Sponsored Links

Please Help - I Am Desperate

BT seem to have a vendetta against me. A week ago last Thursady I lost by normal phone line - took a week for an engineer to visit and after much faffing around it was fixed after five hours and he blamed it on someone playing about with the line in one of the BT boxes, they had stripped the insulation on a number of lines and probably caused a short.
Today, Saturday, a BT van was visiting one of these boxes and low and behold my Home Highway stopped working. Called BT and "we can get an engineer out NEXT FRIDAY" would you like your lines diverting - clever, Home Highway to one analogue line, how do I connect my fax etc???
Does anybody know how to make BT sit up and take notice, I have told them I will be considering suing for breach of caontract as the lines have been disconnected by their personnel for no reason. Has no effect on the call centre as they can't even connect to an engineer who could have been working here to cause the problem - even getting paid extra for Saturday working to do it!!!
All answers gratefully received.
 
zantos said:
BT seem to have a vendetta against me. A week ago last Thursady I lost by normal phone line - took a week for an engineer to visit and after much faffing around it was fixed after five hours and he blamed it on someone playing about with the line in one of the BT boxes, they had stripped the insulation on a number of lines and probably caused a short.
Today, Saturday, a BT van was visiting one of these boxes and low and behold my Home Highway stopped working. Called BT and "we can get an engineer out NEXT FRIDAY" would you like your lines diverting - clever, Home Highway to one analogue line, how do I connect my fax etc???
Does anybody know how to make BT sit up and take notice, I have told them I will be considering suing for breach of caontract as the lines have been disconnected by their personnel for no reason. Has no effect on the call centre as they can't even connect to an engineer who could have been working here to cause the problem - even getting paid extra for Saturday working to do it!!!
All answers gratefully received.

Suing them, ROFLMAO.

An engineer has, by accident, disconnected your line. Do you really think that they do it deliberately so that they have to send out another engineer, which gains then no income, and also covering the costs for diverting your
calls to another number.

If you are unhappy at the response time then pay for Priority Fault Repair so the fault gets looked at within 4 hours. I'm sure you would be happy to pay £9.90 plus VAT per qtr for the service. :rolleyes:

PS How have they breached the contract you have with them? Do you have some sort of SLA that we don't?
 
Ah so now we can say that things done by accident don't count? Sorry I just hit your car but it doesn't matter as it was an accident! Does this preclude responsibility, I don't think so. I also feel it is a bit of a cheek when I am told "you can't prove it was our fault BUT you can pay extra and we will fix it quicker". Then "if you can prove loss you can have up to £1,000 compensation" as I said how do I know what I've lost as I can't get it and therefore don't know I lost it.
The bit about paying for a four hour service is equally ridiculous - what would this equate to as their current service is supposed to be one working day. This is difficult to define as well seeing as Saturday isn't a working day BUT due to an engineer working on a Saturday my service was lost.
Glad you are so happy with BT - I hope you have no cause to regret this. I consider one disconnection within a two week period unfortunate, two is a little more difficult to put up with.
 
Sponsored Links
i got my phone line/adsl line count off 2 years ago ( i dont know why ) they took 5 days 2 put it back on i phoned them about compensation they gave me around £5 for each day that i was cut off i dont know if that was because i was on adsl and already paying a isp that i wasnt able 2 use or what but its worth a try
 
zantos said:
Ah so now we can say that things done by accident don't count? Sorry I just hit your car but it doesn't matter as it was an accident! Does this preclude responsibility, I don't think so. I also feel it is a bit of a cheek when I am told "you can't prove it was our fault BUT you can pay extra and we will fix it quicker". Then "if you can prove loss you can have up to £1,000 compensation" as I said how do I know what I've lost as I can't get it and therefore don't know I lost it.
The bit about paying for a four hour service is equally ridiculous - what would this equate to as their current service is supposed to be one working day. This is difficult to define as well seeing as Saturday isn't a working day BUT due to an engineer working on a Saturday my service was lost.
Glad you are so happy with BT - I hope you have no cause to regret this. I consider one disconnection within a two week period unfortunate, two is a little more difficult to put up with.

Your car analogy doesn't stand up I'm afraid, what do you pay car insurance for? Likewise, by pay extra you could have 'phone insurance' so it gets looked at sooner.

As for the £1,000 compensation, that is what is known as actual financial loss. If you still have a phone service, albeit to an analogue line, then I think that you would struggle to prove that you have lost that amount as you would still be able to use the internet, make and receive calls etc.

I am happy with the service I get from BT. If my line did go faulty though I don't think I would be as melodramatic as you have been. It isn't like it is for a lifeline is it?

PS You still haven't answered my question abot suing them though, under what grounds would you sue them? What part of the contract have they breached?
 
Well it may not be your lifeline.
But for people who live in rural area's or run a business from home IT IS.This is a forum btw at least try to help the op.If you can't offer any help only ridicule.Then please don't post at all
 
Sponsored Links
NomaK said:
Well it may not be your lifeline.
But for people who live in rural area's or run a business from home IT IS.This is a forum btw at least try to help the op.If you can't offer any help only ridicule.Then please don't post at all

But Zantos still has a telephone service so it isn't like s/he has lost their lifeline.

If you run a business from home then you should have a business tariff line, and that would get seen to in less that the 7 days quoted.

Maybe if Zantos hadn't came out with rubbish about suing people then I wouldn't have responded the way I did.
 
Hi Tim Boy
New version just for you:

Say you have three cars (read phone lines 1 analogue 2 Homehighway) that you lease from a company and by mistake they reposses two of them. Their answer "You can have extra mileage on the one car for free"....have you tried driving one car in three different directions at once???? Therefore what good does it do me when I had three lines and now only have one BUT all calls could be made and received on this one IF I don't want to be on the Internet!
Breach of Contract:
I have a contract with BT where I agree to pay them vast amounts of money each month to provide me with a service. Now this service can be subject to "acts of God" but NOT subject to being cut off (even accidently) for no good reason e.g. non-payment, necessary notified maintenance etc. The phone service is a UTILITY just like electricity and gas and one would expect to have the same level of response to breakdowns etc.
With an 85 year old mother who has just come out of Hospital from a hip replacement I think I can get a little "melodramatic" if there is no phone line available for her to use as the only working sockets are downstairs while she is confined upstairs - thus meaning someone has to stay at home with her "just in case"
 
zantos said:
Hi Tim Boy
New version just for you:

Say you have three cars (read phone lines 1 analogue 2 Homehighway) that you lease from a company and by mistake they reposses two of them. Their answer "You can have extra mileage on the one car for free"....have you tried driving one car in three different directions at once???? Therefore what good does it do me when I had three lines and now only have one BUT all calls could be made and received on this one IF I don't want to be on the Internet!
Breach of Contract:
I have a contract with BT where I agree to pay them vast amounts of money each month to provide me with a service. Now this service can be subject to "acts of God" but NOT subject to being cut off (even accidently) for no good reason e.g. non-payment, necessary notified maintenance etc. The phone service is a UTILITY just like electricity and gas and one would expect to have the same level of response to breakdowns etc.
With an 85 year old mother who has just come out of Hospital from a hip replacement I think I can get a little "melodramatic" if there is no phone line available for her to use as the only working sockets are downstairs while she is confined upstairs - thus meaning someone has to stay at home with her "just in case"

There is NO breach of contract, BT don't offer a guaranteed fault free service and there is a fault on your line. That is why they have a compensation scheme available to people.

As for your mother, you have a working analogue line so if there are any emergencies calls can be made on that line so yet again, you don't have a point. Why not buy a cordless phone that she can use upstairs if all your phone points are downstairs?
 
Sponsored Links
Timboy said:
As for your mother, you have a working analogue line so if there are any emergencies calls can be made on that line so yet again, you don't have a point. Why not buy a cordless phone that she can use upstairs if all your phone points are downstairs?

well put as if there is a power cut etc for a large area, and bts backup generators dont kick in (old job i used to do as a trainee was check these back up systems all day every day) then there is no analogue phones. best think is to pop and get a cheap mobile for emergency purposes.
 
Thank you both for your words of wisdom! My mother has a mobile phone, given to her by her grand daughter - it sits by her bed she doesn't understand it and can't comprehend how to use it....but not being 85 years old I doubt either of you could appreciate this!
Anyway I have now had my service restored and found that I am "lucky", the engineer who came out has just got back from Wales where some people have been without a service for SIX weeks. I think the onky thing this brings to light is that BT cannot provide a satisfactory level of service through the cut backs they seem forced to make and perhaps there should be government investment to overcome this......although I don't expect your agreement on this, the answer being everyone should move to the towns where it is easier to provide services.
 
im sorry to hear that your mom doesnt understand how a mobile works, have you sat down with her and explained it?

Glad to hear your service is now back up and running
 
zantos said:
Thank you both for your words of wisdom! My mother has a mobile phone, given to her by her grand daughter - it sits by her bed she doesn't understand it and can't comprehend how to use it....but not being 85 years old I doubt either of you could appreciate this!
Anyway I have now had my service restored and found that I am "lucky", the engineer who came out has just got back from Wales where some people have been without a service for SIX weeks. I think the onky thing this brings to light is that BT cannot provide a satisfactory level of service through the cut backs they seem forced to make and perhaps there should be government investment to overcome this......although I don't expect your agreement on this, the answer being everyone should move to the towns where it is easier to provide services.

Glad to hear that your line is back on.

Piece of advice for you though. Call BT and ask for a Free Prority Fault Repair form, they can send this and your mother will have to get it signed by her doctor and you will get the fault, if you have a problem in the future, looked at faster for free.
 
Thanks for advice Timboy. Hardcore when mother gets calls on her mobile people have to ring our landline first so that we can go and answer the mobile for her (true!). She has difficulty arranging the ear piece so it is over her ear to hear and can not comprehend that you have to press buttons to do what is effectively lifting and replacing a receiver - may sound strange to people like us but it is the same as trying to explain how to use a computer to most elderly people, she can't understand it and gets frustrated trying.

EOT

regards

Dave
 
Sponsored Links
6 weeks..that sux

Ive had to have a BT engineer out 2x to look at my ADSL line and they have both come next day, although they were booked by my ISP...dunno if that has anything to do with it?!
 
voip
Would you care to elaborate, BT own the wires to my premises, there is no opportunity for cable etc. other than only using a mobile phone there are no other providers. It may be possible to route calls through another provider but to the best of my knowledge no other company provides the network to individual premises and therefore the maintenance of this is always left to BT.
 
This is true Zantos, however what you have to think about is BT retail hold the cards when it comes to the home user by moving your service to another provider you are making a stand, now if everyone did this BT Retail will sit up and think.

If you don't like BT Broadband you go to another provider, they all use BT exchange Bla Bla But that is choice, you may not be able to change things however by having a provider shouting in your corner may get the job done. Dont forget that providers pay £250'000 to £500'000 to become a provider of telecoms so they dont take Sh*T.

Hell, you think BT are bad Cable companies are worse, however I am sure people would say diffrent about that!!


It just a thought take or leave it!
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules