BT Customer service

[colin.hepburn]

Yep they don’t care anyone that’s if they ever did there view is just keep taken your mouny I really do feel that the man in the street has on say anymore it is getting to the point put up with it or shut up I feel

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Stratmangler

Calls to 0800 numbers are free from a UK landline, and always have been.

sorry, meant 0845 and 0870

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Greg.

yep, I agree, BT is a nightmare. Their website is so unuser friendly particularly if you're looking to sort a problem.

Recently, my semi detached neighbour and I replaced our guttering, fascia and soffit boards with UPVC. The original wood fitting had BT brackets supporting the phone line screwed to the fascia. The installer advised that they don't deal with telephone lines and we would need to get BT to deal and relocate the wire and bracket.

I spent ages on the BT website trying to identify who I needed to contact. Eventually I worked out that BT is now a seperated company and for exterior work, you need to speak to BT Outreach. I contacted them and they quoted £130 to unscrew the support bracket (four screws) from the fascia and relocate on the house wall a foot below. Furthermore, although in adjoining semi-detached properties, they could not do both houses at the same time. It would be two seperate jobs at £130 per house.

Both my neighbour and I don't use BT. We are on Virgin cable. When I explained this, I was gobsmacked to discover that they would come and remove the cable link from my house to the telegraph pole for nothing. That is what my neighbour and I settled for. Of course, as expected, they couldn't do it as one job. My neighbours wire was removed and two days later, so was mine. Two journeys to do the job one would achieve. Apparently the computer system does not consider practical options

Back in the last bad winter (1991?) the weight of snow on our line caused the bracket on the wooden fascia to pull away for about 2 feet from the house and the line to overhang the main road below. When they eventually arrived I had the devil's own job to get them to screw the anchor (4 screw eye like you say) onto the brickwork below instead of disconnecting the line and calling again to sort it another day. No apology for hanging a heavy line off our fascia and pulling it down and no common sense about relocating it til I got upset.

[Stratmangler]

Originally Posted by Richard

sorry, meant 0845 and 0870

I thought you might have meant that.
Now if you actually make calls over a BT service plan you'll find that 0845 and 0870 number calls are included in the contract, as long as they're within the specified times of day. 0871 calls I believe are not.

Which is great, but what if you don't have a call plan with BT ?

I make all my outgoing calls on VOIP from home, and as such I have to pay additional charges for calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers, which ****es me off considerably.
Why can't the companies using these numbers use the new 03 number service ?

[colin.hepburn]

Well I don’t make a lot of call on my BT line I don’t even use a mobile got no use for one
my BT line is more for my Internet connection then making phone calls the calls i do make are mostly 0845 or 7 I think so have been thinking of using skipe and save on these calls anyone here using it

[Richard]

Originally Posted by Stratmangler

I thought you might have meant that.
Now if you actually make calls over a BT service plan you'll find that 0845 and 0870 number calls are included in the contract, as long as they're within the specified times of day. 0871 calls I believe are not.

Which is great, but what if you don't have a call plan with BT ?

I make all my outgoing calls on VOIP from home, and as such I have to pay additional charges for calls to 0845 and 0870 numbers, which ****es me off considerably.
Why can't the companies using these numbers use the new 03 number service ?

They rely on confusing you as to which numbers at which time of day etc. They sell a suposedly inclusive deal then you have to remember some numbers aren't included. Then you realise they've been selling the chargeable numbers to more and more businesses so when you call you get charged. I'm on Virgin at the mo for a large home package and 3 mobiles and they'll be looking at "churning" me soon I can tell you

Right, call centres;
HSBC - rubbish and an absolute insult that their subsidary First Direct is UK based, thanks Greg, I will look at that.
Aviva car insurance - absolutely awful and I've now switched to Michael Winner.
Virgin - hopeless - the only way is to ask for cancellations department to get put through to UK
Paypal - America somewhere I think, a bit lengthy but worked ok, heaven knows the cost.
Santander - not UK yet I gather but I will be looking there in a few weeks time.
ING - UK and good
IF - UK and good
Capital One - some foreign and some UK call the UK number listed in the small print for overseas calls which is 01 and will be free on an inclusive package...

[pre65]

Lloyds TSB. - last time I asked they had 3 UK call centres and some off shore, but pot luck which one you got.