BT Nightmare Update - 26-01-07

Just a quick update. I have had my call back from BT. It's took them 9 days to do it and guess what! I had to explain my circumstances again. The guy I spoke to now wants to run yet another line test. I asked him why and he said its proceedure. I told him well BT's done this proceedure 20 times now and it hasn't resolved anything. I told him all I want is compensation and reassurance that they will not cut me off at the end of the month. I was passed to another department and then they cut me off. Thanks BT!!!

I then called them back with the bright idea of upgrading to business, because I know with business broadband you can get compensation. Again I was cut off. It's a great way of dealing with customers that you dont want to speak to!!! Anyway I decided enough was enough today and I was really determined to get an answer to the problems I had faced over the last 7 weeks, so I went on to BT's site and got their number for business broadband and called them back. I decided maybe when BT is having to give me compensation for loss of service they might start to listen to me. I proceeded to call BT and started to go through the circumstances surrounding my broadband issues. Finally I had someone who was actually listening to me and wanting to sort out the problem for me. Well that's what I thought until she transferred me to technical support in India.

Again it was another frustrating conversation with the India technical support. If I had a £1 for everytime they promised to fix the problem I would be rich by now. Anyway we went through the rigmoral of them trying to troubleshoot the homehub, line, etc. In the end I told her that I just wanted compensation because of the loss of service and I wanted to know if my line would be cut off. My first request just was washed over by some standard script they had, but she did transfer me to the order management department in the UK.

Once through to the order management department in the UK I went on to tell the girl about what had happened. She did sympathise with me. However the time for that was well and truly gone. All I wanted to know if I was going to lose my broadband connection. I was put on hold whilst she found out about this. When she came back to me I was indeed going to have my line ceased at the end of the month. Obviously I was not happy about this and I still needed a broadband service to operate my business. Luckily the girl understood this and she took the cease off my line. However she did inform me that I may receive another cease from BT wholesale in the future. I said do you guys not read the others notes. She said yes, so I asked why is it they will not pay attention to your note. She informed me BT wholesale are just like that. I thought that's good I am going to have to go through this proceedure every month.

Anyway I managed to sort that out the next thing was the price I was paying. I refused to pay for option 3, as there is no way I could utilise that option with a 160kbps downstream. I explained this to the girl and she put me through to the options department. I think I had a newbe because I could hear someone in the background guiding him through the call. I explained the situation and I wanted some compromise on the billing. However I was informed by this guy that I would have to pay to downgrade. I took this really personally, as it was adding injury to insult. First of all BT mis-sold me the option then they were telling me I had to pay to downgrade, because they had some customers abuse the system in the attempt of getting the BT homehub for free. I was really mad by this stage and proceeded to give the guy a real ear full of how I felt. I highlighted that I was not abusing the system and that the homehub doesn't even sync with the exchange, because its crap.I also highlighted the speed issue and he tried to side skate this one by saying the option does not influence the speed of the service. I told them that this was a weak argument, because obviously it did otherwise they wouldnt have the options there plus they must have a level of service in place and they is no way they are meeting it with the current connection speed I was getting. Finally they admitted this and they waived the charge and placed me on option 1.

I am still left with a 160kbps downstream. I have accepted this and finally BT have as well. I am just going to have to work with what I have unfortunately until BT rollout their fibre optics. During the course of the conversation they did mention their BT Onspeed, which basically compresses the data. They said that they would provide this free for me. However this is yet to be seen. I will keep you posted.