A Donkey on the Edge

I wouldn't touch BT with a barge pole even if my life depended on it. You call BT technical help and get put through to India call Centre who don't undestand BT's own terminology they use on there own website. I trie explaining when I try to log into my webmail it reports my account is supspended, I get asked by the call centre what supended means ? Thye told me it was a billing problem, I call the billing department, they tell me there no billing problem, they tell me to call technical, you can work out what happens next, (run Circles lol). The techhie starts diagnosing my router for a webmail problem despite me telling her the internet is fine. lol

Gave up on the email problem and BT

I work for BT and even i am disgusted by them. They have the monopoly and basically don't give a f*ck about their customers. I get customers screaming at me and crying down the phone with problem after problem day after day, but BT don't give us, the call agents, the resources or authorisation to help them. They don't care if we help them, they just want to grab their money. So frustrating!! Basically BT are money grabbing bloodsuckers and i wouldn't touch them with a 10 ft barge pole!! Oh... and while the bosses are rolling in it from all the money they drain from people for their shit service, we're on little more than minimum wage! Cunts.

Shelley, thanks for posting your comment. Sooner or later BT will have to shift into the modern world but I don't see it happening soon. One of the most depressing things I experience daily is being lied to by marketing and let down by big business. We are in the matrix and the direct debit is the hose they use to suck a little life from us everyday:-(

Hang in there, I hope you've got some like-minded folk at work to share this with!

Best,
Dug

Just like to say that i had a problem with my phone, found absolutely no help at all from bt absolute crap service complete and utter rubbish.I will just use a mobile from now on

Haha listen to all you sad people, get back to your sad lives!!! O and Shelly, get a new job then!

in my opinion BT are absolutely SHITE.
like a previous comment about indian call centers i waited 1.5 hrs for someone to pick up, then after 10 mins they cut you off, absolute crap, it is right that they just do not give a flying fcuk about anyone appart from their pocket. oh and haha or wot ever you call your self i think there is a village missing an idiot and that idiot is you!!!!!!

I work for BT also and I say that we should cut them some slack.

BT no longer has the monopoly due to the restrictions that OFCOM has enforced on us. OK i do admit it was a bad thing for BT to outsource to India but think of the call packages they are offering e.g free evening and weekend calls for a year, all you need to do is take it out for 18 months then your only paying full price for the next 6 months which is only 3.95 increase.

Also BT are truthful with customers, informing them how much they need to pay like connection charges unlike Talk Talk and Sky which have hidden charges.

I think it's about time that we, the general public cut them some slack

(Dug adds: shame this person chose to not leave his email. It would be great to hear from BT but I guess this will have to do. Anon, if you're reading this, please do tell us who you are and what you do at BT.

I signed up for a BT line 2 months ago and I am still waiting for a line!! I am also unable to contact any person that can help, everyone transfers me to phone number 08000223089 which I have tried to call for 50 hours (leave phone ringing and noone answers, about 1 hour later it disconnects automatically!!) If I call to a diff. number within BT, they are not helful and they say they cannot access the details of my new 'GB' account because it is in a new dabatase...

I agree with Shelley they are bloodsuckers and provide 0 service. The only letters I have got are reminders to pay (which I have despite my problem not been resolved at all! And noone answering the phone to even discuss a refund!)...

It has been error after error and noone to appeal to. I am now having to spend my Saturday writing a complaint letter to BT , Oftel and whatever Ombudsman I can find...

First, they never sent me a letter with my phone number nor account number. Second, when the phone started working, no broadband provider did recognise it as a valid number . Third, when I called BT and told them about the problem, they were completely useless. After many hours on the phone, I found out BT though I had number A when I really had number B inside my house, apparently there was a 'cross-line'.
After raising many 'faults', they transferred the problem to Open Reach engineers which spam my mobile with messages telling me they would fix the problem by a certain date, never actually fixing it. In the last 2 weeks I have called day after day with 0 success.

I have never in my life experienced anything so bad as this despite living in many countries. It is not even a 3rd world service. It is a pure joke, and not funny at all if it happens to you!

'Haha' was having a laugh. Not sure he would quite laugh if it happened to him.

I believe every word Shelley said (which knows BT from within). Big bosses spending our money while we are frustrated paying to BT which monopolises the lines and cocks up regularly. The only other choice is cable, which I used to have and now wish I had never cancelled!

Maybe I decide to go 100% mobile to avoid dealing with BT in the future.

Well Dug,

I work in the debt management department, I'm the one who cuts off your line for not paying your bills and I am also the one that extends time for customers to pay their bills and deal with direct debits.

Another thing I meant to add was that BT has the best Customer Service out of the Telecommunications call centres.

Jamie, thanks for your email and your comments.

I would agree with you that if you balance call centre experiences across the industry BT does fare well.

Maybe the problem is that everyone has higher expections of BT...

I've been trying to get a BT line installed, but been on hold for most of the day with still no luck.

I need BT, cause it's the only way I can get broadband at home and can't understand how this can happen in a "free market". I am forced to use their services, but they're so incompetent that I can't even sign up.

3.5 hours in total on the phone and still can't get connected. They should save their money on advertising and invest it in more people at call centres perhaps...

I love this one: Phone 0800 587 4687 to be given an 0845 600 7020 to sort your query?!?

Carlos - did you sort out your problem?

I have the identical problem from trying to get my home number set up correctly, to trying to get my broadband package delievered and on, and ringing that useless 08000223089 number endlessly.

I just don't know what to do.

Jenny

I would like to chime in that i've also had absolutely awful problems with BT!!!

A total of 2 months and so so soooooooooo many hours on the phone getting transferred to hundreds of different departments time and time again where no one can help because I too have a 'GB' account!!!

Getting cut off, hundreds of promises of calls back and not received one, waiting for hours to try and get through to BT openreach (lol Ed.) with no answer. I think it really is seriously making me ill, I'm a grown man and it was nearly making me cry with frustration!!! Making me get so worked up and anxious that I got bad headaches, tense all over and feeling ill!

And it still hasn't been resolved and there doesn't seem to be anything i can do about it!!

Hello to all.
I know it's no help to anyone, but just thought I'd join in the rant.
I have just signed up to BT to get a phone line in my new house. First of all I called to enquire about the existance of a line into the property, a simple check that any monkey at BT can do. However, I was told that it would take 7 days for someone to call me back with the answer. This call never came. I therefore called them back 2 weeks later (on hold for 30 minutes) and demanded an answer to my query. Low and behold, an answer was given within 2 minutes while on the phone.

I was told that there would be no problem and no charge and given my new number. The following day I received a text from BT asking me to call this 0800 022 3089 number about my order. I have been trying to call this number for the last 2 days without getting through.

As I don't actually have a land line, I have to use my mobile, which charges a lot to call a "free"-phone number.

All this just to get broadband. Broadband, I might add, that I never had any intention of getting from BT.

It's a scandal. Please join me in supporting the petition at the address below.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NakedADSL/

POWER TO THE PEOPLE!!

Looked at comments and felt compelled to add my own!

Like many, I to had to phone BT regarding my hub. After being passed from pillar to post and send half way round the world my router still isn't working properly after 4 months of trying to get it fixed I've given up!!

Feel quite traumatised by the whole thing!

At this very moment in time I am ringing that bloody number 0800 022 3089.

THERE IS NOBODY THERE.....

I am a Donkey on the Edge who has been waiting for a telephone number - new line for nearly a month. And I picked today to stop smoking!!!!!

Interesting reading, sad reading actually, since I have the exact same problem.

Just moved into a new place, then the task of connecting to BT to order a line. Been a BT customer since 2001, on and off for telephone, since 2003 for broadband, and 2005 for Wifi. Forced to have cable for 2006 due to the place I lived, but kept the wifi contracts for my wife and I.

Now the present: after approx 4 1/2 hours worth of calls between my wife and I to connect using our mobile phones to sign up for the telephone, nothing arrived. Phoning them back got put through to accounts (held on for 3 hours). Phoned back again two days later (5 1/2 weeks since our first try) to finally get the reason, they need to do a credit check because we are new customers. Paid directly a deposit of GBP50 regardless the fact that I have a great credit record and am not a NEW customer to BT.

Line was ordered and engineer promised.

Thankfully after just over 6 weeks from start engineer did arrive, and line was installed. Waited another 3 days before I ordered Option 3 broadband and got through surprisingly quickly due to using the Microsoft XBox BT partnership number (tip) and was told the activation will be 48 to 72 hours, and kit will arrive in 5 to 7 days.

8 days later nothing, no live broadband and no kit (tested using my own kit). Checked order status online using my (radical idea) account login on BT.com. Am told there is no broadband order. Phoned BT. Held on at 945pm for 37 minutes. Got told another department was in control of the number (???) and that I should call 08000223089 the next day (tomorrow) despite having an order number for them to track. They are not able and insist I speak to this department. I ask what department is this. India tells me its General Billing & Enquiries.

Am seeing from this post that this will be a useless exercise as I am back to the start again!

Help anyone!

Becki, I feel your pain!

I placed my landline order online, a month ago on 2th July.

Until today, I got nothing.

No body ever send me an email, a letter or a phone call. I tried to contact BT on 0800 800 150. If I am lucky, the line will get through within 45 mins, and then when I give them my ref. number of the order, I will be transfered to the bloody number 0800 022 3089, then that's the end of the service, no one ever picked up the phone.

F*ck BT service!!!

Was reading through and thought I'd add to the rant too.

I've just moved into a new pad and got phone active, was active the next day but trying to get broadband from BT is a nightmare, they told me to ring 0800 022 3089 ... on hold for at least 1 hour ... I'm most certain there is no one home at that number.

I'm sure someone out there knows something in BT.

Grrr...

On hold to 0800 0223089 as I write:

"We are very bust at the moment and apologise for the delay. Your call will be answered as soon as possible."

From what I gather from the posts here, it's more likely that Atlantis will rise from the waves than someone picking up the phone. It is hugely frustrating.

My problem relates to extortionate and entirely ungrounded service charges that I am trying to get a refund for. My only option might be to write an official complaint letter to BT and to contact Oftel and 'whatever ombudsman' as Carlos suggested but who's got time for that? What I did have time for was to sign the following petition:

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/NakedADSL/

Please do sign up as well and maybe together we can break their monopoly and curb their arrogance!

And as to your question, Dug, yes they are.

Still on hold.

Well after reading all your problems with BT I am now going to give you another one to add to the Shit List of BT, before I start I would like to point out that I work for Microsoft and know inside out about PCs.

Well after being with 56K for a long time I saw the offer for BT BB so there I went and made the FREE CALL and and no long wait.

A week later and my router and CD were sent to me.

So, after putting it all up step by step I clicked on the BB logo and hoped to get online. A few hours later and the problems started. Very slow internet I phoned up and after waiting 2 hours I got on to a non-English man who asked me to tell him the problem I told him and him not having a clue I was passed on to another woman who was this time English and again didn't know what the problem was...

So after weeks of phoning and e/mailing I was told that my line could not cope with the speed of the BB EVEN THO THEY DID A LINE CHECK BEFORE I BOUGHT BB. I was then told my PC must be slow, me then pointing out i have a PC well over £2.000 they then told me I am too far away from the base where my BB comes from, even tho the base is under 10 mins away from me, the uni across the road from me have 2.000 PC'S and all have BT BB and no problems what so ever so how can I be 2 far away?

Then, after all this I was told my router was old, a week later I was sent a new one then there I was back to stage one with the same problems.

So 1 YEAR on and no internet and still waiting for someone to tell me whats wrong with my internet.

Oh, and one more thing this is how much BT don't care about us OR the queen! I have also got the COURT on to them and with 2 fingers they have said nothing back, So from my point of view BT are SHIT SHIT SHIT AND MORE SHIT, no matter who works for them NO ONE KNOWS what they are talking about.

Yes they still are. :(

I have been waiting almost a month so far to get a new phone-line installed.

The property has never had a line to it (new build)... They keep changing how long they say it will take every time I phone in, so who knows how long it will really take to get a line.

I don't understand how a monopoly (I have no choice but them to get a line put in) is allowed to say stuff like "15-21 days for someone to call you to schedule an install."

But again, that was just the last time I got through after hours in a queue via a mobile phone...the time before it was 48 hours.

Hi to all u guys who have been fucked around by the cunts in this fascist telecom that is BT (Bastard Telecom)

I think people should switch to mobile internet devices, like the voda/tmobile usb hubs, give them the chance to develop, or the cable networks so BT gets fucked.

It will take time and money (which BT sucks from us through its connection fuck line). The usb hubs work as good and u can use it anywhere. i have just purchased a usb hub after pissing about for a total of 3 days 6hrs/d on the 0800/0845 no, but since I have no fucking landline...

calls have been on my mobile..... SOB!

So my solution was fuck BT and so I purchased a USB vodaphone broadband, i now can do all my work and get my calls from my mobile...

2 fingers to the British Tittycom!

Good luck u poor souls who still strive to achieve a BT line!

Hi All

I am the latest victim of BT's 0800 022 3089

I ordered a new line on the 2nd of August and after HOURS of waiting, being cut-off, and generally being passed from one call centre to another I have decided to call upon the 1000's, 10,000s, 100,000s of others out there to get together and force BT to get their act together!

I cannot believe that waiting for an hour plus, and still not getting a resolution, for "CUSTOMER SERVICE" at BT has not become an issue that Watchdog etc aren't looking at.

I'll be back tomorrow with another post. But how about getting a co-ordinated effort together to SHAME BT for the dismal "customer support"?

Dr David John Evans

Hi All,

I'm going for a quick post here - firstly, I have had exactly the same problems as many of you with the 0800 0223089 number - positively awful.

Luckily, I got through to someone helpful on the new line provide sales number who chased up my order and even phoned me back and left an answerphone message on my mobile - he did put me on hold for a long time, so I gave up (I think there is a real disconnect between their CRM and engineer systems perhaps...). So give them a go! 0808 100 7722

Final suggestion - complain to Ofcom, if enough people do it, they will investigate!:

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/complain/landline/service/contact/?itemid=316123

good luck
Chris

Right I'm currently on call to that horrid number, 0800 022 3089.... I actually got through... First I was asked if My name was Mr Terrance.. secondly I found out I'm on the "Wrong record" and need to be put through to a DIFFERENT customer services..

Ok I'm back at the endless ringing so I can type in peace...

This all started 3 months ago, My mother passed away, I'm a 19 year old College student who has just left that all behind and is struggling with grants to pay for a funeral that i had the most basic as I can't afford jack right now.

So i call up BT to get stuff put in my name, keeping EVERYTHING as it was, IE.. I went to keep my self with bleeding Pipex as they actually answer their phones and I can still have sky broad band whilst with them!! no dealing with BT!!

Cut a long story short I got Slammed. Being in a state of distress I hadn't a clue what to do, I've been in education my entire life, my mum insisted i not get a job and concentrate on my studies, it's what I did.

I'm now looking at a magical bill for £250, 170 of that is for "Amendments to a previous bill"...
This is my first god damned bill!

*Still on hold by the by...*

So i've signed that petition, but now I am still sitting here, terrified I'm going to have to pay this £250 which I don't have, Currently I'm budgeted to the last peny... This doesn't come in.

*Answer to phone call!*

£250 cut of charge it seems. Considering I was slammed by BT whilst in a state of distress if they don't sort this Pipex have told me to call Offcom.

If anyone can offer my advice, I need it, I'm close to breaking down here, this is too much to handle and the wrong time to do it!

My e-mail is nightmare.morgana@gmail.com

A very screwed around distressed person.
Philly.

Just an Update...

After all that, I was told "We will put you through to some one who can help you..." On hold for around 10 minutes...

Lines goes totally bloody dead... Hung on for a while whilst I listened to the nothingness of the phone *you never know...* Whilst I filled in an Offcom complaint form.