BT - A tale of customer service woes 

Ahh, British Telecom - For so many years (nay, decades) the butt of countless jokes, not to mention numerous complaints from more or less anyone you'd care to ask here in the UK.  But things have changed in recent times, haven't they?  Surely, gone are the days of poor and expensive service in this brave new world where communications are the key not just to business, but to people's daily lives.

It isn't very often (actually, read virtually never) that I consider using my position here at Elite Bastards as a personal soapbox.  But, on this occasion, I feel the need to make an exception, thanks to quite simply the shoddiest and most disturbing demonstration of poor service I've ever had the misfortune to suffer.  This is the kind of thing that could happen to anyone, regardless of their age, position or technical know-how - Indeed, I suspect that it is most likely happening to people up and down the country as I write this.  So, dear readers, let me share this tale of woe with you, in the hope that it leaves you at least somewhat educated as to the kind of practices you can expect as a 'valued' BT customer.

In all fairness to the company, the beginnings of my issue are not just mundane, but actually a testament to the fast and efficient service of BT's engineering fault teams.  Just before Christmas, after intermittent issues for some time, the phone lines in my house finally gave up the ghost.  While my ADSL connection remained active and working (thankfully), there was no dial tone when attempting to make outgoing calls, and incoming calls were similarly not getting through.  Of course, being of a technical bent and with a little knowledge of how BT phone systems work, I made sure that all of the cabling and devices in the property were in order, which proved to be the case, and turned my attentions towards what seemed to be the likely cause of the issue - BT's master socket.

For those of you not familiar with British Telecom's equipment, this is the deal - Everything that plugs into your master phone socket is owned by you, and is thus your responsibility.  BT will, if you ask, certainly assist with any issues with this equipment, but any work carried out is chargeable.  However, the master socket within the property, and everything beyond, is the property of BT themselves - Thus, it is not only their responsibility to maintain, but against the law for non-BT engineers or customers to tamper with.

So, with this in mind, I called up BT's line fault number - They ran some line tests, which came back clear (as I expected given the particular circumstances of this fault), but after some further discussion and descriptions of my issues, the representative on the other end of the line agreed that the master socket was the likely fault, and arranged for an engineer to visit the following day.

That next day, as promised, an engineer arrived bright and early, took a look at the issue, confirmed the master socket was at fault and replaced it with a shiny new one.  The socket was tested, it worked, and everything was right with the world again.  The work only took the engineer five minutes given that it was such a straightforward task and (now this is the important bit) he confirmed that the work would definitely not be chargeable.

Fast forward around a month, and the arrival of the usual phone bill.  All of the call charges on the bill were in order... But wait, what's this?  A one-off charge of just shy of £200.  Surely some mistake?

This, naturally, prompted another phone call to BT, who confirmed that this one-off charge was for the work carried out by the engineer... The work which was, and absolutely should have been, without charge.  Needless to say, this prompted a complaint from myself, to which I was told that the matter needed to be investigated, and that it would take seven days to perform this.  Seven days to perform a simple check of what work was carried out is barely acceptable in itself, but I could live with that, and at least I wouldn't be charged that £200 until confirmation of whether the charge was correct or not, right?  Wrong.  I would still be billed the full amount regardless, and was also informed that failure to pay the £200 that I didn't even have in my account along with the rest of the bill could result in my line being disconnected.  I'm sure I don't need to tell you that this concept was more than a little odious to me, as I have no intent of swelling BT's coffers with money to which they are not entitled - Thus, I immediately spoke to my bank and cancelled my Direct Debit, instead sending a cheque to BT for the sum required to pay the phone bill, minus the erroneous £200 charge, despite the risk of losing my line (and, indeed, my livelihood, as this site would suffer hugely were I to be left without my most important form of communications).

That phone call was made, at the time of writing this, eleven days ago (and eight working days ago, for the record).  What has BT's response been in the meantime?  Absolutely nothing.  No letters, no phone calls, not even a message to say "we're still investigating".  To top this whole sorry saga off, the complete disinterest BT has shown in dealing with this issue is, quite simply, disgraceful.  I wonder; if they had credited me £200 by mistake, would they be so tardy in response to my requests?

In short, one simply has to wonder where to start with this complaint, as I'm not sure what the worst thing about it is.  Is it being charged £200 for five minutes work that should have cost nothing?  Is it the threat to one of my major sources of income if my line is disconnected?  Or is it the complete inability of BT's customer services team to respond to what should be a basic investigation and rectification of what is surely just a simple billing error?

Either way, it has very much soured my feelings towards the company, after what had been many years of reasonable service.  In the long run, I'm not sure that my phone line has a future with BT, and if any of our UK readers are either weighing up their options regarding returning to BT or using them for their landline telephone services, my single word of advice would be - Don't.

Naturally, I'll be passing this article on to BT's complaints department to give them an ample opportunity to respond, and I'll be sure to keep you updated regarding any progress on the issue.  Assuming I still have a telephone connection, that is...

Friday, February 15th - An update:  Well, it's been nine days since I wrote and published my original article, and coming close to a month since these issues began.  What has happened since then?

Well, in response to my article, I was informed that BT were 'looking into the issue'. I also received a letter from the chairman's secretary, informing me that they were 'looking into the issue'. So, what do I find on my doorstep today? A red final bill, demanding payment in full (including the £200 to which they aren't entitled) immediately.

Congratulations BT, just when I thought you couldn't manage to make yourselves look any more incompetent, you manage to top your own complete lack of communication and customer service. Needless to say, I've just fired off a very angry e-mail to their complaints department, demanding a resolution within forty-eight hours. Will I get a resolution? Will I even have a phone line by the middle of next week? Doubtful.