Want to bypass BT's Call Centre to complain?

national | consumer issues | opinion/analysis Wednesday October 24, 2007 11:41 by P'd off customer

go to the top, not to the queue.

I signed up to BT broadband over two months ago. Not only did the hook up the wrong house, but they billed me for it, insisted nothing wrong happened, and are dawdling over my
What's worse, their call centre takes ages to do anything, not surprising, given that one of their agents admitted to me that there were only 10 people working there the day I spoke to her, when the staffing level is supposed to be 60. Anyhow, sick of waiting for the always promised call back, I went hunting for the bigger fish.

I know I'm not the only one pi$$ed off at BT's 'service'
They've very careful not to put the corporate numbers on any of the consumer literature anymore, and to bamboozle us with automatic response machines, but sometimes that works against them.

If you ring the Dundrum office ( I had to make a few phone calls to get the number) on 01-2986510
an automatic program answers the phone.
Dial, 1 and when it asks for the name of the person to speak to say Emer Kennedy.
She's the head of BT Ireland's Consumer Division.
Leave her a long voice mail about your complaint.

I told her the gist of my complaint.
I ordered BT Broadband. Cos we already had a phone socket in the house, they decided, the only needed to work at the exchange, and not actually come to my house. I got a phone handset myself and wired it up.
They sent me a modem, and a letter saying I was now connected. There was no dial tone on the phone.
I phoned BT from someone else's house, and told them about this. They followed procedures, and did a remote test (they push a button and they get a red or green light response). They said, it's all working, so it must be the wiring in your house.
So, I rechecked the wiring, and tried every combination, but no thing changed. I asked for an engineer to come and fix it, and sent them an e-mail, in which I said, that we should not rule out the possibility that they hooked up the wrong house.
That was back in August.... i got the standard re-assuring e-mails... but still nothing happened, so I requested an engineer again, and they said "we already sent one to look at the exchange, and everything is fine. You'll have to get your own engineer to check your house wiring" . I said, I don't keep a staff of engineers handy, and I couldn't see why their engineer didn't just come to the house, after all, the exchange is only 800 metres away.
Anyway, I DID get an engineer, and he confirmed that I had hooked the house up correctly.
So, back to BT with this, and they're like parrots. No, the line is fine

ME : Send and engineer to my house please.
BT: Yes, sir, but if we do, we'd have to charge you if we fid the fault is your wiring.
Me : And if it's not my fault? Will you pay for the engineer that you told me to get in?
BT: Let me check that #long pause# Sorry, that's not our procedure...
Me: That's a bit of a double standard isn't it?
BT: All I can do is request another engineer, they should be with you in the next 10 working days.
Me: That's two weeks.
I gave them my mobile number, so the engineer could ring when he came.

So anyway, another week goes by and I ring.
Me: Where's the engineer?
BT: He came already.
Me: Not to my house he didn't.
BT: He checked the line and it's okay.
Me: I want to SEE and engineer, and I want him to tell me WHY the phone's not working. Otherwise, I'm cancelling the account. I want someone to ring me back to tell me what's going to happen.

Well, at this stage, I'm ringing everyday, despite the average waiting time being more than 30 minutes, and what's worse, some days I have to ring from my mobile.
the 1904 free phone number doesn't work from a mobile, so I had to ring the call centre on its 01 number, which is expensive to do from a mobile.
I get the usual procedure... confirm details, and then this guy starts to read through the notes on the file.
Me: Excuse me, but I'm calling from a mobile to an 01 number, I don't want to hear the notes, It's not news to me and it's costing me money.
BT: But this is a free number.
ME: Not from a mobile it's not, and my landline doesn't work, which is why I am calling. Just put me through to your supervisor before I run out of credit please.
BT: Well, the procedures say I can't put you through to a supervisor without trying to help, what's the problem?
Me: There's no dial tone on the phone.
BT: Oh, that's faults, I'll just transfer you.
Me: Do NOT transfer me.
BT: But it's a fault.
Me: The problem is no longer the fault, the problem is that it has gone unresolved for over a month, and my calls are not returned, nor my queries answered in my e-mails. So, I want to talk to your supervisor.
BT: Well, let me just check when that happened....

And that's when I ran out of credit. And they didn't ring back either.

So, eventually got through from a friend's phone, and after a 45 minute 'please stay on the line' I said I want to cancel the contract and get a refund. There was a lot of mindless babble as they stuck to procedure. Oh, we have to get that in writing, I'll e-mail you the form, and we have to check with accounts if anything is outstanding.
Me: How can there be any amount outstanding. I owe you NOTHING. I paidf 207 euros for a landline and broadband, and BT gave me nothing. I sent back the modem to you, so I owe you nothing whatsover, just close the account, and give me my money. I will send you the cancellation form.

Funnily enough, the next day an engineer rang to say he was going to come to the house and the exchange. I said I was out of the house, so he went to the exchange first. Well he rang me back...
Engineer :Do you live at 88 Allandale Estate?
Me: No...
Engineer: Did you live there before.
Me: No... I don't know even where that estate is.
Engineer: Oh, they've hooked up the wrong house then. I'll get on to them to fix it.
Me: Don't bother, I'll just cancel it. Thanks for your call though.

I sent the cancellation form. Waited 5 days. rang. They said they hadn't received it. But they'd get the line corrected for me. I told them that UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES should they try to correct the line at this stage, as I had gone off and got Eircom to give me a line, which they managed to do in just two days.

I sent another one cancellation form. waited 5 days. rang.

BT: Oh, we can't process the cancellation.
Me: Why not?
BT: Well, the cancellation seems to have been entered twice, and that causes a rejection on the system.
ME: Look, just sort it, it's simple. close the account, give me back my money.
BT: We can't do that. We have to disconnect the line as well.
Me: You hooked the line up to the wrong house. There's no reason in the world why I should have to wait for you to unhook a line at someone else's house. You gave me no service, so please just give me a refund without any more delays.
BT: I'll contact the relevant section. I'll email them today.
Me: Why don't you just pick up the phone and ring them?
BT: That's not our procedure.
Me: You're telling me that you can't pick up the phone?
BT: No.

That was over a week ago, and they keep promising to process it.

Anybody else have any experience with BT or other ISP call centres like this?