BT complaints

A question about : BT complaints

We've had an order for a new line ongoing since 31st March for a new block of flats. We, along with the rest of the block (including the developers who are waiting for a lift emergency phone) can get no satsifaction from BT who claim their contractors have not done the work, not finished the work, can't do the work etc etc.

We have now been given an estimated date for completion of 31st May (ie 2 months after ordering).

Now I know BT is a vast and faceless bureaucracy that doesn't care much about it's customers but how do I complain about this. When customer services refuse to put you through to anybody else, when there is no complaints department on the website, when there is no way of telling somehow just how wrong this all is, what is there left to do?

Has anybody else been in this position and how did you manage to not go insane?

Best answers:

• A few months ago, the CEO of BT (Ben Verwaayen) said, during an interview on BBC Breakfast, that he regularly received e-mails direct from customers and was happy to do so.
  I thought exactly what you just did when you read that first paragraph but made a note of the correct spelling of his name from the BBC caption, made the assumption that, if he was telling the truth, his e-mail address would be ben.verwaayen@bt.com, and entered his detail in my e-mail address book.
  Towards the end of March, I reached a 'too difficult to do' impasse with BT Broadband regarding something as ridiculous as registereing my e-mail address correctly on their systems and, having an intense dislike of having to spend 7.51p/minute calling their 0870 number to try to get them to correct an error entirely of their own making, decided to try the direct e-mail to the CEO approach.
  I sent the first e-mail to him at 10:38am on 27/3/06 and sent my final, "Many thanks for sorting that out for me" e-mail to the person to whom Mr. Verwaayan had delegated the task 27 hours 15 minutes later at 14:53 on 28/3/06. Being old-fashioned and reasonably courteous, I copied that final e-mail to Mr. Verwaayen.
  At 15:45 28/3/06, I received the below text in an e-mail direct from Mr. Verwaayen:
  Quote:
• many thanks for that. i'll give it a go!!
• You would think that should a job take that long there must be a reason why but it's obvious from speaking to customer services that they have no idea what is going on in the field. From the sub contractor lying about scaffolding impeding work to the sub contractor saying the cabling was finished and bt saying it wasn't to the complete utter chaos of BT customer services who don't have the authority to chase anything for you.
  If I hear the words "that department doesn't have a customer focus" or "I can send an email to them" once more I think I'll snap!
• There is no point complaining to BT..what would they do? listen to your complaint and then sweep it under the carpet and its another day in the office! I made a complaint to BT..and at the end of the day..nothing happens and I just wasted my time and energy complaining with no end result..! I think you should only complain if you get a result from all it. (e.g refund or discount or credit)..but that is just my opinion./.
• call customer services and ask to speak to your local provision of service unit (psu). These are the guys that deal directly with the engineering depts. the can give u an update. I think they recently changed the name of the psu to customer provision managment (CPM).. whats your postal town and i'll private you their number
• Well, I sent the email at 8.20am this morning and had a reply back from Ben at 8.30am. There's service. He's going to speak to his "highest level" customer services people.
  Least I have his attention now. Maybe something will get done.
• Next time you phone get the persons name (always makes you pay a bit more attention when you know a customer is going to come back and torture you ) ask them to go through the escalation procedure with you and then follow it. There's nowt worse than dealing with an angry customer who knows what they're talking about
• Well they explained they're going through a third party for the contract work. If they say they're waiting on them then theres not a lot they can do
• Thanks to Heinz's post we now have satisfaction. Our complaint is being dealt with personally by someone in BT and our line is now in. They are also dealing with the financial cost of us not having a phone and internet for 2 months (compensation for mobile calls and mobile internet).
  Just shows you, go to the top if you can get the name.
• Brief History first of all
  In May i moved into a flat and as I wanted to have Sky TV installed i had to have a phone line connected (already line etc in property so no connection charges).
  In November my tennancy was up and i decided to move out and back into my parents house. Originally i decided to take the phone service with me and have it installed as a 2nd line in my parents.
  Phoned BT and as it was classed as a full installation (i.e had to install cables etc) was told it would cost me Ј129.99 (something like that) which could be split over my next 4 bills and a deposit payable straight away. Gave my debit card details and arranged a time and date for the installation.
  After thinking about it I decided that i didn't require the phone line and phoned BT to cancel the installation. I asked if the payment would still be taken off my debit card and was told no (stupidly here i didn't take a name or reference).
  Upon checking my bank statement I discover that the debit card payment has been taken-no problem I think, phone BT and get refund.
  First spoke to BT on 15/11/2006 and was told that they couldn't see any record of it on their system and that they would look into it and get back to me in 5 working days. 2 weeks later still heard nothing so phone BT again, speak to somebody in an Indian call centre (no prejudices meant here but i can't understand what they say) who stated that they hadn't taken it and that i must have some other BT service (which i know for a fact i havent). After much arguements was finally put through to a supervisor who advised me to put in writing along with a copy of my bank statement showing the payment.
  This letter was sent on 4/12/2006. I chased them up by e-mail on 10/1/2007 as i had had no reply and was told that they had received it and were looking into it.
  Does anybody know how long these things usually take and am I entitled to any compensation due to a) inconvenience caused by taking the payment when they shouldn't have and b) the length of time it has taken them to sort out the matter?
  Apologies for the long post but trying to explain all in one go
• I wrote to BT regarding a broadband complaint. The letter got there on 5 January but I didn't receive any response.
  The address given on BT.com for complaints is to Mrs Jillian G Lewis, Customer Services Director, so I decided to email her. I selected the option to get a read receipt, i.e. it sends me an email back to say that it has been viewed/read.
  I received the read receipt on Sunday night and received a call from Dawn in customer services on Monday. Yesterday she called me again to explain what had happened. On my email I gave a deadline few days away before I would go to the ombudsman (OTELO).
  Are you saying that you don't have an order number for the new line or a letter?
• I received an order number etc and the order was cancelled as i wanted. My complaint is that fact that they took the deposit payment for the job that was cancelled when I was told they wouldn't (i didn't get the name and reference of the person who told me they would not take it) and they are now saying they can't find it on their system anywhere despite the reference numbers given
• Seems like he has changed his email address, does anyone have an updated one. Many thanks in advance.
• As far as i can see he hasnt changed it? Unless he's now blocking his address to people outside of the company?