Digital Voice and the vulnerable elderly - what a (sick) joke!

[licquorice]

I was wondering why Kelly's were involved, now you decide to tell us that your mother has moved to FTTP.

It started out she was telephony only, then you drip fed she had FTTC and has now moved to FTTP.

[kafka-esque]

I didn't drip feed. I posted a scenario at the beginning which had occurred to me as I waded through the mire trying to sort out her particular circumstances. The issues remain the same, the complete lack of any insight by BT into how the very elderly and vulnerable perceive and interact with telecommunications and technology. Right from the start - not telling anyone the line might go dead for days, to the installation day 'just plug your phone base station into your router' ie change something fundamental about where and how she uses the answering machine, which is very important to her.

Her circumstances are not unusual in any way. Woman over 80, widowed, husband had internet contract but not FTTP, because old people don't need high speed internet usually. Hubby dies, contract needs renewing. Provider rattling on about 'Full Fibre', you'll have to change next year anyway blah blah. Probably hundreds of thousands of ladies just like her.

[rbz5416]

@kafka-esque 

As I said, if your Mum was still in contract, then BT was the only option to move without penalty. Otherwise there are any number of providers who offer telephony alongside broadband. But not telephony alone. How much cost difference this would have made in the real world I don't know, but academic as she was still in contract.

Blaming you for intervening is a little disingenuous. Yes, if you'd left it alone to the the end of the Plusnet contract, you wouldn't have the issues you have now. But equally if BT was a remotely competent organisation, you wouldn't have them either. Having an Openreach contractor (Kelly) probably didn't help either in getting the ONT installed in the best place for your Mum, rather than the best (quickest) for them.

A perusal of these forums will show they are littered with failed DV migrations. The issue isn't so much that they fail, but time & time again BT demonstrate zero ability to rectify them. And yes, they are probably a tiny percentage of all the successful migrations, but the measure of any business is how they rectify issues when they occur. Time & again on these pages we see the same pattern of spectacularly failing to do so.

[kafka-esque]

The issue of whether she was still in contract is relevant. When someone dies, the contract ends, no penalty. So she was technically out of contract, yet Plusnet told me that BT was the only option to keep voice alongside broadband going forward. I am 1000% sure I was told I HAD to change to BT, either now or later.

I have no issue with Kelly (their on the day communciation was fabulous, I was literally talking to their engineer on his mobile as he walked up the path and rang the bell). The guy was super conscientious and nice, and I have no doubt that an Openreach inhouse engineer would have seen no issue with moving the answering machine to another room either.

The issue with DV migrations failing is that up to now it was merely spectacularly annoying and made BT look rubbish. As the copper network gets turned off, it's going to become life threatening for some very vulnerable people. The sheer obstinacy and borderline bullying I have had to expend this week (and believe me I can be pushy when I want to) is SO FAR beyond anything a vulnerable person could do.  I literally have had to shame BT on this open forum on their website to get a complaint handled properly. I really hope journalists read this. I know Toby Walne of the Daily Mail has taken an interest in these issues before.

Thanks for recognising that being proactive is a positive thing. Companies should be glad when customers don't leave things to the last minute.

[jac_95]

@kafka-esque 

To also note that a stop sell was introduced in September 2023 so since then renewing, upgrading or switching providers would also mean moving to a digital landline service such as Digital Voice if wanting to have a home voice service.

More on the stop sell at: https://landlinesgo.digital/stop-sell

[licquorice]

@kafka-esque As your mother now has FTTP, it makes it much easier to make use of her existing wiring and any extension sockets to be re-used if required.

Whilst obviously she won't be able to do it herself, it is a very simple task to just disconnect the old incoming copper cable and then connect the green socket at the rear of the hub to any phone socket with a double ended lead.

[chrisjp]

"The wiring is changed - to Fibre to the Premises. The Premises is my mom's house by the way."

No it isn't.
Going to digital voice does NOT require the copper connection to be changed to fibre. Your copper connection will stay the same as always and the hub you will need to get VOIP will connect to the same BT socket, instead of your phone. Then the phone will plug into the back of the hub or, if you prefer, into a DV adapter plugged into an electricity socket elsewhere in your house.
The only extra electricity socket you will need is one to power the hub, but you can put this anywhere convenient in the house. If that location is not convenient for your phone, then use a DV adapter.
It really isn't complicated.

[chrisjp]

As an addendum, I've just seen that you've migrated to FTTP. This must have been as a result of a request from someone, or someone accepting an offer from BT.
THAT is what has precipitated the move to digital voice. If you didn't want that move, why did you request FTTP or accept the FTTP offer?

[kafka-esque]

@chrisjp

If you read my posts above, the reason will become clear. I'm not typing it all again.

It's generally quite irksome where people don't read the thread and then start saying 'BUT WHYYYYYY didn't you do XYZ 🙄?' With the clear implication that the OP is a bit stupid. I go on other tech forums so I am used to the phenomenon.

[kafka-esque]

@licquoriceThat's a very handy tip, thankyou, sadly the wires aren't in helpful places as the old phone wire came in under the floorboards and did all kinds of weird things thanks to my late dad's shenanigans with it. I can see how it would help in a lot of houses though.