BT FORCING Us To Purchase Upgrades?

[Suspicious]

When we moved into our new home earlier this year we decided to use BT as our internet service provider,

picking the Unlimited Broadband package at just £16 per month.

 

After many cancelled appointments (by BT) an engineer finally came around to get us online on 9th May.

 

He fitted a new telephone line due to the previous one being “too old for internet”

and we ran an extension phone line from the main socket downstairs to my office upstairs

so the hub could be connected to the PC via an Ethernet lead.

 

For two weeks everything was fantastic, download speeds were terrific and we were really happy with the service.

Then one day I came home to find no signal from the phone and extremely slow internet speeds.

 

Called BT (via mobile) who said the line was working fine,

called them again two minutes later and they said the problem was outside our house

and that an engineer would be around today (31st) at no charge.

 

Still no dial tone and slow broadband as of this afternoon

 

I called BT who said the engineer found no fault and that I would need to pay £99 for them to come out again.

 

He must have been invisible as we live right next to the junction box and no one went near it today.

 

explained that I felt a bit cheated as we’ve had their service for less than a month,

have not touched anything save to try a phone in the main socket (still no dial tone so not the extension at fault)

and now we have to pay more just to get a normal service!

 

The man advised us that we had exceeded our (truly) unlimited download limits at 150GB

and this was causing the phone to go dead and the broadband to drop.

He said to fix it we would have to upgrade to the BT Infinity package at £23 a month (plus £40 installation fee)

but it sounds too fishy to me.

 

So then:

 

1) Since we don’t use the phone save once in a blue moon, why would the tone go dead because of our broadband use?

 

2) Is the Infinity option the only solution to this problem?

 

3) Are we still liable for cancellation fees (the man said we are) if we quit with BT now?

 

4) Also does anyone know if the £99 call out charge will cover any repairs they need to make if the fault is somehow ours?

 

Sorry for a lengthy mail and lots of questions but I’m getting nowhere with BT customer support.

[renegadeimp]

BT are con artists. Their telephone reps are told to sell sell sell.

 

If you want to sort your line out, you need to tell the front desk reps to bugger off and DEMAND to be put through to tier 2 or 3. Those are the managers and tech engineers.

[Suspicious]

BT are con artists.

 

Sadly I'm starting to agree. Any particular names or numbers to ask for? Every time I ask for a manager I get another clerk who just wants to read from their scripts!

[stu007]

Hi

 

Make it a formal complaint to BT and also request a copy of the engineers report that supposedly came out and found no fault.

[Suspicious]

I'm sorry to sound dense but is there a particular address or e-mail for that? It's taking so long to load websites that I'm not getting far on the BT homepage.

[Sidewinder]

Are you on Twitter? I understand that @BTCare are quite swift to respond and do actually follow things through.

 

Having said that,

BT are con artists[/Quote]

 

Also inclined to agree. I was on their 40gb plan at £18 per month and after a few months of reasonably good service, the line started dropping every few minutes, and we were stung with excess use charges almost every month - using, according to BT, over 100gm/month sometimes despite the data use in the household remaining basically the same. No streaming, online TV or P2P. BT couldn't (or wouldn't) even give us an indication of when the use was occurring (as in time of day) let alone specific site or IP logs citing data protection (as in MY data?). We had to pay the charges because they SAID we had used the data. But we could always avoid the charges by paying £28 per month for Unlimited (as it was at the time).

 

Got fed up and went with Sky in the end - 9 months free and £7.50 a month for Unlimited. No complaints to date and no line drop.

 

Always wondered what would happen if I were to sue BT and put them to strict proof of the data use? Would their assertion merely that I had used it be sufficient? Calculated around £400 in charges over a two year period.

[renegadeimp]

Call us

7am to 11pm, 7 days a week (and automated system outside these hours)

From a landline: 0800 800 151

From a mobile: 0330 123 4151*

From abroad: +44 179 359 6931**

 

EMail: https://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact_email/c/5627,5628

 

BT community forum: http://community.bt.com/t5/Broadband/ct-p/BB

 

 

Between 7 am - 1045 pm they have a live chat help service https://bt.custhelp.com/app/contact/c/2702#h=eyJzdGVwMCI6ImNvbnRhY3RJdGVtTGluazU2MjciLCJzdGVwSWR4IjoxLCJzdGVwMSI6ImNvbnRhY3RJdGVtTGluazU2MjcsNTYyOSJ9

[renegadeimp]

My father used to be with BT but for some reason went with talk talk. Both are useless in my eyes. Myself, i use my phone ( on vodafone), or i use an internet connection which routes directly to an ISP hub that my friend works at as an engineer. Cant beat free unlimited internet

[Conniff]

Bt test the line from the master socket in your house, if that is ok then the fault lies in your extension.

 

Take your phone down to the master socket and plug it in there, if that is no better, then remove the faceplate which just plugs into the socket box as your phone does into the faceplate and try that socket, it is no better, then it it BT, if it is ok then it is you. Try it with your modem as well, plug that directly into the master socket.

 

BT responsibility ends at that socket.

[citizenB]

This thread is being tweeted - If you look at the twitter feed - top left of the screen, you will also see there is an option to "retweet" it.

[Suspicious]

Thank you all for your advice and tweets. I’ve removed the faceplate on the main socket and tried it with two separate phones and still no dial tone so I’m guessing it is a BT fault despite their claims.

 

Just one more question if I may, is there any way to prove it is their fault? As for all I know their engineer could just blame me when he comes around.

[ashmk]

Get on to @btcare on Twitter. They work much faster when you do that.