B*** BT!!, beeping call centres and fudgin Broadband!

I spoke too soon last week when I sang BTs praise for their excellent customer service, much too soon.  This weeks experience has been very different!


Last week when I called BT, by some miracle I got through immediately to a very nice woman who told me that she could see what the problem was and an engineer would be out to fix it on Thursday. I explained that I would be out on Thursday but she told me that the engineer wouldn't need to get into my property to fix the problem. I got home on Thursday expecting to find that everything was sorted and that I'd be able to catch up on reading some of the blogs that I normally follow, only to find that my broadband still wasn't working. I then noticed that my answer machine was flashing and when I listened I found it was a message from BT saying that they hadn't been able to fix the fault as I had been out when the engineer called, could I call again to arrange another visit!


What followed then were some of the most frustrating phone calls I have ever made, I can feel my blood pressure rising just at the thought of them. In a nutshell:

• Firstly, when I called to rearrange the engineers visit, I was on the phone for 20 minutes in a queue before I even spoke to anyone. Eventually my call was answered and I explained that my broadband wasn't working. The person I spoke to ran a check on my line and informed me that my phone line also wasn't working. I then informed him that I was calling on my landline which was working absolutely fine. He still insisted that the problem was my phone line and he would have to transfer me to the phone helpline and before I could protest I was back in a queue.
• Fifteen minutes I was in the second queue before BT phone helpline answered my call and enquired what the problem was. I again explained that my broadband wasn't working, the person I was speaking to then told me he would have to transfer me to the Broadband helpline. Luckily I was able to interrupt him before I was back again in a queue and explained that I had just been transferred from there. This second operator ran another check on my line and informed me that my phone line was out of action. Grr! Again I told him that I was calling from my home number and that it was working fine. Nevertheless he informed me that the problem was with my phone line and he would arrange an engineer to visit on Saturday morning to fix it. He asked for my mobile number so that the engineer could inform me when he/she was on the way. I explained that there was no mobile reception where I lived but they could call on  my landline, only to be informed again that they wouldn't be able to do this as my landline wasn't working. By this time steam was coming out of my ears.
• Saturday morning the BT engineer arrived at about 9.00 o'clock. I explained that the problem was with my broadband and my phone was working fine. He still insisted that the problem was with my phone line and sorting this would fix my broadband. He spent the next 2 and a half hours replacing the line which, where we live, runs underground. Eventually he came back inside and proudly announced that with the new lines my broadband should be even faster. He turned everything back on and, yes you guessed it, the broadband still wasn't working. It was only then that he looked at my broadband gizmos and identified that I had an intermittent power fault on my router. He told me that I would have to call BT again and ask to be sent a new router. I begged on bended knee, whilst sobbing into his toolbox, that he make the call for me as I wasn't sure if I could face it again but he heartlessly refused.
• This next call took 37 minutes to be answered. 37 minutes when I repeatedly listened to messages telling me how important my call was to them and telling me that I could get help on BT.com (assuming my broadband worked). 37 minutes when I contemplated whether I really needed the internet or in fact a phone. 37 interminable minutes where I paced the room, felt my blood boil and was able to perfect my teeth gnashing technique. 37 minutes when I wrote the weeks shopping list and attempted to clean the grouting between my bathroom tiles one handed. 37 of the longest minutes of my life. Eventually my call was answered and I told the operator what the engineer had said. She again insisted on running a line check and quizzed me about what exactly the engineer had said. At one stage it was touch and go whether she was going to take his advice as he was a phone engineer not a broadband engineer, apparently I should have originally requested to see a broadband engineer! Eventually she agreed to order me the part. It should arrive Wednesday or Thursday of this week.

I'm really hoping that the new router sorts the problem as I'm not sure that I can face calling BT again. How can a phone company, a phone company mind, take so long to answer a phone call? I'd also like to suggest that there be an international agreement that no head of state, who has responsibility for pressing the red button that releases nuclear warheads, ever be allowed to phone a call centre, the risk of them destroying the planet in their frustration is just too great.