Is BT an embarrassment to itself?

As a business owner in the service industry I understand the need to provide customer service of the highest level.   I appreciate that we are not perfect and sometimes we make mistakes, every business does but like most small businesses we try our very best to rectify mistakes as quickly as possible.   Our clients are important to us, they are “our business” and we appreciate that there are other agencies out there that our clients can use if they decide our service is not what they expect.   Thankfully for us this has not often happened but perhaps that is because we care.

Two weeks ago I started to receive phonecalls and texts from an 0800 number informing me that my request to disconnect my home BT line and Broadband has been accepted.   Great, apart from I had not made such a request.   I contacted BT via Twitter @btcare   and after completing a form that I was sent a link for, I received a call that night from a lovely chap who informed me that he could find no trace of this 0800 number and said it was a fraud (as I did suspect myself) and that there was no note on my record that my line was to be disconnected.

Last weekend I had a long weekend in Brighton and came home to find an email from BT informing me that my line was to be disconnected yesterday.     I phoned BT at 8am and after numerous attempts to find my way around their inane automated system (whatever happened to speaking to an operator!)  I ended up with a girl who said that there was indeed a request to disconnect my line but since I had “phoned in time” that this would now not happen.

Great.  Problem solved.    Well .. No.   At 4pm yesterday I phoned my home number to find out I had been disconnected!   After numerous attempts around the system again I ended up with a call centre who were worse than useless.

I was offered a cheap phone and broadband package (funny how after being a loyal customer of many years I wasn’t offered this before!) and informed that I could not be reconnected for 24 hours.    This is certainly not good enough for me.

I want to complain and I want a transcript of all my telephone conversations so I can complain at the highest level, and not to some floor supervisor in some faraway place who just kept saying sorry but could offer no explanation.

I was told that I could not have a copy of all transcriptions and notes, which I know under Data Protection I can have and then I was informed that I CAN have these if I pay £10.     Wonderful.   BT make errors (huge errors) and are totally incompetent but I am expected to pay for this?    I don’t think so….

So … I have asked that BT call me in work … I expect more than just an apology … and I expect BT to take a good hard look at their practices and policies.

You may be big BT … but maybe you just need a few more customers like me to take a stand against you …. I am also looking at other providers … any recommendations welcome!

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