Breach of contract terms ? No TV for four weeks

[Nocaster51]

I wonder if anyone can offer any advice. 

My elderly parents who are customers/victims of BT/ee have had no television for nearly four weeks. We have spent many hours on the phone to EE, performed countless checks again and again. They have had one visit from an engineer who spent much of the time repeating the checks that I had already done for them and on the phone arguing with his superiors that he was wasting his time as he had 4 calls outs that day, all the same and could offer no fix. 

They have been refunded their last month's money but are no closer to a resolution. They have raised a complaint but are getting nowhere. In two days time it will be 4 weeks without any TV service.  I have never experienced customer service and lack of technical knowledge from a company like this.

My parents are very elderly. 

The family think its time to move them to sky or virgin. 

Can anyone offer any advice regarding breach of contract and how to get out of their contract with BT/ee who also provide phone, e mail, internet. 

They have been bt customers for 50 years are are worried about leaving, but would like to watch football and coronation street again. 

[Ali_A]

Sorry to hear about the experience your parents have been facing with the TV service @Nocaster51 

At this stage the technical team will have a ticket in place which they will be working on to fix the cause of the issue.

We want to give all our customers an excellent service but if you feel your complaint hasn't been handled they way you had hoped we want you to know how we can fix it. Please visit our Complaints code of practice page for details about our complaints handling process.

If you'd like to re-open your complaint, or raise a new one, you can do so using our online form at Make a Complaint, where our dedicated complaints team will look into the details and take ownership of the complaint. 

Ali

[Nocaster51]

Thank you for taking the time to post a reply. There just doesn't seem to be a mechanism for escalating complaints. No senior staff will get involved, even after a failed engineer visit. Every time we speak after a long wait on the phone it's another young person who doesn't know what to do and just wants to get you off the line. Usually with a promise to call back at a certain day and time which is never kept. And requests to perform the same checks over and over again. Once they get to the end of the script, that's it, just try to close the call with no resolution. Does anyone know at what point bt/ee can be considered in breach of contract such that the contract can be closed ? Is a month with no TV enough ?

I think it really is time to go to sky/virgin. It just cannot be any worse. 

[Chris_B]

@Nocaster51   How is the EE TV box connected?  Is this via an aerial or via WiFi to the router ?  

[Ali_A]

@Nocaster51 

If you follow the form, and include your existing complaint reference number, this will escalate your complaint. 

A member of the team will get in touch with you to discuss your complaint. 

Ali

[Nocaster51]

Yes we have escalated complaints. At various times the TV box has been reset to use all internet streaming, aerial, WiFi and using a power line connected via ethernet. The problem is to do with all streaming of television (such as sport channels etc). The broadband to the house is fine. Apparently this is a known problem with BT/ee (there is another thread in here for this) but there is no fix.  I would have assumed the obvious fix that the engineer should have tried would be to replace the TV box but for some reason bt/ee were unwilling to authorise him to try this,.presumably to avoid cost. Escalating the complaint over the last few weeks has just resulted in admission that they don't know how to fix it, and each time a promise to call back three days later. My poor parents sit in waiting for that call which never comes. My father with Alzheimer's just cant understand why his television won't work and why he can't watch football, and the stress makes his health worse. Bt/ee have been made aware of this as for two weeks his landline phone also wouldn't work (presumably as a result of failed remote attempts to fix their TV) . That was especially worrying as he is unable to use a mobile phone and left him quite vulnerable. They just need an engineer to revisit who is capable of fixing the TV but this seems too much to ask. 

I would love it if a senior employee from BT/EE were made aware of this thread. 

[Nocaster51]

If anyone has a name and direct contact details of someone senior at BT/ee, I would very much appreciate them being shared with me. 

[Chris_B]

@Nocaster51   Have you tried it without the power line  and a Ethernet cable from the EE box to the router?  

[Nocaster51]

Yes we have done all that, and then the engineer visited repeated it all over again, none of which made any difference. A fine internet signal gets to the box either through ethernet or WiFi but live TV won't stream for any channel that doesn't come through the aerial. 

After the first week they re set the box to factory and then configured it so that all channels would stream rather than use the aerial, and for the next two weeks they had no TV for any channels. 

Following the last engineers visit  it's been put back to the aerial for the 5 main channels but none of the others work including the sports channels which cause the biggest problem. 

[Chris_B]

@Nocaster51  Is the aerial coax cable an off the shelf one or is it a made up one ?  One where you make it yourself?  I had a similar issue and it was a cable I made myself and I just had to make sure it was all screwed up tightly.    As for not working in IP mode which the sports channels are delivered over that sounds like something hasn’t been setup right with the account.  Just to check the TV package does have sports included with it ?  But is this all app delivered content?  Ie Netflix? NowTV ?Discovery  Do they work ?