Bt service issues

[SteveJones]

Hello,

 

Could someone help me with a little advice on where I stand with a BT issue please?

 

A brief overview is that in November, I ordered a new BT line and Infinity, with a connection date of December. This date was missed, but eventually after much chasing the line and broadband were working by the middle of January.

 

By the beginning of February, I received a call from BT saying that the broadband was incorrectly routed and it needed to be disconnected for 48 hours to reroute it in case it failed. Despite my requests not to, the broadband was disconnected and has not been connected since.

 

I have spoken to a number of people at BT, no-one appears to take ownership of the issue and I have received numerous broken promises. There is obviously a technical issue; however BT's answer is to create new orders without telling me, to the point I now have 12 orders showing.

 

To cut a long story short, I am being charged for a phone line that is no use to me and BT will not allow me to cancel it. I was initially told that I would not be charged line rental until the broadband is fixed, but have since been told that this will not be honoured and there is no record of it on the notes. My recent monthly bill is £110 for various activation and delivery charges and the breakdown is so convoluted it is impossible to understand what I am being charged for. The latest advisor (Diana) argues that the line and broadband are separate services and I am not able to cancel the phone line as it is working, however I purchased them as a package deal and BT have not honoured the agreement. Surely BT have breached their contract and I cannot be made to honour it when they have not kept their end of the bargain?

 

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Steve

[BankFodder]

As you point out, one of the problems here is that you have no evidence. This is because you have been dealing with them on the telephone that you have not be recording the calls.

 

Please read our customer services guide, implement the advice there and then have further telephone calls with them and try to get them to commit themselves again to some of the things that they have already sent you. It may be difficult but it will be helpful if you succeed.

 

Of course, in any event, if you don't have the service that you have pay for and particularly if what you have got is completely useless then BT are totally wrong to say that they are going to charge you anyway – whether or not they have promised in the past.

 

You are entirely right that you have bought them as an interdependent package deal.

 

The big problem is that if you simply stop paying them, then British Telecom will do what they are very good at – they will leap into action, decide that you are defaulting on your debt, blight your credit file, and start making trouble for you and effectively wreck your financial life up to 6 years.

 

Like many of these companies they are stupid bullies.

 

There are two things that you could do. You could complain to the regulator and although the regulator is generally speaking quite limp wristed, your situation ceased to be so blatant, that I expect that they would be a finding in your favour.

 

However, this is likely to take a long time and that means that there is a high likelihood that you will be left without any service for all of this time.

 

The second thing you can do is simply to issue a small claim in the County Court. Although it might take up to 4 months for the hearing to take place, it is highly likely that once the papers were issued that somebody would start to sit up and take notice and read what has happened and they will then deal with the problem.

 

You could then compel them to pay back your claim fee and also a reasonable compensation for the missing service and for the trouble that you have had.

 

It's absolutely frightening isn't it that BT now want also to start running a major mobile network as well. BT appeared to be almost as incompetent as NPR and Vodafone (well, maybe not quite that bad).

[SteveJones]

As you point out, one of the problems here is that you have no evidence. This is because you have been dealing with them on the telephone that you have not be recording the calls.

 

Please read our customer services guide, implement the advice there and then have further telephone calls with them and try to get them to commit themselves again to some of the things that they have already sent you. It may be difficult but it will be helpful if you succeed.

 

Of course, in any event, if you don't have the service that you have pay for and particularly if what you have got is completely useless then BT are totally wrong to say that they are going to charge you anyway – whether or not they have promised in the past.

 

You are entirely right that you have bought them as an interdependent package deal.

 

The big problem is that if you simply stop paying them, then British Telecom will do what they are very good at – they will leap into action, decide that you are defaulting on your debt, blight your credit file, and start making trouble for you and effectively wreck your financial life up to 6 years.

 

Like many of these companies they are stupid bullies.

 

There are two things that you could do. You could complain to the regulator and although the regulator is generally speaking quite limp wristed, your situation ceased to be so blatant, that I expect that they would be a finding in your favour.

 

However, this is likely to take a long time and that means that there is a high likelihood that you will be left without any service for all of this time.

 

The second thing you can do is simply to issue a small claim in the County Court. Although it might take up to 4 months for the hearing to take place, it is highly likely that once the papers were issued that somebody would start to sit up and take notice and read what has happened and they will then deal with the problem.

 

You could then compel them to pay back your claim fee and also a reasonable compensation for the missing service and for the trouble that you have had.

 

It's absolutely frightening isn't it that BT now want also to start running a major mobile network as well. BT appeared to be almost as incompetent as NPR and Vodafone (well, maybe not quite that bad).

 

Thanks for the comprehensive reply. I've finally had someone based in the UK say they'll take ownership so will wait to see start happens for now.

 

Thanks again