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I agree with BT being a nightmare. Its 3 years since I last moved house to a new build. I gave them a weeks more notice than their website said was required to arrange a smooth transfer. They took all my details then a week before my move changed the the tranfer date, meaning I was going to have week without a landline or broadband. On the day they came to install the landline, I stupidly assumed my broadband would now be connected. Only to be told they hadnt ordered it, as it was a new line so it had to be installed first. So I ended up back on dial up for 3 weeks to try and do anything online.

In the interest of fairness, they have sorted out any prolems I have had since very quickly, so cant really complain. But there is so much going on during a house move you dont want the hassle of the phones not working.

BT are without doubt the most incompetent company I have ever dealt with when trying to resolve issues with services. The amount of time spent on the phone trying to get simple things fixed was enough to ensure that I vow never to use them where possible in future. I advise others to do the same. I managed to make progress, once, but only after writing letters to the BT board asking for action to be taken.

I feel yer pain Dougie.

Please, don't get me started on BT, oh too late.. BT are a broken company, it is impossible to find anyone who really cares, suspect that even the well protected (from customers) upper management don't. Had to stump up dosh I did not owe to avoid going on a black list.
Now happily connecting with another provider, yet BT have the audacity to slip notes through my door saying "We have changed.., come back please.."

I've never tried to get a reconnection but my experience of internet trouble has been good, the call centre in ' India?' fixed my problems without any hassle in spite of the distance and the language. The thing about call centres is that if the wee lassie on the other end has a Glesca accent, there's usually no problem. If it's an Essex accent, god help you.

Lucky you Douglas.

Aberdeen City Council Finance department got the booby prize from me 2 years ago when I moved house.

After 2 years of seemingly successful payments to the finance department I was inundated with red letters, solicitors letters and calls from bailiffs threatening to repossess all my worldies unless I surrendered the princely sum of £2000 (and extorionate attendance fee's) in unpaid council tax for my property.

Aghast - I contacted the Finance department to protest my innocence and demand an apology and swift resolution of this mistake. I was treated with nothing short of contempt by the linguistically challeneged asian lady on the phone and within 10 minutes of her bickering that i was a deadbeat - I asked as politely as possible to speak with her supervisor. After 10 minutes more arguing about my right to ask to speak to the supervisor - I was introduced to Colin - The supervisor.

Colin intimated to me that my balance had been in arrears for quite a while and that none of Aberdeen city councils correspondence had been replied to - hence the heavy handed treatment. I insisted that i had recieved no letters. I then asked which address my payments had been paying for. * Unfotunetley * - due to data protection laws - he was unable to reveal that information to me - so instead - we went down the ardous road of me going to my bank, fetching the direct debit authorisation number of the payments I'd been making and returning to him with these numbers.

25 minutes later - I am on the phone with Colin and the required numbers in hand...

Colin - "Thank you Mr Gaberdeen, your property address is *ONE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TO MINE*"

Me - "Er... No, that's not right..."

"Oh - really - then what about *Address of the previous home I stayed in*

Me - "Thats the address I moved out of 2 years ago..."

Colin - "I see ... well it appears that your registered as paying council tax at *old property* and *property i've never heard of*

Me - "I'm registered for paying at TWO HOMES?!"

Colin - "That's correct sir"

Me - "So who's paying the bill for my real home?"

Colin - *penny drops* "Oh I see - you shouldn't be paying for these other addresses....

Aberdeen city council - had somehow managed to fail to cancel my direct debit for the council tax for my old propety when I asked them and instead of registering me correctly for the new property - registered it with a house 3 streets away. For 2 years I hadn't notice the 2 payments comming off different bank accounts (one from when I lived in my old house and the 2nd from my new) - so in actuality - I was paying my old houses council tax and someone else's I'd never even met.

What really took the biscuit was when it was all cleared up and it was revealed quite perversely that I had actually overpaid my council tax to the tune of £2500 over 2 years - when I asked for a refund they said

"We cannot issue refunds - the amount will offset as credit on your existing account"

And people ask me why I'd rather live anywhere but the UK?

After our experiences, neither I nor any member of my family would touch BT with a bargepole. I gave up on trying to get my money back.

Just to show you how it should be done. I work in Dubai and moved here from Saudi Arabia in April. Once I had a villa rented and moved in I went to Etisalat, the local phone company and the local equivalent of BT. Signed all the necessary papers one evening at their offices (arrived 7:15pm and was out 8:15pm). They said I should expect a call from an engineer to arrange my phone & broadband within the next 7 to 10 days. 11am next morning I had a call from an engineer wanting to get my phone line installed so by 11:45 I had got home from the office and the phone was installed and working. Just about to head back to the office and another engineer phoned me wanting to get my broadband connection set up. Result was that by 12:30pm (just over 16 hours) I had both phone and broadband working. Pretty impressive I think and perhaps BT should come here to see how it should be done!

I have just recently moved house to a new build. I found BT very efficient compared to Scottish Water! I had broadband installed within a week, whereas water took months! Scottish Power were in between, but very expensive.

Personally, I have enjoyed my little chats with the infinitely patient and charmingly quaint ladies and gentlemen at the Bangalore end of the BT nightmare . . . up to a point.

At least I have always appreciated them when I could understand what they were saying, which was, admittedly, most of the time. However, I did feel at the time that I really really needed to understand them all of the time and for them to understand me all of the time. Mustn't quibble, however, as all's well that ends well.

I cannot resist sharing the following little gem with you, however, from the personal blog of one Ingrid Jones and her moggie, Ophelia:



In case you would like a clue as to what it is about before deciding whether to dive in, here is how the blog entry ends:

"It is now 3.24 pm and I'm exhausted. After three solid months of computer problems - I just want to throw this computer out of the window and into the sea."

Well, we can't all be as patient and calm as the ladies and gentlemen at BT Bangalore, I suppose, which is probably half the problem at least, did we but know it.

I had a similar BT nightmare last year when I moved house. We were given a number which they could not make active. Hours and hours were spent on the phone to an absolutely useless customer service department who bounced me back and forward between faults and connections. We resorted to asking an engineer who lives a couple of streets away to check the line. It took two months to finally get a landline and what they eventually did was activate the previous owners number to us!!! BT have a monopoly on this part of the service. They obviously can't do the job. Is it time to allow other installation companies?

My own experience of BT is such that I would rather go back to writing letters (though not to BT, since their own Correspondence Centre acts as a 'boiler room') than allow that company to derive financial benefit from my (tele-)communication needs.

SEVENTEEN letters to BT, the only one of which was actioned was that enclosing a cheque; even then, the request for a receipt was ignored!

--

The provision of access to telecommunications should be nationalised, and provided with a cap on cost - whether that means a landline, mobile, or radio connection.

#7, grumpyoldmanindubai

HOW do you manage to be grumpy in Dubai (unless it is related to alcohol or feminism)?

I have now idea who refered my comment to the moderators - but in the spirit of congeniality, I'll repost my original message and open the forum to reasons why it should be refered.

DISCLAIMER: It's 100% relevant to the topic at hand - the names of individuals contained therin are not representative of fact, there is no abuse, swearing or defamation. Just my experience with a local authority.

Lucky you Douglas.

Aberdeen City Council Finance department got the booby prize from me 2 years ago when I moved house.

After 2 years of seemingly successful payments to the finance department I was inundated with red letters, solicitors letters and calls from bailiffs threatening to repossess all my worldies unless I surrendered the princely sum of £2000 (and extorionate attendance fee's) in unpaid council tax for my property.

Aghast - I contacted the Finance department to protest my innocence and demand an apology and swift resolution of this mistake. I was treated with nothing short of contempt by the linguistically challeneged asian lady on the phone and within 10 minutes of her bickering that i was a deadbeat - I asked as politely as possible to speak with her supervisor. After 10 minutes more arguing about my right to ask to speak to the supervisor - I was introduced to Colin - The supervisor.

Colin intimated to me that my balance had been in arrears for quite a while and that none of Aberdeen city councils correspondence had been replied to - hence the heavy handed treatment. I insisted that i had recieved no letters. I then asked which address my payments had been paying for. * Unfotunetley * - due to data protection laws - he was unable to reveal that information to me - so instead - we went down the ardous road of me going to my bank, fetching the direct debit authorisation number of the payments I'd been making and returning to him with these numbers.

25 minutes later - I am on the phone with Colin and the required numbers in hand...

Colin - "Thank you Mr Gaberdeen, your property address is *ONE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT TO MINE*"

Me - "Er... No, that's not right..."

"Oh - really - then what about *Address of the previous home I stayed in*

Me - "Thats the address I moved out of 2 years ago..."

Colin - "I see ... well it appears that your registered as paying council tax at *old property* and *property i've never heard of*

Me - "I'm registered for paying at TWO HOMES?!"

Colin - "That's correct sir"

Me - "So who's paying the bill for my real home?"

Colin - *penny drops* "Oh I see - you shouldn't be paying for these other addresses....

Aberdeen city council - had somehow managed to fail to cancel my direct debit for the council tax for my old propety when I asked them and instead of registering me correctly for the new property - registered it with a house 3 streets away. For 2 years I hadn't notice the 2 payments comming off different bank accounts (one from when I lived in my old house and the 2nd from my new) - so in actuality - I was paying my old houses council tax and someone else's I'd never even met.

What really took the biscuit was when it was all cleared up and it was revealed quite perversely that I had actually overpaid my council tax to the tune of £2500 over 2 years - when I asked for a refund they said

"We cannot issue refunds - the amount will offset as credit on your existing account"

And people ask me why I'd rather live anywhere but the UK?

Douglas:

I am very sorry for the problems that, you were having in your recent move....

It is how nice, Customer Service is now....

=Dennis Junior=

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