BT unethical practice

[countrygirl99]

My DH is a tradesman with a lot of annual repeat customers who has been self employed for a number of years. Many of his longstanding customers still use our old landline number and for about 12 years our landline has been diverted to his mobile (paid for service).
BT have recently swapped us to the digital phone system which means our call divert is no longer working. DH has phoned BT this afternoon to try and sort this but apparently it can only be done from a physical landline phone.As we haven't used the landline phone for over a decade we no longer have a physical phone, just the diverted number. The advice from BT customer services is to get a phone from Argos, set up the divert and then return the phone for a refund. Asked if they could supply a phone which we return for refund and it's "we don't do that".

What exactly do you think Argos are going to do?

😂😂😂😂😂

A formal complaint?! Embarrassed for you. You'll receive some cut & paste platitude reply back, no doubt, but would have really, really amused the depts with your hilarious unreasonableness! 🤣 Classic.

You said your husband phoned BT this afternoon. And since then, you've not only got outraged, you've phoned Argos to pass on the details of his call and have also confirmed that they have made an official complaint to BT about their practices? And then you were posting on here about it before four o'clock. You've been busy. Think of all the real work you could have got done in that time instead of moaning about nothing and trying to get someone fired for suggesting how to help you.

I can also say with precision certainty that the complaint won't get very far.

It will probably be ear marked as frivolous or vexatious and at best you'd be offered a £10 credit and told you shouldn't be using a residential landline for business purposes as it is against your terms and conditions.

I think the bt call handler was just trying to get you off the call

This is very much a 'you' problem, not a BT problem. You must have had a landline phone to set the divert up in the first place - it's not BTs fault that you chose to get rid of it!

The BT shop link diverts to EE. You could always buy a landline phone from them, to return. It will be more expensive than the Argos suggestion though.

I can't believe that you are kicking up such a fuss about a problem that only exists because you got rid of your phone though! Hopefully he won't get sacked. They'll see your complaint for what is was, and understand that he was trying to offer you an affordable solution.

Why doesn't your DH just notify his customers that they need to use his mobile number? You said yourself you haven't used your landline for 10 years (except for the call divert) so isn't that the simplest solution?

How long ago did you work there ALL compliants are logged with time scales before the escalate to level 3 or 4 managers
depends on the manager but most of them will look and investigate the call centres are brutally managed with call handling times wrap up times and satisfaction surveys
compliance is a massive thing the sack people at the drop of a hat and replace with agency

Oh I agree - it's like people who buy a dress to wear it once and take it back.

Amazon is your best bet - much easier to get a refund than effing Argos.

I think you need to get out more. Some some 18 year old in a call centre made a stupid suggestion and you have made Argos aware... Info update Argos are fully aware people do this!!! Christ how would you feel if you husband was say a carpenter and someone complained that he'd left a few specks of sawdust.

Get a fucking grip

A few years ago now, so things may have changed but I am still friends with a lot of people in that department so it's a frequent topic of discussion.

They did have the complaints escalation timescale before I left.

Also did a brief stint on their resolutions team.

You’re barking up the wrong tree. Trust me, Argos don’t bear the cost of returns, they charge it back to the brand. If it makes you feel better buy a BT phone and BT will bear the cost, not Argos.

Because he has hundreds of repeat customers built up over 15 years and some use the old number. It's not on his website anymore, hasn't been for a few years,but many of his long established customers have his old number in their address book and just use that every year. The only way he could do it would be to go through 12 months of his diary ( he can see up to 6 customers a day), try and remember how long they've been using him and phone them to ask which number they've called if he thinks they might have the old one. When he started only having a mobile number was seen as a potentially dodgy and that's the only reason the landline was ever on his adverts/website. These days it's perfectly normal but customers can be creatures of habit.
I have no qualms about notifying Argos. I've actually spoken to a plumber in our village this afternoon whose had the same problem and had the same suggestion except it was Amazon not Argos. They put a post on the village Facebook page asking if anyone had the same, same exchange so swapped over at the same time. So no I don't think it was just this guy. And I do think the businesses they are suggesting ripping off deserve to know.
Interesting to see just how many people don't think using something and then getting a refund on it is immoral.

Many households require a landline in order to have broadband services.

This reminds me of when I worked for a TV rental company and had a customer scream down the phone that we’d missold (misrented?) her TV because it wasn’t the size we claimed when she measured it.

it was, of course, my fault that she didn’t know that TV screens are measured diagonally and she was going to let the whole street know we were crooks.

i figured we’d survive the bad press and I’m sure BT will see this one out too

But the thing is you don't actually have to return it. You just can if you want to.

You can keep it, even if it isn't plugged in. Just put it in a box in storage for if you need to change some features or check your line connectivity again.

This is the sort of thing we would recommend and then customers would tell us they don't want to buy a phone, they don't want to put one in storage, they shouldn't have to, ultimately leading the call handler to be out of helpful suggestions, getting backed into a corner of things they can actually say, and then this poor chap has only gone and had a complaint put in against him.

You really are putting too much time into this.

It's not going to be bt policy to tell you to get a phone from argos and return it. Obviously. It's just the person on min wage trying to help you, and you are just being a dick about it.

BT won't give a shit about your complaint, and neither will Argos.

If it's important to have the landline, which you say it is because of all your husbands customers, then just buy a cheap landline phone and sort it rather than going through all this bother. You can probably even count it as a business expense. It's really not a big deal, you're making a (Everest sized) mountain out of a molehill. Think how much time you've spent bothering about it - if you think of minimum wage you've wasted at least £25 and rising worth of your time when you could've bought a cheap phone and sorted it. Heck, you could even go half's with the plumber and it'd cost you £7.50!

It’s annoying but your husband’s business is more important. You can get a second hand phone on eBay for next to nothing.

I almost can’t believe what I have just read. Yes, you have a very minor inconvenience which can be solve incredibly easily at a very small cost ( or for free if you grow up) this isn’t about me but I am dealing with a huge problem which I can’t see a way out of and is causing a significant amount of stress, if the solution was as easy as yours I would be overjoyed.
seriously, get a grip and either do as suggested by many people or lose customers, and to be honest I almost hope you do the latter as after reporting the BT caller handler you deserve that.

Literally this!

£7.99 and just keep it

www.currys.co.uk/products/vtech-cd1100-trimstyle-corded-phone-white-10278651.html?istCompanyId=bec25c7e-cbcd-460d-81d5-a25372d2e3d7&istFeedId=4d7eb93e-055f-499d-8ee5-1cdcc50d67d1&istItemId=qrilpaqxa&istBid=t&srcid=198&cmpid=ppc~gg~0060+(Shopping+Ads)+Fixed+Line+Phones+-+PMAX~~Exact~71700000122373343~&mctag=gg_goog_7904&kwid=GOOGLE&device=m&ds_kids=&tgtid=0060+(Shopping+Ads)+Fixed+Line+Phones+-+PMAX&&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=22623676212&gclid=CjwKCAjwsZPDBhBWEiwADuO6y0X5mASnu5EaYM38GCVHcwIuX-8CEyJUKD0af5D9YSeoLS_zCLohSRoCD9cQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Bloody hell, I think I would have just paid £15 for a new phone and kept it if you risk losing so much business.

You seem to be making a huge deal out of something so minor. Like others have said, it's not BT policy to recommend this but it sounds like the agent just suggested it out of desperation.

My god - why do you care?! How can this have affected you so much???