| Product: |
BT |
| Date: |
19/03/07 (258 review reads) |
| Rating: |
 |
Advantages: Line allows you to use other providers
Disadvantages: Detoriating levels of customer service
I have had a BT line in my name and off for 10 years. Before other companies had access to BT's exchanges the only choice was to have a BT line directly with BT, or if you lived in a cable a line through your cable operator.
The Good
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About 3 years ago my BT line went dead. I telephoned BT on my mobile and they said they had received a number of complaints from people down the road. They agreed immediately to redirect all my calls to my mobile and to refund my line rental for that month. They did this until the phone line was fixed. The cause of the problem where some men digging at the end of the road who cut into the pipes. This had nothing to do with BT.
The Bad
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I've lived in shared accommodation up to last year and so because I don't want a phone company taking a large bill out of my bank account have always paid my bills in cash. (Strangely this has never happened due to honest housemates.) Last year BT started sending bills by second class post with a payment date in bold that was 2 days (including the weekend) after the bill was delivered.
BT's own rules state that customers have 28 days to pay their bill. Yet within a week of this bill arriving they would send a red bill.
I contacted BT's customer services (mostly in India) and complained. They apologised.
They then did this 3 times in a row. I was going to complain to the regulator as I'm aware lots of elderly people will be shook up by this.
The Ugly
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I moved out of a property earlier this year and ask the BT operator to cancel the line because I was moving. I lived somewhere temporarily with my letters redirected to a relative. I discovered 2 weeks ago that BT hadn't cancelled my line. The operator actually said "We thought you were moving to another provider." They have now sent me a final bill with someone else's call charges and a late payment fee for the line rental from the time I asked the line to be cancelled. Obviously I'm complaining and will take the matter to the regulator if I have no joy.
Summary
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Having a BT line if you have problems during the week is good because they can fix them. However due to their expensive call charges you should use someone else for routing your calls. In addition their customer service staff seem to have become less intelligent over the years.
Summary: OK if you don't have to contact them but getting worse
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