Once upon a time ....
I had a fault on the BT server since 30th July 2012 . I upgrade from infinity 1 to 2 fibre optic Broadband. Since then my connection has broken down two or three times a week. I have been battling to get this fault fixed and have encountered the worst customer service ever.
I phoned the Technical help desk countless times and after a waiting 20 to 30 minutes I have explained my the problem that yet again the remote host has disappeared for hours or sometimes 30 forty minutes. My purpose is to report the breakdown in connection so that engineers in Portsmouth can discern a the pattern and work out a solution. Simple - OH NO - the staff have a formula which they worked to:
"Is the computer switched on. "
Have you got your computer/router plugged in.....
Can you check your leads are in.............
They have talked over me I assumed that as I was phoning about the same fault it would be logged under one fault number.
As the disconnection seems to right itself eventually sometimes when it did I would report this to the technician some didn't listen and carried on, but the more canny ones did a quick speed test and I am sure reported they had fixed the fault.
Then BTCare on Twitter picked up my tweets to friends and galloped in to rescue me. That proved difficult as they wanted the fault number as they did not recognise the reference I hd given. I called a BT Operator she confirmed the fault number was right and as an aside commented.
"you have have had a lot of faults"
No one I cried, One persistent intermittent fault on the BT server which rights itself for a while and then the remote host disappears again.
I felt like the guy in Stevie Smiths poem Not waving but drowning
Drowning was how I felt, but hey BTCare were going to rescue me and sort the problem it was OK.
Oh sigh they did not.
As BTCare did not recognise the fault number I filled in a Twitter form. They told me they would "sort i and get back to me soont". Did they heck no. First there was the email that did not arrive in my email inbox a delay of 48 hours before my cries to BTCare "how long is soon" were answered. This was followed by an email stating..
"Your system has been working perfectly for ten days"
On the 23rd and 26th of August my broadband connection had disappeared for at least couple of hours. On the 26th I had a text message that a close family friend who was in a hospice had arranged a web conference call to speak to all of us. I had no connection to the Internet so I could not log in and hear him talk to us and I could not speak to him. He died two days later.
I felt helpless and hopeless.
I wanted to leave BT - enough was a enough. I arranged to move to Plusnet which is a independent Company based in Yorkshire. But I cannot move because I am locked in to a contract with BT until January 31st 2014.
BTCare eventually did admit they could see the disconnections by the server on their system on the dates I gave. Since then I have continued reporting faults.
Next I was asked for a screen shot of my BT Yahoo mail page which I sent. 60 hours later I got an email from a Technican
Thank you for your email dated 10th of April 2009 and he proceeded to give me a lesson in computer basics
I sent that email to Sir Michael Rake Chairman and he replied.
" I will have this looked into for you today as that email sent to you was not right as you know"
it seemed that rescue was at hand.
Then I got a text message from no company name, no person's name, number withheld,
"Thanks for telling us about your complaint we will get back to you in the next 10 days."
It was then I realised that I was no David all my shots at getting a solution had failed and I was in fact drowning.
This battle with British Telecom has left me feeling so gloomy I need to stop hoping for rescue and just give up.
Mind you I email Sir Michael Rake the contents of the text message!
PS. I came in this evening and found a very strophe email from Dave at BTCare in which he threw all his toys out of the pram. I threw them back in for him
Then I found out he was the guy who was going to decide if I could cancel my contract without paying a cancellation fee - hands up I give up
PS Hazel Tree story Tellers want me to write this account as a modern fairy tale, Watch this space.
Update Perhaps I am a David BT withdrew the contract with no charge and also sent me a cheque in compensation. 24/11/12
With Reiki blessing to all
MerryB
Picture Google Giff
