Help! BT not setting up new line for vulnerable customer.

Mahone1302

Forgive me if this is a bit long winded, but I'm desperate to get some help with getting my elderly grandfathers phone line setup, and I'm getting nowhere with BT.

Back in January 2020 my grandmother passed away, leaving my grandfather on his own for the first time in over 50 years. To make things worse, Covid kicked in a few weeks later and due to his age and some health issues, he had to start isolating, which he has been doing now for almost a year. He hasn't been able to see any family because the risk is simply too big. I spent much of the year trying to get him to agree to having broadband installed, which he initially resisted. He's 75 years old so it was to be expected. Around Christmas time he finally decided that he needed to get connected to broadband. I went through the options with him and he decided that he wanted to go with BT, as they were a name he was familiar with - fair enough. We contacted BT on 17th December and signed up for standard broadband, with an install and activation date of 12th January. We were told that the delay was due to a mix of Christmas and the fact that he lives in a static caravan on a holiday home site and so some extra planning was involved. As things are, the caravan already has a BT Openreach socket, and numerous other caravans on the site have broadband through the BT network.

We heard nothing further from BT until 11th January when they posted out the router, however we weren't at all concerned because we were told at point of ordering that they would contact us if there were any issues, and the online order tracking didn't show any issues.

On activation date, the router was set up as instructed and an engineer was due to attend and setup the line between 13:00 - 18:00. By 17:50 no engineer had attended the caravan, nor the exchange/junction box which is situated 10 metres away from the caravan. I rang BT who promised that somebody would be in touch by 21:00. Predictably nobody called. I rang them again the following day at around 11:00 and they apologised, and said somebody would ring by 13:00. Guess what? Nobody rang. I called back and was then told that somebody would be in touch within 24 hours. Guess what again? Yep - nobody called. 

I spent hours the next day (13th) trying to get through to BT, having to hold for 30 minutes at a time and being hung up on 3 times for no apparent reason. The very last person I spoke to was a Team Leader at the Connections team who was incredibly unhelpful, telling me that he didn't know what the issue was and couldn't do anything about it, and refused to escalate it. He insisted that the engineer had attended the location, and wouldn't accept that this simply didn't happen. When I asked if I could speak with somebody higher up than him, he said "They don't speak to the public." I genuinely couldn't believe what I was hearing.

I composed an email to the CEO's office that evening and received a call back from them the following day (14th) The person who I spoke to said that she would look in to what was going on and get it sorted, and also address the issues I'd had with being hung up on etc.

Unfortunately, despite this person keeping me updated twice a week since then, we're still in the exact same position. We are constantly being fobbed off with various excuses, be it "Covid" or that the line is still in the "planning" stage - 2 months after ordering!! Whilst I understand that Covid has had an impact, I have seen BT Openreach vans out on an almost daily basis around the entire county (I work out on the road on a daily basis) and they have even been seen working on the caravan site within yards of my grandads caravan. Simply giving "Covid" as an excuse isn't good enough, and suggests to me that they simply don't know what the actual issue is. Last week she informed me that they are only connecting phone lines for 'vulnerable' customers. When I queried whether a 75 year old elderly man who has been in isolation for 12 months would class as vulnerable, I was told no! I also queried the fact that BT are advertising daily for new customers and why would they be doing this if they weren't connecting them, and was meant with a somewhat awkward silence.

We're now at a bit of a loss as what to do. Virgin Media don't provide a service on the site, there is little to no mobile signal so mobile data isn't an option, and the problem seems to be with Openreach so would be there regardless whether we went with BT, or PlusNet, Sky, TalkTalk etc.

Has anybody else experienced anything like this before and/or could give any advice on how we can get things moving? Thanks!

societys_child

little to no mobile signal so mobile data isn't an option

Have you looked at different mobile providers?

Mahone1302

societys_child said:

little to no mobile signal so mobile data isn't an option

Have you looked at different mobile providers?

Yes, the signal there is weak at best. 

iniltous

Is it the case there wasn’t an existing line , so it’s not simply adding  broadband ?
There are quite a few issues with arranging a line to be installed in a mobile home , if the address isn’t a ‘proper’ address , registered with the Post Office and liable for council tax etc, then the address won’t necessarily exist in any OR database, if  the order is progressed ‘at risk’ by BT,  the ‘property’ is physically sited on private land, so permission/wayleaves may well be required from the land owner, OR effectively stop the clock as arguably the order shouldn’t have been submitted without survey.
It’s possible the land owner is either asking for an unreasonable wayleave payment, or is dictating the method of service , possibly insisting that they install the OR line but wanting payment for doing so, obviously this may not be the case, but it is the sort of thing that can delay non standard installs.....you could start by asking the site management if OR have made any enquiries, or asking BT what OR are saying.
There is a universal service obligation on BT/OR ,  but  with limitations, a caravan on a private site may not qualify as a standard residential dwelling that the USO guarantees service to.
If an OR engineer was sent to the site , but the means to provide a line were simply not there , or service couldn’t be provided in a way that satisfies the rules ( like an overhead wire being a minimum height above ground ) then the installer would have no choice but to return the job as incomplete, involving the OR planning department  

matelodave

I know you think that you are a special case but there is only a finite amount of resource out there and, as initous suggests, if the infrastructure isn't available and there are other obstacles then all the gnashing of teeth and whinging wont help.

Suddenly deciding that you need or want a service doesn't automatically make you a special case and TBH the fact that he's 75 doesn't really make him vulnerable.

I'm not being unsympathetic but thousands of people have suddenly found they need a connection to work from home or for home schooling and in some places it's overloaded the system. Many cabinets are full and need to be either upgraded or supplemented and there are waiting lists to get connected, you've just got to wait if you are at the back of the queue.

What did he do about communication before this requirement arose, did he not have a phone