exxos's Atari, Amiga & retro forum

When we decided to move into a temporary rental whilst our new build is finished, I called BT and said 'How can you help?'

They kindly provided a 4G dongle, which has proved to be ok, even if a bit imperfect. At the time of doing this, I also stated that they must under no circumstances do anything that will affect the main property here, because we are living in an annexe off the main property and that line belongs to our landlord.

So what do BT do today? What i told them not to do and transferred the line for the main property into my account!!

So our landlord will have to put in an order for the main property line to be transferred back to him, inclusive of his number!!

I am shocked at the level of incompetence shown by BT here, and what's worse is that they have no way to revert the change without our landlord putting in a request.

To add insult to injury, they were also going to stop the 4G dongle because 'You have a newly installed line'.

2hrs on the phone and I managed to get the dongle sorted. Very, very angry and disappointed. How can they have stuffed this up so badly!!

I think dealing with any company is s uphill battle these days. I would never go with BT since dialup days .I forget what happens but think it was I tried to cancel my package and ended up paying for 3 packages! :roll: was a epic to sort out and took days each time to even get in touch with them. Never again !

None of my utility companies have been able to cope with me moving out and not moving into my new house for 3 months, it's absurd.

Sky for example, I had been a customer for 21 years, yet I had to cancel my account and send back my Sky boxes. Just no flexibility to cope with anything more than a straightforward same day house move.

Same with gas and electric. Only the water people got it right.

I've been with BT for years as it was the best service where I was living. Unfortunately BT is the only fibre service where the new house is, so I'm stumped for choice. Admittedly it's fibre to the premises, but BT clearly did some sort of deal with the builders.

I am staggered by the level of incompetence they've shown.

Wow, just when I thought BT couldn't screw up any harder, they go and prove me wrong.

As previously mentioned, our landlord had put in the order to swing his line back to his account. They did this yesterday, and at the same time disabled MY 4G dongle, despite notes on my account to say.

After nearly 2 hours on the phone, it turns out that because the dongle was removed from my account, they can't just turn it back on again.

The fix? I have to wait for ANOTHER dongle to arrive today, which DPD aren't delivering until between 16:00 & 17:00, so I am trying to work using 3G on my mobile, which is patchy at best. Though my mobile supports 4G, the signal is even more patchy then the 3G!!!

BT really need to sort out their sh*t,they just have no flexibility to fix their own mistakes. How ridiculous that once they have removed the dongle from my account, they can't add it back and re-enable it.

Just shocking.

:(

I have avoided BT like the plague since a whole "BT Surftime" shibacle. Could never get in touch with them, I ended up with three contracts which they would billing me for in the end.. Only thing I wanted to do was change to Freeserve I think the time. In fact Demon Internet did do just that as well, and is able me on a really expensive contract and send the debt collectors onto me when I refused to pay it. Turns out I was a standard practice anyway, and it wasn't until I initiated suing them that they actually sorted it all out, so glad they went bust. Quite possibly the worst company I have ever had dealings with.. I think BT coming a close second.

exxos wrote: 14 May 2021 11:05 :(

I have avoided BT like the plague since a whole "BT Surftime" shibacle. Could never get in touch with them, I ended up with three contracts which they would billing me for in the end.. Only thing I wanted to do was change to Freeserve I think the time. In fact Demon Internet did do just that as well, and is able me on a really expensive contract and send the debt collectors onto me when I refused to pay it. Turns out I was a standard practice anyway, and it wasn't until I initiated suing them that they actually sorted it all out, so glad they went bust. Quite possibly the worst company I have ever had dealings with.. I think BT coming a close second.

It's shocking to me how bad the whole experience of utilities has been during this temporary rental period. Their systems are just incredibly rigid and don't allow for any movement to help the customer. As for Demon, I heard a LOT of bad things about them. I was with Freeserve for a very long time though and they were great.

What's frustrating is that my actual broadband from BT has always been rock solid, with few problems, and those were usually transient. It's only this house move with a gap between leaving my own property and moving into the new has just put the kybosh on things and shown how badly BT can do things.

If you move from house A to House B on the same day, or within a month, it's fine. If you need any longer it's a free for all on cock ups.

What's quite galling is that although my new house apparently has fibre to the premises, there has been some sort of 'deal' and BT are the only ISP for now. So I have to go back to them.

I've told them they need to refund all my charges since I left the last house and they've agreed. I also want compensation for all the crap, but I guess we'll see about that.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 14 May 2021 11:41 If you move from house A to House B on the same day, or within a month, it's fine. If you need any longer it's a free for all on cock ups.

Jon, is that a British term or just a cleaver means of talking around the issue? Utilities here are similar but not as bad as your experience. Most areas here only have one broadband supplier but luckily in my area we have two decent ones. If I were you I’d box up a box of pesky soldering irons and gift them to the guilty parties. Would be funny watching all the utility workers walking around with bandaged fingers.. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

Demon Internet used to be good, then they got taken over and their competence and behaviour plummeted. There was a mass exodus about 5 years ago (or maybe longer?).

PaulJ wrote: 14 May 2021 14:13

rubber_jonnie wrote: 14 May 2021 11:41 If you move from house A to House B on the same day, or within a month, it's fine. If you need any longer it's a free for all on cock ups.

Jon, is that a British term or just a cleaver means of talking around the issue? Utilities here are similar but not as bad as your experience. Most areas here only have one broadband supplier but luckily in my area we have two decent ones. If I were you I’d box up a box of pesky soldering irons and gift them to the guilty parties. Would be funny watching all the utility workers walking around with bandaged fingers.. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:

It's a British term. It varies by area as to which supplier is available where you live, but since most lines are open for use by other providers, you can usually get more than one option where you live. Fibre to the premises is quite new though and so far BT seem to have a lot of the business for that. They also provide the highest speeds so it's a tricky one.

rubber_jonnie wrote: 14 May 2021 15:17
It's a British term. It varies by area as to which supplier is available where you live, but since most lines are open for use by other providers, you can usually get more than one option where you live. Fibre to the premises is quite new though and so far BT seem to have a lot of the business for that. They also provide the highest speeds so it's a tricky one.

Well that is a better way to deal with distribution I believe... here each company puts up there own infrastructure. Verizon Fioz which I use is fiber to the house and cox is fiber to the neighborhood and coax to the house.