Getting a long term fault repaired.....over a year

[JohnRH]

My brother has BT Broadband FTTC and a Halo 1 set up.  Now both he and I understand that this guarantees a minimum speed of 25mbs which if not achieved causes two things to happen, some minimal compensation after 90days and a 'mobile' router with free unlimited sim card.

For over a year he and some neighbours have been suffering with a noisy line and slow broadband speeds. BT Openreach have been along and have determined that there is a cable fault(s). They have it seems also been and excavated and carried out some works because the neighbours now have 60 to 70mbs broadband. My brother remains as low as 8 and still has at times a noisy line. 

He continues to report a fault. The fault is recorded. An engineer makes an appointment, calls, tests and reports that theres a cable fault. The engineer leaves and within a couple of days the fault shows as closed down.

We were speaking less than a week ago and I said that I would report the fault.

I rang BT. I explained the issue. It was like pulling teeth. I gave my brothers name, address, telephone....but no that wasn't enough this man needed the exact postcode which I had to look up. I explained that if he looked at the number he would see all the previous faults reported. No, still not enough information from me.

I had to give my name, my address...including postcode, my telephone number, my mobile number, my email address even my mothers maiden name before he would look at this. Has anyone heard of data protection at BT? I fail to understand why I was asked all this when reporting a fault on someone elses line.

He then said that the last fault had been cleared down.

I asked to raise another fault for the reason I have previously outlined.

An appointment was made Weds 9th PM. An engineer called at my brothers house. Did checks at the cabinet. Theres a cable fault it seems......

Brother checks last night online at MyBT and the fault has been cleared down again.

I would be grateful if a moderator could private message me and then I will give full details etc and then perhaps someone can follow this up?

[pippincp]

Have you heard of the DATA Protection Act? BT had to look after your brothers data until they were assured you were who you purported to be.

[JohnRH]

@pippincp 

Sorry but I don't get the relevance.

Why do BT need my home number, my mobile number, my home address, my mother maiden name to report a fault on someone elses line?

I'm reporting a fault on another line, not on my own. The line has a history of faults a simple check of the number given would have shown that.

You clearly do not understand data protection because nothing I gave regarding my brother was anything that wasn't generally available however my mobile number, my email address, my mothers maiden name was not generally available and none of that information in any way validates any of my brothers information.

[JohnRH]

Apparently I have a minor fact wrong, the final fault which I reported remains open.

[garybs29]

Re the info required  they have to validate who they're speaking to & add them onto accounts as a 3rd party, this then allows them to use the info in future as well. The info will purely be used to add you as a contact & nothing else

[JohnRH]

@garybs29 

Are you really saying that now I have some authorised connection to my brothers account merely by handing over information which nobody could validate as being genuine or not? I'm reporting a bad line fault that's all.

This reminds me of ringing my local hospital to find out the condition of an elderly friend. When asked over the phone was I related I said truthfully that I wasn't. Oh right she says under data protection I cannot speak to you.

So I phone back and the second time I say I'm her son in law.....they tell me she's fine and has had a peaceful night....

If you cannot validate the data against what you already know it's a pointless exercise and is just harvesting data for what?

[garybs29]

You'll hqve been added as a 3rd party contact on the account so can talk about some things but not everything.

I get you're questioning the need for the info but quite simply under the data protection/GDPR rules they won't be doing anything wrong otherwise they wouldn't be asking for it

[JohnC2]

Hi @JohnRH  sorry that your brother has had the fault closed again and is still having problems. I've sent you a Private message with details on how to contact the Mod team and we'll be happy to help you with this.

cheers

John