ADSL Woes Part Deux

Mon, 30 October, 2006 – 9:30 pm

The sequel to ADSL Woes has already begun!! I have had such a **** day of phone calls. This morning I was given our Mac code for moving our Broadband to another supplier. All seemed fine, called the new company (I like a company that answers within 2 rings!) and set the ball in motion. Then a couple of hours later they called me back saying there was a problem with the code and it was one of three things
1. The code was invalid
2. The code had already been given to another BB company
3. The old ISP (UK Online) had begun cancellation proceedings on the line.

Well the first was checked and seemed fine, the second option wasn't an option as far as we were concerned so that left an invalid code from the ISP or a cancellation on the line. So another hour spent on the phone to get through to the correct department, and we were told that the code was valid and no cancellation had been put through. So another call to the new ISP and they went off to ask BT why the error had happened. Half hour later a call back telling us that UK Online had definitely put through a cancellation order on the BB on our line on Sunday and gave us the order code! So the Mac code, generated for Saturday but not given to us until today was completely useless. So we called UK Online again (yep another 45 minutes to get through) and I spoke to someone who was insistent that there was no cancellation, that they couldn't generate the Mac code if a cancellation had been put through (clearly ignoring the fact I kept saying the code was generated first then a cancellation put through), she even asked another department who said no cancellation had gone through – yet BT said there was (and right now I know who I believe!). Then the bullet hit, Dave spoke to her and she informed him that unless we paid them for the rest of our contract (which we are wholly within our right to cancel according to their Terms and Conditions) they wouldn't do anything about it. No manager or supervisior was available to talk to (likely story) and she wouldn't give us a number for anyone else.

So after all this Dave called Ofcom for advise on what to do. Essentially we are being blackmailed into paying for a contract which we shouldn't have to pay for because they've been sneaky to generate us a Mac code and then cancel the broadband right after! I hate not being in control and right now we have no control over our own telephone line. Ofcom gave us the number for BT Wholesale so we called them to find out exactly what was going on with our line. The cease was definitely ordered on Sunday by UK Online however soon after they also put in a reprovision order to supply us with broadband again! Even the woman at BT said she'd never seen anything like it. Unfortunately there's nothing they can do which is so unbelievably frustrating as they could just fix it all there and then.

So we decided to bite the bullet, call UK Online and offer to pay the remaining £75 for the get out of jail option. Then get the BB moved and write a long letter detailing it all to the Ombudsman and see if we could get our money back this way along with compensation for the amount of telephone time spent on this. Another 45 minutes to an hour wait and we got through to someone who suddenly said something different. This person was actually more helpful, she passed our problem on to a technician there who's looking into why the Mac code isn't working and is going (in theory) to call us back tomorrow to let us know what's happened.

So yet more ups and downs over this whole issue, yet again ridiculous customer support from one girl we spoke to twice with regards to the whole cancellation of BB on the line and her defiance in saying it wasn't true and then being blackmailed to get any further action. Fingers crossed tomorrow may be a better day, I hope so, I've lost most of today to the telephone

Thank god for chocolate icecream…

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