Letter To BT

[bonj2]

Give them two weeks warning, recorded delivery, if they don't do anything about it - 'valuable' garden ornament under the pole, chop it down, sue. Job done. You'll have 'em over a barrel 'cos you warned about it.

 

[TheDoctor]

Intelligent, sensible and reliable advice as ever, Bonj

 

[bonj2]

His secretary. I'm genuinely exited to see what happens! :0)

Oh for christ sake sorry but I cannot abide by people who write to the chief executive of a company. Do they honestly think that he is actually going to even consider getting anywhere near reading it?

I used to work for Dixons contact centre and the letters that were addressed "to the chief executive" were just bundled in with all the others, and answered by me. The only difference was that you just had to put "on behalf of" [the chief exec] on the bottom.

I used to deliberately be more harsh with the ones that I considered to be particularly anal and the ones that actually obviously were pompous enough to think that THEIR letter was going to actually get through to him, and - what, bring the company to its knees and trigger the chief exec to think " you know what? I'm actually going to do something for this guy, I'm going to fix the world. And it'll all be because of him".
It's amazing the amount that actually started with a rant about how it was unlikely to be the chief exec actually reading it. Why bother address it to him then?? Customer service is not his job!

 

[Theseus]

A CO who disdains customer service quite soon no longer needs to worry about it.

 

[delphi]

I love a good strongly worded letter.

I agree with Bonj a little, having also spent some time working in customer service, in general, letters to MDs or CEO's never got to them....but on a rare occasion, if people really did their homework on addresses, it got to the PA of the CEO and if she was bored she might read it and then the **** would rain down on the people that hadn't been dealing with it. Also if someone had managed to find the address of the parent company that owned our company then things got dealt with in a different fashion. Less emphasis on cost saving and more emphasis on getting the irritant out of the way of the parent company.

 

[magnatom]

Oh for christ sake sorry but I cannot abide by people who write to the chief executive of a company. Do they honestly think that he is actually going to even consider getting anywhere near reading it?

It can work. Worked for me when I originally complained to First Buses. It meant action was taken swiftly and it eventually led to the firm taking part in the Give Cyclists Room campaign.

If it doesn't work, it won't take any longer than going by the normal route!

 

[mangaman]

Good letter, but I was interested in the last paragraph about the monopoly.

Does anyone know who is responsible for maintaining the poles. Presumably it is BT and they would be responsible if it fell down.

I think they therefore do have a monopoly over the physical line until it enters your house. You can then choose which phone provider to use.

Does anyone know if I've got that right?

 

[Mr Pig]

Does anyone know if I've got that right?

I think you have but I was thinking of cable service providers. We're thinking of switching to cable, not because of this but because our internet is dog slow.

 

[PBancroft]

I don't think BT has a monopoly on telephone poles - I think any operator would be able to set up their own post network should they see fit, but that probably wouldn't be very cost effective since BT already have a network in place - they would simply purchase the service through BT Wholesale (the same way BT Retail have to) and sell it on to the consumer.

 

[Coco]

I understand that the line plant is managed by Openreach - a BT company. They fix faults on behalf of whoever the comms supplier is: BT Retail, Carphone Warehouse, etc. I'd need to ask the missus to be sure, but that might spoil Mr P's complaint process

 

[Tim Bennet.]

There's a section on the Openreach website for reporting problems with their lines and poles.

 

[Mr Pig]

There's a section on the Openreach website for reporting problems with their lines and poles.

That's all very well but I don't have a contract with Openreach. I've never heard of them until right now so what have they got to do with me? I deal with BT and whoever they use to fix their poles is their business.

I'm surprised the pole is still there to be honest. Their having to work around them as they're doing the ground works for the railway and they'll need to be removed soon anyway.

 

[Tim Bennet.]

Openreach is the company that owns and maintains the infrastructure for all the telecoms providers. If you have a problem with your phone service then complain to your provider (BT), but if you can see a problem with a piece of plant or equipment (like a pole) that would still be a problem, irrespective of who your provider was, then you can contact Openreach direct.

 

[Coco]

.. so what have they [Openreach].got to do with me? I deal with BT and whoever they use to fix their poles is their business.

Well that depends on the rationale for your original post. Do you want the pole fixed or do you want to have a moan about BT's processes? (Both being valid options in my opinion )

I'm surprised the pole is still there to be honest. Their having to work around them as they're doing the ground works for the railway and they'll need to be removed soon anyway.

Maybe that's why the pole hasn't been fixed. No commercial reason for fixing something that's going to be replaced soon.

 

[rh100]

That's all very well but I don't have a contract with Openreach. I've never heard of them until right now so what have they got to do with me? I deal with BT and whoever they use to fix their poles is their business.

I'm surprised the pole is still there to be honest. Their having to work around them as they're doing the ground works for the railway and they'll need to be removed soon anyway.

It's like saying you would complain to British Gas that a pylon is falling down, because thats who 'supplies' your 'leccy.

It might work, but if you've a more direct route then try to use it. BT are an absolute nightmare to try to get the right person.

I do think that writing to directors does work - I've worked for a few places where the sh!t would hit the fan if a customer had to complain to the PA or director. Usually if the PA phoned up with a customer problem, it was top priority.

Good luck with it.