You must be on the old Option 2 try getting the new Option 2 it is better and cheaper.
Nordlaw

Sorry but I disagree.

I have been installing LANs and WLANs for years and of all the services BT outshines them all. Not one of the other ISPs can answer questions of a technical nature beyond very basic stuff and if you are nice and patient with BT you can usually get through to a technician within ONE call who does know how their end of the operation is configured.

I have happy customers all over the South West using Macs, PCs and PDAs without issue so I cannot understand the problems. The latest customer of mine has BT Broadband with a BT Home Hub from which he uses a PC (Laptop) and his kids use Macs. All co-exist perfectly well and the only call-out I have had for them was to do with a PC that had fried its motherboard after a lightning storm.

BT is a shining beacon compared with other ISPs and their customer return numbers are increasing to prove it. Oh and before I get FLAME mail, NO I do not work for BT and never have done.

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For every positive action, there's an equal and opposite government plan.

I am sorry to disagree with you disagreeing with the forum but . . .

BT Services are . . .ok.
HOWEVER the default position by BT is "it's your fault". That is not customer service.

I had broadband in one house and moved 4 doors away. The line came off the same pole. When I moved the broadband stopped. Enquiries with BT had the following replies:
a. You never odered broadband.
b. You cancelled the service.
c. The line test failed (line was tested the day before it was activated!)
d. It is your equipment (BT Broadband Hub)
e. It is your computer (both a MAc and a PC).

8 Visits by an engineer (different one each time) solved the problem (the 8th one changed a box at the pole).

Funnily I was charged a call-out for the first visit (£55 +VAT) because it was our extensions (we don't have any) which the engineer had to disconnect (we didn't have any to disconnect because WE DON'T have any).
Using the BT Customer Services Roulette game I finally got through to someone who doesn't read from a script and within 5 minutes I was promised a refund of the charges.

What I really hate is: I have a BT lanline, BT mobile phones, BT Broadband - and one BT bill. When I ring for "customer service" I get passed from one BT to another ("ooh it's not BT faults you need it's BT Billing or BT Broadband - they're different companies")

If only I could get rid of BT landline and still get broadband! Unfortunately I live in a rural area so we are not "worth" the investment.

Interesting ... I have had my share of issues with BT ... however if you are clear that your installation is ok and it genuinely is a BT issue then demand a site visit by a BT engineer as I have done twice now ... and they quickly located the issue elsewhere and I was back on-line ... the downside of this is that if it really is your own installation issue then BT rightly will charge you for the visit at some 70 quid ... in this way I have managed to accelerate fixes for my Mac network with dual Linksys wireless routers/hubs.

G

Exactly what I did. By being persistent and ringing on a weekly basis a fault reported on 29 Sep was eventually fixed by mid November. A "box" of some sort had let in moisture hence my broadband not working and a constant crackle on my line; when sopmeone spoke to me it sometimes sounded like a dalek ringing me - granted my mother-in-law was on the other end of the line sometimes :-)

My gripe was even when the fault was fixed by replacing BT faulty equipment it was still somehow my fault that the system had been down and hence the initial attempt to charge me £55!

I chased them up daily and harassed them about loss of service and it being their issue as they had no proof it was mine from their tests and I simply kept calling them and kept a record and after the issue was clarified and fixed by them ... they re-imbursed me all my calls ... my temporary dial up line costs ... and compensation for non-availability of my DSL ... which turned out as usual to be their issue with a damaged wiring cabinet in the street that entailed a completely new cabinet installation ... ever since that happened in April the service has been fine with no downtime.

G

Nordlaw:You must be on the old Option 2 try getting the new Option 2 it is better and cheaper.
Nordlaw

Thats the one im on, I used to work on behalf of BT (not willing to discuss through which company or whatever) and not directly for them, which was in sales. So I am on the newer option 2. still no further communication attempts have been made to me by BT to sort out anything, Im at the end of my tether now. Last time I tried calling I had to put my partner on the phone as i was so angered at not being able to understand a word the guy was saying.

I have also just joined BT total broadband and have found what you say about their customer services is quite true, I signed up for
their broadband in October 2006, since then I have had internet connection problems and very crackly phone line. My broadband
was off for 3 days in October, 4 days in November. December was trouble free, and now in January it is off again, 3 days at the begining of the month and 4 days again now.
and still not fixed. I am regretting signing up for BT's broadband service because it is absolute rubbish. To make things worse
they have sent me two large bills within 3 weeks.

Interesting read, as I just experienced similar problems with BT Customer Services and BT Broadband.
We returned to the UK in December and moved into our house on the 17th of December.
We had signed up with BT in the week before moving for both phone and Broadband services and were assured the phone would be up and running when we moved in.
Now...
needless to say our phone was NOT working, our phone line was not connected until the 8th of January 2007!
and... BT Broadband is still not active... this is over 40 days since my initial phonecall and order!
In fact, I have just cancelled the Broadband order because nobody at BT can tell me how much longer this is going to take.

Every time I ring BT Customer services, I am being sent from one call centre to another. Seems the staff at the phone is very good at deflecting blame onto 'other companies', or 'other departments'.
We thought that if we took out phone and broadband with the same company (ie BT), at least we would not get stuck in the 'It's the phone line company's fault' against 'it must the the Broadband providers fault' routine.
WRONG! Because BT broadband 'is not the same company' as BT phones, or BT Wholesale or whatever name they throw at you...
So 'we can't help you, because it is not BT's fault'
Well dear BT person, BT is the company I ordered broadband from, so you should be the one providing it.
In numerous phonecalls I was told somebody would contact me within 24-48hrs for advice. To date I have not received a single message or call from BT.
Nobody was prepared to give me a timeframe as to when my broadband would be up and running and I was totally in the dark about when my service would start.

And what did it for me in the end was: BT didn't even seem bothered when I threathened to cancel the order and go elsewhere.

If a company treats its new customers like this, how would it treat me when I experience troubles down the line?
No thank you very much, I have now cancelled my order and will go elsewhere.

Oh, and of course I am awaiting my first bill with great interest, as surely I will have been billed for Broadband services never received. (because 'Billing' is another department of course...) Or is this thinking to cynical?

I have to agree that BT provide the worst customer service I have ever come across.

I have just spent the past 2 hours trying to transfer my services over to a new address and have still not resolved the problem. I am fine with the fact that the problem that has occurred is out of their control but would have at least expected a better service from them.

I phoned the first time and spoke to 2 different people, each time having to give my account details and was eventually transferred to a third person where I was kept on hold for 40 minutes (only to find out that the department to which I had been transferred had closed at 6 and it was now 6.15)

I finally gave up with that and phoned BT back and to my annoyance had to explain the situation all over again to yet another host of people, by which point I was becoming increasingly more angry and let it out on the poor person who happened to be on the other end the last time.

At this ppoint I would have at least expected a much better level of service having filed a formal complaint about the service and was finally told that I had to ring back in the morning.

I too am at my wits end and unfortunately have this contract now until November - at which point I will have great pleasure in cancelling and letting the world know how appalling BT are when it comes to customer service.

(Having said all of that I have had no problem with the phone line or the broadband itself, just the people at the other end of the phone)

1) I only had telephone when I was with BT. I had one breathtakingly good experience with it involving a refund of £170 for service work when I had just enquired if the invoice was correct. The other few enquiries I made were a mixed bag. I found I was much better off using a UK call centre. Monday to Friday, office hours, I got a UK call centre.
2) Two people I know have BT Broadband. The one that has had it a long time cannot stop singing BT's praises and the other one has 'no complaints'.
3) If I have a problem right from the start I take detailed notes and always say 'have you made a note on the screen in front of you? Would you read it back to me etc?'
4) In general, I make it a rule to insist on speaking with a supervisor if I am not getting satisfaction. One of two things normally happens here. Either the assistant puts up a wall and under sustained pressure goes to speak with a supervisor herself and miraculously comes back with a solution or she puts you through to a supervisor. If the supervisor doesn't help ask to speak with her manager. THE WHOLE KEY HERE is detailed notes which are easy to do 'live' and a swine to do days later. Drop into the conversation say 'Hold on please I'm taking notes longhand notes' and of course the a real winner 'May I just check that I've got the spelling of your name right?'
5) The vast majority of people reading this will ignore it for obvious reasons. Let me just say that I get much better results, getting things put right and/or compensation, than anyone I have ever been speaking with on this 'situation'.

Hi I sympathise with your experience as it matches my own completely . I won't and don't want to explain my case as it still frustrates me to the point of suicide . As a company they are a shambles , as a supplier they should be prosecuted under the misdescriptions act as they DO NOT provide a service . I am still waiting for compensation for being without broadband for at least 8 weeks . They have no interest in helping you just fobbing you off and NEVER return all the promised calls . I have even been laughed at by someone in India for being so frustrated I almost cried . I wrote a letter of complaint direct to the chairman of BT personally and never even got a reply . They are a total disgrace and are a perfect example of the kind of service we now receive here in the UK . I have been treated better in a third world country . Theres no hope left , emmigrate before its too late lol .

uh oh...BT problems huh? shall i add more to this list?

my partner has recently left for US for a job offer and since he'll be there for roughly 2 years, we decided to move some of the bills in the house under my name as i can then keep track of it that way better and if there's any problem then at least the account holder is in the UK-me.

one of this accounts is BT. after a looooooooooooooooong discusion, i managed to persuade the customer service operator that yes we are partners (what proof do they want that we can provide?) and yes, that we lived in the same house for the last 4 years..and i only wanted to move the account under my name.

anyway, to cut it short i had to pay a £50 connection charge, for what? as a "new" customer/account holder.

sufice it to say i then said it doesn't matter leave things the way they are, they then wanted to make sure that my partner still resides in the same address as account holder! so we started all over again with me having to say it is his house, the mortgage is on his name,i am not a private tenant and that we are engaged to be married next year. then they had account issues to which i replied payment will come from the same bank account registered in their files.

i then realized BT disconnected our account (landline and broadband) after 5days of our discussion. to which i called BT up again and lo and behold the account holder should verify his personal details etc, etc!

anyway, my partner called BT from US to explain the situation and that the account's still on his name. he then cancelled BT broadband service but had to maintain the BT landline so I can connect to sky free broadband service, which included free evening and w/end landline calls.

my partner was charged the 50£ connection charge when they got the line reconnected...after a very painful and loooong discussion, he got the refund back minus the VAT!

have been with bt sinse the beginning of january
i have had no telephone problems what so ever
i have also got wireless broadband option 3(i think thats what its called)
it arrived on the day bt said it was due to come,set up brilliantly no problems whats so ever,added 2 more pcs and a laptop to the wireless connection
went on bt shop and ordered a new phone on the friday morning,paid £5.99 for 2/3 days delivery
on the saturday morning just before 9.00 am,my new phone had arrived
i know i have only been with bt for a short while,but i think i have had an excellent service from them ,so far
the only prob i get,is i cannot understand the asian accent

I think BT customer service must be totally dependant on who you get through to. There seem to be a lot of disgruntled employees. I have had some terrible experiences, and some good ones. If you don't get anywhere, insist on speaking to a senior manager.