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?

[crossbill]

Hi John  you are right, Chris is working hard on our behalf.  However his power is limited in the face of a disfunctional corporate structure where divisions are obviously pitted against one another.  The latest is another engineer is coming out tomorrow to see if he can fix the problem.  This is attempt number 8!  Costing me £s in terms of my time, my IT directors time and disruption to our business. 

Does anyone in the senior management read this and have the strength of personality or inteligence to realise they have created a disfunctional monster - I only wish it was extinct - and do something about it?

Chris - you seem like a good guy.  Do you want to come and work for us in an organisation that loves its customers and put them first??  You are wasted on BT.

[crossbill]

I CANNOT BELIEVE THIS IS HAPPENING!!!

Promise number 8 was - "an engineer will be coming to rectify the problem between 8am and 1pm today.  He will definitely make sure that he stays until it is fixed."

Just heard that they have closed off the job without doing anything.  No idea why.  Another week has passed with this shower of clowns.

I am now going to get Ian Livingston's number if it is the last thing I do.

[crossbill]

Have found [it is against the Forum Guidelines to post personal details in the Forum] emailed him and received a reply.  Or was it his PA since all he did was forward it to someone in a call centre?  If I was [it is against the Forum Guidelines to post personal details in the Forum] I would worry about my leadership of this did not make a difference!

Now being told that an engineer is coming this afternoon.  What chance of that on a sunny Friday afternoon?

[crossbill]

I have now been allocated to the "High level escalation team". Also had a call from another supervisor.

My summary of the situation - BT broadband think there is a 'tie pair' in the exchange.  BT wholesale get asked to sort it and every time they do so they reckon the 'order is open' so they do nothing.  We have been stuck in the tie pair/order open loop for 2.5 weeks. Clowns.

For those out there who want it the number for High Level Escalation is [phone number removed by moderators].  Hope that is useful!!

[crossbill]

I have no idea if anyone out there is interested in our tale of woe.  Nonetheless I record it here in the (probably vain) hope that it is one way to humiliate this organisation into pulling its corporate finger out.  

The reality is that the employees of this company (at every level) have their arms around a wonderful pension scheme guaranteed by us, the tax payers, combined with a monopoly on the 'last mile', so they can afford to treat their customers like complete dirt.  It will never catch up with the individuals in their lives and who cares when BT ends up like all organisations who who neglect their customers, and disappears into an abyss.  Its a tragedy.  

Last I heard from the 'escalations team' before I left the office was that someone was going to fix it tonight.  Can hardly contain my excitement at the prospect of going into the office Monday to see it the green disco light is still flashing as it has been for 2.5 weeks +.  Anyone like to give me odds it is still hitting the funky rythm of a stuffed broadband?

[Seraphsailor]

Crossbill:

surprisingly easy to find (on-line) the phone numbers and emails for the BT Executive team. I've contacted Sir Michael Rake in the past and subsequently received callbacks from the Executive Level Complaints team. Useful to the point of getting an agreement that I could/can cancel my business contract, if i so wish, with no cancellation charges any time I like. Not the result I really wanted - my solution was to move! which got me away from the appalling comms service that  was receiving.

You're right about BT being disfunctional - probably due to when Sir Peter Bonfield was in charge. He's done exactly the same to ICL (now Fujitsu); departments not talking to each other. each one a business/profit centre in it's own right, without wanting (or understanding) the bigger picture.

Will you be on-line Monday morning???? no chance 😞

[JohnE]

Crossbill, I am very glad to hear from the technical helpdesk that your Broadband service is now up and running.  As I'm sure you are aware, you'll need to stay connected continuously for 10 days so that your line can settle to it's maximum stable rate.

[crossbill]

Broadband finally working after 2 weeks and 5 days and countless hours spent.  

To those who were helpful - notably Chris - many thanks.  

This should not be cause for celebration at BT however.  I have seen a dis-functional organisation at first hand.  It has cost everyone involved financially and emotionally.  It should not take an email appeal to the CEO to get a result and I can honestly say that I am totally convinced that if we had not done that, we would still be a victim of the BT infighting.  If I was Ian Livingston I would get my senior people together in a room and charge them with sorting this.

PS The joke is that an engineer from BT Openreach called this morning (after it was all working) to say he was trying to fix the fault on our line but could not find a problem.  I begged him not to touch anything!!