British Telecom Landline & Broadband

Please feel free to use my name Stewart but not the company name for obvious reasons.

You show a Complaint against BT on your site where the person was set back up after 6 hours - what about 7 weeks no line or broadband.

My residential/ home business line went down on the 17th May - we were told by 151 it would be fixed by the 18th and the 19th etc etc until the 12th June when I then wrote to all BT directors at their home address by recorded delivery. I am happy to share the letter as it compares what BT actually does in direct comparison to their company accounts - as an example I felt they should not be too interested in strategy and should instead focus on a core competence like FIXING MY LINE.

I also pointed out that their glowing Business Continuity Planning to be in a position to handle major natural or terror or virus attacks of biblical proportion looked very nice but somehow if they could not fix a single residential line in 7 weeks - should their auditors really have classed the accounts as showing a True and Fair View.

Anyhow we started to get supported by the Directors Office and a nice lady kept us informed daily that our phones would not be back on today nor today nor today. During our many conversations , as I had plenty of time on my hands as with no phone or broadband my business was rapidly dying, she confessed to being as distressed about the whole thing as I was and she had only been dealing with her own company on my problem for about 8 days.

Anyway to cut a long story short - BT text on JULY 4th to say it was fixed and Dorothy called me the next day to say "Well Stewart am I phoning you on your fixed line?" . I hardly had the heart to tell her that me and my wife had fallen for the same heartless joke that she had fallen for - no it was not fixed at all. Eventually on JULY 6th some 7 weeks later and 30 calls saying "We have not completed the work in our agreed timescale" and bouncing to India and having BT people calling us but refusing to identify their names so I could include them on the next Directors letter we find ourselves with Broadband and a phone but alas not much of a business but not to worry British Telecom has promised us compensation of 89 pence per day - so once I offset the 28,000 I have lost I am sure there will be enough left over to send them a thank you card. Incidentally their commission package does not even cover the mobile phone costs of calling to see if they wish to fix my line today.

I must confess I have had a laugh or two along the way at the pure incompetence - which is beyond actual belief and I would quote the DIRECTORS office as stating my letter was being supported by another gentleman John Wroe but the DIRECTORS office had no address or telephone number for him to respond - could I help - Yes He is one of your DIRECTORS.

And my apologise for raising my voice to the Indian gentleman who called from British Telecom 6 weeks into this fiasco and saying that if I did not pay my bill I would be cut off - sorry I was just a bit stressed at the time, unfortunately he split when refusing to give me his name - which I think is technically against the law set for using the phones by British Telecom.

Unfortunately I may not be the worst customer (And my heart would certainly go out to anyone who has been treated in a poorer way) - of BT the Business Terminators but I sure as hell expect to be over the next few months.

Yours sincerely

Stewart Milne , Blackwood Lanarkshire Scotland.