Have just had a phone socket put in by BT...did have to settle for 3 failed appts where open reach had no engineers..took 2 days off work to sit in & wait...when the engineer finally turned up on the 4th occasion he said that the managers were telling porkies & promising appts they knew they couldn't keep..& engineers were stating they had called at properties when they hadn't! Such was one instance for me...Very unprofessional!
Having said that I now have 20mb unlimited usage & anytime free phone calls for the sum of 27.99 per month! 19.99 for the first 3 mths & the connection cost me 50 quid!

I've been with PlusNet for my internet for about 6 years and I've only had to contact them once!
I would recommend it to everyone

Hey Karms. 

I have the internet breaker thingy you have to have on all phone lines connected to your pooter. Hell - I put them on both phones just in case.  That's all they suggested but it still buggers up internet access when someone rings.

Is that what you mean? I'm as technically minded as you clearly. PMSL

**makes notes ready for July 2011 when BT contract ends**

Funnily enough, I've just had a blazing row with BT (in India) today about my bill.
Won't bore everyone with the details but will just join in with the BT sucks vibe

Oooo, so obviously BT are so big, they don't wanna know

I had problems earlier tonight again saying my intenet was not connected I am going to phone Virgin monday.

I have the same problem ^^^^^^. Never had it when my land line was BT and Broadband was with Tiscali, I don't know what possessed me to switch my broadband over to BT. I have six more month of an eighteen month contract to finish, then I would be saying goodbye to BT.


If you want to avoid their overseas call centres avoid calling after 6pm.

I am appalled at some of the stories on here  Glad I switched from BT a couple of years ago.....

TBH Virgin do have an overseas call ctr too, but peeps seem to be happy enough with the service they're getting. It depends what goes wrong I guess

Baz who are you with I dont know who to go with to be honest.

That's the thingy! But it's not working for you so I'm a bit lost

You guys who have x amount of months left....would another provider not take over your contract now in a similar way you can with mobile contracts? Might be worth a phone call to find out?

Bt have been canvassing me for about 4 months now to go 'back' to them. I have not been with BT for about 10 years and I had very bad experiences then, so I declined going back. Since then I've had a reminder of £54 and a second reminder. I have now idea what for, called BT and they have no details either, WTF???

 I shouldn't laugh....but that's as surreal as I now feel dealing with them. I seem to have been paying hand over fist for the last 3 fecking months and I still can't get a bloody DD set up. AND I'm getting treated like a piece of shite stuck to the bottom of a shoe because when I do ring to sort it out I'm clearly highlighted as a "poor payer" who is in "arrears". All I want to do is pay my bloody phone bill ffs.

I only realised during my last bill that the barstewards have been charging me over 3 quid a quarter equpment rental. I haven't had any of their sodding stuff since about 1992!!
Cue 3 months of agro trying to get some sort of refund. Now the next bill is in and still no joy - I almost lost the plot today trying to deal with their sodding call centre in India *hyperventilates at the memory*
Everyone here has my sympathy - they are shite

The problem with companies like BT is that somewhere, somehow they would have covered their arses in their contract, even if it's been worded in such a way that you would never think it has anything to do with your complaint.

But it doesn't excuse poor customer service. Way I see it, you pay for a service, you expect to get it. If the service includes replacement or repair of items and it is promised within a certain time frame, then you have every right to complain and be compensated if they do meet those conditions. Makes me laugh cos if you're late paying they're on your case and cut you off, but when it's them in the wrong it's a different story. BT are clearly losing custom though cos they've been bombarding people will promotional mailshots in the last couple of months, not to mention the feckin happy happy happy Brady Bunch in the adverts

i have virgin, it stutters and goes off when the weather is hot.

apparently the 'box outside,mate,is overheating,so pray for rain is all i can suggest' 

that apart, i pay 20 quid a month, no limit on downloads its fast,and it's very reliable and this summer wasn't hot so it stayed on...

i gave up on bt years ago when they insisted on me paying extra because i didn't use a direct debit

i used to work in a call centre for talktalk, we all got sacked cause they sent the customer services abroad.... not amused, am now with virgin

Maybe a little parasol/fan combo would work....

Clumsycat - you've just made me remember an ex work colleague mentioning her aunt who worked for BT in/around Cardiff saying they'd flown a load of their Indian staff over to the UK and it was still cheaper to do that, pay them and put them up in a hotel/hostel than pay locals. Bizarre...

And going back to that last call where I really let rip at that poor woman (it really wasn't her fault which I feel bad about but you can never get to speak to anyone with any real authority can you?) she answered the call telling me she was called Nadine or Natalie or somesuch yet at the end of the call when I asked her name for my record she was suddenly Lakshmi. **rolls eyes**

I have Virgin cable and the XL package....which gives me Phone/Broadband/TV(except Sky Sports and Sky Movies). I have free weekend and evening phone calls and they upgrade your broadband speed free of charge. I pay somewhere around £50 per month for this lot and I find their customer service really good...and their engineers come when they say they will

I got cut off again last night saying internet not connected I phoned technical advice this morning it was a lady in India I found her very hard to understand after ages on the phone she got me  internet back she said I would get no more problems. After I had a shower guess what it said internet not connected again I closed my laptop off as I was going out for dinner,when I came back I switched it on it was okay until I turned a page it said again internet not connected I have had this on and off all day like I had before,when she said bye I said bye but did not put the phone down immmediately she obviously thought I had gone  I heard her saying to her co worker really loud OMG and started ranting about my call I did not want to hear it so I put the phone down.

If that were me I'd be straight on the phone to a Manager, even more senior if I could, and if you can get connection for long enough, put it in writing and e-mail a severe complaint. I don't know any of you are able to tolerate this for so long, and more importantly you shouldn't have to. It's disgraceful.

Marg
I'm annoyed now on your behalf that someone would behave like that towards you. I bet that you were the most reasonable and polite caller she'd had all day - ignorant rude mare!!
Karma is right, you should have complained about her but I know how difficult it is to get them to put you through to a supervisor. It took me 25 minutes of getting more and more angry yesterday before the fool I was talking to would get a supervisor.

There are probably thousands of BT India call centre staff ranting about how rude the customers are in the UK. 

I am usually polite Marg - not their fault after all and even if I am a bit ranty I explain I'm not targeting them personally. They just happened to be the poor sap who picked up my call. 

I will be calling them again this week to try to sort out the DD - I simply haven't been able to face it til now and for some weird reason I've not had anything more from them in writing.

I am going to say something controversial now.
As a paying customer when I ring up with a query or complaint, I expect the person who I am talking with to be able to understand what I am saying without me having to annunciate every word and avoid colloquialism. It puts me off calling 

I agree with you Isadora. I feel sorry for the Indian call centre staff, it's not their fault after all it's the greedy companies here who don't want to pay their staff a decent wage.
But I had a really bad experience with Barclays a couple of years ago when my card got scammed off me at a cashpoint and I had to report it. They really screwed up, didn't send my new card, froze my account etc etc - all over Christmas and New Year.
I really went to town with Barclays here, both over the phone and at my branch. I told them that the last thing you need when you are in a right state is someone who can't understand English and can't speak it clearly.
Barclays actually agreed and they have now moved the stolen/ lost cards section back to the UK because of complaints. And they had to pay me 500 quid compensation.
BT are just as bad - and if you complain they make out you're being racist

Isadora...some are fine but many may well have a great command of English yet are difficult to understand. And I feel awful every time I have to say "Pardon - can you repeat that?" 

What really bugs me though is the use of British names. "Hello, my name is Steve. How may I help you today?" No, it's not Steve. You know that and I know that. Use your real name ffs or better still don't bother at all. I only need to know if I ask for it and in that case it's your actual name I'm after. Not some pathetic effort no doubt dreamed up by a HR graduate in the UK to make us feel more touchy feely. Grrrrr....

I am with Sky for tv, broadband and phone. Any problem i have, i phone a 08442 number (25p a minute) altho they say its free to phone them..it isnt! I go thru an automated service,after pressing button after button to get the appropriate dept, then have to say my name , address and date of birth...at last i am thru to a human, wherby i have to give again my name, address date of birth, password, blood group and my grannies, cats name, again.. now i discuss my problem..to an Indian person, who wishes me a lovely day and asking how my life is...25 minutes and i am not in a good mood..i now try to discuss my problem, only to find i cant understand one word, and they not me. I now say, trying my best not to be rude incase it may be construed i am rascist, i have to hang up, and go thru the bloomin thing all over again...

You are right Cariad and Veggie - and they are lovely people. It is neither their fault nor ours - just one of those things.
I have lost my rag so often at Dell it isn't true.

Belated update...

Well.... I finally got the fault fixed.... the engineer arrived around 4ish and did not even know that I had a 'morning' appointment. He spent an hour on the fault ... most of that time he was making and receiving personal calls on his mobile. But he was ok... he fixed the fault.. which I am hugely relieved for.

One thing the engineer told me was that the reason they are so busy at the moment is that they are dealing with a lot of customers who are retuning having left to go to virgin. Reading Cologne's posts about how solicitous BT are about wanting her back means that there is a big project to lure customers back. It also means that existing customers must go to the bottom of the pile when it comes to repair or customer service.

Bastards.

Some of the stories here are hair raising... I dread to look at my bills and see what I am actually being charged...but that is the next step for me.. and then off to Virgin or another provider...

Another hug for lainy and the lovely smileys that kept me smiling yesterday . .

I'll not even mention that my father was being charged €35 a month from bt for two or was it 3 years for a service he never had. He was never with bt ever and only I read his bank statement and asked him what it was for they would have still been charging him until he died. Six months it took me to get his money refunded.

I've had that same problem with BT since January, for whatever reason the DD gets cancelled, I set it back up, then I get cut off, when I ring to find out what's happened they tell me I've cancelled the DD (which I haven't).  They then tell me, we sent an email today, BUT YOU'VE CUT ME OFF SO I CAN'T GET ON LINE.   I've now set payments up as a recurring debit card payment and .....touch wood..... it's been fine.

As for the problem of losing the internet  connection when the phone rings, I haven't had that problem with BT, but I did when I had the internet through Sky. Very frustrating.

contains strong language , don't click the vid if you are of nervous disposition..

Our broadband is with BT and we pay by credit card every month. What you have to remember is, when the credit card is renewed your number changes, then you have to update your records for BT.

I forgot to do that Got home yesterday to a letter from BT telling me my account was going to be suspended if I didn't sort it.

With this thread in mind, I got myself settled down by a computer, with the phone, cup of tea, digestive biscuits, heavy heart!

 Lovely, lovely Barry from BT updated my records, took the missing payment, was polite and friendly and, once I'd gone through the "press 1 for this option, 2 for that" automated rubbish, he answered the phone within about two rings.

 It was over in 5 minutes, I hadn't even drunk my tea

to be fair, that happens to me in London... Norvern accents seem to confuse Southerners, and I don't even bother with colloquialisms

jackson!!

*** wonders whether that was Sazza on the other end of the line ***

I had problems with my TV freezing and my internet going slow, phoned up Virgin and got someone in India who was more interested in knowing wether i liked Robin Hood seeing i lived in Nottingham  then gave me a date for an engineer to come out, he then went on to tell me that it was his birthday and no-one in the office had sent him a card  it was the strangiest phone call i've ever had with Virgin  the engineer came out fixed the problem and said never to call them about problems cause they are all in India and have no idea how to fix problems

maybe, did I sound Irish? Apparently I sound Irish