“My elderly parents live in a remote house on an Island in Orkney, Scotland. They have been through a tortuous year with BT as their "service" provider.
They have now been completely without a landline or internet for 11 weeks, let alone any chance of broadband. My father has been building a new house over the past few years next to the original croft cottage he owns. In November 2016 he contacted BT to ask them to move the line from the old house to the new house and was told this could not be done until February 2017.
The phone line then developed a fault around December 2016/January 2017 time and an engineer was not sent out until February. The engineer repaired the fault but would not move the phone line.
My father phoned BT again to be told that the line would be moved on the 19th May.
At this point, the "executive complaints department" took over following a complaint. BT then came back saying that my parents would need to register the new house as a different address, despite it being literally next door to the original house. Cutting this part of the story short, the planning department at the council agreed that this was not necessary.
The BT engineer failed to turn up on the 19th May, and my parent's landline and internet were both completely cut off by BT on this date. Since then, there have been 4 more arranged dates on which engineers were supposed to turn up but have not done so, with no notice or explaination.
11 weeks after the phone was cut off and the best part of year since my father asked BT to move the line and he is no closer to getting it sorted. The "executive complaints department" has been phoning my father on his mobile regularly but is unable to tell him why the engineers have not kept to their appointments or when they will actually turn up to fix the problem.
My parents have also been in touch with the Ombudsmen, the local MP and the local newspaper and are no closer to getting a resolution, which is why I am posting on here on their behalf (they have no internet to do so themselves!)
BT has a Universal Service Obligation to provide all households in the UK with a landline, even in remote parts of the country, and they are certainly not fulfilling this.
To have a working phone is a lifeline on a remote island as the mobile signal is not always great. My Father is in his 70's and my mother, her late 60's and are currently without any reliable way to contact the emergency services should the need arise.”
“Today after so many years I walk away! Beware those still with BT when you do the speed checker and BT tell you there is a fault which they then report automatically THERE IS NO POINT!
Turns out the speed we paid for was never received! We paid for a service we never had! The only offer made was to stay at a reduced service reduced cost and then to add insult to injury when we had left we were offered a lower offer than we are now paying! Feel totally ripped off and would not recommend this company to anyone”
“Moved to BT and what a big mistake. Broadband speed went down to less than 1mb, connection kept on dropping out, totally useless.... customer service is non existent, when you eventually get through to customer service they either put the phone down or cannot understand English and don't listen at all... also if your paying via direct debit they take double payments on various dates and when you come to the end of your contract they add charges to change provider. I WOULD NEVER RECOMMEND BT TO ANYONE AND WILL NEVER USE THEM AGAIN FOR ANY SERVICES”
“Abysmal 3 Months
Currently stuck with BT at the moment.
Was unfortunately lulled into a false sense of trust and security by one smooth experience with them in the past. This seems like a distant memory now after 3 months of beyond the worst imaginable customer service.
To elaborate on this just a little... our original order for TV and broadband was mysteriously cancelled by one of bt's own staff members and the same individual brazenly called us and suggested we had cancelled it until we were eventually told it was due to a 'supplier issue' and reorderd the package for us. There has been later suggestion that the offshore workers cancel orders and put new ones through in order to earn commission and simulate a sale that they have made... Only they did not put through a replica of the deal that we ordered. It was put through with none of the add ons, with 3 mysterious connection charges adding up to 169.99 (£100 more than the original order), a lower broadband speed than was offered at the time of the original order and at a higher rate of expense. The cancellation meant we had to wait longer for our internet services to be switched on and a lot longer for the TV package to be fixed. Three months down the line we further still don't have the free upgrade to the higher speed broadband package that was on offer when we placed the original order, we have now been declined cashback through a third party because the original order was cancelled and therefore not tracked (this is something that is no fault of our own but sees us £90 down - an incentive behind our choice taken away from us). All this doesn't even take into account the time that my partner and I have had to waste talking to bt representatives, incredibly disruptive to both work and free time. Representatives that call randomly (instead of ant previously agreed times) and make it incredibly difficult to get back in touch with them. I don't think any of them read the notes, we were constantly having to spend time re-explaining the complete mess they had made of it. Very few positives to be said for the process and absolutely no sign of an apology. Our open complaint seems to have now disappeared for a second time and there seems to be no level of accountability being taken - it's as if we are wasting their time.
To top this off, our broadband stopped working 6 days ago. We logged the issue with them and there was supposed to be a three day turnaround. What actually appears to have happened is they have closed the initial log as complete (pretending they met their SLA) and then re-logged the issue themselves at a later date... 6 days on we are still waiting with no internet and no contact from BT.
This really is only the key points and I think I could now spend weeks writing a book on the failings of BT.
I can't recommend due to their inability to provide a reliable service or react with any level of problem solving ability and customer care when things do go wrong. We still live in hope that they show us some respect and somehow turn it around.”
“Being charged for anytime phone calls they have promised to put account up to date and refund money for last three bills nothing been done yet awaiting reply from head office spend a hour every month to try and get bills repaid just been charged £40 for a £14-50 Bill we are old age pensioners so every penny is precious to us”
“People beware, while their initial offer may see great, they do not hesitate in increasing your monthly costs, give you terrible broadband service, take money for something you do not receive and then state you must renew your contract in order for you to continue the support on their equipment.
There are better services out there and would deter anyone from using BT. Too expensive, lie to the customers and basically steal money without consent.
Your choice, but please look at other reviewers, we cannot all be wrong can we?”
“Been with BT for years!! Contacted Customer Services tonight and was appalled at the attitude, basically called me a liar, was rude, ignorant and pompous. Will never go back to them, appalling!”
“Absolute shambles, with just some of the problems being:
* Before I signed up I was told I'd be able to transfer the contract to someone else, which later turned out to be rubbish I was subsequently told that I'd first have to pay off the contract which entirely defeats the point.
* I was told to wait in for the engineer to set everything up, and only to find out after the timeslot (when I called to find out where the engineer was) that it wasn't actually required thus wasting a day of holiday.
* The connection itself would randomly die and take a long time to sort itself.
* Whenever I called about problems with the connection I was fobbed off with excuses, with nothing ever resolved or any of the callbacks actually done.
* The router itself was awful, and sometimes took over an hour (which I timed) to restart.
* There were various hidden charges, such as setting up the phone line, removing it, an extortionate fee for the sub-standard router.
* The price was increased early on in the contract, with the (legally required) notification email either never being sent or being buried in so much spam from BT that no one had any hope of seeing it.
* The customer support is inconsistent, which different people telling you different things.
* I asked to end the contract early as I moved house, but once this was done was then told that I'd be charged extra. I was also then told AFTER I'd cancelled it that these charges would not be applied if I'd just let the contract expire, but by this point it was apparently too late.
I'd recommend people to use ANYTHING but BT.”
“One of the worst companies on the market. They are professional THIEVES. The online system was down so I could not view or download invoices. So they said they will charge me £5 per invoice. Also the monthly charges are extortionate. The longer you stay with them they will increase costs and add new costs to your bill. Avoid this RIP-OFF company.”
“My broadband service was un-useable, they send engineers out twice to try to resolve the problem. I changed providers and the problem resolved itself immediately.
The customer service at BT is unsatisfactory, they seem to be limited in what they can do and unable to resolve problems that aren't immediately obvious.”
“BT are the biggest mis selling, lying cheats in U.K. Business' how the hell have the regulators not done something about them.
Miss old a product - lied to continually during the process - they admitted their staff put fake notes on my account
Internet didnt work for 3 weeks - 2 weeks in a row engineer didn't turn up
Managers never call you back
Most important they don't follow the correct complaints procedure
Complete frauds”
“I was encouraged to go to BT Cloud voice to improve my business telephony performance. DONT DO IT! I have had six months of hell. Every phone call cuts off three seconds of the beginning of a conversation. This also happens when transferring calls. I have made 27 telephone calls reprting this and spent over 4 hours on the phone. The BT cloudvoice team on two occasions told me i don't have an account! I am now taking legal action against, for misselling”
“Cheesed off with intermittent broadband flicking off/on and bad customer service from VirginMedia I thought it time to switch suppliers. Saw adverts for BT broadband/phone, along with enticements to switch to BT. That must have been one of the most frustrating, problematic switches I've ever done with any service provider! I agreed an installation and start date with BT, only to find I had immediately started paying for BT Sports - 4 weeks earlier than agreed. The fitter told me at installation there was a problem with the new modem and I shouldn't leave it switched on unattended due to a possible fire risk - What!! He said to call BT about it. Contacted BT and was told a new modem would arrive within a week. Eight days later I contacted them again to ask where the modem was and they said they had no record of any request for a replacement modem! They eventually sent me a new one but tried to charge me a second delivery cost for the replacement - no way, it was to replace faulty goods! BT then related that delivery to another new, 18 month contract for some reason. On the phone yet again to query the new 18 month contract when I'd only signed up for 12 month one. I was told BT could not now alter that new contract but I should just cancel the contract after 12 months if I wished - now why do I think I would have been charged an early cancellation charge? He said he would check this out for me and could he put me on hold for a few minutes. 39 minutes I waited before the phone just went dead - incredibly bad customer service!
I then decided to make an official complaint. 1. Wrong start date. 2. Paying earlier than agreed. 3. Faulty modem. 4. Paying twice for the modem delivery. 5. Change of contract length without any agreement on my part. 6. Was initially told I could keep my number but it didn't happen. 7. Was told if I pay 12 months line rental up front I could save 10% but that didn't happen either. All this happened within the first month. What next? I dread to think. BT really needs to realise there is such a thing as departmental communication.”
“Any one looking at this do yourself a favour change to anyone but these jokers
Changed from BT to BT cloud should be simple you'd think
Never made aware they operate as two separate entities
Currently paying four lots of bills disconnection charges etc all of which was supposed to be wavered as pre agreed before changing/moving
Once you log a complaint you get what seems harassed daily by customer services to deal with the problem but nothing happens
For a communications company there appears to be none”
“Decided to move from talk talk to BT. First order BT had an error on the system, I found out because talk talk text me saying glad you've changed your mind and decided to stay with us. I then called 2/3 times and BT ended up manually processing the order. Several days later I received my activation date of the 26th.
Everything all arrived and the 26th came and went. I had my phone line transferred but no internet.
Called BT on the 27th and they said that there's been a system error. Was told that my connection would be completed anytime up to the 2nd of May (apologies for the delay but bank holiday means it's going to take longer). 2nd of May passed no broadband, was told I would be updated again on the 6th. I called BT again a couple of days later, still unable to give me a date of when it would be active and couldn't now guarantee the 6th of May. I posted a complaint on social media which I was asked to contact BT with details of this complaint. I then spoke with a specialist team member on the 4th who told me I'm so sorry for the delay, I'm going to clear off your old order and then re-process. I'll expedite your request and the connection will be working on either the 10th morning, afternoon or the 11th of May morning. Nothing happened. I emailed Gavin the CEO and I was directed to the executive complaints team, they finally have given me Monday the 15th of May as my go live date... I'm not sure I believe them but we shall see.
If your looking for a broadband provider do not use BT!”
“Signed with BT for my broadband, and more than two weeks after still don't have internet. After dozens of phone calls, different people answering, different answers, they say I have to wait one more week. No reasons for that. Regretting so much choosing BT.”
“Trying to transfer my residential number account to a business account. BT tell me this is very straight forward. However, after receiving two job numbers even one including a new phone number and line and closing the road near my property with traffic lights following a survey by BT Openreach they want to give me a new phone number!! I am now no nearer in what is just a case of account set up facility etc. I have spent in three weeks over 8 hours on the phone, each time the call centre person has been promising to sort it. They appear initially polite and offer sympathy in sorting it out. But the whole back office is useless! Now after another 40mins today, they promise that it is finally sorted. If on this occassion nothing is done I will go elsewhere. How can this company still continue to operate with service like this....I am in business and cannot afford to spend over a working day a month on the phone to BT.”
