I am trying to help a very elderly neighbour who is struggling with her ever rising cost of living.
We have tried four times, over the past month, to apply for the BT Home Essentials Landline Only service, whilst keeping her existing landline telephone number, without success.
BT has confirmed that she is eligible as she receives Pension Credit, Guaranteed Credit. I have tried to apply on-line on her behalf as she doesn't have a computer or internet access but received a text the following day to say that the process had failed.
On two of the subsequent telephone calls we were told that she would not be able to keep her existing number and on our last call were told that "she would have to have a new line installed with a new telephone number and would then have to apply to her existing provider for a MAC code in order to port her number over to the new line".
She is struggling to make ends meet and cannot afford the cost of having a new line installed. She already has a working telephone line which was originally installed by BT so this made no sense to us and when queried we were told that "this is what the system says needs to be done, we do thousands of these and despite what you may have read elsewhere this is the way it has to be done".
We started this process thinking it would all be fairly straightforward as the BT website and the ofcom website both specifically state that there is no need to contact the existing provider and that keeping an original number was possible, see:-
www.bt.com/broadband/switch and https://www.bt.com/help/landline/do-i-need-to-call-my-existing-landline-provider-when-i-change-to
www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/costs-and-billing/switching/switc...
I'm very concerned that should this lady be forced to call her existing provider she will be put under pressure by them not to change, with warnings that it would be very disruptive and that she could lose her existing number, a concern that talking to BT has reinforced.
I've tried to reassure her that she will not lose her number but her telephone is her only real contact with her friends and family so this is understandably a real concern for her.
Finally I sent emails to the BT Resolution Team setting out the problem and received an automated reply giving a Reference No and saying that they would aim to get back to me within 2 working days. That was almost 4 weeks ago and I have heard nothing.
Can someone please explain why BT cannot go through the "gaining provider led process" in this case especially given that both the current supplier (iTalk) and BT are using Openreach equipment? Her existing line is served by the same cabinet and at the same exchange as any new line that BT might install.
I really hope that someone can offer some suggestions as to where we can go next.
