This topic

Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

JBWata — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:25:54 GMT

My Dad (79 years old) has lost his number of over 40 years and over 6 weeks trying to get it back is missing calls from hospital and healthcare providers regarding care and an upcoming heart operation. We are really having a tough time trying to get someone to help and see the issue through.

He was due to be migrated to DV at the start of October, he was going to be away on holiday at the time and I needed to arrange a suitable time to visit to swap the new SmartHub in and reconfigure the CCTV and DDNS etc so we called to have it delayed which they did until December.

On his return unfortunately he was taken to hospital with a heart attack and sure enough at the worst time found we could not make or receive landline calls. I was assured he had not been switched to DV and must be a fault. After a few weeks and several calls and escalations, I assume to Open Reach it was found the copper line had indeed been disconnected but DV not started as due in December leaving no service.

DV was eventually activated but with a new number losing my parents home number of over 40 years (always with BT). Each time I call I am told an order is raised and it will be active in 1 week, 4 times I have done this each time it does not work, wait another week. Same again today and told to trust the system it's all they can do, he put me on hold to talk to connections to get a reason why it kept happening but before he could return the call was dropped. I couldn't face having to explain it all again to another person.

Probably a dozen call, 6 weeks without their number and my elderly parents are extremely stressed at the prospect of losing the number the longer this goes on and ofcourse not being able to be contacted as this is the primary number various departments have for them.

Can anyone escalate this and have someone see this through for us?

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

Katie_B — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:40:27 GMT

Good evening @JBWata.

Thanks for coming here.

I am so sorry to hear what your dad is currently going through and that loosing his number has resulted in missing important phone calls.

When you have a moment please check your community inbox.

I would really love to see if we can get this resolved for you.

Speak soon,

Katie

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

imjolly — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:41:19 GMT

This is acustomer help customer forum and your post does not go to BT

As you have tried on numerous calls to get this sorted I suggest you use the consumer resolutions email address in this link. That will get help from executive level complaints

https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/complaints/Complaints_Code_of_Practice.pdf

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

JBWata — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 18:07:37 GMT

Thanks very much @Katie_B

Apologies for the noob question but for the life of me I can't see how to access the "community inbox", I can see My profile, settings, notifications etc, I know I must be missing something obvious?

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

gg30340 — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 18:11:00 GMT

It is the envelope at the top right of the page.

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

JBWata — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 19:36:23 GMT

Thanks for the reply @gg30340 feeling stupid but no envelope that I can see (image below), the link to "Email" in the top right wants me to log in again with a valid BT address. The community account seems to be its own account that I just made for posting this, not linked to my Dad's BT account

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

JBWata — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:01:47 GMT

thanks @imjolly

I tried emailing as you suggested but it bounced back and got the message below

Your message wasn't delivered to consumer-resolutionteam@bt.com because the address couldn't be found or is unable to receive email.

550 5.4.1 Recipient address rejected: Access denied

Any ideas what to try next?

Cheers,

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

imjolly — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:07:16 GMT

Your email on forum not turned on. Got to avatar at top then settings, preference then private email and tick the box to view private messages

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

imjolly — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:13:50 GMT

The emIl address you have used is wrong. Should be resolutionsteam. - you missed the 's'

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

JBWata — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:46:30 GMT

@imjolly appreciate your help, the email address per the PDF linked had no s either to be fair but tried again with added s and same bounce back. Sending from a standard Gmail address.

There really isn't an option for private email that I can see, or any way to private message, I only registered this evening, perhaps communication options are restricted on a new account? But I did verify my email at the start.

I've gone through all the options, the closest is under avatar My Settings > Preferences > Privacy > show email to All, Friends only, no one

Nothing for private email

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

licquorice — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:48:50 GMT

I think PMs are not enabled initially, not sure how long before they are enabled.

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

imjolly — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 20:50:04 GMT

You are at right place but not privacy but should be next heading private messenger

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

JBWata — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 03:17:08 GMT

@licquorice I agree , I think it must be a restriction on the account as I have gone trhough every available menu option.

@imjollyI tracked down the correct email address, the PDF linked at the start was dated July 2020 and it had relationteam before the @ bt.com. Whereas I found a more recent June 2025 PDF that has just relations - with an S but no TEAM in the address and it didn't bounce, got it eventually. I'll see what they say.

Thanks.

Re: Elderly vulnerable customer lost 40 year number during switch

imjolly — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 07:30:58 GMT

@JBWata

That's great if anyone can help you get number back it is customer resolutions