Broadband Cancelled Without Consent

[GeetaG]

Hi, today my broadband was cancelled without my consent and I received an email demanding £360+ cancellation charges.

I did previously receive a text from BT saying that someone was going to take over my line and I should call. I did ring them at the time (almost a month ago) and they said that they had stopped that from happening and I had nothing to worry about and that I should ignore further correspondence regarding this as it was definitely not going ahead now that I had called.

Unfortunately, it seems that they did not put a stop to it.

I spent two hours on the phone today trying to sort this out and was told that I would have to sign up as a new customer and wait 14 days for reconnection and a complaint would be raised regarding the mis-handling of my case. They could not confirm at the time whether I would still be charged the cancellation fee.

I felt that the person I did speak to was doing all they could but I'm severely unsatisfied with BT as a whole:
1. I called when they told me to regarding someone taking over my line and they confirmed that this must have been a mistake and would not go ahead.
2. I woke up this morning with my broadband switched off and an email in my inbox demanding £360+ in cancellation charges and fees when I have never requested to cancel my broadband and I in fact instructed them not to cancel.
3. I am now left without broadband so I cannot do my work which puts me in a pretty bad situation with my employer (the person I spoke to did give me access to BT open one but the reception where I live is beyond poor so I can't really use it).

The current status is that the advisor I spoke to today will call me back tomorrow to set me up as a new customer as he cannot do that today due to a limitation on their system preventing signing up on the same day as cancellation. Also, the complaint is with the "Offline Team" and I don't know when or if that will be resolved.

Really poor service from BT when I got BT Internet ad they promote themselves as a premium service.

Can anyone help me resolve this quicker? I really need my Internet back online and I should not have to sign up to an entire new contract to do that. I also would like my complaint to be resolved as soon as possible and to pursue a formal complaint.

[licquorice]

Sorry to hear of your problem. I could ask the mods to respond, but to be honest it won't be any quicker as they are very busy and deal with cases in strict order of receipt.

[chatom08]

I've just spent some time replying that the same thing happened to me, but without any warning from BT, and it took me over 3 weeks to get reconnected, only for the system to reject what I'd written.  I have had 5 different days for reconnection before it happened last Friday, supposedly on a new 18 months' contract which I did not request and whose terms were not supplied.  I also had dreadful trouble trying to get anyone to respond from BT: promised return calls not made, others cut off while I was on hold and emails ignored.

But then as I was writing, I did get a call from BT and, luckily, I saved what I was telling you about the call for future reference. 

I was writing this when I finally got a call from BT, from someone in the Executive Level Complaints department, so that is a result of my email to Gavin patterson , the chief executive .  Some other company said I wanted to switch suppliers, allegedly, and it all stemmed from there.  She claimed that I was sent a "sorry, you're leaving" email with instructions what to do if I'd changed my mind, but I never received it.  So, I didn't reply and BT went ahead and cut me off.  Once  I was cut off the system treats me as a new customer with a new contract and so on.  In reality, I am still on my old contract which runs out in September, even though all the blurb from BT says (new) contract for 18 months.  There's no reconnection charge  (the email about my new contract said I would have to pay £49) and I'm getting an ex gratia payment for all the trouble.

How can another  (unnamed) company ask for my disconnection and BT then rely on one email (undelivered) to go ahead with the disconnection?  How I am supposed to know that the rigidity of the BT system means that I get all the emails about my new contract, when in reality I am still on the old one?  I think I was told "That's just the way we work, but you wouldn't know that." Exactly.  It seems obvious that BT has no way of cutting through its own red tape when things go wrong and the customer is left in total  ignorance of what is going on.  There's a lot that's wrong and I may still complain more.

From my experience, therefore, I would suggest you write directly to the chief executive and you could get a result, though it might take a few days.

[GeetaG]

Thanks for the detailed info, I may try that if I continue to get no where with BT.

So far been promised calls back which don't happen, repeatedly asked for updates on the complaint made and told it's with the complaints department with no way to contact them. Still without internet even though I was told they would expedite the reconnection so that I wouldnt be disconnected for long.

At this rate, I think I'll have to raise a complaint with Ofcom once I finally receive a reply to the complaint from BT as so far, this has been an awful experience. No form of communication for an unknown amount of time without any warning - what if it were an elderly or vulnerable person in this situation - there needs to be better accountability and more robust processes in place.

One final thing - they said I would be put back on the same package as before but I checked the new order and they've put me on a lower package (36mb) instead of the package I had before (50mb) - this is getting pretty ridiculous - feel like I'm getting no where with them!

[chatom08]

I didn't even have any details of the package I was supposed to be getting, just the awful chatty message about 

“Hello.  Here's what you're getting and what will happen when. There's lots of good stuff in here, so keep it somewhere safe."   It didn't even give any prices.

It was only when I got the phone call from the Exec Complaints individual that I was told that I am back on the previous contract.  

Like you my emails were ignored, no one called me till the Monday evening call.  Since then I've tried to find out who tried to "slam" me, but again my email has been ignored.  So I've written to the Chief Exec again this morning, but there has been no response so far.

[GeetaG]

So an update on this, received a text from BT today saying my "new order" was cancelled. Called up to see what was happening as I should have been getting the internet back up on the 8th and they said that the order to set me back up was cancelled the day after it was created and they would need to make another order today and wait a further two weeks!

Asked why I hadn't been told this on the numerous times I called and why this has happened and been given no answer!

Terrible service! Really not happy at the moment

[chatom08]

Sorry to hear this, GeetaG, but based on my experience I'm not surprised.  My inquiry for the identity of whoever "slammed" me has been completely ignored.

[DanielS]

Hi @GeetaG,

I am sorry that we have not been able to get your services back up and running. Do you have a team dealing with your complaint? If not, I would like to offer you our help. We will do all we can to help you.

To get in touch with us, click on my user name and then copy and paste the link under "Moderation Team Email Address" into your browser.  Complete that form and we'll get back in touch with you.

Thanks

DanielS