Time for a Positive Message, Lets Praise BT

[willc01]

We all seem to come on the forum when there's a problem and never laud the service we get.  Well here my positive story. 

People come here as a prospective purchaser and all they see is complaint complaint complaint, no wonder there's lots of them when we extol these experiences.

Some of you will start to read this and stop here so goodbye to you.  For everyone else lets try and post a few positives, which is what the rest of the world could do with right now, half full not half empty.

No one has forced you to buy in to this service, most of the complainers have moved form Sky to BT.  They all say the service was exceptional, then why move when its so good, ohhh its the money you say,  don't want to pay them so much.  Lets go to BT and pay a fraction of the price and when you get a fraction of the service you complain.  Starting to ring true is it.

Years ago and I really to mean years ago, I moved from Sky to BTV when it very first launched when super fast BB was still a dream.  I had a 2mb connection(just upgraded from ISDN) and it was awful, always buffering, falling over, the powerline adapters were terrible,  so back to sky I went for many years.

Then Infinity launched to my village and I moved from 2mb to 40mb, hurrah and I ordered BTV because it was about the money and about 2 months before the Youview launch.

Like you all I was excited and then the dark cloud came with the box.  I switched it on and like many stories here it rebooted every 2 minutes.   I complained to the highest level over the service I received, a man came replaced my box and within the first month I had a working service that was reliable and my first months subscription was credited.

Then came Youview, I wanted it for the HD element to go with the new super duper TV we had just brought.  I called BT told them my sob story which was true and they upgraded to BTY for £49(activation fee).

It came I plugged it in and it all worked, I must add, that that when infinity was installed I had them move it so it was next to the TV, 'all in the service' I pointed out to the engineer and showed him the web page with it on.

So now I have two boxes, I work in an industry that uses Powerline so I knew I wasn't going to use them more trouble than they are worth.  So  brought an external Ethernet cable and ran it from the hub, outside to the bedroom, 15m long.  Fantastic job I thought.

Yesterday I moved my BTV upstairs plugged it all in and prayed that the Ethernet cable was fine( I used Cat6e in case I wanted gigabit in the future), and hey presto it worked, fantastico.

I now have 2 boxes that both work but we only use one at a time.

What's the moral of the story, patience, which we all seem to miss and it will work, just give it time.  Yes BT are still experimenting with software but its reflected in the price you pay.  Did sky ever charge £12 for everything, probably in 1984 they did!!!!  Michael winner had the right phrase, Calm down dear, it's only a car, which should be attributed here,  Its only a telecoms company.

So come on guys lets have more positive stories to compensate for the rest.  I can almost guess what the next post after this is, oh well I tried and if its the opposite then thanks.

And finally BT, Thank You and I'm looking forward to the sport channels launching soon with he multi cast on BTY.

[totalmess]

 RUBBISH .they fetch products out before they have been tested enough ,they dangle new customers cheap products and deals while the long serving customer gets charged top whack prices to pay for them ,customer services are rubbish half the time they are poorly trained especially on new products ,they dont follow through on problems and make sure everythings working correctly they just conveniently forget you ,but worse of all is not being able to understand them bring back British call centres .

[willc01]

Call me cynical I just knew it some one had to ruin it.  I've got to disagree with everything you said totalmess.  Your username sums it up.  Lets look at it point by point;

RUBBISH .  I disagree, I had a positive experience, how can you dispute that you don't know me.

They fetch products out before they have been tested enough.  That's your opinion and not fact possibly blighted by a bad experience  I work in a similar industry so would disagree with you that things are tested thoroughly,  Its software bugs can happen for no reason at all.

They dangle new customers cheap products and deals.   I'd disagree with this too.  The products are far from cheap.  I don't think £300 for a PVR is cheap, no they give it to me for free, that's called subsidising and is completely different from cheap.

while the long serving customer gets charged top whack prices to pay for them , I'd say Sky charged top whack at £22+ and upwards.  BT charge £12.50.  Please don't confuse your line rental or Broadband costs as we are only discussing TV service

customer services are rubbish half the time  At least you agree half the time they are good, so one positive in your message.

they are poorly trained especially on new products  They are a call centre from first line of support of course they are not remained on all the products that's why they are called a call centre.  Second line of support is here in the North East and they are spot on. And know their stuff.

,they don't follow through on problems and make sure everything working correctly they just conveniently forget you Id disagree with this.  When I complained I got a daily phone call to update me what was happening and wouldn't sign it off until I agreed that all was fine.

 ,but worse of all is not being able to understand them bring back British call centres .  I Refer to my response above,  If you want British Call Centres would you be prepared to have the prices doubled to pay for it, NO,  you want them cheaper so it comes at a cost with outsourcing of call centres and other services.

[totalmess]

My opinion is based on my dealing with the firm over the last 30 odd years and was in no way intended to impovrish your positive experiance ,i based my message  on MY EXPERIANCES with the firm not yours i am not here to degrade what you say just post my opinion after all it is allowed .if negative coments are not posted how can things improve .

[totalmess]

OH i got daily calls when I had problem when they couldn't solve it due to insufficient training they gave up ..I sorted it with help of the forum and my own ingenuity .

[ncmoody]

IF BT was as good as you say then this forum would not be needed.

If BT wanted to help their customers they would have a dedicted team of engineers assigned to this forum.

BT are  a big ex-public company and STILL have teh Civil Service attitude, i.e. NOT civil and don NOT give service.

[Noelect]

Hi willco01

Well you are right, most posters on nearly all forums do use them to complain. Not only is it human nature to want to find somewhere to express our concerns, but it is also a place where we go to find out if others are experiencing the same problems and if there are solutions to them.

Regarding Youview from BT, there is no doubt it works. I ordered it on Monday the 25th and it came on Wednesday the 27th. Emails and texts informing me that the service was ready, arrived as promised the next day. Good service by any standard.

Well that's the positive bit over, now to the negative:

I set the box up, not hard to do, but if you need a bit of help the User Guide is incomplete, it's all very well saying "Go to Settings", but nowhere does it say how to 'get to settings'. Yes I admit that on the picture of the remote it does mention settings, but it's not exactly obvious. I also realise that once you have become familiar with the box it's easy, but when starting and unfamiliar, most will look for a Menu Button.

We receive terrestrial TV signals from two transmitters, Heathfield and Crystal Palace, my Panasonic is able to select the strongest signal and display only those on the channel listing. The Humax box, even though I selected 'Kent' managed to display duplicate channels, trying to hide the unwanted ones is not an easy task as it involves selecting each channel individually, then identifying if it is a weak channel in a sub menu, noting it, repeating this for all channels, then going into another sub menu and hiding them.

My next problem was that the codes provided did not allow the remote to control my 50" Panasonic TV. I left that and moved on.

When I selected the BT Vision service a large 'Warning' was displayed. It informed me that I was not registered, even though I had emails disputing this, and that I had to dial 0800-800-900, which I did, after 15 minutes of "We Are Very Busy", and distorted music, I was connected to a gentleman in Corporate Accounts who was as surprised as I.

Understandably he knew nothing about the warning, the problem, or what to do, so he transferred me. After a further 20 minutes I was connected to a gentleman in the Indian Subcontinent. Unfortunately I didn't speak his language and sure as ... he didn't speak mine. We however persevered.

Incidentally BT have promised to bring the Call Centres back to the UK. Evidentially it's not cheaper, as it takes 3 times as long to resolve a problem, due to the majority of staff not understanding the problem, or us, and we don't understand them.

I spent long, and I mean long, periods on hold. Mainly whilst he was away trying to find somebody who knew anything about the 'warning'. I guess he failed as all we did was a 'reset' of the box, in the blind faith that this might perform some miracle.

Next we dealt with the channel duplication problem, here he instructed me to switch the box off, disconnect the antenna plug, reconnect it, switch the box back on and then reinstall all the channels? God is the Humax box slow tuning the channels. I suspected, no I knew, that all this would achieve was to undo my work identifying and hiding the duplicate channels.

At this point I demanded to speak with his manager. He had a go at resolving the remote control problem and said that the codes in the book were wrong and gave me a list of about 15, four digit codes. He then promised that he would ring me back in 3 hours, to see if any of the codes had worked and with news regarding resolutions for the other problems. Like a fool I believed him.

After 5 hours, and with trepidation, I rang 800-111-4567, after the now familiar repeated 'Sorry' and distorted music, I eventually spoke with someone who looked at my account. He stated that there was no record of my earlier conversation! He asked if I had a reference number and when I said no he said I should have asked for one. Notwithstanding that he said that he would solve my problems. Like a fool I also believed him.

I must admit he did apologised well, he did so profusely ever 2 minutes for the next 1.5 hours and yet we actually achieved nothing. He finally said they would send a new remote, as he thought the one I had must be faulty, that someone would ring me in the morning to arrange an aerial check, as this would resolve the duplicate channel problem, even though I assured him there was absolutely nothing wrong with the aerial. He also that someone from BT would ring regarding the BT Vision problem. By this time I was ready to give up, so I demanded a reference number and had some supper. All day Thursday on the phone frustrated and and nothing to show for it!

Friday dawned, I won't bore you with all the details, suffice to say I had by that time sorted the remote and decided to deal with channel duplication myself the long winded way. Mid morning I got a call from a company saying that they would be round on Tuesday to check my aerial and that BT were paying for it. Waste of money I thought but what the hell.

As I hadn't receive the promised phone call from BT I rang them. By this time there was only the 'BT Vision account' to deal with, so I thought this can't take, long, but I was wrong. The last person I spoke with, it was evening by then, admitted that BT had cocked up the ordering process and stated that it would take 5, yes 5 days to sort it out. I asked why? She put me on hold for ages, I began to think I was being punished for asking, but it transpired that they really didn't know. When she came back she just kept repeating it would take 5 days. Every time I asked why, she said because her manager had said so! When I asked if they had to write a letter and send it to the UK asking for the service to be reinstated, she finally admitted 5 days was a long time, that I was paying for a service which I was not receiving and promised to try to expedite matters.

Saturday morning, a miracle? No more like a false dawn actually, I receive 2 more emails and more 2 texts informing me that the "Vision Service was ready to use". Full of hope I tried. 'WARNING' ring 0800-800-900. I didn't, instead I rang 0800-111-4567, no I didn't expect to get anywhere and we didn't, but by God we tried, another reset etc. etc. etc. but with the anticipated result, it still didn't work. In the end I had to admit defeat as I had run out of time. Once again I was promised a call back, on Sunday, I asked for a reference number, but he said he couldn't provide one. Yes I'm also expecting the 'we have no record of your call treatment', but what can you do, go on the forum and complain?

Anyway by now it was lunchtime and I was ready for something to eat and then pick up my 9 year old Grandson and take him to the footy, we have season tickets, don't yer know. We ate Pies and drank Beer, well I did, he had a hot dog and hot chocolate. Then we saw Brighton thrash Huddersfield 4 : 1. I must admit this made me feel a whole lot better, to the point that I got taken for a new football on the way out, another £15. I must have felt in a good mood.

So now it's Sunday and no phone call, well I must admit I didn't really expect one, and by the time I do receive one the 5 days will probably be up and it will work anyway.

Ok so what do you think, believe me this is but a précis of what happened. Should I be on here saying what a **bleep** service or singing the praises of BT?

I must admit when it works, it works well and I have no reason to be on here, but when it goes wrong, God does it go wrong and then I feel I have a right to be on here.

Cheers Noel. Any one like to predict what Monday will bring?

P.S. does anyone know why the display is so dim, that you can only see it clearly in the dark and why it uses 19 watts on standby, unless that is you don't mind waiting for 2 minutes for it to switch on?

[itsmee]

i feel a little bit guilty....had yv about a month now ordering process went as it should, box arrived when specified, installed myself with no problems everything working fine apart from a bit of buffering with the on demand players...

[drhowells]

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@itsmee wrote:

i feel a little bit guilty....had yv about a month now ordering process went as it should, box arrived when specified, installed myself with no problems everything working fine apart from a bit of buffering with the on demand players...

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Don't worry, it was the same for me. Don't forget that most people will only come here when they have a problems and need help. It is rare that people come here to say nice things 🙂

[kryten22uk]

Indeed most people on this forum would only be here because they have a problem, so the opinion is naturally skewed to the negative. 

That said, I also had a flawless purchase/setup process with BT / YouView, and havent had any problems with the YouView side of things.  But then BT doesnt do the YouView side, so its no compliment to BT to say that YouView works well.  What I've experienced issues with to date is the usability and functionality of the BT Vision player ondemand stuff.