BT gets its lines crossed with abysmal offering

AS I have been a BT customer since I had a telephone and am allergic to Rupert Murdoch and Sky Sports, I signed up for BT Sport – foolishly. Being an old man, my expert nephew installed the equipment as it is a DIY job but only got a broken picture when he switched it on.

On calling the helpline number, after a 20-minute hold, we found ourselves talking to a young Indian lady in Mumbai. Although her accent was difficult to understand we followed her instructions, changing cables etc, until she decided that the box was faulty. She said that if she could not fix the software in 48 hours we would be supplied with a new box.

This did not happen and on my next call to Mumbai and carrying out a similar test the line was cut after 20 minutes.

Not to be daunted, I tried again and it took 65 minutes to get through to Mumbai. After similar tests the verdict was that the HDMI cable was faulty and, after being passed through various hands, was told that a new HDMI cable would be supplied within 48 hours. To my surprise a packet arrived from Northallerton the next day but it was the wrong cable and useless.

After another fruitless call and test I demanded to speak to someone higher up the chain of command. I persisted in the face of unwillingness and received a call in late evening (after midnight in India) from the complaints manager in Delhi. He could not explain why I had not received either a new box or HDMI cable but would arrange for a BT engineer to visit; this would take about 10 days due to the volume of calls.

I have written three times to BT at Durham detailing the lack of progress and asked to speak to someone in English. There has been no response. The seven pages forming the terms of contract dated August 2 were received on August 21 with a start date for BT Sport of August 2, a week before the equipment was delivered and still not working.

It seems that BT’s administration is as abysmal as its helpline.