BT and Openreach poor service

My partners elderly mother Mrs C who lives on her own and who has heart failure, diabetes, dementia, etc moved 150 miles to a flat in Patrington on Dec 24th 2017. So far three times and still counting BT/Openreach have failed to reconnect the landline to her flat.

On the 5th Jan (Friday afternoon) I rang BT a number of times including around 1715 to be told by BT that the Openreach engineer was on their way. To make absolutely sure that he got access to the flat my partner sat in her car outside the flat from 1715 to 1830 but no engineer arrived. I rang BT about 1830 and was told that Openreach had double booked themselves so they were not coming.

I then re-scheduled for the 8th. I gave strict instructions to BT on how the engineer was to gain access to the flat. I asked the BT person to read back to me the instructions. BT were told that Mrs C has dementia. It was agreed by BT that the Openreach engineer would ring Nurse X landline who lives 5 miles away and she would drive to Mrs C flat to let the engineer in. The nurse had the flat door keys that we had given her and she already had met Mrs C previously. There is no mobile coverage most of the time in the flat.

The engineer did not ring the nurse’s landline or mobile but instead went straight to the flat but Mrs. C was confused and so she would not let the engineer in. The engineer then left a voicemail on my mobile saying he could not get access to the flat. However I did not know about this voicemail until much later.

The nurse rang on the 8th in the late afternoon to find out where the engineer had got to. She was told they could not talk to her because she did not have authorisation. This was very odd because every time I rang BT I just gave them the postcode to find the BT order. BT have never given me an order number even though I have asked for one. The nurse was aware that to get access to the order I had only used the postcode. So it seems a man can access the order via the postcode but not a woman. I also have had no email or any paper correspondence from BT.

Unfortunately as my partner and I were on one week’s holiday abroad from the 8th it meant that no one could ring Mrs C to see that she was okay. We are dealing with someone who cannot operate basic things like a microwave oven and no one was visiting her on a daily basis. My partner and I are the only relatives in the area. I rang BT from abroad on the 8th to get the next earliest appointment which was the 19th (Friday afternoon).

On the 19th my partner waited in all afternoon. At around 1700 hours I rang BT to find out why no one had arrived. They said they were on the way. Then at 1706, whilst I was driving, I received a text message saying “We are sorry but our openreach engineer is not going to be able to make your appointment today”. I then rang BT around 1730 and they said they new nothing about this. I waited a long time on the phone only to be told by BT that the engineer was not coming.

Our next appointment is now the 23rd and I will have to be there by 0800 to let the engineer in.

Personally I do not believe that Openreach were double booked on the 5th or were too busy on the 19th. I feel it was a Friday afternoon and just they wanted to get home for the weekend.

It was also agreed with BT on the 17th that they would ring me on the 20th to see how things went on 19th. Well you can guess what happened – I had no follow up call.

I would like to know how companies like BT and Openreach can have such poor operating procedures. You would think if they had let you down on a previous day that the next time you they came to do the order you would be high priority. Clearly that’s not the case.

Why was I not given an order number or any correspondence. When I order something from the internet I get text messages and can track the item to know when its arriving. But with BT/Openreach you are told you have to wait in from 1300 to 1830 hours. If you ring up for progress updates during this time you will get none – they will just say you are on the engineer’s list.