To not pay BT

[bangingmyheadoffabrickwall]

BT are shit aren't they?

We had fibre optic broadband fitted a month ago. It's never worked properly since day 1.
ERROR 1: Engineer comes on a Friday to fit it. Rings our gate buzzer. DH puts down vacuum cleaner and opens font door. Nobody there. He goes to the gate and notices Openreach van turning around at the bottom of the street. DH props gate open and as he's standing on the kerbside of the drive, the engineer drives off! We had both garage doors open with cars inside - FFS! Dh spends FOUR HOURS calling the engineer and BT demanding to be seen today. BT refused. Said he had another job. DH LOST a day's holiday. Quite frankly I think the lazy sod wanted an early finish as I was informed they have up to four jobs a day.
ERROR 2: BT arrange for another engineer a week later. DH takes ANOTHER day's holiday. No engineer. Its seems BT 'forgot' to inform the engineer.
ERROR 3: BT engineer arrives - 17th July. Everything goes as planned in terms of fitting the boxes etc. BUT internet doesn't work. Engineer is back again that day trying his best to sort out the issue. He fails. Luckily we still connected to our 'old broadband'. He thinks it's the 'card' as we are the first of '64' slots on it and it could be faulty.
'ERROR' 4: I say 'error' because actually we thought it was solved on this day! TWO engineers arrive - unbeknownst to me! BT failed to tell US this time - shocker . They test the fibre optic cable which is fine. They think maybe the cable they connected to is actually going to anther house - nope! They change the white box (the one that should have two solid green lights and one flashing green light). Still not working. One of the engineer's has a hunch - changes the box again and hey presto! It works! Seems, or so we thought, it was a dodgy batch of boxes.
ERROR 5: Our download speed is supposed to be 50 and upload is supposed to be 10. Nope. From day one, download has been okay 99% of the time but the upload has been at best 0.2 and sometimes 0. We inform BT. Engineer arrives - the same as day 1. He believes it's a hardware issue at the exchange as everything he tests is showing no problems.
ERROR 6: BT engineer comes today. Lovely chap. Straight away, there is no issue in the house or with the cable running to the 'splitters' at the top of the street. Phones BT. Tells them the second green light is momentarily flashing and 'oddly' last night the download and upload speeds 'switch'!?! Download becomes 3 and upload suddenly becomes 50 and on one occasion 230!!! BT REFUSE, YES, REFUSE, to believe it's a hardware problem. They then shockingly tell openreach that their equipment isn't precise enough to know it's not a problem within the house. The engineer was quite restraint in his frustration - he wondered why the f* BT give them the very equipment they now say are not 'accurate enough'. So he phones a 'mate' who I think is a PTO (precision testing officer) who thinks he knows the problem but didn't elaborate with our engineer, who was frustrated AGAIN! He said he's look at it tomorrow or Thursday.
So, we are no further forward. Our internet black box frequently goes from blue to orange several times an hour and has been doing this since last night. We thought it was the engineers 'doing something' to prepare for today! Engineer calls at 6ish to say they will ring Friday with a solution I think which would be either a fix by the engineers PTO mate, a fix remotely on Friday or the engineer and hopefully the PTO coming to our house again on Friday.

DH has understably told BT that we are cancelling the direct debit until it is fixed. We shouldn't be paying for a service we aren't being provided with should we? The internet is FULL of shit stories about BT not owning up to their mistakes, disbelieving openreach engineers when they say they think they know what the problem is and then taking months to rectify it - all because they have the friggin monopoly.

I told DH to write to the ombudsman. But it is frustrating because they have apparently, and they have admitted to, being told several times by FOUR ENGINEERS that it is a hardware issue at the exchange and they refuse to believe this.

Are we BU for cancelling our direct debit?

Thanks for reading. IT stuff is never easy or entertaining to read!

Well surely if you cancel your dd they'll just say ok so you don't want our service and stop sending engineers?

They absolutely should refund you though.

I had no end of problems with Openreach when I moved and Sky were useless, so I do feel your pain.

I understand, it's so frustrating. I walked past an engineer with his feet in a manhole, and then my phone line went down. I raised the error with BT, telling them that the engineer had his feet in the hole, so had probably knocked my wires out. They insisted the error was inside my house and threatened me with a £100 callout fee. I told them to go ahead because the error was in the hole, with the feet of the man who had knocked my wires out! This went on for days, with them refusing to book an engineer, because it would just show an internal error. Finally, after agreeing that I'd pay their £100 charge when it showed an internal error, they came and found that they had..... knocked my wires out

We had 3 weeks without broadband over Christmas thanks to bt. I cancelled the direct debit but they just restarted it and still took the money. We got a refund but I was very unimpressed.

Glumglowworm I know what you mean but it certainly wasn't the impression we got when they phoned us back this afternoon. They were trying to persuade us not to and promised to get it fixed. But I appreciate that's simply a call centre operative reading from a 'script' and then passes us from pillar to post.

DH is going to threaten the ombudsman.

We feel somewhat held to ransom in a way. Our 'old broadband' was actually better!

The engineer did say that ours was an 'odd' one. I'm spending most of my evening trying to write this and post it because the internet keeps knocking itself off, freezing and then when it does work, download is shite and upload has gone wacky!

Hoping someone has had a similar problem and can tell me the solution so I can tell BT cos they can't do their job . I jokingly told the OR engineer that by the end of this I could have a career change and become a phone/internet engineer myself!

Something similar with EE earlier this year. After 3rd visit we were down to .16, slower than dial up. At that point I told them they weren't providing the service they promised so I wanted out at no cost and I got a month credited.

Tell them to shove it and go elsewhere.

When I had problems with BT installing my fibre optic, it took one polite phone call and they agreed (they volunteered actually) to refund the cost of the days when I didn't have any internet. And they were true to their word, it was knocked off my next bill. I didn't need to start cancelling direct debits etc.

Also be aware that BT routers (Home Hubs) are notoriously flaky. The actual internet connection is usually fine/good but the router they provide is rubbish. I solved this problem by replacing their router with a decent one. Netgear's Nighthawk router is highly recommended and it's compatible with BT's fibre optic service. Best decision I've ever made to replace my BT sh*t routers (several of them as they kept failing and BT kept replacing them) with a Nighthawk.

My mums by broadband does that, it will be fiine for a couple of weeks and then it starts playing up,

I once had to argue with my phone supplier when they said that BT had told them there was no issue on my line when I could actually see the broken telephone cable dangling into the road outside my house. My phone company had to fight BT to come repair the line as they refused to make it an emergency repair as my house was the only one affected. I'll never go with BT. They're a bloody rip off. With my supplier, what calls and line rental costs me £19, would cost £91 on BT.

They once managed to swap our phone number with someone else at the exchange. They couldn't swap it back as the other person hadn't complained (they were on holiday we think). In the end after two weeks with no Internet and someone else's number I went down to the exchange and begged, nice engineer swapped it all back with in the hour.

They are crap but YABU to stop the DD, that could cause more issues down the line. Google the email address for the current CEO and send what you wrote here. Usually works

Don't cancel the DD, it will cause you endless grief down the line (sorry no pun intended!).

Keep paying for the moment and get in touch with the ombudsman.

Try complaining on the BT Customer Forum (whichever one is appropriate for the service you didn't get were supposed to have). Can't remember iOS there is one for direct fibre connections, or BT infinity.

I had success when I had problems with my "plain" broadband. Initially, the "ordinary" users will try to suggest solutions but once you get escalated, the BT guys (UK based) are actually very helpful.

When I was a kid there was a crass joke where the difference between an Essex girl and BT was that if you tried for long enough you can get through to BT.

I once signed up for home phone service through BT and know this to not be true (I have also met many intelligent women from Essex). A simple billing error took seven separate phone calls, all of which had an average wait time of over an hour. I, too, cancelled my direct debit and they also restarted it. My refund took months to arrive (by cheque!).

I left them for the Post Office who were amazing.

BT are UNBELIEVABLY SHIT.

I say this as soon as anyone mentions them. Story too long and painful to recount.

YANBU, and anyone else, AVOID LIKE PLAGUE.

You can get into trouble by unilaterally cancelling a direct debit without also cancelling your service with the provider. By 'trouble', I mean debt collectors turn up a few years from now demanding the payment all at once plus their own fees tacked on.

Namechanged so I don't get flamed or recognised in real life (may or may not work for the company in question)

Call or Livechat BT (chat means you have a full transcript of the conversation ready to save)

State that you are unhappy and wish to make a formal complaint and want to speak to a manager - take full names and direct dial numbers for the manager

Make sure you get a complaint reference number

Tell the manager that you would like your billing account suspended until the fault is fixed and your complaint is resolved in full

Be polite but firm

Ensure that they replace the router so you know it is not that

Insist on an escalation being raised so that a 'senior engineer' (you may actually get the PTO) is assigned to your fault

Have it recorded your expectations, e.g. Full refund of time your were not able to use the service but be realistic

If you do not get an acceptable response ask to escalate higher

If you are still not getting anywhere contact the chairmans office - ask BT for the contact number or google for email, letters take longer to get responded to - if you email be factual and bullet point in the same way as you have posted.

We've had a terrible time with bt for more than three years!!! Finally got out of the contract and have gone with Zycomm satellite internet and line- it's fab!
When things were really bad with bt I tweeted daily for all to see. Think it was care@bt or similar. Seemed to get a quicker, better response but overall terrible.

BT have been so shit. Was with them 10 years ago and they were shit then.
Had similar issues with internet no or intermittent service and what service was received was well below advertised speed.
Was never off the phone to them. They just kept lowering the minimum speed at which they decided it was worth intervening.
They wouldn't suspend the account or let us out of the contract due to service not being as advertised so we had to stop paying and let them close the account due to none payment and send it on to a collections agency. The penalty payment for ending the contract early was extortionate but this way it only cost around £70.

Well, we threatened the cancellation. Haven't done it. I actually told DH to hold back until today because that was the day the engineer said he would get back onto it.

And ....

BT REALLY, REALLY should listen to their Openreach engineers. It was a fault with hardware at the exchange. We are now, seemingly, fixed! We have been told to keep an eye on things, but so far so good!

safariboot I am not sure that is true. I know for a FACT that gas and electric bills cannot be backdated more than 12 months. I know because for the past 2 years, we've paid no gas bill WHATSOEVER because Scottish Power cannot do a simple task of putting us duel fuel when we had gas fitted. They kept cancelling contracts etc, phoning us up 6 weeks after they promised they would, etc then telling us they would have a chat with their managers and then another 6+ weeks would pass! That's a whole different ball game! The last communication we had was them telling us that they would half the bill we owed and we said no, we weren't paying a penny because we had email, telephone call evidence etc in various folders piled up to prove that everything was their fault. That last phone call was May and they said they would phone back 2 days later. We're still waiting ...

Their fault! We've put away the money each month and accumulating in our bank account JUST IN CASE we have to pay back the last 12 months.

But apparently that is more common than we think because I have met several in my village who aren't paying and haven't done for longer than us!

19Lottie2 We got a letter regarding the ombudsman from BT only yesterday. DH phoned up and they won't even look into it for another 6 weeks!! But luckily all fixed now, hopefully ....

I had a similar problem last month after moving into my new home. In the end I contacted the CEO of bt. He replied to me personally and escalated my complaint- It was sorted the very next day and I was given a massive saving on my monthly payments. Silly I had to take it so high but it worked!

Terrible company. I will never ever go again with them. I know of several people who didnt go with bt after i told them my problems. Bt still owe me £70 but lost the paperwork so useless chasing them. They fail to provide internet end of story and at one point i was being sent a new router very couple of days and i think the record for phone calls to their experts to get me online was 8 in one day. Most days it took 2-3 people trying to get me online.

We had similar awful problems with BT when we moved in. Complain and ask to escalate. I also tweeted about it and that certainly worked. In the end we got a massive amount back and free BT sports for a year but through the Twitter team