BT, Orange and Virgin - Can these guys really get away with such poor service?

Hi all,

This is a bit of a rant, and also seeking advice too. I am a BT Broadband customer. I had tremendous issues getting it all installed in May 2008 but finally it was done and up until 31st July 2009 I was extremely happy with their service. I went with BT because I live in a block of flats that didn't allow Sky, and I wanted BT Vision, which requires BT Broadband to work.

On the 31st July my broadband stopped working. I called BT Tech Support and was advised there was a fault on my line and that it would take 3 to 4 hours to resolve. I left it overnight, rebooted the homehub in the morning and stil no broadband, and therefore no BT Vision.

I call BT tech support again and they tell me they will investigate and call me back. I wait a few hours and get no call. I phone again struggling to retain my temper. On every occasion I call I am met with the same unhelpful questions, so now I start to refuse to answer them and want the issue escalated. After some running around the poor guy on the end of the line comes back to me with some shocking information. My broadband line has been cancelled. The order went in on the 10th July and the work carried out on the 31st July. I ask why, he says he doesn't know and that I should contact the billing department in the morning. I've now been without broadband for 5 days.

I call the billing department and they advise me that on their system my line is active and fine. They contact order management and the order management system shows the line as active also. Neither the billing or order management system have any indication that the line is due to be cancelled. They advise me to phone technical support again who advise me to contact billing and around and around we go.....

So I escalate it further and what transpires is even more shocking. It turns out that BT have transferred my line to Orange, without giving me ANY notice at all. Their advice is that if I want a quick turnaround on my broadband to contact Orange and set up an account with them!!! This is unacceptable as I want BT Vision (which still doesn't work) so I tell them to get my line back. They say they can't get the line back and that I have to cancel with Orange (even though I don't even have an account with Orange!).

So by now I am royally cheesed off. Sod them all I think, so I contact BT Vision to cancel and guess what? They want to charge me a £100 cancellation fee as I am cancelling within my contract period! So BT screw up my broadband and therefore my BT Vision doesn't work and yet they want to charge me despite failing to provide the service to me. That can't be right surely? They tell me I can cancel without penalty in a couple of weeks because then I am out of the 12 month period....but that I will still be charged for the service until then.....unbelievable!

So I contact Virgin Media and set up an install date for everything. Broadband, TV, phone line the works. They give me an installation date of 18th August 2009. Cool, I have to wait just over a week but I can live with that. So the engineer turns up to do the install yesterday afternoon. I have taken a day off work. I get paid daily, no holiday pay I am a contractor. The engineer is there two minutes and says they've cocked up the order and he can't install as the cabling isn't done yet!! I phone Virgin, they advise me that the cabling for the 50 Meg line isn't sorted yet (despite assuring me at point of order that everything was in place) and give me a new installation date of 1st September. I seek 100% assurance that it will be installed by that date but they can't give it. So I tell them to stuff it and cancel the order. I think I'll just bite the bullet and go with Orange. So be it.

So I call Orange and am advised that they can't have me as a customer because my line is already assigned to someone called Mary! I tell them that is not the case and that the phone line is BT and is MY line. This Mary woman did live at my flat before me I believe, but that was well over a year ago. They say there is nothing they can do and this Mary has to cancel it!!! I guess Mary had Orange before, has moved requested it again but Orange hadn't updated their systems and set it back up on her old line (thus knocking off my BT Broadband) which amazes me even more that BT just did it!! Apparently I should've received a letter from BT but they probably addressed it to Mary and so I never received it...

So now I am left with very few options. I have contacted BT again and they are trying to sort. It's looking increasingly likely my only option is to cancel my BT Phoneline, order a brand new phoneline and new phone number and THEN get BT Broadband set back up on that number. This will not be completed this month if I go down this route. What an absolute farce.

And if I want to complain? I have to write a letter. They don't accept emails or have a Customer complaints department to phone. What an absolute joke!

[Admin]

Hi There

Quite a complicated tale, but we have heard of similar cases.

If you contact us via the email address expert@broadband.co.uk then we will be able to intervene on your behalf with the broadband suppliers and hopefully help get your problem resolved.

Thanks
Admin

You can contact BT Wholesale on 0800 169 0934. BT Wholesale doesn’t usually deal with members of the public but Ofcom has arranged with them to deal such problems directly with the public.

You may need evidence that you have tried to sort out the issues in the form of call recordings which you should be able to obtain from BT and Orange. Once it has been confirmed that the Orange service is under a different name and that you didn't give permission as the BT account holder, then BT Wholesale can remove the Orange tag.