BT digital 'upgrade' - no landline

[Roderick Spode]

My elderly parents were pressured into taking a digital upgrade package with BT - they have been with them since the dawn of time, and would hear no recommendations of alternative service providers. Anyway, an 'engineer' came along and has done the shoddiest fibre install I've ever seen - literally nailed to the skirting board around the room, drilled a big hole through a block wall, brick dust left everywhere. But that's not the problem - 10 days on and there's still no phone line available. My father has a lifeline system and this cannot work without a phone line enabled, meaning the system phones the first responders on a daily basis - the first number it phones? The home phone number, which isn't enabled, meaning the alarm system goes into escalation mode every day.

I've been on the phone daily to BT on their behalf, and have been passed around numerous departments, none of whom seem capable of resolving this problem. I've even spoken to a clandestine engineering number where the person greeted me with "how did you get this number..." apparently the phone option has been enabled to their installation, but has not been provisioned at the digital exchange - I've been assured this has been passed to the 'specialist' team to resolve but apparently "they are dealing with a long backlog of requests".

Anyone had experience of this, and a reasonable method of resolution?

[Roderick Spode]

I am alright Jack said:

Unless I'm misunderstanding I thought landlines were no longer supplied and you now need a voip phone.

That's a fair comment - to clarify it's the provisioning of the equivalent of a landline via VOIP, but for the benefit of my octogenarian parents I describe it as their replacement landline, keeps it simple. They have been told they can keep their existing handsets, but have been given VOIP to analogue converter modules that connect to the home hub via wifi, but only one of them for a house with four older style handsets. The engineer couldn't explain how this was going to work either.

Anyway off the phone with a BT rep earlier, and he says "yep, there's something wrong somewhere, but I can't tell what exactly". Thanks Einstein, I'll be sure to call back tomorrow for a further daily update of "something wrong, no idea what". It's been exactly the same story for the last 10 days.

[Roderick Spode]

OutInTheShed said:

My interweb is sold to me by Vodafone.

I tried to convince my folks to go with Virgin Media - I have a complete package for £31 a month, but no they insisted BT because "we have been with them since nineteen hundred and oatcake" basically since Noah was a boy. They are also getting robbed blind every month for the privilege. Brand loyalty is still a strong factor with the older generation. I think this digital changeover has highlighted to them how little the big named brands care about their customers.

[Roderick Spode]

megaphone said:

OP, make sure they do not lose their phone number.

Thanks all. This is their main concern, as being of a certain age the telephone is their primary means of keeping in touch with friends and family. They have had the same basic phone number since 1970 through numerous house moves and all the system upgrades & expansions over the years - to lose that would be devastating for them.

I'll be writing a concise and sharply worded email to the CEO, so sincere thanks for that information.

[Roderick Spode]

Update on this ongoing saga. Formal complaint now lodged with BT, who seem utterly incapable of sorting out whatever's wrong behind the scenes. The problem is there's no consistency, and every time BT are contacted it's a new person who may or may not have a clue what's happening. So far we have been told -

• it's a problem with the home hub.
• it's not a problem with the home hub.
• digital patching needs to be done to enable the home phone.
• digital patching has been done, it now need enabled in the Home Hub.
• it's been enabled in the Home Hub, but it needs activated on the account.
• BT don't actually know why it's not working, but it 's definitely a problem at our end.
• it may be a problem at their end.
• there's a fault with the VOIP adapter module and a new one will be sent out.
• they don't need the VOIP adapter.
• they can use their existing handsets.
• they need all new digital handsets.
• the existing handsets might work, but they're not sure.
• it'll all be fixed by the 25th March.
• make that the 29th March.
• formal complaint? Ooooh, definitely the 31st March.
• have you tried turning it off and back on again?

Finally spoke to a seemingly bona fide engineer via some back route phone number, who started the conversation with "how did you get this number?" but was as helpful as he could be, and more or less admitted the ongoing roll-out is a disaster, and my parents are simply the latest in a long line of thousands of customers who still don't have a home phone weeks or even months after changeover.