How can I get BT to recognise the issues faced by the elderly when Digital Voice service fails?

[IanPenfold]

I see from the press and other posts on this board that BT have been criticised for leaving the elderly and vulnerable without life saving services due to issues with Digital Voice.  I'm surprised to find that given these were highlighted last year that they continue today.  My 92 year old in laws have been without service twice in the last few weeks with the latest happening on 14th.  I have been passed from pillar to post by the support teams but the best I appear to be able to achieve is a vague promise of a call back in the 21st and an on the spot assessment of their vulnerability from a call handler who I assume also has some sort of medical background associated with the care of the elderly.  

Can anyone give me a hand working out how to get BT to take the issue seriously.  

[imjolly]

are in-laws registered here https://www.bt.com/content/dam/bt/help/including-you/BT_Free_Priority_Fault_Repair_Scheme.pdf

https://www.bt.com/help/here-for-you

have parents been moved to digital voice or still analogue?

I have asked mods to see if the can help   they will post here

[IanPenfold]

Thankyou for the link.  No, they are not registered there and it looks like it is worth doing but will clearly take some time.  It is interesting that BT appear to recognise the challenges faced by the elderly but have not been able to work out that regardless of registration on the scheme being 92 years old is likely to impair their ability to deal with IT changes (no disrespect to the 92 year old out there that I'm sure can).  

They are on digital voice and had a working service until recently.  We then had an outage whereby the phones could not find the hub eventually fixed by an engineer visit but then a few days later the service failed again with a different fault.  From the many hours spent on the phone with the support team I believe this is something to do with a move from BT to EE.  It appears that someone has spuriously raised a "stop request" on the BT end of the service which has clearly worked but sadly whatever is supposed to happen in parallel with this has not happened meaning that the most common response to my calls for help has been "you do not have digital voice"  

[imjolly]

The problem with phones not finding the base has been raised before and one of main causes is the batteries are not holding their charge and the solution is to replace the batteries with just rechargeable batteries you can buy in most shops

You can try just using normal batteries to check that works before buying rechargeable batteries 

[IanPenfold]

Thanks for the tip.  This was both handsets a the same time even after they had been sat in  the cradle.  It was cleared by an engineer who reset the handsets.  We lost all the programmed numbers and had to add them again but at least we had a service.... for a couple of days before it failed again.  The current issue is not associated with not being able to find the hub and appears to be as a result of the service having need removed from the hub (we still have internet access).  Phones are saying "unable to make or receive calls" which seems to be a fair and honest appraisal of where we are.  If I call the number it is engaged which is interesting as originally it was unobtainable.  Difficult to say if the constitutes progress! 

[licquorice]

The numbers aren't held on the handsets, they are held on the hub and can be backed up.

They are lost if a factory reset is performed on the hub.

[imjolly]

If you access hub manager can you see phone and if so does it show number and active

[IanPenfold]

Interesting re not losing numbers.  I thought the engineer had just reset the handset but he must have done the hub also.

I have no idea how to access the hub and not at the in laws house anyway so cannot check.

In other more encouraging news I now have a contact at BT Executive Complaints who has managed to convince me that the problem is being take seriously and will be resolved in a timely(ish) manner.  Fingers crossed this resolved the issue.  

[HillClimb]

@IanPenfold 

If you haven't already, (register and) use your inLaws online BT account to register another email address (yours) as an account manager for their account. This was when you phone they will co-operate with you. For me, prior to register an account manager on my Mother account , BT would  not even talk to me by phone even though my Mums 97 has zero understanding of what isn't working and it is not always possible to phone BT and have my mither beside me when doing it. 

Good luck

[imjolly]

If you have contacted executive level complaints then unlikely mod will be able to help as case handled by ELC