(no subject)

[caz963]

After the discovery that BT had changed my phone number, Mr Caz called them on Wednesday and was assured that we could have our old number back and that it would be active yesterday (Friday).

Guess what?

(Altogether now...) OH NO, IT WASN'T!!!

Fortunately for my sanity, I was out for the day with the fantabulous teresadivicenzo and megwriting,but when I got home, I got the full story.

Mr Caz's FOURTH phone call to BT of yesterday went like this:

BT person - Hello and thank you for calling BT. My name is xxx, how may I help you?

Mr Caz - Yes, hello; I hope you *can* help me - I think I'm losing the will to live.

BT person - I'm very sorry to hear that sir, but I'm afraid all our systems are down at the moment, so perhaps you could call back later.

Mr Caz - That's all well and good, but seriously, I'm losing the will to live. Or no, actually, I'm thinking of getting a dog.

BT person - I'm sorry, sir, but as I say, our systems are down...

He has his moments...

BUT - this morning, hallelujah! I think I finally found and spoke to the ONE BT adviser who has more than one braincell and not only that, KNOWS HOW TO USE IT. I spent forty minutes on the phone to someone who not only took the time to listen to what I said, but actually grasped the nature of the problem, and who was able to piece together what had happened. To cut a very long and boring story short, it doesn't look like I'll be able to get my old phone number back, so I'm going to have to bite the bullet and tell everyone that it's changed. I'm sure there'll be someone I've missed, but I'll worry about that later.



On a serious note though - I know we all moan about the "out-sourcing" by big companies of their call centres, to Eastern Europe or India, or wherever it is. I know these are business decisions and I'm well aware of why they're made - and of course, these places provide badly needed work for some of the world's poorest people.

Yes, the companies provide training - they teach them English, they teach them their systems etc. and most of the time, with simple queries, I guess that works fine. But the problem comes when you have people who are basically trained to "a script", and who can't handle it when they have to deviate from that script, because the problem is either too complex, or because the language and the concepts become too complicated for them to deal with. The people I've spoken to over the last few weeks have all been very polite and tried their best to help - but in the end, all that's happened is that I've been fed a pile of shit one piece of mis-information after another as the people I've spoken to have tried what they think is their best to help me. And all they've done, of course, is make the situation worse and added to my already high level of frustration.

I shall write something along these lines when I send in my next complaint to BT. Of course, it will influence nothing at all.
Oh, and by the way. The guy I spoke to this morning was based in the UK.

I rest my case.

Comments

[foreverdreaming.livejournal.com]

Ah yes. I had much the same situation trying to sign up with Sky. Now I have relatives who work at Sky, and I know their UK base in Dunfermline, Scotland, is very effective. But if they are busy you get diverted to customer services in India. Now they are very polite etc, but like you say - misinformation followed by more misinformation.

"Oh no miss, new customers need to call xxxxxx" Invariably this was in fact the number I had just called to get through to them!

Finally got everything set up when I managed to speak to Scotland. I rest my case.

[caz963.livejournal.com]

Yep. I'm with Sky (or I will be once I get my BB back!) and I find the same. The guy I spoke to this morning about getting reconnected was also at their Scottish office, and everything was sorted, no problem at all, even though it was complicated because of all the crap that's going on. One thing he did say that was interesting was that "this" (this being people like me telling them how crap BT are!) is becoming part of their daily routine - and could I tell him what the problem was, because his boss is compiling a list!! Good for him - somebody has to!

[hooloovoo_42]

There's no need to go into all the problems I've had with Talktalk because Ma & Pa each use them. The only way to get anywhere seems to be to insist on talking to a manager who has the authority to make a decision. Every time I was passed to someone else, the first question I would ask is "Can you *really* do something about this, or are you just wasting my time and money while I go through everything again and you tell me a pile of lies?" After several goes at this, they tend to try and find somebody, if only to get rid of the Mad Woman.

BT really, really need to grasp the fact that they are no longer the leaders in the field (and only ever were when they were the *only* provider of phone services). Just because other companies are forced to use their lines doesn't mean that anyone is happy about it.

I'm glad I ain't gonna be on the receiving end of your letter!

And Yay! for Mr Caz :-)

[leli-5.livejournal.com]

The call lines are ridiculous. At least you got through, though. Last time I called to complain about something, the company tranferred me around for ten minutes (not exaggerating) before randomly disconnecting me. I went through it three times with the final time being over twenty minutes of hold lines and people answering only to say, "Oh, no, this is xxxx. I'll have to transfer you to customer service" and then, again, I was hung up on. I'm pretty sure they don't have a customer service department and just wear people down instead. I wrote an email and never got an answer - not even a stock, scripted reply.

Maybe you can use the new phone number to get rid of calls from people you don't really like? Only give it to the people you want to hear from.

"Oh, you haven't been able to get through? How odd!" you will say to those who didn't make the cut (as you try not to snicker).