BT Ireland - A Deserved Badmouthing

oflahero

Here's my experience with BT broadband, just to get it off my chest and to let it serve as a warning to others.

Moved into new place (renting) start of April. Called up BT and said - your option 2 inc. line rental looks good, give me t' interweb if you please.

BT say - no prob Sir, you have to register with Eircom first - do that and tell us the subscriber number when you get it, and we'll take it all over. "So I don't sign anything for Eircom?" "No sir." "And what if I get a bill off Eircom?" "They will subsequently refund you." Good-o.

Sign up for Eircom, get the docs a week and a half later , sign nothing. Phone BT, give em the details, go thru the whole painful oral agreement direct-debit malarkey.

A month later, nothing. Phone BT. "We have no record of such an order." "What?" "I will trace it and call you back." No call back.

I phone BT instead in exasperation the following week to enquire what they might possibly be up to. "Sorry about that. We can put it in again for you and speed it through." "OK fine." "Oh by the way sir, you may have to pay 125 euro as a deposit since you're a tenant." "But you have my direct debit details!!!!" "I'm sorry sir."

Right sez I, I have friends who are with BT, are renting, and never paid any deposit. I'll go ahead only if there's no deposit, especially as they have just wasted a month of my life. Would that not be reasonable as a goodwill gesture? I'll see if I can swing that, say they, our finance dept will call back when ready to go.

Week later, no call back. Meanwhile I've just received an 80 euro bill from Eircom.

Phone BT today - yes you will still have to pay a deposit. No apology for not getting in touch. And no, we can't do anything about your Eircom charges. So - in disgust, I cancelled everything BT.

Upshot - a month and a half wasted, and an Eircom bill for eighty euros (three months' line rental plus VAT), April-June inclusive - one month of which uselessly waiting on a shower of couldn't-care-less-if-they-possibly-tried BT clots.

I hereby urge you to avoid BT Ireland, if only to stay sane.

Thank you for your time. Get your broadband from somebody else.

Sponge Bob

LOL

Neways, to protect your sanity send an email to complaints@btireland.ie and ask them confirm

1. there is no contract with you
2. there is no contract or service on your line
3. there never was a 1
4. there never was a 2
5. you owe them nothing
6. they will never ask you for anything or send anyone looking for a debt that does not exist .

Its insurance becauze I heard of a case just like yours where the beautiful relationship broke down when they rang BT to chase (yet again) and they were told (only when they rang BT and for the first time ) that they had to pay a deposit and they said stuffit why did you not ask me weeks ago when I first signed up .

And then LO !!!! , one day a few months later, a modem arrived from BT and the person plugged it into their phone line and it giveth off a steady green synch light !!!!!

And if you think you are unusual there is even someone out there who put a website up about BT and their 'Deposit' malarkeys

http://www.btirelandsucks.com/

and yet LO !!!!! they learneth not which is the depressing bit !!

nearlyhappy

I second old Sponge there......

You really must try and cancel your order with a registered letter.

Otherwise, and others here will confirm, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day, and it will be one day......you'll get a "pay up or go to court" letter from a crowd of auctioneers that are pretending to be solictors.

I'm sorry for your trouble, but you are now in the land of BT billing hell.


From which there is no return....


Nh

dub45

Its not commented on enough here but I think that not alone is there something apallingly wrong with BT's billing system (to put it charitably!) but there is something equally wrong with the applications system. It is incredible how often posts are made here where the original application has been 'lost'

And once again to remind people if you mad/masochistic/stubborn/stupid enough to go with BT and you are asked for a deposit demand full details of what exactly the deposit is for, in what circumstances it can be lost, how you ago about getting it back and above all else a receipt. Perfectly reasonable requests which any reputable Company would be only too happy to answer. But dont expect any answers.:rolleyes:

Gandalf23

This is shocking stuff.

The most shocking thing is that there are many many many threads similar to this on Boards and other such interweb sites (refer to the excellent link by the sponge one above).

I doubt if anyone reading this is surprised by anything BT do anymore.

Doodee

My father had a bad experience with them today.

Has a residential line in his business, rang up to get a fixed IP (knew he needed a business line with extra charges) and was told it wasn't doable as they dont have coverage in that area. then he was told that it might be possible if he was willing to change over all the phone lines in his business to EsatBT.

He was more than annoyed.

oflahero

Thanks for the replies lads. Though the wealth of warning stories regarding BT makes for scary reading!

Methinks that registered letter idea as mooted above is quite a good idea and not over-the-top at all (as I would have thought before hearing all the horror stories.) One shall be winging its way presently, as will the cheaper version, the email to complaints@bt (cheers Spongebob.)

I noticed there were a couple of columns in today's Irish Times (22/5) on one page regarding the current Alpine climb that is broadband access in Ireland!

Ginger

My own experience

I ring Eircom and get my line installed nice and quick (pre wired and all that). I am the tenant but my brother is the house owner.

I ring BT say can I get that Option 3 thingy please and they say no problems. I go through all the details, voice contract and everything like that. First there was a problem with my address the bloke on the first thing had taken it down wrong, no biggy.

So ring back in a week and a half as I had heard nothing about it. Said they had no order for such an address. Crud.. pain in the ass so off i go through the process again. The next day i get a call from the Magnet rep and says he could offer me a very decent connection at a lower cost than BT. Sweet i think. So i ring BT say i want to cancel the order as I am in the 10 day cooling off period and they say fine. No probs I think, sign up to Magnet.

About 10 days later i recieve docs from BT. I ring them up and ask them what is the deal, i have cancelled. "I am sorry sir, you havent!", " i say i did, i spoke to <rep> on date at time and he said fine." They say oops, well its going through and we will have to cancel it once the order is complete. Recieve modem from BT which costs me to send back.

Ring them again to get cancellation docs sent out. 10 Days no sign so ring again and they arrive the next day. It says the subscription will be cancelled after 10 days from receipt of form. I say that it was supposed to be delivered 10 days ago so cancel immediately and ring to confirm cancellation. Eventually all sorted and I port to magnet (after resetting up my phone line again (free thankfully)).

Recieve bill for 150€ from BT after a month and ring up BT and rip them a new one. They eventually refund my laser card.

Total amount of time 2 months messing around. Absolute joke. Dont go near them

i57dwun4yb1pt8

this may help ;-)


the top brass :

bill.murphy@bt.com

michael.maloney@bt.com

jim.2.russell@bt.com



and :


Michelle McLaughlin

Complaints Officer

Tel +353 1-432-7223
complaints@btireland.ie

jimmycrackcorm

Is it possible to avoid the deposit by saying for example that you are not renting?

dub45

jimmycrackcorm wrote:

Is it possible to avoid the deposit by saying for example that you are not renting?

Best way to avoid the deposit is to avoid esatbt altogether.

secret_squirrel

Just to confirm Im a tenant and never paid BT no stinking deposit.

oflahero

Jaysus Ginger, snap or what. Glad you got it sorted in the end.

In any case, I sent a registered letter as described above (cost: 4.50!) and I duly received a letter from BT this morning acknowledging that there was indeed no contract, no service and no, we will not be billing you. It's a relief to have that on file, I can tell you.

UTV, by contrast, had signed me up with username & password within 3 days and delivered the DSL modem within 5. Touch wood it continues that way... God bless the Nordies. I may turn unionist purely because of this experience...