they were really banking on that phormula.

lol couldnt agree more

anyone with sense has switched their phone lines over to toucan, cpw or any of the other cheaper and more competent carriers.

and dumped their broadband because of the whole phorm issue, then there's the laughable caps.

Hopefully they will go bust and get taken over by McDonalds

At least you can trust McDonalds

... Maybe they should focus on their customer service 1st, waiting over 1hr to speak to someone is madness, and British Telecom? dont make me laugh

When you end up through to India who dont have a clue what your talking about and always say they will need to arrange a call back which can take up to 48hrs!

Its the worst company to deal with, under-rated services, poor billing, poor customer service, crap ADSL broadband which gives you less than 1/2 the advertised speeds, expensive broadband packages with CAPPED services, need I go on?

Maybe they should concentrate in these areas then ppl might dare become a customer of theirs, then again people have sense...

Keeping a straight face when billing people for that same old pair of copper (or aluminium) cables every month/quarter for 50 years!

Stuff the services, we would be happy with unlimited (really unlimited not per a fair use policy) 20 to 100Mbps broadband!. Leave content to content providers and give us FTTH!

Funny how BT did so well BEFORE they had any competition.

Just shows you how crap they are now that others are "Doing the same thing" but better.

No they are all a bunch of blood suckers. Selling shit products at stupid prices.

As a potential new customer I eventually gave up trying to get a BT line installed, no one will answer the phone! It's simply an impossibility to get to actually speak to anyone in anything like a reasonable timescale.

Tried several times then just gave up.

Seems like all the other telco's, they're only interested in advertising services they clearly can't supply.

are they proposing to offer the services from 21CN without the infrastructure being there? Sounds like they are advertising something they cant provide then

Yeah, that'll be right.

Spend a shed load of money advertising a service on the basis that you are then going to sit back and not supply it, thereby blocking a revenue stream.

And yet still make a profit?

Good "reckon" there. I hope your head doesn't hurt too much from beating it against the keyboard.

I know El Reg makes no secret of it's anti-BT agenda, and I have no illusions about BT being perfect. But one has to question the rationality of comments that could be summarised thus:

I want everything.

I want it now.

I want full and immediate customer support.

I want the company to be unerringly prescient about all my future needs, forever.

I don't want to pay for any of it.

My advice is to go to the company that meets all those requirements and stop whining. Good luck with that.

Ah in them days, early post privatisation, BT still had an air of respect about them. No way in them days would they have been seemingly hoodwinked by an ex rootkit adware company like Phorm ((I hope ex!).

Good god, in those giddy days BT really could hold their head up high to the customers. They had respect, customer care and in no way would they have entertained the likes of Phorm/Webwise snooping on our data. I think the word British should forcibly removed from their name. In no way do I associate my 'British' standards with BT's interpetation. No wonder they have little profit. They now have little respect.

It beggars belief!

I deal regularly with BT through my work as a sys admin and I find that I am constantly frustrated by them. It is ridiculous that some departments can be engaged or have no voicemail facility and the account manager never returns calls (and I have had several account managers).

At the moment I am trying to place orders of various sizes totally about £70,000 over the next few years and I have to constantly chase BT to get the orders placed. They rarely return phones calls, they have lost order forms and the people you need to speak to are either not available or have no technical ability to deal with queries.

BT still have a monopoly in my opinion, any alternatives offer no better customer service with often poor quality products and support (we've tried them) - they still have to use OpenReach which is another disadvantage to BT. Further evidence of BT's strong position is that their pricing is still high -> extortionate for some business products.

With BT's infrastructure, all they need to do is improve their service to customers and improve the pricing to see their profits improve.

This is primarily from a business customer point of view because the domestic market is alot more price competitive but even then I can see issues with customer of service and QOS.

Doesn't it make you laugh?

I mean, if ever a business should be able to make money it's BT, but due to a uniquely British combination of lack of investment, piss poor customer service and downright dishonest behaviour - not just things like Phorm either - things like 'sign up for this new service and save money', followed by disconnection, followed by a few days complaints before reconnection, followed by a bill for a NEW connection, followed by more complaints, followed by 'Oh, that's a mistake, just ignore it', followed by threats about non-payment, followed by disconnection... ad bloody infinitum.

Something that's happened to three people I know in the last year. When I got on that slippery slope (all I was TRYING to do was move and take my number with me!) I just paid - no choice really - the more you try and sort things out with BT the worse it gets and the more it costs.

Laugh? I nearly did. It's that or cry...

I have to say that the day BT collapses I'll be smiling though. They've had every possible chance - the telecoms monopoly on a platter - and botched it all the way.

I can emu you a mail on the settings ford car perhpas um...and mayber as for to ask you to be please resolving this problem.

Its like NTL all over again.

I dont have a home phone, I use Vodafone who answer the phone and for the number of times I call is cheaper than BT Indias 10.50 line rental and silly enforced call packages.

Bunch of second rate has beens

Their international operations aren't much better. BT Ireland is one of the major competitors to the Irish incumbent operator, eircom.

However, their customer service leaves so much to be desired. Billing errors, an inability to answer the phone to customers (although they are all answered locally in Ireland, not India).

If you do a search on the major Irish discussion forums or even on Google for BT Ireland you'll see just how much customers love them!

It's all sales and no customer service.

...like the BT Help Line, is no service at all.

The proud name of British Telecom is at stake here chaps. Do your bit to help this ailing giant!

I'm helping ... BT have promised a credit for illegally charging me £137 for a cancellation within their cancellation time (for a service that was free for a year and £1.50 a month thereafter).

So, they have my money in their bank gaining interest and this helps the global economy as well as bolstering BTs bottom line. To believe otherwise would paint BT as an incompetent, thieving bunch of illiterates.

Illiterates? I got an email stating I "have a strong removed which should be removed ...". Most reassuring!

Remember, boys and girls, this is a British name. We must support the Raj!

Thank God(s) I didn't go with them for broadband!

I'll just say India - there's plans to send everything they possibly can there, on a daily basis more and more departments are dissapearing to be manned by the highly trained Graduates of the sub-continent' but you must not criticise because that's racism ( in BTs book anyway). I seem to remember that when Wales was the call centre capital they said that it was because people trusted the accent and nothing at all to do with the workers getting paid £2 an hour ?

British Telecom? Bangalore Telecom more like!!!!

Just when you thought it could not get any worse, it can, believe me it can and it will.