I think I have figured out the way to get BT to deal with you quickly and that is if you get no joy with the Help Desk/Customer Services, go to Ofcom tel: 0207 981 3040, tel them your woes and you will be given a reference no. and a 'secret' phone no. to the 'BT Higher Escalation Dept'. Lo and behold after a fustrating week and £40.00 in mobile calls to BT (land line disconnected by BT by mistake but refused to acknowledge it was their fault) was rapidly offered help and compensation by a British based call centre who actually phoned me back!! When they then tried to charge me for the engineer who came out to reconnect us, again BT customer services hopeless, infact they accused me of lying about the whole event as had no record on their computers. Phoned Ofcom again, went back through the same procedure and had the reconnection cost immediately cancelled. Our contract is now up for renewal with BT, needless to say we will be changing providers!!

I cannot believe how bad BT are; i spent 45 minutes on the phone to India opening a phone line. 5 days later it stillw asn't working, when ic alled them back they could find no trace of it, spent another 45 minutes on the phone to them. At the end of this time they told me it would cost me £50 to open the line as i had failed the credit check (for £12 a month) even though it was fine the previous time. They were rude, lazy and aggresive on the phone. I went through to complaints, they said i had failed creidt check because it was the second application for phone line within a week so standard, and i'd get my money back. Someone phoned me yesterday, she was rude, said there was no complaint, i had failed credit check and no record of my conversation with man who said reason i had failed was because of application x 2 in one week. No apology that they lost my first order and wasted 2 hours of my day, and its cost me £50 so far. I really don't want a phone line with them but are forced to have one if i want Sky tv which is so annoying. I am infuriated.

"...When I called I was told a variety of escuses and lies. They kept on suggesting calling back in the daytime to see if it worked then despite the fact I was telling them it worked then! Basically they fobbed me off at every opportunity. They never called me back when they said they would, ever.

In the end I started saying the following to whatever they said: "This is the Xth time I have needed to call BT and you have still not corrected the problem. Every time someone said they would call me back they did not. "

That could be me talking. I have now insisted we only communication via email or their complaints logging, because they don't follow up on the phone calls, and they recall the phone call somewhat differently to how I remember them. I have actualy asked them to listen to recordings of our conversations, but they say they only record 'some' calls.

However, they cannot book an engineer via email nor will they confirm a booking via email: this is a problem for me because twice they have made mistakes over the phone - though of coruse they say they don't make mistakes.

What I really want to do now - any advice appreciated on the best way to do it - is to record conversations I have with them.

Undoubtedly the very worst customer service I have ever received is from BT. After having paid through the nose for over 18 months for a broadband service that was not available to us (apparently our exchange does not support broadband!), it's taken us from 4 October to now to cancel the cantract - first having to wait until the contract period was up of course. We telephoned every couple of weeks and nothing happened - they still kept taking our money however. We spoke to India who transferred us to the UK when the call got difficult, who transferred us again and cut us off (they obviously can't cope with difficult calls). This happened on EVERY occasion that we called. Finally, after having received a pre-bill for the next three months which was the final straw, and spending hours on the telephone and not giving up threatening small claims court etc etc, they cancelled the contract and sent us confirmation. We have since disconnected all dealings with BT and transferred to another provider all together. We have yet to receive our refund, and wait to see how they will deal with the transfer. This was only dealt with on Friday 20 March after initially calling them on 4 October! I suspect they will continue to take our money as it's early days. We know at least two other people with similar problems and who have suffered anxiety as a result of BT's treatment of them. Hell will freeze over before we ever go back to BT - suffice to say, I truly hope they go bust!

Good advice, I've just emailed the address you gave and I've got my fingers crossed.

I was happy with my bt phone, tv and broadband until it all disappeared one day in late August last year never to return. Now they want me to pay for Sep-Nov anyway?! I've emailed to beg them not to get me on some credit black list.

I agree that ranting on a website won't help me, but maybe it'll put a little pressure on BT to get their act together, which might help others in the long run.

P.S. I'm using the PC at work because I still can't get them to get my broadband working - 5 months and counting....

I have just spent the last two or so months at the end of my tether with BT. I have been a customer, with broadband for about two years. The set up was fine and it all worked fine, with no problems what so ever. In fact i was a staunch defender of this so called British company.

At the start of November our home hub was unplugged by mistake. I don't actually think that this should have made any difference to our service but ever since then i have spent approximately about 15hours on the phone trying to sort out the fact that now no computer in the flat can pick up the wireless signal.

Every person in 'technical support' does something different when they go onto my laptop remotely. It works for five minutes and then it's *** again.

What is really gauling about BT's service is that they take money in advance for a very bad service. All you ever hear from India is "i really appreciate what you're saying" and all you ever hear from the UK is "would you like to have £2 off a month and stay with us for one extra year?" or, "yes, can i take your bank details."

arghhhhhh! is all i can say anymore. Tonight I'll be making a decision about whether or not to sack them in and have a break from the internet.

Lucy

Well it appears I am not unique. I have just cancelled my BT Broadband and BT Vision, and I hadn't even got it all set up!!

We cancelled our previous package with Virgin when BT sent out their latest offer and so took up the phone, TV and broadband package. But since then it has been problem after problem after problem.

Firstly the internet phone arrived late, and was completely mangled by Royal mail. We then waited anxiously for the Broadband hub and BT vision box. My wife waiting in, not once, but twice. We rang to complain and got a rebate on our broadband as we had no equipment with which to use it. After complaining again we received the vision box, but no hub. The vision box requiring the hub to work.

When we rang up we were told the hub hadn't been ordered and would be done so by their next day delivery set up. Nothing arrived. We chased again to be told it will be sent out in a few days. Today we chased again to be told it still hadn't been ordered.

Every time you ring up you are passed from pillar to post, each department laying the blame on the other and no one being able to deal with the issue. Their left hand doesn't know what their right hand is doing. My wife spent 25 minutes today trying to sort it, only to get cut off. She then rang back and was passed around for a further 30 minutes before shouting at them and telling them to cancel the lot. Remember this is a new customer who they are trying to entice from a rival!

We will now get a freeview box from the shops and get boradband from 02.

Interesting last post - We don't seem to be able to do anything and it seems like BT really don't care anyway. With a multi million pound profite they wouldn't bat an eye lid if you went elsewhere.

The regulator can't do anything because they are not breaking laws just poor. After having spent 3 1/2 on the phone one day, an hour the next and 40 minutes a few days later I understand where all the posts are coming from.

I agree to some exent with the last post we need to do something. I created a blog http://worst-customer-service.blogspot.com/ to try and get a volume of opinion. Maybe even BT will openly defend their position.

If I hear the message "We are extremely busy at the moment" again I will scream. No you are not busy you haven't employed enough staff to cope with the volume of calls. How simple is that? Get it right and people don't need to call back.

People need to stop ranting and start doing something about it. Yes, cs at BT can be a bit hit and miss and I am as unhappy about it as anyone else, but talking on forums wont fix it.

The way forward is to email CCEO[AT]bt.com and explain the situation.

Sadly that tale could come straight out of Tiscali too! - I recognise it as pretty much identical in fact to my own experience of Tiscali! Disgusting. I suggest you cut and paste that and send it to as many boards and sites across the internet that you can. The CEO's of these companies must be laughing all the way to the bank, as these are not isolated incidents clearly. - I guess they rely on the great British public's lemming factor (you've got to admit, we keep using these companies, voting in self-servers to govern us and queue up to buy flimsily built box houses etc).

MOVED IN 1 DECEMBER 2007 AFTER SIX MONTHS RYING TO GET A WORKING PHONE OR BROADBAND 24th JUNE 2008 ......

20:41 Called Faults/Billing call was answered by Rashiv. I asked to speak to someone who could answer questions regarding.....
21:01 Chethan transferred me to Mohammed on the technical helpdesk (despite repeated stating I did not want this)....We went around this a few more times and after insisting again and again....
21:17 On hold (Vivaldi)
21:24 Mohammed came back on the line and told me the Customer complaints manager would not speak to me until the broadband fault was resolved.....
21:26 On hold again (still Vivaldi)
21:32 Mohammed came back on the line again, and again stated that until the broadband speed issue was resolved the Customer Service Manager would be unable to assist me......
21:45 Margyia put me on hold while she spoke to Customer Options Team...... they would call me back between 24 - 48 hours later to further this.

CONTINUES FOR THREEMORE MONTHS 22 SEPTEMBER....

17:10 I spoke to Anith who I told I was not supposed to come through to her....
17:22 Anith called back to transfer me back to Customer Options who picked up the call and hung up....
17:25 I called back on the normal number again....
17:31 Call was answered by Robin. I asked to speak to the Complaints Manager, he asked that the problem was I explained again. He said he could see from the naotes th Resolution Team had now looked at the issue and he put me on hold.....

I at this point became extremely distressed and was unable to speak from crying, Robin asked if I was ok. I said no, I did not want to have to go back to technical help i didn't really care what the line speed was or if they could fix it the situation was just beyond that. Robin said it would speak to someone. At this point my husband realised that I was extremely distressed and unable to stop crying and refused to allow me to continue with the phone call. When someone came back on the line he told them to forget the whole thing and we seek legal advice and ended the call.

i wonder what the delusional bt man will say to you in reply.

I am sure he will say BT has the best customer service in the world.

And that we are all making it up.

I say to BT man keep taking the tablets.....

No there are not. I have never dealt with a worse company. Ever. Period. You are expensive and you're customer service is diabolical. You made my pregnant wife cry for gods sake. She used to sell double glazing over the phone. She looks back on those as happy times when compared to dealing with you lot.

Ha, three months, you were lucky. I have had eight months with an unusable phone and unreliable broadband. I have had the engineer a couple times and he gets so far in fixing the line problem then it goes away and comes back.

I phone BT "customer service", stops laughing, dries eyes, who do a line check, they tell me the line is OK, I say I cant hear you, they say it is very noisy but the line check is OK. I point out the flaw in there logic.

I must have been through this twenty times. They have reduced my pregnant wife to tears of frustration. A lady on the broadband help thing eventually agreed just to cancel if we were not happy.

Called again to cancel it, no notes taken, hold on we will do a line check and if we can fix it.....It's like dealing with Vogons except they have less charm and a Mumbai accent.

If you have a problem with BT basically you have no chance. You are dealing with people highly trained in making sure that nothing happens except you go round in circles from an operator in Mumbai to one in Europe and back again.

Just to add to the fun you have ten minutes of hold music between each operator and about one in every three calls just going dead requiring a repeat performance.

Just to add to the levity they then threaten you with a £100 plus pound an hour charge if the problem is with you equipment. Imagine if that was some old dear on the other end getting threats like that.

I must easily have spoken to over a hundred people and logged something like twenty - twenty five hours. Yes we have been keeping notes.

Not only that they are expensive. I am just cancelling the lot. If I have to pay it then so be it. I would rather saw my own testicles off with rusty barbed wire than go through any more of this.

Don't waste you're time speaking to them for any more than is required to prove you have made an effort. Note down the names, times taken, dead calls and so on and then put some claims in via the small claims court.

PS Called Utility Warehouse, they said they could change the line and set up broadband within two days. Not only that the person on the other end of the line was based in the UK. BT said two weeks, if they could be bothered, they would see what they had on that week.

Hi, I'd like to add a different topic of discussion to the thread on BT customer service - customer web space provided with BT broadband.

All of the ISPs provide web space for their customers as part of the broadband package. You can use this pace to set up your own website or publish family photos etc. The ISPs don't normally add adverts as you are paying for this service as part of your broadband package. In the past, BT provided it's customers with space on btinternet.com (with no adverts). However, since they joined with Yahoo, they only provide new customers with a link to geocities (which does put adverts on your web pages). Even if I was not a BT customer, I could go to geocities and sign up for their free web space! What service are BT providing here?!?

I think that it is shocking that BT do not provide advert free web space for BT customers, especially from a company who claim to provide good a customer service, and especially when all of their competitors provide this to their customers.

After talking this through to the people at BT (BT staff in both the UK and India) I am left feeling very disapointed with BT's level of customer service. The outcome - I (like many others I expect) will vote with their feet and move away from BT to the likes of Virgin Media etc.