Stop me if you've heard this one. I signed up for broadband last week after being persuaded by some salesman from BT. I was told I'd be sent the stuff and notified when my switchover day would be. Suddenly on Wednesday my dial-up connection doesn't work. Can't access anything. I am redirected to some service area that asks for my password, then tells me that they're having "technical difficulties" at the moment. So I leave it until the evening. Still can't connect. Next morning, still can't connect. Finally, at 50p a minute, I phone trouble-shooting division - outsourced to India, naturally. He tells me my dial-up has been cut off, because Wednesday was my switch-on day for broadband. Why wasn't I notified? I ask. You would have been, he says. They always send out emails informing of switch-on day. However, you wouldn't have got that email because your dial-up was switched off. Thanks, I said. That makes sense - disable someone's dial-up connection, then send them an email they can't receive. Sorry, he says, and helps me through - no, "walks me through" a procedure to set up a connection for some completely obscure number that gets my dial-up working again. Now I can read the email sent at 8 a.m. on the day my dial-up connection was disconnected several hours before. I know it was because I tried it a 6. a.m.
Am I just a cynical bitch or is this a scam to screw customers into spending at least 15 minutes online at 50p per minute?