I am told that I am not alone: I have Business Broadband on top of a residential BT line for a home office.
Trying to speak with BT when (every few months) something goes wrong with my billing, because of the residential number, and their annoying "So tell me, in just a few words, what would you.." on every line, even the ones which
used to go directly to a relevant department in the UK, I rarely get through to someone who can actually fix it.
I have had problems for years starting when BT separated into Wholesale and Retail, and introduced a billing and
accounts system to match.
Again, this quarter, I receive a bill for: BB Unlimited, as expected, usual price I expect. 1 x 5 static IP addresses as I
expect, and then.. 4 more "5 x static ip address" - which is technically impossible.
Earlier in the year, I had BOTH 1 x single static ip address, and 5 x static ip addresses suddenly appear on my bill.
For anyone half-technical, you know that this is also impossible both because BT provide their 1's and 5's from different
network segments, (so can't be assigned together on one circuit) AND, you can't arbitrarily add-on random IP addresses, as IPv4 space is becoming precious, and CIDR routing determines where you slice-up network blocks;
Not arbitrary "i want this one here, and one there".
Which comes to my absolute furious frustration: Why the h-ll can't someone responsible for billing management get these bloody contradictory and overlapping services entered into something that prevents them from being applied
on purpose, or, as in my case, arbitrarily by your billing system. Speaking to someone in the Options team, she immediately commented "Hmmn. Yes, on April 11, 4 more blocks of 5 static ip addresses were applied to your account. I see that's not right." -How the ---- did this happen? What random "error detection" algorithm goes into a
customer account (over 8 times in my case, once cancelling the account, and sending me a red bill when hundreds
in credit according to billing) and arbitrarily decides "Ah HA! they have 5 static ips? WELL! Lets's just change that
to FIVE blocks of 5 static ip addresses! Yes! that will suck in a bit more revenue before they DON'T notice" -But I do
notice; About every ____ing billing cycle.
The last time this happened, when a technical support guy decided that "no, you can't have a block of five, they
are £5 each" and applied both a singe static and 5, the only way BT could correct the anomaly was to completely
cancel the account (########), and start me on a new one (#######). Not funnily, this means making changes to domain name records with registrars, and then, lovely - the old block I'm assigned goes dead because the same "magic algorithm" decides that I shouldn't have that range, as it's still tagged to the old account, and connects my router to an "unpaid account jail" -which after hours on the phone, ONE fine young chap noticed the problem. No LED indication would have shown-up the error either, just hours of farting around.
Now, here I am again. I have BB Unlimited and 5 static addresses. The network is great, and BT's world-wide
backhaul and peering is right up there, and ultimately reliable. But, I am now trying to again convince someone
in billing "No, because I have a block of 5 static addresses, I cannot have this FIVE times!" And they cannot comment
on this because they are "billers" not "optioners" and I must then speak to the Options team to hear the same as I
have just explained. All sorted out, a double-sized bill comes out, and... because I've been here so many times
before, I call accounts in Glasgow. What do you know. Nothing's changed. The next bill is going to be some £268
for unlimited (not vdsl) broadband and my FIVE times 5 static ip address packages.
Dealing wih what should be a simple fixed bill and account is now becoming a full two days of stress and work
every 6 months.
Why? I would call myself a mature adult, but more and more, expletives are coming to mind about this utterly stupid
recurring problem.
Anyone else have the arbitrary services addition problem? The Network is great, and we use our own hardware
without a hitch, but BT's billing thief is really, really, causing me to look at string-telephones and moving to the woods
soon.
I suppose I would find a bill tacked to a tree however, from BT. Two Cans, 5 x 5 strings for inter connection. The
amount will be taken from your woodpile in advance. Have a nice day. Don't call us if you value the little sanity
you have left.
Thank you for reading.
Edited to remove account numbers
