Simple demand that will disable common BT Errors

[Cutoffinerror]

Sadly I've used a lot of my time to wade back through a great deal of bizarre correspondence from BT, but I have come to a positive conclusion.

My epiphany is, 'closing the account' was the root cause of being 'cut off' unilaterally by BT, when no request for termination or transfer has been issued by some of their unfortunate customers. Some 'helpful' staff I've encountered have understood this, but can't 'undo it'. It's obviously the peculiar and arcane practice of the 'wrongly closed account' being terminated and unrequested 'new accounts' being started, also unilaterally, by BT. In many cases, like my own, I've discovered over the weekend that multiple accounts have been started randomly by BT, to replace 'original accounts closed in error'. This odd bureaucratic cycle then replicates multiple times, as 'helpful' BT Staff try in vain to fix it, with 'new accounts' proliferating, disconnected from the 'root chain' destroying our technological lifestyles, wasting time and costing us (and eventually BT) money. 

The simple solution, in such cases, is to 'reinstate' the original account (wrongly closed by BT), when 'a human' can intercede who understands that BT caused the avoidable problem. What happens at the moment is the 'human' cannot override BT's 'computer error' and 'reinstate the old account' instantly. The 'humans', we encounter, all repeat the same 'Mantra'. "We can't reopen your old account, even though I admit this error was entirely BT's"

I/we demand that the 'old account' is instantly reopened, during that 'first apologetic contact' so it halts the problem before it escalates!

That way the endless valueless apologies, unnecessary loss of technological 21st Century connectivity to our families, friends and the World (Particularly now!), multiple accounts being started and stopped, time being wasted, and the inevitable compensation are all avoided.

Just reopen our old accounts when BT's original admission that they've made a mistake is made. Who do I contact for payment, for this 'business consultancy' that will save BT so much money, time and goodwill?

[imjolly]

Have you taken up the forum mod offer of assistance?

[Cutoffinerror]

I haven't been contacted by 'a mod' regarding this new issue about rectifying what I've discovered, over the last 3 days, is a common problem.

Reopening the 'accounts closed in error' seems such a neat and simple conclusion. Do you agree?

It would also provide a useful analytical tool for managing, and reducing errors, as the highlighted 'reopened accounts' will 'flag' how 'avoidable problems' arise, without the current 'filter' created by chains of 'new accounts' delaying rectification. Can you see that?

[iniltous]

Although you may think your solutions are sensible and obvious , the fact is that any ‘process’ changes cannot just be arbitrarily made , Ofcom set the frame work for the migration process , and BT cannot just chose to not follow it, or implement it differently to the agreed way,  part of that process ( no doubt ) ensuring that a consumer doesn’t get charged twice, requires the consumers account to be closed on the same day the consumers new company takes over.
Obviously something went wrong in your case ( given the ‘sorry to see you leave’ comms were presumably responded to, by you, correctly ) but you had ( or someone associated with the account ) had apparently been exploring this option , and this other company presumably issued a migration order, even though you didn’t ask them to, or you did accept their offer and subsequently changed your mind.
I don’t know if reopening accounts closed in error is as simple as you suggest, in any intergrated system , changes have to be engineered, have a trial period , and then introduced , added to this the a Ofcom required sign off , even if your suggestion is initially ‘sensible’, it’s a little naive to think that a forum such as this will result in a reply saying ‘we’ve introduced your suggestion’, if you think the issue is common place, then chances are the things you suggest have already been explored, ( after all BT don’t want customers to be inconvenienced like this ) but there may well be reasons why the ‘fixes’ cannot be implemented, Ofcom may well take the view that a few consumers inconvenienced is a price worth paying to enable company’s to ‘win’ customers off their competitors without undue restriction , the old system being a double lock , both the old and new company had to be  contacted by the consumer, the ‘new’ system only requiring the gaining company to initiate the migration.
As far as not being contacted by the Mods, they apparently answer queries in the order they arrived, ( which seems perfectly fair ) so if you happen to need them in a busy period the wait will be longer for them to reply. 

[Cutoffinerror]

• This may be more common than you think 'iniltous'. I have discovered many others cases after being alerted by a friend who successfully took BT to Court over an almost identical problem. In our case the 'migration process' was spotted early by a colleague, and neighbour, being offered what he knew to be our number! He contacted Sky, and we contacted BT, weeks in advance of the 'cut off', right up to the day before! All to no avail. Even if a new 'account number', is wrongly activated by BT, surely the major error is disconnecting BT's records from the old one? I was constantly told "you've closed your account" when we hadn't. In future if/when BT cause these errors the 'new account' should only 'mask' the old one temporarily, when 'a dispute flag is waved' and the 'old account' held in the background, whilst 'a human' intercedes on behalf of the unfortunate customer. The common BT practice of apologising, issuing 'multiple new accounts' cannot be justified. Legally Literally. I currently have 3, my friend's began getting CCI's (County Court Injunctions) after being informed they hadn't paid 5 account bills and they assure me that was nowhere near the record. (Look into these lost multiple BT account cases for more detail)
• There must be a solution and I don't think I'm being "naive" in hoping 'I'm helping to start the ball rolling' on here! Or what is this 'suggestion forum' for? This 'Computer says No!' Little Britainesque attitude has got to stop. Please do something to end this avoidable situation for so many of us. It will ultimately improve BT's service, stop eroding our quality of life, wasting time and costing BT money.

[Cutoffinerror]

With regards to your query 'As far as not being contacted by the mods' I'm not sure why you're asking? I was contacted spuriously, shortly after having posted my initial suggestion by 'imjoly'. For some reason they (as you can hopefully still see) asked me if the 'mods had been in touch'. Evidently they hadn't responded yet (it was only a few minutes later, and I would've been amazed if they had) Some other posts between 'imjoly' and myself have been edited out/removed, after I complained to the mods about one of his replies (but I have copies if you'd like to see them in a PM?)

[iniltous]

No doubt BT are affected most due to scale and competitor company’s mainly aiming their focus on BT customers, but it’s a common ordering system , the problem could just as easily have occurred if a TT customer was ‘slammed’ to the PO,  the other ‘issue’ as I said, resurrecting a cancelled account may not be as easy as it sounds.

All my reply to you  intended , was to point you towards the appropriate body  ( if you feel strongly about this ) and that is Ofcom , not BT,  as BT cannot implement changes without their ‘consent’ , perhaps not  the resurrection of ceased accounts, but certainly the process that initiated the account being cancelled in the first place , I think it highly unlikely your account would have been ceased without some interaction with another company or contacting BT and mentioning a desire to leave 

Say for example , a consumer contacted Sly or Tick Talk but didn’t proceed with the switch ( asked for time to think about it ) but the company started the migration anyway ( call it an honest mistake ) consumer gets the ‘sorry to see you go’ and asks for the order to be cancelled , all this dialogue is on a common ordering system, so ( presumably) Sly or Tick Talk ‘see’ that the order is cancelled, is there a procedure to stop them simply reordering the migration ( they presumably taking the view that their legitimate request has been incorrectly cancelled ) , by the time the individual company’s systems and processes have caught up, who’s to say this second order somewhat contradicts the communications that are being sent and received by the automatic common wholesale system.

I’m not an apologist for the system , but realistic ,it’s just the law of unintended consequences, by seeking to remove barriers to switching, by not allowing the losing company  to check the legitimacy of the order, the regulator has introduced ( IMHO) a system that is flawed , in your case , without knowing some details , like did you ever agree to switching and receive any ‘thanks for choosing us’ type comms ? it’s impossible to tell where the ‘blame’ should be apportioned , and it seems to me that isn’t necessarily your motivation, but a desire to stop it happening in the first place 

I don’t know if your comment about the ‘Mods’ is directed towards me, but in your reply to another poster you say you haven’t been contacted by a Mod on this post , my comment is no less valid about the order in which the mods deal with posts that they either pick up themselves, or posts they are asked to look at by board members that have the facility to request Mod assistance , so even without a post saying ‘ I’ve asked the Mods to look at this for you’ , it’s entirely possible they would pick it up anyway

[Cutoffinerror]

Obviously I feel strongly about this. I've been plunged into the 19th Century and lost our home's technological link to our families, friends and the world. When the 'tech person' turned up, in the building, to continue with the unrequested theft of our phone line they compounded the error by literally physically cutting our RF Cable from a central Tv aerial distribution box in the building. We then lost our freeview box's functionality too! I made a temporary fix, reterminating the cable and adding a new extension yesterday in a false ceiling. (Once again, my time and expense) Since no implication seems to be forthcoming (from anyone in BT after several weeks of 'shouting into this void'!) I've come up with my eminently sensible suggestion, I.E. 'Flag' and halt wrongful terminations (particularly with both parties trying beforehand), perhaps I will contact Offcom.

The details of our particular case are in another thread, itemizing dates and times we tried unsuccessfully to prevent this. On 3 separate occasions we were assured we had stopped it, until an email confirming we had been 'Cut off' arrived, over a week after the last assurance.

There is no direct email or phone capability for customers, such as ourselves, when wronged. I have missed calls from BT that cannot be rung back. That would be another vital improvement. When people have been rung and missed it, leave a number that will be answered. My wife and I have spent over 32hrs, either on hold or on eventually answered calls to BT since 17/08/20 when we 1st tried to prevent this idiocy. Now added to by this alleged 'Community' contact. Please help.

[garybs29]

What's happened to you is some form of slamming as you service has been cancelled wothout your consent, you can contact ofcom as per their advice here - https://www.ofcom.org.uk/complaints/complain-about-phones-or-internet-services/changing-provider

The fact your account has been closed means a new one had to be set up & there are certain timescales that have to be followed due to openreach availability. The proces isn't as simple as re-activating an old account or in essence "flicking a switch" there's more work involved so there is a wait which isn't the best of situations

[iniltous]

Who was the ‘tech person’ who turned up and disconnected an unrelated service ?

The odd thing about that is if a line is ‘slammed’ it’s just a change of provider , so no scheduled home visit, it’s , at most , a visit to the exchange to switch your ‘line’ from one providers ‘equipment’ to another providers ‘equipment’ you wouldn’t see the Openreach engineer ( assuming the tech person you refer to was indeed an OR engineer) so that begs the question , why was an engineer even  there ‘stealing’ your line ?

Is there something out of the ordinary about your location, is your address  recorded on the Royal Mail/Post Office and with OR  identically, errors can arise if for example a neighbour with a very similar address apply for service with someone, that company mis-identify your address  and ( obviously ) you get involved in that company’s error.
Some of your points are hard to argue against , but are hardly unique to BT, if you miss a call from a customer service rep, generally you cannot ring that person , chances are the details of the case appear on the screen as the call is made , if no answer , the ‘system’ makes another call and displays the details of that ticket , so no obvious reason to speak to the individual who instigated the original call.

TBH, it’s probably a little late in the day, but if this is been dragging on a while, and what you would prefer is for someone without time restraints and a reasonable amount of ‘clout’ to cut through processes etc, you would have been better advised to contact the high level complaints/chairman’s office , or as already indicated , the Mods on here, who have more likely got the time and preferential access to expedite orders to get you back in service, it’s not entirely clear to me if you have taken advantage of the help offered...if you are still waiting on the Mod contacting you from your original post , hopefully you are close to the top of the list and will be contacted soon