Post Office Telecoms services

Earlier this year I ended the contract with BT for the phone & broadband as it was too expensive. I got "Home Phone" from the Post Office.

On the 24th July I agreed to take on their broadband as an extra application to the account. They sent a mail confirming the arrangement and specifying what had been said over the counter that it would take about a fortnight. They confirmed I would have use of the service on Thursday 7th August.

Another mail arrived saying that the modem had been dispatched and would arrive before the start date. This was true, the modem arrived on Saturday 2nd August. Following the instructions it worked fine. now all I needed was for them to switch on the service on the 7th.

The day arrived and no service was available.

I phoned the usual help number, got through to an support person who was kind enough to point out that it could start at any time between when I phone in and midnight. I said you mean you have no intention of supplying me with broadband until tomorrow and they agreed.

I find the pettiness egregious in the extreme as I have started paying for the service I am not going to receive for one day, does this mean that someone in the Post Office has decided this as a way to increase profits? It’s pathetic…

Tomorrow dawns and guess what? Correct, no broadband service running, I phone in again.

This time I am told that they have made an administration mistake and it will take 48 hours for a guy to press a switch and activate my broadband. You must be joking!

This is the Post Office today and how they treat their customers...

On Sunday 10th August the 48 hours has expired and once again there is no broadband service available.

I duly phone the Post Office again to ask for the service only to be told that the department dealing with my issue [which I should remind you is their issue in accounts & billing] does not work on a Sunday. I point out to the support person that I am speaking with, that broadband is usually considered a 24/7 service and I am surprised that there is no one to answer my query, which they agree and point out that my service has not started yet because of “their” billing issues and is being dealt with by a department that does not work on Sundays. Could I please phone back tomorrow [Monday] to talk to them?

Anyone curious as to how many customers the Post Office has or why they are rarely recommended?

It is Monday morning 11th August and I have just phoned Post Office Telecoms on their support number 0345 600 3210 and received a message "Unfortunately we are experiencing technical difficulties and our engineers are working on the problem, please call back later" and the line goes dead. This is the main support centre for Post Office Telecoms. Am I the only customer they have?

Tuesday 12th August, I get though to the support centre with much apologies for yesterday and their technical difficulties. After going through the usual security checks, they have the pleasure to inform my broadband service has gone live, and consequently they are now charging me for it. Well you could have knocked me down with a feather...

How interesting I say, then how come the router still shows no internet service and my browser says no DSL available?

Unfortunately I now spend the next hour going through their procedures, restart the modem, change the micro switch dongle, are you sure your computer is switched on!! This ends with them conceding there is a problem and an engineer will have to be called, it apparently takes 72 hours to call an engineer, where is he Tibet?

Wednesday 13th at noon, OpenReach engineer arrives, sits down has a cup of tea while I explain the saga, as I am telling him about the previous engineer removing the Infinity plate and replacing it with an ADSL plate he says, "So you used to use Infinity then?", yes I reply, "I am just popping over to the exchange, won't be long" he says. 20 minutes later he returns and says switch on the router and PC. I do this. Hey presto - broadband.

BT left me hooked up to Infinity and the Post Office didn't think or didn't know to make the necessary changes, [wot a bunch of twats…]