For the benefit of the original poster:
I'm not sure how to post a link to another thread, so I'll basically reiterate what I've said elsewhere. At the age of 64, I've had more than my share of issues with telephone-related problems, many of those issues having been with BT. As a general rule, the cycle of reporting a fault via conventional means, having it looked at, BT declaring it fixed, and the cycle repeating, will continue as long as you allow it to. Everyone must decide where their own cutoff point lies, but personally, after this had happened a maximum of twice, I would address the issue directly to the CEO ( nowadays it isn't that hard to find CEO e-mail addresses online ). At one time, that e-mail would actually get read by the CEO ( one of the experiences to which I refer occurred some fifteen years ago; I can tell you with my hand on my heart that aside from getting the problem rectified, the compensation we received - a combination of gestures and actual cash - added up to not far short of a thousand pounds, because the CEO - unlike any of his staff - had the power, and luckily the conscience, to make it so ). Nowadays, of course, there is a filtering system, and the e-mail will be read and dealt with, most likely, by someone in the 'executive office' - which in reality could still be five or six echelons down from the CEO, but will still usually yield more results than speaking to someone on 150 who will tell you to try plugging your phone into the internal master socket.
Even then, there is no guarantee that your problem will be resolved - there never is. Beyond a certain point, the provider will tell you that you simply have no choice but to live with it - or live without it, if that's your choice. Weirdly - as I've been told by three separate providers - the consumer cannot directly be considered an Openreach customer, hence the fact that it is extremely difficult if not impossible to contact Openreach directly, and even if you do, there's a good chance they'll simply refer you back to your provider. At the same time, the provider - who, technically, is an Openreach customer inasmuch as they pay Openreach to do the work - will tell you that they cannot compel Openreach to take any particular course of action, no matter how staggeringly obvious that course of action may be.
All of this will take time, of course, and therefore will be extremely inconvenient. This fact will not faze any provider significantly. The Ombudsman is always the final alternative, but again, this will take considerable amounts of time, and statistically, the likelihood of the Ombudsman finding in favour of the complainant is not great. Even then, the chances of them instructing either BT or Openreach as applicable to perform major repairs that will cost in the order of thousands of pounds, for the sake of a single customer, are negligible to non-existent. The earlier suggestion that you enlist the support of other consumers affected by the same problem is a good one, although even then the journey will be a long and bumpy one, and even then there is no absolute guarantee of success. All the while, you're left to suffer a massively-below-par service whilst still being expected to pay for it at the going rate.
I know it sounds bleak: this has been my experience. I wish it were a prettier picture, but my aim in posting this is to keep expectations, both of the original poster and of anyone else reading this post, realistic.
