We contacted BT recently to renew the contract for Broadband, Phone Line and BT Sport for my dad who is 86 years old. 10 day's after arranging a new deal with them, my dad's phone line went dead and when I tried to ring it, I kept getting a message saying that the number did not exist. I raised this as a fault with BT and spoke to am advisor who confirmed that there was a fault at the exchange and it should be fixed in a few days. The date it was due to be fixed by cane and went, but the fault hadn't been repaired so I contacted BT again. This time I was told that there wasn't a fault and that there was no active line going into the property, they also confirmed this with open reach. I was told that I would need to ring the loyalties department and request a new line. When I did this, I was told that what the previous advisor had told me was incorrect and there was an active line but there was a fault at the exchange and they would need to send an engineer to fix it. By this time, my dad, who lives alone, had been without a phone for 7 days, and had no other means of communication. I explained this to the advisor and they also raised a welfare concern and complaint. I was assured that the line would be back up and running within 24 to 48 hours, but it wasn't. I contacted BT again and this time I was told that on the very same day we had agreed a new deal with them, they had received notification that we were switching our landline to a new provider. We had not contacted any other provider, so I can't understand how that has happened. Nor have we received notification from any other provider to say that they are now providing our landline. I was told that BT are having to do a forced take over to get my dad's landline back, but he won't have it back until 6th January 2022. Needless to say, I have lost all faith in BT and I'm not convinced that come the 6th January my dad will have an active line, and that he will get his old number back, a number that he has had for over 40 years. This has caused major issues for my dad, he is an 86 year old living alone, with many health issues and has been without a landline, his only means of communication, since 9th December. He also needs that landline to submit his pacemaker readings, so has not been able to do that either. BT have really let us down and left my dad in an extremely vulnerable situation.
