Getting irritated with BT makes my nose bleed and I hope they recorded what I said.

You raise a good point learner. I had a phone call from my car insurance provider (was thinking of changing to another provider) and like you I started to answer security questions without thinking that this could be just anybody on the phone.
But if its any consolation I was thinking of getting an M&S card and you have decided me against it. So one up to you!

Bags, it's not just BT who think they can barge into your life at any moment of their own choosing and demand you deal with them. I was shopping in ASDA once when my mobile rang. It was some woman who announced herself as being from Marks and Spencer Money, and who then proceeded to fire security questions at me, demanding to know all the usual...mother's maiden name and so on. Caught on the hop I answered a two or three, then got very cross. I told her that it was all very well her wanting to make sure I was who I said I was but she was the one who had made the call and how was I to know she was who she said she was? I refused to answer any more questions and said I'd ring M&S Money myself when I was home. I went home immediately and rang them within the half hour, but by then they had put a stop on my card! I wrote to M&S (aka HSBC I believe) to complain and suggested (I think the phrase "It cannot be beyond the wit of your technical department to devise...") a system whereby if they wanted to speak urgently to a customer they ring or text them asking them to call a freephone number on the back of their card urgently, explaining that until they did so their card would be temporarily blocked. Then at least the customer would know that they were genuinely talking to the right people not merely handing their security info over to scammers - within earshot, what's more, of everyone around. They replied briefly to the effect that they thought I had no grounds for complaint.

BT are fine if I ring them. What I object to is them ringing me for no good reason, since they have to send stuff by mail anyway. That's just superfluous and is a waste of my time and a waste of customers' money since they have to pay someone to make the superfluous calls.

BT, I hope you're listening!

I'm convinced. Talk Talk sounds perfect but obviously isn't! Back to the drawing board.

DS is with Talk Talk and finds it irritating. Last week reported a fault and was told he would have to wait 8 days for someone to look into the fault, pay £50 up front and if they found the fault was his end of the line he would be charged. Unfortunately there is no fast broadband where he lives so would not benefit from BT infinity like me.

I'm with BT and have been for more years than I care to think about. Never had any problems. When the "windows tech" scam first started I rang BT and spoke to a really helpful, chatty man. He explained things in terms which even I could understand. When I moved my computer to another room, the BT home hub stopped working - telephoned and reported it and received a new one in the post within 3 days.

Yup - we had problems with talktalk too! We are now with phonecoop - no problems. Always able speak to someone helpful. They were the ones who stuck with us and defended our interests when we ere having line problems with BT.

Threr are frequent line problems out here - usually trees falling on the lines or squirrels chewing though them (yes really - this happens all the time) - so we are particularly keen to be with a provider who will stick up for us with BT, who provide very poor maintenance for rural lines.

The other problem we have is that we live on a border - our postcode is in England and our telephone exchange is in Wales - you can probably imagine the sort of confusions that this throws up!

We have no choice but to be with Kingston Communications but to be fair it's never bothered me because they are usually (no one is perfect) so good.

We`ve always been with BT, no problems and no complaints.

PS I'm with Plusnet now....no problems.

I used to be with Talk Talk. Never again. They made BT's customer service look good! They are the VERY WORST I have ever dealt with. Emails morphed into the wrong files, I couldn't get to talk to my daughter in NZ on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day or Boxing Day. When I tried to disconnect after my contract was up we ended up with a debt company pursuing me for money I didn't owe.

I've been with Virgin since it was Cable and Wireless, if you see what I mean and now have phone, TV, broadband and mobile with them! I have found them reasonably efficient. When I have had to phone them I have always got through to a human being. They are open to bargaining if they think you are going to go elsewhere too.

I have BT and I have never had any problems with them. They are always helpful when I call. If I have a problem with broadband they can usually sort it out. Sky keep trying to persuade me to change my broadband to them, but I can't be bothered with the hassle. I would have to change my email account for one thing.

Oh good grief. And that was one decision I thought I had taken. Right, off to look at Plusnet now.......

I have heard less than good reports about TalkTalk too. We don't have any extra TV channels, just the usual and a freeview box. We've had our broadband from Plusnet for ages, and are in the process of switching our phone to them. Really good deal, and I know that their customer service is excellent! (Others have said the same on the "change of circumstances" thread.)

I hate the security questions. Don't mind the name of your first dog or Mother's maiden name or some such question, but last time I dealt with my bank they wanted to know when and how much I withdrew from a cash machine on a certain date. Well I didn't have a clue, so they asked me how much my last Tesco receipt was for. Didn't know that either so they wouldn't proceed. They rang me for heavens sake......

Some time ago we changed from BT to Talktalk! What a nightmare and as for trying to talk talk to a human being about problems - well forget about it. As soon as the contract was over we changed again. We are now back to BT and have great service so far. All this changing is a real hassle though - bring back the olden days, I say.

This is timely. I shall be sure to take no nonsense - BT is on my list to contact tomorrow, to put a stop to the contract on this house. I've decided when I move to take out a contract with Talk Talk instead; they can provide calls, broadband and enough TV for me for £30 a month, and I can add Sky sports just during the footie season. That's all I need. But line will still have to be BTs - what a stranglehold they have, don't they?

Yes - we had all these problems with BT so went with a smaller provider. Getting the relevant code number (can't remember what it is called now) in order to change was incredible - would they accept that we had made up our mind? - no.

Our next run-in with them was the failure of our connection (still a BT line whatever the provider) - I lost count of the number of visits they made to us and the rows we had with them about meeting the cost - we refused to pay because they had not solved the porblem - sounds reasonable to me!

The best one was the engineer (probably about the 10th by then) who came and refused to let me bring him up to date on the situation ("I would rather start from scratch") and then lost his temper with me when he had wasted lots of time checking things that had already been checked ("Why didn't you tell me?"). That was an interesting conversation. As was the one when I gleaned that BT keep no records of engineering activity, so if you get more than one visit from an engineer they will have no idea what the previous guy had done - "It's policy." Well, a darned silly one I think.

The other nonsense is that you cannot contact BT directly about a line problem; you have to go through your provider - so there is quite a bit of Chinese Whispers going on. To be fair our provider was brilliant and allocated one person to our problem which helped enormously.

It all made my OH quite ill and I had to take over dealing with it - his dicky ticker was all over the place every time they rang.

In the end (after several months) the problem was solved by doing something that OH had suggested in the first place and the engineers had rejected!!!

Leave them Bags , I bet you can get a better deal with another provider.

That'll learn them, as my Granny used to say.

Bags...that will teach them not to mess with you.

Quite frankly they are a waste of space.............

BT never listened to my complaints or tried to help when I was with them. Suddenly when I wanted to leave they were very attentive. Too little, too late. .

I actually hung up on someone from BT yesterday! I would never normally do that, but she did try my patience. We are switching the phone to another provider, and she was doing the client retention thing, and just didn't seem to accept that we had made our decision, having already gone through all the options with 2 of her colleagues on previous calls.

Did you bang your nose with the phone?!

Poor Bags.