My family has been without a phone line for over a month, since May, without any access to internet or basic phone line for calls. We live in a rural area, with no signal in our area - our family compromises 6 people including a young child, and a pensioner, with numerous pensioners in neighbouring houses also suffering the lack of service BT is able to provide at this moment in time.
No warning was given, one afternoon it was simply turned off, and has never returned since. BT has never contacted us about it, with us chasing them for answers, and despite BT quoting multiple dates of when service would be reinstated, none have been met.
BT have told us they have had multiple engineers working on the issue since it started, but I don't believe a word of this, having seen no BT or open reach vans around where we live, or the Rhydroser area where our local area's internet comes from.
To add salt to the wound, 2 weeks ago, I spoke to a BT engineer in our local shop, he lives in our area, and he was preparing to leave for work, sorting a problem in Southampton, some 5 hours away, rather than sorting a major ongoing fault in this area, that was right on his doorstep.
When we have major storms, the internet might go out for a few days, but there's been no storms, and it's been over a month since we were last provided with service. This is becoming a safeguarding issue, with the safety of people being put on hold, while BT concentrates on the cities, where the big profit is to be found.
Moving forwards, I hope that BT can conduct a full investigation into these critical failures which have led to people being denied a basic service for such a long period of time. BT should also put together a multi-point plan to avoid the neglect of such issues, and to be able to provide an alternative service to ensure the safeguarding of vulnerable people in rural areas. This multi point plan should focus on basic customer needs, with the plan to rebuild a trust with the customer, as right now things have hit an all time low, and we feel like we have no one to turn to!
