89 year old housebound female in poor health left with no land line for 5 days .

[MerlinsMagic007]

Background: My wife's elderly aunt lives on her own in the middle of farmland, she is in poor health so no longer leaves the property. Her nearest neighbour is 400 yards up hill on a single track lane.   As I was unable to contact her on the phone despite phoning many times over 2 days,  I managed to contact the her neighbour, who stated he would  drive down and check on her. It was found that her phoneline was dead. 

I contacted BT on Friday  17th June case no' /********  Was told that there was a connection problem and an engineer would be out on the 25th, as I was unhappy with the delay and explained all the reasons why, and that we  live over 140 miles away, the operator stated that he would put it through as a welfare visit. which would mean a visit between 4 and 36hours.  He took my details and informed me that I would be called to confirm the visit. 

We had no call on Sunday and the line was still out , so I phoned BT again Monday,  explained everything again but  was given lots of excuses, but told someone will be out on on Tuesday.  As it is now Tuesday  3pm and I have not heard anything , So first I checked the fault line check on line, it stated that the callout was still showing the 25th as the call out day.  Phoned again and explained everything, only only to be given more excuses, I was also informed that as I was not the paying customer but the one reporting the fault, I had to be physically on site. Neither of the last two operatives mentioned that .  I asked can you guarantee that if I make the two and a half hour journey, can she guarantee that someone is going to come out and investigate the problem, the simple answer was no.  BT state on their site that they care about their customers, sadly after what I have been through trying to resolve a simple problem I have to disagree. I will be driving up to Hereford in the morning, and if the problem is not resolved I will be taking the mater forward. 

[Mod edit: removed personal details]

[MerlinsMagic007]

I have the same problem but managed to speak to three different call handlers , over the last 5 days and the problem has still not been looked at . My wife's Aunt lives in the middle of farm land , her nearest neighbour is a long way up a single track lane, or long way down said lane . She lives on her own and is in poor health.  Sadly we live 140 miles away but as we have now been told an engineer will be out tomorrow Wednesday 25th but as  am not the named customer but the one who reported it, I apparently have to be on site. ( something I was not told by either of the other two BT operatives.

[Peter_W]

Hi there @MerlinsMagic007.

Thanks for reaching out to us here on the BT Community. 

I've just popped you over a private message so we can take a closer look into things.

Peter

[imjolly]

Is your aunt registered here. https://www.bt.com/help/here-for-you

[MerlinsMagic007]

Not that I know , but will register her now . Thank you for the information. 

[MerlinsMagic007]

Thank you , sorry forgot to add the rating.

[MerlinsMagic007]

Thank you Peter and everyone else for the advice given. 

As I was told by one of the operatives I had to be on site when the engineer called , as I was not the customer but the reporter of the fault my wife, and I were up at 6am yesterday  to make the two and a half hour journey from Slough Berks to Hereford. 

We had Stopped at one of the services to pick up something for breakfast, when I received a call from the engineer at around 8am, asking was I on site? When I replied no we are on our way, he asked will there be someone at home if I need access ? To which I replied, yes the account customer is there 24/7,  I also informed him that  I was told I had to be there.  (He then informed me what I already knew) , " There was no need, as all we require is for someone to let us in if needed".   

As we were half way there we decided to carry on, we arrived around 11am to find the fault had been fixed.  A fault that that was due to an  open reach engineer, who whilst digging a trench for some cables on the farm at the bottom of the lane had managed to cut through a number of cables accidently. 

Due to the service I received from the help line staff , I will be taking the mater forward and putting in a formal complaint. 

Once again thank you for all the help given.  David Woolley

[Christopher_G]

Thank you for the update, @MerlinsMagic007.

I'm really glad to hear that the problem has been fixed, but I'm sorry to hear that you were asked to travel all that way, when it seems that you didn't need to.

I'd definitely recommend making a complaint with our Customer Service team, so that they can get this logged against the account and try to find a resolution with you.

Chris

[MerlinsMagic007]

I will do Chris , as mentioned the last person I spoke to would not accept that I did not need to be there , she was adamant that I was wrong and would not listen to what I was saying to her.

[chrisjp]

Why is it that BT's telephone agents, who often clearly don't know what they're talking about, nevertheless rudely insist they're right and won't properly listen to customers?
Is it just very bad training, or is it because calls about faults don't provide any opportunity to earn commission?