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Have you had trouble contacting BT & Openreach services

(7 Posts)
soontobe Thu 08-Oct-15 14:49:00

We tried the usual trick of trying to take down peoples' names if we spoke to someone on the phone. But they said they are not allowed to give out their names.
I cant think why hmm

We found we dont have any problem with whoever comes out to see us.

Personally I think the whole company is awful, but it comes from the top.

Maggiemaybe Thu 08-Oct-15 14:41:40

It took me ages to find out how to email BT's Customer Services from their website. They want you to ring them or speak to an online adviser, and having been down that route, I wouldn't advise it to anyone who wants to keep a firm grip on their sanity. Having finally found out where to send it, I fired off one complaint that fell with a resounding thump into the ether, and then weeks later followed up with another. This did result in an email, several days later, promising that my complaint had been dealt with and the item I was disputing had been taken off my account. Looking at my online account, I now see it has been credited with the 2 payments already made for said item, but I have been charged for it again this month. For a communications company, they sure as heck need to review their communications!

Luckygirl Thu 08-Oct-15 13:46:11

Openreach are hopeless - I will not regale you with all the saga of our problems with them, some of which are not the fault of the workmen themselves. We had an intermittent fault the cause of which my OH suggested to them at their first visit - this was dismissed. Suffice to say that several months (and a lot of greying hair!) and many visits, discussions (arguments?) later it turned out that OH was right.

Not being able to contact Openreach directly is a huge stumbling block as communication between them and provider introduces endless possibilities for Chinese Whispers distortions.

And we discovered to our amazement that Openreach engineers keep no record of what they do and so each new person has not the foggiest what the previous person has done.

One visited and I offered to take him through what had gone before, but he refused this and spent half an hour up the road discovering what I could have told him in the first place, and when we said we knew that said "Why didn't you tell me?" Hmmm!

He eventually sorted it (by doing what my OH had said needed doing several months before) and we suggested that he would get a pat on the back for getting it mended, and he said that he would be in trouble because he would have been logged as exceeding his allotted time for the visit - no log apparently of a successful outcome!

janerowena Thu 08-Oct-15 13:32:32

Just read this - dreadful...

community.bt.com/t5/Phones/How-do-I-get-a-contact-for-a-complaint/m-p/388389/highlight/true#M14842

janerowena Thu 08-Oct-15 13:27:55

You could try signing up to this

www.bt.com/consumerFaultTracking/public/faults/tracking.do?pageId=2&s_cid=con_FURL_faults&utm_source=ATL&utm_medium=FURL&utm_content=R&utm_campaign=faults

Our problem was - we had no internet and no phone number for them in our new phone directory!

I managed to get a number from Directory Enquiries - for which of course we had to pay - but we came to the conclusion that if no complaints are made/logged, then there can't be any - can there? I was a bit taken aback and it has put me right off them.

soontobe Thu 08-Oct-15 13:07:04

We have been waiting six months for something.
Admittedly it has turned into a bigger job for them than they were expecting[includes closing a minor road for 1/2 a day], but we used to be given dates that were moved forward a month, then two weeks, then they didnt have poles in the warehouse, then they needed authorisation from someone[possibly the council, we couldnt quite work out from where, but that was our best guess]. And still the saga goes on.

I think there has been a thread about them before. I may go and look sometime.

Previously, ourselves and other neighbours have tried to use a different company for something or other, but parts of it still had to be done by BT, so we all decided to stay with them.

I could go on and on about the company, but I had better not!

dollyjo Thu 08-Oct-15 12:47:37

I'm fuming.
I decided it was time for an overhaul of my home. I've used 'Trusted Traders' local work men to decorate the whole bungalow. I've had new doors fitted; a new carpet fitted and new lights installed. That's 4 local self-employed workmen. All arrived on time and charged a reasonable price.

Two weeks ago I contacted BT as I am not allowed to contact Openreach and booked for an engineer to move a socket from one room to another. They gave me an appointment date of between 8 - 1300hrs. They didn't arrive. At 16.45 I rang BT and was passed from pillar to post finally ending up at a foreign call centre. This phone call was 37 minutes of mainly listening to awful repeated music.

Eventually, I was told they had a record of my order but there had been a 'system's fault.' I asked why I hadn't been informed of this before the appointed date if they had my order. I asked for the address of their complaints department and was told there isn't one and I could only speak to the person in the call centre. They have offered another 'urgent' appointment in 2 weeks time.

I looked on the Net for BT's complaints procedure where it is confirmed that there isn't one.

My question is how do they log complaints; how do they know where to improve their services?

I have now written to the Communications Ombudsman.

Please tell me of your experience because they are a monopoly and if we are experiencing similar poor service, something should be done about it.
Jo