David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

There's nothing like a conversation with BT to get you in a great mood for the rest of the day. Oh, hang on, no that's not true. There's nothing like a conversation with BT.
 
As a monopoly over telecommunications throughout most of the UK (apparently it's Kingston Communications in Kingston-upon-Hull - are they the lucky ones?), we mere mortals have little choice over BT.

Sure, you could go with Virgin Media but it's tied in with other media services. A lot of telephone providers are CPS (Carrier Pre-Selection) and so require a BT line in the first place.

So, for my new number, I have to go with BT. I wish I didn't have to but it's not worth the hassle trying anything else.

So, I phoned BT a couple of weeks ago, told them what's going on and arranged a new number. The old number would be disconnected on 7th June 2007 and the new number would start between 8am and 1pm on 7th June. An engineer would be available between 7 and 1 too. Magic.

2nd June came along and my old number had been cancelled. Why? It's BT. They can do anything they like, apparently.

I phoned them up and after what seemed like a contest with the BT rep, he agreed to switch my line back on. All good and well. But now I would have to ring today (6th June 2007) to get the number switched back off. More hassle but nevertheless, a phone line and broadband again.

5th June 2007 and I get a text message saying my new number has been activated. So much for 7th June. I tried the new line and there's no ring tone. It's not active.

So I ring BT.

It took 3 separate calls that totalled over 1.5 hours. Hold music for 1.5 hours is enough to make anyone loopy. But being on hold for this length of time makes you listen more closely to the messages they play:

"We may record conversations with BT to help us improve our service".

WHAT SERVICE?

Anyhow, I asked for the original number to be cancelled, as I was asked to do. Simple enough. But then I was told that for some reason, my new order was cancelled to.

Why? Why would they do this? Why?

So, as I'm moving home, I thought the best place was the "Home Movers" department. Apparently these people cannot help. They pushed my through to the "Service" department.

Instead of being put on hold, I was cut off.

I call back and tried a few things with the switch board. You can check the status of any order on your line so I did. My old number will be disconnected on 7th June. THEY'VE GOT SOMETHING RIGHT!

I check the new number and there's no order against it. So, I speak to the "Service" department again who say they cannot help. Where do they push me to?

The "Home Movers" department.

In all fairness, the woman who answered was the most helpful of them all. She asked if I knew why the order would have been cancelled.

I replied "Apart from the fact it's BT?".

So the upshot is that apparently the new number will still stand and should still go live tomorrow. I still have to wait in just-in-case the engineer needs to visit.

She did apologise for the problems and she did sound genuinely helpful.

So, in my question to BT, why do you make it so difficult? The sooner the monopoly is broken up, the better in my opinion.