Postscript to Today's Western Mail Article (below)

News editors often make cuts to submitted content because of space considerations. Sion Barry is one of the better and more thoughtful business editors I've worked with and missing from the BT article was the postscript which appears below accompanied by a letter from BT, received late Saturday and opened on Sunday, after Monday's paper was put to bed.

I really wanted to believe BT's press officer Mr. Jason Mann. He was very convincing and spoke from a deep conviction about everything they are trying to do at BT. Indeed, I've sat in a similar chair trying to stop fallout from the collapse of BCCI staining my then firm Price Waterhouse. I could not tolerate journalists who neither "fact-checked" nor cared enough to get the quotes right. In this case it was the system not helping him each step along the way and therein lies the problem.

There were several excellent and frustrated mid-level BT employees and managers with whom I spoke at each step along the way during the nine weeks. All were desperate to resolve the issue and yet the organisation is not structured to help even its own engineers who wait in the same call-in queues customers do.

In the words of many a person trying to find something to laugh at in the midst of a tragedy, I wish it were otherwise but thank you BT, I could not make up material this good... this article nearly wrote itself.

P.S. My February bill arrived the day after the fault was resolved and I spoke to the 150 lady about the charge for diverting calls to my mobile. (It seemed strange to me that a fault not of my making requiring calls to be diverted would not be something BT would pay for?) She read from her rule book… “I could have either the diversion or the line rental refunded but not both.” When I started somewhat disturbed to hysterical laughter she became a human being… then I spoke for 27-minutes to her colleague in India.

Indeed my calls to various BT departments over the life of this incident totalled more than six hours (you don't want to know what my billing rate for that amount of time is), the time spent entertaining BT engineers was extra.

Nine weeks of line rental costs about £47. Sijesh in India said, “I’m sorry sir but the system only authorises me to refund you £6.” He was a toughie but I negotiated him up to £10. When I asked if this was BT’s final offer, he bumped it up to £15.

When I asked him if I stayed further on the line might we get closer to the amount owed he said, "no, £15 was the 'absolute maximum'” and “a letter will be forthcoming.”

Even if we throw away the lost time, I’m still out £32.

Save the letter, I’ll take a cheque please.

P.P.S. On Saturday afternoon, this letter arrived, happy to confirm that my credit of £2.80 has gone into my account, again sending me to bt.com and clearly trying to sell me more services.

I dunno, where daily provision of basic telephony seems a challenge, does anyone know why I would consider additional services?

Again, I don't know whether to laugh or cry.