BT finally agreed to send out the compensation claim form. By my calculations they owe me about £250 for travelling expenses I incurred, for loss of phone service, and for calls made to BT the service centre to try to sort out the fruits of their incompetence.
A week later and the claim form has still not arrived. It turns out BT still had the wrong address on their database, despite me asking them to correct it three times. Only one out of God knows how many letters has reached me. And that one was a bill.
They still want me to pay £125 because they cut me off by mistake.
In order to let OFCOM deal with this, I need to give them my BT account number. BT refuse to tell me what my account number is (for security reasons). It was on the one slip of paper they sent me, they said, but that has now vanished (my fault -- I think I shredded it in despair and confusion.) I asked them to send another copy, so that I could read my account number printed on the top. They agreed. The copy didn't arrive. Gone to the wrong address, I presume.
Yesterday I phoned the service centre in India again. After explaining the whole story for the thirty-eighth time, and another 45 mins or so on hold. They apologised and agreed to waive the £125 charge. But the bastards have areed to do this before. Just like they agreed to compensate me. It doesn't mean anything. It's their special kind of torture.
ME: "You'll waive the fee? At last. But I still can't use my phone. Can you switch it back on please?"
THEM: "You need to call 0800 800 150, and ask them to lift the restrictions from your line."
ME: "Do you have a reference number or something you can give me? I guarantee that when I phone them up nobody will know anything about this."
So they gave me another number. It's like a lottery - maybe this one will work. I phoned the other service dept, gave them my reference number, and waited on hold for another 45 mins for them to switch my phone like back on.
They didn't switch it back on. Nobody had any idea what was going on. The reference number didn't help. They said they had to investigate and that they'd call be back within 4 hours.
"You won't call me back," I said. "You never call back when you promise to."
"We will. We promise."
They didn't. My phone is still disconnected.
So I called them back today. Now BT has no record of agreeing to waive the £125 fee. No record of my complaint. No record of anything. According to their system I still owe them £125, and its rising. The compensation claim form has still not arrived. It might never arrive. My phone doesn't work. It might never work. I will probably never know by BT account number, so OFCOM won't help.
They've promised to call back.
A week later and the claim form has still not arrived. It turns out BT still had the wrong address on their database, despite me asking them to correct it three times. Only one out of God knows how many letters has reached me. And that one was a bill.
They still want me to pay £125 because they cut me off by mistake.
In order to let OFCOM deal with this, I need to give them my BT account number. BT refuse to tell me what my account number is (for security reasons). It was on the one slip of paper they sent me, they said, but that has now vanished (my fault -- I think I shredded it in despair and confusion.) I asked them to send another copy, so that I could read my account number printed on the top. They agreed. The copy didn't arrive. Gone to the wrong address, I presume.
Yesterday I phoned the service centre in India again. After explaining the whole story for the thirty-eighth time, and another 45 mins or so on hold. They apologised and agreed to waive the £125 charge. But the bastards have areed to do this before. Just like they agreed to compensate me. It doesn't mean anything. It's their special kind of torture.
ME: "You'll waive the fee? At last. But I still can't use my phone. Can you switch it back on please?"
THEM: "You need to call 0800 800 150, and ask them to lift the restrictions from your line."
ME: "Do you have a reference number or something you can give me? I guarantee that when I phone them up nobody will know anything about this."
So they gave me another number. It's like a lottery - maybe this one will work. I phoned the other service dept, gave them my reference number, and waited on hold for another 45 mins for them to switch my phone like back on.
They didn't switch it back on. Nobody had any idea what was going on. The reference number didn't help. They said they had to investigate and that they'd call be back within 4 hours.
"You won't call me back," I said. "You never call back when you promise to."
"We will. We promise."
They didn't. My phone is still disconnected.
So I called them back today. Now BT has no record of agreeing to waive the £125 fee. No record of my complaint. No record of anything. According to their system I still owe them £125, and its rising. The compensation claim form has still not arrived. It might never arrive. My phone doesn't work. It might never work. I will probably never know by BT account number, so OFCOM won't help.
They've promised to call back.
posted by Alan Campbell | 3:19 PM
4 Comments:
This is the modus operandi of Telecommunications giants worldwide. I would not be surprised to learn that their operational procedures were drafted by a psychic misanthrope channelling Max Weber, George Orwell, Joseph Heller and Franz Kafka ... all at once.
Oh the voices, too many voices!
Alan,
You need a paper-trail, phone calls are useless and deniable (as you've found out) but signed for mail deliveries with c.c. copies to Ofcom (which they won't act on, but it is a hard copy of your complaint) is not deniable. I had the same problem with Virgin Media and was actually laughed at by the customer complaints manager when I said I was owed over £300. A few weeks later after Ofcom upheld my complaint I had the pleasure of receiving a £300 cheque and the opportunity of sending a letter of thanks to that same customer complaints manager and the company director and pointing out that they were now laughing on the other side of their faces. Forget about complaining over the 'phone, use emails and snail mail.
Good luck :)
Bob
ps The person to address your complaints to in Ofcom is:
(Mary O’Connell Central Operations-Telecom Team)
Call centres never call back. I work in one (NOT BT, though!), and people are always calling to complain that we don't call people back. Being a part time employee, while studying for my PhD, I always feel bad.
BT are a nightmare - I've experienced plenty of problems with them, too. Computer call centres are worse, though. As is O2's line - with them for 4 years, every month there was a problem! Cheeky buggers.
You have my sympathy & apologies for call centres...
Just stick " BT complaints compensation " in google and you'll have hours of reading fun.
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