BT’s endless delays disrupted my life

For the past two-and-a-half years I have been in dispute with BT. My broadband speed was negligible and my phone line was distorted by crackling, which made it very difficult to hear anyone speak or be heard myself.

I constantly reported these faults, adding that, when it rained or when the wind blew strongly, the broadband would disappear and the phone have interference.

SYLVIA GRACE, CLWYD For a long time the efforts made by BT engineers to improve the situation only made matters worse.

Last year between July and Christmas you counted that 10 engineers visited before the line was fixed. This was done by replacing the cable from the top of the hill through three poles and into the house.

There was significant disruption to your life, with you missing family lunches because of this. Your son, who was over from America, was unable to do any of his work in the house or make conference calls. Your granddaughters, staying over to be near their work in the summer holiday, found the lack of broadband frustrating.

On one trip, it took your son two-and-a-half hours to book a return flight.

You couldn’t open emails on your laptop, so couldn’t print boarding passes.

This all happened around the time your husband died and you had two operations.

Amid all this, the engineers broke the manhole in the yard twice. The first time they paid reasonably quickly for the repair. However, the second time, the £480 for damage was not reimbursed despite photographs being provided as evidence.

In early 2017, £160 was paid for compensation.

Earlier this year, around six weeks before you approached me, you had been categorically assured that the £480 to get the manhole fixed for the second time was on its way. It was, however, still outstanding.

Further to my involvement BT said it had been waiting for a photo of the completed repair work. In fact you had sent three. The main one had a single cone on it showing that it was finished but with the concrete repair still not set. When I drew this to its attention BT accepted that it had what it needed and paid the £480.

Along the way it had also offered £63 for the lack of broadband between July 2017 and January 2018 and £50 as an additional goodwill gesture.

You had not accepted this immediately, as you wanted everything to be completed first and saw this amount as inadequate given all the trouble you had been put through.

BT says you refused the compensation, and when I asked for it, it dithered over paying up. Now, to draw a line under all of this, it is crediting these amounts to your account. have made an exception and done the one deal you wanted on an investment that was falling in value all the while.

Indeed, at the time of writing, this holding was worth several hundred pounds less than when you had approached Alliance Trust Savings to sell.

You could have moved to a different broker that dealt in certificated stock. At the time, though, you were hoping and expecting that Alliance Trust Savings would relent and sort this out soon.

Instead it took three months to respond to your complaint and then it didn’t change anything.

Organising a move to a different share dealing service in such circumstances is yet another task in what, I understand, is a busy life with a demanding job. However, you are moving to a different broker now.

Alliance Trust Savings said: “We acted within our rights in withdrawing the certificated dealing service. However, we apologise that the closure was not communicated clearly to Mr S when he initially contacted us.”

It seems there was “a training issue”. This is particularly disappointing as last autumn Alliance Trust Savings told me: “We are investing in additional staff and training to deal with the unusually high number of calls we are receiving at present and ensure we provide the highest quality service to our customers.”

With pressing from me it has now given you a £150 ex gratia payment. This does not fully redress your mother’s financial loss, but was as much as it would give.

Nevertheless you say it is a huge relief to have this finished.