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Broadband and phone line fiasco

Jeffiqec
Member

After  being significantly overcharged for my service for too long and never being able to get hold of anyone at BT without waiting for hours on hold as they are always "very Busy" or a live chat that never worked when I tried, I decided to move to Plusnet.  Almost as soon as I completed the paperwork, BT miraculously contacted me and were most keen to keep me with them.  They matched the price and all was well....or so I thought.  I cancelled my move to Plusnet that same day and sent BT the email confirmaiton received from Plusnet that I was no longer moving to them.  BT assured me that I would now have a seamless transition to the new reduced price contract on 29th July.  More fool me for believeing it was that simple. 

 

I was on holiday when the transfer was due to take place.  I returned on Monday 12th August to no phone or broadband.  This is at the busiest time of my year and trying to deal with issues post holiday. 

 

I made contact and was told its only a simple line fault and give it 24-48 hours.  This is after already being off since 29th July as my backup system tells me. 

 

Hours on the phone, numerous emails to BT and its still off!!!!

 

Since then, I find that BT incompetence has cost me my business number as it ws "lost" in the process and cannot be recovered and here we are at today 21st August still without broadband. 

 

The phone was restored but with a new number and I am expecting BT to pay all costs for updates to my publicity material, business cards and website to show the new number and to get it out to my Clients. 

 

I have lost time and money over this and even a 4g Dongle does not help as that when plugged in just shows me a very nice but totally useless purple flashing light on my Business Hub. 

 

My problem has been escalated up to the CEO complaints team but even they were unable to get Openreach to move faster last week and resolve this matter. 

 

As Openreach are working for BT I therefore assumed that BT have some power to make them move on things and prioritise.  It seems that openreach can do as they like and BT have to manage it.  Well this Client is very angry and very frustrated at the total and unadulterated incompetence that has resulted in my lack of service. 

 

BT I am ashamed to say that if it were not for the fact that its supposed to be up and running tomorrow I would be telling you exactly where to go and moving to a decent provider that can keep a BUSINESS line active and not lose a BUSINESS number that customers know.  

 

Somebody in BT will be getting a very big bill from me for lost time, lost business and costs associated with new publicity material followed by a debt collection agency if it is not paid within my terms and conditions.  

 

I have had enough of incompetent companies thinking its OK to let the end users business or life suffer because they cannot adequately resource, prioritise correctly or otherwise maintain the service they charge well over the odds for to exisiting customers whist giving all the best deals and discounts to attract new ones.   In my industry its 10 times easier to keep an exisiting customer than to attract a new one.  BT you would do well to remember that. 

 

So The moral is.......never try to leave BT or if you do , then run away as fast as you can taking your number with you. Do not be talked into staying with "better deals" as if you trust this incompetent bunch to sort things out, you will likely lose customers, business, time and money whilst you fight to get your service back via a system that is run to suit the company not the customer.

 

I am currently surviving and running my company on a mobile phone used as a hotspot for my laptop.  My design machinery cannot be used as it has no wifi and therefore the licencing managers for my software cannot access the internet and therefore locks me out.  There are other things the internet is vital to me for as all my correspondence, drawings and specifications are communicated electronically and the files are large, hence the fast fibre is essential.  I cannot transfer these documents over the mobile phone.  I have already had a data limit warning on my phone so if I get billed for that BT will have to cover that cost as well. 

 

The final insult was this...."Do you have internet at home that you can use"  Yes actually I do and its with Virgin....but, its not connected to my office machinery...see above.....I am paying for a service I do not have and why should I use my home data to get BT off the hook. 

 

I want my service back along with my original office number but I doubt that will happen. 

 

Somebody will have to pay and its not going to be me.

 

Very angry, very frustrated and lost all faith in BT which is sad as the service although overpriced was actually stable and did the job. 

 

I dont ask much......just a service that does what its supposed to, a provider who treats my company with respect and does not make me lose time and money whist their subsidiary calls the shots on "when they will rectify the problem"  In this day of everything being computerised, I am totally amazed that it takes so long to reinstate an active line.  The phone line in my office never actually lost the dial tone so it was connected to something.......it just could not dial out or in.  I conclude therfore that no work to cabinets required, no work in my office requred and no work in the exchange required.  Why therefore can it not be reactivated on whatever computer system drives all this.

 

Overall this is a total fiasco and completely incompetent handling of a simple task that is disruptiong my workflow beyond all reasonable levels.  As a one man consultancy, if I cant work, I dont get paid and then I dont eat!!!!  Its that simple. 

 

GET IT SORTED and make sure this never happens to anyone ever again.  I will not be letting this matter go and will be taking it up with the CEO and the Regulators as something serious needs to be done to ensure that service providers .....and the clue is in the name.........actually provide, maintain and operate the "service" as the customer expects.

 

JH (Very angry in the South west)

 

 

2 REPLIES 2

Jeffiqec
Member

And it just gets better!!!!

 

The dongle doesnt work as its not programmed with the serial of my router......they would have to send me out a new router and dongle together.  Why I ask......These things are software driven so surely there is a simple download or plugin that can be used to bind the two.  You cannot expect me to believe that all new routers have to come with uniquely programmed dongles. 

 

I suspect there is a routine that is run or a software switch but BT/Openreach are not prepared to release that information to the customer in order to get them back on service.

 

BT this is a sick joke and I will keep posting updates here until the matter is solved and compensated to my satisfaction as a warning to others who may be thinking of taking Business Services.

 

What is upsetting is that the service when it works is solid and reliable but god help you if something goes wrong or changes are made, everything then becomes a total and unadulterated nightmare.

 

 

Jeffiqec
Member

Another day lost and back to a bright orange light on the router as I took the dongle away.  That is now a phallic looking paperweight but little use for anything else!!  OK so they say the broadband could be back on up till midnight.  Well that to me sounds like its going to be back on a day later than they say it will as by the time its on, my office will be closed and more work time lost.

 

Today, the Vodafone mobile data ran out and I had to stop any work till I could find a way to access the net to "buy" more just to keep some work progressing.  More cost, more time wasted and still I cannot do all that I need to be doing.

 

I even tried a BT WIFI hotspot but its just too weak a signal from the office to give me anything more than what i used to get with a 56K MODEM.  Do you remember them.....they were state of the art when we had to wait 10minutes to download a small PDF or picture.  Forget streaming anything this was equal to a tap with a leaky washer.

 

That was in the days when softwere didnt "RUN" it kind of limped along like an asthmatic marathon runner.......slow and wheezy but got there eventually!  Not unlike the present repair service timescales from Openreach!

 

If it were not for my sense of humour I would probably have had a serious seziure by now and be lying in a hospital bed a shaking jibbering wreck with the words "Its OK BT will fix it" ringing in my head.  Good job they are not running the Health Service with Openreach as I think their mortality statistics would be high!!.  Heart attack.....no problem, we will be there in a week......if openreach say its OK.

 

Maybe running a bakery......no perhaps not.....orgainsing a Bunfight may pose a challenege.  A brewery.......hmm.....too polite to go there but make up your own punchlines!!

 

So BT.....Bring back Maureen Lipman as nobody seems to have an "Ology" in fixing things in a timely manner.

 

Be There, the new strapline............I just wish my service would BE THERE when I get into the office.

 

Not good........be warned.......no ......be afraid and run away.

 

 

JH