How do you successful make a complaint to BT?

[Birdsw]

I'm unhappy with a number of issues with BT including loss of service of Broadband and landline and how it was handled, billing and customer service.  Customer service have closed complaints without my consent and indeed without solving the problem.

I've sent two complaints letters to 1 Braham street, London and received no acknowledgement or response.  Do I have to go directly to Ombudsman? 

Please don't suggest that I continue to pursue with customer service as I have spent countless hours trying to do this.

Thanks in advance.

Wendy 

[iniltous]

TBH , the question is too vague, obviously if a complaint is without merit or vexatious then it’s not likely to be successful….so how do you make a successful complaint is dependent on if you have a case , if your complaints are valid the process is set out here .
https://www.bt.com/help/contact-bt/complaints

[Birdsw]

Sorry, perhaps I was a little vague. I've posted two letters of complaint and until an hour ago had received no response or acknowledgement.

Oddly enough I received a text message from BT within the last hour to say they will contact me directly.  I then received a message to say they've tried to contact me unsuccessfully and will be in touch another time.  There's no means of responding and I've not missed a call!.

The saga continues and the question remains the same.. how do you successfully gain a response from BT to a complaint?

[Peter_W]

Thanks for the update here @Birdsw.

I'm glad to hear you've had confirmation that the complaint has been picked up, but appreciate your concerns if the call doesn't look to have come through. 

Please keep us posted on how things go, and if needs be we can help you get this chased.

Peter

[WSH]

@Birdsw The "we've tried to contact you but couldn't get through" seems to be a common tactic today.  I've just had the same nonsense from Sky in the last week, twice. 

"We're tried to contact you but been unsuccessful".  Oh, yes, well I'm retired and I've been sat in my office next to the email and phone all day and the mobile shows no missed calls, so you couldn't have tried very hard.

I'd take the response that they've tried to contact you with a pinch of salt if I were you!  Nobody in this country knows how to do customer service anymore.

[Birdsw]

Thanks for your response. Yes, I feel cynical about the response and wonder just how you manage to make a complaint if you're working and unable to pick up a call!.

Not receiving promised calls has been a theme with BT but this is actually from the complaints department!.

[chrisjp]

"TBH , the question is too vague, obviously if a complaint is without merit or vexatious then it’s not likely to be successful"

Even if BT consider a complaint to be "without merit or vexatious" they should still respond to it, and explain why they consider it to be without merit or vexatious. It does not entitle BT to just close the complaint without explanation, or to ignore it.

[iniltous]

The OP question wasn’t about response times or the apparent closure of the complaint without any discussion, it is ‘How do you successful (presumably means successfully) make a complaint to BT’ clearly to be successful the claim needs to have merit , with no details no one here can made a judgement on that , although clearly a vexatious or meritless complaint isn’t likely to have a (from the complainant point of view ) successful outcome, hence pointing out the vagueness of the question.

Even if your own points are valid they in no way repudiate mine , so it’s a puzzling you link them together 

[Birdsw]

Hi.  My question was perhaps badly worded.  I really just wanted to know how to get a response to a letter of complaint from BT.  I sent two letters over two weeks ago and heard nothing.  As to the complaint, I received no broadband for a month and had no landline for 6 weeks in June/July BT accepted responsibility but I've received no compensation.  My complaint was closed without my consent.  

It's dreadful customer service from BT and incredibly frustrating that it's difficult to even gain a response to a formal complaint.  I guess this just adds fodder to the complaint going forward to Ombudsman.

[zulu17]

According to the complaints ode 

Step 4
Once we’ve fixed your problem, we’ll close your complaint.
We’ll also do this if we’ve tried to contact you, but haven’t
been able to reach you. If you still need our help with the
complaint, just get back in touch with us within 28 days and
we’ll continue to work on getting it resolved for you.

So the complaints code does allow them to close a complaint without resolution if BT haven't been able to reach you.

If they do that the process would be contact BT within the 28 days and   request it be reopened , ask politely for details of how and when they were unable to reach you and  if you consider it appropriate request escalation Asking them politely to readout the information about  the complaint investigation that has been added to to your complaint should give you a view as to whether any investigation has occured.

Step 2
If you’re unhappy, you can ask to escalate your complaint.
You can do this at any time, but please let us try to sort
things out first.

and if necessary

Step 3
If our response falls short, you can escalate for a second
time. If you do this, we’ll carry out a final complaint review.