New Digital Voice Service - I can make calls out but not receive any

[chrisjp]

"How do I get some ownership?"

Good question but it appears BT don't do ownership of a customer reported fault. The best companies ensure that the technical agent who first interacts with the customer reporting a fault owns the issue and it stays with him/her until resolved.
BT unfortunately doesn't do this - every time you contact them to report that your fault still hasn't been corrected, you get to speak with a different agent and both of you have to go through the whole issue from scratch.
Coupled with BT's habit of marking any fault as "resolved" after around 1 week, whatever its true status, and you get the current disfunctional service
BT really need to do better, but the first step in that is for BT to recognise that their fault resolution processes are disfunctional

[JR65]

As some of you may recall, I contacted the BT Community regarding problems I had with a split account, which began on 24.07.24 after I was switched, under protest, from BT to EE.  Because of the fiasco that followed, I asked to be switched back to BT having discovered the switch didn't need to take place at all until 2030.  Although the 14 BT staff I spoke to were very pleasant and keen to help, problems continued but at least I still had broadband and the phone.  On 12.10.24, just when things seemed to be getting sorted out, the phone stopped working.  It wasn't fixed until 22.10.24.  I had by now sent in a couple of complaints but apparently these just sit on the customer's file and they are only contacted once the problem has been sorted out and then they are offered compensation.   BT pay out £9.76 per day compensation for an out of order phone and payment starts 2 days after the fault has been reported.

After 13 weeks of stress (that's a quarter of a year of my life that I'll never get back!), I am hoping that I won't have the need to ring BT again for at least 2 years and that when the contract needs renewing again it will be left where it is and exactly how it is, i.e. with BT and not with EE, and I won't be put on PAYG again, and lose Call Protect and other add-ons either.  Perhaps after 6 years of trial and error, when residents' accounts have to move over to EE in 2030, the move will be carried out efficiently.🙄

Have a good weekend everyone.

[Burnside5]

So after nearly 3 weeks of my DV service not working properly, can make calls but not receive any unless from an EE mobile, I finally have some ownership of my issue with Executive Complaints and apparently the solution.

Long story short apparently my number porting didn't complete correctly, despite OpenReach closing the order as complete. In order to fix this I have been told that they need to cancel my phoneline, once cancelled they will raise an order for a new phone line, which will have a new number, then once that is complete raise an order to switch my number back to the original. This whole process will take 5-8 working days

What a complete mess, so a whole month to get this resolved, numerous calls into Tech Services, I have received 8 SMS telling me my fault has been fixed when it hadn't. I wonder how many people have got the same issue but are unaware, how many would actually try to call their own number to see if it works....the elderly who don't have a mobile phone and rely on their landline. Farcical! 

[JR65]

Yes , it is extremely stressful, especially knowing that important calls aren't getting through.  I rang our home phone to check whether or not we were receiving calls but it went straight through to voicemail which we couldn't pick up because the phone wasn't working!  We couldn't make or receive calls and I later discovered that during this time I had missed at least two calls regarding medical appointments.  The same day as our line was fixed my husband received two medical calls asking whether he had picked up the voicemails that had been left for him.  No-one ringing would have known their messages weren't getting through to us.  Hope your phone line is up and running again soon.

[Burnside5]

Update - I now have a working phone 3 weeks after the switch to DV, only with a new number that nobody knows. A renumber  order to revert me back to my original phone number has been raised and has an order completion date of 7th November. So that will take me to just over 4 weeks without being able to receive calls.

Looking forward to seeing what compensation I am offered!

[JR65]

I was told, and presumably credited with, £9.76 per day as compensation for not having a working phone, excluding the first two days after the fault was reported.

[Burnside5]

What a saga this is turning out to be, I checked the status of the order to change my phone number back to the original and to my surprise discovered that it has been cancelled. Another call in, fortunately I now have a direct number to executive complaints, apparently the order failed due to a mismatch of data at OpenReach's end so the offline team simply cancelled the order but no communication to me to inform me of this. Had I not checked this would not have been picked up until the 7th November when the order was scheduled for.

So executive complaints have been in touch with OpenReach who have said that the data mismatch has been cleared and they have had to a raise a new order to change my phone number.

I wonder how many important phone calls I have missed during this time, I am waiting for an urgent hospital appointment so expecting a call, they do have my mobile number as well as my home number but no guarantee which one they will use.

[JR65]

Your experience mirrors mine.  If only BT/EE delegated someone to stay in touch with customers until problems are fixed.  I hope your original phone number is completely out of action at the moment and isn't inviting callers to leave a voicemail message.  They may then try ringing your mobile phone instead.  Good luck!