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[Rant] A Word of Warning to BT Openworld usersANN.lu
Posted on 29-Aug-2003 19:59 GMT by Matt Parsons28 comments
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BT Openwold have terminated my Broadband service and demanded that I pay £270... Why? Because they made a mistake and now refuse to admit it... read on.... If you are planning to take your Amiga (or any other computer for that matter) to the information superhighway via the magic of BT's Openworld bradband service. Please take heed:

I have just recieved a letter telling me that due to my Phone line being registered toa new name, my Openworld contract has been breached, I now must pay the remaining value of the contract (nine months left = £270) and my service will be terminated in 2 days (seven days from the date of the letter, that seems to have taken 5 days to get to me :-?).

Given the fact that I have not changed the name of the Phone line holder, and that I am up to date with all my bills, I find this rather unfair.

Attmpts to talk with them by phone and by Email, have failed, with them refusing to accept that I have not changed the name of the Phone line holder...

My advice STAY AWAY FROM BT Openworld.

Note: I never had any problems with Telewest.

A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 1 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Sam Smith on 29-Aug-2003 18:04 GMT
I always avoid BT as much as I can anyway - so there's no need for the warning here!

At least you can get ADSL - still stuck with crappy ISDN here. :(

Sam
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 2 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by smithy on 29-Aug-2003 18:18 GMT
I've never understood why anyone needs broadband anyway - unless you regularly download huge quantities of porn, pirated music and movies.
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 3 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Matt Parsons on 29-Aug-2003 18:20 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
and your point being? ;-)
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 4 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Jeff Martin on 29-Aug-2003 18:32 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
If I ever had to go back to 56k I would give up the net. The thought of going back to waiting for a web page to load is scary.

And obviously there's those things you mentioned.;)
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 5 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by smithy on 29-Aug-2003 18:33 GMT
In reply to Comment 4 (Jeff Martin):
@ Jeff & Matt

:)
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 6 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by corpse on 29-Aug-2003 18:42 GMT
two words: "trading standards"
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 7 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 29-Aug-2003 19:02 GMT
Go the the guys that take care for comsumer rights, get a laywer, sue them to hell.

Cheers
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 8 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Amon_Re on 29-Aug-2003 19:02 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
Webhosting & Linux iso's aren't ilegal! ;)

Cheers
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 9 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by 3seas on 29-Aug-2003 19:44 GMT
Matt, if you did it right and subscribed via credit card then you can get the bank or the card to threaten BT to backcharge them for their breach of contract.

The length of time may be limited but one thing is for sure, you won't have to pay them what they are asking.

And since a back charge is taking money out of there pocket, they will correct it.

Been there and done that with Earthlkink when they tried to bill me for additional time saying I was logged on to an account with more than one computer at a time, when in fact I am not set up to be able to do that (I'm Dialup).

After being treated like shit by Earthkink customer service and Tech support I got my bank involved..... then they found it was there fault and gave me a month free for my trouble.

When I got the bank involved,
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 10 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Ben on 29-Aug-2003 20:23 GMT
BTO are unbelieveable - when I tried to leave they gave me 3 different cease dates and failed on all of them... They tried to bribe me to stay even though I kept saying I wanted a faster (not cheaper) connection (besides wanting one with lower ping times and an ISP that has a clue)...

Now I read they are actively booting users for changing a billing detail...

There are no more words left in the world to describe BT/BTO...
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 11 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Darrin on 29-Aug-2003 20:32 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
>I've never understood why anyone needs broadband anyway - unless you regularly
>download huge quantities of porn, pirated music and movies.

You mean I can download pirated music and movies off the internet too???
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 12 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Lando on 29-Aug-2003 21:33 GMT
BT are a bunch of w*****s. My brother used to work for them as tech support, and they really are one of the worst broadband ISP's in the UK (his words) - he used to advise people to go with Telewest.

Personally I use Zen (www.zen.co.uk) and they're top-notch. No monthly contract, good rates, excellent tech support....
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 13 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 30-Aug-2003 00:09 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
What else is the internet good for? :^)
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 14 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 30-Aug-2003 05:08 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
Well, you pretty much need broadband if you want to load all the 200+ posts flamewars on ANN and still have time enough in a day to eat.
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 15 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Raffaele on 30-Aug-2003 05:16 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
Mr. Smithy wrote:

>I've never understood why anyone needs broadband anyway -
>unless you regularly download huge quantities of porn,
>pirated music and movies.

And what about if you were compulsive chatting maniac and scared from phone bill???

Hum... I think I found another (SURE) need for broadband...
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 16 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Olegil on 30-Aug-2003 07:35 GMT
One word:

Scary.
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 17 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by hooligan/dcs on 30-Aug-2003 07:42 GMT
In reply to Comment 2 (smithy):
Well there you have three good reasons already
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 18 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Andrew Korn on 30-Aug-2003 10:44 GMT
Take your complaint to Oftel, it's what they are for. Call 0845 7145000 and see what they can do to help. You could also ask Otelo on 0845 0501614 whether you have grounds for compensation.

A note of caution: BTO isn't nicknamed BT OpenWoe for nothing. Go to http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp for comparisons of UK broadband ISPs. I've yet to see an ISP rate worse than BTO for customer service.
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 19 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Matt Parsons on 30-Aug-2003 16:13 GMT
In reply to Comment 18 (Andrew Korn):
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
A note of caution: BTO isn't nicknamed BT OpenWoe for nothing. Go to http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp for comparisons of UK broadband ISPs. I've yet to see an ISP rate worse than BTO for customer service.
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Cheers for the link, I have looked around and found that "plus net" seems to suit my needs, if I can get my money back from stinking BT I will probably go with "plus net"
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 20 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Ben on 30-Aug-2003 17:20 GMT
In reply to Comment 19 (Matt Parsons):
I can vouch for plus.net - a genuinely good ISP! Low pings, good prices, lots of extras thrown in, plus a very good support system if you ever need it!

In fact "benji" would *recommend* them! :)
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 21 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Neko on 30-Aug-2003 18:35 GMT
> I have just recieved a letter telling me that due to my Phone line being
> registered toa new name, my Openworld contract has been breached

[snip]

> Given the fact that I have not changed the name of the Phone line holder


.. okay.. so did you or didn't you?

And why the giddy funk are you with BT Openworld, and not some other, better
ADSL ISP like Demon, Zen or Eclipse?

=Neko=
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 22 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Matt Parsons on 30-Aug-2003 18:41 GMT
In reply to Comment 21 (Neko):
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
.. okay.. so did you or didn't you?

And why the giddy funk are you with BT Openworld, and not some other, better
ADSL ISP like Demon, Zen or Eclipse?
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
Nope I didn't and acording to my contract with BT Openworld that actually shouldn't matter anyway.

As for choosing BT OW... I really don't know... a moment of madness... I had just moved house (where I had Telewest) and is desparately wanted Broadband... and for some reason I just selected BT... Now I'm paying the price.

Damn I am such a fool....
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 23 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Leki on 31-Aug-2003 11:17 GMT
well dont let them get away with it and dont let them get the money from you.

i recommend freedom2surf as a great broadband ISP (http://www.f2s.com). they are fast, cheap and have good gaming pings. read the adsl guide forum for them :)
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 24 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2003 06:31 GMT
In reply to Comment 23 (Leki):
Yeah, just signed up with f2s - good ping speeds, good download speeds and all for £19.99 a month.

/ian/
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 25 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Anonymous on 01-Sep-2003 07:01 GMT
I happen to work for BTOW. First call 150 and ask them to contact BTOW accepting responsibility for cutting off your ADSL service (it's BT Telephony that cause this error -- a change on the line means it's briefly stopped then restarted, throwing off your ADSL). Ask to speak to a supervisor if you have no joy. If that fails, call BTOW and tell them you have spoken to 150 and had no joy, and want something to be done about it (be polite, as people are naturally far more reluctant to assist someone giving them a hard time); if no joy, ask for a supervisor to escalate the issue; this can be resolved but it means BTOW have to await reply from BT accpeting responsibility.
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 26 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Benjamin Jones on 01-Sep-2003 07:54 GMT
Well I have just cancelled my BTOW account, I have been given the 7th September 2003 as my disconnection date... I have had no problems with BTOW so far and Ive been with em for years.
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 27 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Colin Wilson on 02-Sep-2003 12:28 GMT
Matt - these email addresses may be able to help you out - at least one is a director (unless he`s now left).

pierre danon@bt com
alison ritchie@bt com
duncan ingram@bt com
jane barrett@bt com

Put dots in where I left spaces :-p

It took me roughly two months to get a refund of the cost of a phone call to get a scam site taken down off their servers, and had to explain in great depths to the muppets on the phone how I knew they were hosting it.
A Word of Warning to BT Openworld users : Comment 28 of 28ANN.lu
Posted by Matt Parsons on 03-Sep-2003 20:16 GMT
In reply to Comment 27 (Colin Wilson):
Thank you all.

BT have now admited their mistake and the issue has bee resolved.

Until next time :-D
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