This topic

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

mike963 — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 11:56:49 GMT

I have just received an equally threatening email which has a number of lies in that they have never contacting me via email, letter, text or phone - I have tried to make a formal complaint but not sure it has actually happened but they sort of admitted the email had come from them - it was worrying as our mobiles rely on wifi calling and we are both expecting phone calls from drs in the next 2 week

Truly upsetting and terrible behaviour

Account no : *********

PLEASE CALL US.

Without action, you’ll lose your broadband services.

Hello Mike,

This is an urgent notice. We have tried to reach you several times through emails, letters and phone calls about updating your services for the digital switchover before January 2027 deadline. But we still need you to take action.

This means your broadband service will temporarily stop within the next 5 days for 7 days.

To keep your service running, contact us on

0800 011 3712

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

iniltous — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:41:17 GMT

Adding your own problem onto an existing one isn’t a great idea , much better to start yiur own thread , however,

Do you have broadband and telephone from different suppliers, so BT supply your telephone service and a different company supply and bill you separately for your broadband ?

This arrangement is called SMPF , shared metallic path facility, and has been obsolete for years , it’s also unnecessarily expensive in that anyone still on it would be paying £30 ish for the telephone (unless they have been claiming they don’t have broadband which would be untruthful) and probably a similar amount for broadband, so basically paying double what service with a single supplier would be.

SMPF can’t exist after PSTN retirement (that’s the old fashioned telephone equipment in the exchange) and is now being removed , that means broadband will be disconnected from the line before the PSTN retirement and the telephone service changes to a modern service , whoever supplies the broadband should have discussed this with those customers, but basically the phone service in SMPF arrangements is the primary service, and for that to be migrated off PSTN which is being retired, the broadband has to be removed first , these type of customers will have had years to either join the broadband company and drop BT , or join BT for broadband as well as phone and drop the other broadband company, but in essence, they have reached the end of the road and can’t dither any longer , BT have made a decision for them , the broadband has to go to enable the phone service to continue.

If this SMPF arrangement isn’t what you currently have then the letter must be regarding something else, as far as your claim that this is the first contact BT has made , we can only speculate about , perhaps they have tried to contact you previously, or perhaps they haven’t .

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

garybs29 — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 12:49:32 GMT

It's not bullying, people ignore comms & they need to do something, would you much rather they just left it & let things mess up?

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

AlisonM — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 15:27:45 GMT

Hello @mike963 .

I share your concerns about this email. My elderly widowed and vulnerable mother received it too, 2 days ago. As in your case, the statement that they had tried to reach her several times by various means was quite simply incorrect.

You did not include the subject line in your original post, but so that others can see it, it was

*****, your broadband will be cut off

It is also interesting that the originating address of this email is actually btconsumer.imicampaign.io.

I wonder if anyone here knows or could explain why the broadband would need to be stopped temporarily to facilitate migration to Digital Voice. The email also states: “Don’t worry, your phone service will be unaffected."

When I phoned BT on her behalf, I was told that the only way to stop the broadband being cut off was to book an appointment and that this would have to be for a free full fibre upgrade - it was no longer possible to have DV without full fibre. 3 different guides all said the same thing. She is not in a fibre priority exchange and I was unaware of any such change. A guide had manually placed an order for a DV-only migration last month, but this was apparently automatically cancelled.

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

WSH — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 15:33:33 GMT

In this case, I’d have to agree with @garybs29

The tone doesn’t suggest bullying, just urgency. BT are making it clear that you have to do something about this, as time is beginning to press.

Come January the old phone service is being switched off. The retirement of the old system is not just BT, it’s nationally. It’s already been delayed for two years, so it won’t be postponed again

Would you be happier if the phone just suddenly & permanently stopped working in January?

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

mike963 — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:12:12 GMT

As I have been trying to switch to Digital Voice since March then the urgency is somewhat misplaced. During March I was told I had to switch to EE for digital Voice and then EE failed 3 times to switch me so I stayed with BT - I have had a number of letters saying Digital Voice was coming but not one required or asked me to do anything. If you cannot see that as bullying - threating cut off the broadband - which is not directly relevant to Digital Voice in that I can have BB with or without DV then clearly you had a rosier view of this email. I believe most people with either see this as a scam or feel threatened by it - but glad you are more positive than me

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

mike963 — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:18:07 GMT

Yes I should have included the subject - make it clearer why I perceived it as threat

When I phoned BT - talked to 3 different people and I now believe that I will be getting an engineer to switch me at some point in time (this also happened in March but the engineers failed to turn up 3 times) I won't be fibre to the premises as this is not available. Also not sure I actually need an engineer - maybe someone on this forum does ?

I have been told some many incorrect things on my calls with BT about Digital Voice that I don't know what to believe but certainly some advisors see it as a way of getting you on a new contract for 24 months - sigh !

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

WSH — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:36:16 GMT

@mike963

“…I have been trying to switch to Digital Voice since March then the urgency is somewhat misplaced. During March I was told I had to switch to EE for digital Voice and then EE failed 3 times to switch me…”

Well, if you’re going to leave pertinent information out, how do you expect people to understand the context? Under the circumstances, yes, the letter does seem somewhat misplaced.

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

chrisjp — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:58:33 GMT

The problem really lies with BT's customer "service" people who seem to be woefully badly trained and appear to say anything either to end the call or use it as a sales pitch to sell the customer a more expensive service and pocket the commission.
The CS people need to be trained to be able to explain the issue with Shared Metallic path and why it can't continue beyond the end of 2026. And then go on to explain the customer's options: either transfer their broadband to BT or get their broadband provider to provide a telephone service.
It's pretty clear that most, if not all, CS reps are completely unable to do this.

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

iniltous — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 19:32:06 GMT

This seems to me to be one of the type of posts where the only real point of it is to complain , rather than to try and understand the issue, the vast majority of migrations to DV are straightforward and are completed without issue , there are edge cases that make that straightforward migration much more difficult, this is almost certainly not a straight forward migration, however there is little engagement to try and figure out what is making the migration more complex than the majority of migrations.

SMPF has been covered without any confirmation from the OP that they are a SMPF customer, so presumably it’s not that and must be something else ….another possibility is the OP is on exchange based ADSL broadband , and although initially thought that this could easily deliver DV (much like VDSL/ FTTC) once customer is supplied with a suitable router , seemingly this isn’t the case , there was a recent case where the customer had exchange based ADSL , without access to FTTC or FTTP , the solution to get them off PSTN while maintaining telephony and broadband , was to my mind a little odd , in that it was to remove ADSL from the existing line , effectively leaving a PSTN telephony only line , subsequently to be converted to PDPL , and a second new line installed at the address as an ADSL only service , maintaining both services albeit on separate copper pairs .

Maybe this is the case here , we’ll probably never know.

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

Kimberlin — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 09:50:08 GMT

@mike963 If you're so incensed and upset about your perceived view of BT's correspondence, why don't you just switch to another ISP? It's a serious question. The amount of folks who come to this forum and moan about BT (Oh and trust me, I know about how to moan!) but actually don't do anything at all about their situation once it becomes apparent from their posts that BT aren't going to resolve their problem in the way they want, is mind boggling. If it rankles you that much, just leave and if you can't, what is stopping you from leaving? It's not like there aren't any other ISP's out there that don't offer a landline, though you'll undoubtedly still find yourself in the same situation.

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

mike963 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:02:16 GMT

Firstly many thanks to everyone who posted and it is clear that I did not make my concerns clear partially to keep the post short.
I was not concerned about moving to Digital Voice as I tried 3 times in March to get BT to move me - each time they insisted that I had to switch to EE and an engineer would be needed and each time the engineer failed to show (with no apologies). I have been with BT for over 10 years and generally happy and I realise that Digital Voice is inevitable (even though for a rural user (with regular powercuts and poor mobile coverage) it seems a poorer system

I was though concerned about the threat to cut off my broadband for not replying to their non existent letters, emails and phone calls - it was to me clearly a threat - the wording was clear
the subject was "Mike, your broadband will be cut off" and then said my BB would be cut-off for 7 days

Given that I need my broadband for mobile use (via wifi calling) and I had 2 important health related calls coming in the next few days I was worried and angry that any company would threaten to cut-off a needed resource

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

licquorice — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:19:23 GMT

There is so much still missing from this thread.

Do you have broadband and telephony from BT or from separate companies?

Do you have an FTTC service (connected to a cabinet) or do you have an ADSL service connected directly to the exchange?

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

FEDUP2016 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:22:45 GMT

Might I positively suggest that the experts, gurus, complainants and customers have some perhaps old fashioned 'Brand Loyalty' to BT.........!! as well as expectations of service levels, both commercial and technical?

I suggest that ALL input makes an contribution to improving the service. Indeed this Forum is the technical & commercial beating pulse of the BT plc service. As such I suspect it is or should be a very powerful tool.

However, just sometimes, a serious positive conversation with a listening BT manager has a really great outcome, so why leave if within a couple of months a real & lasting improvement is really established.

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

mike963 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:38:14 GMT

phone, mobile and BB all with BT
FTTC
My concern is not technical - getting an email asking for me to phone them as they want to install Digital Voice is not my concern

Threatening to withdraw an essential service is !

Saying they have tried to contact me when they have not is also a concern
Surely you agree that the threat is unreasonable and it seems I am not the only one to receive it - both elderly as well !

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

garybs29 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:55:40 GMT

Do you have more than one line into the property then?

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

FEDUP2016 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 10:58:44 GMT

Mike,

Have you had a chance to call 0800 011 3712 this morning?

It maybe, hopefully, that following a direct call yesterday highlighting this thread, that BT on that line might be rather more helpful - but of course none of us know each other or who to call.

Hope that helps.

A Nother Aged BT Customer

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

iniltous — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:11:48 GMT

If you have FTTC with BT , and you have a suitable router ( usually a SH2 with a phone socket built in ) then you would normally be notified of a date the migration to DV will take place and that’s it , on that date , you move your phone cord to the router …so that begs the question, why are EE involved, EE never called you , so presumably you called BT , and although they may have suggested (but never insisted) on you joining EE , because joining EE was the preferred BT stance for a short while , there was never a compulsion to move away from BT , so there ‘must’ be some complication as to why your DV migration is not normal.

You say you have FTTC , are you sure ? if you are sure is it because you get speed in excess of what ADSL can provide, or the product is clearly on your bill called as Fibre 1 , Fibre 2 or Fibre Essential perhaps you can state the reason why you are definitely FTTC .

As far as the advice on the communication to call BT ASAP on the number given , hopefully your first action wasn’t to take to this forum to complain but was to actually call BT on the number given , if you haven’t called that’s quite remarkable , the assumption I made , and I’m sure anyone reading this thread would assume you did , but didn’t understand the information given hence you posting here , or you listened but were unconvinced of the information given to you .

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

garybs29 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:10:03 GMT

The only reason they'd be getting a letter like this is for split services so the fact they state everything is with BT seems incorrect

Re: Appalling Bullying Behaviour

mike963 — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 11:15:09 GMT

100% sure I am on FTTC - and only one line to the house - nothing odd at all

I realise that switching to digital voice is a simple cable switch after BT/Openreach have done their bit and I have no idea why the guides on the phone keep telling me that an engineer is needed

All 3 times in March they insisted I had to switch to EE and failed each time to get an engineer to call and never told me that I was not switched

Just received a snail mail today with exactly the same threat
"PLEASE CALL US Without action you'll lose your broadband services"

When I talked to 3 different advisors yesterday they say they have booked an engineer (no idea why) but have heard nothing more