Disastrous BT switch for my elderly inlaws - URGENT HELP NEEDED PLEASE

macman

It's down to OR's fault repair backlog which given the recent weather is probably massive.
If you register them on the Priority Fault Repair service then that may assist in the future if there are faults.
Remember that BT have no idea of the age or health of their account holders: 4/2 is the next working day.
Why did they switch from TT to BT? Frying pan to fire comes to mind...

MBWNZ

Nothing to do with weather at all Macman, just plain incompetence. They've been aware of what fault is since last Monday i.e. it's in the frame at the exchange. The engineer who went on Thursday to exchange couldn't help as he wasn't qualified to deal with the problem: since then no action AT ALL other than pointless calls from abroad from BT. BT have been aware of in-laws age and situation since day 1 and at time switch was initiated.

I'm now dealing with Chief Executive's office who say line hasn't been tested/worked on/looked at since Thursday which even they're surprised at. Looks like even the CEO can't get an engineer out when he wants - apparently it's not "usual" for these issues to be dealt with on a weekend - so it looks as if Monday will be the earliest. So much for global, 24 hour business...

We have BT and happy with it. FIL wants to be able to watch football and other sport as he's fairly housebound these days and can't get to pub but he bitterly regrets switching now....

Ms_Chocaholic

I don't think macman meant that the weather had caused your inlaw's problems, merely that may be a significant number of faults that are weather related in the area which in turn results in a backlog of faults to repair.

MBWNZ

Thanks Ms Choc. I asked if the bad weather meant a delay in response but no, normal service in area.

Thanks for your original Twitter idea. The person in CEO's office said it's something they're monitoring more and more. Certainly when I tweeted this morning I had a call within half an hour so, you're right, it's a very efficient tool.

macman

Normal fault repair time is around 3 working days. So if fixed early next week that'll be 5-6 days-hardly unusual.
BT OR have a massive current backlog of work and the speed of the fix will depend on engineer availability on your exchange.
Your in-laws may be elderly, but they were not registered for priority fault repair, so they'll be in a queue with everyone else.
Since it's OR who do the local loop repairs regardless, it doesn't matter who you switched to. BT have no more priority for repairs with OR than any other ISP.

fruitpie

MBWNZ, hope you get your parents problems resolved - I know just how helpless you feel as I was in your situation with my parents switch from BT to Tesco. OMG it was so stressful waiting and then waiting again... And a funeral to arrange in between. I really don't think it's worth swapping with all the hassle it seems to cause. Good luck to you and your parents.

Ypaymore

MBWNZ wrote: »

Thanks Ms Choc. I asked if the bad weather meant a delay in response but no, normal service in area.

Thanks for your original Twitter idea. The person in CEO's office said it's something they're monitoring more and more. Certainly when I tweeted this morning I had a call within half an hour so, you're right, it's a very efficient tool.

Dont forget to register them http://www.bt.com/includingyou/redesign2012/assets/downloads/FreePriorityFaultRepair.pdf so they get prioriity in future.( A service not offered by Talk Talk );)

MBWNZ

Update: Lesson learned - NEVER switch to BT and don't believe what they tell you.

After weekend on phone dealing with Exec Office person there was no progress.

Yesterday no phone working still. Phone call from India saying heavy lifting machinery required to fix problem (?) and it would be another 4-5 days. Exec Office person has no further update and day ends with no phone.

Today three engineers turn up at house and phone line works. I speak to one to ask how serious the fault was and he said it wasn't at all serious and had taken him only 20 minutes to rectify. He said it could have been done at any stage in the past eight days as it was an error when the switch was done in the exchange. When I mentioned heavy lifting equipment he laughed and said nothing like that needed to solve problem - it really was just a matter of moving something (a card?) from one place to another in the exchange. He commented that my in-laws were in a bit of a state.

Infinity engineer comes and asks my in-laws to drive to Tesco to buy the wireless plugs to link to the TV...and then leaves and they're left with no idea what they need or even if it will work. We'd specifically asked for plugs when ordering but were told they couldn't be ordered but to ask engineer as they're carried on the vans and easily obtained. We also specifically asked for in-laws to be left with a working TV system but that hasn't happened either. Now CEO office says they may not get all channels using plugs which is the first we've heard of it and said they'd post the plugs out for them to put in themselves.

All in all this has been a farce from start to finish. The engineers who came this morning were great but as for the rest of BT, from CEO office to call centre abroad, it has been one very unfunny and stressful joke, particularly for two elderly people who wish they'd never heard of BT.

macman

If by 'wirelesss plugs' you mean HomePlugs, then the use of them (or not) makes absolutely no difference as to which channels you will get. All they do is supply the on-demand side of the service by transmitting the signal from the router to the TV or digibox. An ethernet cable or wireless dongle does the same job.
This is not a BT Retail mess-up, it's BT OR, and you would have got the same service and issues regardless of who your in-laws had switched to.