Frustrated eSaver customer with 1571 activation problem - please help!

[stm]

I had some issues with my online billing so spoke to someone on live chat who sorted it out for me, no problem so far.

I then asked if he could sort out 1571 that I tried to activate 2 weeks ago but was still not available.  He said he couldn't and I should phone 154.  They couldn't help eSaver customers.  Over the last couple of hours I have phoned 154, 152, 0330 123 0102 (which is the eSaver number!) and had 2 call backs from 154. All said they couldn't help eSaver customers and I need to speak to live chat.

This is my discussion with live chat from 5 minutes ago...

 Live Chat: Hi, my name is xxxx. I am reviewing your question, please wait a moment
 Live Chat: Hi, I am very sorry about the problem you are having. What was the telephone number concerned?
 Me: Hi xxxx. Phone number is nnnnn nnnnnn. I requested activation of 1571 a couple of weeks ago but it is not on yet. I spoke to one of your colleagues on live chat earlier who said I needed to phone 154 but they cannot deal with eSaver accounts so told me to come back here.
 Live Chat: Thanks, I will have a look for you. Just a moment please.
 Live Chat: I have checked and I am very sorry, but you do not have the 1571 facility provided on the line and I cannot see any orders from here to get the facility provided. You would need to speak to the business sales department on 0800 800 152 and they will raise an order to get 1571 provided on the line for you. Unfortunately they are not on live chat, so I am unable to pass you through to them.
 Me: I have already spoken to 152 and they do not deal with eSaver customers. I have spoken to 3 or 4 different people on various numbers today and none of them can deal with eSaver customers. Where do I go now?
 Live Chat: Just a moment please and we will check with the sales department for you.
 Live Chat: Thanks for waiting, we have checked with the sales department and you would need to speak to the esaver department on 0330 123 0102 and they will arrange for this for you. Anything else I can do to help from here?
 Me: I have already spoken to that team as well - they told me to phone 152 the first time and when I went back to them a second time they told me I would need to go through live chat!
 Live Chat: I am really sorry, but the sales department are not on live chat and we have spoken them and they advised that you would need to ring the 0330 123 0102 number to get this provided. I am very sorry, but we cannot deal with this from here as we deal with faults.All I can suggest is to go back to the sales department and advise that you have spoken to the 0330 123 0102 number and they told you to go back to them on the 152 number and get them to advise who would deal with this for you.
 Me: I'm not phoning them again as they cannot help me, they have told me that twice so far. I will raise it on the business forum as this seems to be a regular problem for eSaver customers. I know this is not your fault. It is very frustrating though! Thank you for your help

I appreciate that eSaver is dealt with differently and I am happy to use live chat but where do I go now to get this sorted as it appears no-one can help?

[Tracey]

Hi stm,

Apologies for the problems that you are having with your account.

Unfortunately this is not something that we can assist you with on the forum.

What I would suggest is to fill out the request form. This is for esaver customers.

Thanks

Tracey

BT Business Forum Moderator

[stm]

Thank you.  I have sent a message via form.

[stm]

I did have this ticked as a solution but I have unticked it as I now have another problem with 1571 that I cannot find any help for.

I have set up 1571 message forwarding to email via my profile.  I had to approve over the phone but for weeks now it has been showing as pending approval even though I have approved it.

No problem, I thought, I'll just use the same web form again and they will sort it out.  Unfortunately this was their answer...

"Thank you for your e-mail.

We request you to contact our After Sales Team directly on 0800400400 as they would be able to help you regarding your query.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us again via e-mail.

Thank you for contacting BT"

I tried the number but as before was bounced all over the place to departments who couldn't help.

Now I realise the cost of an e-Saver account is lower as the support is web based but there doesn't even seem to be that!  The BT website is one of the worst I have seen and navigating it is near impossible.  And most BT employees you speak to on the phone haven't even heard of e-Saver.

Please can admin advise who I can contact to get this sorted?

[JohnE]

There is a helpdesk number specifically for e-Saver customers, 0330 123 0102.

[stm]

John - thanks for your reply.

Unfortunately on every occassion I have phoned that number the person I end up speaking to has no knowledge of eSaver accounts or says they cannot help and that I need to use the live chat function - who then in turn tell me I need to phone that number!  On most occassions, once navigating the menu system on that number, it has put me through to a regular, non-eSaver team.  The phone menu system appears to be as badly designed as the website.

I have since sent further messages in reply to the email I received (mentioned above) in a desperate attempt to be heard and finally seemed to have found someone willing to help.  They have raised a fault for me so I will see how this pans out.

The eSaver package seems to have been thrown together as what appeared to be a good idea on paper but has been left to flounder since implementation.  I see it is no longer offered as a service anymore - does that spell even more gloom for those of us already on it?

[stm]

OK, this is turning into some sort of sick joke at my expense!

Turns out the fault the lady via email had said she raised was never raised and the fault number I was given was not recognised by live chat.

So the person on live chat, after me having to explain what voicemail forwarding to email actually was, raised a real fault for me.  Great....I thought!!

Some time later I get a call back from someone saying my line is not set up correctly for the forwarding so they would put me through to someone who can explain further.  So I get put through and the operator says something like I have 'pin 10' and I need 'pin 20' (or something along those lines).  No explanation as to what 'pin-whatever' means but says they will put me through to someone who can change it for me.

So what happens next...?  I'm put through to a queuing system of goodness knows which department.  15 minutes of holding later I hang up.

Fast forward to today and I have some time to try and pick this up again.  So I just logged in to view the fault and to my surprise the fault is listed as follows....

"Fault reported: Can't make calls, Incoming calls OK. Now theres no dial tone" !!!!

WHAT?!?  Where did that come from??  That was never the problem!!!

Come on BT - this is ridiculous.  There is no ownership by anyone in BT it seems over issues.  Operators don't seem to know about or understand half the services that are available and everybody just wants to pass the buck to the next department who know just as little as them.  If I ran my business like this I wouldn't have any customers left!

So I'm still stuck with the same problem and no idea who to contact to resolve it!

[JohnE]

I am very sorry about the frustrating experience.  The fact is, Live Chat support can't help with teelphone line issues for eSaver accounts.  You will need to continue to use the web form, since that seems to work.

If you send me a PM, outlining the current state of affairs and your reference number, I may be able to chase this up for you.  Click on my icon and you'll see the personal message link on the right, down the page.

[stm]

Thanks for your reply John.

I appreciate that live chat cannot help with telephone issues, but for them to raise a fault with issues that I didn't even raise is somewhat odd.  Its not like they could have mis-heard me - I typed the actual issue out in the chat session so surely all they had to do was copy and paste it!

The web form is even worse.  When I raised the issue with them the initial answer I received was...

"We request you to contact our After Sales Team directly on 0800400400 as they would be able to help you regarding your query."

I went along with this and phoned the number but of course had the same experiences as I have already documented above.  Pushing the web form team again I eventually received this response...

"Sorry about this, I will report a fault for you now, and someone will be in touch soon."

The fault number I was given is not recognised and I never heard anything back from anyone following that messsage.

I will PM you now with the details and fault numbers.  Many thanks.

[JohnE]

the Live chat team didn't raise any fault on your behalf, STM, although I note that the team you reached using the web form seem to do so.  You need to chase this issue with them.  I note that they said you would be contacted, did they give you a timescale for this?  I assume that they agreed a contact method and details with you?