Broadband and phone deal

ohreallƳ

I've just discovered my elderly mum is being charged £37.50pm from NOW due to being out of contract so I'm looking to move her on.

One of the problems we have is her telephone supply cabinet is in desperate need of upgrading, BTopen reach have previously informed of this however nothing appears to progress, mums phone is down again and I need to try and get her sorted as it vital she has a working phone. This needs to be addressed through NOW in the first instance however due to me not being the acct holder they won't talk.

Their online checker shows no problems however this has been the case previously and connecting in a different telephone doesn't bring improvement.

Additionally open reach won't talk as being end user I'm not their customer.

Are there any providers that are linked to BT that will permit me to manage the acct on her behalf?

Any suggestions for a new provider based on the above and is there a possibility of a provider they also won't tie her in for a minimum period, read between the lines on this point as I don't wish to be indelicate.

Tia

flaneurs_lobster

What do you mean by "her telephone supply cabinet"?

Is this something on her premises or are you talking about the green cabinet that sits on the street somewhere nearby?

There is generally no way for a retail customer (or their daughter) to talk to Openreach directly, all contact needs to be made via the provider, in this case NOW.

They are nothing to do with BT.

ohreallƳ

BT cabinet supply to her house.100 yds away and in poor operational condition.

NOW won't talk to me

They are nothing to do with BT

Openreach is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT. https://www.openreach.com/about/our-company

littleboo

Presumably, form the title, she has broadband, does that also go down when the phone stops working?

How does her phone connect today - "old style", ie into a socket on the wall? If so, she is using a legacy service and she will have to move to a digital voice service in the very near future, or immediately if she changes providers. If the problem on the leg from the cabinet to the exchange, moving to digital voice would address that since it becomes redundant.

Regarding acting on her behalf, a POA is the universal method but I've done it before when my parent or parent in-law initiated the call and then gave approval for me to speak on their behalf

flaneurs_lobster

If you don't have Power of Attorney registered with NOW then you will have to be physically present with your mother on a phone call, go through the usual security checks and get her to hand-off the call to you.

Maybe do this to get the immediate problem of getting the phone line operational.

After that, since the broadband/phone is out of minimum term, maybe look at taking over the account yourself?

I'm aware of who owns Openreach, I meant that NOW are nothing to do with BT (they're a bit of SKY).

iniltous

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6678685/broadband-and-phone-deal

BT and probably others can have others named on the account thst can act as a proxy for certain things , so not as comprehensive as a power of attorney arrangement, and with BT (as well as others no doubt ) you can report a fault from within the online account management tools , so not necessarily any need to speak on the phone .

As far as your opinion on the state of the cabinet supposedly in need of upgrading, upgrading to what ? , if you already have FTTC available the copper cabinet it’s linked to is effectively redundant, and the FTTC ‘cabinet’ won’t be that old , and if you mean upgrading to full fibre the cabinets are irrelevant, FTTP doesn’t use cabinets .

As stated , if Now are the provider it’s now that are responsible for arranging to fix any issues , even if that needs Openreach involvement, if contacting Now is problematic because they don’t accept you have any authority over the account, switch to another provider and use the opportunity to put your name as a representative.

QrizB

Openreach is a wholly owned subsidiary of BT.

Nvertheless, they're operationally independent. BT Retail have no more or less influence over Openreach than NOW, or Vodafone, or Sky, or any of the dozens of other domestic ISPs do.

This is intentional; it stops BT having a competitive advantage.

if contacting Now is problematic because they don’t accept you have any authority over the account, switch to another provider and use the opportunity to put your name as a representative.

You could even apply for broadband at your mum's house in your own name, if that's more convenient.

Farway

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82091478#Comment_82091478

That's what I used to do, get Mum to pass the phone over once call under way.

BTW OP, get her sorted as it vital she has a working phone, is you mum on the Vulnerable customers list? My mum was and it helped a lot, OR turned out Christmas day to rural village and fixed fault in just the type of box mentioned

ohreallƳ

I appear to have ground to an inexplicable halt with this being unable to login. The acct was setup in my DiL name (still is) however last week I changed the email address, and logged in, to mine. Now the loggin details are not recognised and requesting a password reset fails to bring an email; however I have emails arriving from last week when I up dated the address.

This results in neither myself or DiL being able to login or communicate this with Now.

As I'm content to move her to a new provider can I simply do this without further ado? She is not under contract.

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82097332#Comment_82097332

Seems likely to be the simple way to get out of this problem.

I'd suggest that the new contract is not taken out in your mother's name.

Yorkie1

I recently moved my mum from Plusnet to Zen for BB and voice (digital). The contract etc is all in her name, but they are happy for me to be named on the account to discuss with them - Mum obviously initially had to ring them and get this set up, but that was fine (we are not geographically close).