We are a funeral service, having 3 landlines, 1 mobile and 2 broadbands with BT, and using featureline to transfer calls to the mobile when out of hours (Essential for bereaved families to contact us during the evening/night).
On 30th June 2014 we received an unsolicited call from BT announcing they were updating their systems and needed to confirm our lines. As we operate from 3 sites BT has each listed under a part name of our full company name. I told the person I was speaking to that she would need to speak to the director and she agreed to phone back when she was next in work which was Thursday 3rd July.
Having diverted the phones as usual on Thursday 3rd we arrived in work on Friday 4th to find the featureline had been removed and the phones no longer diverted. No idea from what time this had happened but obviously in our business not an ideal situation for bereaved families trying to contact us during the night.
Spent literally ALL day trying to get problem resolved. Told we had cancelled our existing contract for phone and broadband at one of our premises and a new contract was in place - even though we had never requested this or indeed authorised anything! Told featurelines take 24 WORKING hours to put on so it would be Wednesday before restored! Had to repeat whole story each time as we were constantly put through to another department or cut off and had to ring back. Promised an investigation into mis-selling would be opened but nothing could be done about diverting the lines. Pointed out that this wasn't just about a business - it is people having to deal with a death of a close family member and not being able to contact the funeral director. Finally at 7pm someone with a little more sense - and compassion obviously! - decided that an emergency divert could be put on fafter all.
On Wednesday 9th July the featureline was restored but the fax was still not working (broadband has worked throughout, even though broadband and fax work on one line - not used for phone; purely fax and broadband). Throughout we had received letters telling us about our 'new' order; that an engineer would be coming to install our'new' line; a bill and direct debit mandate for our 'new' order and even a 'new' entry in the BT Directory - all for a line and number that we already had!!
On Tuesday 15th July we received a final demand for the broadband that we had allegedly cancelled. Further phone calls revealed we had asked for a new contract - at £4/month more than our existing one! - and as such the existing one had been cancelled. A helpful young man opened an investigation which couldl take up to two weeks, promised someone from the offline team would be in touch, and gave us a reference number - hope at last of sorting things out!!
False hope as it turned out! On Tuesday 29th July got another letter saying pay in 10 days or services will be cut. Phone calls again - investigation had been closed (without anyone contacting us) as had been raised with wrong person! Went through whole story again - it would be investigated again - 7-10 days again - and guess what? No-one has been in touch, nothing is resolved and the 'debt' has now been turned over to a debt collection agency!!
Frustrated, fed up, and ready to leave BT for good! Can ANYONE out there suggest a way forward? Can't face any moe phone calls and retelling the story to yet another faceless person at a call centre who promises to investigate and then apparently does nothing! aaaaarrrggghhhhh!!!
