The automated on-line system for fault reporting is useless, and even when a fault is acknowledged it doesn’t get fixed.
By phone: The automated system defaults to the line one is using to report the fault and insists to try to test it. It then tells the user that the line is busy so it can't test it and then requests the user to phone back when the line isn't busy. Of course it's busy (and it always will be) - it's being used to report the fault! There is no option to enter the number upon which the fault is present. Stupid or what?
Reporting via BT business will enable (on occasions, it keeps changing) the user to enter a secondary number, then test the line and acknowledge a fault. It will then advise the fault is reported and the user does not need to do anything, so terminates the call. Nothing happens, the fault prevails. More recently it asks if the fault is with a home phone or a business line. Entering 'home' causes it to try to test the wrong line and fail, with the response to phone back when the line isn't busy. (See previous para.).
Reporting via internet asks if the problem is with the phone, amongst others. 'Phone' selected it then asks questions about the broadband connection (nothing about 'phone'). It tests the line, acknowledges the existence of a fault, advises it is reported and nothing more is required of the user, so ends the reporting function. Nothing happens, the fault prevails.
Finding a way through the phone reporting maze by entering random responses may eventually enable a connection to customer services. There is no user choice option for this, it's just trial and error - typically quite a trial with a number of attempts needed. The system 'rings out' and a voice message advises that the user will be connected to an operative (human) - it also advises that this should happen in 30 minutes. Around 40 minutes of 'muzak' later the call does actually get answered. The operator is, quite obviously, somewhere overseas. She's helpful but has to go through all the usual log-in and security procedures. Eventually, with access, she is able to test the line, but it defaults to testing the line one's calling in on rather than the one with the fault. She has to fiddle around to stop the automation doing it's own thing (not for the first time by the sound of her expressions) and eventually test the correct line, which acknowledges the existence of the fault. She can see other fault reports via the user's own previous attempts - they have been opened, reported and closed. Closed, but no fault fixed, nothing done, no engineer contact. Nothing. So she will report it again, advising it should be attended to within 3 days. One waits. She offers to send a contact link directly to the case but it can only be sent by SMS, not be email. There is no facility to receive SMS via the working landline. Besides, she doesn't have the email anyway, likely because the system if defaulting to the line being used to call in on, not the one with the fault which just so happens to have broadband on it. (Yes, the line has a phone fault but broadband is still connected. Yes, this is not unusual. Yes, the speed is usually compromised.) I guess the discussion itself took around 20 minutes in total.
Total time taken fault reporting so far - probably around 1,1/2 - 2 hours. Phone line service outage (and speed compromise) - probably 2-3months. BT charges - taken as usual, in advance of course. Progress to date - limited, but fingers crossed.
