How do I extract customer service from BT

[crossbill]

We placed an order with BT on 25 Feb for business broadband and phone.  After a month, and having pushed back the date by a week, an engineer arrived.  Then 3 more came and eventually we got a box on the wall. That was a week ago.  Then the fun started. Although we have phone line they cannot appear to make the broadband work.  My colleagues and I have spent  minimum of 6 hours on the phone being passed from department to department (BT Business, Openreach, BT Wholesale, Connections Team, the Broadband team, the Line Fault Team are just some of them).  No one will take owner ship of the problem and each time they say it will be fixed by midnight the next day it does not happen.  We are a service business.  So are BT (LOL)!

Anyone tips about how we get some service out of this bunch?  Who can we escalate to?

[Mervyn]

Welcome to the club! If you have only been trying to get help since February, then I'm afraid you have a long learning curve ahead of you. I've been trying since October 2009 to get my connection to work correctly, and have yet to find a way to get anyone to help.

My guess is you have signed a 12 or 24 month contract with BT for Broadband, so there will be no need for them to do anything much now. The cooling off period will have expired, so you can't cancel. I tried to do this, but the 10 days cooling off starts on the day you order the service, not the day they install it. As they took 14 days to connect me, I had no right to cancel when I discovered it didn't work properly.

At least an engineer came, so you are doing well!

[JohnE]

Crossbill, if you'd care to PM me some details, I'll look into this for you.  I'm sorry to hear that you seem to have had some difficulty with the provisioning process.

[wearefrank]

Crossbill, can't offer any tips because I'm suffering from the exact same problem as you. Can only hope that coming on here and making some noise might make someone at BT take note.

[bsmitheng]

we had a very different experience, but i do hope you took down names of people in departments you spoke to. i did have problems with the switch over but after contacting the person who sold us the deal it was sorted out pretty quickly. i am also a business and we switched our phone, broadband and got a second line installed and have to say that after the first blip it seemed ok. even now though if i cant get the response i need from helplines i go back to the guy who set it all up because the buck lands there, seemed to work for me.

[crossbill]

Hi John.  What info do you require?  Our phone number is [number removed by moderators for security purposes].  

The latest is the service was supposed to be working by midnight last night.  Still not working today so we have spent more time on the phone to Broadband Technical Help.  We are now being told that there is a problem with 'tie pairs' (whatever they are) in the exchange and earliest it will be fixed is next Monday.  If this is really the problem (it is the fourth excuse we have had), why was it not identified at the outset? Based on past experience we will be back on the phone on Monday to be told it is yet another several days off.  Almost impossible and expensive to run our business with wireless dongles which is what we are forced to do.

My impression is that your teams try manfully to work out the problem then fob us off with anything that comes to mind to get us off the phone sure in the knowledge that it is some other poor sucker who will take the call next time.

Anything you can do to give me confidence it will be sorted this time?

[owain]

Hi ,  My advice ... cancel if you can

We took bt business broadband a year ago and is still not working ...

[crossbill]

John - you clearly decided not to follow this up or (just like everyone else at BT) decided it fell into the too difficult box and ignored it.  What a shower!   For the avoidance of doubt we still do not have broadband.

[JohnE]

Crossbill, I am very sorry that you continue to have difficulty.  You seem to have a problem with the phone line.  I've PM'ed you, I will certainly look into the problem for you, be assured of that.

[JohnE]

owain - Hi and welcome to the forum, I'm sorry to read your BT Business Broadband isn't working, have you contacted the technical helpdesk about this?

If you wish, please PM me the reference numbers and I'll have a look over the case for you.