Broaband Supplier. Customer Support - Tale of Woe

pleuraXeraphim

Can this be deleted. I will move to Consumer Issues Forum.

Thanks plX

Hi Folks

I have been subscribed to a Broadband supplier (Major player but wont name them) in this country for a number of years. About 9 months ago the trouble began.

<Long Rant>
Having been with the company for 3 years at that point, for some reason my direct debit failed. I contacted the bank and they could not detect an issue on their side. I rang up the Broadband supplier several times in an efort to get my direct debit set up, each time getting a different employee who took details of the issue, and updated my direct debit details. All was supposed to be working and the balance was paid.

Two months later I get another threatening letter in the post threatening to disconnect my my service and saying I owed rental for 2 months. Again I went through about 15 calls and eventually they went through the process of re-setting up my direct debit. I asked them to log my calls and details. I got a letter in the post confirming that my direct debit had been set up and all was okay. Great.

Two months later I got another letter in the post threatening to disconnect me and saying I owed rental. I again had to go through several calls. This time I asked them to disconnect my service as they obviously were incabable of resolving this issue. I wrote a letter to them instructing them to disconnect my account and I settled the full amount owed and giving them 2 months advance notice which I paid for by CC. For a week afterwards I then received 3 calls from the company wondering why I was disconnecting. I told them to check my call records and that they were incabable of sorting out the billing on their side so I was going disconnect. They tried offering me packages and reductions if I was to stay with them, however I told them they were missing the whole point.

Anyway about 2 weeks ago, I again received another letter from them threatening to disconnect my account even though my account should now have been terminated as requested. I rang them up and again you get nowhere with the operatives in Credit Control. I complained and insisted in speaking to to the manager. I complained to the girl (team Lead) that after 9 months and over 80 calls, no one has resolved the issue.

She viewed my account and says she could see the issue in the system and that there was a fault on their billing system which was causing the problem. I made it clear to her that I wanted a quick resolution to this considering the expense of all the calls I had to make and the stress involved. Of course there was no apology but she says they would be back onto me withing 24 hours. Thinking that I had now discussed all this with a team lead I had hoped might get some action.

But obviously no answer within 24 hours. I rang back every day after and they would not put me on to the team lead, each time they would say that they would handle my request but nothing would happen. The last few times I have rung I was told that they have a 48 hours callback system and that I would just have to wait. This was never mentioned in the 9 months about this before but suddenly they start using it . Of course there was no phone call within 48 hours or indeed the past week.

To make matters even worse. When looking for IT support on the account they get it mixed up with my parents account. These accounts have seperate Physical locations, different phone numbers, account numbers everything. When they would go to ring me up they would ring my parents instead using their number and threaten them. My parents are furious as have nothing to do with this and I dont live at home for that matter.
Also to note I have on at least 5 occasions instructed them with which number was to be used in contacting me and no other. And still they ask me what number I want to be contacted on and they still get it wrong. No matter how times I have tried to resolve this there has been no response from them other than it should not be possible to get the accounts mixed up. So you can imagine the frustration when you ring up their tech support about a fault on my line and they start telling me that I am mistaken and that the line is working. All becaus they are looking at a different line. No amount of explaining can seem to get through to them.

My parents have also experienced similair woes. Their broadband has died twice in the past 4 months with the same supplier and you get no where in trying to get back up and running.

And finally I have repeatedely asked for them to send me out my statements which they have not done. So I have no idea when the bill is due or how much for.

</Long Rant>

Has anyone any advice in getting this issue resolved. No matter how many times I ring I have always been given the run around.

Can I complain them to Comreg ? Or should I talk to a solicitor ?


Cheers

Jumpy

I dont think there is an issue with naming companies on this forum. Sometimes there are people on here who might be able to help you via PM.
Also write a letter to them using registered post, that cant really be ignored like a phone call can.

pleuraXeraphim

Thanks Jumpy. Unfortunately I didnt send by registered post so I have no way of proving that it was sent. I did insist each time though that details of the calls were logged to the system on my account. Not that I have even been able to establish that end of things yet.

Under the freedom of information act can I obtain that information which should be on my account? Surely it cant be too hard for them to check the call details and act on it.

The company in question is BT.

Cheers Dave

chopperbyrne

From the initial post it was fairly easy to tell that it was going to be BT.

I was with them for one month because the way the flat I was living in was wired the modem never synched.

I cancelled and explained why which they were understanding about why I wanted to cancel, but said they'd send a new modem just in case. The new modem was the same so the account was cancelled and I paid for the line rental. I wasn't charged for the broadband as it never worked.

Paid up and everything was fine.

Two months later I get a bill. I rang up and said that the account was cancelled. The girl apologised and said she'd remove me from the system so it doesn't happen again.

Two months later I get a threatening letter and another bill saying I'm overdue. Ring up again, get an apology and get told I'm being taken off the system. No explanation as to why it wasn't done in the first place.

This repeated for the next six months.

Their billing is handled by BT UK in the north somewhere and they simply don't care about BT Ireland customers.

Excellent products and pricing, but their billing department is notorious for being terrible.

Steffano2002

Not surprising... BT have the WORST Billing Department on the planet!

When I was with BT and cancelled they had to refund me a certain amount. I probably contacted them 20 times... Three years later, I'm still waiting...

My sister currently has BT and she has never been able to access her online bills. She rang numerous times, nobody seems to be able to help her...

Absolutely useless...

vibe666

unfortunately it seems to be a common story with BT. when i was with them they actually kept taking money off me via direct debit even though I had cancelled it. many people will tell you that's not even possible, but they have the ability to create a paperless direct debit mandate and it gets abused something chronic. once they have your bank details they can whip it out from under your nose and even the banks seem powerless to stop it (or so my bank told me when i was repeatedly cancelling it).

even their complaints department is useless and failed to address my issues and comreg were even worse, refusing to deal with it "until i had been through BT's complaints procedure" even though half my problem was that I wasn't even able to make a complaint sucessfully with them.

it took an email to the MD who passed it on to their head of CS in the end to get it fixed, but I did get it sorted and even managed to get them to send a letter of apology to my bank.

unfortunately, he's since jumped ship, so that's not even an option any more.

Cabaal

This is in consumer issues already, locked!