Cunting BT.

[RespectTheDoughnut]

I've been without a phone line (& therefore my broadband) for 9 days so far. & an engineer hasn't even been assigned to my case, because of the snow. The snow is not that fucking bad.

I am having to use the internet on a shitty dongle, with a 3G connection.

Somebody else is receiving my phone calls

I cannot do the work for university which I need to do, because I cannot spend enough time in the university library (childcare) & the journals which I need won't load properly because they time out on the dongle.

AIBU to be really fucking angry?

I don't care if I am. I'm going to continue stomping around, badmouthing BT until they sort this out & apologise for this shit.

I'm back on proper broadband! Yay! Now there's the issue of sorting out the fact that I've been charged for the phone calls made by the people who were receiving my calls / the time I've not had the services I've been paying for. But it's fixed, at last.

complex - I'm not sure if that's a sympathetic comment or not? Either way, society's very different now. & for example, I wouldn't expect a lack of decent home internet to have been a problem for my mum, or hers, whereas for me it has meant falling ever further behind with my university studies. People also tended to live much closer together and could actually meet instead of relying on remote communication. You know. That sort of thing.

complex - I'm not sure if that's a sympathetic comment or not?

Just a rather obtuse one really RtD

No offence intended, just musing.

CONGRATS! I'm taking inspiration from you, RTD, and shall pursue my own issue with renewed vigour from tomorrow :)

Sorry, complex - I thought you might be doing that sniffy 'it's only a phone line' thing :)

Grace, I think it was emailing the CEO which made the difference. Then after he replied saying he'd get someone to get in touch, repeatedly emailing him saying 'I've still not heard anything' until I did Good luck! :)

I'd second the title of this thread, my BT broadband has been playing up since October.

I have made numerous calls and gone through all kinds of processing with them trying to get to the bottom of it.

Last night a technician assured me that he could see quite clearly that there were errors at the exchange and that they would sort it out. He assured me that the problem could not possibly be with my router.

Call from them tonight, we need to book an engineer to come to your house tomorrow morning.
I asked for a weekend appointment and they told me they don't give weekend appointments. I complained and was told I should cancel if not happy.

I was put through to their retentions team and was told it was either a weekday appointment or I would have to pay a cancellation fee. I said that was atrocious and that I was going to complain so he said "OK" and hung up!!

Useless. I too have emailed the ceo and am currently looking for the best alternative deal and I am going to get a refund from them.

RTD, I sympathise. Did year 2 of my degree on a fecking useless dongle and had to print every journal I needed between lectures on the day I had childcare . No fun at all.

Hate BT too. Hate everyone today.Grrrrrr.

I third the title. BT provides us with broadband speed that the People's Republic of Congo in full civil conflict would laugh at. Was 0.01Mbps a couple of weeks ago, until I kicked up a stink. Could not even load the BT page with the complaints phone number on, let alone email them... Then went back up to 0.4 Mbps. Woooflippinghoo, the giddy heights.

I will never use BT again. I can't even bring myself to relay the story as I have buried it so deep.

In our house they're known as bastard telecom. I think it suits them.

Oh my God, I'm really shocked at how bad they are. I knew that there'd be some complaints, as there are with any big company, but wow... & they're not even minor complaints, are they? I have massive sympathies with all of you - the whole system is so frustrating.

So if you don't have a BT line, what do you do? I want to look at the alternatives.

I feel like I've lost momentum tonight. I need to write to ask for compensation, as I said, but I just can't be bothered now. I feel like they've beaten all of the fight out of me :( It'll just have to wait until tomorrow.

Reaspect - I got about £180 from them but I think they owed me most of that amount. Like you I just wanted to be rid of them so didn't chase compensation.

Now with TalkTalk. Paid the Post Office to change connection. Was told it would either be £110 or £10 but not which. Took our chances and it was £10.

Oh, and to get that money I wrote a nine page letter detailing all phonecalls, all their mistakes and what I needed them to do.

I'm now rocking in my chair thinking about it.

This is why I can't be bothered. I will do it, but as a matter of principle more than anything. I can't afford to just chuck money away, but I like my sanity, too. Bastards.

I've worked in the telecoms industry for almost 20 years. BT actually get More Shite as the years go by. You wouldn't imagine it to be possible, but it's true!

YANBU

The iniqitous truth is that (unless you've got satellite broadband) BT provides the line and the infrastructure. This should mean that BT has a social responsibility to go with the monopoly but, like the gas & electric industries, it all seems to have lost in a farrago of profit motives and quangos.

Virgin say they can provide service without BT but I don't know whether that's true or how they do it. Can't see how they'd do the line switching without using BT at some point?

It pisses me off royally! I'm yet another victim of their deliberately opaque billing system, and get charged a reconnection fee every single month One guy I was speaking to at the Indian call centre actually got fired for reconnecting me free of charge His manager rang me, specially, to tell me so

They need a massive boot up the arse.

Agree with all of you having a righteous rant - why, oh why do we put up with this bloody rubbish service.

Virgin say they can provide service without BT but I don't know whether that's true or how they do it. Can't see how they'd do the line switching without using BT at some point?

Apparently Virgin provide their services via their own optic-fibre cables so don't use the BT lines at all.

Virgin didn't supply here when I checked a few months back. I may check again.

JetLi, your professional opinion actually made me laugh I'm glad it's not just those of us who are more 'ignorant' of the systems.

Grace - can't believe someone got sacked for doing what is right. Why did his manager phone you?! In a misguided 'don't worry, we've sorted it' way? Or a 'don't try to pull that again' way? Either way, I'm

Yeah, just found this:

'All phone line providers (except Virgin Media) use BT copper wire (ADSL) lines.'

But Virgin line rental is so expensive!

RTD: I got the distinct impression it was the'don't try to pull that again' way. The handler had told me, earlier, that he couldn't live with himself after a day's work and was planning to resign. I can only assume his manager listened in & decided to pre-empt him. I was grossly unimpressed, and told him (the manager) so. He didn't care, just spouted a few lines of policy.

Given what we're told about how sought-after, and overtaxing, those positions are, I am disgusted that BT allows this type of bullying hierarchy in their call centres. Not to mention what it says about their dedication to customer satisfaction!