The Shambles That Is BT!

I have had 5 years of superb service from O2, with pretty good speeds, but last month I was tempted by a good offer of BT Infinity 2. I wish I hadn't bothered.

I ordered Infinity 2 back in February. On 27 Feb I spent over 4 hours on the phone being bounced backwards and forwards between BT and my current provider, O2. BT insisted that the MAC was incorrect. O2 checked it and found that it was exactly how BT Openreach had given it to them, and that it showed as valid on Openreaches' checker. Eventually, another department in BT accepted my MAC and booked my installation date as between 8am and 1 pm today, 15 March.

Nothing had happened by mid morning today, so I phoned BT, who assured me that the installer would be here before 1pm. Nothing happened. At 2pm I phoned BT again and spent well over an hour on the phone, being passed round 6 different people/departments, variously English and Indian. The second said it was showing as completed. Nobody knew what was going on. Eventually the last person said that it would have to be re-booked, but couldn't offer an explanation or an installation date.

I am beginning to wish that I had taken heed of the multiple forum warnings about BT and kept well clear of them, but the offer was attractive and I thought the 'owner' of FTTC should be OK. How wrong I was! It's a wonder that anybody ever manages to get connected!

I am now sitting waiting to see when they come back to me, but I have told them that if it isn't installed by next Monday night I am cancelling my order. I wish that O2 had a FTTC offering (but I guess they soon will as Sky)

If you are able to cancel, Plusnet is fine.

A few things go wrong, but the "Digital care Team" here and on the Community Forums generally get them sorted.

Even first-line isn't bad. Just a bit hampered by poor back-office systems that the DCT can get round and they can't.

In reply to a post by johnb2008:

I thought the 'owner' of FTTC should be OK.

Common misconception driven by the fact Openreach has a big "BT" logo - they are separate companies in all but name. So your issue with "BT" for internet service is actually BT retail, and they have no advantage over anyone else in dealing with Openreach.

Yes, they are awful, I was lucky, but if I was looking today I'd either go PlusNet or AAISP's Home:1 service and try and keep my usage down.

In reply to a post by RobertoS:

If you are able to cancel, Plusnet is fine.

A few things go wrong, but the "Digital care Team" here and on the Community Forums generally get them sorted.

Even first-line isn't bad. Just a bit hampered by poor back-office systems that the DCT can get round and they can't.

I second this I was quite surprised on how efficient the Digital Care Team are.

I have had a few queries before install date (18th March) and all have been dealt with superbly and quickly, I even missed the 6 months h/f price deal by 2 days (I'd signed up for the 3 months h/f price) mentioned it on the forums and was offered my initial payment back (£29.97) as in compensation for the 3 months I had missed out on (£30) to save me the hassle of having to cancel and reorder.

Top notch service hopefully I can avoid the phones and get all my problems dealt with by the DCT.

Roll on the 18th hopefully Openreach turn up and i get my estimate speed (if not more ) and there internet service is as good as there customer service.

Hi Johnb2008,

Sorry to hear about all the problems you have had with your order for BT Infinity. I would like to take a look at this for you. Please could you send me in your details using the link below?

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4950

Thanks

Paddy

Further to my previous post, the situation has now got even worse! The last person that I spoke to last Friday (15th) said that they had to re-book the engineer (?) appointment. I told them that the only day I could be available next week is Monday: I cannot manage any other day. So they booked it for FRIDAY. Doh.........................

Now I find that they have been billing me for the new service, which still isn't connected, since 6 March. How can they be so incompetent?

In reply to a post by johnb2008:

I have told them that if it isn't installed by next Monday night I am cancelling my order.

If I was told that on Friday 15 I would assume you meant "by Mon 25". So I would expect next Friday to be OK.

Edited by RobertoS (Sun 17-Mar-13 23:11:28)

Following on from these problems, my case has been picked up by the online BT Care Team, from this forum, and I am grateful to them for the way they have handled my case since then.

My installation was re-booked for last Tues (26 March), between 1 and 6pm. The installation guy phoned me in the morning to ask if he could come in 30 mins, which he did, and the installation was completed before lunchtime without any further problems. He commented that several of his recent installation jobs turned out to have already been installed, and that the BT order system seems to have been screwed up recently!

The care team say that they have:
Credited me with the incorrect rental charge from before my installation date
Credited the wrongly applied £30 'Cease Charge'
Credited £10 for the missed appointment
Applied for my Sainsburys voucher

So my problems should now be sorted.

My download speed is now around 63Mb/s, some 10% higher than BT's estimate, so I am pleased with this.

It must be frustrating for the Care Team to spend all day rescuing people from sinking in the cesspit of BT's telephone 'help lines'!

Very frustrating to have to go through, but let's hope all goes smoothly from now on .