Upgrade to Full Fibre nightmare

[ArtyVark]

I am having a torrid time trying to upgrade to FTTP and I`m at my wits end and giving up but I wanted to share my experiences for anyone (and I know there are a lot of customers with the same)  "technical error" on their account and the "workaround" that is not being passed around different BT departments.

My current package is Fibre (65mbps) with Halo 3, Digital Voice and EE TV Big Sport/HD with Extra TV Box. I wanted to order Full Fibre 500 with Digital voice, keeping my complete wifi discs and EE TV etc and I simply can not get this ordered.

The order in which this has occurred :-

11th September 2024 receive an email advising me Full Fibre is available at my address.

11th September 2024 put a call through and ask for Full Fibre 500 upgrade with Digital phone keeping my existing other services. I am told I can get this at the same price I pay now but have to pay £10 for a “mini connection kit” .

19th September 2024 PM is my Engineer appointment for Full Fibre activation.

16th September 2024 receive TP Link connectors and an ethernet cable. £10 is added to my September bill for the TP Link product this is the “mini connection kit” which I do not actually need as there are adequate plug sockets where my router is.

18th September 2024 check my tracking to see if my order is okay find out its been cancelled without any explanation.

18th September 2024 1.10pm ring up and speak to J******* about my cancellation. 30 minutes later told my account has been cancelled due to a “system error” and I need to ring back Friday 20th September 2024 or later to re-order.

20th September 2024 9am ring up to upgrade to Full fibre 500 with phone. Speak to BT Dundee, they put me through to another agent, who then puts me through to BT Lancaster Loyalty Team. They try to place an order then tell me my account says I am already upgraded to Full Fibre 500!! They then put me through to Connections Team who then put me through to Data Integrity Team (25 mins on phone at this point). I am then put on hold whilst my account is fixed. DI Team member then says my account is fixed and puts me through to Sales. I ask for Full Fibre 500 with phone they say this can not be done due to a “Technical Error” on my account telling me I am on Full Fibre already. I asked to be put through to the DI Team they say I cant be and arrange to ring me back tomorrow at 11am. (Phone call was 1hr 9mins total)

20th September 2024 I then try to find another way to get through to DI Team to sort this out. I do an online chat who put me through to sales and then tell me I have to wait 24hrs for my account to refresh to resolve the Technical Error that the DI Team had fixed. The DI Team member never mentioned a 24hr refresh.

20th September 2024 receive an envelope through the post with a return label asking me to return kit ???????!!!!!!!

20th September 2024 received a txt from BT saying my broadband is now ready to use ??

21st September 2024 BT called 12:03pm tried to put the order through and failed. On hold for 25 minutes only to be told there is a system error that can not be fixed and will take 10 days to resolve the problem with my account. Expecting call back 3rd October 2024 @ 12pm

2nd October 2024 receive a txt from BT saying my broadband is now ready to use ??

3rd October 2024 Receive a phone call as promised at 12:06pm. Tries to put my order through same technical error. On hold for 30 minutes I then get put through to BT Doncaster they say they can do my order for £52.99 cheaper than existing. My order is placed for Full Fibre 500. Call lasted 50 minutes

3rd October 2024 check my order and no Engineer visit or activation date has been placed. The previous phone call the agent never said anything about these two things.

3rd October 2024 ring back spoke to J**** at BT Stoke explained my previous order I wasn’t given a Engineer visit or activation date. Put through to F***** (I think) he cancels the previous order and tries to book the order and it fails with the technical error again. I say cant you do what BT Doncaster did earlier. Turns out the “fix” is to book my order as a house move even though I am not moving house. So he proceeds with this but then tells me the price is £53.99, plus £3 for pay as you go phone, plus £10 for TP Link power connectors. I tell him it was £52.99 earlier with no extra charges. He then says he cant do it at this price and cant remove the £10 charge. I tell him I already have these from a previous order and got charged £10 this month I don’t want them I want it for £52.99. He tells me he cant but I would have to ring Reclaims or recharge and get the £10 refunded. At this point I have had enough and tell him to forget the order as I don’t see why I have to pay more for something I don’t need or want.

So the workaround is for BT to do a "fake" home move order to bypass the technical error and upgrade you.

The above is part of my complaint sent to BT after all this time I am just angry, deflated and annoyed but the above might help someone with the dreaded "BT Technical Error". For me I have no idea what I`m going to do. In the scheme of things its not that important but in 2024 these things should not be happening.

[Christopher_G]

Hi @ArtyVark 

I'm really sorry to hear that you've had some problems with your order and your account. It sounds, from your post, that you have lodged a complaint. Hopefully in doing so, our customer care team can get to the bottom of the problem and get this sorted.

Please keep us updated with what happens.

Chris

[chrisjp]

If this total shambles was a one-off hiccup it would be annoying but not completely unacceptable.
Unfortunately, from the numerous similar postings on this forum, this sort of thing is actually quite a routine occurrence, and BT seems to have no ability, or even interest, in sorting it out.
The BT telephone agents are prisoners of their computers and the "computer says no" syndrome, so are unable to do anything to fix this woeful service - or complete lack of it.
But can't the Moderators, seeing these continual tales of woe from prospective customers do something by going up their management chain to try to get things to improve?

[ArtyVark]

Believe it or not I tried one more time. Yep glutton for punishment. 30 minute call ended with yes you have a technical error on your account. "Can you put me through to BT Doncaster they managed to do it by a home move order cant you do the same." No came back the answer let me put you through to Sales Support........ round and round in circles I go.

Suffice to say I hung up actually already been to that dept. Think I must have spoken to every Customer Centre in the country for BT by now.

The guy even knew about the issue with online ordering. "Did you not get a personalised offer on My BT"? No I answered been like that for about a year or more it errors or tells me to ring up. "Oh you have that issue I see" so they know about it.

(also didnt mention this is actually part 2 I tried to move from EE to BT earlier this year for about 3 months including a complaint and they couldnt fix that either)

[ArtyVark]

Just to keep this alive I received an email on 8th October saying BT have received my complaint but nothing further for 8 days now.

Will give it a bit longer then try getting Ofcom involved.

@Christopher_G 

[36ULW]

Probably just teething problems, BT have only been in Business for 178 years (under various names) so are still trying to work out the kinks in providing any kind of half decent service.

[ArtyVark]

@pxr5 

BT Customer Complaints phoned me today and they have fixed my account. It took an hour for them to correct the error.

So I have got an order for November hopefully this will finally be solved.

[pxr5]

@ArtyVark 

Good news mate. Any idea on compensation yet, or are you waiting until the order in fulfilled?

I still have 2 accounts running, though the old one has had the Direct Debit cancelled now. My own complaint is still in and won't be actioned until everything with my accounts has been concluded.

[ArtyVark]

I've not mentioned it yet till I know its installed. (05/11/2024)

[Sedgy]

I feel your pain. I went through an excruciating experience like this on behalf of an elderly neighbour who was moving from sky to BT on my recommendation I am now embarrased to admit!

The services were all working fine thanks to open reach but they were not billing any of it  broadband, phone and tv. This elderly lady was so worried they would hit her with a big bill further down the line, I offered to take on the task, little did I know what I was letting myself in for!

I also spoke to every department in BT/EE, with numerous promises of return calls that were never made, it took almost 6 months to resolve after writing a complaint letter to the CEO. The complaint department were a disgrace, had not done their homework before contacting me, could not answer any of my questions, were unprofessional and badly trained.  Unfortunately for them I am an ex BT billing manager so they couldn't fob me off with any old waffle.

A year later the billing is still wrong but clearly the person who dealt with the complaint couldn't care less so neither do I anymore.

BT and EE better together, not on your nelly, they are hemorrhaging revenue and customers in my opinion. After this terrible experience I have now after more than 40 yrs moved all my own services to another provider.