BT leaves 89 yr old pensioner

leemsutton

14 days ago I reported a fault on my Grandmothers phone line to BT. Basically it was so crackly she couldn't use it. She has a panic system on this phone line due to her age and the fact she's a bit unsteady on her feet. This is a residential number.

11 days ago I reported a fault on my business line to BT. Again so crackly we couldn't use it. Being a business line we rely on it for calls/faxes and e-mails.

Both lines on in the same cable as my grandmother lives in a cottage on site, although its half a mile away from me.

Anyway today both lines are still inactive. I have called BT every single day to complain to keep being told they are extremely busy due to the weather conditions. The problem is I reported both of these faults BEFORE any snow fell within 50 miles of this address. We had 3 visits from engineers (2 to the business fault and 1 to the residential fault) the day after they were reported where the engineers correctly diagnosed a fault with an underground cable.

However last year we installed a brand new 50 pair cable at our own cost to get phone lines into some industrial units in our yard. This new cable was sunk into the ground and we ran it up to the yard - 1 mile. It cost us £1500 which is money we saved BT as it was part of the agreement in getting the new lines onto site. Whilst installing this cable we also ran it to the side of our house/office in readiness for it to be connected putting us and my grandmother onto the new cable which would then allow the existing very problematic (generally 4-6 problems per year reported) line to be forgotten about. Despite lots of requests BT could not do this simple task - seriously the cable is sitting in the box and it needs 4 wires connecting - 10 minute job maximum.

So when this current problem occured we showed the engineer that the solution was simply to connect us to the new cable and not bother having to dig up a drive to repair a 30+ yr old continuously faulty cable. The engineer agreed but said he needed to get a manager on site to authorise it. We agreed to meet with him and the engineer the following morning - Nobody turned up and no calls to explain why. I then called and complained to be told the meeting would happen the following day - guess what again nobody turned up and no explanation why. This then happened for 7 days on the trot why by BT were basically lying to me promising a meeting on site which never happened.

I am absolutely disgusted with all of this but what makes matters worse is that they think its acceptable to have an 89 yr old pensioner without a phone or panic system in some of the worst weather conditions the country has seen for 30 years.

My complaints are falling on deaf ears and everytime I ring up - which I am doing daily - I have to explain the whole saga from the beginning because no of the idiotic operators add notes to the account. I keep being told 'sorry sir the only notes I have are from when the problem was reported'

Just to add to their total incompetence I am getting a text messages saying that the repair will be sorted out on the 07/01/10 even though the messages are arrving on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th. Are they completely stupid suggesting a repair WILL be sorted up to 6 days ago.

What is wrong with BT? Two years ago we we awarded some money via an Otelo claim. I have got another claim with Otelo going through now about something else to do with BT and now as well as leaving my business without communications for 11 days, they also think its ok to leave my grandmother off as well.

Heinz

One for the newspapers, methinks.

bryanb

Often a mention of "vulnerable older people" will get some action, especially in writing.

Mark_In_Hampshire

The same vulnerable old people who are ripped off to the tune of a usurious £4.50 just to pay their bills, you mean

bryanb

Mark_In_Hampshire wrote: »

The same vulnerable old people who are ripped off to the tune of a usurious £4.50 just to pay their bills, you mean

Sadly, yes. However BT look at it differently. They say a discount is given for paying by DD and no paper etc. rather than an extra charge for paying cash/cheque.

DonnyDave

Badger_Lady wrote: »

Email the Cheif Executive of BT [EMAIL="ian.livingston@bt.com"]ian.livingston@bt.com[/EMAIL].

I once did this and had a call back from his PA that very morning to sort everything out for me. A story like yours more than justifies this.

Ditto. Seems a simple job. Hope the Chief Executive sees sense on this and simply requests that the two faulty lines be moved over to the cable you paid to install. If only it'd been done in the first place!

Farway

Is your mother registered as "vulnerable" with BT? They put a tag on the number so any faults are number one priority

I did this for my mother, similar situation, relying on BT phone line for emergency care help "panic button" calls

She lived in a remote village in Wiltshire, the phone line went own Christmas Day whilst we were there, the BT engineer came on the same day, in the snow, and fixed fault in junction box along the road

My point is that BT do their best if they are aware of vulnerable folk, but you do need to let them know before hand, not when fault develops


PS, FWIW register as vulnerable with Electric & gas whilst you are at it

BT_company_representative

Hi leemsutton,

I will take a look at this. Will you email me all telephone numbers that this relates to and the account numbers also. I will be able to deal with the residential line and will ask a colleague to follow up on the business lines. Our email address can be found in our profile. Mark the subject field MSE - leemsutton

Many Thanks
Donna
BT Support

BT_company_representative

hi leemsutton,

Sorry I forgot to ask in the previous thread, would you include a link to your post in the email?

Many Thanks
Donna
BT Support

Jemma-T

leemsutton wrote: »

14 days ago I reported a fault on my Grandmothers phone line to BT. Basically it was so crackly she couldn't use it. She has a panic system on this phone line due to her age and the fact she's a bit unsteady on her feet. This is a residential number.

11 days ago I reported a fault on my business line to BT. Again so crackly we couldn't use it. Being a business line we rely on it for calls/faxes and e-mails.

Both lines on in the same cable as my grandmother lives in a cottage on site, although its half a mile away from me.

Anyway today both lines are still inactive. I have called BT every single day to complain to keep being told they are extremely busy due to the weather conditions. The problem is I reported both of these faults BEFORE any snow fell within 50 miles of this address. We had 3 visits from engineers (2 to the business fault and 1 to the residential fault) the day after they were reported where the engineers correctly diagnosed a fault with an underground cable.

However last year we installed a brand new 50 pair cable at our own cost to get phone lines into some industrial units in our yard. This new cable was sunk into the ground and we ran it up to the yard - 1 mile. It cost us £1500 which is money we saved BT as it was part of the agreement in getting the new lines onto site. Whilst installing this cable we also ran it to the side of our house/office in readiness for it to be connected putting us and my grandmother onto the new cable which would then allow the existing very problematic (generally 4-6 problems per year reported) line to be forgotten about. Despite lots of requests BT could not do this simple task - seriously the cable is sitting in the box and it needs 4 wires connecting - 10 minute job maximum.

So when this current problem occured we showed the engineer that the solution was simply to connect us to the new cable and not bother having to dig up a drive to repair a 30+ yr old continuously faulty cable. The engineer agreed but said he needed to get a manager on site to authorise it. We agreed to meet with him and the engineer the following morning - Nobody turned up and no calls to explain why. I then called and complained to be told the meeting would happen the following day - guess what again nobody turned up and no explanation why. This then happened for 7 days on the trot why by BT were basically lying to me promising a meeting on site which never happened.

I am absolutely disgusted with all of this but what makes matters worse is that they think its acceptable to have an 89 yr old pensioner without a phone or panic system in some of the worst weather conditions the country has seen for 30 years.

My complaints are falling on deaf ears and everytime I ring up - which I am doing daily - I have to explain the whole saga from the beginning because no of the idiotic operators add notes to the account. I keep being told 'sorry sir the only notes I have are from when the problem was reported'

Just to add to their total incompetence I am getting a text messages saying that the repair will be sorted out on the 07/01/10 even though the messages are arrving on the 10th, 11th, 12th and 13th. Are they completely stupid suggesting a repair WILL be sorted up to 6 days ago.

What is wrong with BT? Two years ago we we awarded some money via an Otelo claim. I have got another claim with Otelo going through now about something else to do with BT and now as well as leaving my business without communications for 11 days, they also think its ok to leave my grandmother off as well.

Must just be me but it seems the OP is living in their own little country, running cables, saying it saved BT money (how's that?), expecting a private company (BT) to arrive onsite and use a bit of cable they don't own etc etc.

I assume the panic alarm does still work? Do you have mobile phones?

I'm not sure things are as bad as the OP implies and they've complicated matters by mixing the lines for business use, private use and then further complicating it by throwing in the 'pensioner' argument for effect.

I don't wish to sound unkind but that's how I see it. BT/OpenReach will fix the fault once they've worked out what's wrong. It's not your business to be running cables and altering/interfering with BT/OpenReach's work. You've obviously had ongoing problems with your supplier so maybe you need to think about a different supplier.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Personally I don't place much store in "pensioner left", etc. - these days, and with most companies, pensioners are just customers like anyone else: and on a residential tarrif, not a business one with an SLA.

As you say, a pay as you go mobile means nobody need be left out of contact presuming there is a signal.

I think you're missing a few points in the original post, specifically that the laying of the new cable was an "agreement" which I infer is because the cost to replace/extend an existing one was too high for BT, so the OP paid up, and that line would then presumably become BT's property.

To the OP: the clue to "what has happened to BT" is in your posting. You say that despite this being possibly the third time you need to involve the regulator, they are still your supplier. You're not demanding anything better by voting with your custom.

That said, I wouldn't expect much in the way of engineer service from any company during some of the most dreadful weather the country has ever seen and doubtless this hasn't helped a resolution time.