Mis-selling first Talk-Talk, now BT...

[MM]

others sticking with BT for over 30 years. Originally, I had four lines: Home, business in and business outgoing then facsimile. We also had one for a second home in Anglesey.  All went well for about 15 years and then the prices went up so first the facsimile went and I used the telephone line for the odd facsimile. I regualrly paid for all the bills with one cheque.  Then in came electronic billing so I did the same on my main business number.  What did BT do?  gave me a huge credit on the paid for number - 3x the amount needed to pay it and promplty cut off the other two phones.  Tried to charge a fee for reconnection.  Took an hour or four to sort that out.  Told them if they could not sort out a payment meithod whereby I paid my BT bill with one transfer I would get rid of two of the other phones. Did they bother? Couldn't give a flying f...  So that is what I did.  They lost out on quite a lot o

line rental is 3x the call charges but also are charging me £5 (now£9) for NOT  being on DD because I pay quarterly by electronic transfer.  No paper - no cheques - no cost - It goes right into their bank account (or more accurately their sub contractor who they pay to collect the money) Next they alter the existing contract and superimpose a late fee of £13 if you do not pay promptly.  I checked out my original paper contract which being anal I have from 30 years ago - no such clause.  I wrote to them last May and told them they needed to pay me £250 pounds for my lossses to date (time spent phoning India etc) and I was not going to pay rental as a business from that date but that I would retain a private home line payable one year in ADVANCE at £100 ( instead of £120) and if they could stomach that I would stay with them.  I sent that letter in late May electronically where the promise was that as

guessed - FA.  I  wrote a hard copy a month later after several electronic chase ups. Nothing. I phoned India and "she" ( Is it not funny that they all have British names with accents you cannot  understand?) gave me an oral assurance that my letter was received and being attended to in Sept when the quarterly bill was due and I also told her that I was only going to be paying at the home phone rate I offered if I stayed.  Since then all I have heard is a deafening silence and Heaven be praised no bills and a working phone.  Who is running that business? A moron.  I have set up Zen to go to if the proverbial hits the fan and for sure as eggs is eggs the Anglesey house will go as well.  B.T. had a really loyal customer in me giving them a four figure sum in phone fees at one point and they have managed to piss me off so much I go out of my way to recommend others to leave them.

Not Zen. Zen are totally excellent.

MM

[tony sayer]

In article , MM scribeth thus

Yes we came from another ISP who blamed BT and BT blamed them over a long running fault. Zen sorted it in Two days;)...

Thats if you include the peoples republic of Rochdale in the UK;-)..

Indeed. My only concern is that one day they'll sell out;(...

[tony sayer]

In article , Mark scribeth thus

Go and have a look at Zen minimum period One month. Why not try it and see?..

[Man at B&Q]

No, nor do I expect people to repost the whole lot.

MBQ

[John Rumm]

I was worried that plusnet would be assimilated into BT when they got swallowed. So far at least they are still reassuringly Sheffield with not a hint of BTishness about them.

(IDNet are another Zen like ISP in terms of service)

[Andy Burns]

I considered cutting it out, but then thought the O/P might not realise what the message looked like. As it was, making it format=flowed changed it anyway ... send me the bill for your 4k excess traffic :-)

[George Weston]

That sort of thing is one of the reasons for my inertia in moving my phone service away from BT. At least, the devil you know and all that... I'm happy with my anytime calls package and direct debit set-up, no problems so far and no worries about call charges, except to mobiles, which I avoid if possible anyway. There's also the (perhaps perceived) advantage of BT's excellent automated fault-reporting system. Just dial 0800 800 151 and go through the system. It just works (for me, at any rate). Having said all that, I moved my internet connection away from BT many years ago to Plusnet, for three reasons. The first was cost. BT was (still is?) much more expensive than anyone else for what you get. Secondly, the BTYahoo email system was very clunky (do they still use that system?). And last but not least was the abysmal Indian call-centre, which drove me up the wall. The one big advantage with Plusnet, from my point of view, apart from cost, is having access to their Sheffield call centre and being able to converse with someone who speaks and understands plain English!

YMMV of course...

George

[Bruce]

I too have been very, very lucky with BT. Had a telephone since 1976 (moved around the UK several times) and internet since 1997. One major fault which affected most of Northern Orkney earlier this year (lightning strike on exchange) but that's it.

[Clive George]

others sticking with BT for over 30 years. Originally, I had four lines: Home, business in and business outgoing then facsimile. We also had one for a second home in Anglesey. All went well for about 15 years and then the prices went up so first the facsimile went and I used the telephone line for the odd facsimile. I regualrly paid for all the bills with one cheque. Then in came electronic billing so I did the same on my main business number. What did BT do? gave me a huge credit on the paid for number - 3x the amount needed to pay it and promplty cut off the other two phones. Tried to charge a fee for reconnection. Took an hour or four to sort that out. Told them if they could not sort out a payment meithod whereby I paid my BT bill with one transfer I would get rid of two of the other phones. Did they bother? Couldn't give a flying f... So that is what I did. They lost out on quite a lot o

line rental is 3x the call charges but also are charging me £5 (now£9) for NOT being on DD because I pay quarterly by electronic transfer. No paper - no cheques - no cost - It goes right into their bank account (or more accurately their sub contractor who they pay to collect the money) Next they alter the existing contract and superimpose a late fee of £13 if you do not pay promptly. I checked out my original paper contract which being anal I have from 30 years ago - no such clause. I wrote to them last May and told them they needed to pay me £250 pounds for my lossses to date (time spent phoning India etc) and I was not going to pay rental as a business from that date but that I would retain a private home line payable one year in ADVANCE at £100 ( instead of £120) and if they could stomach that I would stay with them. I sent that letter in late May electronically where the promise was tha t as

You guessed - FA. I wrote a hard copy a month later after several electronic chase ups. Nothing. I phoned India and "she" ( Is it not funny that they all have British names with accents you cannot understand?) gave me an oral assurance that my letter was received and being attended to in Sept when the quarterly bill was due and I also told her that I was only going to be paying at the home phone rate I offered if I stayed. Since then all I have heard is a deafening silence and Heaven be praised no bills and a working phone. Who is running that business? A moron. I have set up Zen to go to if the proverbial hits the fan and for sure as eggs is eggs the Anglesey house will go as well. B.T. had a really loyal customer in me giving them a four figure sum in phone fees at one point and they have managed to piss me off so much I go out of my way to recommend others to leave them.

I read it too. He'll find all the telcos are the same. The key problem is his reluctance to go DD, and that IMO is a foolish move.

[chris]

Which is why you shouldn't base your judgement on anecdotes, but proper large scale surveys e.g.

none are perfect, they are a better judge than what a handful of people may or may not say.

From the above it's clear that Talk Talk is by far the worst for landline with the rest being a much of a muchness. Whereas for BB it's more of a spread with TalkTalk worst and Virgin best, but all are improving apart from BT which is getting worse.

Me too, but I also moved my landline. My main reasons were not having to agree to 12 month contracts, inclusive international minutes (with Anytime+) and showing BT that they are in a competitive market place where customers can move when they see themselves being shafted.

Yup. Plus they're helpful and there's no lag on a crappy line.

[MM]

Just got the Zen Newsletter for October:

"Zen Internet wins its eighth PC Pro Best ISP award."

MM

[John]

BT offered me a very good deal when I told them I was leaving to go to Sky, almost matching the deal I would have got had I done so.

Just under £27 a month, unlimited broadband, anytime phone package. It was good enough to enable me to stay.

They got the billing messed up for the first 3 months, but I phoned up eveytime to complain, and it was sorted.