This topic

Vulnerable elderly tenant

tallisgood12 — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 17:41:49 GMT

Hi my mother is 84 years old and living in a rural bungalow for a few months as a tenant with a relative. It was requested of the property agent to contact Digital Voice to delay the switch over at the property. The owner lives abroad and the agent lost a close relative recently, so the request didn't get made. My mother can't use the new system. Can the Digital Voice be reviewed at this property given all parties had agreed to this course but events meant the request was not made in a timely fashion? My mother is struggling with her healthy and a landline is a lifeline.

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

licquorice — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 18:29:10 GMT

Simply unplug the phone from the current socket and plug it into the green socket at the rear of the hub. That is all that is required.

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

tallisgood12 — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 18:44:25 GMT

Hi Liquorice thanks for your reply. To be clear, she just wants to have the old analogue landline back, as they're in an area prone to power cuts and no near neighbours. My understanding is the digital voice service doesn't work if there is a power cut.

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

licquorice — Fri, 20 Jun 2025 19:07:48 GMT

Unfortunately, that is not going to happen, once transferred there is no going back.

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

Manatarms84 — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 10:12:50 GMT

While there is no going back to the old system, I understand the concern around power cuts. You can get a battery back up unit fitted to help with that side of things for peace of mind. As they are vulnerable this should be free as well. I would contact BT with your concerns and they will be able to sort it

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

Peter_W — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 10:21:40 GMT

Good morning @tallisgood12.

Thanks for reaching out to us about this.

Like @licquorice and @Manatarms84 have mentioned here, it's not possible for us to return customers to the analogue phone service, but I definitely want to look at where we're at with this and make sure we've done all we can.

Just to be sure, is the digital voice service set up and active?

If it is, has your mother tried to give this a go by connecting it to the green port at the back of the Hub?

Also do you know if it's your mother that's the named account holder, or is it the property owner?

Peter

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

Noblelord — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 10:30:56 GMT

I have to say my 85 year old in laws were bereft when their copper line of 42 years was terminated summarily. I had to intervene and spend hours elevating to CEO level of BT.

Customer service in BT and Openreach is lamentably poor.

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

licquorice — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 13:31:15 GMT

The changeover to Digital Voice has been known about for a few years now, there have been full page adverts in the national press recently as well

The changeover is simple, move the phone from one socket to another, there is no need for your folks to be bereft.

I have had my number for well over 50 years and still have it after the transfer to DV about a couple of years ago.

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

tallisgood12 — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 10:45:02 GMT

Thank you for all the replies. Just to clarify the copper connection has gone and nothing has been put in place. There was no correspondence or phone call to the property to say this would happen.

My sister has travelled miles to find a working public phone box to ask me to escalate this situation to a BT customer manager. She is desperate for someone to listen.

The landlord was asked weeks ago to contact BT to ask for a pause of 8-10 weeks on the Digital Voice installation. He has made several attempts I understand from his agent to contact BT to put this request since the end of May.

I know of at least one success story to delay the implementation to allow older people to make the necessary adjustments in their lives.

Everything about this situation shows poor communication and lack of duty of care to older customers, particularly those in rental properties.

So, if someone could get in touch as a matter of urgency as my mother has been without a phone line for more than a week.

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

garybs29 — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:12:48 GMT

@tallisgood12 It's absolutely impossible for it to be changed with no correspondence to be sent, it may have been sent to email or missed etc or in this situation if it's the landlords account sent to them (in which case it's the landlords fault & not BT's) but 100% it won't have been changed with nothing being sent

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

Christopher_G — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:23:04 GMT

Hi @tallisgood12

I'm really sorry to hear of your Mother's situation. Who is the account holder of the broadband service at the address? Is it your Mother, the landlord or someone else?

Chris

Re: Vulnerable elderly tenant

licquorice — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 11:43:30 GMT

The move to Digital Voice categorically doesn't NEED any removal of the copper line. If it was simply a change to DV, nothing is physically required at the premises other than simply plugging the phone into a different socket.

A move to full fibre is a completely different activity and not a requirement for DV.