08000285085

Class! I wish I had thought of that.

Return call from From BT

ref fault i had reported

I called BT about a broadband fault, and was expecting a call back two days later from an engineer. I checked to see if I'd missed one, and found that 0800 0285085 had cold-called the previous evening. This has happened before. Sometimes it seems to have been an attempt to get a customer satisfaction survey response out of me, despite me opting out of those every time. At other times there has definitely been some dodgy business afoot, a person not knowing enough to be real BT staff. As this problem (according to the post dates in this thread) has been persistent for 7 years, OFTEL should be forcing BT to relocate service centres to the UK. Currently, it seems that organised crime is a constant infiltration in BT service centres in India, with bulk access to most if not all call records, and perhaps scammers even have access to BT lines to make outgoing calls too! Allowing that to persist for SEVEN YEARS is astounding. Why is there no effort to fix that, and why is nothign being done to relocate back to the UK to solve this and a lot of other problems? That's a rhetorical question! i do NOT expect an answer. If there hasn't been one in seven YEARS, why would there be one now?!

Small followup to say that the allocated time for the engineer's call back elapsed with no call. So BT look very bad. EXCELLENT at the scam call, not so good at actually fixing anything. It should be clear that the UK will not get anything better until the public have the spine to demand a national government of national interest, nationalising the telecoms, power, transport services, etc. To those who argue that this has nothing to do with politics, of course it has! The NATIONAL phone service was sold by Thatcher's govt to those who were willing to profit from their own countrymen! What we get now is the disgraceful legacy of that greed and bad decision making. We KNOW the way to reverse this, and we should be asking how much worse we're willing to accept before we accept the required reversal. This problem is far bigger than BT alone, so don't look to BT, or even OFTEL, to fix this. Start thinking of NATIONAL scale politics, and maybe at last there will be a realistic answer to the problems of the nation, not just this specific problem. What use is 'choice' it it's the choice between no service, and actually getting scammed? To those who think that we don't need anything other than 'efficiency' and that ruthless cuts will solve this, forget it! What is the use of brutally cutting services HERE while haemorrhaging money out of the country to scammers abroad?! Start thinking on bigger scales, because all the big structures built after world wars to protect us are eroded now, by people too small minded to realise what they have done! We may have worse things to worry about than scammers in Indian call centres if we don't start to restore some control here.

Last but not least, to those who think all this is useless waffle, and think that a one-line remark on BT is all they need, ask yourselves why seven years have seen NO change. if you want change, YOU must help make it happen.

been getting unsolicited calls from this all day, pure phone pest waste gash

Rang landline as soon as it stopped ringing they rang my mobile answered very long pause was about to hang up when American voice asked for me so I hung up

Hi Crow, what you are saying resonates with what a close friend of mine has confirmed.  He is quite high up in BT, and working on their "systems" - he mentioned 2 years ago that BT were in the process of moving everything back to the UK due to the problems with foreign call centres -  India - and their tendency to only tell you what you want to hear and not really getting anything productive happening with regard to faults such as this, regardless of how hardworking and cheap they are to employ. It is also a problem with crime as you explain.
However, he lamented earlier this year that they have not moved their call centres yet, and he thinks they have reviewed actually relocating.  It appears that they have invested yet MORE not LESS money in Indian call centres.  I agree with you, I think this problem will continue and indeed flourish until they ditch foreign call centres completely.  Despite their so called "improvements" in telecommunications they are still only interested in doing things on the cheap and making as much money as possible, which will not trickle down to us as customers.

It would make sense for them to relocate back to the UK;  there would be more trust from  customers for a start - I am old enough to remember when BT were the gold standard of telecommunications and were trustworthy - and also would help to address the lack of decent jobs for graduates and young people.

Advice for anyone unfortunate enough to have to deal with BT staff due to being fobbed off, always ask for their name (which they give you anyway but there are probably many of that name there), their employee number - I think it is called E.I.N. number, or something like this;  and their extension number.  That way they can be individually traced.  The more you complain, the more likely you are to get a UK employee dealing with your complaint.

Thank you for your post, it answers the question I was looking for about this number.  I am going to ditch my landline completely as it is more trouble than it is worth.

I do not recognise this number

dodgy number! not in my calls list so didn't answer, looks like I was right not to

Had couple of calls from this number cannot be BT as they rang my 3 mobile phone which they do not know have knowledge of

definatley bt faults department

NO thats only on FRidays You stupid in head.

haha, they give the numbers out! you wouldnt think they would share one!

This is a genuine BT number. They called back on it when I reported a problem getting a connection.
Its not a scam guys, but a real BT number.

This is a genuine BT number. They called back on it when I reported a problem getting a connection.
Its not a scam guys, but a real BT number.

Can be all manner of things, from BT through to various companies trying to sell you more rubbish.
I beleive it just may be a "call center" used by several firms to "crack the nut" so to speak. If in doubt AVOID.

I have just had a call from that number and reported it to the police. I Do not think this is BT, as when you call the number back it does a fax dialing tone. Very strange. They were also laughing.

This number just called me. I answered but they immidiately hung off.

I just had a call from this number to my mobile saying  was regarding my direct debit, asking me to confirm my address and bank details - I hung up as I know that my account is settled. I contacted BT online through their chat facility, copy of conversation noted below - IT IS A PHISHING SCAM:

BT: Hello. Thanks for that information, I'll check it and get back to you in a moment.
Anne, i checked your BT account and confirm that your outstanding bill is £0 , Thanks for letting us know about this call, we’ve had a few customers contacting us about the same issue. Unfortunately we’ve discovered that this is a phishing , so please do not provide any details and e-mail about this to phishing @bt.com  for further investigation, We’re working with BT Cyber Security to find the source of it  shut it down asap
Anne : Thank you, I thought this would be the case as I confirmed no further charges would be forthcoming on cancelling my BT Sport subscription or would be sent a bill in the post if there were. The number that called me was 0800 028 5085 if it is of any help to getting this stopped.
BT: I have made a note of it i would also request you to send an e-mail to phishing@bt.com for further investigation
Anne: I will, thank you for your help :)

just had a call from this number, I could hardly understand what the gentleman was trying to say but have had problems in the past, told them not to call again!!!