Dead father’s phone completely cut off without any reason

[Tony15]

Well I’m more than frustrated as two days after he died at Christmas I called and transferred the account to my name as executor and agreed to pay on invoice. Was harassed by the Indian call centre a month later and called on several occasions to clarify. Notes were added to the account and I was even sent a £7 monthly token the other day. The phone was completely cancelled on Sunday and there is an ill person there some of the time who needs the phone. I spent two sessions this week of 30 minutes each on the phone trying to sort this, and apparently I’ll have to set up a new account and Openreach may take 7 days or more.

Total chaos and very upsetting. No explanation is possible from BT except admission of fault, hardly reassuring. No bill sent or due, just inexplicable and upsetting as I said.

[imjolly]

the forum mods may well be able to help you out   they will post here

[PaddyB]

Hi @Tony15,

I'm sorry to hear about the passing of your Father. I'll be able to help you get the line reconnected.

Our normal contact link is down at the moment so as a work around can you send your contact information, including your BT account number to our lead moderator via a private message on this link and one of the mod team will get in touch. 

Thanks

PaddyB

[Tony15]

There is someone in Accrington trying to work on it. I expect them to sort it out as they promised, although the gentleman on Monday did not get back to me as he promised. The gent. this morning promised to call me back tomorrow morning and he sounded like he probably will.

You need to find the root cause of this failure as you’ll just end up doing it again. Suggest you research how an account can be deleted and a phone disconnected under such circumstances, to prevent it happening to someone else. All other utilities, insurers, government agencies, banks, investment companies manage to get their bereavement process slick and accurate. BT failed miserably from the outset and continues to do so.

[PaddyB]

Hi @Tony15,

Thank you for posting back. l agree with what you have said, it sounds like something has gone wrong in the process that has resulted in the service being stopped in error.  Please let me know how you get on with the call back tomorrow?

If for any reason you need my help, please post back and I'll be more than happy to look into this for you.

Thanks

Paddyb

[Tony15]

Thanks. If not that particular process then it seems that someone at BT is able to cut off a fully legitimate and live account in my name without any reference to me, ignoring the notes and circumstances, when the account has no arrears and without adding any explanation to the account notes. 

I’m far from hopeful that this will be resolved quickly and I sincerely doubt that a non-conformance report will be raised to prevent recurrence.

[Tony15]

Managed to get through the Accrington gentleman after delays. Had to open a new account and not fully sure we’ll end up with the same phone number or that it’ll be reconnected within 7 days as was hoped. Especially as an email I’ve just received says an engineer will call on 20th April! Also the package I was on was totally different from what I’d been informed by the bereavement team. It only included weekend calls apparently. The phone number on the email is also wrong in its last three digits. And I seem to have unwittingly committed to 18 months, what happens when we sell the house under the probate?
Once again the worst horrifying bereavement process, everyone else gets it right and BT makes an appallingly stressful process riddled with errors and causing risks to an elderly lady who needs the line.

[Tony15]

And I bet I have to call again in the future to get the £70 connection fee taken off. Late for work and sometimes I wish I was in the coffin.

[Tony15]

And now a text confirming 20th and suggesting that’s ok for a different number. Dreadful

[PaddyB]

Hi @Tony15,

Thank you for posting back. If you send me in your details, I'll take a look to see if anything can be done to bring that activation date forward.

You can send me in your details using the "Contact The Mods" link found in my profile.

Thanks

PaddyB