Cannot place an new order for Full Fibre

[Pauljacko]

I tried to place an order for Full Fibre on 20th March.  Oder did not go through as there was a 'Open Order' on my account.  This now has been a saga of hours on the phone trying to solve the issue.  I have never come across a system like this.  You get passed from one agent to another and each time have to explain the whole issue.  I do not think that anyone reads the notes on the account. Since the 20th I must have spoken to at least 25 different agents and have spent a total of 18.5 hours listening to every singe piece of music that is played when on hold. The problem seems to be a glitch in the software that does not reset the account when a ticket is supposed to be closed.  To all intents and purpose the system shows there is no open ticket but in reality something in the background says that there is. This means that no new order can be placed.  After speaking to seven different agents on 27th March I was finally assured that they had identified the problem and would probably take about a 5 working days to come up with a Fix.  Called again on 2nd April to see if the problem was still there.  Spoke with another 5 agents and had to explain to each of them what the issue was.  Finally spoke to to an agent who said I had been told wrong and that the issue had been identified and was affecting quite a few customers.  Told that hopefully issue to be fixed by end of week. Just spent the last 1.45 hours talking again to 5 different people and listening to all that lovely music to be told that they had found to real reason and not what I had been told earlier.  Now been told to give a ring on Wednesday next week to see if they had fixed the problem.  Told the agent was extremely unhappy with all this and asked yet again to speak to a senior manager. Was told that wasn't possible as they had no authority to fix the system.  I have asked for a name or at least a number to contact and was told not possible. I find this unbelievable that a company as big as EE /BT have no line of communication between departments to solve issues such as this.  There seems to be no line of communication between the departments which means so much time is wasted for the various agents and customers.  I am an extremely angry and frustrated customer!!!!

[Daniel-S]

Hi @Pauljacko,

I am so sorry to read about the problems that you've had.

Have you been able to speak with anyone since Friday about this?

Do you have a complaint open? I only ask as you said that you were told to call back on Wednesday.

Let me know as we may be able to check to see who's dealing with this for you.

Thank you

Daniel-S

[Pauljacko]

Spoke with someone on Friday who told me to call EE on Wednesday next week.
Appreciate if there was one person to handle the case instead of multiple
people who I have to explain everything to them again and again.
Everyone tells me a different story but all say working on removing the
open ticket. It has now been over 2 weeks and still cannot place an order
for FFTP even though it has been available since 20th March. Cheers Paul.

[Pauljacko]

Hi  Daniel. Still heard nothing yet!!  Have you found out anything?

[John-C]

Hi @Pauljacko, sorry you've not been able to get your order placed.

I've sent you a Private Message so you can get in touch with the Mod team and we'll be happy to help you find out what is happening to get your account fixed and order placed.

Cheers

John

[Pauljacko]

Hi John

Just spoken to the Connections Team.  They are now chasing this with the Background Team - which is what I was told 2 weeks ago!!!  The agent I have just spoken to says this can take a few days!!!!!!  This is what they told me two weeks ago and still nothing been done..  I am so frustrated.  I do not want to go to another provider because I want the EE Tv as well as the FFTP.  If I have to be messed around by the end of this week then I will cancel everything and go to Sky who tell me that FFTP can be installed next week.

I posted regards to the issues with trying to order FFTP.  I have in fact had many issues since 23rd January.  I have sent an email and written a letter of complaint to which I have not received a reply. I will send you a copy on here for your comments.

Regards Paul

[Pauljacko]

Hi John

This is the letter of complaint I have sent both email and Post Office mail.

It may seem that I am always complaining but believe me in this instance I have every right to be with all these issues.

Original Letter of Complaint sent 27th March 2024

I am writing this letter of complaint for a number of reasons.  Please note the following:

Since writing and sending this letter to yourselves there has been a further development which has made me even more angry and extremely upset with both BT and EE.  Please note the following with the additional complaint:-

I received notification on 23rd January 2024 that FFTP was going to be available at my premises from then until March.  I phoned up BT regarding this and asked how much it was going to cost per month.  The sales guy said he did not have that information at hand but went on to say that I was out of contract with BT and quoted me a new price for a new broadband contract with BT.  This came to £92 which was the same as I was paying with the Halo system I had previously had. I said that I would leave it until the FFTP was available and then consider taking that offer.

On 1st February I contacted BT again as I had been told by a friend that there were far cheaper alternatives than what I had been quoted.  This time the sales person I spoke to told me something different. He quoted me £64.99.  I agreed to this as a lot cheaper.  I then received a copy of that contract via email and noted that this contract was with EE and would be live on 19th February. I received an email to say that the new equipment was on its way.  I received a text to say that another customer wanted to take over my telephone number on 4th February.  I rang up again and told the guide that I wanted to keep the line but was told that I could only do that a day before the service was to start on 19th February. I called up on 18th and spoke to another guide requesting that I wanted to keep the old number. I was then told that EE could not supply the service that BT (TNT) Sport was still active on my old contract so that a new contract could not be started as there was an open order.  I could not understand this reasoning as I was out of contract so why was this service still active.  

I was then told that I would have to return all the equipment and start the order again.  I was very unhappy with this as I had installed the equipment and had taken a long time to do this as I had to enter all my appliances with the very long password.  I was told that this had to be done before another contract was started.  They sent a plastic bag and I packed everything up and sent it back. I set up all my old system again including 5 wifi disks.

I spoke with another guide and she told me that she could bring down the contract even further.  This was then £44.99 without a phone line.  As we hardly ever used the phone line we decided to go on a contract without and that if we ever wanted to could do so without altering the contract but as a pay as you go for £5 per month.  

I agreed to the new EE contract again and received all the new equipment but the activation wasn't going to be until the 6th March.

I again contacted a sales guide and requested two additional WiFi Plus hubs as I had previously had 5 BT Home disks to cover the whole house.  I was told that that was only possible once the contract went live on 6th March but would be only one at a time.  I repeated that if I had 5 disks before then I would certainly need at least the 3 WiFi Plus hubs. Again told it was not possible even though when I had the EE equipment I was not getting coverage at either end of the house which meant my heating controls (Nest) would not work or receive wifi in my office. The system went live on 6th March as planned and had to contact a guide yet again for another two wifi Plus hubs and again had to order one at a time.  One arrived two days later and spoke to another guide to order the 3rd.  This arrived and everything worked fine until the system went down and no wifi on 14th March.  Back in touch again and after trying some tests the Tech guy organised an engineer visit but could not get an earlier date than Monday 18th March. Engineer arrived and carried out tests but could not find anything wrong except that he said the router needed to go through a learning curve.  All seemed to be working fine after that.

I contacted the guide who had been dealing with this new contract and asked her that we would like to have the digital voice added for £5 as a few people had tried contacting us on our land line and couldn’t so for that cost we would have a line added.  Not an issue she told me.

I then received an email on 20th March that the Full Fibre had been built and I could place an order.  I contacted the same Guide yet again to place an order for the FFTP.  She offered me the Full Works package to include the EE TV and told me that the installation would take place on 11th April which annoyed me as our friend and neighbor next door ordered on the same day and was going to have the installation tomorrow 27th March .  When she tried to place the order she said she couldn’t as there was an open order on my account and therefore could not. It became clear that it was going to take a few days. I had also requested that we wanted our old number back as well once the digital voice went live.  I would have to contact her again once it was activated to request our old number back. The line went live on 25th March so I contacted her again to say it was live and could I now order the FTTP - no problem she said.  She told me the order had gone through and I would receive a copy by email.  I had an issue with the broadband yet again and she transferred me to the Tech people.  They said the line looked ok but there was an issue with the wifi setup and would send somebody between 14:00 and 16:00.

I contacted the Guide yet again to say I had not received a copy of the contract or confirmation of the installation date.  She told me to contact customer services which I did.  The lady who answered couldn’t find any order of the FFTP and insisted no order had been placed!!!!  She then tells me the reason the order hadn’t gone through was the fact there was an open order on my account - AGAIN!!! By now my frustration is coming to the boil.  The engineer came and tested everything and said there wasn’t anything wrong with the wifi.  Now I am told that I will have to try calling yet again to replace the order tomorrow 27th March.

I literally have spent hours on the phone talking to all the different guides who at times gave me wrong information and mostly different to one another. Setting up a new system and then having to return it. I am even more upset to the fact I have still been paying a very expensive package and the fact the first guide quoted me the £92.  If I had not questioned this that is what I would have been paying and still with the old Halo system. 

I am not impressed to say the least and apologize for the above mail but I think I have been patient enough. I am even more upset that the installation date is already longer than my neighbors and even more delayed to this latest delay because of the open ticket for an engineer to visit when there was nothing wrong which was instigated by your Tech people.

The other issue is that I cannot sync my broadband with my mobile on the EE App.  This I was told will be resolved after Easter.

I would appreciate this whole issue to be investigated so that there are no further delays both now and in the future. I have tried to be as factual as I can with all dates and details etc but there have been so many calls and emails etc it is very difficult to be precise.  I am sure that you can check with your records on my accounts. 

As an end note my next door neighbour had her installation this morning. Took them 45 mins and she is up and running. All it took was a phone call on 20th March to upgrade to FFTP. I just cannot believe the hassle I have had, the time spent on this and the time taken from my work to get this far since beginning of February and Still no installation. I would appreciate that the installation is carried out asap. 

3rd April 2024

Update on this ongoing fiasco

Since writing this letter in the first instance there has been further developments which is now making me more angrier and upset.

Thursday 28th March 2024

As I had not heard any update regards my order of FFTP I contacted EE yet again and spent the next 2 hours and 20 mins being passed from one agent to another.  In fact I spoke with 7 different agents.The last Tech guy told me after discussing with his manager that they had identified what the issue has been and would have to create some sort of ‘Bridge’ to solve the issue with my account.  Only problem would be that it would take another 4 to 5 days to fix.  

I felt at this time the problem had been solved and that by Easter Monday my order of FFTP would finally go ahead. I was told to phone back on Monday and re-place to order

• AGAIN

I was told to call back again as the issue as the Open Order was still on the system. I was told to call back yesterday 2nd April and that  the issue should be fixed.

2nd April 2024

Called back yesterday and spent another 1 hour and 20 mins and now have been told that this now is a known issue and that there is a problem with the software and that engineers will have to resolve it.  This could take a further week and possibly more. This is not just related to me but to many others apparently.

This is now the point I have had a enough of this total shambles.

What I would like answered ASAP is the following:-

1. Why do every different agent tell me different stories?
2. Why do I have to go through the whole saga of the issue with every agent when all calls are recorded?
3. After repeating the saga everytime I am put on hold while they speak with someone else.  After being left on hold I get a different agent and have to repeat everything again and then get told that I have been passed onto the wrong department.  Then I get transferred to someone else.  This is how it goes!!!
4. If there is an issue such as mine why not assign a Case Manager to follow up and deal with all the chasing and explaining to each person.  Not only does this waste the customers time but all the different agents times.
5. I think the other main issue is that it has taken all this time for someone to state that there is a known issue and that a lot of others are affected. If this is the case why doesn't anyone of your agents know this and can inform the customer instead of going through all of the above?
6. Why isn’t this information available online
7. I have even asked why I cannot even cancel my account altogether and start afresh?

I have been with BT a long time and have been happy.  This has changed my view.  I can easily go to the likes of Sky or another service provider and have the FFTP installed without all this hassle or maybe you are all the same.

It is going to take some convincing for me to keep with you for my Broadband, TV and Mobile Service.

I expect a swift response to this complaint before I take it further.

Yours Sincerely 

Paul

BT Account Number:- ************

EE Account Number: - ************

Mobile:- ************

Land Line:- ************

Address:-************

[Mod edit: Please do not share personal details as your posts are visible to the public. Thanks!]

[Pauljacko]

I have had the same issue. Ordered FFTP on 20th March and now almost 7 weeks on I have just been told from the complaint team that there is nothing they can do. Cannot even go back to the old BT account. I have spent over 20 hours most of the time explaining to each guide the issue and being told something different each time. They just offered me £50 compensation and told to go to another provider!!!  
unbelievable!!!!  They say it is an KNOWN issue in the software in the background. Only alternative is to stick with my present slow contract and hope that they may fix the issue in a couple of months or as they have told me to go to another provider and they will waver an early cancellation fee of my contract. 
I would like further comments from EE / BT from a long standing customer. 

[Daipop]

Hi PaulJacko

Monopoly power allows them to dictate terms but the lies they tell are truly disgusting 🤢
Ombudsman service protects their shoddy service & customers have little or no alternative ?
Good luck & keep us posted
Daipop
Sent from my iPhone