone else, he's just trying to help and sometimes this help involves unpalatable facts.

Is BT Cloud free?

Yes, and no.

It's free according to the terms and conditions. BT can withdraw the service with sufficient notice without being legally required to  offer compensation to most users. I'm not a lawyer, this is merely my assessment of the situation.

It's not free in the accounting world. There is a form of opportunity cost here. Inbuilt into the core costs is an amount to cover the costs of these services.  Imagine if BT were to withdraw all its free services, BT Mail, BT Virus Protect, BT Cloud. Would they continue to charge the same. No way, they would lose any competitive edge they may have.

[NigelB143]

Gratias, thank you heartily for some common sense!

Yes, we're all frustrated and tired with the longevity of this problem.

It has not been helpful for BT to remain so silent. When you have a problem delivering to a customer, it's better in the long run to be frank and level with people, even when that is uncomfortable.

It is really a matter of treating people with respect, and as equals.

[Jules68]

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@Gratiaswrote:

What a pity this is gradually descending to a slanging match. 

What is RKM's role?

As far as I can tell there are only 2 BT employees involved in this thread, the Community Manager SeanD and the Moderator JohnC2. RKM's status is no different to anyone else, he's just trying to help and sometimes this help involves unpalatable facts.

Is BT Cloud free?

Yes, and no.

It's free according to the terms and conditions. BT can withdraw the service with sufficient notice without being legally required to  offer compensation to most users. I'm not a lawyer, this is merely my assessment of the situation.

It's not free in the accounting world. There is a form of opportunity cost here. Inbuilt into the core costs is an amount to cover the costs of these services.  Imagine if BT were to withdraw all its free services, BT Mail, BT Virus Protect, BT Cloud. Would they continue to charge the same. No way, they would lose any competitive edge they may have.

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I wholly agree with you here, in the main, but you will accept that a small number of people, customers who purchase (real money) additional Cloud storage (or who are not BT Broadband customers but pay for an 'enhanced' - which is to say the same level of service as for broadband customers - email service) do have a charged for service, and the failures which BT has suffered in cutting over to new in-house Cloud and Email services have caused real fiscal loss - I am not one of these but I would assume that BT has offered financial compensation - or isn't currently charging for - services which they are unable to deliver. These services, for these customers, aren't in any sense free (actually, for those buying additional storage the 'with the rations' element probably is) - but for most of us, in law at least, BT is offering 'uncharged for' services, which therefore have no price (or charge out to us) associated with them. They do, of course, have a cost, but that cost is absorbed by BT in its overall cost structure associated with its broadband products.

Whether BT charged for the Cloud service or not, of course, if they offered guarantees of service levels (they don't) it would still be possible to sue for consequential loss against those (non-existent, in reality) guarantees.

But is is wholly ridiculous to believe that BT's Regulator is in any way interested in its problems with Cloud Services, particularly since BT has both acknowledged them and is evidently striving to correct them - however long that is taking. And of course, as for the email service, the problems are not universal - some people are getting service levels they are happy with and accept. Those on this forum are outliers.

[Gratias]

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@Jules68wrote:

I wholly agree with you here, in the main, but you will accept that a small number of people, customers who purchase (real money) additional Cloud storage (or who are not BT Broadband customers but pay for an 'enhanced' - which is to say the same level of service as for broadband customers - email service) do have a charged for service,

In my defence I did say (albeit edited) 'most' with those who paid for an enhanced service in mind.

[Jules68]

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@Gratiaswrote:

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@Jules68wrote:

I wholly agree with you here, in the main, but you will accept that a small number of people, customers who purchase (real money) additional Cloud storage (or who are not BT Broadband customers but pay for an 'enhanced' - which is to say the same level of service as for broadband customers - email service) do have a charged for service,

In my defence I did say (albeit edited) 'most' with those who paid for an enhanced service in mind.

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Apologies - I had read that as referring to an absolute withdrawal of service, and not just to its inadequate delivery.

[bartlej3]

BT Cloud seems to have stopped working on my PC. When I click on the cloud icon, the eggtimer flashes up briefly, then nothing. The help desk denied any problem at their end and blamed my PC. Any ideas?

[RKM]

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@jamieandangelawrote:

@RKM  Said 

Good luck with that, but it is a condition of referring a complaint to either the Regulator (Ofcom) or the Communications Ombudsman that you have first made a formal complaint to BT and given them adequate opportunity to respond.  Since we have made it clear on this forum that we are beta testers of the Client App, both of us would certainly be classed as: "currently working with the supplier to resolve the problem" and thus ineligible to have any complaint processed.  Other's mileage may, and most cases will, differ!

I have never heard so much rubbish

Call it what you like, however Page 2 of the 2019/20 Annual Report of the Ombudsman Services states:

"Reason for refusal 

(a) Prior to submitting the complaint to you, the consumer has not attempted to contact the trader concerned in order to discuss the consumer’s complaint and sought, as a first step, to resolve the matter directly with the trader.
Percentage of cases 99.12 % "

You'll also find similar levels for complaints being rejected in previous Annual reports.

[RKM]

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@Gratiaswrote:  RKM's status is no different to anyone else, he's just trying to help and sometimes this help involves unpalatable facts.

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Correct.  In fact, I have made it clear on several occasions that I am certainly not a BT rep, just a customer like almost all of the users in the Community.

[RKM]

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@bartlej3wrote:

BT Cloud seems to have stopped working on my PC. When I click on the cloud icon, the eggtimer flashes up briefly, then nothing. The help desk denied any problem at their end and blamed my PC. Any ideas?

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BTCloud updated in December 2020 and part of the update included a new, reduced, User Interface.  Of course, it is possible that the update isn't working for you, as is the case for many others in this thread.

However, BTCloud now runs as a background app and so it now appears in the Windows System Tray, which can be accessed by clicking on the "^" symbol towards the right of the Taskbar at the bottom of the screen.  If BTCloud is running then you will have a Cloud icon containing another symbol in the box that pops up and clicking that icon will open the new User Interface.  The first time the update runs it can take several hours to initiate during which time it will display a message about meta data being updated, and you may need to leave your PC on long enough for this to complete before any syncing commences.

So check your System Tray and find out if BTCloud is just running in the background rather than not working at all.