I share your pain ... I went to the atm at Santander this morning to take out some money - card was returned, but no money. I was on my own, so didn't want to leave the machine in case the money popped out while I went inside. Stood there like a lemon.

Went inside, the girl said the machine was empty and nothing would have been taken out of my account. I asked why they didn't put a note on the machine, she said it was administered by Securicor and they weren't allowed to.

I asked her for a pen, paper and sellotape and told her I would put a note on the machine. She refused. All the while a queue was building up behind me.

When I left (tutting like an Angry of Mayfair!) the woman behind me said - 'the machine outside didn't give me any money'

I have been with BT for years phone and internet and I am seriously thinking of changing to someone else,last week and the begining of this week was awful I kept getting not connected to the internet,I called them only to be answered by an automated call which gave me another number to call I can only assume that was also automated the guy spoke so fast without taking a breath I could not take in what he was saying when I said could you please speak slower the phone went dead,also I had to update my broadband option to option two as they sent me a letter saying I was opening to many pages.. I play four games on facebook and come on here,they said I had 10 mb and it was not enough and every time I went over the 10 mb it would cost me a £1 each time I got my bill and was not happy,I am now on option two I pay nearly double to what I was paying

Think he was palming you off.

I don't know how to put this but.....I don't think you'll see him today  

I think you may be right velvet...

That is staggering Rexi... just......

Marge..I read your post in horrer.. I think my internet is costing me a fortune too.. need to get it sorted or like you say.. change provider.

As velvet said.. I don't think the engineer will turn up at all... I will have waited 6 hours.


And we pay for these services....

I had the same problem Marge....except they didn't even bother to notify me that I was using it too much. They just increased my monthly direct debit from £40 to £80. It was three months before I even noticed!

I can't even be bothered to type out all the trouble I've had with trying to speak to people in their call centres........ I will just sum it all up by saying they are APPALLING!

£80 a month bloody hell, we pay €42 a month for 15mb un limited download. No phone.

I pay 7.50 a month with sky for up to 20mb and unlimited downloads, it's tied in with my sky package, considering we have sky it's not a problem. I've been with them 12 months and have had a great service so far.

BT are awful. I was with them for a year - so called unlimited broadband - 2 speeds, slow and stop.

When my contract finally finished I  went to Virgin -best move ever.
I think they are very expensive, hugely unhelpful and that ridiculous advert of theirs brings out a a violent side I did not know I had...

Update.

Arrrrggghhh!!!

I've just gone the other way virgin to BT, am happy so far

I am going to move to Virgin or another provider once the land line problem is fixed..

I have just learned that BT no longer have engineers to repair faults. Instead they buy into a pool of engineers that service ALL telephone networks. That means that BT have no real channel of communication to them as the repair guys and gals are a DIFFERENT company altogether.

Bastards.

Deffo time to move.

unbelievable

Update.

Managed to get a really nice girl who is appalled at the time I have been waiting and has promised to get to the bottom of this, She just rang me back and said that the latest the engineer could arrive is ... wait for it ... 5pm.. so my 8am to 1pm appointment slot has turned into 8 am to 5pm... with no guarantee of the engineer turning up at all...

Thanks Lainy.... you smiley's are helping me vent my frustrations.

I have just spoken to my brother who used to be a BT engineer...and he said that I won't be seeing anyone today. As Velvet said hours ago.... they ain't gonna show.

Oh yes they do - they also have Open Reach which connects and disconnects Broadband and - get this... when I finished with them, my contract was over, I was charged a £25 disconnection fee

I queried this and was told that Open reach charged BT for the disconnection who then in turn charged the customer!
Apparently it is i on the website and surely I knew  that I should check for updates regularly.
I then pointed out that I would have expected to be notified by post - to which they said that wasn't possible.
They are just this side of being legal and I told them that what they were doing was POOR customer care and I would be ensuring that I told as many people as I could how dodgy they are.
So be warned, if you are with BT braodband, they will charge you for the privilege of no longer being with their shoddy service.

Yes, you are right Isadora... my brother just told me the same...(the woman who is helping me is fobbing me off too it seems)

How can they treat customers with such contempt and get away with it ???.

And as you say.. those bloody fecking ads!
 

Lainy.. your smiley's are making me smile .. thank you

I actually want to smack that silly couple round their respective faces..


I DON'T GIVE A FECK WHETHER YOU HAVE A BABY OR NOT - JUST GET YOUR SMUG SIMPERING FACES OFF MY TV SCREEN NOW!!

And breathe... 

Indeed. Not unless that baby an be sold to provide better customer service.

Unlike BT I am happy to be of service

Don't even begin to get me started on BT....

Apologies about the length of this post but I am so angry with them at the moment I cannot even bring myself to call them again right now. I might just wait til someone answers and scream - literally scream - down the phone to them.

I moved to BT from Sky for phone and broadband about 6 months ago. I was assured Option 1 was sufficient and calculated my monthly payment at about £35 - imagine my shock when I started to get bills for £80+ a month. 

And if the phone rings whilst we're on line we lose our broadband connection.

Back to the bills - I was also being emailed about going over the 10mb download limit. I simply couldn't understand why we would be. It took them 3 months to ask if anyone in the house used XBox Live. My son does a lot as his mates all live a distance away. When I signed up I wasn't told that every second he's on counts as "downloading" even if he's just nattering to his mates. 

However, I was tied to a 12 month contract so it was either stick to Option 1 at £80+ a month or switch to Option 2 for an extra £5 a month (total monthly payment about £40) but that would trigger another 12 month contract. I had no choice but to swap. I set up another DD for £47 a month (to pay off my "arrears"). Two weeks later I had a bill and a demand for immediate payment. I rang and was told there was no DD and they couldn't set one up until I made a payment off my "arrears". I gritted my teeth, paid them £65 and set up a DD for £40/month. Two weeks later I had a bill and a demand for immediate payment of my "arrears". I called them again. There was no trace of a DD and they couldn't set one up until I made a payment off my arrears.
Oh and apparently it was all my bank's fault as they were not authorising the DD's - goodness knows why. I've not had a jot of trouble with Nat West. I paid them £30 after a lot of swearing on my part and set up another DD from scratch as the bank suggested they might be trying to reinstate an old DD that had been cancelled (yes, the original Option 1 DD). Two weeks later....yup, you're with me already.  But I wasn't laughing then - it was a 3 month bill for £165 which included my "arrears" and a demand for immediate payment. I was just about to head off on holiday so had nothing spare to pay up. I called their Indian call centre again and got some poor cow who was on the receiving end of a rant of absolutely hideous proportions on my part. My throat was sore by the time I finished. My son stood up and gave me a standing ovation when I finally came off the phone. **blushes**

But there was no way around it - I had to set up another DD or face a red arrears bill by the time I got home from holiday and maybe broadband disconnected whether we were on the fecking phone or not. So I set another one up for £55 a month, called my bank who suggested they reinstate the old DD just in case...

So I get home from holiday and check my bank account. No sign of a payment to BT via DD. There was however a £5 unpaid item fee - I queried this with my bank and was told it related to a BT DD they'd attempted to take out on the 24th - I get paid on the 26th so all my DD's are dated then or shortly after. Why they've set it up for the 24th when we agreed the 27th I cannot fathom.

I am now beyond angry - I am stuck with them for another 9 months or so - I've wasted hours and hours and get treated like a criminal when I ring because I've not paid my "arrears". 

And still the broadband disconnects whenever someone calls. If their engineer comes out to investigate and decides it's not a BT problem then I will be charged over £100 - yet I never had this problem in all my years with Sky.

They are the biggest bunch of crooks and incompetent feckers it has ever been my misfortune to come across. I will NEVER have anything to do with them, again.

I don't mind if you skipped most of that. It just did me good to vent.  

Just to say if they're not providing the service you agreed to then they are failing their part of the contract

I moved from BT to Virgin for phone and internet 4 years ago and it was the best move I ever made.

I'd spent most of my time failing to get an internet connection and being told by the call centre India that I'd put a wrong pass word in   back then I was paying £53 for phone and internet whereas with Virgin it was £20 for the same service.  *touches wood*  I've never had a problem with Virgin 


So Cariad and G & P you have my sympathies

For me Virgin have been so much better....we pay £88 a month for lhe largest TV package (the only channels we don't have are the porn ones), Up to 20MB broadband with unlimited downloads, and telephone with free calls to all landlines...

Between me, the husband and the kids the internet is one more or less 24/7 and the phone gets a right kicking by my daughter but it doesn't rack the bill up at all.

We've been considering a move to Virgin, it's just become available in our area. I agree, BT are expensive and unhelpful!!!

And as for the ads......erm...... I voted for her to become pregnant on their website.  Sorry.

Sounds just what I need Croc! We hardly use the phone...... but the internet certainly gets a hammering.

I didn't think we could get Virgin here but I've just checked and we can - not the fibre optic wotsit though.

Do you still pay BT line rental with Virgin though? I just want to have nothing at all to do with those feckers ever again.

I don't...its not like sky where you still need the BT line....

I've got Virgin too and can honestly say I haven't had any major problems

Cariad I didn't read your post in full, only skim read but saw the bit above ^^^ Have you been advised to get a 3 way connector thingy? It's a device that costs a couple of quid and enables the phone and internet line to run on 2 different thingies so you don't get disconnected every time your phone rings (sorry for the lack of terminology, I'll have to ask my brother about it cos he's the one that got it for me). You may have been advised to get this already, but if I get to speak to him I'll ask x

I was with Virgin for years, admittedly their internet service was brilliant (after months of initial problems that they insisted were inside the home but they weren't - they were at the exchange box which is located quite far from my house and despite me telling them this for 4 months solid they ignored me), but they were just too expensive and their customer service was DIRE. I moved to Sky and so far (touch wood) have been ok, I pay about £80 a month for a HD box and a sky+ in my sons room, telephone, internet and nearly all channels (including sky movies and all the other film channels).

Did BT turn up?

I read it all and I applaud you too Cariad.

I hate that warning....... if it turns out to be your fault we'll charge you blah blah blah!

I've had to call them out to fix my phone line three times in two years.....and always get that bleeding warning! The second time they charged me over £200 for fixing it, but I knew it wasn't my responsibility!!! I complained and got it reinbursed. The third time they "fixed" it but my internet then didn't work for days, the call centre peeps assured me "it just takes time to get up to speed", and to wait three days and it would be better.  Rubbish!!!! My son contacted a techie or their forum in the middle of the night....and he had fixed it by the time I got up in the morning.

They are useless!!! Why I'm still with them I'll never know

Actually I do....it's pure lazyness. But this thread has spurred me on....I'm switching to virgin

Hi Cariad. BT are indeed a complete and utter disaster and describing them as 'crooks' is generous. Re: your BT phone line, find out when your phone contract ends with BT then when you move to Virgin have your phone with them too. They're a fraction of the price. Their internet is a fraction of BT prices too and is MUCH more reliable. Check out Virgin's combined phone/TV/broadband packages and move to them or some other ISP as soon as you can (anyone but BT basically, you really can't find worse).