Tuesday 28 August 2007

I really, really hate BT

So, remember that post I made about the joke of a company that go by the name of BT? Well, that letter has gone unanswered, the problems have gone unfixed and they're still sending us bills - now with late payment charges tacked on the end!

Very, very unhappy, as the below might hopefully manage to communicate to them...

--

[My address, reference numbers etc]

Dear Sir/Madam,

I wrote to yourselves on the 27th of July (attached) and am still yet to receive a reply. I am absolutely appalled by the lack of customer service that runs rampant through every part of your organisation.

I am receiving many bills from yourself, and have absolutely no way of paying them. I do not mean that I have not the means or money to do so, merely that every part of your system is laughable at best.

The phone automation asks me to enter in my phone number, and then some debit card details. Upon doing so, I am told that ‘The issue number was not recognized, please enter your issue number, or press hash if you do not have one’. Anything I press from then on results in the message being repeated with no possible way out of the infinite loop. I have tried this with multiple valid credit and debits cards to no avail.

Upon trying your online service I receive the following error, which flies in the face of all computer application design laws by giving a ridiculously vague and unhelpful error message:


It reads 'We're sorry, an error has occurred. We don't have any more information at this time. Please try again later or call us.'

When trying to ring your helpdesk I merely get passed around from department to department, never to the right destination, until someone decides to hang up on me instead of (or sometimes, after) picking up the phone. This has happened to me over ten times now, and I am extremely displeased by the behaviour of your phone operators.

I ask that someone British born and more senior than the average operative I have been dealing with (or, trying to) look into this immediately. I shall not be amused if my line is cut off due to non-payment.

Yours,



Ian MacGillivray

Leave a comment, or read the 15 comments so far.

Danny Wheeler said...

"I am absolutely appalled by the lack of customer service that runs rampant through every part of your organisation."

......if only i could word my angry letters like that....damn my below average english skillz.

Ina said...

You could probably have a go in Spanish though, you should know enough swear words by now ;)

cathy said...

Perhaps it would be worth contacting Ofcom - they may be able to get you an answer

Ina said...

Alas, have to wait three months for BT to sort it out themselves before OfTel (not OfCom) will look into it...

Anonymous said...

it is ofcom (oftel) is no more and they wont do jack to help they just regulate the telecoms market they dont take complainsts. trust me i used to work for bt for 24 years were not all bad u know , i aggree there are bad this but what company dosent have its downsides. people need to respect the people they are talking to they are representing a company yes but the way that some of them are spoken to is totally un-called for.

Ina said...

If you take a look at the first letter I sent them - http://tiedyeina.blogspot.com/2007/07/i-hate-bt.html - you'll notice I was lovely throughout to the individual reading it, whilst highly critical of the company as an institution.

Also, it makes me smile to see that 24 years working for BT never taught you the basics for English. Starts to explain a lot... :)

Anonymous said...

Write to Offcom it won't do you much good, where in this boat because of them.

Anonymous said...

bad english lol, maby thats because im dislexic and have trouble, so i would keep your small minded petty comments to yourself.

Ina said...

I was unaware dyslexia caused people to type 'u' instead of 'you' and forget to use proper capitalisation.

I hate people, especially those who actually are dyslexic, who think that the condition is a license not to bother using proper English.

Getting letters and words mixed around when writing, and having trouble reading are legitimiate symptoms, 'txt spk' is not.

Well done for only responding to my 'small minded petty comment' too, nice to see you had absolutely no response to my reply to your point.

Anonymous said...

please not i will report this site to my relevant collegues and BT security as publically humiliating or being derogetory to any company is illegal under the consumer trades act 1997. therefore this site is unlawful. i suggest u make it private or make it members only as it would then be private.

oh and feel free to pick and my spelling and grammer, i couldnt give a S**t.

Ina said...

Look forward to hearing from them.

Please be sure to direct them to the statement from the CEO of BT stating that the service I received was 'awful' before they come knocking on my door though :)

Anonymous said...

What country do you live in? What the hell are BT going to do- Knock on his door and whisk him off in a black van?

BT are in the sh*t atm, every BT Retail / Broadband Frontline advisor knows that. Theres large grumblings from alot of employees due to managements incompentence and OpenReachs inability to well, anything!!!!

One ticked off BT Employee!

Anonymous said...

Will said...
Just off the phone from BT trying to order BT Vision. This is because the ordering website is being worked on (and therefore is offline).

I had to wait in a queue for ages, with this annoying woman saying "You can order online @ bt.com/btvision." Ahhhhhh I can't you stupid woman!!!!!!!!!

She then had the cheek to tell me that they were very busy and that was why I was in a queue! No BT, you just need more workers!

I know someone who once spent his whole morning on the phone to BT waiting in queues, being transferred from one person to the other (that is really annoying because you have to start again with each person "Name----" "Phone No----" etc.), being cut off and having that dreaded woman saying:

"For x press 1, for y press 2"

BT's customer service is abysmal, and they should be told by the government to buck their ideas.

There could also be a poll in the papers- "Do you hate BT?"

Then again, the actual technicians are always pleasant (to me, are they to everyone else?).

Good luck with all of your experiences!

Will

Anonymous said...

An update!

When I ordered BT Vision 2 days ago, the man said that he would phone the confirmation through 2 days later.

Did I receive a call today.............no- of course not.

I phone BT, and guess what "the order has been cancelled sir."
No explanation, no reason. I have to order again! I was on the phone for one hour! The re-ordering took twice as long because "the other man did not cancel it properly."

Arrrrr!!!!!!!!!! That implies that BT tried to cancel my order- and they were not going to phone me were they?

Anyway, I have successfully re-ordered, and my service should be delivered in 2 weeks.

Lets see.....

(Rant Over)

Anonymous said...

I work for BT now and the service is apalling. I often put in complaints to management due to the majority of employees not having a clue with what they are doing, then as a result I get called to disciplinary meetings for telling the customers the truth when thay are getting a better deal elsewhere.

The place is a sham and due to this they are in breech of the contract you have signed up on (it states somewhere that contact with BT is easy and professional which is obviously isnt).

Get in touch with Ofcom, they'll sort it in a second.

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