Appalling Bullying Behaviour

[ItsMikeE]

BT sent an email with subject "You'll lose your service if you don't take action" to my 93 year old mother.
The content of the email included

"The existing landline has become outdated and is being replaced with a digital service that works over a broadband connection. This is happening as part of a UK-wide digital upgrade that phone providers are carrying out to enhance the quality and reliability of your landline services. "

and

"If you don’t do anything, you could lose access to your current broadband service when your home phone service is upgraded. Contact us in the next 30 days to upgrade."

I used the online contact and eventually got through to a human being who
1) confirmed that she has not been upgraded to digital voice, and there is no date for that to happen

2) Spent the whole time trying to pressure me into an upgrade (presumably following a script)

I got him to log a complaint - and was given a reference number

Within a few minutes, and no further interaction the complaint was closed by email (from an un-monitored email address) with no explanation

Is it official BT policy to bully OAPs and try to pressure them into signing unwanted contracts?

And ignore all complaints?

[licquorice]

It seems extremely likely that the email was not from BT at all and in fact was a scam.

[Kimberlin]

Well BT were being factually correct about the landline element being shifted to Digital Voice, so no bullying there.

You haven't stated what 'upgrade' you were allegedly being pressured into, so what exactly was the BT call centre employee trying to get you to purchase? If you made it clear you weren't interested and you told them to stop harassing you into purchasing an upgrade and they continued to pressure you, then that is clearly unacceptable and you're right to make a complaint.

If the complaint has been subsequently closed without any investigation within a matter of minutes, then that is equally unacceptable and warrants a further complaint. The call will have been recorded, so you can escalate if you see fit.

[ItsMikeE]

Not that I can see
It contained the account number with all except the last 4 digits masked

[ItsMikeE]

The bullying is the implication that your number will be taken away within 30 days if you do nothing when not only has the digital upgrade not taken place, but there is no schedule

The upgrade that they repeatedly tried to sell was to switch broadband provider to BT, and this was a "one-off" price which is only available right now

[ItsMikeE]

If it was a scam email not from BT, then why would they close the complaint without any investigation?

[Kimberlin]

Was the email personally addressed to the recipient? Indeed, how was it addressed?

[ItsMikeE]

[Kimberlin]

It does seem that BT don't always personally address emails to customers and they often just put in redacted account numbers apparently.

[ItsMikeE]

Included the partially masked account number and started the email text with a "Hello" - no name used