This week's saga with BT has been very, very trying.
Last week my broadband connection got weaker and weaker until there was nothing at all.
Last Friday, I phoned to report the problem. A helpful man somewhere in Dublin said , OK I'll test your line. If you put the phone down I'll phone you back when the test is complete. Half an hour later, he phones me back. Yes, there's a fault on the line and I'll arrange for an engineer.
On Monday, after no further communication, I phone again to see what is happening. This call is routed through India. No, says the member of the customer care team : There's no fault on the line, we've left messages on your phone to say that we're sending a new hub. I have had no messages. I ask about the fault and the promised engineers - no there is no fault, we cannot authorise engineers. I try to get more information, she disappears and the line is cut. I wait half an hour for the call to be returned - it isn't.
I phone again - this time I am routed to Ireland. Oh yes he says, there is a fault. I'll just phone the engineers and get you an appointment booked. When this phone call ends, I have engineers booked for Wednesday morning.
Wednesday morning - no communication from BT, no engineers.
I phone again, again routed through to Ireland. This phone call messes with my head. I ask about the engineer appointment - oh, she says, it wasn't booked. It wasn't booked? No she says, it wasn't booked. No apology, no attempts to rebook or in some way make me feel that the broadband problem is being addressed. She agrees to test the line. This time I am not asked to get off the landline while the test is in process. I've previously been told that this is necessary. I have a suspicion that she isn't even doing 'the test'. There is no fault on the line, she says.
This phone call ends badly. I put the phone down in frustration. There is no agreement that I - and all my surrounding neighbours - have a problem, which is that the broadband is regularly dropping out and disappearing altogether. We don't have a service worth paying for.
We're quite remote and are used to things being less than perfect, but we've had relatively good broadband up until now and know what is possible. In these phone calls it seems that I have been told contradictory things, have been promised things that haven't happened and really wonder how employees of the same company can all offer contradictory information. The same is happening to my neighbours. I've even begun to wonder if the BT customer care phone lines have been hijacked by pranksters.
This evening I have a good connection - but it's a matter of catching it when you can and my neighbours are all having varying degrees of poor service.
So, am I being unreasonable to conclude that BT don't care about the customer and perhaps its' customer care team even compete to see who can be the quickest to get a customer to put the phone down in frustration?