Why you can’t trust BT (off topic)

In the last 2 months I have bought and set up BT broadband and BT Vision. BT is woeful.  One simple reason.  Lack of trust.

BT just don’t get it. Start-ups do.

I think I’m qualified to talk about this. I spend all day registering on betas from start-ups.  Giving personal information. Gambling my laptop’s security by downloading new applications. 

And yet, I have NEVER had an issue with malware, data sharing etc (admittedly running joost and spotify at once screwed me up but this is a result of the machine’s lack of power).

So why my issue with BT?

1)    BT screws my setup.
In order to get the BT wireless you have to install the CD.  The CD installed loads of unwanted apps, changes my defaults to a proprietary Yahoo browser, and also Yahoo messenger. Lesson: BT forces  crappy software on you that you jut don’t want.

1)    BT gave me a virus.
I then get the sasser virus ( lsass.exe).  I find out this can only be transmitted by Yahoo messenger.  I don’t use Yahoo messenger. I don’t want Yahoo messenger.  Now £800 of laptop gives up the ghost.  Lesson. BT gives you viruses.

3) BT marketing is, like, so last 1990s.
I had to sign up to an additional package for one month in order to get the PVR “BT Vision V-box” (which by the way makes a piercing whining noise louder than my 3 week old daughter).  Whilst a slightly odd offer, I talk to the awful BT call center and look online at the football package. I read: 
“What is BT vision sport? 46 live Barclays Premier League games”
I go for “Standard sports” package where I get  “125 Coca-Cola Football League and Carling Cup games, plus archive sport”.
This sounds good.  I can see Southampton FC win the championship live and watch live premier league game.
… guess what this doesn’t transpire.  It’s not live and its only the odd game. 

BT have succeeded in over-promising and under-delivering.  I’m not just disappointed but I’m now actively opposed to them. I hate BT’s call centers.  I hate BT’s marketing. I hate BT’s PVR. I hate BT’s crappy software. 

And then my dad tells me that he doesn’t use the web much because he doesn’t trust it.  Well you sure as hell can’t blame the developers or the entrepreneurs.  You can blame BT.

What stuns me is how BT, with all its heritage and marketing campaigns and brand consultants can mess up something so fundamental as trust?  Seedcamp 2007 commences tomorrow where loads of start-ups are spending time with corporates to learn some of their secrets. 
I hope BT come and I hope at the marketing sesion they listen to the startups rather than try to impart any of their marketing “magic”.

Comments

[Philip Wilkinson]

I hope they come to and you give them an earful :-)

Being in both 1 person companies and 10,000 people companies before - what I reckon happens is that post about 20 people, the focus on the customer is lost.

What happens is that from employee 21 onwards, the type of people who join are purely interested in their jobs and careers and less about making the company the best it can be and making sure the customer is studied, listened to , and catered for.

Even with strong management and leadership vision - it's a tough one. I think one company that seems to have made this transition well so far is Rackspace - everytime they get more clients and revenue, they pump a large % of that into customer service and support people. Ace.

[Isabel Jude]

I totally agree. I have BT, now i HAVE to use Bt browser because Firefox (my 1st choice) and IE7 (my 2nd choice) don't work now. BT browser is abloslutely rubbish. I wouldnt touch it with a stick out of choice. The stick would be traumatised. It flips tabs on its own. Its slow. Its RUBBISH and INCOMPETENT.

[Robert]

I thought you might be interested in my story about BT (I found you by Googling I hate BT!). I started to receive BT Vision email newsletters last November. These state that they are being received because I am a customer. I'm not! When I queried it I was told that it must be because one of their customers is using my email address. This didn't seem to worry them but it worried me.

After much wrangling with them they reluctantly agreed to take me off of their mailing list but it got me thinking about why I couldn't just click on an unsubscribe link on the newsletter. This is a legal requirement for direct marketing emails and would have saved a few weeks of email exchanges. BT wouldn't listen to me about the unsubscribe link so I reported them to the Direct Marketing Association who agreed that BT, a member of the DMA, appeared to be breaking their code of conduct.

BT's response. Ah, no, they're not marketing newsletters, they're service announcements so it doesn't count and they don't need to give their customers (and others who they mistakenky mail to) the option not to receive them. Breathtaking arrogance and after all, what's wrong with a choice, marketing or not.

The case continues with the DMA but BT act as if they are above the law and all professional codes of conduct. The trouble is,I think they are. None of the official bodies seem to be able to doing anything about them. I await the DMA's verdict and subsequent actions with interest. I fear a weak climb-down rather than upset of one of their biggest members. We shall see.

If you think any of your examples are bad marketing practice please contact Suzi Higman at the DMA (Suzi.Higman@dma.org.uk). There needs to be some serious lobbying to overcome BT's bully-boy marketing tactics.

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