BT Customer service

[colin.hepburn]

Hi All
Well has anyone had to call BT RECENTLY?
With a problem with their service today I decided to call customer services about nuisance calls I have deen getting lately and wish I hadn’t bothered after spending 10 minutes pressing buttons for the right department and been told to wait in a queue as the operator is busy and I don’t want the bloody operator any way after more button pressing and Listening to **** I am not interested in
I finally get an answer from a call center in India after more **** trying to explain the problem to a wall I am told the service I have takes three month to activate that’s just great as I have had this service now for six months after try to explain the whole thing again still can’t get them to understand
I am now losing it on the phone to this guy this call has now became the nuisance call Bt have now became so impossible now you can’t event complain about the service as there is no department for this now so anyway in the end I gave up and would rather just except the nuisance calls as it is much less stressfully than tying to talk to BT any one else experienced BT lately
Rant over

[pre65]

Have you read this ?

http://bt.custhelp.com/app/answers/d...a-complaint%3F

[Richard]

Ah, that's better, a good rant always helps Just when I'd been thinking about leaving Virgin to go to BT as well "outages" and "scheduled outages" are back, thought we'd left them with Diamond or was it NTL Ah well, I guess they're all as rubbish as each other. What I can't understand though (literally) is all this foreign call centre culture. They save a few bob but wind up their customers big time. I see even Santander (the queen of rubbish service according to the Mail - who reads that? - well yes OK it is a rubbish paper but at least they haven't yet surfaced in the phone hacking scandal - well yes ok only because they haven't yet been caught - maybe - allegedly and all that imho etc) And have you noticed they're all on chargeable 0845 or even 0800 numbers now no doubt to swindle all the poor devils who pay for an inclusive 01 02 service - the whole job stinks

[colin.hepburn]

Yep the link Philip posted don’t work ether
Emailing them does’t work nor phoning the problem here is your are contacting the same people you want to complain about you can’t get passed them to a higher level
I have tried both in the past and got nowhere I think the only one that may get some where is the Ombudsman Services BT is really getting that bad

[Stratmangler]

Originally Posted by Richard

And have you noticed they're all on chargeable 0845 or even 0800 numbers now no doubt to swindle all the poor devils who pay for an inclusive 01 02 service - the whole job stinks

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

[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

[Shane]

I work in a call centre for one of the mobile phone companies. We do all the tech support and more advanced queries, while the basic stuff is handled in Mumbai and Manila. They're hopeless. We have four UK call centres that employ about 2000 people. Assuming we cost an average about £30,000 per employee, that's sixty million down the drain generating no revenue whatsoever. Offshore costs per person are about a quarter of that, and there's an awful lot more of them than there are of us!

[Greg.]

Originally Posted by Shane

Offshore costs per person are about a quarter of that, and there's an awful lot more of them than there are of us!

Yep, but it's interesting that in the current economic climate, many overseas call centres are being closed down and the business is reverting back to the UK. Surely that's got to be a winner?

PS. I bank with 1st Direct (online & telephone account) because I get immediate personal service from people based in the UK who completely understand what I need every time. In the last three and more years, I cannot fault them. My previous banking experience with foreign call centres was an absolute nightmare.

[pre65]

Originally Posted by Greg.

My previous banking experience with foreign call centres was an absolute nightmare.

They may be cheaper to run, but if they don't do the biz what's the point ?

Every single person (100%) I have ever spoken to about offshore call centres reckons they are useless.

[Stratmangler]

Originally Posted by pre65

They may be cheaper to run, but if they don't do the biz what's the point ?

Every single person (100%) I have ever spoken to about offshore call centres reckons they are useless.

Since when has customer service and satisfaction ever been a requirement for BT ?