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Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Cabron — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:53:28 GMT

A phone call from my 84 year old confused mother from her neighbour's phone so say her landline not working. I call it, and get a constant engaged tone.

I try to report it to BT but it thinks it's my line that I'm reporting. System can't seem to accept a third party calling to report a faulty line.

I called 0800 111 4567 but simply get the robot telling me to hang up so they can test my line (my mobile is registered on my BT landline account). But IT'S NOT MY PHONE THAT'S THE PROBLEM. Simply impossible to speak to a human to inform them of this fact.

Look at the complaints page and it's the same number and the same robot menu as above so no ability to speak to a person to complain about the inability to speak to a human to explain that it's not my phone No complaints email either. Only alternative is via post.

I am so angry at BT right now and it's wilful refusal to make a human accessible by simply being prepared to take a call.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

gg30340 — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 17:59:00 GMT

Call BT Landline 0330.1234.150

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Cabron — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 18:06:01 GMT

Tried that. Get the same recorded message and options as when calling 0800 111 4567.

When you hit the option for 1 home phone/broadband then hit the option for reporting a fault you get a text as the system thinks it's my phone that has the fault.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

gg30340 — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 18:09:28 GMT

Don't use the option to report a fault. Use any option or ask the robot to speak to a human.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Keith_Beddoe — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 18:49:40 GMT

If you have a working phone box nearby, then calling 0800 800 151, should prompt you for the number you are calling about.

Either that, see if a neighbour, who is not on BT or EE, will allow you to call 0800 800 151.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Cabron — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 19:26:29 GMT

Thank you. I will make a note of that number. My mother lives an hour's drive away and called me on her (elderly) neighbour's phone. Finally found the BT chat line and reported it but was asked for her account number and a host of information that I don't have. In the end the person accepted that I was reporting it on behalf of somebody else who was unable to report it. I should add that my mother is suffering from dementia.

I am so appalled and angry at what appears to be BT's deliberate approach of making communication with the company difficult I will be writing to Alison Kirkby and the Ombudsman. Even clicking on the link for vulnerable people leads you back to the numbers I referenced in my original post. A Kafka-esque experience!

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Anonymous — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 19:36:09 GMT

@gg30340wrote:

"Use any option or ask the robot to speak to a human."

Whenever I call a company, any company, that uses voice recognition to direct calls, I constantly repeat "speak to an adviser".

Eventually you get put through to a real person - not always someone who can help you, but invariably they can then connect you to someone who can.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

loudgraham — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 21:33:00 GMT

you can also check the bt service status page ( with just a phone number ) . seems like theres a big outage using copper landlines ( digital voice is fine ) in the South east area

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

iniltous — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 21:45:08 GMT

Have you ever considered why it’s difficult to report someone else’s line as out of order ? , you may know your mother definitely uses BT , but what if this were a somewhat distant relative and they had changed providers , but you were unaware of that , you would then be calling a company that has no relationship with the number you are reporting, even if the correct company is being called , part of reporting a fault comes with a compulsory warning about charges if the problem is outside of the providers or Openreach network, as an example, the customer gets a new carpet fitted , the carpet fitter drives a carpet gripper through a cable that services an extension, this causes a fault on the ‘line’ that causes permanent busy tone, a relative or friend can’t get through , they call BT to report that , reporting a fault comes with a warning that there is a possibility of being charged under these circumstances do you agree ?, as a third party does your consent count, if charges were applicable, the person being charged may say , ‘I’m not paying that, because I never agreed to that , no one warned me ‘ , which is true , if you are not the account holder you can’t provide that consent .

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

gg30340 — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 21:56:48 GMT

@iniltous

The problem is that the automated fault reporting only works for the line that has the fault!

There is no explanation or guidance as to how to contact BT to report a fault on behalf of somebody else whose phone is not working.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

iniltous — Sun, 19 Jan 2025 23:21:52 GMT

I’m aware of that automated systems use the calling line identity and assume the call is about that number , for what it’s worth you can always withhold the number , and probably get put through to a human , but the fact remains an option on the call platform that offers the option to report a fault on a different line to the one the CLI is indicating is undesirable for the reasons outlined, unless the caller has the authority, and can prove that by quoting the account number and potentially answering the security questions , then a fault report for a third party isn’t likely to be progressed , if a third party manages to circumvent the automated systems and get through to a human they almost certainly won’t raise a fault unless it the account holder calling , not a third party

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Cabron — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 08:01:11 GMT

Thank you. Will try that.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Cabron — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 08:01:59 GMT

Genius. Very helpful of BT.

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Cabron — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 08:04:32 GMT

Yes, but it what is a confused 84 year old supposed to do? How do they report a faulty phone line?

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Cabron — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 08:05:41 GMT

So what is a confused 84 year old supposed to do? How does she report a faulty phone line?

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

iniltous — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 09:14:38 GMT

I agree It’s not ideal , but checking a persons identity before accessing that persons account information, ( as well as the potential charges problem accepting a third party report ) , there is the GDPR ( data protection ) requirement, that is the law and so even if someone other than BT were your mothers provider they would face the same GDPR requirement

Re: Elderly Mother's phone not working. Trying to report it to BT is hopeless. No person to speak to

Peter_W — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 10:22:21 GMT

Good morning @Cabron.

Thanks for taking the time to reach out via the BT Community Forums.

I can really appreciate how worrying it must have been if you struggled to get this reported for your mother, and definitely want to make sure we've done all we can here.

Just to be sure, have you had a chance to register your mother's additional needs here?

As @gg30340 mentioned, one option to look at here could be following another option instead of reporting a fault; for example if you were to follow the options for billing or another department they could then transfer you through to a technical guide that can help you run these checks.

Also did you manage to get this resolved in the end, or is this fault still outstanding?
Peter