Even when you leave BT - they can still screw up your phone line!!

1ipstick

Hi all
Thought you might like to hear about another story of BT's complete incompetence... (if not it might act as some kind of therapy for me!!)
We left BT a few months ago (as soon as we could) for Tiscali due to BT's appalling customer service. We'd had problems from the start when we moved in to our flat which is in an old building of 5 flats in total. Getting a phone line sorted out took flipping ages and they managed to disconnect our neighbours' phones in the process. They'd also arrange to come round to do various bits of physical work on the line - only not bother to tell us when, and then were surprised when we weren't in on a weekday to let them in.

Anyway, Tiscali have been fine but the other day I received a call on our landline asking for a Miss J*****. I said it was not her line but recognised the name as being a new neighbour in the building who had moved in. So I asked if this was the Miss J they were after and they brushed me off saying they just wanted to check the line was active. Weird. Anyway next day I called my partner's mobile from our landline and he didn't recognise the number - turns out we've suddenly got a new, BT, number and anyone trying to phone our normal number will just hear a dead line.

Called Tiscali but they didn't have a clue so called BT and after hours of phoning they admitted it was a crossed line "which happens all the time". got them to lodge a fault report and say they would send out an engineer in a few days. We got text updates on the fault (saying 'no progress') until this morning when there was a message on the landline saying the fault was fixed. It wasn't of course, I mean all they had to do was try to ring our old number and they would have seen for themselves that it was still dead. So all I tried to do today was call up to say 'you've made a mistake, it's not fixed'.

This time however they could not do anything as I'm not a BT customer. Great. I asked hundreds of questions, namely why were you able to lodge a fault a few days ago but suddenly you can't now. Every reply was 'I am so sorry, you need to call Tiscali' or 'I am so sorry, but we cannot help you if you are not a BT customer'. I gave them the fault number but they said they could not see a fault with that ref. number (I am able to check this myself online and even I can see a fault listed there - although it says it's completed).

The only reason I know this has anything to do with our neighbour is because of the first call. (I have been to see her but she's not been in for a few days). If we didn't know that then presumably we'd just have to wait for whoever it was to realise that their new phone line had a problem and they weren't receiving any calls and bother to complain.... who knows how long that could take!

I'm so cross with them, and to be honest it is like speaking to a brick wall when you call. Basically they can disconnect you and because you're not a BT customer they don't have to do anything! I don't even know how long our number has been out of action - God knows what calls we've missed. I've no idea who's paying for any calls I make now, either.

If anyone has any contact numbers that might help I'd be most grateful!

Heinz

Save yourself a lot of hassle - go to the top immediately - BT CEO [EMAIL="ian.livingston@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL]

Incisor

Strictly it is not BT, it is Open Reach, who have no customer facing departmant . If your supplier is Tiscali, then it is Tiscali who must arrange to fix it.

[Of course the fault which BT have fixed may be their customer who was affected by the crossed line, so fault fixed as far as they are concerned]

Heinz

Incisor wrote: »

Strictly it is not BT, it is Open Reach, who have no customer facing departmant . If your supplier is Tiscali, then it is Tiscali who must arrange to fix it

Whilst I agree, the circumstances show it's clearly a BT error and the OP is likely to get the runaround between BT and Tislcali for ages unless he goes on the offensive.

Incisor

Heinz wrote: »

Whilst I agree, the circumstances show it's clearly a BT error and the OP is likely to get the runaround between BT and Tislcali for ages unless he goes on the offensive.

Agree that it is an Open Reach [BT] error, but it is Tiscali's responsibility AFAICS. Only if Tiscali register a failure of Open Reach to fix it, would I consider tackling BT - but even then, I would seriously consider dumping Tiscali on grounds of inability to supply

Under liberalised telecoms, the independent supplier is responsible, and it won't be made to work until the responsible party is made to take responsibility or lose custom. At the moment, the likes of Tiscali are getting a soft ride, fobbing off on to BT - Open Reach, even if Open Reach are not playing fair with Tiscali. [I don't agree with the system, but I do think that pressure should be applied to make it work or break]