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The hubris of BT call centre staff

I just post this on another thread but then I noticed that the date of the previous post was 2015, so I have made a new thread.

I have just left BT, and yes it was about their crap customer support. It seems that whatever you say they have to contradict, argue, quibble, and correct everything you say, you cannot be allowed to leave the call having won an argument. As you say there is outright lying as well involved, to cover their lack of technical knowledge - they dont know they dont know and therefore have full confidence in their claims.

They pull one trick after another, one fast one after another; in the last week I was with them their behaviour over the phone worsened as they knew I was leaving I suspect; I was on the phone with a guy, who stated that he recognised myself from four previous calls with himself, he then stated that on the last call I kept repeating "I am still here!" - and too right I would when he was trying to pull enough silence on the call so that he could use the BT rule that if there is a long enough period of silence then the hapless call centre staff can end the call (and keep their job) so I was thwarting that. I then asked what is it with you how many times I have called, why does it matter to you? His reply was a couple of seconds of silence before ending the call.

A woman claimed to be a manager off-the-batt the first call so to speak. That is a rare occurrence so I did not believe her. She said OK I will get someone else on the call, so she puts me in the queue, a couple of minutes later the call was dropped - a long enough spell of silence to end the call and keep her job.

I could go on and on with this kind of crap behaviour.

Complaints - dont make me laugh - the complaint is submitted to the organisation about their behaviour, however, the organisation gets to be the judge, jury, and executioner in your complaint, with the only goal to cover up their bad doing. Bt cannot - just like other companies - give you the result of a complaint; all I get is an email saying the complaint has been closed, but with no indication what the result of the complaint was. I asked, as they kept asking myself what I would like as a result of the complaint, to have a written confirmation of what happened to the person I complained about, the staff couldnt get over it, couldnt move on, couldnt adapt, couldnt talk about anything else, apart from the fact that that would be a bad idea.

BT staff are full of hubris about themselves, and their abilities; they are legends in their own minds. They really do not believe they are doing anything wrong.
 
What was the actual problem which made you contact their support in the first place?

All sorts; there was trouble with them charging myself for paper billing - even though they claimed that the first two bills would be gratis, with the woman who told myself this then writing down something different, to which subsequent idiots just looked at the notes then claimed it was not written down, despite my telling them to listen to the recording!

Then there is the trouble of their website basically press-ganging you into using cookies even though the GDPR clearly states that there needs to be an opt-out option, and if that is not enough the mixing of essential and marketing cookies to which you only need to accept essential cookies; basically they were and still are buttering their toast on both sides, because if you accept the cookies they are making money from you, and they make money from the paper bill as well. I dont like that, I like my privacy and think that I should be allowed to control what goes onto my computer, and that these companies are always taking the **** anyway - just look at this as an example.

It progressed into out right vile behaviour by BT call centre staff, as they try one lie after another to talk away the cookies policy - other companies use cookies, to which I would reply, yes but not like you.

I am basically aware and wont stand for the BS that call centre staff dish out; they think there is nothing wrong in the BS they dish - were only doing our job. These organisations constantly make you play by the rules while picking and choosing what rules they will abide by.

The DPA is a favourite way of embarrassing them; they claim that they are following the rules that they are following the DPA, to which I cannot resist asking that one last embarrassing question - what body within the UK is charged with regulating the DPA? They have not a clue yet have the cheek to try to use the three words to force you to do what they want when it makes no sense anyway - they are essentially pulling another fast one that fails so they make an excuse for themselves which the recording records so that they can again pull another fast one to keep their job.

Idiots.

You might think I am an idiot, but I am aware of call centre staff and their tricks and have developed over time counter measures - each to his own.
 
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I just post this on another thread but then I noticed that the date of the previous post was 2015, so I have made a new thread.

I have just left BT, and yes it was about their crap customer support. It seems that whatever you say they have to contradict, argue, quibble, and correct everything you say, you cannot be allowed to leave the call having won an argument. As you say there is outright lying as well involved, to cover their lack of technical knowledge - they dont know they dont know and therefore have full confidence in their claims.

They pull one trick after another, one fast one after another; in the last week I was with them their behaviour over the phone worsened as they knew I was leaving I suspect; I was on the phone with a guy, who stated that he recognised myself from four previous calls with himself, he then stated that on the last call I kept repeating "I am still here!" - and too right I would when he was trying to pull enough silence on the call so that he could use the BT rule that if there is a long enough period of silence then the hapless call centre staff can end the call (and keep their job) so I was thwarting that. I then asked what is it with you how many times I have called, why does it matter to you? His reply was a couple of seconds of silence before ending the call.

A woman claimed to be a manager off-the-batt the first call so to speak. That is a rare occurrence so I did not believe her. She said OK I will get someone else on the call, so she puts me in the queue, a couple of minutes later the call was dropped - a long enough spell of silence to end the call and keep her job.

I could go on and on with this kind of crap behaviour.

Complaints - dont make me laugh - the complaint is submitted to the organisation about their behaviour, however, the organisation gets to be the judge, jury, and executioner in your complaint, with the only goal to cover up their bad doing. Bt cannot - just like other companies - give you the result of a complaint; all I get is an email saying the complaint has been closed, but with no indication what the result of the complaint was. I asked, as they kept asking myself what I would like as a result of the complaint, to have a written confirmation of what happened to the person I complained about, the staff couldnt get over it, couldnt move on, couldnt adapt, couldnt talk about anything else, apart from the fact that that would be a bad idea.

BT staff are full of hubris about themselves, and their abilities; they are legends in their own minds. They really do not believe they are doing anything wrong.
I signed my father (pensioner) through the call centre,told them he wasn't wanting to pay £45 pounds for 1 device(bought him smart TV for Netflix as lives alone) not a problem the guy said,ignore your bill he said,it will only be £25 he said,let me have a word with my manager,10 secs later(very quick word) now my dad gets stung for £45 a month,will be taking it further(recorded calls should back my case) unless they mysteriously disappear.pure rip off merchants,it's like car insurance,people can't be bothered changing every year they think,so goes up every year,let's sting the old age pensioner he won't complain,picked the wrong guy to rip off.
 
I signed my father (pensioner) through the call centre,told them he wasn't wanting to pay £45 pounds for 1 device(bought him smart TV for Netflix as lives alone) not a problem the guy said,ignore your bill he said,it will only be £25 he said,let me have a word with my manager,10 secs later(very quick word) now my dad gets stung for £45 a month,will be taking it further(recorded calls should back my case) unless they mysteriously disappear.pure rip off merchants,it's like car insurance,people can't be bothered changing every year they think,so goes up every year,let's sting the old age pensioner he won't complain,picked the wrong guy to rip off.
If you ask for a SAR and pay the fee usually £10 they will have to investigate.
 
SAR fees are no longer allowed expect under exceptional circumstances ie abuse by the consumer raising multiple SAR's. GDPR introduction was the reason for the change.
 
I ditched BT retail around 15 years ago, because of exactly this behaviour, I would ditch their copper line entirely if there was a viable alternative, but mobile internet is a bit iffy around here, and the latency for online gaming is insane, ranging from an additional 60mS to over 3000mS.
 
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So lets get this straight Call Cent Hater: you accuse BT customer support of lacking technical knowledge (amongst other things), but the problems you list are:

1. they charged you for paper billing?
2. they have a potentially illegal cookie policy (report them to the ICO?)?
3. you don't like the fact that they ask you DPA questions to prove who you
are?

(b.t.w. if they don't confirm you are the account holder they could potentially discuss the confidential info in your account with a complete stranger, who can then steal your identity.)

Wow, I bet BT can't wait for you to leave! Heaven help them if you ever get a proper technical fault!!
 
BT just pulled a fast one on us 🙄🙄. We had BT Broadband, 1 Mobile, Halo and a home phone with them. Called them to re negotiate since we are nearly out of contract with them. We were reassured that our contract would be exactly the same (No changes, confirmed our halo benefits etc.) Did it stay the same? Did it f*#k. Halo got cancelled, NHS Unlimited data removed from our account, the mobile brought back under the 30Mbps speed limit and the broadband speed reduced to 35Mbps. Managed to ring up again and had most of it rolled back. Just glad to see someone else who has received the same amazing level of CS 🙄🙄.
Sorry for reviving this old Thread :)
 
I’m with BT and I do sympathise with the OP. Some staff are knowledgeable. Most are incompetent and like to throw the T’s and C’s at you when complaining about speed issues.

The best I came across is when the agent tried to sell me a 73 Megapixel package, which was supposedly faster than the Full Fibre 500 I was on. The agent was adamant that it was called the 73 Megapixel package.
You can imagine my disbelief and loss of trust with the agent.
 
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And there was me thinking of getting FTTP from BT, oh well back to the drawing board.
You should consider them

I have been with fibre 900 for just little over 1 year now and its been solid service for me, i have never had to contact customer service for my broadband mind you so i can't say how they do with that.

I can understand not everyone has had positive service from BT but for me it has been really good.

I hope i don't jinx that now mind you Lol
 
You should consider them

I have been with fibre 900 for just little over 1 year now and its been solid service for me, i have never had to contact customer service for my broadband mind you so i can't say how they do with that.

I can understand not everyone has had positive service from BT but for me it has been really good.

I hope i don't jinx that now mind you Lol
Thanks for the reply and advice. Finding an ISP that uses the OR network is limited. I read so many bad reports of Talk Talk and would never ever use SKY due to past dealings with them. I've seen a fair offer from BT for 150mbis speed at £29.99 pm for 24 months and was seriously considering that. I read the superhub2 is a nice piece of kit as well.
Wow fibre 900 sounds awesome, lucky fella!
 
Thanks for the reply and advice. Finding an ISP that uses the OR network is limited. I read so many bad reports of Talk Talk and would never ever use SKY due to past dealings with them. I've seen a fair offer from BT for 150mbis speed at £29.99 pm for 24 months and was seriously considering that. I read the superhub2 is a nice piece of kit as well.
Wow fibre 900 sounds awesome, lucky fella!
I would never say never. I had issues with BT before to the point where I said that I would never use them. A few years later, what happens? The area where I live becomes FTTP enabled and the only broadband provider with FTTP at, what I would call decent prices, happens to be...BT.

Reluctantly ordered FTTP from BT, although they did screw up the order, as I expected.

When I was with Sky broadband, I never had an issue that they could not put right. In fact, I had 100% reliable service from them.
 
Well guys I have phoned up BT and the sales guy was quite good.
Have gone for the newly released "Home Essentials" package with free uk mobile and landline calls and a voip phone to connect to the super hub 2.
£20 per month with download speed up to 74meg.
 
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Sorry to hear this. Had problems with BT customer support in the past. So stick clear.

But oddly, I keep going back to Plusnet. Obvs use OR network. Are owned by BT. But are usually pretty straight forward to deal with. The one thing I would say, is the router provided is absolute rubbish - but they even changed that recently - they tend to use an older version of the current BT router - so maybe can't complain about the plusnet router nowadays?

Hope you get the outcome you were looking for - I kind of lost track over what it was you were looking to get!
 
I can concur over BT and the lies staff tell.

My great uncle, in his late 90's was signed up to BT Vision and BT Infinity without his consent. Now being this age, he was bright as a button, but couldn't hear properly. After getting a couple of large bills, I was asked to call them and see what was going on. I explained that my uncle was in his 90's and hard of hearing, passing "security" was a bit of a nightmare! In the end I asked them for a copy of the recording in which my uncle "agreed" to this contract. They initially said it was fine for us to have this, but then started back-tracking and made all kinds of excuses as to why the recording could not be provided. But they mysteriously started to back-track on the contract, and allowed him to cancel it without charge. It is obvious to any right minded person that they listened to the recording and realised it was mis-sold or the operator lied to my uncle.

There definitely is a sense of we are right, you are wrong. They would quote "facts" as read from a computer screen (ie you are in contract to X date, you are paying £X per month).

Then there is the "phone rent" scam they have been pulling for decades, where older people have been paying a rental fee for a phone which has been long gone. All because they didn't want the hassle of phoning up and trying to get a new deal!

 
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