BT have left me with no broadband

[Fluke]

Hi,

I've been with Sky for broadband for a couple of years with no problems but decided to go over to BT Infinity since it was supposed to be better/faster etc. The date was set for the 30th March, I plugged the new router in and went to work hoping that it would all be up and running when I got home, it wasn't. I rang and asked why and they told me that they had cancelled my order 2 weeks ago, they couldn't explain why or why they hadn't told me. Luckily my Sky service hadn't been cancelled so I plugged the old router back in. So a new date was set for the 19th April, same thing, I plugged the router in and went out, came back that night and still it was glowing orange meaning it wasn't connected. They said there was an error on the system and they they'd investigate. A week went by, I contacted them again, still investigating, they kept on mentioning "the supplier" and "engineering problems", another week and another week and still no broadband. In the mean time I got a new sim card for my mobile with more data included so I could connect to the internet at home using that. I rang last week and told them to cancel the order, that I'd go somewhere else, they told me I would be charged if I did that but I didn't need to because it would absolutely definitely be this Friday, Friday came and went, nothing. They told me on Saturday it would be Monday (today) nothing. Just been told there'll be an "update from the engineers" on the 17th May! I told them again to cancel the order which they're now activating and they confirmed I would not be charged. I asked for confirmation that they were cancelling the contract and that I would not be charged, nothing. I've just checked my account and they've charged me £88.18 - being the activation fee and the first months charge.

In the mean time I've got no broadband and a new service will take about 10 days.

EE, who I got the sim card from, do a 4G router (i.e. doesn't need a phone line), it can link to a number of devices, can I get something like that and charge BT for it since they have left me high and dry? If not is there anything I can do?

[didds]

What did Sky say was happening with their service with you? I would have expected them to have been set up to send you a full and final bill for up to 30th march?

didds

[Fluke]

I think BT somehow informed Sky that that the 30th March order was cancelled and so Sky did just continued with the service business as usual, I just wasn't informed. I did though receive a full and final bill from them on the 19th April and I have been without broadband ever since.

I have just been on the phone to Sky to ask if I can go back to them on a new deal but they said it could still take up to 2 weeks to get the thing connected plus there'd be another connection charge so I might as well just wait it out with BT. It seems OpenReach and BT are utterly disconnected and the billing department have billed me for a connection that hasn't happened and in the mean time I'm reliant on an intermittent hotspot connection from my phone. Catch up telly is out of the question. I doubt there's much I can do though.

[didds]

I think the problem you have is that the agreement to not charge you was made verbally on the phone ie not in writing.

is this agreement in your cuctomer account notes (ie when you phone them). Did you request it in writing?

In theory this stuff is recorded "for training purposes" so you may be able to get them to find the disucssion - but ask sooner rather than latyer i suppose, and you'll need to know the rough time and date of the discussion.

good luck

didds

[Alaric]

decided to go over to BT Infinity since it was supposed to be better/faster etc. The date was set for the 30th March,

I thought Infinity was a fibre based service, so they have to send Openreach to make changes to the wiring in your house as well as connect a new router.

[didds]

decided to go over to BT Infinity since it was supposed to be better/faster etc. The date was set for the 30th March,

I thought Infinity was a fibre based service, so they have to send Openreach to make changes to the wiring in your house as well as connect a new router.

Yep - which is what happened with us when we signed up

didds

[Fluke]

I thought Infinity was a fibre based service, so they have to send Openreach to make changes to the wiring in your house as well as connect a new router.

That would make sense if I wasn't already on Sky's fibre service, what wiring changes were needed? they've never been able to explain. I connected the new router myself as per their instructions. I changed provider not because I was unhappy just that I was at the end of the contract and BT had a deal on making it cheaper, plus the speeds were faster. Incidentally, Sky also told me they'd have to get Openreach out if I went back with them, what for I'm not sure. Talk about rock and a hard place.

[didds]

These may be of interest

https://community.bt.com/t5/BT-Infinity ... -p/1715644
https://www.broadbandchoices.co.uk/revi ... -sky-fibre

didds

[Bminusrob]

decided to go over to BT Infinity since it was supposed to be better/faster etc. The date was set for the 30th March,

I thought Infinity was a fibre based service, so they have to send Openreach to make changes to the wiring in your house as well as connect a new router.

I don't think BT Infinity is a complete fibre solution, but rather, "Fibre To The Cabinet". This means that the connection between the exchange and the local green cabinet in the street is fibre, but the connection from the cabinet to the home just uses the old telephone wire. This means they don't need access to your home to make the change.

[didds]

well... I would agree with the synopsis of what Infinity "is" wrt fibre to the green cabinet and copper thereafter... but when we moved to it we definitely had an engineer come and rewired stuff in the house. It was in fact one of the rfeasons I took Infinity, as I was hacked off with plusnet (previous supplier) keep telling me that the drop outs and multiple router deaths were due to our house wiring both power and phone. I now have a definitive line in the sand because I know that the phone wiring MUST be pukka (more for if/when we move from BT ). The power connection for the router has a power smoother thingy on it at the socket - as it did have during our plusnet days too anyway...

didds

[Alaric]

well... I would agree with the synopsis of what Infinity "is" wrt fibre to the green cabinet and copper thereafter... but when we moved to it we definitely had an engineer come and rewired stuff in the house.

A Google search or two confirms that technology and service have moved on and that Fibre broadband can be implemented without requiring an engineer's visit.

[didds]

well... I would agree with the synopsis of what Infinity "is" wrt fibre to the green cabinet and copper thereafter... but when we moved to it we definitely had an engineer come and rewired stuff in the house.

A Google search or two confirms that technology and service have moved on and that Fibre broadband can be implemented without requiring an engineer's visit.

*LIKE*

[Fluke]

Had a call from them again tonight, they told me I'd have the exact same problem if I went with any other provider and that I'd just have to wait for the results of the "review" by 'Wholesale (part of Openreach I think) on the 17th. So this will be a full month after the agreed connection date and even then they were unable to tell me when I might be connected. They told me I could not cancel the order as it is apparently "beyond the point of no return". This came about an hour after I I received a text message to tell me the order was being cancelled and that I would not be charged.

Thanks to the links didds especially the BT forum, wish I'd read that before I decided to switch.

[Gengulphus]

If you're not already doing so, I would:

* Keep as much evidence as I could of what had happened - make certain I didn't delete the texts and anything else that is written, and from now on make notes during or as soon as possible after each phone call about what was said during that phone call (not forgetting to record the date and time of the call). Such notes do have value as evidence - not as good as a recording, but useful if there's no better evidence available, and generally believable because it would be most unwise for someone to fake them in any case where the other side might have a recording. They should be contemporaneous (i.e. during or soon after the call) because otherwise they're subject to doubts about memories of the call still being fresh - which is why I would only do it from now on, not try to construct such notes for old calls.

* Make a formal complaint, stating what has happened (this can mention what happened in old calls - it's perfectly OK to say they happened, it's just that if the question of evidence for them comes up, you don't have any evidence beyond what you remember), saying that I found the delays and contradictions unacceptable, and saying that if they wish to settle the complaint, they should cancel the order forthwith, not contradict that with any more claims that it's uncancellable or suchlike, and compensate me for my expenses and wasted time. On the last, I would probably ask for £50, as that seems to be a fairly standard sum in newspaper complaints columns I've read. Note that one does want to make it quicker, easier and cheaper for them to settle the complaint than to contest it, so don't be too greedy about what you ask for to settle it!

* I would be reasonable about any counter-offers they made to settle the complaint, but only to a degree. For example, I would almost certainly accept what I'd asked for apart from only getting £25 compensation, or quite possibly even getting none at all, but I would not accept an offer to settle for getting the broadband installed without fail by a particular date. That's based on my own feelings about such events: not ending up as a customer of an organisation that has treated me that way would be "of the essence" to me, monetary compensation would just be a bonus. Your feelings might differ and so what you would settle for differ accordingly.

* If the complaint didn't end up being settled, I would then escalate it to the Ombudsman. Details about doing that can be found in BT's "Customer Complaints Code":

http://www.btplc.com/Thegroup/Regulator ... actice.pdf

Incidentally, having just looked through that again, I would personally always make the formal complaint by letter, not by phone. That's because it would allow me to lay out the facts and what I wanted to settle the complaint clearly and in a considered way, get a friend to look over what I was saying to check that it was clear and neither too short of detail nor too long and rambling, etc, so that there's little excuse for misunderstandings. Whereas with phone calls I find that misunderstandings quite often occur, and I'm aware that some of them (though not all) are down to me...

Gengulphus

[PingPong]

A Google search or two confirms that technology and service have moved on and that Fibre broadband can be implemented without requiring an engineer's visit.

--------

For infinity a new NTE is required.
However as this customer is already on SKY then it's likely that the NTE was changed at the start of that particular service.

Finding the 'who' is at fault can be difficult. It's not unknown for the losing service provider to cancel the cease with the new provider. Whether that be gas, electric or phone.