Digital Voice phone no incoming calls

[CarolineW1]

Can anyone help me!

I changed over my landline and broadband from Plusnet to BT's digital voice service at end of October.  The switch day was 11th November.  Broadband setup was fine, however initially digital phone was not working at all, this was reported to BT and after 5 days I could make outgoing calls, however it will still not accept any incoming calls.  I do not need the broadband as I use mobile internet, but I do need a working landline as I have an elderly mother who needs to stay in contact and mobile signal is dodgy indoors.

I have made endless calls to BT complaints, but getting nowhere on getting this issue sorted.  I keep being promised dates that it will be working by, they come and go and still no one can phone me on the landline number.  The new earliest date BT have told me it will be resolved by is 16th December, which I think is totally unacceptable at over 5 weeks without a working phone, but the problem is I don't believe them now as I have been given so many dates before which have come to nothing.  Why the very long delays?

BT have no sense of urgency, no compassion or understanding why I need to be contactable on a landline phone.  I requested to cancel the new phone/broadband package so I could go back to my old provider but they told me if I did this I would lose my landline phone number so I feel held to ransom now that I have lost my copper phone line.  When I signed the BT contract it told me the old line would not be switched off until the digital line is working but that wasnt the case.

Who can I escalate this issue to?  I have reported these issues to ofcom but they dont respond to individual complaints and the people supposedly from BT complaints I speak to have proved incompetent at getting this issue sorted.  My experience is certainly a bad example for other customers dreading the forced switchover.

[jac_95]

Hi CarolineW1,

Thanks for the post and welcome to the Community.

This is an automated response as I can see you have a question about BT’s Digital Voice service. Rather than waiting for a response from the Community, you may find an answer to your question by using the search bar on the Community homepage. We also have a thread that contains a wealth of info related to BT’s Digital Voice, click this link to take a look, Digital Voice FAQs.

Got some questions or want to learn more about BT’s Digital Voice rollout? BT are running localised events as part of the regional rollout of Digital Voice - Click here to view the Digital Voice events

To learn more about the nationwide change to this Internet based voice service visit landlinesgo.digital

If you have already looked for the answer to your question and have not found anything that can help, then please ignore this message. One of our Community members will be along shortly to help you further.

[CarolineW1]

Re your automated response message:

My issues arent covered by the BT's help pages.  They dont seem to know how to sort my issues out themselves, or maybe they just cant be bothered.

[RIC9380]

The final paragraph of the automated message.  "If you have already looked for the answer to your question and have not found anything that can help, then please ignore this message. One of our Community members will be along shortly to help you further."

[Michael_D]

Hi @CarolineW1 

Welcome to the community.

I am sorry to hear that this has been your experience, especially so soon after you have joined us and when you are relying on the line so much. 

When you have spoken with our team over the phone, have they given any indication as to what is happening with the line, or has it just been that they have given you the dates that pass by?

Is the complaint case still open on the account or have you had notification that it has been closed?

Michael

[CarolineW1]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply.

My complaint is still open.  Following my call on Saturday from BT in which they advised me of the latest expected date for the telephone to function of 16th December (which is outrageous!) I emailed the BT's complaints departments to inform them I wished to escalate the complaint, as that what it tells you to do in their complaints code of practice.   I am waiting to see if anything will be done now, as I have been going around in circles with them for too long now.  The only explanation I have been given from BT is that the order "failed".

Many Thanks

Caroline

[Peter_W]

Thanks for the update here @CarolineW1.

If there's been a failure with the order then this will sometimes need a bit of investigation in the background by our support teams, but we would always aim to get this resolved for you in the end, and I really appreciate you'll want to be kept in the loop whilst this is ongoing too.

When was it that you emailed complaints again to escalate this?

Peter

[pddco]

@CarolineW1 

Appreciate it’s very frustrating and sorry  if you’ve already done this. But there’s  perhaps a couple of things you can try to at least find out what’s happened to your phone line. If you dial 17070 your line should  be confirmed as your original number.
There’s an option to press 1 and get a ring back. If the number is right, press 1 and hang up. Now in your case we’re assuming the phone won’t ring. In which case, give it a few seconds for it to try and ring you back and then pick up the phone. If you just get dial tone then there’s indeed a network / routing issue that BT needs to resolve. But if you get a spoken confirmation from the system, then it could be a phone issue that you may be able to sort yourself. Worth a try?

[pddco]

@CarolineW1 

Where I said ‘.. give it a few seconds for it  to try and ring you..” Should leave it at least 15 seconds before picking up the phone again. 

[CarolineW1]

Hello Pddco,

Thanks for reading my problem and for your suggestion to try.

I dialled the number you mentioned.  An automated voice read out my landline number correctly.  I pressed option 1 and hung up, it did not ring.  I left it for quite a while before I picked it up, but it was silent until I pressed the green answer button on my phone which started the dial tone sound.

I got another call from the executive complaints team today.  They have now said my phone can be set up on 6th December, but thats still 11 days away and will mean nearly a month without a working phone so I am still very unhappy about the whole thing.
As there is no one higher in BT to escalate the complaint further to, I have asked them for a deadlock letter so I can take it to the ombudsman.  BT deserve a huge fine for treating people like this.  If they intend on switching the whole country over they  need to improve their systems to prevent cutting people like me off.  They seem to have forgotten many of us still need a phone.