What's BT Customer Service Like?

I'm currently with Plusnet and find the customer service pretty decent and the forums helpful. What are user's opinions of BT customer service?

So far I've only had minor experience with staff and community forums - staff OK, community forums dire - were my initial impressions.

In the 10 weeks I have been with BT (also an ex Plusnet customer).

I haven't used the online chat , but will do if my weekend drop in speed does not improve.

The BT Community forums are a complete and utter waste of time. I asked the same question, about my speed drop here and on the Community forum, I got an answer here and still waiting on the forum. The BT customer forums have a small team of Mods who are useless and seem to have a script to work from!

The Community mods just remove negative posts and ban users posting negative comments. They went through a stage of moving negative posts into the Lounge but the description is "This is the place for off topic chitchat on subjects other than BT service problems" lol

The so-called gurus just trot out the usual canned excuses rather like sea-lions performing tricks for rewards of fish.

Used live chat a few times - no issues.

When g.inp got added to my cabinet - they didn't have a clue what was going on (as with most ISP). But a quick search on this forum sorted it.

I think they're great - not cheap - and now have phone/bb/tv with them.

So how do you deal with problems when the BT staff are probably going to be script driven(foreign call centres?) and the community forums are mostly useless?

In the 8 years that I have been using BT I have probably had to contact the help facilities a dozen times or so, I have found them to have been very polite and helpful and on the occasion when they could not help they have passed the problem on to someone who could and who solved my problem quickly.
So speaking as I find my experience with their customer service was professional and very helpful. I have no complaints very satisfied with BT.

I was dreading using BT CS after hearing horror stories, however I've had to contact them twice since joining, and each time was dealt with by someone in a UK call centre, and the enquiry was sorted out quickly (although had to rebuff a bit of upsell).

I have had dealing with BT CS on three occasions since I move my broadband to them and all three times were resolved satisfactorily.

I have to call the retentions centre as a starting point to try and get any problems resolved
0800 587 7216

In one year service has been good and contact has been easy, uk based and efficient.

One problem based on incorrect pair alteration at the cabinet was solved quickly

Broadband speed has been at top of ADSL range throughout

I switched bb 7 years ago because the service and customer support were so poor. But that was 7 years ago so I won't bore you with that out of date story. My most recent contact was 18 months ago when my phone line went down (phone was still with BT). I used my mobile to report the fault only to have the voice recognition software at the other end tell me I was not a BT customer and put the phone down on me! In desperation I waited for accounts to open up, they don't work 24*7. The guy there was VERY helpful, noted everything and assured me I would not have to repeat myself when he passed me over to tech support. He passed me over, phone rang, and rang. When it was answered I had to answer all of the dumb questions and I got fobbed off.

I left shortly afterwards. I am never going back to BT.

John

I called billing yesterday on 150. The guy in India put me on hold twice then asked me to call back in 4 hours because their systems weren't working.

Who do the support desk people call when their support systems are not working?

TalkTalk Business Broadband Customer Service .

BT are great as long as you don't need them!

I have just had a new HH5 router because my old one failed. I was promised delivery on the next day when I reported it but it has taken over a week, 5 phone calls and 4 orders to actually get one here. I have waited in virtually every day for a router that was promised but never sent.

So top marks for giving me a new router for free after 15 months and zero points for the administrative chaos that took place in getting it here.

I would also say that the quality of the call centre people that I talked to varied enormously.

I used BT until about 1 year ago when I migrated to Plusnet.
I found customer service just about OK. I found some of the support staff very hard to understand even though I am used to working with Indians.
Similar with the forums, OK but not as many people making useful comments as on Plusnet.

BT Cloud was the shining low spot of what they offered; it might have improved now but was truly terrible then.

The only time that I've ever used them, I went via their Rep on this site:- BT_Care (who you will notice is very often under "Who's Online").

I then listed my problems onto the TBB Forums page, but then completed the online Form (http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4950), which was linked to the information published here!

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

The only time that I've ever used them, I went via their Rep on this site:- BT_Care (who you will notice is very often under "Who's Online").

I then listed my problems onto the TBB Forums page, but then completed the online Form (http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4950), which was linked to the information published here!

How quickly did BT sort out your list of problems to your satisfaction?

In reply to a post by Apprentice:

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

The only time that I've ever used them, I went via their Rep on this site:- BT_Care (who you will notice is very often under "Who's Online").

I then listed my problems onto the TBB Forums page, but then completed the online Form (http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4950), which was linked to the information published here!

How quickly did BT sort out your list of problems to your satisfaction?

They worked quite well.

The important thing was that an individual appeared to "take-ownership" of the problem & followed through (all to do with transfer of ISP to BT), without having to continually go via a "far-flung" Call-Centre.

On that basis, I could not fault them!

For general problems BT customer services are fine, if you get a UK based centre then happy days.
If you have a bigger problem then it hits the fan by the truck load...... This week I had to deal with tier 1 and tier 2 advisor's in India and I'm honestly surprised I didn't jump off my roof in desperation trying to very concisely and clearly explain the problem.
Repeating the problem a few times [often more] to the same person and then only having to go through the exact same process with tier 2.
At least now they use there own geographical first names now instead of 'Steve' & 'Mary'
Although there is a effort dare I say eagerness to resolve the problems, that is clear, there is still the language barrier!

BT community support forum are not Indian based [as far as i know] and when it comes down to major issues like congestion are only drip fed information from higher up the CoC therefore making them seem useless but in reality are extremely helpful.
There are few 'expert' [non staff] muppets on the BT Community forum that would benefit from a sharp kick in the nuts and only seem to post to get a higher post count, very inflammatory and most definitely NOT wanted when you are having a problem......I would also add not all the experts on there need the kick only a minority..

So OK-ish for simple stuff [to a point] but a nightmare for serious problems...

BT are like every other provider, if its working brilliant but you can really judge a company with its customer support and comments made by their customers.

Look at trust pilot for a BT review, most people will either say a provider or service is good or bad with a few short sentences, for BT the reviews read like short stories..... gulp!

You get what you pay for... [Even Zen have issues, everyone does]

After six years, I quit BT for Plusnet last year after my BB was down for a fortnight and upload speed reduced by 50% for three months. I found much better help on TBB than from India. Plusnet CS isn't much better but it's cheaper. My advice would be to stay where you are.

In reply to a post by johnjburness:

The only time that I've ever used them, I went via their Rep on this site:- BT_Care (who you will notice is very often under "Who's Online").

I then listed my problems onto the TBB Forums page, but then completed the online Form (http://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/4950), which was linked to the information published here!

Thanks I might try that if I don't get the promised return call from CS by early next week.

I've had very few problems with the quality of their product, but their CS leaves a lot to be desired. I left BT years ago because of it, Zen and Be were miles ahead of them, and I might end up paying extra just to go back to Zen after having spoke to CS over the past couple of days.

Talk about a lesson in learning to control your frustration. The first guy hung up on me after I'd requested a call-back about a billing query. When he phoned he knew that but then told me he couldn't help me and I'd need to speak to billing, when I asked him why he had called me back then, he hung up.

I used the online chat instead of calling them up again, and still nothing has been resolved.

Well I've signed up for Infinity 1 with the £10/month+£125 Sainsburys+£157 TopCashBack deal. Hell of a time getting an online order through, dealing with long call wait times is bad enough, dealing with Indian support a nightmare. Spent most of the day talking to India trying to place an order, going round in circles and losing sanity - solved by the first UK guy I dealt with in a few minutes.

Swore I'd always select a ISP with UK support ...things can only get better, I hope.

Moved to BT in my old flat last July as it was a long line and I foolishly thought I would have more luck getting any issues resolved. I was so wrong. Their call centre staff are ridiculous and the training they get must be appalling. The only way I got any problem resolved was by emailing the CEO. After hours someone from the CEO office would call and get the ball rolling, I explained my issues with support and the lady explained they're aware the training is inadequate but they will review it in the future.

Normally when things are bad on the phone the forum team get things right. Not at BT, here they have gurus who all seemed to be paid off by BT, singing their praises even though there are blatant failures. Mods removing posts that negatively talk about BT and eventually when they do help they appear rude and frustrated.

When they announced their price rise I jumped ship to the post office, which whilst arguably the support is worse at least I didn't pay a premium for it like I did with BT.

Now on Plusnet as I moved to an exchange where they offer their lower price plans and more
Importantly fibre which the post office doesn't.

Edited by deleted (Sun 02-Aug-15 08:11:16)

Post deleted by AkAnic

Trustpilot show some suppliers in a different light and one star over hundreds of reviews, to the support they get here.
https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.plus.net

Just when you'd might think things can't get any worse :-

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/bt.com

and a surprise too :-

https://uk.trustpilot.com/review/www.talktalk.co.uk

I wonder what the difference in reviewers is that makes such a huge contrast between Thinkbroadband and Trustpilot results?
I suspect the Trustpilot ones are more likely to be polluted by paid reviews; though there is no reason TTB ones shouldn't be too, maybe just my bias.
Even so, I would not expect such a huge difference.

In reference to www.pimlicoplumbers.com/blog/trustpilot-contract-cancelled:

Trustpilot - Contract Cancelled!!
Charlie Mullins Tuesday 26th August 2014

Disappointed doesn't even get close to the way I feel about the way review website Trustpilot treats its paying customers. The problem is simple - they have rules and they doesn't abide by them!

Trustpilot says that anything that looks like a false review, of which there is loads of evidence to to suggest that at least 25% of all reviews posted on websites, are fakes, posted by people who are not even customers! It's this kind of fraud that Trustpilot is supposed to have a system to stamp out, but my experience is the complete opposite.

And because Trustpilot is littered with fake and fraudulent reviews, my staff are personally responsible for forcing the site to take down more than 80 of them posted about one company alone, I have no choice but to leave. Clearly there is no trust to be had on Trustpilot, and if my customers can't trust what's written there, I don't want to be part of it in any way.

I have instructed my customer services manager to stop paying Trustpilot, effective immediately, and we are demanding that all mention of Pimlico Plumbers be removed from the site, as I don't want to be associated with this company for a moment longer. And I would advise all other reputable businesses, who are currently paying money to Trustpilot for its so-called service, to follow me out the door.

And anyone that follows me could do a lot worse than join Feefo - The Global Feedback Engine - for an experience that guarantees that every review that ever sees the light of day is 100% verified. None of your - we'll track down the fraudulent reviews when we see them . . . . these guys do the checks before they act.

Bit of a no-brainer really, but like I always say - common sense, it ain't that common!

Surely the payments are just to be on the site, not payment to the site for hookey reviews. Also The state of Plusnet and all the so called awards, along with poor reviews on every other site, not just Trustpilot, are at odds with the support they get here. The payment reasoning would mean TBB are charging for glowing reviews.

Edited by professor973 (Sun 02-Aug-15 19:03:55)

The problem is that Trustpilot claims to remove false reviews, but they don't. There are other claims that people are paid to write false reviews here http://www.theguardian.com/money/2013/jan/26/fake-re...

I quite believe it. there are deliberate negative reviews on all sites. But if you look at the negative Plusnet reviews elsewhere, on sites such as Ispreview, all the awards don't make sense, as reviews good or bad should even out much more than they do. As for removing negative reviews, I don't actually see any evidence of it at Trustpilot, with PN averaging just one star over hundreds of reviews as they do elsehere. If they knocked out what could be false negatives, the Plusnet area would be empty - Stick to the bushel of salt we all use.

I don't agree that reviews should even out, the Plusnet forums here were almost brought to a standstill during the "bad boy pipe" saga. Small numbers of disgruntled customers tend to make as much noise as possible - I'd suggest it is actually quite hard to get content customers to write supportive reviews since they probably take their service for granted.

Care to explain what you mean by 'TBB are charging for glowing reviews'?

Care to explain what you mean by 'TBB are charging for glowing reviews'?

I don't think professor973 was suggesting any misconduct by TBB. The statement was very much wrapped in an IF, and an IF we mostly agree to be false.

I think:
1 - It more likely that people are being paid to put false reviews on Trustpilot than that they are being paid to put false reviews on TBB.
2 - It more much likely that Trustpilot is accepting payment to permit some dubious practices than that TBB is accepting payment to permit some dubious practices.
3 - Most TBB users will agree with my thoughts on 1 and 2.

However, strongly as we may believe in the integrity of TBB, we cannot 100% prove it.

I still think it odd that even with the possible bias of false reviews and given the different samples of reviewers that there is such a huge difference between Trustpilot and TBB results.

Edited by StephenTodd (Mon 03-Aug-15 10:01:12)

If someone does believe an ISP is gaming the rating system then we can spend an extra couple of days looking for the evidence of this on top of our usual checks, just in case someone has come up with a system that is slipping through every month.

In reply to a post by StephenTodd:

1 - It more likely that people are being paid to put false reviews on Trustpilot than that they are being paid to put false reviews on TBB.

Payment isn't really necessary.

1) Post a review

2) Every few days, delete cookies, get another IP address and post another review in a slightly different writing style.

The website has no way to distinguish people this way.

Edited by Oliver341 (Mon 03-Aug-15 14:32:23)

I'm not sure who is supposed to be paying whom to post false reviews.

There was a lot of stink recently about TripAdviser and such being flooded with false reviews of hotels, the criticising reviewers being paid by the hotels' competitors who also had the same reviewers post good ones about their hotel.

I agree payment isn't necessary to post false reviews.
However, somebody has got to have a reason to bother, and the most likely reasons for that are either that the reviewer is an interested party (owner, competitor), or a third party paid by an interested party. I was assuming the paid third party reason; I should have included direct false reviews as well.

False reviews for whatever reason may well be a red herring. I'd still like to know any other views on why the big difference between TTB reviews and Trustpilot ones.

tbb ratings - email sent out to registered users so will target a much wider mixture of users perhaps, hence also the large volume of ratings which looks to be a lot larger than trust pilot have

If you look, I said the payment reasoning did NOT hold water in my view, with regard to negative Plusnet reviews on Trustpilot. I said that if it did, that would imply the same for glowing reviews, as paid for bogus reviews cannot be deemed to work for bad, but not good reviews. That said, I still stand by my long held view of bias toward Plusnet here, let alone all the awards that I think a joke, while they are one star on every other site. But we are all entitled to our opinions I suppose, but I am sure Plusnet have got no better since I left a few years ago. Had they addressed phone wait times, taking a week to answer a ticket, customer service mis-information, or if the new call centre had helped, they could have tempted me back.

It's not just Trustpilot. Plusnet get poor ratings everywhere else but here. Many are finding the 'Awards' as ludicrous as me. http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/reviews/244/review...

So what awards have we given PlusNet in 2015?

And am till confused over the payment reasoning thing since I quote your post "The payment reasoning would mean TBB are charging for glowing reviews."

TBB does NOT charge for reviews full stop, so perhaps you should make that clear in your post.

NOTE: To anyone reading this, only posting to make it clear that thinkbroadband does NOT charge for listings or reviews. How everyone votes with regards to their ISP is up to them.

Edited by MrSaffron (Mon 03-Aug-15 19:40:47)

I will try to simplify this for you Andrew. I did not state or accuse TBB of taking payments for good reviews. You will see I stated that payments for reviews did not hold water on the site in question as there were bad reviews elsewhere. I did say though, that those that thought that payment worked for negative reviews, would have to accept the same worked for positive reviews. Just stating logic, while standing by my long held view of the disproportionate love for PN here. Did at one time think the referrals bought good reviews, but that should work elsewhere. Can only assume TBB involved in awards somewhere.

Plusnet get poor ratings everywhere else but here.

Plusnet have also had fairly recent good reviews in Which and PCPro.
Of course, quite a few things have changed at Plusnet in the very recent past, so it is not clear whether the next refresh of these reviews will show the same.

The June rating here showed a slight drop. July will be interesting.

BT is also dropping.

So now which awards do you think we may have been involved in then?

I don't support Prof's belief of TBB being biased to PlusNet but I am assuming the rewards he refers to are the ISPA awards (not from 2015) and I understand you are on the judging panel for those? However, I also know that ISPs are only considered if they are nominated and that for most of the general public PlusNet are just fine as an ISP.

TBB I think gets a wide range of people using the speed test and rating their ISP. I know that when I do ratings if the ISP has done nothing wrong in that month then I rate them well - it is a rating of that months performance. For PlusNet, if someone has had no reason to contact them because the connection is working then why wouldn't they be given top marks.

Most users wouldn't notice things like contention and if they did they would have no idea why or where - I know none of my family have a clue.

In which case plusnet won nothing in 2015, so not sure what poster is attempting to suggest

I agree but I suspect he is looking further back - PlusNet did win a fair few times I believe in previous years. I don't believe all the conspiracy theories but I do have a good idea as to what they are being based on. And it isn't as if Prof hasn't made similar comments a number of times in the past.

All I was trying to convey in this instance, was that IF payments for reviews did exist and work, they could not be a one way street. Logically, they would be used to gain positive reviews as well as negative. I have stated that many times and that I was not accusing TBB of anything. But some nerds don't let go.

You also said

Just stating logic, while standing by my long held view of the disproportionate love for PN here.

Can only assume TBB involved in awards somewhere.

Those were the items I was commenting on.

In reply to a post by ian72:

You also said

Just stating logic, while standing by my long held view of the disproportionate love for PN here.

Can only assume TBB involved in awards somewhere.

Those were the items I was commenting on.

Fair enough, though I have seen how sites protect any company they run ads for, where referral fees are involved, just like those I get as an Amazon associate. Try rubbishing an audio product for example on one of the magazine sites - Tell the truth and get banned ... rather like come ISP forums.

Of course you are not implying that this happens here are you?

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Of course you are not implying that this happens here are you?

You gonna keep prodding till I do?

Are you or are you not?

Yes or No

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Are you or are you not?

Yes or No

Andrew, who the hell do you think you are, demanding an answer as if I am a child. I am fed up with your childish biased behaviour. I am also fed up with virtually EVERYTHING I post being deliberately rubbished and distorted. ALL THIS, because I stated that I DID NOT THINK payments for negative reviews held water, and that anyone that did would have to except it applied to positive reviews also. I HAVE STATED MANY TIMES I was NOT accusing TBB, but STILL you continue deliberately targeting me. The usual power trip to try and ban me again I suppose. Well go ahead, you are truly pathetic.

Edited by professor973 (Tue 04-Aug-15 14:51:44)

So a simple no would have sufficed.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

So a simple no would have sufficed.

So would a simple shut up.

Can I ask you two a question [@MrSaffron & @professor973]..............?

Are you married to each other?

You are constantly bi-atching which is quite amusing at times......

LOL

In reply to a post by professor973:

I HAVE STATED MANY TIMES I was NOT accusing TBB,

Sorry but, whilst I never thought that you were accusing TBB, I did think that your comment phraseology meant that it could be read that way!

It also appeared to me that you spent a very long time justifying your phraseology, rather than make a simple & direct rebuttal!

Perhaps more to the point is what Plusnet and TalkTalk referral agent, Pulse8, and their various fans have to do with BT Broadband customer service and their forum?

Edited by deleted (Tue 04-Aug-15 21:57:24)

In reply to a post by partial:

Perhaps more to the point is what Plusnet and TalkTalk referral agent, Pulse8, and their various fans have to do with BT Broadband customer service and their forum?

Hmmmm.

As Pulse8 hasn't been mentioned in this thread, what exactly is your agenda?

In reply to a post by partial:

Perhaps more to the point is what Plusnet and TalkTalk referral agent, Pulse8, and their various fans have to do with BT Broadband customer service and their forum?

EH?

Normally when things are bad on the phone the forum team get things right. Not at BT, here they have gurus who all seemed to be paid off by BT, singing their praises even though there are blatant failures. Mods removing posts that negatively talk about BT and eventually when they do help they appear rude and frustrated.

I think that you have hit the nail right on the head, this has been my experience!

I take it as professor973 was banned?

I think you will find from experience that Partial is anything but impartial when all things BT are considered

Just sayin'

In reply to a post by partial:

Perhaps more to the point is what Plusnet and TalkTalk referral agent, Pulse8, and their various fans have to do with BT Broadband customer service and their forum?

In reply to a post by kijoma:

I think you will find from experience that Partial is anything but impartial when all things BT are considered

Just sayin'

Thanks for dropping by, Bill.

Glad to see that you can spend time trolling me whilst ignoring punters having the temerity to bother you in your own forum months ago

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/wirelessbb/t/440145...

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/wirelessbb/t/440641...

Edited by deleted (Tue 25-Aug-15 21:27:10)

In reply to a post by Spud2003:

I'm currently with Plusnet and find the customer service pretty decent and the forums helpful. What are user's opinions of BT customer service?

Absolutely amazing service!

My line is pretty temperamental so I have used them many times. Usually faulty line cards, or a squirrel eating the overhead lines.

Quick tweet to @btcare and they call me within ten minutes. They certainly do not us any scripts, based in NI and have that nice soothing tone to their voice. They always call back when they say they will, everything is done quickly and effectively. They will get technical with you if need be.

Recently had a problem, squirrels again! I was out for the day and BT called, spotted a problem with my line. They called to arrange BTO to come and repair my line, BTO came next day.

Only problem I have had is with BTO. My line was supposedly repaired, but was still left with no dialtone or broadband. BTO denied there was a problem and it must be within my own circuits. I climbed the telegraph pole and plugged in my line tester and it was dead. Two weeks later BTO repaired the line, they never wired my line in at the exchange, infinitive resistance. Same problem is LLU though, same people in the exchange wiring people up.

Is that a residential connection or a business one?

Going back to the original question, I think OK on the whole for non-technical issues.

For technical stuff, I was directed to their call centre in India. Had a problem with wifi (not with ethernet from the hub) but they insisted on wasting time checking the line etc. They finally confirmed (as I knew at the start) that the hub wifi was broken, and then BT charged my £40 for a new hub, as they said I wasn't 'under contract' despite paying them > £50/month for phone and ADSL.

Having said that, in the past when I had speed issues they sent not 1 but 3 OpenReach engineers (one was a trainee) out to sort out the problem and rewire the line inside my home, for free, and fixed the problem.

So it's a bit hit and miss, but on the whole I would say their service is OK - Virgin service was much more problematic at a previous address, but it rarely went wrong.

http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/bt/t/4139076-re-is-...

Would seem to have been a residential customer in July 2012

In reply to a post by Spud2003:

I'm currently with Plusnet and find the customer service pretty decent and the forums helpful. What are user's opinions of BT customer service?

So far I've only had minor experience with staff and community forums - staff OK, community forums dire - were my initial impressions.

absolutely shocking if you wont to hold a decent professional conversation but if you wont to talk politics and just ramble in a meaningless fashion then could be your perfect choice