I don't mean for this to be a "me too" thread (although I suspect my experience is not uncommon). This is a genuine question. For background:
I manage my mother's BT account. She wanted to move from BT Broadband to another provider but keep her landline. She is 85 years old, lives alone and is housebound. She has a mobile, but this is largely for texts and incoming calls. She uses the landline for general calls and for calls to/from Australia.
I called BT on 21st July to cancel the broadband. I stressed several times (and the agent repeated it) that the landline needed to stay. Since my mother's broadband was out of contract he started the process immediately rather than wait 30 days. (At the time this sounded good, but in retrospect it has made the situation worse.) I checked the orders on the account on Saturday 22nd and saw that the landline was due to be cancelled on Monday 24th July as well as the broadband. I called BT. The agent could not cancel/change anything and I was told to phone again on Monday. I did this and arranged for the landline to be reconnected. This was due to happen on Wednesday 25th July. It did not. There was an issue and the order was updated to advise there was an issue and that the service would be reconnected on Thursday 26th. It did not. I phoned on the evening 26th July and was put through to the "Early Life" team. They could do nothing and cancelled the order. I had to phone on Friday to raise a new order to get the landline reconnected with a new number: once that was done the old number could be ported back. The agent said that the order was unlikely to be fulfilled that day but would probably happen on Monday 31st. I checked the order at lunchtime to find that the connection date was 9th August. I phoned again and the date was supposedly changed to 2nd August. As it stands the order is now marked as needing an engineer visit on the 9th August. The landline is still present. An engineer visit is not necessary. Surely to fix this, it must just be a click of a button.
At every interaction with BT, the agent has said that my file has been updated so that the next agent will know exactly what to do. Every time I have called I have had to re-explain the situation.
So we are left in a situation where my mother is unable to use her landline for 2 1/2 weeks (and even then people in Australia who don't know her new number won't be able to contact her initially).
Some observations:
Aside from the initial call to cancel the broadband and the one transfer to the early life team, it seems that all the agents could do was use the same web interface as I could. All were polite and apologised but this doesn't help.
Why do I have to raise all the orders - what can't an agent set up a set of orders to be completed one after the other (this would surely save BT money in the long run).
And the main point of this - rant, sorry - is why doesn't BT even suggest/have a policy to expediate orders for vulnerable people.
