From Today's Telegraph - BT Openworld
Steve Harvey
'It's no open world at BT - just closed doors (and one computer)'
If you're struggling to understand why BT is having such problems at the
moment, just try to order one of its ADSL high-speed internet lines, says
Richard Longhurst
LAST November, my small company was moving into a new office and needed
three telephone lines and a fast internet connection. Nothing too
complicated about that, you'd have thought, as installing phone lines is
BT's bread and butter. Surely an ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line),
which allows high-speed internet access over a standard phone line, can't be
too tricky. Can it?
At the beginning of December, three phones lines and an exchange line, which
is required for ADSL, were promptly installed - no complaints there at all.
Now we just needed the ADSL service, but this is where the trouble started.
By January 15, there was no sign of ADSL nor confirmation the order had been
placed. My endless phone calls and emails to BT's small business sales team
went unanswered. When I was finally able to speak to someone, I asked
whether they had heard of voicemail. "Oh yes, we do have it," came the
reply. "We're just not allowed to switch it on during the day."
So when was our ADSL line going to be installed? They couldn't say, but
eventually they admitted that the order system for BT Openworld, the part of
BT which runs the ADSL service, had "a few problems" which meant they had
"not been able to get an order raised".
What were these problems? The system was unable to recognise my Bath
postcode, and it stayed that way for about a week. This did not explain,
however, why the order hadn't been placed in November, some weeks before the
system started having problems. Then it all went quiet again until February
2 when the exchange line, which had been installed in December, was finally
tested for ADSL-suitability.
If it had failed the test, we wouldn't have been able to have ADSL and all
the waiting for high-speed internet access would have been in vain. We could
have just gone for a standard, slow internet service as soon as we moved in.
Happily, it passed the test and we set a date for the service to be
installed. A BT Openworld welcome pack arrived in the post explaining that
they had arranged for an engineer to visit. Fantastic! There was just one
problem: the engineer was scheduled to arrive on February 1, and the letter
was dated February 5.
A new installation date was arranged for February 12. The engineer arrived
at the appointed hour, perfectly equipped to install an ADSL line, but only
a USB (universal serial bus) version suitable for a single user, rather than
the four-PC Ethernet version which we had ordered. So it was on to BT
Openworld's Customer Fulfilment Department to sort out the problem. The
single-user service would have to be cancelled and a new order placed for
the four-user system, which would take another 10 to 15 days to be
installed.
By this stage, I was becoming understandably irritated so I demanded some
form of compensation. I was offered one month's free ADSL line rental. Not
good enough. I wanted to take it further which, in this case, meant the BT
Openworld Complaints Department. The Customer Fulfilment department said
we'd receive a call from the complaints people within two working days. If
we didn't get the call, I asked cautiously, who should we telephone? "Call
us again," they said.
Exasperated, I asked a single, simple question: "Does the BT Openworld
Complaints Department have its own phone number?" The pregnant pause that
followed spoke volumes. It eventually gave birth to an audibly embarrassed,
one word answer: "No."
Predictably, the Complaints Department didn't call within two working days,
so I telephoned the Customer Fulfilment department again and asked to be put
through to complaints. Why had nobody called me? "Due to the amounts of
complaints we've received, the response time is now five days." That
figures. Why then had I been told two days? The policy had been changed more
than two weeks previously, but BT managers had yet to relay this information
to some of the staff.
But what about our order? "The database which allows me to check whether
your new order has been placed isn't up and running now. It's only working
on one computer." For more than two weeks, BT Openworld staff had been
taking turns to check orders on a single computer terminal. I begun to feel
rather sorry for the poor souls required to work under such hopeless
conditions.
What about our compensation? I then found out that I hadn't been put through
to the Complaints Department and was still speaking to Customer Fulfilment
department. Scraping myself off the ceiling, I asked, again, to speak to
someone in complaints. "We can't actually put you through to them because
they're not customer facing," came the baffling reply.
It was only when I demanded to speak to someone in charge of the Complaints
Department that I was given a name and a personal email address but still no
phone number. Just 15 minutes after firing off a message, the head of
Complaints called and promised to "get this sorted". Amazingly, the new
order still hadn't been placed but at least now I was dealing with someone
with the power to do something. Later that afternoon, the Complaints
Department called and said that the order had been put on the system, but a
new exchange line test had to be conducted which would take two to three
days. It meant more waiting but at least we seemed to be getting somewhere.
As we approach March, I still don't have an ADSL connection. All I have
experienced first-hand is the staggering incompetence and dire customer
service of one of Britain's flagship companies.
News Account
better than the product they have launched. I don't understand how you can
have a trial of a system that does not trial the whole system.
The trial lasted 2 years, isn't that long enough?
"Steve Harvey" <steve...@nospam.lineone.net> wrote in message
news:t99e2tc...@corp.supernews.co.uk...
phil henry
wrote:
>Something has seriously gone wrong. The trial was superb. The trial was
>better than the product they have launched. I don't understand how you can
>have a trial of a system that does not trial the whole system.
>
>The trial lasted 2 years, isn't that long enough?
Was it a technology trial ? Or did it include people,
processes and systems to be deployed for
operational use ?
Keith
suffered at the hands of BT - and they still haven't managed to tell me WHY
I can't get ADSL.
I could type up my records of dealing with BT over the course of (i kid you
not) six months, but it would just make me cry to re-live it all.
Keith
"Steve Harvey" <steve...@nospam.lineone.net> wrote in message
news:t99e2tc...@corp.supernews.co.uk...
MikeB (not Mike B)
lasted 2 years. It was simply a delaying tactic.
It is still against BT's commercial interest to get ADSL running
smoothly, so expect continuing chaos!
MikeB
.
John Perry
>From Today's Daily Telegraph - BT Openworld
>
>'It's no open world at BT - just closed doors (and one computer)'
>
>If you're struggling to understand why BT is having such problems at the
>moment, just try to order one of its ADSL high-speed internet lines, says
>Richard Longhurst
>
>LAST November, my small company was moving into a new office and needed
>three telephone lines and a fast internet connection. Nothing too
>complicated about that, you'd have thought, as installing phone lines is
>BT's bread and butter. Surely an ADSL (asymmetric digital subscriber line),
>which allows high-speed internet access over a standard phone line, can't be
>too tricky. Can it?
<snip>
I read that too, and according to the BT www site, our area was ADSL
enabled in Dec last year, but the telno checks says not available yet.
I spoke to a helpful guy called at BT called Bupinder who stated that
our area will definitely be ADSL enables on 28 Feb 01, and that my order
can be progressed then.
I've been complaining to Sir Iain Vallance, and all his PA does is send
the letters to BT Openworld, where of course they never get answered.
When you request a reply from his office, that too goes to BT Openworld
for (no) reply.
Anyway, I'm now emailing the Chief Exec and his email address is:
So, vent your complaints there like I have done - when the cost of
dealing with complaints exceeds the cost of the poor admin within BT -
only then will BT improve.
--
John Perry: John...@redoak.co.ukNOSPAM
http://www.redoak.co.uk
PGP 2.6.2 public key available ** Delete NOSPAM in reply address **
Kris
for BT, and now that businesses are switching to 2Mbit ADSL lines, and home
users are on ADSL or Unmetered dial-up schemes, they must be taking a *big*
dent in their profits ... I have no doubts BT would have prefered to drag
its feet and keep things the way they were for as long as possible.
-Kris
"Peter Duck" <pd...@zetnet.co.uk> wrote in message
news:200102231...@zetnet.co.uk...
> In message <3a95b709...@news.tele2.co.uk>
> mi...@REMOVETHIS.bryant.org.uk (MikeB (not Mike B)) wrote:
>
> > ... It is still against BT's commercial interest to get ADSL running
> > smoothly, so expect continuing chaos!
>
> 'Conspiracy theories' are always popular, but cockups, especially
> administrative, are near-infinitely more usual in Real Life (tm).
>
> - However reluctant they might (or might not) have been to invest heavily
> to enable this technology, it would make less than no sense to delay
> earning a return on the investment.
>
> - Trouble of any/all sorts is *very* expensive to a business, both in the
> (unbudgeted/not-staffed-for) resources consumed in 'fixing' it and in
> the damage to goodwill/'image'.
>
> In the 'broadband paradise(?)', the US, the 'baby Bells' were said last
> Oct/Nov to be very unhappy that their ADSL rollout was consuming 5 times
> the man-hours per line they'd catered/priced for (plus they were getting
> *a lot* of flak).
> Doubt that this was deliberate choice either.
>
> --
> Peter Duck <pd...@zetnet.co.uk>
Tony
<news...@K343.com> wrote:
> I have no doubts BT would have prefered to drag
^^^^^^^
>its feet and keep things the way they were for as long as possible.
"Would have" if _what_ hadn't changed?
Tony