How long waiting for BT broadband?

Hello,

I signed up for BT broadband and Total talk on 13th October and was told I would be waiting about a week to be up and running. so I waited and waited...... 3 weeks later on Nov 3rd I received a letter from BT (dated 20 Oct) stating that they were activating my account and that it would take 15 working days to complete and then it would take a further 10 working days to receive the modem! Is this for real? I phoned last Monday and was told I would have a modem this week. Guess what, no modem.

Does anyone know if this is normal service or am I just unlucky. At this stage I'm very tempted to tell BT to shove their offer but I'm afraid if I cancel, given BT's history of billing problems, the €45 p/m will be deducted from my account anyway.

Thanks.

Took a total of 2.5 weeks in my case from placing order to being fully up and running.
Leo

I'd say BT are spending a lot of time resolving billing issues they have been having. Think twice about going with BT. Do a search here and on boards.ie to understand the types of problems people have been having with them.

Took about 5 weeks in my case - kids nearly mounted a picket because UTV had terminated earlier than the contract.

Having said that I'm happy with the deal now that I am sorted and anyone but Eircom for me!

Roy

BT in my experience are not a great company to go with (even eircom are better!). Their customer service system is one where you can give your details on an automated line and expect callback - but for me each time it has been 4 days later. I have spoken to 3 tech support reps to date and they have all been very agressive and seriously unhelpful, just my experience...

panathon said:

BT in my experience are not a great company to go with (even eircom are better!).

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Steady on there! NOBODY is worse than €ircon!

Sorry guys and Gals but I've had eircom BB for the last 12 months without a hitch. I pay my line rental through Imagine and use BB phone.Eircom bill are always correct.I pay them through billpay refusing to direct debit. I grudgingly have to admit that their BB is excellent,100% reliable.

Yes it takes longer than advertised to get BT BB...but I kinda factored that in when I ordered it. I think it took us about 1 month to be up & running - we still had dial up at the time so werent stuck.
I have to say that I found customer service agents to be helpful - one of them was a bit on the slow side ....had to ask certain details repeatedly before he finally got them.........then again if I was being paid peanuts I don't think I would have much motivation either. Never had any rudeness though.
I went with BT because it is way cheaper than Eircom.

I have heard of people having problems in connection though

Hello,

Since I first posted this query I have had more grief and frustration with BT.
I have made two more calls to inquire about my order (placed 13th Oct) The first time (6th November) I was told that BT were waiting for Eircom to finalise the transfer and would take possibly 3-4 more days and than they would sent a text to alert me. The second time I rang (20th November, last night) the first person I spoke with hung up on me when I asked about my order and after waiting again a second person told me that they were waiting for Eircom to send an enginneer to my house to check the line and have basically no idea when my order would be completed! Every time I ring I get a different story.

I really have had enough of getting the run-around and different stories from BT at this stage. Would anyone the best way to immediately cancel the order and make sure that BT don't bill me in the future?

Thanks.

I switched to BT Talk. Had broadband and modem within two weeks of order date. Telephone successfully switched over one week later.

Have found their customer service to be excellent. Always use the Q buster and they have always called back within 30 minutes. I have called then about 4 times. Don't bother emailing customer service.

Broadband is excellent. No problems so far.

Since my last post, I have had my first email query (quering a charge on my phone/bb bill) ignored. Sent another yesterday - and if I dont get a response from that, I will be mailing that customer service manager (whose email addresss someone posted).

Is anyone getting a large charge under 'other charges' on their phone/bb bills? I cant work out what it could be?
If its a mistake or theres conflict, I will move - but I will not go back to eircon and I advise others not to go back either. Digiweb will be the next port of call..

Hello,

I posted my complaints to the customer services manager that was listed in a previous post (ronelle.tibaldi@bt.com) last week and needless to say have not even received an acknowledgement of my e-mail, let alone a response to my complaints! I also sent a copy to (customer.care@btireland.ie). I got an automated reply saying I would be contacted within 4 days. This e-mail address must surely breach some trade description act!!


Thanks.

Westie123 said:

I got an automated reply saying I would be contacted within 4 days. This e-mail address must surely breach some trade description act!!

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It must westie, and we need to find out. I am on day 3 following sending my second email - and theres no sign of a response.

Also, has anyone switched from BT to Digiweb? How smoothly did it go? What do I have to watch out for in order to make sure it goes smoothly?

We all need to call the ODCA to get something done about this. I too am affected, almost identically to westie. Old Smart customer, placed an order with BT in early Oct(Total Talk & BB). Got BB 3 weeks ago, still waiting for voice service. Have placed in excess of 10 calls into the BT call centre, what a bunch of wasters, clueless. Each time you're in a queue for anything between 40 mins to 1hr10mins. How have these people even got a licence to operate as a telecoms provider ? The standard response I'm getting is that my 'line is blocked' and they don't know why. Told me to call eircom to have it resolved (as they own the network), eircom don't want to know (unsurprisingly). BT then advised it's a 'Smart problem', please call them, it's not our job to sort it out (I'm not really a customer of theirs seemingly, just an idiot who wants to give them €45 per mth for SFA). Smart also don't want to know as 'I am no longer a customer of theirs'. Comreg don't want to know either...incredibly. They advised me to raise a formal complaint with BT which I have done, then wait 10 days to see if it will be resolved. If not, Comreg 'may be able to intervene', but no timescale guaranteed. It seems we do still live in a banana republic. Let's all get onto the ODCA asap to register our collective discontent to see if they can get it resolved.

I forgot to mention that Comreg told me they're getting many calls per day from ex-Smart customers with similar complaints. I asked what they're doing about it....they're apparently collating all similar cases, then (when ?) will address them at a more senior level internally before deciding next steps. This beggars belief.
I also, in desperation, contacted Liveline (no, I'm not a Joe Duffy fan, just desperate). They're getting many calls per day with similar tales. They apparently ran this story a few weeks ago and Comreg refused to come on air to explain what's being done about it.

I also switched to BT for their 1MB BB and phone package. I applied online on the 03-Oct-06. I was a Smart customer. After checking the status of my order online and found out it was "rejected" I sent an email to customer service on 04-Oct-06 wondering what the story was. I got a reply on the 02-Nov-06, 29 days later. In between I had a number of very frustrating conversations with customer care staff trying to sort out a simple problem but to no avail. I ended up disconnected as they couldn't sort it out before Smart customers were disconnected. I cancelled the order and am now with eircom.

A colleague used to work with BT and was head-hunted back to them, he advised me of the following:-
1. If you have BB with another provider originally it can take upto 8 weeks to get everything transfered.
2. In the event that there is a problem with your line, Eircom move you to the back burner, because you are not their customer.
3. BT is excellent if you have never had BB or only have dial-up otherwise the delays will drive you insane.

I was seriously considering going with them but need always on BB for work and so an 8 week delay took them out of the equation. The only really good thing about BT's offer is that Eircom have been forced to make similar deals - making the prices cheaper for everyone.

Thanks ACA & KS1. I have tried to cancel my BT order, but they refused to allow me do it as I'm tied into a 12-mth contract. In any case, I ignored them, tried to place an order with eircom, but they advised they can't provide a service to me until BT cancel my contract.

KS1 - how did you manage to do it ? I'd willingly move to eircom today (and that in itself is incredible....BT are making them look efficient !).

They had still not fully processed my order after 6 weeks so I just rang them and told them to cancel the order which they did with no problem. It was surprisingly easy to do. If they were able to set me up as quickly as cancel my order it would have been great.

Thks for your response, most informative. I've cancelled now, no problem. It seems to differ at BT depending who you talk to, unbelievable. How long did it take for eircom to set you up, i.e. was there a lag between BT order cancellation and when eircom could act ?