My BT broadband nightmare... turns out it should never have happened

Sapele · 23-02-2006 12:53pm

Thanks for the good advice dub45, I never thought about the registered letter to the chief executive, but ill certainly do that. They never advised me about anything, they knew there was a dispute about a missing payment but they still went ahead with the DD anyway....

What I dont fully understand is that they ring me telling me my direct debits were not going through (bank now tells me the DD was always active), i pay by credit card, then they take the money out a few months later by DD, sounds to me like the old one two sucker punch ....

There appalling full stop ... ill post any updates with the problems

Edit: good idea 2 dinosaur

IT Loser · 23-02-2006 9:05pm

I had a similar problem to that mooted by y'all

Tried to sign up to Talk Plus.....and failed. The Application was "In Progress" for 1 month....with no sign of qualification, so I rang them.

Their excuse: I had selected "OTHER" from the list of options under the domicile heading. Their rep agreed that there should be more divisions

[as it is I think its "owner" "tenant" or "other"...pick "other" and you get shafted. Convey the premises into your name and hey its all good...]

Finally got it all sorted and an application for Talk Plus, Line Rental and 3Meg BB is on the way, guy told me to just ring him in 2 weeks to nail it down.

K-Fella · 24-02-2006 10:20pm

Glad to see I'm not the only one having these kind of problems with BT.

It took over 4 months to get my service setup. I have 2 lines and they originally put bb on the wrong line.

Since having it setup (on the correct line), I've received 3 bills with extra hidden charges (€180, €145, €115 - when it should be €80).

For the last 2 weeks my connection has been dropping because of upgrades. Apparently my line (which is only 10 years old; if even) is incompatable with the upgrades. I'm still waiting for the line to be downgraded.

I originally wanted to go with Smart Telecom but my local exchange hasn't been setup by them yet. I'm seriously considering leaving BT, but I expect that to cause me more headaches... sheesh.

In closing..... BT are a useless, hopeless bunch of eejits that can't get anything right!

Sapele · 25-02-2006 2:07am

In closing..... BT are a useless, hopeless bunch of eejits that can't get anything right!

Yes they are, there is no doubt they are a body of knuckleheads, if something goes wrong with your BT billing (it happens a lot) get ready for a major HEADACHE, my advice give them a wide birth, a VERY wide birth, once they have your money they don't care, honestly they really don't....

philologos · 25-02-2006 10:25am

I think BT have managed to sort a lot out lately though, I find their customer service is a lot better now

dub45 · 25-02-2006 12:07pm

Jakkass wrote:

I think BT have managed to sort a lot out lately though, I find their customer service is a lot better now

In view of the posts above and the most recent threads where bt seem to admit that they have got this month's bill wrong (yet again!) perhaps you could tell us exactly what you mean by 'sort out a lot lately' and what firm evidence you are basing this on?

Wertz · 25-02-2006 12:23pm

For the last 2 weeks my connection has been dropping because of upgrades. Apparently my line (which is only 10 years old; if even) is incompatable with the upgrades. I'm still waiting for the line to be downgraded.

Ditto. 3 mails to CS, several unanswered calls to the robot at 1904....seemingly no caring that their flagship domestic product simply doesn't work. Seems when I try and log a fualt with their online system, the system tells me I have NO services with BT that I can log a fault for (WTF?)....they're not shy about billing me for those "non-existant" services every two months though...
Trying to get a downgrade myself, but since that (eventually) means a cut in the price I pay, they don't seem bothered about getting back on to me.

Why did they go ahead and push an upgrade onto users whose lines were already on the outer limits of operability?

Sponge Bob · 25-02-2006 10:18pm

Wertz wrote:

Ditto. 3 mails to CS, several unanswered calls to the robot at 1904....seemingly no caring that their flagship domestic product simply doesn't work.

The Consumers Association are currently on the case of BT , see this story on ENN yesterday

http://www.electricnews.net/news.html?code=9671650

Were one inclined one could use the communications channel thats evidently opened between the Consumers Association and BT in recent weeks to progress the resolution your case deserves.

CC to info@comreg.ie but ensure that you tell Comreg the Consumer Association is getting it or Comreg will do nothing as usual .

The upgrades that were not upgrades are eircoms fault but the billing sure ain't

30 new BT customer service droids with no training and no billing system will last until Easter and then piss off sharpish like so many 1000s (literally) of their predecessors in ESAT BT have done .

Comreg is aware of BT billing since 1997

Wertz · 26-02-2006 1:05am

Thx for the tip....looks like I'll have to try this route as well, since I can't get any sort of response from normal channels let alone a resolution.

49 connetion drops since logging on at 11 this morning...those don't include synch loss of which I 'd say there's been twice that again...

surveys · 10-03-2006 3:51pm

Don't ever sign an ESATBT direct debit. ! If anyone reads this and is thinking of doing it - don't. ! I have a 4" thick file on my problems with Esat. I would not know where to start, or to end, when trying to explain to you guys about my problems. Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong, and in the process I have written to MD's CEO's and even got Comreg to accept my complaint and send an official complaint to ESAT. I recently went through the saga of not receiving ten (10) online bills for part of 2004 and the whole of 2005. ! They ended up admitting it was their fault, and then sent me a bill for €850 !! I refused to pay it, of course, and eventually ended up with an agreement with "Credit Control" to pay off a certain amount each month. I made two monthly payments then suddenly "boom" another direct debit amounting to €886 was debited to my bank account. ! This was partly the banks fault as I had naturally instructed them NEVER to pay anything to ESAT. This latest incident is only the tip of the iceberg, my problems go way back right to my first day of signing up in 2003, and are very similar to some of the posts I have read here, only 10 times worse. I have recently obtained the name and address of the Director who handles "European Operations" in London, and am considering writing to him, and sending him the whole 4" thick file. I would have left ESAT a long time ago, but to go where ?? Eircom ? They are as bad, if not worse. ! I recently had a visit from an Eircom sales Rep wanting to take my business back, but I am afraid to do so as I also have a 3" thick file of complaints about them, which I had to endure before signing up with ESAT. I have to admit that my broadband connection with ESAT is superb. I have no 'technical' problems at all, as I have an average connection speed of 700 KBSec, which I think must be very good, but the billing and administration is, and has been, a really awful nightmare. !
I would suggest that if anyone is forced to sign a D/Debit in order to sign for the ESAT service, that they cancel it with the bank after the first month. ! If not then ESAT will just charge whatever they like, whenever they like. !
Does anyone have any ideas about a good broadband company to join ??

Sponge Bob · 10-03-2006 4:05pm

700Kb a sec is like a 5 Mbits connection.

Smart will do you 6Mbits for €65 incl vat
Magnet do something around that , maybe even up to 8Mbits for ???
Digiwebs heavy user ADSL packages are supposed to be good value for 5Mbits against eircom prices
NTL may have 5Mbits soon for around the Smart price.

depends where you are, most of the country can only get the Digiweb one but they are all in Galway and Dublin cities.

surveys · 10-03-2006 4:46pm

Thanks Bob. I'm in Dundalk, and have tried a company who have wireless b/band but my area is down by the sea and cannot get 'line of sight'.
I find this speed business a bit complicated. ! My connection says it is connected at 100MBPS. ? I recently did an internet test and it reported back that my speed was 2.2MBPS. ? I know there is a difference in 'bits' and 'bytes' and there are 8 bits in one byte, but is 2.2 MBPS in Bits or Bytes ?

Incidently I have noted MANY posts on the whole site about complaints to ESAT and terrible billing and terrible administration, would anybody else like to send me their files and I will include them in my submission to the Director in London ? Why don't we all get together and parcel up all our files and send him the lot ?? "Seriously". ! It seems to me that ESATBT in Dublin have to be bypassed and that nothing will get better until BT HQ in England is alerted and told exactly what is going on ? Lastly, I am new to this 'forum' and 'thread' business, so how does one keep track of a thread like this one so that one can return to see new postings ? 'Bookmark' it ?

RuggieBear · 10-03-2006 5:15pm

surveys wrote:

Lastly, I am new to this 'forum' and 'thread' business, so how does one keep track of a thread like this one so that one can return to see new postings ? 'Bookmark' it ?

withi your user control panel you can set it to subscribe to anything you post on. Alternatively, you should see thread tools at the top of each thread...in there is a link to subscribe to this thread

Sponge Bob · 10-03-2006 7:00pm

Digiweb are the only national DSL operator based outside Dublin , in Dundalk as it happens , so you can always drop in if a billing issue gets out of hand.

They are as competitive as BT in the high end home DSL and the business DSL packages , typically 3-5 mbits rather than 2.2 mbits

You can transfer from one to t'other with minimal downtime once you find someone in BT who understands Biotstream Port Transfer forms aka BTS forms

Sapele · 10-03-2006 7:10pm

surveys, that problem you describe sounds very similar to the one I had (have). In my case DD's were also not taken for over a year, a bill had built up which I paid off by credit card, then the money was mysteriously also taken from my account by DD. Therefore I ended up paying the bill twice. I'm still waiting for the money to be returned to me. esatBT's abuse of the DD system once again. I don’t have a file as such, just what I have wrote on boards such as this one ..... and my email to comreg

If you are sending off something to the "big guy" in London, I could forward the email I sent to Comreg to you, detailing what happened to me. However it wouldn’t surprise me at all if we found out they were the exact same over there as they are here... complete knuckleheads :eek:

Sponge Bob · 10-03-2006 10:12pm

Sapele wrote:

If you are sending off something to the "big guy" in London

The Big Guy may be interested in having a look at his companies dedicated billing interface in Ireland too while he is on the case

rogue-entity · 10-03-2006 10:51pm

I am probably the only one here that had a good experience with BT's CSD.

I signed up on the internet, gave in all the needed details. It said on the site that it could take up to 4 weeks, so I waited patiently. Two days later I called to confirm the order. The lady that answered the phone told me that they were missing some of my details. I just thought, well, noone is perfect, so I gave her my bank account number again. She told me that I should have the modem on the 24th (last october).

I thought, excellent, all I need to do is wait. I got the modem a week early. I connected it up and found that it was not working. It had synced but BT neglected to tell me that I had to add "@btbb" to the username. I did that and it worked. I have never had a single problem since.

And I have always connected at the full possible speed (1024/128 and 2048/256 after the upgrade) unlike what you get with eircom.

All in all asside from issues with there CSD there service is well worth the money compared to €ircon.

surveys · 11-03-2006 11:34am

Thanks Guys. 'Sapele' seems to have had the exact same problem as me, except that he paid them by c/card but I refused, on principle as well as financially. !
As I sat in my office over the past year or so getting so upset with Esat, I always felt "if its happening to me, its happening to others" and now that I am on this site it appears that is some cases users got an even worse deal than me. ! I have always been a believer in that old expression "the people have the power" and the truth of this can be seen all over the world, so I think its time that the 'people' got together and boycotted Esat. ? Bob kindly sent me to Adam's web page which explained more, and when I went to "TelcoWatch" I was amazed at the number of complaints. Apart from 'rogue-entity' :-) it seems like everybody has had, and is having serious problems with Esat. !
Incidently, having seen TelcoWatch I think perhaps we should be on that thread and not on this. ? If I go to that Thread and post on it the things I have posted here will I be violating any of the 'rules' ?
It also seems like Esat must be reading these forums and posts, in which case why is the message (messages

) not getting home to them. ? Are they totally incapable of doing anything about it ?
Thanks 'sapele' for your offer, I think I will accept. How does one pass on our email addresses or postal addresses on these forums ?
I went to digiweb Bob, and was amazed at the great offers I found. Thanks for the info.

I just need to ask them about the system of transferring from Esat, and then I will move over. No doubt Esat will refuse and cause more problems and won't allow the transfer over to Digiweb, but I will have to tackle that when and if it arises.
I noticed digiweb are also not just in the North East but also in Dublin and some other significant cities/towns, so there is an opportunity there for all those disgusted Esat users to switch over. ?
With regard to his 'lordship' in London I am currently collecting as much info as I can, and printing all of it so as to send to him, and I will also include the links to all these forums and any other links such as "his companies dedicated" etc.etc.
Just for interest I would add that the latest news I have is that Esat 'customer services' knows nothing about agreements made with 'credit control department'. ! Thats what I was told yesterday. ! The guy in customer services actually said to me "credit control should tell us about any agreements they make so that we will not keep billing customers that have an agreement with credit control" !!!!! :rolleyes: Can you imagine that. ? One major department doesn't know what the other is doing. !!
Does nobody in Esat ever get any training ? Do they just throw people into jobs without any training at all ?
""Lets humble Esat, once and for all".

Sapele · 11-03-2006 8:53pm

surveys, perhaps the best way would be to use the sites private messages. If you for example click on my name to the left of the one of my posts, option 2 is to send me a private message. When I log onto the site, at the top right of the screen where I’m welcomed, I can then see if someone has sent me a private message. In this case it could be you with your email address. If your intention is to try to get as many esatBT billing disaster cases and send them to the big director guy you might be better off making an email address public so people could send you info if they wished. I'm not sure if you want to do that, or send him a few examples of esatBT's out of control runaway billing dept, which could be done over private massages.

If you decide to go ahead with it, you can certainly have my story to add to your file, so drop me a PM (private message) with your email address and I’ll email you off my headache, oh I mean BT story ... :eek:

surveys · 13-03-2006 12:11pm

Thanks Sapele. I am new here so I have not yet learned all the 'ropes'

My email is: surveys@iol.ie for anyone wishing to send me their 'headaches' :rolleyes: (I hope I dont get spammed). !! Thanks for explaining about private messages. too. Bob sent me one so I am now aware it exists, but I was not sure how to send one to somebody else. I presume there are loads of 'instruction' pages, about using the forum. ? I suppose I should go looking for them.

Incidently what about Guys (and gals) who might not be reading this thread. Maybe some of them might want to contribute, to the 'dossier' for his lordship in London, but will not know about it unless they read this thread. ?

Sapele · 13-03-2006 9:37pm

Yes your right surveys, I'm sure there are lots of people who would like to share information but will be unable to because they won't know about your initiative. Bar reading through previous BT billing posts and PM'ing those who have told a similar story I don't know what can be done. Maybe Comreg would provide you with that information, or errrr maybe not.... :eek: You will soon have an email giving my account, so that will be two of us at the moment anyways

surveys · 13-03-2006 9:56pm

Maybe I could writer to the 'boss' :-) Doesnt Damien handle all this ? I seem to get a lot of emails from him. ? Perhaps he could then email all 'members' and tell them ? I would think there must a database of members somewhere ? I will send him an email and see what he thinks. "unless it should go to someone else" ?

dub45 · 13-03-2006 10:03pm

I know it may sound a bit extreme but have you considered picketing Esat's HQ say for an hour some day and alert the newspapers in advance?

You could even write to Esat and tell them that unless you are sorted out within say 10 days a picket will take place.........

I dont know if anything can be done to get them to sort themselves out short of massive public embarassment:eek:

Sapele · 13-03-2006 10:35pm

lol you know dub45 that is a fantastic idea ...!! If I haven’t received my refund cheque for the stolen €563 by the end of the week I would love to do it

In actual fact, even if I do receive the cheque I'd still love to do it

surveys · 14-03-2006 2:24pm

As much as I would like to try I do not think ESAT will take any notice at all of 2 or 3 Guys standing outside their HQ ?? That kind of thing requires 100's to have any affect. I still believe going to the 'top' and waking him up about what is actually going on in 'his own subsidiary' is the most effective. ?
I can imagine what happens at ESAT when he does a periodic visit, presuming he has ever visited them ?, the big 'Red Carpet', the big 'Whitewash', The big 'three bags full sir' and jokes, and coffee and booze, but does he ever sit down and ask to see the files, to see the screens full of complaints, ?? The local CEO would steer him clear of anything 'unclean' and 'irregular'. I have seen it all in my own management days. He needs to be 'told' and to see with his own eyes from his 'customers' point of view what really goes on. To really know what a company is like you have to be at the 'sharp end', the 'consumer' end. This is what a company survives on or perishes on. - 'Its customers'.
Anyway i have written to Damien to ask if a circularised email can be sent to all members to ask 'who' wants to join, and who will supply documentation. As soon as I get his answer I will post it here.

babdub · 14-03-2006 9:41pm

The odd thing with BT is that they seem to be perfectly fine with being ****e... As one of the CS reps said "...well, we have a lot of unhappy customers and a lot of happy customers..." Hey - let's keep all the unhappy ones!!

As many of you, I have also had a really bad experience with BT (not over yet!!). It's currently with comreg and I'm waiting for a refund. I'm not sure what kind of power comreg has - does a complaint filed through them matter in the BT world at all? Seems like they're not that concerned... Even after the complaint, BT still managed to add some more mistakes to the "saga" - and I thought I was home free when canceling the account in January (didn't realize that getting the deposit back would be such a pain)!

I think I will miss the frustrating calls to BT CS - I mean they're friendly and all - just full of crap... the empty promises, that ticking clock, the waiting...the waiting... and the waiting...

Well that's enough ranting for now.

PS. If BT happens to read this thread - I'm happy with NTL now thank you very much

Sapele · 15-03-2006 4:19pm

I got an email last Friday telling me my refund cheque had been posted from BT. It's now Wednesday and their is no sign of it (what a surprise). I've replied to the girl from Customer Complaints who sent me the email but have not got a response back yet (what another surprise). Trying to actually talk to someone from Complaints is like trying to talk to the woman on the moon except a bit harder. I'm thinking I need to make someone else aware of this again as the process has once again stalled.

Could anyone give me the name or names of someone senior in BTIreland who have been helpful (by BT's low standards) in the past. I've read about Bill Murphy and a Pat McCabe on these boards, has anyone had any luck with either of those two trying to sort a problem out?

Here we go again around and around on the bT billing merry-go-round, except there’s nothing merry about it at all :eek:

Sapele · 16-03-2006 1:49pm

Update: My BT refund has arrived ... !! It turns out I can blame BT for everything except a delay in our postal system :eek:

Well after having made this payment last August (05) and making my way through their customer care, billing, customer complaints, billing, customer complaints, customer care ..... it's finally over. The missing payment has been found and the charge on my credit card returned to me in the form of a cheque. Next Thursday (i'm paid up to use the service till then) I will be finally free of that dispicable organisation. But I'll be watching my online bank balance like a hawk just in case they come back from the grave to haunt me, and attempt to put through a cancelled direct debit as a first payment and so fooling the bank. If that happens I think I'll literally hit the roof ..!

Thanks to everyone who gave me advice on the boards, you've been a big help. I am now a committed opponent of esatBT until they sort out their customer care and billing (even then I still won't like them). That's what one prolonged bad experience can do. Any decent company would have sorted this problem out in days not months, one or two phone calls not twenty plus calls and the same or more emails. They are a disgrace. People thinking about giving esatBT access to their hard earned cash deserve to be forewarned that things can go wrong, so I'll be hanging around these and other boards doing just that

surveys · 16-03-2006 2:02pm

Well done Paul. At long last, and horrendously overdue, but at least you finally have your money.

You are right of course, it should have taken days not months and months. ! Maybe when the 'dossier' gets to his 'lordship' they may even offer some compensation. ! If they did I personally would refuse, just on principle. !:) "Stick their money, etc.etc"

surveys · 22-03-2006 4:37pm

The 'dossier' is going off this week to London. Probably about 40 pages. (not including my own file, which is much too large) Any last minute additions. ??? If anyone has anything please post soonest.. Thanks.

Sapele · 22-03-2006 6:53pm

Great job with the dossier, one more piece of ammunition in the battle against rip off companies ....

surveys · 22-03-2006 11:11pm

Correction. ! The final figure is 89 pages.

Anyone care to add one more to round it off to 90. ? :rolleyes:

(The 'dossier' is going off this week to London. Probably about 40 pages. (not including my own file, which is much too large) Any last minute additions. ??? If anyone has anything please post soonest.. Thanks.)

surveys · 29-03-2006 4:11pm

I have today made a claim with the Small Claims court for my latest D/Debit fiasco with ESATBT. The dossier also went to London today. I will post a message back here, and on other Threads if and when I receive any response.
"Keep kicking them" !!

surveys · 03-05-2006 11:01am

My apologies for not getting back here to bring this thing uptodate. The 'dossier' the 'bank' and 'Esat' took up so much time that I got behind on work. Plus the PC and internet went 'bust' . ! Anyway the net result is "NIL". Complete silence from everybody. BT London (A.Green) no reply, not even an acknowledgement. My own bank who paid Esat the money, 'silence'. EsatBT ? Of course 'silence'. Even the Small Claims Court rejected my claim. ! They said they only handle "Product & Services disputes" !!! :mad: So, thats it, nothing at all to report. Have been thinking about it a great deal, of course, and I am filing a complaint with the Financial Services Regulator today about my own bank. Also sending a complaint to IRECC (Irish Retail Electronic Payments Clearing Company) ! 'Phew'. Could they not have thought of a smaller name ?
Some have suggested going to the Media. Another suggested all the way to Europe. ? Anyone have any ideas ?

Sponge Bob · 03-05-2006 11:24am

It would maybe be an idea to contact the Consumers Association of Ireland and hand over the entire dossier to them together with names and email addresses in BT

They would have questions for BT with whom they are in contact together with Comreg and the banks . It is an unholy lack of regulation that allows BT to carry on like this.

start here

http://www.consumerassociation.ie/press080206.html

dub45 · 03-05-2006 11:29am

I hate to go off topic but its also the whole direct debit/electronic payment system - in reality there is absolutely no sanction open to a customer against a company who abuses it.:rolleyes:

Sponge Bob · 03-05-2006 11:34am

thats why the Consumers Assocation may take this separate strand up with the Financial Regulator .

A DD is surely not intended to function as an invitation to continual financial rape . Ultimately there are chargeback sanctions for Credit Card merchants so why not for DD merchants who keep putting false DD's through.

I have long advocated sending the Garda Fraud squad into BT simply because there is a prima facie case against them as fraudsters

surveys · 03-05-2006 11:44am

I did this once before (complain to the CA) but they said they do not have any complaints proceedure and cannot act on consumers behalf ! ""Why are they in existance if they cannot do anything useful"". ?? Anyway, went to their web site just now and its all about "how to complain" to the RETAILER, not to the CA !! Also "know your rights". ! A useless web site if ever I saw one. ! Thanks for the suggestion anyway.

dub45 · 03-05-2006 11:46am

Sponge Bob wrote:

thats why the Consumers Assocation may take this separate strand up with the Financial Regulator .

A DD is surely not intended to function as an invitation to continual financial rape . Ultimately there are chargeback sanctions for Credit Card merchants so why not for DD merchants who keep putting false DD's through.

I have long advocated sending the Garda Fraud squad into BT simply because there is a prima facie case against them as fraudsters :(

Agree totally on this point.

What is badly needed is some central authority that the consumer can complain to in respect of electronic payments as in a complaint that must be investigated.

At the moment they can do what they bloodywell like without any fear of sanction - for instance theres a post on here somewhere in the last day or so where UTV claimed to a customer that they did not know how much notice had to be given to a customer in respect of a direct debit:rolleyes:

Sponge Bob · 03-05-2006 12:02pm

dub45 wrote:

Agree totally on this point.
What is badly needed is some central authority that the consumer can complain to in respect of electronic payments as in a complaint that must be investigated.

There IS one, its called IFSRA and it wants to be the new Comreg.... useless and uncaring in other words.

At the moment they can do what they bloodywell like without any fear of sanction - for instance theres a post on here somewhere in the last day or so where UTV claimed to a customer that they did not know how much notice had to be given to a customer in respect of a direct debit:rolleyes:

Once your systems fail repeatedly , and you fail to fix them , then you are systemically committing fraud because you simply do not care about taking other peoples money .

Thats why we have a fraud squad in the Gardai, to investigate all manner of fraud no matter how it is committed .....even through the DD system for example.

surveys · 03-05-2006 12:08pm

Quote - Also sending a complaint to IRECC (Irish Retail Electronic Payments Clearing Company) ! 'Phew'. Could they not have thought of a smaller name ? -Unquote
This is why I included this in my message. This appears to be the place who handle all the regulations regarding DD's. Have a look at their site, and read their documents.
http://www.ipso.ie/frames/IrishPaymentServicesOrganisation.htm
From the wording in their Doc's there appear to be fairly strict rules applying to 'financial services' and in particular to DD's. From what they have said we do have a place to complain, so I have emailed them today and asked for full information on making a complaint. Will post their reply.

dub45 · 03-05-2006 1:13pm

surveys wrote:

Quote - Also sending a complaint to IRECC (Irish Retail Electronic Payments Clearing Company) ! 'Phew'. Could they not have thought of a smaller name ? -Unquote
This is why I included this in my message. This appears to be the place who handle all the regulations regarding DD's. Have a look at their site, and read their documents.
http://www.ipso.ie/frames/IrishPaymentServicesOrganisation.htm
From the wording in their Doc's there appear to be fairly strict rules applying to 'financial services' and in particular to DD's. From what they have said we do have a place to complain, so I have emailed them today and asked for full information on making a complaint. Will post their reply.

That crowd handle the regulations but you will note the complete absence of any complaints procedure or even contact nos. There are so many other issues in connection to this whole direct debit business - for instance there is no mention as far as I could see as to the storage of information. Who has direct access to customer information (I know everybody!!! in the company) is there any security whatsover in relations to the thousands of accounts for which information is held in any company and as for this recent business of signing up for a dd over the phone:eek:

I notice that there is some responsibility for the behaviour of a company put on the 'sponsoring bank' but how does anyone find out who Esat's sponsoring bank is? I have found that bank branch staff are not very informed at all on direct debits so I cannot imagine too many of them being aware of 'a sponsoring bank'.:rolleyes:

dkc · 03-05-2006 2:55pm

In fairness to BT, I am now very happy with the service that I receive. Especially as they upgraded me to the 3mb package a few months ago. The line has never dropped on me and I have no problems with the modem. Latency in games is also very manageable, sometimes even better than our European neighbours with their much faster connections.

However, it is hard to balance that with the woefully poor customer service and sales/technical systems and processes that they use. Like so many others, I had to endure 11 weeks of delays and excuses from BT, but only after I rang them up to find out the progress. I think they rang me once during those 11 weeks. Their excuses ranged from 'technical difficulties' to 'the person handling your case is on holidays' to 'you need to get eircom to provide a reference number for your line' (even though by then BT owned the line), etc. But at least they never asked me for a deposit.

A further difficulty has been their billing. The first 3 bills were wrong... way wrong. They overcharged me €120 in the first one. A combination of getting the connection date wrong, charging me full line rental instead of the reduced €10 and not giving me my discount for online billing. Regarding this last one, good luck to you trying to find a reference to this on their website any more, but when I signed up they were offering a fiver off per month for online bills. I am now on the 4th bill and I think they have finally sorted it all out... for now.

And of course, I am not looking forward to disconnecting with them as I know from past experience (I had line rental with them 2 years ago) that they will continue to send bills to me after disconnection, probably even going as far as to threaten legal action and solicitor's letters again. Happy days.

In summary: great when you have it but an administrative nightmare getting it and leaving it.

Keep records of your important dates, promises made, people spoken to, special offers, all that stuff... you'll need them!

surveys · 03-05-2006 4:05pm

I visisted the Garda. ! I have seen several posts where people say thats its a case of Fraud, so I went to make a 'fraud' complaint. The Garda (local guys) were very good and listened to everything, and then promised to call the bank. They rang me latter having spoken to the bank and the bank refuted all claims of negligence, wrongdoing, etc, and even said its nothing to do with the bank. !!!!
They did admit that a letter was going out to me today, but the Garda reckon that was only said to placate them. ! A letter will obviously now be sent, but only as a result of the Garda telephone call. ! The Garda say that they helped but that it is actually a 'civil' case. ! NOT a criminal case. ! i.e; ESAT supplied me a service for which I was duly liable to pay, etc. etc. The fact that they took an unauthorised DD from my account is not 'Fraud' but a civil case for maybe, 'negligence' , or some other wording. ! so, thats it. For anyone contemplating a claim for 'fraud' - forget it. ! I only got as much as I got because they are local Guys and obviously wanted to help. !
Back to the 'drawing board'. !:mad:

surveys · 03-05-2006 6:11pm

Following my last post I received a call from my bank, only 2 hours after they received the call from the Garda offering me a full refund of the entire amount of the Debit by early tomorrow morning. !!! Need I say more. ??? It all speaks for itself. ! I would just like to add that the total difference in the Bank's approach to me was amazing and the treatment I 'should' have received this past 2 months, as a long time customer of the bank was put into immediate effect, but only after a call from the Garda.::(

RuggieBear · 03-05-2006 6:19pm

fair play to you.

dub45 · 03-05-2006 6:28pm

surveys wrote:

Following my last post I received a call from my bank, only 2 hours after they received the call from the Garda offering me a full refund of the entire amount of the Debit by early tomorrow morning. !!! Need I say more. ??? It all speaks for itself. ! I would just like to add that the total difference in the Bank's approach to me was amazing and the treatment I 'should' have received this past 2 months, as a long time customer of the bank was put into immediate effect, but only after a call from the Garda.::(

This might be an opportune time to ask your bank who the sponsoring bank is under the scheme for EsatBT - according to the scheme the sponsoring bank has a responsibility for the behaviour of the company - people could then get onto the bank with their complaints - also a good time to ask your bank if they will be pursuing BT's behaviour with anybody!

dont forget to thank your local guards - theres plent of them would not have taken the time and trouble!!:)

dub45 · 03-05-2006 6:33pm

dkc wrote:

In fairness to BT, I am now very happy with the service that I receive. Especially as they upgraded me to the 3mb package a few months
................................
Keep records of your important dates, promises made, people spoken to, special offers, all that stuff... you'll need them!

How you can use the word 'fairness' at the beginning of an account of such mindboggling incompetence is beyond me and how you can be happy with the service of such a company when you have to minutely examine your bill every month and as you say keep records etc etc etc Pyramind schemes have more integrity!

Sponge Bob · 03-05-2006 11:44pm

surveys wrote:

The Garda say that they helped but that it is actually a 'civil' case. ! NOT a criminal case. !

locally yes they are correct , thats why the fraud squad is a specialist unit in Dublin.

Back to the 'drawing board'. !:mad:

find out about this sponsoring bank or branch or regional office.

surveys · 04-05-2006 1:17am

I will look into this sponsoring bank business. Might take a while but I will keep plugging and find out who is the sponsor for Esat. Anyway this was all my personal problem with Esat and my own bank, the overall problem with Esat for everyone still remains, and that dossier to London is still unacknowledged. ! I think I might try telephoning him tomorrow, unless anyone has any other good ideas. ?

My BT broadband nightmare... turns out it should never have happened

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