Ambiguous, insufficient, inappropriate and inaccurate.

I have BT rage. I have just had two separate conversations with BT about two unconnected issues, and I am "extremely dissatisfied", to put it mildly. My dissatisfaction is not with the tech reps, who do the best they can with what they're told to do, but with the way the BT customer service system works.

The first rep called me in answer to a question I had asked a few days ago about access to BTFon and Openzone wifi hotspots, which I have never been able to access, despite trying on numerous occasions to follow the instructions on the BTFon website and in the BTFon iPhone app. I can access all sorts of other wifi hotspots - why can't I access the ones I am already paying for?

The rep gave me a couple of phone numbers to ring. Why are these phone numbers not offered on the BT website? Why were they not emailed to me? I've lost 2 days waiting for this information, as well as several years not being able to access wifi services that I am paying BT for anyway.

When he asked if there was anything else he could do for me, I mentioned the Error 553 email message I had received a few minutes previously from BT Email Support. The message itself was ambiguous, as it was not clear whether my outgoing messages were already blocked, or liable to be blocked at some point in the future. So for a while I did not know whether the messages I had sent out today had gone to their recipients or not. I now know that at least some of them arrived safely; a least that resolved one of the uncertainties arising from the BT 'support' message.

The support message told me to go to the BT Yahoo website and follow the instructions there. They don't work. So the first rep offered to put me through to Broadband Tech Help. However the rep there did not appear interested in my experience on the BT Yahoo website. She asked if I would let her take over my desktop, I accepted, and she sent me the GoToAssist application, which allows remote control of your desktop. She then proceeded to put two ticks in boxes in Apple Mail Preferences - something I could easily have done myself in 10 seconds if the instruction had been on the website. It wasn't. Needless to say what the rep did bore no relation whatsoever to the procedure on the website.

She then told me she was sending me a Desktop Help application. She didn't. What came was an email message with a link to the Broadband Desktop Help web page. There I am informed that the application is not available for Mac OS. She knew I was using Mac OS as she'd just been on my desktop, using Mac OS.

This sorry saga has now taken up another three hours of my life, with the net result that I am unsure whether my email is working properly, and no further forward than I was before on BTFon. Nearly everything I have been advised to do by BT on these issues, whether by email, on various web pages, or over the phone, has been ambiguous, insufficient, inappropriate or inaccurate.

Maybe when I gather the energy to ring the BTFon numbers, that issue will be resolved in the wink of an eye. Maybe.

Meanwhile the only thing that holds me back from switching to another supplier is that I hear they're even worse.

* * * *

Stop Press:

The GoToAssist website offered me a feedback form, so I wrote this there. However my comments were rejected:

"Survey could not be processed. Please submit survey within 20 min after ending session."

So short complaints only then? Trouble is, with BT, short complaints are in short supply.