More BT Incompetance, failure to provide a service.

[MartinH]

I have been without my BT business line for a few weeks now. I will try and explain how this has come to be.

I knew my previous business premises had sold and had lined up a new premises 50 metres away, But until contracts had been signed etc and I got a completion date I was not ready to change my phone line to the new premises. I returned from holiday on 3rd September and whilst collecting my luggage I received the call to say I had to be out of the old premises on the 5th. It wasnt a major problem as the new owners were happy for me to still have access until the phone line was transferred to the new building. I could retrieve answerphone messages and use the broadband etc.

So on the 4th Sept I contacted BT and gave them all the details they needed, at this point I asked for a divert to be put in place so I would get the calls on my mobile. The person I spoke to said he would do so and contact me re the move etc. So I got on with moving ton's of equipment etc thinking that the process of sorting the phone/broadband had begun. I had been told it would take approx 10 days. Still having access to the old place for a week or so this wasnt a problem. After a week or so I called BT again to find out what was happening and was told they had no record at all of my request to move premises (or the call divert) So I was back to square one! I asked for them to start all over and was told they now couldnt has my bill was now due for payment and they couldnt do it until it was paid. Unfortunately I had just that week spent a small fortune re the move and was up to my limit and hadnt had time to go out collecting money owed to me.  A week or so later I paid the bills and asked for the line/broadband to be moved to the new premises. By now I no longer had access to the old premises so knew I would be without a line for approx 10 days. 

Eventually I recieved emails (loads of them)from BT re ending the service at the old property and starting it at the new one. When I ordered the service I asked for 2 things  The first being the number remaining the same and the second being I needed a new broadband router as the old property had since been broken into and that (amongst other things) had been stolen. I was told this wouldnt be a problem.

I recieved an email in the early hours of the 30th September saying my service had started etc. And yet the person I had spoken to said an engineer would have to be at the property?  I borrowed a router of a neighbour and sure enough the broadband was working. However when testing the number its a totally different one to the one we have had for the last 40 odd years. Later that morning an engineer did call and I asked him re the router and the number. He said I would have to make yet another call to BT for them to send a router and that the number would swap to the origanal one later that day (It didnt)  So another 2 days have gone by where my customers are unable to contact me! I phoned BT this afternoon and spoke to someone who repeatedly put me on hold as he tried to "speak to the right person in sales)  After 40 minutes of listening to piped music with him occasionally coming back on line to say he was still trying he finally gave up and informed me that "nobody he had spoken to wanted to take ownership of the problem" and that now everone had left (it was now 6pm) He said to try again in the morning!!!!

I estimate I have spent well over 4 hours on the phone to BT over the last few weeks simply to move premises. Is it really asking too much to expect that they do what they say they will?  A small business moving 50 metres with one phone line, wanting to retain the number its always had and to have a new router? So in the middle of working really long days trying to catch up after all the disruption of the move I can now look forward to (at best) at least another long wait on the line to BT going through all the same stuff yet again. It really is shocking! I have to laugh after looking through the section on the BT website re moving premises.....where they give you tips how to do it "efficently"  Yeah right!