BT has customer relations issues.
Perhaps I should expand on that.
Ever since moving to the UK, I have been a customer of BT Broadband. Mostly I signed up with BT because they were the biggest and most well-known ISP at that time. For a variety of reasons I have stayed with them, even though I have moved house four times in the last 7 years. So to say that I have been a loyal customer to BT would not be inaccurate (yeah, yeah, I pay the bills on time and all that jazz.)
About 18 months ago, I switched my broadband account from BT Residential to BT Business (for technical reasons.) The transition was anything but smooth. (Now that’s a story for another day.)
Back in June of last year, I received a sales call on my home phone (provided by BT) from BT trying to sell me broadband.
Then earlier this week, I received a letter from BT asking me if I was missing something. The body of the letter was as follows:
Dear Mr Dempsey,
Missing something?
Your new broadband provider may have made some impressive claims. But are you left wondering whether the broadband package you’ve got is perhaps a little lacking?
BT Total Broadband is the UK’s most complete broadband. Have a look over the page to see what it could do for your online experience.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Stagg
Managing Director, Customer Service
I don’t even know where to start with the list of things that BT got wrong with this letter …
sounds a little like time warner to me
Have just composed a reply to this stupid circular and wanted to find an address for Nigel Stagg. I cannot comprehend the blatant nonsense of it all. I changed from BT to O2 last year after two years of customer service hell. Do they really think they can tempt people back (even loyal BT customers as I was for many years)?
If you have a contact address for this fool please let me know.
I don’t have BT as I don’t live where they provide services but I have already started to develop a strong and bitter hate for everything that resembles BT and their grossly idiotic employees named Nigel just based on the letter even though I have a distant cousin also with the name of Nigel who I have not seen in a few years because he moved far away to another land where perhaps they do offer BT.
@ Pat –
I think you’re onto something there. These massive ISP’s all suffer from terrible database management and customer relations. They become too big to care about the little touches of customer appreciation that go a long way. Maybe they need to be so big to deliver quality broadband, but if so, it’s a shame that they can’t keep up with the customer care side too.
@ Neil –
Welcome to chickenmonkeydog and thanks for the comment! Commiserations for your suffering. It is a pain, isn’t it?
I’ve had a look about for a postal address for Nigel Stagg, and for BT Customer service generally, but they don’t seem to have one that I can find. They want an email or a phone call, I’m afraid. Typical: they’ll send us post but won’t take any back!
@ Steve –
Is your cousin Nigel’s surname Stagg? If so, could you please provide us with an address for him? Ha-ha!
a-hahaha. This is hilarious. One arm of BT trying to steal you from the other arm. Love it.
Maybe you should fwd this post to confusedofcalcutta.com who is BT’s CIO. I’m sure he has tons of other things on his mind.. but his take on it might be enlightening.
I have this problem with Comcast *all* the time. I have a virtual phone (from Vonage) that’s a Boston area code. I lived in DC for a while, now am in Chicago. and Comcast can’t figure out how to make these DBs sync for payment purposes. Needless pain in the posterior, if I may add. (Not that any p-i-t-a is necessary!)
@ CheekyMonkey:
Yep, it is pretty funny. Do you think the BT Residental guys ever go out for drinks with the BT Business guys? I could see that getting ugly after a few rounds …
I think it is the database management that causes many of the issues. Making databases for that amount of content is very tough. On top of that, there is always the issue of quality control over data input. Still, you would have thought that one of these corporate giants would have gotten a better handle on the CRM side of it by now.
I used to be with BT but massive problems made me move. I’m with TalkTalk now – much cheaper and, though not perfect, try hard with Customer Service. Vote with your feet and eventually BT will get the message.
(I’m also trying to write to Nigel Stagg – will let you know if I get a reply!)
@ Roger:
Thanks for visiting! And thanks for the comment. I agree that leaving BT has struck my mind from time-to-time (about every time I pick up the phone to call them), but it’s such a hassle, isn’t it?
There’s a story on BT today, posted back in October 2008, about how Nigel Stagg is putting his name on letters to customers. Too bad he’s not putting his return address on there too …
By the way, chickenmonkeydoggians, I have received yet another sales letter from BT. It arrived last week and was more of the same great sales pitch.
I particularly liked the part in the letter where BT write ‘At BT, we listen to your feedback.’ Really? Do they? Perhaps our readership is wider than I thought …
@ Liam
It’s very easy to change. You could use Uswitch or similar to find a preferred supplier.
It’s a while since I last checked, but TalkTalk seem to offer the best package for me (phone calls, line & broadband).
Go for it Liam, let BT know how you feel.
Good Luck.
BT are so smart they made a telephone sales call to me – after I’d registered with the Telephone Preference Service (to stop unwanted sales calls) – through BT!!
@ Roger Bradley:
Yep, I’ve had that phone call too, back in June. Funny, that.
Do you think the recordings of those sales calls ever get used for training? Ha-ha!
Searching Google for an email address for Nigel Stagg, I found your website, then found this address which may be of help:
Nigel Stagg
Managing Director, Customer Service
BT plc
Correspondence Centre
Durham
DH98 1BT
It is more likely just passed on to some underling however.
@ Clartpoo –
First off, love the name. Brilliant.
Second, thanks for the details on Nigel Stagg. I am sure that our readers will be pleased to see that!
Third, I meant to add a comment here a couple of weeks ago. BT sent me another sales letter, this time trying to convince me to use BT Business Broadband, rather than my current provider. I already am a customer of BT Business Broadband. I guess my business means so much to them that they don’t even notice it. Ha-ha!
A follow-up to my earlier message re writing to Nigel Stagg (Director of Customer Services);
I eventually had a reply from the Customer Services (CS) Team with a stock “sorry you’re unhappy” letter. I spoke to them at length and they said they’d do what they could to sort the problems. The smallest issue, a BT phone directory (never had one in the 2+ years here), they said would be remedied immediately – but could I phone the directory people. No joy there(unless I paid for it!) so back to customer services. It ended up they couldn’t organise it either! If the CS Directors own team couldn’t organise for me to get a phone book (from another BT section) what hope is there for us mere mortals!
The other issues I’m still waiting for them to “investigate”. I’ve waited over three weeks, despite the promise of a response by the end of the week. Didn’t say which week though so I’m not holding my breath.
I’m now certain BT care about me – NOT A JOT.
P.S. The address I used, which did get a response, was;
Mr Nigel Stagg, Managing Director, Customer Service
BT Group plc,
BT Centre,
81 Newgate Street,
London EC1A 7AJ
Good Luck!!!
Msr. Bradley –
You are a good man to come back to us in a clear, concise and open manner. Certainly more than we can expect from a certain telecommunications company. I appreciate the address info and the funny story re: your experience with BT CS. Thanks for sharing!
Thanks Liam š The only way to make a difference is to take action!
Talking of action – for any that don’t know of Avaaz please sign up at http://www.avaaz.org/en/. This is a fantastic organisation that takes action on many fronts, many that affect us all. You can do as much or as little as you like – whatever action you take is great. And it’s easy.
With best wishes to all.
@ Roger –
Thanks for the web link. Great site there. Cheers!
Just got a letter from Nigel Stagg quite unexpectedly regarding Renewal for Unlimited Evening & Weekend Plan for our holiday home. I said “unexpectedly” because I have not been a BT customer since Feb of this year when BT cut off my line witout any instructions from me whatsoever. So I decided to let it be. Stopped my Direct Debit payments and simply use my mobile when I’m at the address. Thanks to Roger Bradley for Nigel’s address as I am returning the letter he sent me.
Cheers.
@ Andrew –
Thanks for your comment … sounds like you had a wonderful bit of experience from BT. Great story! I really laughed when I read of your experience.
Yep, definitely thanks to Roger Bradley. He is a good chap for supplying that address.
Thanks for comment Liam. Actually, I’ve got
a previous BT experience in january when we moved back to London. Once again, BT had cut-off my line without any instruction. That day really tried my patience to the limit. If nothing else, dealing with BT Customer Service is a brilliant exercise for character building!! That day I was transferred to a total of 9 reps and I was calling from my mob, getting cut off in mid conversation 4 times, one rep blatantly lying etc etc. 6 hrs.later I was told I had to book a new line with a new number. I had the old number for 18 yrs!! I wrote a letter of complaint and got a phone call from India! Still waiting for response to issues brought out in my letter. Fat chance!!
What a relief to find this site – I really did think it was just me caught in this revolving door with BT. It’s taken me two years to get them to stop writing to me personally – now they’ve atrted writing to “the occupier” at my address at which I have both a BT phoneline and BT broadband! This is just the latest in their array of marketing tricks – after my dad died and I paid the final bill in the name of “the late etc” they left it six months and started plaguing my poor dead father with letters asking why he’d left BT?!?! Answers on a psotcard.
CheekyMonkey:
JP is not BT’s CIO. So don’t be advising people to send their grievances to him.
Otherwise consider this possibility: next time, someone complains about your company’s products, perhaps I should point them to you, seeing as I know you. Just sayin’… š
Liam:
Back in the late 1990s when CRM was a promising technology, companies spent much time on the technology and not enough on the business end of things. You are seeing the outcome first hand.
BT is not alone in this either. I have cut down to the bare minimum my interactions with large companies with massive databases, that are never cleaned up and therefore are probably violating Data Protection Laws. In fact, I now deal with just 7 companies including my utilities suppliers and every time I change a vendor, I send them a legal notice to remove my name from the databases and confirm in writing. You will be amazed at how scared British businesses are of the written word, especially if legalese is involved. Any new business I may deal with, I never get on their databases and if they force me to fill a form, I make up things.
@ Dee Daly –
Welcome and thank you for your comment. Please make yourself at home. You are certainly not alone in experiencing customer relations difficulties with BT.
@ Shefaly –
I totally agree that BT is not alone when it comes to poor data management. When I moved to the UK many years ago, I was thrilled to see that it wasn’t just massive American telecoms that couldn’t manage customer data. Hee-hee.
Your point about Data Protection is interesting, particularly with respect to getting yourself removed from large corporate databases. To which address do you write? Perhaps an address on the flip side of the latest bill?
Roger Bradley on February 11th, 2009 11:39 pm BT are so smart they made a telephone sales call to me – after Iād registered with the Telephone Preference Service (to stop unwanted sales calls) – through BT!!
the telephone preference service, is not and never has been, a service operated by BT.
you should really make some research before posting otherwise you just make yourself look plain ignorant. tps reduces uk based sales calls. what it doesnt do is stop companies that have business with you picking up the telephone and dialling your number.
Hey Bob – if you were as keen to read what I wrote as you are to criticise you might have observed that I made no mention of TPS being “a service operated by BT”. They made an unsolicited sales call to me. Please, Bob, don’t be so keen on destructive criticise. This forum contains a lot of fact based constructive criticism. Let’s hope that BT listen.
Talking of which; “BT has yielded more savings from shrinking its global workforce to 250000 to 106000 in recent years.” (Contractor News). No wonder the service levels deteriorate! It seems sad that the senior managers are the last to go.
nigel.stagg@bt.com
Just wrote a bitter e-mail to BT. I am not sure if it is a valid address but copied nigel.stagg@bt.com which Google dug up from this document (which should not be public, I think!):
http://home2.btconnect.com/CWU/pdf/EmailsReWallofShame.pdf
@ Caroline –
Thanks for the visit and for the information. We appreciate both.
Please do come back and let us know if/when you get a response to your email.
Can you also please let us know if that email address bounces back?
One our readers has kindly passed along BT’s Twitter information.
FROM TWITTER:
@cmdonline – Meet @btcare since you were looking for a way to discuss something with BT Cust Service.
So, that’s http://twitter.com/btcare
for Roger Bradley
thanks for the address of Stagg. I could not find it anywhere.
i will see if I get a reply to my letter.
(essentially why offer me 20Mb? i get 300kb and would be over the moon with 2Mb.)
Andrew Fawcett
I too have received a letter today from Nigel Stagg cordially inviting me to become one of the better connected!!!!! It made my blood boil. it told me that 20mb was rolling over the country…we get approx 0.512mbps if we are lucky. Our exchange is only down the road and i have been told it is not down to be done in the next 3 yr plan!!! our kids have to download their homework but cant as its too slow!!! tried to get email address for our little nigel…..bt were invasive in answering my question and refused saying he doesnt have one….what a load of crap that was and I told the bloke so too!! makes my blood boil that it was even sent out to me…..bt are too big for their boots—-get rid of them and give the phone lines to someone who will spend their profits repairing old and rotton lines. My bt engineer had to cuut through thte local box wire to get to the kind of good wires to connect lines to it,,,, i bet our Nigel doesnt have to put up with crap like that….
thanks for listineing to my rave….
ave a nice day !
Caroline
Thanks for Stagg’s address. Has anyone had a reply yet? I’m just about to write to him as we have been bought to our knees by BT and their total incompetence. We asked them to ‘organise’ switching our phones/broadband lines when we moved house, and to put a divert on our old number so that anyone calling it would be re-directed to the new one. They completely messed up everything: changed appointments without telling us (we waited in an empty house for 5 hours), didn’t connect things properly when they DID show up etc but the worst thing was that they failed to put on our divert so no-one was able to get in touch with us until we managed to access a friend’s computer and email out our new number. We missed out on lots of deliveries – including furniture – because we were relying on the drivers being able to get to us via our old number (no mobile signal in the new house). The whole move was a total fiasco thanks to BT, and I must have spent literally hours on the phone to them, but got nowhere at all. The best bit was that they had the cheek to tell me that they would be able to re-connect our old number and put the divert on, but it would “take 5 days, and cost me Ā£122.00 on top of the divert fee”. They did, though, reassure me that I “wouldn’t be charged for the divert” which they had failed to put on.
I’ve had idiotic patronising emails and letters saying ‘sorry’, but no gesture of compensation. 6 weeks later our systems are STILL not working properly, some of the lines at our old house were left running, and I’m getting letters telling me that I will have to continue to pay for them until next April as I’m on a 12-month contract with BT: even though we’ve transferred the service to the new house.
What can one do? The whole thing has made me feel really stressed and ill.
Any suggestions?
I hope I’ve not droned on too much – this is only half of it!!
Thanks,
Susan
Hi Susan,
I really empathise with your situation – I had a very similar story. I suggest contacting Otelo / Ofcom (http://www.otelo.org.uk/pages/4howtocomplain.php). Nigel Stagg’s office are useless (they couldn’t even organise me a telephone directory!). Keep written records of all your phone calls and letters and any other proof of their incompetence. Also, why not change supplier. Voting with ones feet is very effective!
Good luck.
Hi there,
My BT problem is that I received a letter while i was away saying that I had agreed to change my phone company away from BT. I had till 4pm on Nov 16th to contact them if I didn’t want to go ahead. Oh yes, they were going to charge me Ā£78.19 termination charges.
I had NEVER agreed to change phone companies so I rang them as soon as I opened the letter – 1pm on Nov 16th. First off the operative said that it was too late, it had gone through – even though I had till 4pm. When i said that i hadn’t authorised this and please could she tell me what company had informed BT of this change she:
1) just kept saying it was too late, it had gone through
2) couldn’t/wouldn’t tell me who this other company who was interfering in my contractual relationship with BT
Eventually she agreed to halt the cutoff after my partner (a lawyer) got on the phone. She asked us to check the line tomorrow to make sure it was still operating.
So I’m left thinking
1) Will i still have service tomorrow – have a strong feeling BT will still cut me off
2) Is some rogue company telling BT that people are switching to them?
Has anyone come across this before?
Thanks
@ Jules,
I’ve not heard of that before. Very troubling though. Did you lose service yet?
Please do keep us posted.
Liam
Hi Liam,
I’m glad to say that we still have service so this didn’t go through. I rang BT today to try and find out 1) what company had (supposedly) done this? 2) What procedures and safeguards BT have in re the switching of accounts.
I got precisely nowhere – it seems they just don’t have that information!!! On their call centre script, maybe but someone somwewhere does – perhaps the legendary Nigel š
Further to this – a colleague at work told me that this practice is not uncommon and is called ‘slamming’.
Hi, I have just found this site and will try and get an answer from N Stagg in the near future. I “changed” providers on the 30th December 2009 and to date (29 Jan 10) have not had wireless connection, in spite of the Indian Technical department proxying into my laptop 3 times, and after the suggestion by a “Supervisor” it may be the Hub, I now have a collection of 4, yes 4 Hubs, a Hub phone (not part of my request) and after an engineers visit a dongle.
The engineer visit which lasted 2 hours, started with my laptop having a wireless connection when in sight of the hub, to the wireless connection being closed, abd the ‘engineer’ telling me to take it to PC World to get it fixed.
BT need an injection of britishness, for while the Tech dept is helpful I can’t get my hands on them when needed.
Ref Missing something, yes BT, you are.
Thanks to all who provided contact details for the now famous Nigel Stagg.
I too have had 3 months of getting no where with BT. Have just fired off an email to Nigel Stagg (see below). It has not as yet bounced back. I cc’d it to all BT email addresses I have collected over the last 3 months. Have had quite a few READ receipts but alas nothing as yet from Nigel.
Letter of Complaint reads:
Mr Stagg – I would welcome a reply to my complaint or at least read this through before you bin it – if it ever gets to your inbox.
Is the senior management at BT real or are you and your colleagues just scanned names on standard templated letters?
In case you hadn’t noticed, BT have allowed a computer database to take over the management of their business. The result is that BT senior management appear to be living in a bubble and have absolutely no idea of the havoc the BT database is causing to their customers.
It is of course possible that you are already aware of this mismanagement and you may well be happy with the way in which the BT database is running the company. In which case you do of course have the option of deleting this email and not bothering to address my complaint. I would like to add however that it would not be wise to leave so many unresolved complaints without satisfactory outcome. It will go horribly wrong for BT unless the senior management decide to act now, take their heads out of the sand and start working out a strategy for putting it right.
You might want to (in fact you MUST) open up the customer service doors and let your public in. We need BT staff (not a database) who are available to communicate with us directly and who are empowered to put things right. We do not want BT staff who type words of complaint into a computer database, allocate a ref no to the said words and then sit back and wait for the database to resolve the problem. That is not ownership of responsibility. I am sure BT staff would find it far more rewarding to be allowed to deliver on customer service and put things right. Happy peops all round. Simples.
A computer database cannot reason, it has no sensibility, it cannot question, there is no resolution. Your BT database is good at wasting huge amounts of time and money, it generates communications which are not personal, always incorrect, idiotic nonsense that make your clients want to cry at the same time pushing their stress levels through the roof.
The storyline to my complaint is rather drawn out and longstanding. I give as brief (as I can) summary of my complaint:
It started at the beginning of November 2010 and is still ongoing. I requested BT close our three business accounts (3 telephone numbers) as we had sold our business and would be retiring. Why should that be such a difficult thing to ask? Apparently as soon as the BT database got involved it was an impossibility. BT confirmed in Nov 2010 that they had closed the 3 accounts but to date they still remain open. To add insult to injury, even though we are no longer at the billing address (new contact details were given to BT), BT are still sending communications to the old business address. The new owners of the business are however enjoying all the services BT are providing for them…. but then they would, they are not being billed, we are being billed for the services BT are providing to the new owners. We set up a redirection of post from old address to our home and every week we get redirected communications from BT – they continue to keep mailing to the old billing address as if we had never moved away. The latest communication from BT is now threatening us with the introduction of a debt collection agency for which we are now seeking legal advice and have also decided to contact Otelo.
BT spend a great deal of money on marketing, promotion etc often highlighting their excellent customer service. It is clear from the attached link that for every 1 new customer BT gain, they must be losing at least 3. Perhaps you, and other senior management within BT, should take a look at the attached link and read the blogs from so many unsatisfied customers – your BT database appears to be downsizing itself by reducing the client base – as you will read, BT customers really are turning away. As for what BT think they are delivering in the way of customer service well, read for yourself. I cannot believe BT senior management would not be concerned at what they read here. They say repetition is a good way to learn. Why then does BT not address these complaints and learn from their repeated mistakes?
http://www.chickenmonkeydog.com/missing-something-yes-bt-you-are
A real reply with real action would be most welcome or will I get a standard, templated, redirected communication from the BT database with your name and signature scanned in and you totally unaware that it has been sent.
If it was my company I would be very worried indeed.
March 3rd 2011!! In an attempt to find a postal address for BT Customer Services, I came across this blog and I am horrified to see that my recent experiences, mirrored in so many of these responses, are as bad if not worse than what was happening 2 years ago! I have written a 5-page letter to ‘Warren Buckley’, the name used now by BT Customer Services, copied to CEO Ian Livingston and to OFCOM. Not hopeful now of even a reply. Shameful.