This topic

Help with a friends faulty line

Oldtimer1 — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 19:41:23 GMT

Hi, I'm hoping someone can point me in the right direction to get some assistance with getting a fault sorted.

My friend's widow has been having trouble with her phone line for over 6 weeks now and despite BT claiming to have cleared the fault twice, her line and also broadband is very variable, with no service most of the time.

She's reported it several times and has been fobbed off with various excuses, such as:

The outer wires of the copper cable corrode and protect the inner ones.

Fibre-optic cable only lasts 10 years and hers could be old.

There's a faulty cable at the other end of the village (which I know has no connection to her line).

Every engineer in the area is out working.

She is still trying to deal with her husbands estate and in order to communicate with solicitors, has to drive half a mile to the top of a hill to get a mobile signal. Living half a mile outside the village without a phone and internet is causing her lots of stress and are worried about her.

Any suggestions on how to progress this issue would be gratefully appreciated.

Thank you.

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Keith_Beddoe — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 20:10:35 GMT

@Oldtimer1

I have asked a moderator to help.

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

PaddyB — Mon, 01 Nov 2021 20:17:12 GMT

Hi @Oldtimer1,

Thank you for posting. I'm sorry if your Friend hasn't been able to get their service repaired. If you send me the details, I'll be able to take a look at this for you and help you get the service repaired.

I have sent you a private message with instructions on how to contact the team. You can access your messages via the envelope icon at the top right of the screen, or click on this link, Private messages

Thanks,

Paddy

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Oldtimer1 — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 17:06:17 GMT

Thank you both for your replies and intervention.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we now see some positive response.

Cheers.

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Oldtimer1 — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 19:23:15 GMT

I am delighted to report that an openreach engineer visited my friend's property today and located a fault on a buried armoured cable feeding it. They have got her line working as a temporary measure and are investigating a replacement cable.

Thank you so much for assisting in getting this sorry saga sorted. She is really relieved, knowing that she don't have to wait for the "major outage" to be sorted on the 3rd of December, which the engineers have confirmed has nothing whatsoever to do with her line.

Kind regards,

Brian H.

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

DavidM — Wed, 03 Nov 2021 19:38:29 GMT

Thanks for getting back to let us know your friend is able to use her phone again @Oldtimer1 . That's really great news. We're here if you need any further help.

Cheers

David

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Oldtimer1 — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 17:58:31 GMT

Happily, my friend's phone line is still working.

However, she's now received her bill and they have charged her the full amount for the time (well over a month) that her line was out of service.

When she originally asked about compensation she was told she wasn't entitled to any as they considered her fault within a "major outage".

It was proven (once the engineer attended) that her line was not within the outage area, and it would appear that BT don't even consider that her line was faulty.

She would like to make a complaint for the way she was treated, and given that she never got the promised replies from her queries, she would like to send an email; but to whom?

Any further assistance would be gratefully appreciated.

Kind regards,

Brian H.

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

RobbieMac — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 19:02:59 GMT

Hi @Oldtimer1

Thank you for posting back!

I'm sorry you have had to get back in touch regarding the line fault on your Friend's line. I understand that her bill includes the full rental for the month.

As there was a complete loss of service she should be entitled to Automatic Compensation. You can read more about it here >> Automatic Compensation info <<

Is your Friend able to call our helpdesk on 0800 800 150? We deal with cases strictly in turn as we receive them so there would be a delay in us picking this up. Ringing the helpdesk and explaining that she was not compensated for the late repair would be the quickest way to get this sorted.

If she is unable to call or runs into any bother please post back and we'll take her details to sort it out.

Thanks,

Robbie

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:19:10 GMT

@Oldtimer1

"Fibre-optic cable only lasts 10 years"

I have never heard this before - where did you get this information from?

If true, then surely Openreach's fibre rollout programme is going to be akin to "painting the Forth Bridge" as the saying goes*

Surely this cannot be true?

(*Once finished, go back to the beginning and start again!)

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Tom20001 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:41:03 GMT

The ten year thing was one of the excuses for a faulty service.

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:52:24 GMT

@Tom20001

OK, so not true then?

I couldn't see how it would be true - considering how much money Openreach are pouring in to building their FTTP network, for it to only last 10 years!

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Tom20001 — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 09:56:12 GMT

A quick google suggests at least 10 and perhaps 40. I suppose it depends how it is protected.

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Anonymous — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 10:23:09 GMT

@Tom20001

Interesting.

Even 40 years does not seem that long compared with how long some copper cables have been in the ground and still working?

I'm wondering if the reality is that external fibre optic cables haven't been around for long enough to be able to accurately calculate their expected lifespan? (I am aware that research into fibre optics began in the 1960's and 70's, though I don't think practical deployment was realistic until the 1980's?).

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

Oldtimer1 — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 10:34:01 GMT

I don't know if this could be taken any further, but it seems that BT are behaving very badly.

My friend escalated the problem and claimed that the automatic compensation should have been applied.

The issue went to the ombudsman who declared that she was entitled to the compensation.

However, BT have now appealed that decision, claiming that they were covered by the Major Service Outage, when it has been proved that her line isn't within the affected area.

They also state that just because a customer doesn't use her phone, it doesn't mean it was out of service.

And they also claim that she used a "third party engineer" which I assume could well be one of the moderators trying to deal with this issue.

Aside from contact BBC's watchdog programme, and other suggestions please?

Thanks in anticipation,

Oldtimer.

In addition, they have claimed that she also used a private

Re: Help with a friends faulty line

RobbieMac — Tue, 15 Feb 2022 11:14:18 GMT

Hi @Oldtimer1

Thank you for posting back.

I am sorry for the confusion about if your friend is entitled to Automatic Compensation due to the recent service fault. We'll be able to double check from here and confirm exactly what the situation is.

I have sent you a private message with instructions on how you can send us over your details and we'll look into this for you. See: Private messages

Thanks,

Robbie