After much shouting over questionable call centre staff and six solid months of waiting, I got my BT phone line … FINALLY!
I applied for the new line towards the end of March and the first appointment was scheduled on the 12th of April. Naturally, I had to take some time off work so I could let the engineer into the flat. He came and said that they would have to do some before they could provide me with the line. As I didn’t have much choice, I said, Do whatever is necessary.
My mistake. I should have added the word promptly into that sentence.
The first call to Customer Services came after 4 weeks. I was then informed that the line will take longer than what was initially promised. They needed to “dig” the road. I also received an apology for not sending me updates of my order and promised that they would advised me every step of the way … well, the highlights really, y’know what I mean.
Since then I would receive phone calls and text messages updating me on the progress of my order. The last one being the news that I am expected to be connected by mid August, 5 months since I placed the request.
Someone called me 1 week before the expected connection date to tell me that they had a headstart in completing my order. So I came home that night excitedly only to be disappointed by finding a deader-than-dead line. I rang BT the next day and asked if the appointment for the new line connection review could be narrowed from the 8am – 1pm band to something more precise like 11am – 12noon. The response I got was negative … that it had always been that way offering only 2 bands of engineer callout appointments. When I remarked that it was a ridiculous policy, she turned around to say that I was the only one who had a problem with that policy. With that, I slammed the phone down.
I took the morning off on the day of the appointment since I was told that they would call from 8am – 1pm. With heightened activity at work, I was not really happy with the waiting. At around 11am, I rang the Customer Services again only to be told that the engineer had been booked for 330pm! I started shouting at this point and felt that I had a heavy weight on my chest. I was palpitating with SUPREME ANNOYANCE!!!!! More “sorries” followed but “there was nothing that can be done…” My call was escalated to a supervisor (at least I think he is) and I continued shouting. He continuously pleaded for me to calm down and not to shout at him. When I did, I apologised for shouting at him and asked if there is really a way to expedite my long-standing agony order. He said that they already rang the engineer to head ASAP to my address. At 130pm, the engineer showed up. It took him close to 4pm to complete it. And he did.
I still don’t understand why it took this long to have the line set-up considering that the building of my flat used to be an old pub. In a few days I will brave it again when I call Customer Services and asked for some compensation for making me wait this long. If they will give me more grief then I’ll present my case to the Ombudsman.
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