I moved into a new property on 30th November which already had the Fibre installed and the Openreach box installed, I contacted BT as advised by my developers on 01/12/2017 and was advised that they would be back in contact in 7 days once the connections team had dealt with this. I received no call within the 7 days so contacted BT again, I was advised there was a slight delay but everything would be ready by the latest 2nd January and someone would be in contact. The 2nd January came and went, so I contacted BT again who advised that the developers had not connected me, so I needed to speak to them. So, I contacted the developers who advised this was not the case and that everything has been done their end so it was a BT/Openreach issue. Again, I contacted BT who then proceeded to advise me that the developers had not registered my address with the Royal Mail, which is why I was not able to get any further so I needed to get this done. I again contacted my developer who advised again this was not the case and that the address was registered 48 hours prior to completion. So, I contacted BT yet again, who did apologise and advised that this was not the issue and that they were just waiting for an engineer to say 'yes'. Unfortunately, I am not sure what they are saying yes to, or what the delay was, but I was assured that my case had been raised as a complaint and that someone would be in contact shortly. I waited but didn't get any response yet again, so called BT on 22/01/18 and had a painful conversation and was on the phone for over an hour (the hold times were atrocious), I did speak to a pleasant lady, however, I got absolutely nowhere - she could not give me any information whatsoever on what the holdup was, how long it would take to resolve and why no one had been in contact - I asked to escalate my complaint, to which she replied I could not do, so at this point I was at my wits end on how I could resolve this and who would help me. I found an email address for a senior member of BT, so emailed to make a formal complaint and escalate things, I also contacted Openreach to see if they could assist me. This did seem to move things along, BT emailed me to say my complaint was being looked into and that someone would be in contact – this took some time. In the meantime, Openreach actually moved things along and emailed me to advise all connections had been made on 26/01/2018 so I could make an order. At this point I tried alternative providers but wasn’t able to place an order so I placed one with BT. On 28/01/18 someone from the complaints team contacted me to advise she had contacted everyone to make sure everything was in place – I advised her that I have already done this, so all she had actually done was confirm everything was already done! She was a pleasant lady and was apologetic, and said how they do not like to hear of bad experiences with customer service and kindly offered me £30 towards my bill, which I did appreciate and although I wouldn’t say that I was completely satisfied with continuing with BT, I accepted this to resolve the complaint. As the experience I had so far was not great, and I’d found out one of my neighbours had internet with an alternative provider I decided to search the market – previously when doing this no one came up on comparison sites for my postcode/address. However, this time Sky, TalkTalk, Vodafone, plusnet and BT came up – some of the deals for the Fibre were much better than what BT had offered me and I was within my 14 day cancellation period. So, I called Sky as I wanted to try to switch to them as they provide SkyTV to me already and can be quite flexible on discussing prices. I was advised that BT had locked my internet so to call them and they would be able to remove this and I can place an order with Sky. I called BT on 12/02/18 as I had a query with my bill, the gentleman I spoke with was lovely he explained everything clearly and gave fantastic customer service – so far the only person within the organisation that I rated. I mentioned to him that I was planning on cancelling due to the issues I’ve had so far and generally being unhappy, he was very apologetic and explained to cancel within my 14 days to avoid charges, I also mentioned Sky advising my internet was locked – he advised me this was only due to being covered by BT now and that once I cancelled it would be fine. I couldn’t cancel at that point as I had someone at my door so would call back later. I called on 13/02/18 to cancel with BT, this is when I felt terrible after speaking with the advisor, I was advised that I couldn’t cancel and that BT had the ‘monopoly’, as a customer I don’t feel this is an appropriate way to explain me not being able to use another provider, there are much better ways of explaining things. I explained that one of my neighbours were with Sky, to which the reply was no, Sky cannot provide internet on this estate if they’ve lived there less than 12 months, which is the case for all of my neighbours. When I was trying to get my point across I was continuously interrupted and made to feel like I was lying and making things up! Not once during this call did the advisor apologise for the issues I had so far, or try and do anything to resolve my issues – just add to them. Also, I mentioned that there are cheaper prices available – to which I was advised that not for Fibre to the premises, and the advisor explained the differences to me between Fibre and Broadband, usually I’d understand this being explained to a customer, however, in the manner this was being explained to me I felt patronised and felt as though the advisor was treating me like I was stupid. I am not stupid and I know the difference, I am fully aware that it would be fibre that I would need to look for. As you can appreciate after how the advisor had made me feel, I did not want to continue with the conversation, which in the upset I did say on the phone but I was still talking when the line cut off. In my opinion, the advisor terminated the call, although BT will never admit to this, but as I was still talking the conversation was not over, it was coming to an end but I was still speaking and with how the call ended, I expected someone to return the call to explain they did not hang up and somehow the call terminated, but this was not by me. As you can appreciate, after how the call ended I was extremely upset, angry and appalled at how I had been treated by BT, especially with my issues so far. I emailed the complaints team that had been dealing with me previously on 13/02/18. They had managed to resolve my previous issues to an acceptable level so I wanted to speak to someone to explain how I had been made to feel and to try and come to a resolution. I did try to call their complaints number but this goes straight to voicemail, it was not something that I wanted to leave a voicemail about so left it at the email. I received a reply on 14/02/18 advising someone was looking into and would be in touch. I replied to thank them and advised it was an urgent matter as the 14 day cancellation period was very close. On 16/02/18 I spoke with someone after them trying to contact me the previous day, again I tried to call them back but all of the numbers to the complaints team go to voicemail on every occasion I call. Firstly, my email explained why I wished to make a complaint but the gentleman that contacted me said I wasn’t happy with the price, advised this was not the only reason for my dissatisfaction and tried to explain. Unfortunately I was met with another member of BT staff that was not helpful or willing to listen to me! I explained that the person I had spoken to previously made me out to be a liar and stupid – to which his response was ‘no, this is how you felt’. At no point did this representative of BT try to apologise for how I felt or come to any resolution, he had made his decision before he had even called me that he would not be able to do anything for me. He talked over me when I was trying to speak and discuss the situation, I have worked in customer service and in complaints – I am aware of how customers should be treated and how I have been dealt with treated would not be acceptable nor tolerated in the organisation that employ me. Customers have the right to be treated in a fair manner and not feel belittled, made out to be a liar and made to feel upset by speaking to customer services. I completely understand that there are always going to be circumstances where a customer is not going to be happy and that there are situations beyond a company’s control, however, customers should still be treated with respect and I do not feel that this was the case when I have been dealing with BT. Also, as a consumer, I feel that I should have the right to choose who provides my service, not have to go with a specific company because they hold the ‘monopoly’ – I have just purchased a new house, so as you can appreciate I need to obtain the best deal for me financially to ensure that I can pay all bills that I need to pay. My concerns are also that BT could treat other customers in this manner and they get away with it, there are many people that I have spoken with regarding my situation and I have not come across one person that has had a good experience with BT and would recommend them – it is a great shame considering they hold the ‘monopoly’ in telecommunications, yet their communication skills require a lot of improvement. If I could score zero, I would.