Contact BT by E-Mail

[viton]

BT need to reinstate email contact. Certain people cannot use chat or phone., but can manage email. Those who don't suffer from certain conditions can't, or won't appreciate this or understand. Why have BT dropped email. Instead they ask us to write! Going back to the dark ages. What was once a great company is now one of the worst.

[viton]

I've had this and the worst nightmare was attempting to get help from BT.  It was caused, and has been several times, because BT put an order in for Digital Voice. Every time they do this it blocks full access to my account. One can still get messaging/chat, but the rest is locked. It took me 4 hours to get some semblance of help and to get the reps to understand the problem. Most I spoke to kept laughing! BT really have lost the plot and they've now made it impossible for certain consumers to get help. especially the elderly, hard of hearing and those with "unusual" illness's. If one enters a complaint, nothing is done. Instead an email is received stating "we have your complaint"  Then another arrives later to tell us to contact them again if the complaint is on going. Even if contacting them again, we are ignored then  a third e mail arrives,  "we've closed your complaint" Closed yet no apology or action. Something is drastically wrong at BT. The worst thing BT ever did was to drop the complaint section on their website and to drop email contact. It's now impossible to speak or contact anyone in management.. They also tell us to contact them via "snail Mail" if we need to complain. So much for 21stcentury technology. It's a disgrace and they need to change their policies.

[viton]

The big snag is... the chat system isn't fit for purpose. Not only will you be attended to by someone "off-shore", more often than not they haven't a clue. Also, despite BT stating it's the quickest way to get help, it can take hours to get some help. The person on chat also chats to others at the same time and it can take ages to get replies. They then ask the same questions over and over then send emails with passwords that then lead to even more passwords onto a persons mobile phone. Mostly, in my experience. the BT rep does their utmost to fob a person off without offering genuine help. Eventually they then ask you to make a complaint, that turns out to be a total waste of time. BT have certainly lost the plot and worse still, they couldn't care less. Before the merger with EE, BT had a great online complaints system and there was also email contact. These days BT ask us to use "snail mail" to complain. It beggars belief that in the 21st century a company tells us to revert to using the post. It appears like management at BT are hiding from their customers. Shows how little they care.

[viton]

Get you sorted?!  I doubt it. You can spend ages with them and nothing changes. They disappear after each post and one can wait 20 minutes until they reply again. Send another message asking are they still there? , and another 10 minutes later they respond "I'm still here, get back to you shortly. Another 10 minutes can pass and when they return, they start to ask all the same questions over and over again. On average, nothing is sorted. they then ask you if you want to raise a complaint. this is because thy can't do their job. Raise a complaint and, yet again. back to square one as nothing is done. Its absolutely heart-breaking what has happened to BT and it's way overdue that someone in government brought the company to task about their uncaring attitude and their lack of email contact. I've discovered that a couple of phone companies still use email and I'll be moving to one of them ASAP.

[viton]

I phoned BT yesterday to try and get help re not being able to access my account. No number to click regarding help, and, instead, I was put through to a closing my account rep. I wasn't, at first, aware of this and the chap then started to try and flog me a so-called upgrade. He was just about to add TV to my service and that is when I realised I was connected to the wrong department (after 30 minutes of sales talk!) he then cut me off and another person turned up and asked what was the problem. I explained I couldn't access my account, between laughing and muttering to one of his colleagues, he said it was impossible. I then explained it always occurs when BT had put a Digital Voice order in. He then, laughing again, said , "Oh, that's odd" I explained it wasn't odd and it always happened. For some reason BT keep placing new Digital Voice orders on my account, I then get no account messages and cant access my account. This conversation went on for over an hour and the chap finally said. We've fixed it sign in again in 24 hours time. The mind boggles. I get terrible pain and needed my morphine, even though I pointed this out to the rep, he ignored me and just kept saying, "just stay on the line, I'll get back to you shortly" I then told him I had to go as the pain was out of control and I'd have no choice but to hang up. He responded, "Just wait a bit longer. I did, and 10 minutes later he returned and asked me to wait again, the pain was so bad I was close to passing out.  Fortunately he came back and said he'd fixed it. Because I was late with the morphine I became so ill  ended up in bed for 24 hours in a very bad state and still haven't recovered. No one seems to care anymore. one simple email would have sorted it all out in minutes.

[Kimberlin]

@viton  In case you are unaware, this is a customer to customer help forum. Your posts don’t go directly to BT and anything you complain about here, is unlikely to change or influence BT policies.

Businesses change and adapt over time to reflect changes in technology and customer habits. If they didn’t, they would find it difficult to compete and to grow and ultimately for them, to make money.

No one is forcing you to stay with BT, it’s a choice you are making, there are other ISPs available, but, you’ll probably find that some are equally as difficult to contact.

I hope you resolve your issues, but spending your time writing 5 posts one after the other effectively complaining that you can’t do what you want because BT doesn’t support a particular method of communication that you prefer, isn’t going to change anything. Sorry, but that’s the reality.

[Ali_A · Accepted solution]

Hi @viton 

I'm glad to read that you managed to get through over the phone. 

We appreciate your feedback about contact methods available. There's a live chat service on our contact us page, for certain queries. Wherever there's a 'message now' button, it will connect you with someone in real-time. 

There are certain things that can only be done over the phone, in which case we have some accessibility services to help customers with additional needs. 

If you have any feedback about these services, you can feed them back directly to our accessibility team using this webform.

We want to give all our customers an excellent service but if you feel your situation hasn't been handled the way you had hoped we want you to know how we can fix it. Please visit our Complaints code of practice page for details about our handling process.
If you'd like to re-open a case please visit Make a Complaint where our dedicated team will look into the details, take ownership and get in touch with you. 

Ali