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If you need a lang speen tae sup with the Devil, I suggest you search in cutlery categories for even longer ones before you deal with BT.
For many years, I paid wads of ££’s to BT for their 24/7 Internet service. Alone, I must have part-funded a call centre in Delhi. Then in the summer ... Read review
Advantages: In some remote places, BT is the only option Disadvantages: They know they are the only option
...paid wads of ££’s to BT for their 24/7 Internet service. Alone, I must have part-funded a call centre in Delhi. Then in the summer of 04 (sorry, it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as 69), BT finally offered Broadband to this remote Highland community. (With great reluctance, and many delays, I must add.)
Fitivver, I signed up for BT Broadband – that’s the middle option, between BT Broadband Basic and BT Yahoo Broadband. Basic ... ...So I signed up for BT Broadband, not online, but by telephone, with a very nice chap who assured me my old BT Yahoo 24/7 subscription would be replaced by my BT Broadband charge from date of inception.
I pay my BT bill by monthly Direct Debit, and like the plonker that I am, I haven’t checked my BT bill until now.
It appears I am severiously in debt because along with my Broadband charges, I’m still being charged for ... more
Yes, I know . . .
I’m deeply ashamed of my absence. And most who read this won’t even know me, such is the passage of time.
However much it is nice to touch base, and catch up with a few old friends, stalwarts and worthies here, my primary reason for returning to the fray is simply this.
If you need a lang speen tae sup with the Devil, I suggest you search in cutlery categories for even longer ones before you deal with BT.
For many years, I paid wads of ££’s to BT for their 24/7 Internet service. Alone, I must have part-funded a call centre in Delhi. Then in the summer of 04 (sorry, it doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as 69), BT finally offered Broadband to this remote Highland community. (With great reluctance, and many delays, I must add.)
Fitivver, I signed up for BT Broadband – that’s the middle option, between BT Broadband Basic and BT Yahoo Broadband. Basic didn’t offer enough for me, but at the time MSN was my preferred browser, and I knew from past, dial-up, experience that Yahoo would b*gger up MSN, and v. v.
Be in no doubt, running both is bad news.
So I signed up for BT Broadband, not online, but by telephone, with a very nice chap who assured me my old BT Yahoo 24/7 subscription would be replaced by my BT Broadband charge from date of inception.
I pay my BT bill by monthly Direct Debit, and like the plonker that I am, I haven’t checked my BT bill until now.
It appears I am severiously in debt because along with my Broadband charges, I’m still being charged for the dial-up connection which was supposedly superseded.
Fun? Yeah . . . we’re coming to the fun part.
Tonight I tried to sort it out.
I trawled BT’s labarynthine website for over an hour, and found umpteen ways to buy stuff. But no way to cancel anything.
So I clicked on “Contact Numbers”, and was a bit suspicious to find the BT Broadband Help number is the same as “General Enquiries”.
Nothing daunted, and in the mood for a fecht, I dialled 0800 800 150. I listened attentively to all the options, punched 1 or 3 or whatever was necessary to get to BT Broadband, then waited with increasing impatience for thirty-six minutes.
I know this is politically incorrect, and in some places almost as anti-social as paedophilia – but I’m sure some of you will empathise with the difficulty of rolling a fag with one hand while trying to cradle the phone on the opposite shoulder over a period of thirty-six minutes.
Fitivver, after 36 minutes, a female human answered. She was nice and chatty, and I don’t blame her for anything. In fact, I sympathise with her, for the sh*t job she has.
She apologised because she was BT Broadband, not BT Yahoo, and gave me a number to call them regarding cancellations (office hours only, and at national rate).
She did say that signing up for Broadband would not automatically cancel a previous dial-up package, and the person who told me that must have been mistaken. (?)
But she did offer to try to transfer/short-cut me. (She was doing her best)
In case the transfer didn’t work, though, she gave me a number to call. 0800 800 150. The number I called originally.
While she transferred me, I hung on long enough to know I wasn’t short-cutted. I hung on long enough to hear those famous 0800 800 150 words – “We are very busy right now. You’re call is moving up the queue.”
Back to square one.
There is an irony here. A few days ago, I received an unsolicited call from BT asking if I was happy with my Broadband service, and would I like to change anything. As with all these new-kitchen-free-holiday-double-glazing calls, I asked if she would like to speak to the head of the household, and passed the phone to the dog.
Anyway, friends old and new, I’m posting this simply to warn that BT these days has marketing down to a fine art, but their customer service is down the outfall from the septic tank to the soak-away. In my part of the UK, I have no choice. But if you have a choice where you are, exercise it.
(This review is correctly categorised within ISP's>Access with Subscription/Payment>BT Internet, as it principally refers to a problem with BT Internet 24/7. Just in case any smart-a*se tries to tell me I'm off-topic, and this should be in some Broadband category. Nothing like a pre-emptive strike.)
1. I've had an email from BT, following my complaint, apologising for the delays I experienced whilst trying to phone them. Apparently, they are aware that the traffic exceeds their capacity to deal with it, and they are addressing the problem. Okay. Whose tongue in cheek are you seeing right now? Mine or BT's? 2. I called the given number to cancel the dial-up rental. A very nice Indian gentleman kept me hanging on (this is a national rate number) while he double checked who I was. The number I'm dialling from, my post code, my mother's maiden name - and after each question, a long pause while he verified the information. When he finally decided I had paid enough in call charges, he told me he couldn't deal with cancellations. And he gave me another number to call. I did, I got another Indian gentleman, he accepted my cancellation. But that was too little, too late.
Too little, too late to give me any reason for modifying my language. Too little, too late to prevent me telling the world.
BT are rip-off bastards, and I feel no need to apologise for not using an * or an @.
Advantages: None Disadvantages: BT Disconnects people for fun
Anyone who is familiar with BT Internet will know this opinion isn’t going to be singing any praises!
Bt Internet charges customers £14.99 per month for their “Anytime” service. This service apparently allows customers to connect 24/7 - hence the name “Anytime”. What BT fails to make clear is that you are disconnected every 2 hours to allow others users to deter “heavy” internet use. Dial-up users sometimes have to wait hours before they can connect ... ...no data is being transferred, BT disconnects your modem! Because of the 2 hour cut off it is very difficult to download files without the use of a download manager which supports the “resume” function. I think BT fails to realize that the Internet is not in existence solely for the purpose of viewing pictures and text on a web page. As I am a web designer I use the Internet quite frequently, both morning and night. Searching through my E-mail Inbox ...
evansuk 07.11.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Internet
Advantages: Reasonable monthly price Disadvantages: Since they decided I was a 'high' user too many
...always been a fan of BT internet. I was one of their first customers to sign up when they released the free evenings and weekends access and have remained loyal ever since, including an upgrade to their Anytime package (£14.99/month) and a second BT line when we recently moved house. I had seldom encountered problems, but as a user of two ISP's rather than one, if I ever failed to connect on my first go with one, then I merely switched over to the ... ...another reason for staying with BT internet, my web-site, which attracts a reasonable amount of visitors and registers on most major search engines, something which has taken my nearly three years to establish, the thought of starting again does not appeal. So why I am writing here?
A CHANGE OF CONNECTION NUMBER
A few days after moving house, I received correspondence from BT Internet advising me that as a regular user of their service, they were ...
sue.51 25.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Internet
Advantages: Everything you need is on hand. Disadvantages: None that I can see
...your Mail Box, check your BT Phone Bill, change or add Friends & Family number and discounts. This special feature of BT.com is an added bonus, and will therefore require added security to access the page. Again the directions are simple to use. I check regularly on calls made since I received my last bill, this does not include discounts to rentals charges and etcetera. My phone bill records the amount in value but did not include calls made 10pm ... ...quite happy with this new service, I use to feel that assessing these pages require ‘a techno mind’ but that is not so, having pass the prime of my youth I feel really confident in being able to handle such a site, age, barrier, creed, whatever you would say it BTopenworld is certainly the People’s Choice if they so require it. ...
Elainebaba 11.09.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Internet
Advantages: very easy to install, three packages to choose from. Disadvantages: You get disconnected after every two hours.
BT INTERNET
When I got my new pc one of the first things I wanted to do was to get the Internet, so I kept asking my mum to get the internet and telling her about all the good prices on offer out there and that I really needed it for my home work (lol). Then about six months later she telephoned BT and asked them for one of their Internet installation disks. When the disk arrived in the post I had to install it because no body else knows much about ... ...I think BT Internet is one hundred percent the best, because of many things, such as, it is very easy to install and set up, and it is quite simple and fast to register all your details and other things such as method of payment etc, There are three packages to choose from with BT Internet so you get to choose the one which best suits your needs, plus they all have very good prices, and they are: ANY TIME: With this package you can go on line whenever ...
jtsguy 01.12.2001 (08.04.2003)
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Internet
Advantages: For me it is fast, cheap, efficient and reliable Disadvantages: For others it may not be, it's all relative to your exchange I'm afraid
...today via an email from BT that they are to raise the price by £2. For £9.99 (or after 1st August £11.99) you get unlimited Internet use from 6pm until 8am in the morning. Weekends you are able to log on at anytime. I have read comments from people who have difficulty in connecting to BTinternet. I can only suggest that this is due to your local exchange. Connection ---------- Always first time I have found, though this is variable, busier exchanges ... ...best, would have to be BT in my opinion. Cut Off ------- 2 hours (though can be 1 and a half hours when busy) with a 15 minute idle kick off Speed ----- I connect at 48,000 or 46,777 virtually everytime. Downloads are usually excellent 4kbs +. Gaming ------ If you play games then I can recommend this ISP. When coupled with a good quality modem, the pings that you can get in online games are extremely good. The best I have ever had was 150, usually ...
Del_Boy 22.07.2001
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of BT Internet
