Dear Which?,
I signed up for BT broadband back in May, with an agreed connection date of early June. But more than a month later, I still couldn't get online.
I called BT repeatedly and was given numerous excuses for the hold-up. The blame was often placed on Openreach (the company that maintains BT's broadband network).
BT sent me a 4G 'mini hub' to use while I waited for the issue to be resolved, but the connection was too slow for me to work from home.
BT kept apologising and said I'd receive £5 credit for each day I was without internet, but I was then billed for a full month of broadband and only given £40 in credit.
Can you help me speed things along and contest this bill, please?
Susan (a pseudonym)
Put to Rights
Hannah Downes consumer rights expert at Which? says:Switching broadband suppliers can save you money, but the process isn't always plain sailing.
We got in touch with BT on Susan's behalf to see what the hold up was.
Susan then received a call confirming there was a fault with her line and assuring her she wouldn't be billed until the connection was fixed. An engineer visit was booked in, and then cancelled. BT said tests showed there was a fault on its network which would be resolved that week.
To her surprise, BT then called Susan a few days later to say that an engineer was on their way to her property. Susan wasn't given any notice in advance, but fortunately her partner was at home.
It didn't take long for the engineer to diagnose and fix the problem. 'It seemed that BT didn't configure our line to be only an internet line, so the phone line that the property previously had was still there and that was why our router couldn't connect' Susan recalled.
Almost two months after the planned connection date, Susan finally had a working broadband connection. BT also credited her account with a further £300 in compensation.
BT told us that a system issue meant there was a delay in getting Susan connected. It apologised for her experience.
'I have to say that this would not have been possible without Which?'s intervention,' she said.
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source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/bt-took-two-months-to-connect-my-broadband-ag9hF4F5IPqU