Urgent BT fault repair??? Please?

scrumpyjax

Hi..I'm hoping to find a friendly BT person (engineer?) to hurry up my old mum's phone fix.:D She lives in Wyke Regis Weymouth
She is 89, suffered a heart attack last year and is in poor health. She's real old school and won't make a fuss but her phone has stopped working.It was reported on the 7th but BT say it will be fixed by the 12th.:eek:
The phone is our only means of keeping in touch as all the family live far away and she insists on her independence. I bought her a mobile but she doesn't do modern :mad:
What she needs is to jump the queue ;)-she may be proud but I'm not. :rotfl:
Can anyone help????
P M me for the phone number or report code.

Thanks:):)

macman

Google is your friend:

• You can apply for our ‘Free Priority Fault Repair Service’ if you have a long-term illness or disability and can’t leave your home. The service applies to the phone service and equipment you rent from us. It makes sure that, whenever possible, you get priority treatment if you report a fault.

For more information about all of these services, go to www.bt.com/includingyou or phone 0800 800 150 (this call is free from your landline). If you’ve got a textphone, call 18001 0800 800 150.

scrumpyjax

macman wrote: »

Google is your friend:

• You can apply for our ‘Free Priority Fault Repair Service’ if you have a long-term illness or disability and can’t leave your home. The service applies to the phone service and equipment you rent from us. It makes sure that, whenever possible, you get priority treatment if you report a fault.

For more information about all of these services, go to www.bt.com/includingyou or phone 0800 800 150 (this call is free from your landline). If you’ve got a textphone, call 18001 0800 800 150.

Hi and thanks for the info macman....my mum is actually mobile and likes to drag herself out and about as much as she can but once at home she is isolated.
She is very independent and it sounds like she wouldn't get priority anyway. What has upset our family is the non comprehension of all the BT call center staff we have spoken too....they sound understanding but within seconds get back into the "if it's your equipment etc etc". It's all about money money money.That's before they have even looked for the fault...Are they going to refuse to repair it?????.
Even your reply uses the "F" word as in ----Free Priority Fault Repair Service and she can't report a fault from a broken/faulty line.Even the family seem to have had little impact on the rigid system of repair/fault finding.
Once again thanks for your advice....now find me an engineer for tomorrow. :rotfl::rotfl: I'm old soon and it don't look good to me.:(

macman

You need to get her pre-registered for this before the service is needed. Every person who calls up to report a fault inevitably considers that their repair is a priority. 3 working days for a residential repair is actually pretty good.
Have you checked that the fault is a line fault and not on her handset or internal wiring? If it is, then a minimum call out charge of £130 will be applied-that's what the call centre drones were trying to tell you.

Sooler

BT are advising it's about your mother's money ... if it is a handset fault the BT engineer will charge but won't be fixing it. Can she borrow a neighbours handset to try on her phoneline?

scrumpyjax

If anyone had a hand in speeding up the repair then thank you very much..I rang her at 1pm and she was delighted to tell me 5 times that she'd just had a call to say her line was working again. It's good to see that BT can get it right.:-)
I still think they could do a bit better by being less gloomy about internal faults though...it's all very well to tell customers that it's £130 to fix an equipment fault but why not check the line FIRST??...My old dear went out and bought another phone because she was so worried.So even though it was a line fault it has still cost her money.

Heinz

scrumpyjax wrote: »

My old dear went out and bought another phone because she was so worried.So even though it was a line fault it has still cost her money.

It's always worthwhile having a corded phone as a spare.

Or you could Ebay of Freegle/Freecycle it for her so that someone else has a spare.

oldbagteacher

Sooler wrote: »

BT are advising it's about your mother's money ... if it is a handset fault the BT engineer will charge but won't be fixing it. Can she borrow a neighbours handset to try on her phoneline?

So shocked that BT would not send an engineer unless I paid £130 for the engineer to check the fault since it wasnt external,yet it was a BT phone that I was renting from them along with my BT land rental for my broadband and my calls and had been with them for 31 years.I just used another persons extra phone and all was fine. I had no idea that they charged to repair their own equipment.

brutus1983

from past experience of bt expect it to be fixed on the 25th of never spend countless hours on hold to someone in bombay who speaks as bout as much english as a mute budgie and be charged an extortionate amount

sorry to put a huge downer on a bad situation but bt is ran by !!!!!! chimps 8 months i had misery of them glad be rid of the pathetic w......s

Mr_Toad

oldbagteacher wrote: »

So shocked that BT would not send an engineer unless I paid £130 for the engineer to check the fault since it wasnt external,yet it was a BT phone that I was renting from them along with my BT land rental for my broadband and my calls and had been with them for 31 years.I just used another persons extra phone and all was fine. I had no idea that they charged to repair their own equipment.

I didn't think BT rented phones anymore? You rent the line as far as the main jack, everything else is yours.

That's why the £130 in case they have to repair the wiring replacing a faulty phone is down to you.

Ady87

Bt Rent out phones from as little as £1.01.

If you have been renting your phone for longer than 18 months and it becomes faulty, you are due a free upgrade anyway, just ring Sales/Cust Options/Cust Services to get a new one sent out, dont even try get it fixed, its probably out dated anyway.